Steam Workshop allowing creators to charge for mods

No modders ever cried about money before this because modding wasn't about the money

capitalism corrupts the community

Its horrid but people like myself would still continuing making free mods either out of a love of just tweaking and playing for out own amusement and/or a desire to enhance/add to the game. Though won't like I'd probably look at commercial options as well.
 
Nice of Valve to back down, but it's only a temporary measure.

All they've realised is stepping into an established modding community where half the stuff around was based on or rebuilt from someone else's work was a can of worms.

The language in their statement makes it pretty clear it's going to ship with TES6/Fallout 4 out of the box. Why do I get the feeling those communities are going to be no-where near as nice and helpful as previous ones.
 
I'm realistic enough to admit that building and maintaining a large mod takes a lot of time and money.

And therein lies one of the key issues with this. When you no longer have the time/money/inclination to support the product you are selling, what happens to your customers? Do you hire someone to maintain your mod? Doubtful, so when a game update is released which breaks half the features of your mod, your customers are left with a faulty product. Not an issue with a free mod, definitely an issue with a paid one.

Not directed at you Leezer, but the point you made was a relevant one.

If modding is your hobby, and you're doing it for fun and essentially your own benefit, then no one has the right to expect anything from you/the mod, but the moment you start selling it to them, you take on certain obligations, and the customer gets certain rights.
 
Well there we are, I was wrong. *doffs hat*

My guess is they will try again with a new title, rather than trying to implement on a market that has already matured in a free model.
 
First round goes to the combined strength of pc gamers......2nd round will be much much harder... they will be smarter and more cunning.... they will use different techniques to achieve same result (ie maximum profit for them with almost zero effort involved). In a couple of years time we will be loving our paid mod marketplace i reckon. The war for the soul of pc gaming has already been lost we just don't know it.

Now i expect them to make it even more tempting to make steam workshop mandatory for mods (free of course) through whatever enticements they can think of. They will then bring out paywall phase 2 once they think we are all in the trap.
 
Well, i'll be.

For the first time ever, the community wins an argument vs corporate greed...it wont matter obviously.

Regardless, i don't mind the idea at all, but they need to rethink it carefully before trying again, less "throw it all up in a month" and "blast the idea instantly in front of an audience that's been modding for over a decade"...
 
First round goes to the combined strength of pc gamers......2nd round will be much much harder... they will be smarter and more cunning.... they will use different techniques to achieve same result (ie maximum profit for them with almost zero effort involved). In a couple of years time we will be loving our paid mod marketplace i reckon. The war for the soul of pc gaming has already been lost we just don't know it.

Now i expect them to make it even more tempting to make steam workshop mandatory for mods (free of course) through whatever enticements they can think of. They will then bring out paywall phase 2 once they think we are all in the trap.

The good/bad part of this debate still needs to be had. Taking the stance that "paywalls are bad, m'kay" negates the possibility of our best and brightest modders making a living doing what they love. Is that really what you want for the community? There still is something to what Valve was trying to pull off, IMO.


Well, i'll be.
For the first time ever, the community wins an argument vs corporate greed...it wont matter obviously.

It's Valve. You have to give them credit for that.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the author of SkyUI leaves the community after all this. He must be feeling some embarrassment. The mod community can be a vengeful bunch too.

Can you elaborate on what happened with the author?

The author for SkyUI version 4.1 hasn't updated it for about 2 years (from the SkyUI Nexus page: Current Version: 4.1 LAST UPDATE ON JUNE 24th 2013), was something about it was to complex to sort out the Alchemy/Smithing menu's (can't recall exactly and can't seem to find it at Nexus again). Then this "pay for mod" come on workshop and suddenly there is a SkyUI 5.0 coming up in the matter of a couple months. Seemed that they also got contacted by Valve about this but didn't put up their mod from the start.

Would be intersting to see if SkyUI 5.0 will be uploaded to Nexus now or not though. Although 4.1 works just fine and the Alchemy/Smithing menus is not that troublesome.. :)
 
still think in the future there will be paid mods and to be honest I can live with that,was very tempted to buy Purity, for me the only good one there.got to feel
for some of the modders they were caught between the rock and the hard place
 
The good/bad part of this debate still needs to be had. Taking the stance that "paywalls are bad, m'kay" negates the possibility of our best and brightest modders making a living doing what they love. Is that really what you want for the community?

I didn't say that......

And you're bit here about it negating the possibility of our best and brightest modders making a living doing what they love.... i find barking mad really if you look at how Valve started basically via some free mods from a retail game and look at where they are now...:)

Usually talented coders and designers get snapped up by some game studio or they form their own studio...thats how it generally works....and has been working....

It doesnt work by every man jack of the modding world suddenly becoming a mod creator because of the ease of doing so via SW. There should be a clear delineation between the commercial gaming world (retail games and DLC) and amateur modding world. There is crossover yes but they are still distinct camps (also the indie camp as well :D)

Valve/Bethesda wanted to allow everyone to basically be a commercial modder and charge everyone else (except themselves) for it. Not realizing the huge legal minefield this would cause...copyright claims, stealing of intellectual property, zero customer support, not working content due to bugs bugs and more bugs. Because after all the people who will be making all these mods are just amateurs in their bedroom how are they going to deal with all that? It would've been chaos.



It's Valve. You have to give them credit for that.

Nope. If it aint broke (donation system)...dont try to "fix" it for a nice wee profit.

Bear in mind ok...that there is a working system where modders get paid via donations and they receive all that money...not 25% of it. Valve and Bethesda just wanted a slice of that pie..when they weren't really entitled to it... just being greedy.
 
It doesnt work by every man jack of the modding world suddenly becoming a mod creator because of the ease of doing so via SW. There should be a clear delineation between the commercial gaming world (retail games and DLC) and amateur modding world. There is crossover yes but they are still distinct camps (also the indie camp as well :D)

There's also absolutely nothing preventing "professional" modders from setting up their own "shop" and charging for their mods if they a) feel that they want (and that their work deserves) payment, and b) they are willing to make that commitment to their customers. If someone is capable of creating a mod, I'm pretty sure they're capable of building a basic website with Paypal or Google checkout functionality.

The fact that this doesn't really happen is surely an indication that paid mods aren't really something that anyone actually wants?
 
I've not got time to read through the pages, but has this now been cancelled? Has Steam realised the stupidity of their actions and listened to the community?
 
I didn't say that......

And you're bit here about it negating the possibility of our best and brightest modders making a living doing what they love.... i find barking mad really if you look at how Valve started basically via some free mods from a retail game and look at where they are now...:)

Usually talented coders and designers get snapped up by some game studio or they form their own studio...thats how it generally works....and has been working....

It doesnt work by every man jack of the modding world suddenly becoming a mod creator because of the ease of doing so via SW. There should be a clear delineation between the commercial gaming world (retail games and DLC) and amateur modding world. There is crossover yes but they are still distinct camps (also the indie camp as well :D)

Valve/Bethesda wanted to allow everyone to basically be a commercial modder and charge everyone else (except themselves) for it. Not realizing the huge legal minefield this would cause...copyright claims, stealing of intellectual property, zero customer support, not working content due to bugs bugs and more bugs. Because after all the people who will be making all these mods are just amateurs in their bedroom how are they going to deal with all that? It would've been chaos.





Nope. If it aint broke (donation system)...dont try to "fix" it for a nice wee profit.

Bear in mind ok...that there is a working system where modders get paid via donations and they receive all that money...not 25% of it. Valve and Bethesda just wanted a slice of that pie..when they weren't really entitled to it... just being greedy.

Good points. Valid points too. Can't say much more :p
 
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