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

[Zumbs]

Mods for money hold a number of interesting possibilities and challenges for the community, Bethesda and Valve. I haven't read the entire thread, so I'm sorry if some of this has already been mentioned and discussed.

 

Assuming that Bethesda would get a big share of the income, it would mean that the Creation Kit would be a product that would directly generate income for Bethesda (the current income is indirect and likely difficult to quantify). Thus, one could expect that support for it would be a lot better. It may even mean that Bethesda would also provide tools to help with configurable mods and troubleshooting of mod interaction - yes, one can dream :-)

 

If some modders could make modding their day job, it would mean that their mods would finish faster and likely be more polished.

 

I also see a number of challenges:

 

* Distribution of income: Compared to Apple's App Store and Google Play, Valve taking 75 % (maybe shared with the game publisher), leaves precious little to the modder. I suspect that shortly after Bethesda allows modding for money, Valve will either have to give better terms for modders, or we will see a number of other mod stores out there. Given the revenue, I would not be surprised to see Amazon or other large players trying to get their foot in.

 

* There are a lot of modding utilities out there: TES Edit, Bash, LOOT, Script Extender to name but a few. Will they continue to be independent, come at a cost or be integrated into the official creation kit?

 

* Legalism: At the moment, some modders have some sort of license associated with their mods, others do not, presumably because they either don't care or it didn't occur to them. However, the basic assumption is that mods cannot be sold. If that changes, I fear that we will start to see mods with a lot less permissive licenses, and that modders may be a lot more reluctant and reserved towards sharing their resources. This may in turn make new modders reluctant to share their work. It will be a significant community effort to avoid that.

 

Either way, I am sure that the community will manage to survive and prosper.

[Thandal]

* Distribution of income: Compared to Apple's App Store and Google Play, Valve taking 75 % (maybe shared with the game publisher), leaves precious little to the modder. I suspect that shortly after Bethesda allows modding for money, Valve will either have to give better terms for modders, or we will see a number of other mod stores out there. Given the revenue, I would not be surprised to see Amazon or other large players trying to get their foot in.

 

"Other large players" won't be able to get their feet in if Valve enters into exclusive agreements with the rights holders. Remember, almost everything about mods depends upon the copyright holders allowing use of their assets. If they decide to restrict that use to only mods released through "authorized" distributors, any others (including the Nexus) will start seeing "Cease and desist" letters if they offer competing products.

 

Even, and maybe especially, if those products are "free".

[fftfan]

One thing I'm concerned about: Playing the Market. Would it be possible for someone to buy exclusive ownership rights from mod creators, and then be able to list it for sale it as their own? Could it be possible for a wealthy person buy the rights to all the top mods in a category, effectively establishing a monopoly of sorts? And then list all of them for an inflated price? Could they potentially buy the exclusive distribution rights to vital resources like SKSE, SkyUI or OBSE?

[SoMteam]

In response to post #23836199. #23839154, #23845829, #23853369 are all replies on the same post.

Its greedy since modding is no job, its a hobby and supposed to be fun. When you want to make money out of something get a job. Full time modder here, just saying Edited March 28, 2015 by SoMteam

[hippiebill]

In response to post #23836199. #23839154, #23845829, #23853369, #23858174 are all replies on the same post.

I'm glad you mentioned the Sims. Soon after the original Sims debuted (15 years ago), there developed a small internet war between free sites and pay sites that still reverberates to this day. Unlike Valve and Bathesda, EA kept out of the fray. The innovation went to the free sites, primarily because of their openness.

Looking for approbation from a corporate site? With only "authorized" mods?

[Varegi]

Interesting.

Makes you think if this will be the end of epic mods, or will nature find it's way to bring them to us as it always has?

 

[Saxonisc]

Let me be more clear. I have no problem paying for good, complete and working mods.

It's only fair I think, but plenty of mods don't play together very well and some are never finished. Do I pay at version 1.0 or 6.7?

 

20 or 30 years ago most games came out that played to the end without need for patches.

Console owners until recently bragged they didn't ever need patches, but look at the situation now.

With this in mind, how much does Bethesda owe the creators of the unofficial patches? Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout etc.

Why will the modder only get 25%? What if the modder uses completely new assets not in the original game using a 3rd party modding program. In theory they are only using the original game as a launching pad.

Looking at games now, how bad/Buggy will the next Bethesda game be when they can rely on modders to fix everything for them? It may be the cheaper option when they are looking to raise revenue for their monthly quarter. We hear this complaint a lot from developers.

It just sounds like somebody at Corporate headquarters wants to sit back and make more money the easy way.

 

 

[Arthmoor]

In response to post #23855034.

Don't see how it would divide anything if all parties agreed to a fair split.

[requested]

In response to post #23836199. #23839154, #23845829, #23853369, #23858174, #23858619 are all replies on the same post.

Panda didn't say that a modder is greedy for wanting to get paid, he said: "I honestly do feel that modders should be rewarded for their work. However, that reward should not be to satisfy monetary greed."

For me this means the monetary part should not be the first or (god forbid!) the only purpose of modding.

Like he said, "...modders shouldn't be creating mods for the masses, the money or even the pride of having a popular mod, but rather the modding experience and the end result."

Greed is antisocial and will affect the modding community. It will lower the willingness to share and/or permit usage of assets. And it will lead to endless discussions over who did what first and if somebody stole an idea / a line of code / whatever. There will be drama, mark my words.

That said, there's nothing wrong getting some money for a mod if it is a work of love :D Edited March 29, 2015 by requested

[requested]

In response to post #23855034. #23864799 is also a reply to the same post.

Sounds easy, but imagine a multi-modder project where you first had to agree on a split between the members. And then all of you have to negotiate with other authors about how much money they deserve for their contributions and with each other about what you can afford to give away.
Or imagine that the other author sees how good your mod sells and decides to demand more money because of his/her 'essential' contribution. Would you let yourself be extorted just to keep an important part of your mod?

I might be a pessimist, but I can see all sorts of problems^^