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

[Gratus]

In response to post #23904579. #23922919, #24115884, #24135269 are all replies on the same post.

Yes they gather the Money from the Advertising Industry but how long will this work before it collapses ?

From what is the Advertising Industry creating their Revenues it is US isn't it ?

[Natterforme]

We have long since recognized that problems concerning lack of food such as hunger, starvation, famine, and malnutrition are caused (in part) not by a lack of the supply of food but issues regarding its distribution.

 

Perhaps a similar mindset can be applied to solving the issues of wealth disparity and compensation?

 

-Natterforme

[Rayek]

Worrisome post.

 

To me the spirit of modding is creativity and sharing. Money does not go well with creativity and sharing.

 

Trying to look at it from a positive aspect but it just leaves a sickening feeling.

 

 

[schlangster]

So for this site it's OK to turn a profit by hosting user generated content, but creators of said content should not be given the opportunity to do so, because... really, that's for the better. You're a smart guy, so I honestly don't understand how you cannot immediately see how wrong this is.

[Zaldir]

In response to post #24168884. #24171534, #24171699 are all replies on the same post.

This site profits through ads and donations.
Mods can profit through donations.
None of them require payment to use - all completely free.

All in all, it is very similar situation.

Edit: To clarify, it is a similar situation in how money is earned, not what the money goes to and such. Edited April 8, 2015 by Zaldiir

[mannygt]

I'm very sceptical with paid mods. Most of us (modders) have the free "advertisement" from video makers. Hodilton, Brodual, Shinji72 and many other cool guys will stop to review our mods because they must pay for videos which they are making for free. I had to say "special thank you" to every youtuber which has made a video for my mods. Also, I'm ready to release my last mod which is DLC-sized one. I worked on it for 13 months but I never had in mind to ask money for download.

I think that the "donate" option is still the best and only support for us. This makes the community the choice to donate money or not, depending on their taste.

[shinji72]

Let me add the point of view not of a modder... but of a video showcaser.

Actually I'm making a profit from mods. A very tiny tiny profit in my case. Considering the gains and the huge amount of hours involved in testing and editing, I think I still can be considered someone doing that as a hobby.

Anyway there are dozens, if not more, people doing the same. From Mxr's 700k down to new channels with an handful of subscriber. And they keep showing out.

What will happen then to all these people if mods becomes something to pay for?

First thought. "Oh god... now I'll have to pay to download mod before making the video!"

But probably, there will be an option for creators to give away the mod for free as a test demo.

That probably could be bad for new, smaller, not yet established mods reviews channel.

Then... If I'm reviewing something which people might pay for... What do I'm now? An honest reviewer? An advertiser? And what will be the boundaries between the two.

What if I'm getting paid by the mod's creator to produce a showcase of his/her newly "User generated Content"? (Yay! I wouldn't mind a cut of the millions Dark One's mentioned in the post)

But then a too biased review, or a non-transparent conduct could be punished by the viewers.

All in all, I think, the sub-sector of the "Mods Showcaser" would get more professionalized and face all the same ethical and credibility issues of more established reviewers, like the one reviewing books or movies in the media.

It's not a all-doom scenario. What I'm afraid UGCs spell the dead for, is that special community feeling and freshness typical of underground phenomenon.

Edited April 8, 2015 by shinji72

[bben46]

Yup, we are all going to make millions off of being paid for making mods http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-dance009.gif http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-dance011.gif http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-dance017.gif

 

Now, back to reality

Lets look at some oversimplified economics. I will use US money as that is what I am most familiar with.

 

How much are you willing to pay for a mod? $.99? $1.99? $4.99? ( I will round for simplicity to $1, $2 & $5)

Based on the author getting 25% that means they get about .25 per download. at the $1 rate, .50 at the $2 rate, and $1.25 at the $5 price point. - Sounds good so far. :cool:

 

How many mods do you have? 10? 150? 200? (I picked these numbers as easy to work with)

At the $1 rate (.99 cents) - the price break down is: for 10 mods you pay $10. For 150 mods $150 and for 200 mods $200 :sad: - many people have more than 200 mods, and many have downloaded far more than 300 but have discarded some as not suitable for their game or some other reason. If they are paying they will not be downloading nearly as many just to try them out either.

 

At the $2 rate: 10 mods is $20, 150 is $300 and for 200 mods $400 :pinch: You just lost over 98% of the possible market for that mod. :whistling:

 

Now the biggie at $5: 10 mods cost $50 - probably around what you paid for the game. Then 150 mods is $750 and for 200 mods you pay $1000 - Yup one thousand bucks US for less than a full set of mods. :ohmy:

 

Now, as I don't expect all mods to be priced the same - we take a simple average and come up with $2.66 per mod giving Just $532 for the 200 mods ( in reality we should use a weighted average and it would likely be somewhat less, but still well over $300.)

 

Now, How many mods will you be downloading at those prices? My guess is 10 or less for most people - which means that only the very best, the cream of the crop will be getting any downloads at all. And 99% of mod authors will have next to zero income from their mods. And where now a really good mod that sees 10,000 downloads if free, at the for pay rate of $5 they will likely see around 100 or less. ( author makes $125) but at the $1 rate probably 500 downloads. (author still makes $125 :rolleyes: ) At less than a dollar, the number of sales goes up, but the profit per sale goes down proportionally. It may take some experimentation to find the price where the return is significantly higher than $125 ( at .10 you have to have 5000 downloads to make that $125)

 

Many users will just not pay at all as they don't have credit cards or any kind of way to pay even if they want to. Based on this admittedly down and dirty analysis. IF we have 5,000 mod authors, then maybe 2 will be actually making more than beer money from this. :blush:

[schlangster]

In response to post #24168884. #24169604 is also a reply to the same post.

It would be a similar situation, if this site was completely ad free and in the top right corner there was a small "Donate" button. But I assume under these conditions the site could not survive for long, or am I wrong there?

Anyway, to re-formulate my issue: Currently the content creators are more or less forbidden from making money. It's not because they can't, nor because they don't want to, but because they are not allowed to. Now one of the few people in this community who I assume can actually make a living from mods (indirectly), because these restrictions don't apply to what he is doing, is arguing that it would be for the better if these restrictions were not lifted for anyone else.

[Dark0ne]

In response to post #24168884. #24169604, #24171534 are all replies on the same post.

It's a sensitive subject indeed. The difference is that the upkeep on the sites in 2015 is going to hit half a million dollars just to keep the servers running. As in, without that amount of money these sites simply wouldn't exist. When a big enough surplus exists that isn't earmarked for new hardware it gets put in the new employee pot, hence the community manager position currently being advertised. All things that help to make this site better.

Now, if you put all your mods on your own site and funded that however you wished then we'd be in a similar boat, but likening the need of mod authors to make money with the need of these sites to make money is very different. Edited April 8, 2015 by Dark0ne