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

[zuluthedrew]

In response to post #23702214.

not exactly. "Capitalism" = "an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, RATHER THAN THE STATE (aka government)."

The great enforcer of fascism.

Intellectual property and licencing are examples of statist interventionism.

[Ulfric1]

In response to post #23702214. #23712469 is also a reply to the same post.

But mod owners attempting to make a profit on their mods by limiting its availability on other platforms and charging for its use in other mods, is.

[Krysee]

As a player, I resent having a storefront bundled with my DRM, that tries to sell to me every time I turn my computer on, every time I try to talk to one of my friends, and every time I close out of a game that uses that DRM.

 

I resent having all my "friends" know what game I'm playing, when I'm playing it, and have access to see what I have and haven't done in a game. I'm probably going to resent it even more when the comments I get include what mods I'm running or don't have yet. I dislike having an overlay on my game that allows my "friends" to start telling me their daily minutia while I'm in the middle of a boss fight.

 

I resent having to keep tight control over my gaming habits so my gaming budget doesn't go from one or two $50 games a quarter and a $15/month MMO subscription to $200 a month or more in microtransactions. I resent the business models that games in general have been adopting.

 

This makes me less likely to buy anything from them, because I'm leery of what else comes with the purchase.

 

As a modder, I mod to improve my game experience. I have more time than money, so I seek out games that I will play for years, like Skyrim and Fallout 3 and The Sims 3. Games that are moddable and have a large modding community (or several modding communities) are more attractive because mods let me change the game to keep it interesting and fresh and vastly different on Playthrough 40 than it was on Playthrough 1.

 

I've shared a few of my mods, back in the Fallout 3 days, and it's truly a daunting task to package and prepare a mod, write up a document that explains what the mod does and doesn't do, what you expect it to conflict with, and provide general troubleshooting tips, then spend the next six months (or more) telling people that you already answered that question in the readme. It's why I don't share my mods anymore, but having that experience makes me understand and appreciate modders who continue to do it that much more.

 

I'm not saying that modders don't deserve to be paid (I find voluntary tipping very acceptable), but I am saying that paying for a mod up front is ... wrong. This sort of thing is kind of a status quo in The Sims modding community, where there are a number of pay-sites that host content that was made explicitly for the purposes of being sold. This produces hate and sparks flame wars and banhammer sweeps across the various communities when one modder claims another modder's mod as their own, then posts it to a pay site with slick packaging. We already have that happening to a much lesser extent on The Nexus, but think about how bad it's going to be when Nexus-exclusive mods are being swiped and sold on Steam, and not by the original modder. And it will happen.

 

Corporations trying to monetize every-damn-thing, selling to us at every possible turn and milking us for microtransactions is just plain evil. I for one won't be a part of it, either as a modder or as a buyer of said mods. It's just feeding the trolls, so to speak, where the trolls are a corporation so hell-bent on fattening its bottom line that it doesn't care who it alienates in the process. I hope people are good enough to vote with their wallet on this, and give it a big "AW HELL NO."

[pegueng]

Just out of curiosity... Who will break the 40k line and add file no 40'000? It's close now. according to the counter there's 39'910 Skyrim files. Awesome. :P

I understand ofcourse that there have already been uploaded more than 40 k of files. And some of them have been removed. i may hazard a guess that the actual count could be around 45k or even more. But i guess they have been removed for a reason... ;)

Edited March 23, 2015 by pegueng

[Krysee]

In response to post #23711399.

Generally speaking, I would never pay for a mod no matter how good it was, though I might tip the modder after playing it for a while and deciding that the mod is just so essential that I can no longer play without it.

There are always exceptions.

For instance, if somebody were to come out with a mod that updates Neverwinter Nights 2 with modern graphics, a better interface and still capable of running all the existing adventure mods, I'd be pushing my way to the front of the line to buy it.

In Skyrim, I am damn sure am not going to pay for something I can do myself with a weekend of Creation Kit editing. But something that adds new content, new spells, new meshes and textures, at least as big as a DLC, fully voiced and lore friendly? I might consider it. But I truly doubt that's going to be what we'll be getting on such a service. No, it'll be more like a $1.99 microtransaction to get Yet Another Out Of Place Player Home In The Middle Of Nowhere and another $1.99 microtransaction to get Yet Another Pretty Female Follower That You Get For Free And Is Marked Essential. No thanks.

[WightMage]

In response to post #23716279.

Here here!

