BLOG PIECE: Modding as a hobby versus modding as a career, and the position of the Nexus

[Loveblanket]

I think people should get paid for their mods if they so chose and give their work away if they so chose. I'm involved in development of an rpg project right now and we are developing a tool set first. We want one that allows content generation that is just as easy as playing a game, with the option to add more sophisticated features if one so chooses. The reason for this is that we want to allow modders to make money off of their work. The way we intend to set this up is that we will have our own site for mod sales. The modder asks whatever price they think is fair for their work and that is the amount they will get. Our company will then add a fee on top of that. The percentage of which will be decided by studying market value before release. For arguments sake, lets say someone wants to sell an item pack for 5 dollars and we have decided the fee we will charge will be 10%. The modder will get the full 5 dollars they asked for, the customer will pay 5.50 for the pack and we take the 50 cents. We would likely still allow modders to make free content on other sites, but ours would be the only one where we would allow sales. I think that this kind of setup is far more practical than what Valve is doing and I sure do not understand where they think they deserve 75% of someones work because they offer a way to download a program. Valve is running a risk of backlash if they start to become as closed source as companies like Microsoft that Valve likes to whine about. We want to see our product on Steam, but we would keep mod sales off of Steam so modders can keep more of what they work so hard to develop. Edited March 20, 2015 by janishewski

[pdurak]

In response to post #23616384. #23617724 is also a reply to the same post.

Yeah Right. It's a good thing...

Next You'll say intorducing Microtransactions into Dragon Age Inquisition was a good idea!

What the hell is wrong with your perception of freedom, people! Hasn't anyone ever heard of Richard Stallman, Free Software, Open-Source and things like that. It's not about fairness, if I believe that the author deserved this much money I'll consciously donate anyway. NO NEED TO KEEP US, USERS, UNDER CONSTANT PRESSURE AND FORCEFULLY VIOLATE OUR PRIVACY PER THE 600 PAGE LICENSE AGREEMENT'S PERMISSION.

It's another thing if they design a reliable, simple way to donate to the mod author, if the user so chooses (to minimise commisions and losses). Edited March 20, 2015 by pdurak

[Loveblanket]

In response to post #23616384. #23617599 is also a reply to the same post.

I have no problem with mod creators charging for their content. People cannot pay the bills on the hope of donations. I would rather these modders have the ability to work on mods full time and do something they love and earn a living doing it. Too many talented people are living in poverty doing jobs they hate and giving their work away for free. I live in a relatively small community and I see it every day. As far as microtransactions in DAI, I played, enjoyed, and finished DAI without spending an extra penny, so the only people taking advantage of microtransactions are the people that chose to, as it should be. It did not have any effect on my enjoyment of the game, in fact, until I read your post, I did not even know there were mt's in DAI.

[Dragonfire12]

this opens a can of worms so big that I can't even believe its even being considered. Look at the Aliens: Colonial Marines game, that is still in court for a class action lawsuit over false advertising with the publisher and developer throwing emails at each other across the courtroom. I for one was happy to see this lawsuit, its about time that a developer got called on producing junk and advertising awesome.

 

A number of mods I have tried, too many to count, have not performed as advertised by the mod author or have conflicted with other mods that I like more. Add to this that some mods have totally trashed my game and a delete/reinstall of the entire game was the only way to correct the issue.

 

People often leave messages in the post section about mods not working properly for them when it is obvious they haven't installed the mod correctly. What will this be like when money is involved?

 

this is a horrible idea that will probably go through because the game devs can make more money on the game since most businesses are in fact that short sighted. They will be able to sell the creation kit for the next game because modders will expect to make money on mods.

 

Modding is the reason I still play Skyrim, with out modding I would have moved on long ago. Add to this that a number of my friends who owned the console version of the game have been encouraged by me to buy the PC version just to experience the awesome mods available.

 

Make people pay for mods and this will all collapse. Goodbye modding, it was so much fun while it lasted. RIP.

[retakrew7]

Well, I think mods like falskaar deserve to have the possibility to make big bucks. There are multiple mods on the Nexus that took simlar or even more effort to make than some game DLCs. In the end it is all about pricing, I gladly supported some authors through the donation system here on the Nexus and would buy a fully fledged content mod.

 

After all this is going to be demand driven, if someone makes a mod and tries to sell it while you are thinking "man, I can make this mod in under 2 hours" that mod is probably not going to be sold very often when free alternatives exist.

 

For big projects I think this is positive, because it will add an incentive to make a big project a quality piece and continue it further.

 

For small mods this will be kind of irrelevant unless you really push hard on the marketing side of things.

[Dragonfire12]

In response to post #23616384. #23617599, #23617724 are all replies on the same post.

encryption algorithms didn't work, too many hackers able to break them and post patches. This is the reason you have to have a Steam or Origin account to play games and there are cracked versions everywhere. Is this the future of modding? Will you have to log into a pay per use modding site for your mods to load? Unless you run the cracked version you got from a torret site. This is a big minefield. Not me...

One last thing, I believe the reference to DAI Micro Transactions referred to Pay to Win PvP. Edited March 20, 2015 by Dragonfire12

[Evilmichel]

this could go either way as others have said but if people have no choice but pay for mods that does not bode well for the nexus so ya i hope nexus doesnt change anything on this site and if ppl want to get money for from mods let them upload them on both steam and nexus so everyone has chance of getting mods

[EnaiSiaion]

I realised something else.

 

There's 3 popular magic mods plus PerMa (which can't be uploaded to the Workshop due to the patcher). None of them can ask money because people would migrate to the other mods instead.

 

Unless I could come to an, erm, business agreement with the creators of those other mods. Something like, "Yo, how about we ALL set our prices at $2.99?"

 

CA$HMON€¥

[weijiesen]

Dunno what to say really...

 

But I think its still too premature for all the if/and/but being thrown around here.

[Murielkai]

If people start asking for money for mods most people will just stop modding or ignore the mods in question. It will also open a market for pirated mods so even if people do ask for money there will be sites where pirated mods can be found. No one likes to talk about piracy but unfortunately its a fact of life on the internet.