Mods with a Price Tag

[Windsong]

Turns out now modders can charge for mods for Skyrim on the steam workshop.

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/?snr=1_41_4__42

Thoughts?

Personally I'm mad as fuck. As an avid ES fan I looked forward to the modding my game and making it more and more amazing, exploring people's creativity, and fixing some small errors. Now this just seems like a blatant cash grab.

Mind you, modders set their own price. But they only receive 25% of the revenue.

 

[Minerva]

Turns out now modders can charge for mods for Skyrim on the steam workshop.

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/?snr=1_41_4__42

Thoughts?

Personally I'm mad as fuck. As an avid ES fan I looked forward to the modding my game and making it more and more amazing, exploring people's creativity, and fixing some small errors. Now this just seems like a blatant cash grab.

Mind you, modders set their own price. But they only receive 25% of the revenue.

That's unfair. Very unfair.

 

[Minerva]

I mean, there is the Nexus, but that's basically flooded with Porn.

 

[Brovo]

Pros
--Small Scale Capitalism: Because creators being able to make money is generally always a good thing.
--Creators set price: Because this means the community will be able to value content itself. Some DLC pack being worth 15 dollars for some skins? Better have a lot of skins if this type of idea takes off, cuz' they'll probably end up being 20-50 cents a piece from the community itself.


Cons
--Ponzi is spinning in his grave: Remember when everyone bought Diablo 3 thinking they'd make all their money back in the real money auction house despite blizzard taking a cut of anything you offer? Yeah. This issue is gonna get compounded immensely.
--Steam has no quality control: Just take one look at the steam greenlight page and realize that Rock Simulator 2015 was almost approved as a game to be sold on Steam. If steam has this atrocious a quality control issue for games, imagine the mods.
--Copyright nightmare in 3... 2... 1...: A. You must have the necessary rights to post any content that you post to the Steam Workshop, whether it is for sale or not. If you upload copyrighted content that you or your contributors do not have the rights to distribute, then you may forfeit all earned revenue from the item, may be liable for damages and compensation, and may be banned from future participation in this Workshop or the Steam Community in general.
--25% is a fucking joke: No seriously, it is. That's just a huge tariff imposed on creators for the sole purpose of farming them. Now content creators on Steam wanting to make a buck will end up knowing what it's like to be involved in the book publishing industry.
--This hurts the community: Part of what made mods so special was that it was a love note from the community, to a game. If you wanted to donate money, most modding teams already had donation jars. I know, I've donated to a few of them. They're supposed to be, you know, fun. Now one modding team might copyright their product and sue another modding team if they make a similar product: Because the moment you can set a price on your product and start selling it, is the moment copyright is going to come right along and fuck you like a five dollar hooker on Friday nights. Capitalism will not help this community, it'll only hurt it, especially with a borderline mercantilist piece of shit policy that has 75% of the profit taken from the modders.

This is a cash grab. It was a good idea turned into a bloody taxation drive for people who will shove their shitty model jobs in your face. I am not looking forward to getting Steam Greenlight's insane dribble in the modding pages of Steam.

EDIT

Oh, and no consumer responsibility because these are individuals, not corporations. So. Ha. Haha. Ha. No.

 

[Windsong]

I mean, there is the Nexus, but that's basically flooded with Porn.

That's loverslab. Nexus doesn't host explicit content outright.

Also what's to stop a modder from pulling their work off the nexus of they can charge people for it on the workshop?

Really not looking forward to pirating my mods now. Despite not using the workshop for many I think it's going to be a new issue.

Everything @Brovo said too

 

[Minerva]

That's loverslab. Nexus doesn't host explicit content outright.

Also what's to stop a modder from pulling their work off the nexus of they can charge people for it on the workshop?

Really not looking forward to pirating my mods now. Despite not using the workshop for many I think it's going to be a new issue.

Everything @Brovo said too

I've never been on the Nexus, so I didn't know. I have just heard stories.

I know. Will we have to pay for stuff we already have? Or...

 

[Windsong]

I've never been on the Nexus, so I didn't know. I have just heard stories.

I know. Will we have to pay for stuff we already have? Or...

So don't judge something you've never even looked at yourself.

Have no clue. If you've got the mod already then there's likely no issue. Maybe if it gets an update and you want to do that you might.

 

[Azarthes]

You know

It's been the case than some modding teams have been using patreon to fund their time working on the mod. Which seems far more practical than steam mods anyfuckingway.
Cause I understand that some modding teams are like "yeah I also have a life and job so you guys can suck it until I have the time to spare" so I can understand them wanting a bit of money to make it worthwhile but I mean
Don't use steam for your bullshit. Valve doesn't give a fuck.

 

[LunaValentine]

Guess I'll be removing mods from skyrim. that's fine, I was thinking of uninstalling and going back to oblivion and morrowind anyways. :( All I could think though when I saw that was. "Steam! You have failed me!"