[Thaiauxn]

I have a little more faith in the community than that. Pretty girl follower marked as essential and an out of place player house... hey, that's exactly what some folks want, and I can't knock it. If the current numbers are true, well over 100,000 of them. Saying those mods aren't worth it is almost saying that we only download mods the same way we have loot kleptomania in games. We loot the Nexus because it's free, not because it's good or we need it. That's kinda spiteful to say. Telling, though.

 

My mods, personally, don't add simple pretty girl followers marked as essential, nor just another player house. There are more like me, many more better than me, doing cool work. No DRM required. No spying, no annoying storefront. That's just hyperbolic. Even if there was a push to make mods payable, Project Brazil would still be released for free. I'd probably release smaller products for other games that would not be.

[Arethiel]

I just wanted to ask everybody (that is reading this) what they would think about supporting moders if the system being proposed wasn't going in to effect but one that allowed for moders to use something like Patreon? Mainly monetary participation would be optional and legally acceptable benefits would be awarded but the mod would be openly released to everybody Steam, Nexus, extra... upon completion.

 

I personally think that would be good. But I might be too close to this idea to see it rationally. I have a Pateon account for making Minecraft Maps (I won't link it in here). And I am trying to make it work. Not to get rich but to help pay some bills.

 

And that is why I think it would be better if the community created its own system like this rather than being forced in to a contract by a company with the worst ranking by the Better Business Burrow. Valve has an F http://www.bbb.org/alaskaoregonwesternwashington/business-reviews/computer-software-publishers-and-developers/valve-corporation-in-bellevue-wa-27030704

 

And like a man once said "If you are good at something, never do it for free." If you are a good modder you deserve some compensation for your effort and if you are a bad modder money is a great motivator to become better.

I would be ok with this, simply because it's voluntary. I'm only opposed to mods that force me to pay (IE Hearthfire) because I don't think mods should cost money. I am very much for voluntary things like Patreon and donate to several patreons on a monthly basis and so if a modder had a patreon setup and I really liked his mod, I'd probably donate to it. Patreon also doesn't take 75% of my money either.

[Deleted82156User]

I am astounded at the utter disregard for others hard work that is going on in this thread. The sheer number of people who take free mods completely for granted and as though such things are their 'right' to have 'for free' is appalling....utterly appalling.

 

If you are bound and determined never to pay for anything to do with modding then don't. But don't say that mods are not worth money, because that is just not true. People spend more on one cup of coffee then the amount suggested in this thread that a mod would sell for. Less then the price of one friggin' cup of coffee.

 

There are REAL people behind these mods investing REAL hours and hours of hard work, sometimes tens, sometimes hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours. How much is your time worth? Nothing? Because that is what is being said here over and over. How much is your creativity, imagination, ideas and your knowledge worth? Nothing? Again that is being stated over and over again here.

 

Modders, everyone makes money from your work except you. The websites, the you tube mod reviewers, the gaming magazines writing about mods, the gaming companies of course. That is a fact. You may never wish to make money in any form from your mods but don't consider your efforts and other modders efforts and talents not worth monetary compensation, because it just is not the case. There are people making money offering works that took FAR less knowledge and talent to create. Just visit the amazon android book section if you want proof of that, where one can buy a 10 page 'book'.

 

Donations are very nice and appreciated that someone saw the value of our hard work and wished to express that in a monetary contribution, but the fact is that donations are actually very rare. We had a thread going in the mod author forum where modders shared how much they had received in donations over the years and it is astoundingly little. So I really don't think donations are relevant.

 

In short my point is think whatever you want, but don't be stating that mods are not worth anything, because that is rude, disrespectful and very unappreciative of the huge amounts of hard work that you all are enjoying right now.

 

[gimpusmons]

I would be willing to pay a reasonable amount for decent-sized, professional-grade mods with added content for games like Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas. I would pay for mods like Falskaar, Vilja, Interesting NPCs, and Skywind because I would like to support and encourage the most ambitious and talented mod authors and teams to keep expanding these games while doing what they love to do and earning a living at it, much like Youtubers such as Gopher get to do by spotlighting these mods.

 

Still, the mods I would readily throw money at accounts for no more than perhaps 5% of the best content on this site. The rest I would be hesitant to pay for. If Nexus were to ever adopt a similar monetizing scheme there would need to be a clear distinction between commercial-grade mods and everything else. If this were to happen, I think the free modding scene would continue to thrive because most of us spend hours modding or creating mods for the fun, challenge and community.

Edited March 23, 2015 by gimpusmons