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

[SilentZen]

Personally ... I hate steam ... I opened a steam account when they first started ... it was horrible then ... reopened a new account a couple years back just so I could register a game ... that was total b.s. ... it is still horrible now ...

 

any company that would even consider taking more than a 10% cut of somebody else's work is a dishonest shady company ... I don't know why developers don't just create free tool access and give it to everybody ... then provide a place where people can host their mods where the community can download, vote, donate (or not) and in the process maybe take a very small cut from the community developers ...

 

side note ... making mods for money ... how is it so difficult to figure this out ... lets say I post a mod (full DLC) then I say ... buy it now for $20 or whatever price or Donate or if you do not have the money go ahead and download it for free but go to my YouTube page/Website and Subscribe, like, and watch a few of my videos that are monetized and support me that way ... so I can get better gear and make better content ...

 

easy stuff really ...

Edited March 19, 2015 by SilentZen

[lordburnch]

In response to post #23596219. #23596384 is also a reply to the same post.

Speaking of theft, there are two mods currently uploaded without permission onto the Workshop.

Ice Blade of The Monarch: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409540494&searchtext=

And A Matter of Time: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=409779585&searchtext=

This just strengthens my belief that paid for mods will end up destroying the community.

[RoyBatterian]

I agree that this is a questionable move. Allowing us as modders to make a little income on a DONATION basis is a fine idea. But turning the modding community into a cut-throat business is a terrible idea that will serve to not only divide the community further, but also invite lawsuits, copyright squatters, and a plethora of other undesirable nonsense already evident in other industries. Modding is a HOBBY not an industry and should not be turned into an industry. As has been stated by others, the community has already become toxic to some degree, and such a move will only make it more so.

 

There's a big difference between the types of mods this community creates and a hat or a skin which is purely aesthetic. What valve has done in terms of allowing the hats for TF2 and custom weapons skins for CS:GO is on a whole different level than the content mods made by the "regular" modding community. The stuff that is being sold there largely is no different than custom shop items available in various MMO games.

 

I for one am not a fan of this idea at all, modding should be a labor of love and a hobby, not a greed driven competition. If you're a modder and you wish for greed driven competition, then start or get a job at a game studio and play with the big boys.

[me3deager]

Thanks for letting us continue to do this for free. That's the fun of PC gaming. Free mods!

[forli]

Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim: all great games.

Great because Bethesda made an amazing work, because you can play for hours, and because you can create new content (the best aspect).

 

Modders can spare their time to improve the game in many ways. And we don't do it for money. We're not the developers and I think we don't even have the rights to sell a mod for their product.

 

Also, if a mod unveil a bug hidden in the engine, a modder can't fix it. If people pay for it, they get something they can't use and sometimes they need to turn tables to obtain a refund (and usually they only receive a "x€ discount for the next purchase", something I don't want to comment...).

 

I like the free mods + OPTIONAL donation system, like the one currently used by the Nexus.

[EvilDeadAsh34]

In response to post #23594324. #23595389, #23595539, #23596279 are all replies on the same post.

Yeah, i know. But mods and fixes are like that. Most of the time they work but sometimes you get a schmuck like me that get's all the problems, lol.

[tamikonelf]

I think this is just a start for steam to charge people for stuff, its like they are being slowley taken over by EA, if this is a success then i can see steam adding a subscription service just to use steam, people will pay it EA have proven people will pay for anything. this is a slippery slope and it wont end well, nexus is good in keeping things as they are, i have made a few mods myself and i would never think of charging people for them, i make them to add to the community and to pay back for all the mods i downloaded, its like ok i download some mods but to pay back i make some.

