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

[ilDuderoni]

A few things I'd like to bring up as I read through this.

 

If this new hire guidebook is to be trusted

https://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

then ideas come when the staff get them and they can (?) find someone like minded to help make the change with them. That could suddenly explain why Valve hadn't taken a gaze at Skyrim for so long: Nobody had any ideas for it up until now.

Again, that is based on assuming the guidebook is true. I've no actual idea if they run their company like that.

 

Paid modding based on existing resources has actually existed for a LONG time and it was largely ignored because it wasn't a video game.

IMVU is a social interaction platform (or whatever you call it) and has a system where you can edit existing items in their editor and re-sell it, giving a cut of your profits to the original creator. This has allowed experienced modders to sell their newly made meshes while allowing beginners to make their own products using texture swaps, all the while giving always a cut to the IMVU company.

I've been out of touch with it for years, though. I am completely unaware on how it has evolved or changed. But that's how it used to be, long long ago. And that's how it handled editing based on existing assets.

 

I'm not going to pretend this answers how these things would affect a community such as ours or more complicated video games. But I figure any data I can provide might be useful.

 

There is one aspect, about paid mods that become substantial in size, that worries me:

Piracy. If you put modded content behind a paywall (one that would be perceived as superior to what's available for free) scoundrels may set their sights into sharing this content with their 'friends' for free.

 

That seems like a whole new can of worms to open. Not only would Piracy then affect game devs, but also modders that aren't officially part of a game dev team.

There's so many angles and issues to think of. How would a modder (doing paid modding) protect themselves from that? Devs can already barely work with it, and they tend to have a legal team.

 

All in all, I consider it a scary future and personally I believe there should always be a strong core modding community that offers mods for free. Even if there'll be another community that offers mods at a price.

Simply because it might preserve healthier communities like these. But I also have a feeling that free modding will always be strongly sought after. TF2 has mods that replaces meshes of existing things in the game.

 

Not to mention that money has a strong chance to stifle imagination. Why experiment if doing the relatively same thing would yield you more money?

And as we know, ingenuity is nothing without imagination. The smartest inventors of our time did not stand out because they had a high IQ. They had a lot of imagination and dreamed of the world beyond the existing boundaries and creations.

(If you want to know more on where I got that idea about imagination, here's a free Ebook on Nikola Tesla that might interest you https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Sean_Patrick_Nikola_Tesla?id=3ijnYElSgB0C&hl=en )

 

So there's my rant for this week. Sorry for the long one, but I've always had a deep passion for modding, even if I'm not skilled in making mods and aren't as commonly vocal as I should be.

 

Fact of the matter is that, while obviously improved from the past, communities outside of established modding communities are less likely to have an interest in modding. So it's harder to appeal to them... but I try. And I'll keep trying.

[DrenzZ02]

We cannot call them mod anymore its DLC now if we need to pay to use it just like in Sims 3

[WightMage]

In response to post #23613924. #23632044 is also a reply to the same post.

I don't think there is any question that that *will* happen. It already disgusts me that so many people on steam are under 18, or act as such- how will anyone be able to mod ANYTHING if even the slightest piece of code in the mod offends the sensibilities of the morality police?

[WightMage]

In response to post #23620444.

Inb4 Mod Mafia becomes a thing.

[WightMage]

In response to post #23607584.

I don't think modders have any legal discourse to claiming IP rights to things, actually. The software they use is proprietary of the video game developer, and virtually all games have a giant EULA that people skip which essentially says: "You don't really own this software, we're just licensing it to you, you cannot profit from using our software without our consent, and any attempt to will render this license null and void and you must stop using it or face legal consequences... if we find out."

This also makes the concept of charging for mods a difficult one- they'll likely have to write a completely separate license for mod tools, even going so far as to have potential modders sign and notarize documents stating their intent to use it for commercial purposes. And even THEN, such a license will probably have a list of demands of what kind of mods they "cannot" create- such as the mods that make children killable in Skyrim, for instance.

So basically, this could all make things a lot more complicated for modders, sure, but not exactly in the way that you think it would. People can only copyright things they make themselves in its entirety, without help or using tools already owned by someone else, unless those tools have a license which allows them to do so. Otherwise, video game developers would be suing each other just for using the same kind of programming language.

[griefmyst]

In response to post #23644599.

For fears of piracy, I'm going to use my own mod.

If I sold Arissa for 99 cents, and assumed that out of those who downloaded it (160K people) the ones who bought are the ones who endorsed it (14K people) in one year, out of an imaginary split of, let's say, a 25% fee going to the Nexus -- I would make $10,500. After 1 year.

Here's how that breakdown could look:

$3600 towards a 1200 line dialogue update every month for a year
$6900 towards supplementing staff for a complete, massive DLC size update for Oakshore.

That's only if ~10% of the people pay 99 damned cents which is as close as you get to free without being free.

The best thing about modders is that a lot of what we can do, we still do it for fun. We aren't looking for money to roll up to a club in a Maserati and order bottle service. We're thrifty. We get by on doing what we can for free and finding the best price for everything else. However, almost every single one of us that has had a big vision has added up all the numbers after securing monetary quotes from freelance artists... and it is depressing.

So things get put on hold, until that one guy on Nexus who said he could do your 3D stuff ever signs back on again. Or that voice actress who promised she'd get a new mic soon ever gets that new mic.

I mean, hell, here's another scenario: imagine finding the perfect voice for your work, only her recording area sucks. Without the opportunity of money you would either have to pass on her, or put poor quality recordings in to your mod. How cool would it be to ring up a studio close to her and book a session for her to get professional recordings?

Or how cool would it be to be able to pay the original Skyrim voice overs to do some additional lines?

[Tannin42]

In response to post #23607584. #23645249 is also a reply to the same post.

@WightMage: Are you a lawyer? What countries laws are you talking about?

[Signette]

In response to post #23613924. #23632044, #23644849 are all replies on the same post.

Are we talking here about Workshop only? I don't see how companies can cut off anonymous modders for whatever content they releasing. If Workshop will get too strict rules, ppl will get content from other sources. Modding always was about freedom of ideas, and modders always can get compensated for their work via donations system which is most fair. Setting up restrictions will drive both modders and users from said source, it will die out in the end.

Can big companies actually ban sources like Nexus or Moddb for posting content they can't "control" and make profits?...

[dpgillam]

In response to post #23620444. #23645034 is also a reply to the same post.

You mean like the computer, oil, pharmaceutical, and auto industries already do all the time?

Yeah, because there's no way that could ever happen....right?

[dpgillam]

In response to post #23613924. #23632044, #23644849, #23647209 are all replies on the same post.

The consoles already have pay mods, or DLC. So do we. How much freedom, imagination, and creativity do you see in the "official" DLCs for any game?