Paid mods for skyrim workshop on steam

[PeggleFrank]

I don't really mind. I'm not mad at Isoku in any way, simply because he has the free versions of his mods still available on both the Steam Workshop and the Nexus, all of which are very obviously labeled as being free.

 

Mods don't update often. Before I did a clean install, I had a bunch of mods, and, from what I found, only 2 of them actually had updates in about a year's time. The apocalypse spell package and a spell combo mod were updated. That's it.

 

Paying $5 for Wet and Cold and being unable to use a free version would duly upset me, but I can just use the free version. Perhaps the paid version was rewritten, perhaps it runs better, perhaps it adds upper-class golden chains that dance upon my ears with the shifting movement of the wind with full HDT support, but if I don't care about those features, then I can just use the free version.

 

The two largest negatives of this system are, in my opinion, the fact that mod authors can just choose not to support the free versions of their mods and stop updating them with bug fixes, opting for the paid versions instead; and that, as far as I know, mods can't be labeled as "Pay What You Want/Free." It's either you release your mod for free, or you sell it for 0.01-#$. Again, I could be wrong on this, but I do believe there's no way to make a mod free while keeping a "Pay What You Want" drop-down box.

 

There are many weak-minded people who will be exploited by this system. A friend of mine (who is no longer a friend) used to be obsessed with CS:GO skins; she would ask me and her friends for up to hundreds of dollars in exchange for favors (not the favors you might be thinking of) so that she could buy CS:GO skins, which, supposedly, made her feel like she played better. All of the money from her job went straight to CS:GO skins, unless she desperately needed food or had to pay the bills. This sort of system would draw her right in; it's simply depressing knowing that someone, somewhere, is going to be tempted to spend money on a tiny mod that might not even be compatible or safe to use (dirty edits). Most of these paid mods have comments turned off, so there is absolutely no way for you to know if there's a serious incompatibility/conflict with a mod that has disabled comments without looking to another site or contacting the mod author themselves.

 

Overall, I don't think this is a step in the right direction, but it's a risk that I would presume Valve is willing to take and can handle if it goes wrong.

 

 

On a side note, people are stupid and will copy/paste whatever they read on the internet if what they read sums up their own thoughts. I don't think these people should be banned necessarily (like what was stated in the recent announcement on Nexus about paid mods), but rather informed and perhaps given a read of an as un-biased as possible comparison between free mods and paid mods. Just hearing "paid mods" is enough to get some peoples' blood boiling, even if they don't fully understand what's going on. Myself, I was completely against this system, but after I looked into a few more things (such as the refund system, which is actually, for the most part, a pretty new concept for Steam), I've changed my views and am now more neutral towards it.

 

I don't feel as if the paid workshop is a move by Valve to make competition with the Nexus, but it could very well be that way. Greedy mod authors will try to get money for terrible mods; I'm not talking Wet and Cold, I'm talking things like simple texture replacers. Imagine if Eli's mods all costed $0.25; I'm not saying Eli would do that, but if they did, that would be extremely greedy. Paid content on the Nexus could be possible, but I'm not sure it's actually worth it, because it probably won't be able to link into your Steam wallet, and dedicating money to a non-Steam account to buy mods for games on Steam is just... odd. Generally, you'll almost always have at least a dollar in your steam account (unless you somehow dry it out completely by purchasing trading cards or something), so having mods that cost less than a dollar is very tempting. On the other hand, mods like Wet and Cold for $5 is very off-putting, no matter how much work was put into them.

 

 

I've rambled on for a bit, but I think this is an interesting move, while not necessarily being good or bad. Greedy mod authors will try to get money for their mods; bad mod authors will make bad mods. We already have bad mod authors, but greedy mod authors aren't possible with the previous, free system. I doubt many mod authors will convert their mods to pay-only, but I wouldn't be surprised if some new mod authors popped up, releasing tiny mods for small amounts of money.

 

The most important thing, though, is to stay calm. We must wait this out. Try not to make assumptions. Try not to threaten any mod authors that are hosting paid mods. Try not to start riots. Relax, and wait awhile; we haven't seen what the in-practice effects of this system are yet.

[notmyhome]

I've currently got about 2000 mods laying around on my hard drive. If I had had to pay for those, I maybe would have played and tested more than 250-300 of them.

So I'm not totally opposed. But I feel like Steam is really handling this the wrong way.

 

Stuff like disabled comments is a no-go. I'll never buy anything without collecting some information about it beforehand.

The topic of free assets has been brought up already.

 

Some people are worried about more "low-effort" mods being made for the quick coin; I'd say it can't get any worse than that statue retexture madness last summer.

 

I'd say I completely understand and support any modder who put up their work for sale on the workshop, but I'd never buy anything off there. However, if they were to put it on the Nexus and enable donations, I'd probably send some money their way. Without Valve taking a share.