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

This will fail, Hard.

To build on Brovo's list:

1. Official DLCs are quality checked, part of the reason people are willing to pay is because people know it will always be compatible, Mods that aren't will flop.

2. Modding on the other hand is not, conflicts can be insane, so paying money for something that could easily not play nice? No thanks.

3. They're using the wrong site. I follow a number of mod channels and none of ever look at Steam Workshop. Gopher has one video that was an exception, but he outright says to copy the files and then unsubscribe from the author because workshop works so poorly with just about any Mod Manager out there. Seriously, if they wanted any chance of making money they should have gone Nexus, that's where all the serious modding happens.

4. It's the Internet, it is rooted and built on the system of content is free and that payment to see creators flow is the choice of the individual.
Good creators get loyal followers, bad creators don't. If someone were to then offer the same product, but demand money up front?
It's going to fail, no one is going to throw money up front when they can go to so many others for free and then afterwards decide if it's worth money or not.

5. Modding is not something most people just dip in. It is something that people go into heavily. 100+ Mods a game often. Even if they were just a dollar each (A lot of them won't. Both because of overhauls and the whole 25% thing) that's more than doubling the cost of the game right there. Almost 200$ for a single player game? That's years old? Where I'm not even guaranteed it will run properly or get along afterwards? I'll pass.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

I thought errybody uses the Nexus anyway?

Seriously, though, not to play Devil's Advocate but I can see a few situations where this might not be the worst idea. The mods being charged for would need to be something pretty substantial, though. I'm thinking the Nehrim guys or the folks behind Falskaar, or maybe Fallout's Project Brazil. A real, proper expansion of the game that adds new content and gameplay is something I'd be willing to dole out some dosh for, cos I'd like to think it would encourage more people to try ambitious projects.

We're not talking about a "lol i maed a ak47 texture gief $$$" affair. More along the lines of something like Millennia's epic weapons overhaul mod.

 

[Space Cowboy]

Nickle and diming, people.

It worked like a charm for DLC-- it's going to work for the modding community.

It's only a matter of time before hubs like the Nexus charge for their services, either per mod or as a premium service: you only get access if you pay a sub.

Either way, welcome to the American Dream!

 

[Brovo]

We're not talking about a "lol i maed a ak47 texture gief $$$" affair. More along the lines of something like Millennia's epic weapons overhaul mod.

Then a donations button would be more logical. People tend to be more willing to give money to people if the content is something they want to see more of. That would be logical. Unfortunately, that's an inconsistent manner in which to derive profits, so good luck convincing a corporation to do that.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Exactly. I'd like to think that this was a (flawed) endeavor by Valve to try and find a way for modders to be rewarded a little more consistently for their efforts. I know they place a lot of value in modders and their skills: one of the first things they reportedly do with new staff is have them make a mod for something with the Source engine.

Shame they picked the Workshop to do it with. Given that the Workshop is garbage.

 

[Minerva]

Exactly. I'd like to think that this was a (flawed) endeavor by Valve to try and find a way for modders to be rewarded a little more consistently for their efforts. I know they place a lot of value in modders and their skills: one of the first things they reportedly do with new staff is have them make a mod for something with the Source engine.

Shame they picked the Workshop to do it with. Given that the Workshop is garbage.

I find Workshop to be quite useful. I have a bunch of basic mods from it, and the rest some friends gave me.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

You wanna upgrade sometime soon, man, trust me. Nexus Mod Manager is a fucking godsend: works a hell of a lot smoother than Workshop, and cos its open-source most mods gel with it well.

 

[Minerva]

You wanna upgrade sometime soon, man, trust me. Nexus Mod Manager is a fucking godsend: works a hell of a lot smoother than Workshop, and cos its open-source most mods gel with it well.

Alright, I'll get Mod Manager.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Grab LOOT while you're at it, too: it's great for sorting out load-order issues and preventing crashes.

 

[Minerva]

Will do that when I get back to my PC.

 

[Wolk]

A paywall is arguably the worst way to monetize mods. There are a lot of mods for Skyrim, and many people run over 100 or even over 200 of them at once. Imagine if 10% of the modders decided to put their work behind a paywall, for say 1€. Those who have 100 mods installed would suddenly have to pay 10€ if they want to continue playing with those mods, and that may not sound like much, but I probably wouldn't pay it, because I could play without most of my mods just as well (as most people, probably) and I don't have money to throw around (I don't buy games for more than 25€, which may again be a lot to others). I will probably not buy a single one of the paywalled mods, because I simply don't like the idea of paying upfront for something that I want to experiment with or probably could live without.

Of course, if there's money in the game, people will also try to do cashgrabs with shady methods, sh there's that to consider.

And as was already said a couple of times by different people, a model like the one of Patreon would work well here, or/and donations. Some modders are actually doing a donation system right now, they're submitting a free version of the mod and one that you can pay for if you want. 75% going to Valve is way too much.