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

[selaxi]

Well i guess now moders who decide to monetize their mods (because their "work" not hobby should be paid), they should invest a few thousand dollars(~5000$+) to get legit license for the software(3ds Max, Maya, Adobe Suite, coding libraries ect) they use to create their paid work.

Because that people should be paid too, for making such a magnificent software that enables the "moders" to create their amazing paid mods!

[Atardecer]

Personally, I think the whole thing is abysmal. Not the mod authors actions - they are free (no pun intended) to do whatever they wish with their mods and are certainly deserving of financial reward for their efforts. But 25%? That's offensive; and a typical capitalistic approach of throwing meagre scraps to the worker and making them feel thankful and indebted for it.

 

Games like Skyrim are still alive because of the modding community. I wish the mod authors all the luck in the world but I fear it will backfire on them, and it will hurt the modding community, if it hasn't already. And it will make mod authors beholden to the demands of the users, who they'll have to bend to being their customer base.

 

My other concern is a practical one: when I download mods I test them, I make sure they don't conflict with other mods I use, I weigh up after some time whether I like them and like their approach. First, we have to pay for the mod and THEN make that decision? So if we find we have a conflict with a mod that we pay for and can't use it, do we get our money back? I don't use every mod I download, and I don't know if I'll be using i long term when I download it. So what happens there?

[Magnalenian]

In response to post #24592779. #24592899, #24593074, #24593094, #24593509, #24593979 are all replies on the same post.

SvarogNL wrote:

insaneplumber wrote: Thanks.

AronaxAE wrote: Will come in extremely handy, thank you c:

WightMage wrote: Brilliant mate!

EnaiSiaion wrote: Looks like the Tube logo.

"Mind the crap"

Charismoon wrote: Using your banner on my mods - thanks!

thanks!

[DaErkka]

Ho I just realized; wonder what's going to happen to the "modders resources" section? I'm *suuuure* that the people who create new, custom textures, meshes and other resources from scrap have absolutely *nothing* against the idea of someone making money off their work and giving a "thanx 4 the stuff" in return...

[Terramaris]

In response to post #24593969.

ImChronos wrote:

The majority of the blame is Valve/Bethesda, but the developers who swapped from Modding to Unofficial DLC hold blame as well.

If Valve didn't have Unofficial DLC like Wet and Cold, INeeds, and Arissa, the Paid Skyrim Workshop would be dead right now. Edited April 24, 2015 by freedom613

[Qamyk]

ATTENTION PLEASE. It's not about helping the author, (if you want to donate author, donate button is way to go )it's about making monopoly over mods and push them to become cash machines for fat businessmans. It's the first step to create an monopol on modding for valve, sites like this and many other will become a threat for valve deals and there will be two ways for them to go, get rid of them or work with them, so we better kill it in the moment when it still is just an little thing, before it will grow up to big monster shouting ,,more money!". Business is business, there's no place for feelings. So stop saying ,,Let's just wait to find out how things will turn out" because there's no time for waiting, we have to act, to show them what we think about it. Don't let them fool you with ,,helping modders to make them ever greater", the only thing that will become greater is their bellies. If you want to help modders, go test their mods, endorse, vote and if you find some cash in your pocket, donate and don't forget about warm words.

[Deleted3900870User]

In response to post #24589329. #24589589, #24589619, #24589869, #24589984, #24590034, #24590139, #24590269, #24591409, #24591504, #24591544, #24591669, #24591839, #24591859, #24591919, #24592019, #24592054, #24592144, #24593439, #24593614 are all replies on the same post.

Maverick11 wrote:

DiaSin wrote: The modders get a maximum of 25% of the profit. How is this them getting what they deserve?

Arendella wrote: Everyone has even said they should of done this years ago.
Back in 2012-2013 when the modding scene was booming and Skyrim's modding community was huge.

A lot of them left nexus, and they could of easily made more money and if they polished it better instead of this really dumbass way of 75% of your proceeds which is Absolutely nothing I might add for the modder themselves, it probably wouldn't of been as a big deal.

Daiyus wrote: I don't think anyone is condemning mod authors for wanting a bit of commercial recompense. Anyone who's made a mod knows how labour intensive it can be.

