A Bethesda Account Is Required

Bethesdas-classic-doom-re-release-requires-a-bethesda-account

Submission 11,547

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REST 35slayer 00 Hayden A Bethesda.net aceount is required to play. P 1ease connect to the internet to continue. oltan/s4

A BETHESDA. NET ACCOUNTIS REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS TITLE. PLEASE CONNECT TO THE INTERNET TO CONTINUE.

HORLD 1-4 TIME 159 MARIO 199300 10 YOUMARIO THANK BUT A BETHESDA. NET ACCOUNT IS REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS TITLE PLEASE CONNECT TO THE INTERNETTO CONTINUE

Mike Jones for Smash DLC! @SmashTropics --.A BETHESDA.NET ACCOUNT IS REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS TITLE. PLEASE CONNECT TO THE INTERNET TO CONTINUE. CHAРТER 2 -.OKAY..

PTT 40.85 MEMORY Snake, a Bethesda.net account is required to play this title. Please connect to the internet to continue

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About

A Bethesda Account Is Required refers to jokes made in parody of a feature in rereleases of the first three Doom games which requires players to login to a Bethesda account to play the game. The feature irritated many players, leading parodies imagining if classic video games and other electronic devices required a Bethesda account to use. Bethesda quickly promised they would make the online login feature optional after public outcry.

Origin

On July 26th, 2019, Bethesda announced that Dooms I, II, and III were rereleased on the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Windows, Google Stadia, and Xbox One and were currently available for purchase.^[1] One of the features of the rerelease required players to log-in to a Bethesda account before playing, and forcing players to create an account if they wanted to play.^[2]

Daan Koopman @NintenDaan Soooo... these DOOM ports force you to log into a BNet account. #NintendoSwitch LOGIN TO BNET ALBEADy HATE Anu AccousTP CRENT E ACCOUNT

Spread

Players were unhappy with being forced to create a Bethesda account to play the games. Players quickly parodied the feature by posting photoshops in which it appeared other classic video games asked players to log in to a Bethesda account to play. Twitter user @rockcock64^[3] tweeted such a parody using Super Mario, gaining over 3,000 retweets and 10,000 likes (shown below, left). Many people posted different versions in the replies to the tweet. For example, Twitter user @The_Shadow_Hog^[4] tweeted an example from Castlevania, gaining over 290 retweets and 910 likes (shown below, right).

MARIO TIME A Bethesda. net account is required to PIay this title. Piease Connect the INternet Continue. to to OKay OO

REST 0 RICHTER Dracula A Bethesda.net is requ ired to play. P lease connect to Internet to continue. account the T

Others created video parodies to mock the requirement. Twitter user @Kavaducky tweeted a video parody featuring Pokémon Gold, gaining 27 retweets and 62 likes (shown below, top). User @bobbyblackwolf posted an example imagining if one had to have a Bethesda account to drive a Tesla car (shown below, bottom).

Here's a meme that's a little late.Bethesda is working on a fix at least. pic.twitter.com/7TOKxDNVxq

— Kavawuvi (@Kavaducky) July 27, 2019

DAMMIT BETHESDA #Tesla pic.twitter.com/kP2Tjg1doK

— Bobby Blackwolf (@BobbyBlackwolf) July 28, 2019

Bethesda quickly stated that the log-in feature was intended to be optional for all players. The feature was implemented so Bethesda's Slayers Club members would be rewarded for playing the games. Bethesda stated that they were working on a fix (shown below).^[5]