Paradosi Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) There's so many things wrong with this that I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the rationale. How are they going to deal with incompatibility issues down the line? Or outdated mods once an update comes out? Or just plain buggy/broken mods? Or mods that just don't work with other mods? Or mods that rely on other mods to even work? I could name a million different problems that could occur, but chances are Valve is just going to shrug their shoulders, slap on some shades, and say 'deal with it'. Then there's the fact that they're taking a 75% cut, which is just bizarre. What magical service does Valve provide that they think they're entitled to 75% of whatever potential profit(which isn't going to be much in the first place as their best hope is pretty much rich kids starting up babby's first skyrim run)? A donation option would have made so much more f***ing sense, but I guess Valve prefers a shortsighted cash grab attempt to a long term investment plan. Edited April 24, 2015 by Paradosi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiiragiTsukasa Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Steam shocked me with this poor decision, obviously corporate greed at its finest. I think everyone has fine points, should modders be rewarded? Should mods be free? My two-cents is that the current system we had was perfect, all mods was FREE yet the mods that really stood out people could at least donate, which in turn inspired people to create more elaborate mods and total conversions and to keep the current ones as bug free as possible, the system worked - and valve comes along and destroys all that in one day. The current system which steam is offering really is completely in the opposite direction to what the spirit of modding is all about. After all, modding is a hobby - nobody here can say that they create mods purely for self profit or as a job ~ Does that mean people who have spent hundreds of hours working on some of the more famous ES mods over the years shouldn't be rewarded for their dedication to modding? Donating was the perfect solution, but it seems that valve disagrees since obviously they don't profit from it - you could argue that it costs them to host the mods if you really wanted too, but that's beside the point. The other huge point is that the system right now actively encourages mod theft, people can upload anything they want and charge money for something they haven't created, or make some extremely minor changes and then upload! Right now, I'm willing to bet I could download a random mod here, change the name of the mod and upload it to steam and monetize it! And this is most likely happening right now ~ how many weazels right now are downloading massive amounts of mods, altering them slightly in the creation toolkit for the sole purpose of uploading to steam as a paid mod? The point is that since mods came into existence they have been free, they have been created by enthusiasts in their spare time to make the game better, or more fun. At the end of the day, a paid mod is just DLC nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinnytecboy Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Personally I don't think Modders should get paid at all.. Firstly: Once you start charging for a product, that product falls under consumer rights.. (Do mods come with a 12 MONTH Guarantee?). Do Modders really want their faults exposed? If a particular mod is a good idea that isn't so well executed.. at least people forgive flaws when it's free.As for the so called "perfect" mods..meh we can live without them just as much as we can live without truly using Hearthfire (that dlc is like Sims, I mean, why?) secondly:Most Modders make mods for themselves, usually because they have an urge to make something better or to make themselves more popular with girls ;) Joking aside, I suspect that the majority of the modding community make mods because it is an obsession and the thought of any kind of monetary gain is/was furthest from their minds.. Of course that can always change Oh one last thing... Steam was never about community, it was always about selling games. The first thing you see when it loads is advertisements. Long live the Nexus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeastGevaudan Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I think the biggest problem with Chesko's take on it is when he said "The introduction of paid mods does not mean that demands can be made" ... that's just WRONG! Sorry, but if we are paying for something, demands will DEFINITELY be made. Once we pay for something we will demand the modder be held to the same responsibilities as a developer making DLC. If that level is not met then they will receive bad reviews and lose said money, just like developers do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiiragiTsukasa Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I think the biggest problem with Chesko's take on it is when he said "The introduction of paid mods does not mean that demands can be made" ... that's just WRONG! Sorry, but if we are paying for something, demands will DEFINITELY be made. Once we pay for something we will demand the modder be held to the same responsibilities as a developer making DLC. If that level is not met then they will receive bad reviews and lose said money, just like developers