Steam Workshop allowing creators to charge for mods

[Mark A]

Just noticed this on steams front page. I knew it was only a matter of time before Steam realised they could be cashing in on other peoples hard work.

So is this going to ruin the modding scene if it catches on or strengthen it? Personally I can see it ruining it if everyone starts charging. There are only a few paid mods up at the moment and the prices are crazy. The amount of mods I had installed for Skyrim it would probably cost 3x as much as the game itself.

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/



https://www.change.org/p/valve-remove-the-paid-content-of-the-steam-workshop

Probably wont make any difference as they never seem to do, but thought I'd add it to the op in case anyone wants to sign it.

 

[Mark A]

I hope the community rejects this system, but judging by the fact some people will pay £250 for a knife skin for CS:GO I am not holding much hope .

 

[Mark A]

I think it's good that more people will be able to support themselves financially while producing quality content. Lowers the barriers of entry into the gaming industry even more, which is only a good thing in my eyes.

On top of that, modding becomes a viable line of work for professional studios....expect more top quality mod content.

I can't see that happening. Mods already improve upon what professional stuidos turn out to begin with. I'm expecting masses of overpriced, low quality, 3rd party dlc to add to the already over the top use of dlc to make extra money by the game company itself.

In fact thinking about it I cant see many future games allowing the use of mods if what you say does happen. These 'professional studios' would be competing with the game company and hurting their dlc sales. Mods are already held in a dim light by games companies, so allowing people to profit from them would further damage their reputation and possibly put an end to it altogether.

 

[Mark A]

This is why I asked if the original game creator is taking a cut. Is Bethesda getting a little slice of the mod sales? If the answer is yes then I'd expect a boom in moddable games.

I'm not sure. If they aren't then maybe the next game in the series they will charge a fortune for the development tools to get in on the action. Pricing the people that do it for the love of modding/ the game out of it.

 

[Mark A]

^It's just the start. The whole thing is so badly thought out it is almost unbelievable!


...Rumours that SkyUI might be doing it. They might be taking the **** though.

How would that work:

Team: snakster, Mardoxx, T3T
Contributors: ianpatt, behippo, Kratos, psychosteve, MisterPete, GreatClone, gibbed, PurpleLunchBox, Verteiron, Gopher, Indie

Plus Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) is required to run it, but not sure if that will always be free?

 

[Mark A]

I love the comment he made about profits,

'Skyrim paid mods so far have made $10k

The e-mail traffic they have generated have cost Valve an estimate of $1 million.'

Unlucky, Gabe.

How the hell have they made $10k? There's just a few random swords and crap on there at the moment. I am guessing the initial buys are from people with some steam shekels built up from card sales etc. Seems like the battle is already lost .

What is the $1 million figure about?

 

[Mark A]

I've briefly dabbled with creating some mods, but I've always relied on modders producing a 'how to' guide. My fear is that people will potentially stop producing these? Why bother showing someone else how to do things when it could potentially eat into profits? Will companies actually charge more for the source code and modding tools they produce?
Scared

These how to guides could potentially become very popular on youtube as lots of people who would never have bother to try modding will be wanting in on the action now. So I think if anything we could see a rise in guides etc on Youtube as that is another way for people to make a lot of cash.

 

[Mark A]

I bet some of the people that ruined their reputation wish they had just waited it out instead of greedily jumping straight in...

If they change the system to allow a donate button then i would happily donate a few steam bux to some of the better mods.