Monetized Mods

[mlee3141]

Well, this change has certainly been quite shocking. Many modders (including myself) view modding as a hobby, and create new content because we want to improve upon a game we like, and share that content with others so everyone can benefit. When modders use assets that are freely given, or work together in teams, we do so with full mutual understanding/ expectation that our finished project will be available for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

This free spirit of cooperation is the cornerstone of the modding community, and to introduce monetization to modding is to corrupt the very motivation behind our passion and desire to create our vision of a perfect game, and reduce it to seeking simple exploits that maximize gains.

I for one see today as a herald of the end of free modding, where users like myself share and share alike, to something that is controlled and driven by companies for profit, by profit. While I would never charge money for something I see as a hobby, a passion, I fear there are others who will be seduced by this new order.

Today is a dark day for modding, indeed, and communities like the Skyrim Nexus may soon become a relic of the past.

[Deleted1308005User]

In certain sense I agree, but in other sense I actually think this is a great update.

Skyrim modding has been 'dead" or at least silent for a while. People are still making huge and great mods, it's just a bit different nowadays.
But now? More modders and content makers are attracted to this matter, because they can actually profit from this.
Workshop seems to already have some really nice quality weapons and armor sets. (Which I haven't seen before, though I've been away from Nexus for a while. Blame pokemon for that)

However, the bad thing is that at some point it might turn corrupt. I'm not talking about people stealing content someone else made, it's easy to get it down and I'm quite sure that Valve cares about matters like this.

Worst thing that probably happens at some point is that people "manipulate" how stuff looks. Similar to most early access games now. (Good ENB can make crappy weapon look gorgeous.)
And the amount of totally garbage mods with small price tags is probably gonna skyrocket at some point. (I haven't inspected how pricing thingy works. Like, can you make a single .esp without additional files and make it cost some money)

Anyhow, random ranting and pondering in a hurry, hope you can understand something.

[Daiyus]

I'll always continue working in a free manner, and won't be buying mods from the Workshop. I respect that modding is labour intensive, and if you want paying for that, well that's each modders decision; I respect their decision to do that.

 

Personally I would like to see the Nexus step up to the plate and really show up Valve/Bethesda by making a more prevalent Donation system, that way people can still be paid quickly and easily, but it's entirely optional, and keeping in the spirit of the community we are a part of.

[ARViuff]

i watched totalbiscuit explain this mess

as well as read a few posts here on nexus

 

and i think the modders who use both steam and nexus can benfit and make everyone happy

if a modder want to be paid for a big mod like a 50+ armor set Collection or another mod that can actually justify a price

they could upload the newest version on steam and the latest outdated version on nexus

 

so basicly on nexus we can download a version that is only a patch or one update behind the steam version

 

so if you want a new up-to-date version now you can chose to pay OR you can wait until that version goes free.

just my pickles in this matter, but i think such a system will benfit both the creator of the mod and the people who still like their mods to be free

[NidhoggValkyrian]

I'm not talking about people stealing content someone else made, it's easy to get it down and I'm quite sure that Valve cares about matters like this.

Valve couldnt care less about people stealing mods.

Appearantly there are already those who now ask money for mods discontinued by their authors who didnt want to monetize.

Valve doesnt care.

 

This could shatter the community.

If people start stealing mods like that, it wont be long before their authors pull the mods offline, leaving us with only Valve's payed mods, wich is probably their goal. MONOPOLY.

Edited April 24, 2015 by NidhoggValkyrian

[Carlzilla]

From what I've read Chesko's response to FNIS being a part of the fishing mod was "Valve told me it was OK because it was publically available and it was also free..." he then did the right thing and pulled his mod from the paid store.

 

However, there's almost nothing that can be done if your mod is being used as part of a paid mod, because you basically allow Bethesda to poke, prod, exploit, sell, eat, or touch inappropriately your mod as soon as you make it public. So as long as Bethesda is getting a piece of the pie, I'm not sure you have any real recourse outside of potentially long and expensive legal battles if you find a mod using parts of yours and you say "hey, I don't like that..." and the cancerous paid mod author says "tough crap...I'm not pulling it..."

Edited April 24, 2015 by Carlzilla

[Deleted31005User]

Oh my God, and here begins the sad long journey ahead of us where money and greed will corrupt the community.

Those gaming companies should just keep their dirty fingers out of the modding scene, lately those companies do nothing but release games with major bugs in them, its basically asking 50 bucks for an unfinished game, then they release DLC upon DLC asking even more money from those, and now they are also going to monetize modding.

Seriously, what happened to 50 bucks for a complete and finished game, which was the standard 10 years ago, its so sad how things have degraded over time and it just keeps going down hill, and now mods will be dragged in this as well.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Guest

[Zzimith]

Now you can discuss if paying for mods is good for the modding community or modding in general, that's both perfectly fine and interesting. The various pros and cons, pirating, sharing code aso are topics well worth thinking and perhaps worrying about. But reading comments on mod pages on Steam (and on some Nexus mod comments as well) makes me cringe.

 

I have to say I have never been so utterly disappointed in the Nexus community mod users as of right now. Brilliant mod makers have for years invested enormous amounts of time and effort for my benefit as a user absolutely free of charge. They have even provided support and improved based on my feedback. Now, when they have gotten the opportunity (some of them by Bethesda directly, as I understand it) to make a buck out of this, perhaps even seeing a chance to get the job of their dreams - we the users answer by spamming their sites with hate comments, calling them sell-outs and even threaten them. All just because some of us not only takes for granted, but demand, that they i.e. give us their work, their own product. When they don't, we take the liberty to flame them for it.

