A “Red Dead Redemption” modder has been personally attacked by the publisher of the game, Take-Two Interactive, for creating a mod that revamped the visuals of the original game.
On Aug. 20 of this year, a YouTube channel under the name “GamingDamned” released a trailer for a mod for the original “Red Dead Redemption” that he had been working on. Currently sitting at around 100,000 views and some light media buzz, the video showcased “Red Dead Redemption Damned Enhancement Project,” a visual upgrade to the game that made the game look up to par with the gaming releases of today. People seemed to be excited to see this 9-year-old game get a new coat of paint.
That all was put to a complete stop, however, when the YouTube channel revealed what the modder had been dealing with for the past couple of weeks — it was clear something was wrong. On Sept. 15, GamingDamned made a video claiming that Take-Two had been relentlessly contacting him to cease development on the mod under the threat of legal action.
Constantly cutting him off and dismissing his questions, the lawyers showed no interest in compromise or changes to the mod.
That alone is nothing new. There have been countless other cases where someone developed a mod that may have been problematic for the company in one way or another. Nintendo is rather famous for removing mods and similar kinds of fan-content from the internet. However, the issue was with how Take-Two handled the mod and how hostile they were.
According to GamingDamned, the lawyers from Take-Two who contacted him were extremely hostile toward him. Constantly cutting him off and dismissing his questions, the lawyers showed no interest in compromise or changes to the mod. Only the complete destruction of it would satisfy the company. However, that also wasn’t enough for Take-Two.
GamingDamned also showed evidence that Take-Two had not only contacted him, but also his family. With a heavily redacted video showing his mother’s text history, it shows an individual who apparently works for Take-Two pushing her to instruct her son to contact Take-Two interactive about the mod that he was working on. And that’s not all. Over the conversations that GamingDamned had with Take-Two’s lawyers, it was becoming increasingly clear to him that they had extremely personal information that, to this day, had never been released to the public.
The information that they had discovered included his full legal name, his home address and the contact information of him and his family. This is where GamingDamned says that Take-Two broke the law. In the video, he claims that the only way Take-Two would be able to know some of the information they had uncovered would be if they had dug through his personal email address.
‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ for PC launches on Oct. 26 of this year, and the hype around that release will most likely bury this story under positive media buzz and feedback.
GamingDamned concludes the video saying that he intends to fight Take-Two Interactive on this with a lawyer. Ever since then, we have heard extremely little about any updates or news regarding this. Take-Two Interactive has not commented on their behavior surrounding GamingDamned and his mod project.
Gaming Damned showed “Red Dead Redemption” the attention that it hasn’t gotten in forever — with no pay at all — by showing his mod and his work. It isn’t a matter of piracy either. He has openly talked about his feelings around piracy and that he makes sure that the mods that he develops cannot be reverse-engineered to somehow get the game from the mod alone.
“Red Dead Redemption 2” for PC launches on Oct. 26 of this year, and the hype around that release will most likely bury this story under positive media buzz and feedback. While this release is obviously good, don’t forget that Take-Two has done something as egregious as harass a man’s family for supporting their game to add to the number of people who have been attacked like this before.
Edward Park is a second-year student majoring in English education. EP909756@wcupa.edu