do. Yeah, after all - with official DLC you expect it to be fully compatible with everything. Mods on the other hand, are finicky at best. How many times have people lost everything because of incompatible mods? Once you start charging for mods, then the level of quality and compatibility has to become on par with official DLC, and how many mod creators can meet that level of expertise? Regardless, it becomes a moot point anyway because I don't see many people buying into mods on steam. Worse case scenario here, I see a new avenue for piracy to appear and I don't know what is more scary, the fact that we now live in a era of paid mods, or the fact we could start seeing people pirating mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setupexec Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) Mod piracy has been happening for a while. There are many people on steam that download mods from the nexus and uploads them on the workshop. Back then the problem was authorship. Now with the addition of paid mods things will be a hell of a lot messier. Edited April 23, 2015 by setupexec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiiragiTsukasa Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Mod piracy has been happening for a while. There are many people on steam that download mods from the nexus and uploads them on the workshop. Back then the problem was authorship. Now with the addition of paid mods things will be a hell of a lot messier. Well, thats what I ment. I know about people pirating mods on steam and claiming ownership. But before today, the issue wasn't nearly as bad. Now that money is involved, the entire situation is going to turn ugly and nasty. The other problem is that, we all know paid mods are not going to stop at Skyrim - we all know that this is valve testing the waters, Its not going to be long before we see the flood gates open to paid mods for Fallout series or CounterStrike series, and future ES titles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setupexec Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Mod piracy has been happening for a while. There are many people on steam that download mods from the nexus and uploads them on the workshop. Back then the problem was authorship. Now with the addition of paid mods things will be a hell of a lot messier. Well, thats what I ment. I know about people pirating mods on steam and claiming ownership. But before today, the issue wasn't nearly as bad. Now that money is involved, the entire situation is going to turn ugly and nasty. The other problem is that, we all know paid mods are not going to stop at Skyrim - we all know that this is valve testing the waters, Its not going to be long before we see the flood gates open to paid mods for Fallout series or CounterStrike series, and future ES titles. Yeah, I agree. On another note a while ago somebody uploaded to the nexus the "Watcher Staff" that was part of the "debut pack". When I checked it the supposed author's name was composed of the same name that it has in its steam workshop (Jeremy Klein). And now it is under moderation. It could be that the original author decided to upload the mod on nexus as a way to extend an olive branch (hopefully). Or it could be that somebody that bought the mod uploaded it. And that is setting up a dangerous precedent in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setupexec Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Now the Shadow Scale Set has also been uploaded. And so it begins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fnhatic Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 If Valve doesn't put the kaibosh on this, which they probably won't because they're evil money-grubbing f*#@ers who don't give a s#*! about gamers and haven't since 2007 when they decided to just refuse to work on the promised Episode 3 (and yes, it was promised), the only way to kill this is to make the pay-for workshop unusable. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=430858236&searchtext= This guy has the right idea. 1) Release mods that seem functional, but carry 'logic bombs' in them that corrupt and destroy save games when you try to remove it, or do something like contain script timers with no stoppages so they eventually bloat and make the game unstable. 2) Create fake mods that seem amazing, but are locked in some fashion until the 24 hour 'refund' timer elapses. Tie it to endgame content, or simply put an in-game timer that locks it. People who are buying on the Workshop are probably not familiar with the console and Creation Kit. When they access the content, they find out that it's one really neat area where you took your screenshots, and then a few rooms of untextured, half-assed garbage. 3) Maliciously hand out reviews that make the 'popularity' rating put garbage, terrible ripoff mods at the top. Good mods should be downvoted by EVERYONE to sink them in the list. s#*! mods like the one I linked should be sent to the top. If we fill the pay-for Workshop with terrible game-ruining content, it undermines all faith anyone has in the system, and customers will be turned away from it. Valve will have to deal with the fallout of people's games being corrupted by shitty modding, and the 'modders' run away with the cash. Sometimes the only way to fight evil is with evil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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