[RichardPellets]

It would be a wonderful thing for modders who have created mods that none of us can play the games anymore without to be compensated for their time and effort. I'd love for some modders to make it a career if that is their wish to do so. It would however, be horrible, if running 300 mods for Skyrim cost me say... $1,000 to do so... Even at a dollar a piece that's $300. I realize that not all mods will be allowed for purchase but I can't imagine they would only cost $1 each either. And what about update cost? How many times have we all re-downloaded the same mod? What if the author decides that his or her update is large enough to call it a new mod and people still want it so they vote it up and the dev's accept? At that point it wouldn't just hurt modding, it will murder it. Sure, we can just say, screw you! You want tto charge us again for the same mod? We won't buy it then. But then a new issues arises. Resentment towards modders that try to make a living from it (when there should not be), resentment towards the Dev's (which there should be at that point if it came) and lack of desire to play the game (which would be horrible for the community). I hope that the price, if this happens, is put into perspective regarding the buyers, how much the community supports the actual purchase of the original game and dlc as is, and how much the community expands the life of these games. Whatever happens, all we can do is hope for the best and be positive until positivity is no longer warranted.

 

-Michael

gamerpoets

Edited March 19, 2015 by RichardPellets

[chaptermaster21]

In response to post #23597434.

Yep, you know how long the gamers have been trying to fight the milking of their games with paid dlcs and stuff, but the problem is its starting to no longer be a developer problem. The gaming community itself started to contribute to the problem taking your example about EA proving that people will pay for anything is a huge indicator. If modding starts to be done for money then why are we even fighting the dlc milking that the gaming companies are trying to do in the first place if the modders themselves start doing it.

[Guinefort1]

I really don’t know what to make of all of this. In an ideal world, I wouldn’t care if other modders wanted to make money from their content. None of my business, they can do what they want. Modders have been selling their work on an informal basis for years now, I imagine. Ideally, other modders selling their work does nothing to infringe upon my ability to make and publish my own work for free. I used to practice pottery in high school, and the existence of professional potters selling their art out to the world did nothing to diminish or interfere with my own work. In other words, it’s not the principle that worries me, but the potential consequences.

 

I agree with nivea, in that mod thievery makes me very nervous about this. The modding community already has a HUGE problem with stolen content being taken, “edited” (to put it politely), and redistributed every which way. And with the promise of a quick buck, a lot of these ethically bankrupt modders are going to jump at the chance to monetize off of other people’s free work. And unless these publisher-run workshops have really good systems for reporting and removing stolen content, then this is going to get really ugly. And the legal implications are huge. If game publishers are willing to sell user made content, they are going to have to be able to handle the potential bad PR and legal ramifications of indirectly monetizing stolen work. Steam is already notorious for its often poor handling of mod thievery, and that stuff is free!

 

The potential legal consequences aside, something about mods for money, as it relates to my stuff, just rubs me the wrong way. Due to various philosophical reasons, I make all of my stuff free to public revision. Translations? Sure. Loading onto other sites? Have at it. Monetizing off of my work? Big no. Way back when I first went public, I started including a “no commercial distribution allowed” clause in my stuff because I saw other modders doing it and thought it would be wise to emulate the more experienced and cover all of my bases. But I never imagined that modding for money would become a potential big business. Me and my puny imagination.

 

Here comes some real poo-stirring. This potential modding workshop thing reminds me a lot of the monetization of YouTube that has unfolded over the past several years. Many people now make their living off of making and posting videos on video-sharing sites like YouTube and Blip. And people making money by video-sharing doesn’t, in principle, harm people who post videos purely as a hobby. In theory, people modding as a job isn’t really any different. But if the controversies that have arisen in the YouTube community over the past several years have indicated, monetization has a lot of unpleasant consequences. In theory, these publisher-hosted workshops shouldn’t threaten places like the Nexus, as these places would no doubt host different products. If a publisher-hosted workshop sells mod A, which does A, and the Nexus offers mod B, which does B, then there isn’t any business competition. Mods A and B do different things and since B is free, it’s not taking potential capital away from mod A. Or at least, that is what I hope would happen, given my limited knowledge of economics. I really have no idea where this workshop trend is going to lead. Good or bad, it’s coming. There will, no doubt, be some positive consequences. And there will, no doubt, be some negative ones. We are just going to have to ride the storm as best as we can.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Guinefort1