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

[Schmornoff]

In response to post #24586549. #24586889, #24586954, #24587054, #24587239 are all replies on the same post.

Schmornoff wrote:

Chris1986 wrote: I agree that there are a-lot of mod authors who see it as a hobby or pastime and would not charge for their mods ever. I believe that there are people who put enough time and effort into their creations to warrant a payment if they want. There will always be lots of good mod authors willing to provide high quality free mods, but I don't think its inherently wrong to ask for payment for your work.

I think the REAL issue here is the fact that it is now in Valve and Bethesda's interest to discourage free mod sites like the Nexus. If there are awesome mods available on the Nexus for free then that will be direct competition for their income from the steam workshop. Why pay for a mod when there may be a similar one for free here?

I have a horrible feeling that the next game (Fallout or TES) will have exclusive Steam Workshop modding and will not be compatible with mods installed by 3rd party software (NMM or MO for example). If that turns out to be the case then we can expect a good number of the "essential" best mods to be behind a pay-wall.

Maybe I'm catastrophizing but I see this as a step towards a more closed and suspicious modding community where people will feel reluctant to share work or give permission for their work to be altered by patches and merged mods because of the question of payment.

It may be that we've had it too good for too long and that any type of wildly successful creative scene like this is a time bomb waiting for someone to monetize it. That is the nature of capitalism after all; see what is popular and figure out how to make money from it.

I hope I am wrong.

Schmornoff wrote: If your forecast should turn out true I can promise you this much "we" the Modders wont tollerate practices like that. I hope I can speak for everyone on this case :)
I wouldnt Mod for a game if it forces you to pay for my stuff and works with methods working against free comunitys.
This would mean the next FallOut or Tes will have basicly no mods :D or no mods worth buying and this again will conclue in the FallOut or Tes after that beeing free again. So dont worry ;)

Edit: and would mean Skyrim will probabily become one of the most modded games ever :D cause we will all just wait for the next free version to come out and continue working on skyrim. Skyrim is a great skeleton and their are grafic mods out there making it to look better then any game avalible :D

boulegue wrote: maybe nothing will change for free modders like yourself but in addition to you guys we get professional studios or new young talent that do modding as a career

Chris1986 wrote: That gives me a little hope. As I said that is my worst case scenario and I really hope that it does not come to that. As a player who regularly has 50+ mods active I would not be able to maintain that if even 1/4 of them were paid for I don't earn that much and I chop and change mods very often depending on my mood and the play-through I'm doing.

Even if only 10% of the mods I used were paid, I don't think I could afford it :(

thats exactly what I mean I would love to make this my fulltime job with good quality conctent equal to or better then actual dlc's. So all in all this could turn out awsome if you take your "job" on modding serious.
What I think scares the most people off is the forced method it comes around with. I think most people wont mind to pay 50cents or a Dollar or whatever for realy good quality content extending their fun ingame for hours. But they will very much mind paying a Dollar for crap. But if you upload crap and want cash for it it will result in shitstorms which nobody realy likes I can imagine and arent good for sales either ;) so this will balance itself out.

[MrSpanky]

In response to post #24586579. #24586614 is also a reply to the same post.

hafizlordfeast wrote:

boulegue wrote: fores said that he dont want cheesko to use his assets and cheesko imediately pulled down the mod.... that is a prime example of the system working

Its also a prime example of modders not reading (or caring) about the conditions asked by the authors of assets they use.

[Schmornoff]

In response to post #24586549. #24586889, #24586954, #24587054, #24587239, #24587269 are all replies on the same post.

Schmornoff wrote:

Chris1986 wrote: I agree that there are a-lot of mod authors who see it as a hobby or pastime and would not charge for their mods ever. I believe that there are people who put enough time and effort into their creations to warrant a payment if they want. There will always be lots of good mod authors willing to provide high quality free mods, but I don't think its inherently wrong to ask for payment for your work.

I think the REAL issue here is the fact that it is now in Valve and Bethesda's interest to discourage free mod sites like the Nexus. If there are awesome mods available on the Nexus for free then that will be direct competition for their income from the steam workshop. Why pay for a mod when there may be a similar one for free here?

I have a horrible feeling that the next game (Fallout or TES) will have exclusive Steam Workshop modding and will not be compatible with mods installed by 3rd party software (NMM or MO for example). If that turns out to be the case then we can expect a good number of the "essential" best mods to be behind a pay-wall.

Maybe I'm catastrophizing but I see this as a step towards a more closed and suspicious modding community where people will feel reluctant to share work or give permission for their work to be altered by patches and merged mods because of the question of payment.

It may be that we've had it too good for too long and that any type of wildly successful creative scene like this is a time bomb waiting for someone to monetize it. That is the nature of capitalism after all; see what is popular and figure out how to make money from it.

I hope I am wrong.

