Hey guys. Literally just registered to inform everyone about this because I am legitimately unsure as to whether or not it’s okay, but I am leaning towards not.
A while back, a custom campaign in Left 4 Dead 2 called “Absolute Zero” was released, and it looked really pretty and had lots of custom content… but some of that content wasn’t made for the campaign. It was taken from Black Mesa assets made specifically for Black Mesa.
Now, generally I wouldn’t think this to be much of a big deal, or at least any more of a big deal than perhaps someone using Black Mesa models in an SFM video and not crediting Black Mesa, because it would be blatantly obvious, however in this particular case, this guy used these models:
but nowhere in his description for the workshop piece (or original gamemaps post) did he mention that he used models from Black Mesa. He did credit some modellers, but I am almost positive they are not authors, nor were they ever, of the BMS dev team, which would lead anyone who didn’t know about Black Mesa to assume these fantastic looking models were made for his campaign.
Here is a link to the workshop item:
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=542327027
Oh but it doesn’t stop there.
He originally hosted Absolute Zero on a place called gamemaps, which had lots of custom l4d2 content to be downloaded (possibly began before the l4d2 workshop?) and this is where I originally got the .vpk to play it.
After playing it, I made a comment with some constructive criticism about what I liked and didn’t like. It was a good 1000 words long or so, and was deleted immediately. At first, I thought he was just being a toddler about feedback he didn’t agree with (which I still think is the case), but then I realized I had asked him in that same comment whether or not he had asked permission to use the Black Mesa content. It started looking like something a bit more fishy than an immature dev.
I made a review instead on gamemaps, that basically said the same criticisms but with even more detail (as post authors cannot delete reviews of their own work) and mentioned the black mesa content being used potentially without permission as well (as of how he had his description arranged at the time).
…He abandoned the gamemaps thread immediately after reading this review and realizing he couldn’t get rid of it, labeling the community there “poison” as a knee-jerk response no doubt:
https://www.gamemaps.com/details/2423
(page 2 is where the review is that I created that made him run off the website and on to steam workshop exclusively)
Having a hunch that he was deliberately covering up using someone else’s quality work without crediting them or asking permission, AND misleading people into thinking that the modellers he did have credited would be the authors of the bms content if someone hadn’t know any better of their own foreknowledge… I followed him to the workshop. I made some comments bringing up how he was deleting criticism, and not properly crediting people he was using the work of, (as well as informing them that they were deliberately left trapped in the beginning saferoom of level 5 because it wasn’t finished, which you know, I figured was polite to mention to people to let them know what frustrations they were getting into since I myself was stuck there for a while wondering what I was doing wrong, as his description had blatantly lied about this fact in earlier versions before he scampered off to the workshop with his tail between his legs).
Low and behold, I am blocked and my comments removed, which I saw coming, but the odd thing is, both my comments mentioned the Black Mesa content he was using without permission/proper credit given out.
Hold on, it gets even more salty.
I made a l4d2 steam forums post informing people of the fellow and what seemed to be pretty sleazy behavior:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/550/discussions/0/496880203078851579/
and someone else decided to ask him about these claims, as well as others coming forward to reveal he had been a sleaze-ball from quite a while ago as well.
He deleted the comment within ten seconds of it appearing…
But I caught it in time…
https://imgur.com/a/ocM6g
It was there, and concerned what looked like him stealing…
…and then it was gone less than a minute later.
Now to be fair, he claims on the gamemaps post (after abandoning it) that he:
“left the tags on them so people could find what I took and from where, and easy enough to decompile and look.”
Now, I may not be the best mapper in the universe, but I have a few solid years of experience using hammer and I genuinely don’t know what he means by model “tags” that he “left on” so people could find out the model’s origin, but even so…
…he is basically saying he doesn’t need to credit assets he uses, or even mention them in the first place unless it’s brought up as a side-convo in the comments. I cannot stand people like this who have absolutely NO regard for common creative courtesy. You don’t have to pay royalties or anything, just mention that you don’t own the models, and mention where you got them from! That’s all!!! But this is clearly too much for this guy to figure out.
Now apparently, since I checked literally while writing this, he has finally updated the workshop description as of today to include mention that he uses models from the Black Mesa dev team (mostly because of the people that were commenting asking him why he was using models without permission) which he should have from the start, and that’s great, but I will still post this because I am genuinely uncertain and would like for anyone who knows better to set me straight. Deleting criticism, and sloppy delayed crediting aside, is this guy allowed to use Black Mesa content in his maps without asking permission, considering Black Mesa is now considered a pay-for retail title, and all property within might not be public domain anymore or something? He has admitted to using both models and textures, however has still only credited “various models” to be from the Black Mesa dev team, so better, but no cigar from me just yet.
Sorry if this is in the wrong section of the forums. I honestly couldn’t think where else it would really belong, and I also wanted people to be aware of it, and let me know if this is acceptable to them or not as fellow fans of Black Mesa.
Thanks for reading, and sorry if this feels like a pointless drama-hording bandwagon post. I am not trying to start a witch hunt or anything, I just have seen it too much and cannot stand when people use other people’s work but somehow think there is literally no need to mention it or ask if it’s okay first.
Also I am still mega-salty about him deleting criticism. Nobody likes a dev who does that if those steam greenlight drama stories are any indication.
Stay chivalrous. Can’t wait for Xen!