I think the big complaint is how Valve/Bethesda are handling that business model; they're stripping 75% of that profit away for something that they were happy being distributed for nothing?

That and it completely changes the way the community works. I don't think anyone would complain about having a more prevalent donations system with recommended donations. That at least would be keeping with the ethos of the community.

I personally don't have a problem with paying authors for good work, but let me try it first, don't put it behind a paywall.

salvador33 wrote: If it was about some other method of supporting the modders, everything would be fine. They SHOULD get some money via an alternate system. But how is it not GREED when modders get only 25%?

1)How many mods are based on other people's work and assets? I am sure nobody will be greedy and they will share the profits equally.

2)Why do people complain about DLC? It TAKES TIME for the company to create that product. I think we have all seen where that thinking has led.

3) What happens when Bethesda decides that they will allow mods for their games to only be hosted on Steam? If everyone follows suit, say goodbye to the Nexus. But I am sure that monopolistic practices never hurt any consumers before.

4)If you're being paid, it's not a mod but a DLC. Your work better be stellar since you're now selling me a product and if it breaks I am expecting you to fix it or else. See how this changes the relationships in the community?

I am not against modders being paid for their work, I am against the method implemented.

Maverick11 wrote: 25% is very fair. The platform for modders to begin work is available and ready. That platform cost Bethesda and steam a great deal of money to prepare. It is very easy to for a modder to begin work and entirely hassle free when preparing their next project. 25% is better then nothing which has been the case since the dawn of modding.

pr0 wrote: In all fairness a mod author would make more money making mods on Twitch or YouTube than they'll ever make from the SWS program....because even Youtube and Twitch have better profit splitting policies than this.

I get a 60/40 split from YouTube...and I'm literally nobody, I'm sure far more popular people get 90% or even 100% of what they generate in ad revenue. I have friends that make more in one night on Twitch, just playing games, than a mod author is likely to make from the SWS program in the span of a year.

I'm not sure where Bethesda thinks 25/75 is even a fair split, and I'm not sure why a mod author would think it was either.

There are far more effective ways to monetize content than this.

uszpdoz wrote: this is a good thing guys...now modder will take full attention for their mod....so we wont see any paid mod get abandoned right?

belenbelen wrote: dude. please. stfu. the guyaboveme. please.

Celltrex wrote: Is that sarcasm? Have you ever heard about Early Access games? Most of them cost money, and they are left unfinished and abandoned, and customers have their money taken. Anyone who condones payed mods and other Early Access cancer is a thug.

Maverick11 wrote: ^ And anyone who doesn't support modders making money is selfish. Arguably the real thug.

TheLine wrote: 25% is NOT fair at all. I don't understand what sort of mental gymnastics you have to tell yourself to think that Valve deserves 75% of a mod that costs 0.25 and the creator wont see a profit until after its made over $400. How much of a shill do you have to be? Not to mention that modding is a hobby not a career. I would gladly donate (read: DONATE) money to a modder that i felt truly deserved it but anyone who thinks they deserve even a cent for a sword retexture is greedy and doesn't understand what modding is truly about. Which is the community.

numeriku wrote: 25% is very fair.

25%.

Fair.

Not sure if serious.

P.S: They only get that 25% if they make $400 from selling their mod(s). So if you only made $399.99, then you get nothing, while Valve and Bethesda claim all of it.

:3 Still fair?

Arendella wrote: Mowing my Neighbors backyard makes more money than this crap

Noortje wrote: If it was 90% then MAYBE I would consider purchasing on steam. 25%? Are you f*#@ing kidding me? Mod authors deserve 100% not f*#@ing 25%.

The most downloaded mod has 7.2 million unique downloads. The author would only receive 72000 dollars before taxes if EVERYONE who ever downloaded that mod bought it on steam. Long story short: The income mod authors will get from this is ridiculously low. If someone sells 7.2 million copies of something they don't deserve some asshole company stealing 75% of what they should have made.

Winjin wrote: When I see not-supporting guys saying that 25% is fair I start to think that it's either Bethesda or Valve sales reps. You know, guys who desperately try to pluck the shitstorm by trolling the community into thinking that it's TOTALLY FAIR.

Gaben is not love anymore. Gaben is not life.

Noortje wrote: Winjin that's a bit weird to say, Maverick has made two outstanding mods. Not everyone has to give back to the community by supporting.