 

This attitude to me seems so utterly infantile and presumptuous it makes me sick. Of course, I would prefer it if the mods I use were free, but I wouldn't dream of giving mod authors like Chesko, Isoku or Laast grief for taking this route. I have rent to pay and kids to feed and a job I don't particularly love: if I had a mod with 50k+ endorsements and Bethesda contacted me and offered me an opportunity to make money modding, I'm far from sure I'd turn that chance down. I sure wouldn't hold it against anybody who'd say "Hell yes!" to that question.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Zzimith

[Nudedragon]

 

I have to say I have never been so utterly disappointed in the Nexus community mod users as of right now. Brilliant mod makers have for years invested enormous amounts of time and effort for my benefit as a user absolutely free of charge. They have even provided support and improved based on my feedback. Now, when they have gotten the opportunity (some of them by Bethesda directly, as I understand it) to make a buck out of this, perhaps even seeing a chance to get the job of their dreams - we the users answer by spamming their sites with hate comments, calling them sell-outs and even threaten them.

 

To be fair, that's exactly what selling out is. It isn't automatically a bad thing, but it is the act of changing your behavior in exchange for money. So charging for something that was previously free is, by definition, selling out. I have mixed opinions on the matter. It's up to each mod author to choose for themselves, and power to them.

 

Pros to paid modding, in my opinion:

• Mod authors deserve donations from people that can afford to donate! Modding is a huge commitment, lots of work and time invested. Much of modding is just for the users, like compatibility patches and suggested features.
• Modders might be able to spend more time modding if they're getting an income from it.
• As the steam workshop grows more popular, perhaps the workshop will be updated to be more effective. It's still a pain to upload mods with multiple versions, optional files, and circumstantial updates, to the workshop.
• If modding pays, more people will pick up modding! (hopefully)

Cons to paid modding, in my opinion:

• More modders will use the steam workshop exclusively. The steam workshop is shitty, and limits modders in ways the nexus, *site not allowed*, etc don't.
• Currently, people use mods by the hundreds. Most people can't afford to buy hundreds of mods, though.
• Modders will need actual beta testing teams. Previously, modders released mods in the beta state, and let players test for free. If they want to sell their mod, however, it needs to be polished before release. Few will test a mod for free, if they have to pay for the mod.
• Small mods will lose popularity. Not many people will buy 2 mb mods, and if those mods don't sell, authors will stop producing them.
• Mod authors shouldn't be beholden to the mod user. People who sell their mods, however, will be accountable to their customers.*
• Most of the money is going to valve and bethesda. Valve and bethesda didn't produce the mod, they didn't assist in it's creation at all. Bethesda just deigned to offer their development tool to players... a tool which was funded by skyrim sales already.
• Money won't necessarily ensure higher quality. After all, the official skyrim dlc weren't cleaned, and remain incredibly buggy to this day.

*Remember the drama with Arthmoor'ss Open Cities? He had every right to put in oblivion gates, since it was his mod that he was letting other people use. If he'd(?) been selling that mod, though, he'd have had to change it. Otherwise, people would stop buying the mod. Free content leaves the content creator in control.

 

Personally, I'll never buy a mod if 75% of the money is going to Valve and Bethesda. It's the same reason I don't use Patreon. I'm not donating to Patreon, or Bethesda, or Valve. I'm donating to the Author, Cartoonist, or whomever, not a go between. If I can't avoid the go between, I won't pay. The only reason Bethesda agreed to let mod authors charge for mods was because it's a way for Bethesda to get paid.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Nudedragon

[Deleted31005User]

Another big con that nobody seems to realize, right now the community is open and shares almost everything with each other, what do you think will happen to this in the future if money comes into play?

To ensure your mod remains most popular, mod authors will keep their own assets and knowledge only to themselves, this is done to avoid competition and to ensure the most profit, if you share anything then you only feed your competition and this will mean less money for you.

So by being a good guy that helps people, you will lose money, so of course modders will become self-centered and the community we know now will disappear.

 

How many mods do you guys think would be here today if they did not have any assets from other modders resources, or stuff like tutorials floating out there???

Sry but I can't fathom why people would even think monetizing mods is a good idea, it will turn an open community into a market where your only goal is to make money, the quality and quantity of mods produced with a "market" system like Steam wants it to be will be just a fraction of what it is today.

 

I made 2 mods and I'm pretty proud of them, however if it wasn't for all those modders resources I'm using, or the 100's of tutorials I watched, or the personal assistance from dozens of modders here on the Nexus, then I would not have been able to make any mods!

This Steam market system will only work out for people who can create their own stuff, meaning you need advanced knowledge of mesh editing programs like MAX3DS, then you also need advanced knowledge of a texture program to create your own textures, then you also need to know how to implement those things and how to create scripts and all that stuff.

In short: the little guy will have nowhere to turn for help, and how many legendary modders do we have right now that started out small, but they got better over time due to the help of the COMMUNITY because information and assets were shared OPEN AND FREELY.

 

Just imagine for a second that SKSE had to be paid for, lets say 10 bucks, so every single mod that wants to use SKSE plugins first needs to pay that 10 bucks.

You want to use some more modders resources, pay another 5 bucks here, another 5 bucks there, rinse, repeat...

Imo this kind of system will only destroy the modding scene, new modders will have no chance to survive in this greedy and toxic environment.

If you like the 50.000+ mods we have for Skyrim now, then enjoy it while it lasts because if new modders are not encouraged and nourished in an open and free environment then not many mods will see the light of day in the future.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Guest