Did you just call mods a "public good"? I know at least 3 modders which would stop modding if their work was considered public good, and demand all links of their mods taken down...

You need Battle.net to run Starcraft. You don't need Bethesda.net to run ESO. And there's nothing visible in the ESO client, pointing towards a use in any other Bethesda game.
What exactly Bethesda.net does to support ESO right now, I really can't tell at all.

Yep. That's what I called them.

These modders you're referring to might suffer from cognitive dissonance.

Except Bethesda themselves:

"BethesdaNet is already being used to support The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited across all platforms, and will be at the heart of all our games going forward."

Thus the battle.net comparison.

The first step of dealing with grief is denial.

Allow me to quote the Wikipedia link you gave. So, all digital games? If I buy a game, it doesn't reduce the amount available.

A mod may be defined as a public good in the same way that any digital game is a public good, due to the non-rivalry. Modders can have excludability on their mods, even if they don't enforce them, since they can deny use of their mods to users or parties.

So, is Bethesda attempting to privatize a public good like a digital game, or are mods not public goods? Or did you mean that mods are pure public goods, which they are not?

Yes you quoted the first line.

The question you raise about digital games is an argument a lot of online piracy uses which I do not advocate and won't go further on here as it's an entirely separate issue and not important for the question.

Free mods are obviously a public good. It's not a controversial usage of the term. As I said before Bethesda is just another corporation putting a fence around a public good, making themselves the primary benefactors of it.

I quoted the first quote. What is the next line that I missed? Do quote it please.

I do not consider a non-rival good as a public good. Non-excludable should be part of it as well. So games are not public goods.

See above. Mods (even free ones) can be excludable, though whether said excludability can be enforced is a different matter. Same as a DRM-Free game I suppose. Access to it is reserved for those that paid for it, but there aren't measures to exclude people from using it.

Software is not Public Good. It's on the creator to dictate who can use it and who can't.

P.S. I am using moral excludability, not just technical one. If I say this movie is available to everyone over 18, but do not check ID, I do consider the movie excludable, but I don't enforce said excludability. Different can of worms.

Every MMO requires a client as it's client / server based. As stated twice, I don't see what Bethesda.net is used to support it and certainly not a Steam like platform. But I find it funny, how you take what's been considered useless PR talk as face value now. :)
So I'll keep waiting for some actual prove.

Sigh. I'm not here to educate you on the banality you're taking issue with.

Go start a separate thread if you want to further debate my usage of the term public good - it's irrelevant to this topic.

If a free mod excludes someone then it's not free is it. Thus the point free = public goods.

And if the creator decides it's free for the public then it becomes a public good. See the reverse - private good:

<i>...its owners can exercise private property rights, preventing those who have not <span class="podkreslenie">paid</span> for it from using the good or consuming its benefits;[2] and rivalrous, i.e. consumption by one necessarily prevents that of another. A private good, as an economic resource is scarce, which can cause competition for it.</i>

Feel free to disagree as I'm sure you will - just take it somewhere else and don't side track the thread further.

And as stated many times you are not acknowledging what Bethesda has said. If you bothered to watch the E3 announcement Pete Hines states explicitly that through Bethesda.net you will have access to your games. What part of that doesn't imply a client/Steam like platform. Do you access your Bethesda games through a website? No - obviously not. He states it is already being used to support ESO. Hmm. Given the Bethesda.net website was not up for ESO what could he be referring to - obviously the client - hey you access a game through that too!

Keep waiting for definitive "prove." I'll be curious to see how gracious you are at acknowledging reality when it falls on your head. In the meantime - take a break white knight - you're at an impasse.

TeamViewer is free for non-commercial use. Is TeamViewer public good or not? It is free, thus you claim it's public good, yet commercial use of it is not free, thus it can't be public good.

I prefer to keep the discussion in one place. Feel free to make a new thread about "Free software is a public good" and I'll participate there, pointing out the flaws in your argument.

Oh don't worry, a lot of people will not buy their games to let them know

They will still play them though, through another way...if you know what I mean...

[Stares at you suggestively]

[Muffled erotic saxophone music playing in the background]

Nope - don't think I will. You're still undermining the definition of the word 'free' and not even talking about mods anymore.

As I said it's not my job to educate you on the banality of the usage you're taking issue with - especially since it doesn't further the topic.

Feel free to side track someone else's thread with a pointless contention.