[Burnout122812]

Here the thing...I was never mad at the modders. They have every right to do what they wish with their mods. Share them, don't share them, charge for them. Its all up to them. What ticks me off is Bethesda and Valve cashing in on this! Clearly they have seen what the modding community (and not just Skyrim's but other games as well) can do and how the communities goes nuts for them! They are trying to capitalize on mod authors hard work and compensating them barely scraps. Taking majority of the profits for just hosting the mods. And here we have Nexus (i'm sure they make something off of ad rev and pop-ups) and they don't charge diddly for mods. Modders can ask for donations here which I have donated in the past before...several times. Greed is ugly. But its more ugly at the expense of someone else's hard work.

[Robpyne17]

there is a petition for those who want to sign it https://www.change.org/p/valve-remove-the-paid-content-of-the-steam-workshop

[bben46]

 

Stuff like disabled comments is a no-go.

If you had read some of the comments before they were disabled you might not think so - they were downright nasty. Filled with profanity and even death threats. I expect them to eventually reopen the comments, but possibly with a moderation delay to stop the really obnoxious commenters who really had nothing to contribute beyond vitriol.

[BigBizkit]

Eventually the outrage will cease, the effects though are bound to be rather bad.

 

Now, I totally oppose entitled people who think mods should be free because they are not made by professionals and therefore no "real" work etc. I do believe a mod is worth something. And I do believe it would be fair for a modder to be rewarded for their work.

 

THe reality though is, that this system will not help modders get their well earned rewards, but rather only 25% of those, and further cause a bunch of problems e.g regarding assets / asset sharing and outright theft of intellectual property.

 

The refund system (24 hours) might "work" if you dl and try an armor mod or something. But a more involved overhaul mod etc. might cause problems well after the refund period has expired.

 

Should this system become successful and spread, it will cater only to the most casual of mod users e.g. people who keep their Skyrim close to vanilla with some retextures and 3-10 gameplay mods.

 

The full effects are likely only to be observed for an entirely new game e.g. TES VI that has payed modding enabled from day one.

 

As of now I prefer the Nexus system with totally optional donations. I would argue in favour of changing the Nexus TOS as to become more lenient regarding the mentioning of the donation button, though.

[DDProductions83]

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65022/?

 

 

 

I thought about charging for it.. but then I took a arrow in the coinpurse

[Woltane]

I don't post often but I was here when thenexus was launched but I just never registered at the time. I played the first The Elder Scrolls games until Morrowind came out which was the successful point when thenexus became quite popular.

 

Modders never made mods expecting money back in the days I still hope it's the same old concept here. Steam is using that fact that hard work does deserve rewards. But they're twisting it into something that benefits THEM primarily. Not the modders, or the players.

 

Modding is a hobby. What valve is doing is barging in and treating it like a business. I did something so I demand pay for it !

 

If you want to do game development for money, then go for it. I'll do my job and waste hundreds of hours writing blogs and reading books. Because I like it. Not because I demand to be paid.

 

See the reality is beside of all of this, Bethesda provided you tools (for free) to make these mods not the other way around.

 

I think the current system is flawed and broken and will not benefit the community. They could have added a simple donation button or support function for the modders who wish to receive benefits for the hard work.

 

It wasn't already hard enough to deal with rippers and thieves who steal art and other mods assets now we have to deal with them while they try to make money off the modders back and on top of that you have despicable modders who try to make money while using other modders assets without pointing any names.

 

This situation is an arrow in the knee for the modding community. If you want to help then do not buy mods from the workshop.

 

My 2 cents.

Edited April 23, 2015 by reviel

[Burnout122812]

Blacklake, a.k.a Dreogan...took his Skyforge Shields and Weapons mods off the Nexus and put them up for paid items on Steam (under review). Now THIS is what also ticks me off. He didn't update them. He didn't do anything with the mods. They are the same mod files from 2 years ago. Now he feels he deserves compensation for his work cause at the time he was unemployed when he was working on them. Is he serious?!?! I know modders work hard on their mods...some even sacrifice a normal life for a few weeks to a few months. Some are unemployed. I get that. Life sucks sometimes. But its not about people wanting free stuff....its about being fair. No one asked him to work on it or even to share it with the community. He made the decision to spend time to create the mods. Probably did it because he loved it. Now he feels he is owned some compensation? That is just wrong and very shady. Clearly this is the ugly side of the pay mod problem. Not hating on the man because he's entitled to do what he likes with his mods. But to make us feel that he is owed something? I don't know about you but that is just straight up bull$#!+!!!

[fragsnippy]

So what about these pay mods that depend on SKY UI and SKSE. Arent these mods authors using the SKY UI and SKSE authors hardwork without their persmission to get paid. So the mods authors of SKSE and SKYUI should be compensated because mods like the Wet and COld mod need SKSe and SKYUI to work. The author of Wet and Cold should give a percentage to the the authors of SKYUI and SKSE because he is profitting of their work. Unless he creates a new version that doesnt use SKYUI and SKSE. I have close to 250 mods right now. Imagine if i have to pay at least a dollar per mod.