Maverick11 wrote: @TheLine

This coming from a guy who has never made a single mod. I have never received a single donation for anything I provided from this site nor do I expect a single dime. To say donations is even a viable solution to make money is nonsense. Whats even more nonsense is saying that modders should accept this as a hobby and nothing more. Some of us actually do this in hopes that one day we can make a career out of it.

To me, making money doing what I love is better then making nothing at all. Perhaps the 25% is arguably low but as person who simply downloads mods as opposed to actually making them... that doesn't concern you at all. Not in the slightest.

The platform to host these mods cost money. The platform to create these mods cost money.

icecreamassassin wrote: I will say 25% is pretty low, but it's not far off the mark of the industry norm for consignment of products like this. In the indie table top RPG world there is a PDF seller that gives 30% and takes 70% with a $100 payout threshold. This is fairly common. same with amazon's create space at one point. The PDF seller even wanted you to send people to their sure from your own which is absurdity if you already have the customer yourself. The trade off is promotion, but frankly I don't think what steam offers in that area is worth their cut.

The best way to combat this? Show your financial appreciation to modders you like and give them no reason to defect. Think about it this way; you volunteer with an organization you believe in and does good things and one day they say that they have a paid position doing just what you volunteer doing and they are offering it to you. Nobody in their right mind would turn that down. This is very similar.

eldiabs wrote: @Maverick11

As a person who has made mods, in my opinion, this is a very bad idea. Without the community, there is no modding. You can make the most amazing mod ever, and if people aren't behind you, it will go nowhere. Put your work on steam behind a paywall and you will alienate yourself from the community.

The modding community is about collaboration, and finding a common interest. There is no 'milking' going on. We all do this of our own free will, in our FREE time. The platform we created these mods on would exist whether we modded or not. We are all gamers here.

You want money from your hobby, get into game development and get a real job. Trying to make money off of mods is counter productive to the modding scene.

Trust me, there will be little acceptance of this change.

"To me, all I see is greed. We don't complain when sites like the Nexus or Youtube advertisers make money..."

I complain pretty heavily when Youtube advertisers make money, depending on the content they're producing (such as most Let's Plays). But Nexus is a totally different service; it isn't a hobby that someone's putting out there for peoples' entertainment. It's a series of file hosting servers, which requires money constantly to keep afloat. It's not like someone whipped up the Nexus one weekend while they were bored and now it's just out here, totally self-sufficient. The administration team pays for the servers to stay up, so that modders can continue to host files here. You're essentially comparing apples and oranges. Edited April 24, 2015 by Guest

[sHizZ0z]

I swear, i won't buy a single mod from the Workshop, the reason for that is not to not support the modders, rather than not supporting publishers and Valve that get the greedy 75% cut for doing little to nothing for the created user-content. You can even buy a Golden Potatoe for a small bargain of approx. 10 bucks. It's bad.

[d4rkoverlord]

So let me know if I get this right: You make a mod, then you upload it on steam workshop, they will have it there, so people can't download it for free, they will sell the downloads take 75% of the profit of your hard work leaving you only with 25%?. OK Steam, thanks but no thanks, if I were to produce mods to make money I would be selling them myself at my own web domain which I could make popular by posting the link in any Skyrim Forum or social network.

 

Lets remember that Bethesda is not Microsoft, the mod authors have ownership of the mods they develop, regardless if you're using Bethesda tools or any other tool to make them, so correct me if im wrong but what im saying is possible, so if you want to make good mods for everyone to enjoy them post them here for free and if you want to make profit from your mods, think smart, don't just trow 75% of your profits at Valve's pockets for no reason.

Edited April 24, 2015 by d4rkoverlord

[AwesomeNino]

In response to post #24592779. #24592899, #24593074, #24593094, #24593509, #24593979, #24594029 are all replies on the same post.

SvarogNL wrote:

insaneplumber wrote: Thanks.

AronaxAE wrote: Will come in extremely handy, thank you c:

WightMage wrote: Brilliant mate!

EnaiSiaion wrote: Looks like the Tube logo.

"Mind the crap"

Charismoon wrote: Using your banner on my mods - thanks!

Magnalenian wrote: thanks!

Im putting this on the dragonskin mod for fnv