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Valve/Bethesda announce paid modding for Skyrim, more games to follow

Dark0ne

By Dark0ne
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badiyee85 Apprentice

badiyee85

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1. When modders "sell" mods, we users becomes customers. We expect things to run PERFECT on day 1. What are the customers' rights? I don't know, especially as I'm not from the USA.

 

2. If a modder sells bad mods, expect 50% of their revenue to be wasted on PR and HR where they'll have to hire people to explain why their mods are broken, etc.

 

3. Selling mods is a bane to the industry as a whole. Look at Ubifail and their AC series, you'll see that the pattern is replicated with the Steam-Bethesda model. Except, the users and modders do all the hard work, and they earn the lion's share shaking their legs.

 

4. In the case of SKYRIM, SKSE, Mod Organizer, BOSS, LOOT, and slider base mods should license themselves and say "we don't allow those who sell mods to USE our products". THIS IS A MUST. Not sure about other games though.

 

5. No guarantee in quality despite paid.

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TheSovietPenguin Rookie

TheSovietPenguin

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A few interesting caveats about this situation:

 

-Modding is a highly competitive scene, so there isn't much stopping people from deciding not to pay the money (however small the price), and instead looking for an alternative. For example, the "Purity" mod that is currently part of the workshop launch bundle is very similar to Climates of Tamriel and ENB, so what's stopping me as a mod user to go install one of the free alternatives? A short amount of time, and little else. Another example: iNeed. What's stopping me from downloading the slightly older, free version, or Realistic Needs and Diseases or Imp's More Complex Needs? Again, very little.

 

-Subscription rates for paid mods aren't particularly high. Chesko's Arissa mod has only .006% downloads compared to it's overall number of views, compared to roughly 14% downloads-to-views on the nexus; the free version. Even if we multiply the steam version's statistics by 13 (representing months since Arissa's first release on nexus), it still doesn't come near the free version. Additionally, what's stopping me from downloading a similar mod such as Vilja or Sofia? Not much, and this is a chesko mod we're talking about here. It's the same for most paid mods on the workshop. Point is, these mods are competing with free, and it's pretty damn hard to compete with free.

 

-What's stopping mod authors from pulling mods from the nexus and limiting them to the pay-walled workshop? Not much. Take Skyforge Weapons, for instance. The mod was available on nexus a week ago, and now it isn't. It is now an "unreleased" (for lack of a better term) state on the workshop, behind a $1.99 USD paywall. Is a weapon pack worth $1.99 to the average consumer? I don't have the statistics to confirm that.

 

-Valve's handling of this new system was awful. Seriously. It's a PR disaster. The last thing you as a publisher or developer is the entire modding community raging at you, and that is exactly what is happening right now. Valve probably should have made a news announcement about this far sooner and allowed people to think about it. Instead, they just quickly sprung this whole thing on everyone and invited an internet riot. Riots aren't good for business.

 

-A donation system would have been far more ideal. Mainly because from a consumer standpoint, spending money is bad. Therefore, people will always look for the cheapest option for the best quality that matches their needs. This is why the 99-cent stores exist. However, if Valve had set this up a donation system for mods, spending money for these mod authors would be seen as a good thing - a righteous and generous use of the consumer's money instead of a flat paywall. Although, Valve likely wouldn't be able to justify taking 75% of the profits in that kind of system. Furthermore, I don't know the overall effectiveness of a donations system, so take that as you will.

 

Overall, I'd say it isn't a very good idea for mod-makers to put their mods behind a paywall, because someone could just download a comparable mod for free and not think twice about it. Chesko's "Early Access Modding" system seems like the best alternative, but he's still splitting his followers and reducing mod feedback. I could go deeper into the impact of this on the modding culture (and it is severe), but this post is alread a great wall of text, so I won't.

 

If you've read this far, then I congradulate you for reading through my endless ramblings.

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dinofinder Newbie

dinofinder

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While I may not be happy with how Valve is going about it, I do support mod makers like Chesko and others who have been, and still will be, giving us all great mods to improve on our overall game experiences. I would gladly pay for some of the mods on there just to help give these mod makers even in the slightest bit to show them that I am grateful and appreciate their work for what they have done.
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Tantalus010 Enthusiast

Tantalus010

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In response to post #24574734. #24574879, #24574969, #24574999, #24575194, #24575309 are all replies on the same post.


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Thank you, man.

As someone who mostly downloads but has made a few mods of his own (though none anywhere near as good as yours), I am also against selling my work, and I'm even more against someone else profiting off of it. It's very shady to me for Valve and Bethesda to take a (majority, even) cut of someone else's work. Yes, the mods wouldn't be possible without Bethesda's tools and wouldn't be sold on the marketplace without Valve. However, you don't see the clerk at an artist's shop asking for a cut of the proceeds of every work of art created with one of their paintbrushes. That's just lunacy. If Bethesda wanted to charge for the Creation Kit, I would understand and be okay with that - but taking a cut of every mod sold is flat out wrong.
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Explosive196 Apprentice

Explosive196

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In response to post #24574924. #24574934, #24575224, #24575324 are all replies on the same post.


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That's pretty much my point. What's to stop greedy modders from pulling their mods from the Nexus to make some bucks on Steam? The author of Wet and Cold is no longer supporting what he has here, who's next? Edited by Explosive196
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Reaper0021 Collaborator

Reaper0021

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In response to post #24571929. #24572044, #24572064, #24572299, #24573824, #24573909, #24574109, #24574289, #24574414, #24574694, #24574724, #24574819, #24574964, #24575344, #24575629 are all replies on the same post.


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I'm on YOUR side. I agree. Modders if they want money and deserve it and CAN get it....okay. I just think better ideas are abounding about how to do it man. Much better ones that won't encourage STEAM/Valve to keep taking every damn chance to milk us for every last damn $$$ we got/get/will get.
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badiyee85 Apprentice

badiyee85

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In response to post #24571614. #24572234, #24572374, #24572469, #24572589, #24572669, #24572829, #24572854, #24572864, #24572984, #24572994, #24573004, #24573029, #24573229, #24573324, #24573399, #24573439, #24573784, #24573939, #24574029, #24574129, #24574984, #24575109, #24575614 are all replies on the same post.


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signed
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guiaugu132 Rookie

guiaugu132

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In response to post #24571614. #24572234, #24572374, #24572469, #24572589, #24572669, #24572829, #24572854, #24572864, #24572984, #24572994, #24573004, #24573029, #24573229, #24573324, #24573399, #24573439, #24573784, #24573939, #24574029, #24574129, #24574984, #24575109, #24575614, #24575844 are all replies on the same post.


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10,232
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SquirrellyOtter Newbie

SquirrellyOtter

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In response to post #24574834.


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This.

It's hard to deny mod authors some form of compensation for their work... but a lot of the time, some mod creators just did it for themselves and uploaded it because their friends wanted a piece of that action; there's little-to-no follow-up support for some of those mods.

I don't think this paid-mods feature is going to be overly successful because 1) Valve is going to take a huge slice of the money, and 2) some mod authors (of all quality ranges) are going to mod for free. And there's nothing Valve can do about that.

All this is moot to me though because my copy of Skyrim is permanently borked, CTD's five min after game start without fail. So I'm on my way out anyway. S a d b o y s
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