Schmornoff wrote: If your forecast should turn out true I can promise you this much "we" the Modders wont tollerate practices like that. I hope I can speak for everyone on this case :)
I wouldnt Mod for a game if it forces you to pay for my stuff and works with methods working against free comunitys.
This would mean the next FallOut or Tes will have basicly no mods :D or no mods worth buying and this again will conclue in the FallOut or Tes after that beeing free again. So dont worry ;)

Edit: and would mean Skyrim will probabily become one of the most modded games ever :D cause we will all just wait for the next free version to come out and continue working on skyrim. Skyrim is a great skeleton and their are grafic mods out there making it to look better then any game avalible :D

boulegue wrote: maybe nothing will change for free modders like yourself but in addition to you guys we get professional studios or new young talent that do modding as a career

Chris1986 wrote: That gives me a little hope. As I said that is my worst case scenario and I really hope that it does not come to that. As a player who regularly has 50+ mods active I would not be able to maintain that if even 1/4 of them were paid for I don't earn that much and I chop and change mods very often depending on my mood and the play-through I'm doing.

Even if only 10% of the mods I used were paid, I don't think I could afford it :(

Schmornoff wrote: thats exactly what I mean I would love to make this my fulltime job with good quality conctent equal to or better then actual dlc's. So all in all this could turn out awsome if you take your "job" on modding serious.
What I think scares the most people off is the forced method it comes around with. I think most people wont mind to pay 50cents or a Dollar or whatever for realy good quality content extending their fun ingame for hours. But they will very much mind paying a Dollar for crap. But if you upload crap and want cash for it it will result in shitstorms which nobody realy likes I can imagine and arent good for sales either ;) so this will balance itself out.

@chris
you probably mean mods like wet and cold at the moment charing insane 5 Dollars :D thats loco dont know whats up with that guy but he will change his mind sooner or later.
As I said I would do it like this:
- I would upload every version till the final version for free (mean already good versions with minor bugs)
- Then I would upload the final Version for 50cents - 1 Dollar
- If you dont want to pay for the final version just get the "0.99" which is basicly the same just with a few very small bugs
- If you like what I've done want to show endorsment and the final version go get if for a Dollar :D

Everyone would benifit from a moddel like that because it would encourage me to polish a mod out to perfection knowing I can make money of it.

[Veskoslav]

I know it's in the rules of the Nexus. But it would be nice take those paid mods, copy them and put it here for free? A "modders", what they are doubling moddes as Wet and Cold and gave an update in a higher version in Steam than here, blow up and forbid them entry here?

Edited April 24, 2015 by Veskoslav

[boulegue]

In response to post #24587404.

Veskoslav wrote:

edit:
cant delete or dont know how just had a translation posted earlier Edited April 24, 2015 by boulegue

[Laureolus]

In response to post #24586579. #24586614, #24587344 are all replies on the same post.

hafizlordfeast wrote:

boulegue wrote: fores said that he dont want cheesko to use his assets and cheesko imediately pulled down the mod.... that is a prime example of the system working

MrSpanky wrote: Its also a prime example of modders not reading (or caring) about the conditions asked by the authors of assets they use.

"It the system working."

Yep, taking others work and hoping no one notices.

[testiger2]

Lets face it:

We can go rampage all we want about how Valve/Beth are greedy or blame modders who see a quick buck and turn their back on the free community BUT we are not gonna change Steam or its new model to grab money. We simply won't. Whining never changed anything.

 

At the end of the day we the community as a whole have to show some spine. Every one of is is responsible for what we do and how we do it.

All we can do against such methods is A: Show solidarity and B: Make the free modding community on the Nexus more attractive for modders who may want to earn some revenue(wich is totally understandable imho).

 

The Nexus Sites are far superior to the workshop in terms of general functionality and control over what you do. I doubt many people will choose steam over nexus if there is money to be made on the nexus even if it may be less. At least thats how i see it.

 

There are a lot of ways for mod authors to gain some revenue from their mods without selling them. Improved donations system, patreon, allowing authors to put amazon affiliate, adfly + mediafire, cash prices for mods that reach hot files/files of the month, etc. I am sure there are at least a dozen other ways i am not even aware of yet.

 

[riverreveal]

Now its paid mods, tomorrow it will be mods only through the workshop, free mod from nexus, no, game banned. Why would Valve/Beth want great communities like nexus about if they can profit more without them being part of their games?

 

Fallout 4/ Elder Scrolls 6 will be steam only, steam workshop only.

 

We looked at the shiny sales and great prices made a pact with the devil.

 

We have made better decisions.

[Le3Derio]

For me to feel better about this, mod(DLC) authors need about 30-50% of the cut.

[Faralai]

Skyforge Weapons, remember this popular mod with a lot of endorsements?

Well now its been removed from the nexus and can only be bought on steam

Edited April 24, 2015 by Faralai