What if Nexus remunerated modders with ads ?

[TossMan]

This may sound silly, as the events currently ongoing are, and is only to consider from a theoretical point of view, of course.

 

The controversy surrounding what is already nicknamed Modgate 2015 is actually splitted up in two internal debates which are Valve & Bethesda v. their community and Lucrative modding v. Free modding.

It's the latter that will be debated here, mostly; from the numerous things that could be pointed out from what is happening, is that there is a non-neglectable amount of modders that wants money for their work.

Personnally I have nothing against retribution for modder's work as long as it doesn't harms the gratuity that defines the mod culture, centered on content accessibility)

 

So here's the point; what if Nexusmods made an option to let users download the mod for free after having watched an advertisment if the modder chooses to opt in ? Of course this will allow a correct remuneration of modders that wants money for their work (especially the most prolific ones) without harming (too much) their playerbase.

 

But this will bring a lot of ethical problems, notably regarding how intrusive online advertisment could be and how it interacts with some browser plugins, or how easy it could be for a modder to lure people into watching more advertisments, not to mention the feeling of entitlement that exists when someone starts to make money out of his work; and that could become toxic but on the other side, it could dissuade the most money-centered of them to "defect" (and that's quite a big word to use) and create a solution that will allow lucrative and voluntary modding to cohabit.

 

The real question we should retain from this moment where even here at Nexus everyone is at the other's throat while the whole modding culture is potentially at risk is :

 

"What could be the better economic model to remunerate voluntary modders while keeping the "modding spirit" and our ethics intact ?"

[RZ1029]

Donation button or humblebundle style 'pay what you want' with a minimum donation to keep from getting screwed over by transaction fees. (Say $0.50 USD for instance, which would result in about $.20 actually going to the modder if they're using a completely standard paypal account, or more if they establish themselves with Paypal as a business account.) However, this requires dedicated management of the community (which Nexus does well, Steam does not) in order to ensure nobody is scraping someones mod and reposting for profit. I'm a huge fan of the Humble Bundle system because it allows for reasonably priced mods (lets face it, most 'cool weapon mods' that every has 20 of are NOT worth $5 a piece) while still ensuring a modder can expect their efforts to be repaid to some level or another, depending on the quality and popularity of the mod, and those that want to give theirs away can still do so or funnel earnings towards charities they support.

 

I dislike ads because they are ugly, bulky and most ad delivery systems are outright crap to have to deal with on a poor internet connection (I had awful DSL internet for years, and still don't have a stable 20/10 line when I'm not at university). The few places I have them enabled are Nexusmods, some YouTube channels I watch regularly, Twitch, and my university's student newspaper website. I would much rather give a modder $5 outright for a well-developed mod (I'm talking Project Nevada, WMX, Weapons of the New Millenia) and then give $1/$.50 for smaller stuff (pip boy retextures/remodel, for example, or a single weapon mod). But this has to come with the assurance of quality, which means someone has to do some detailed checking on each and every mod that hits the market, if you're going to expect money up front. Elsewise, publish the mod and do donations like they have for years.

 

This may not quite be the place, but I'd like to add the potential discussion of whether 25% is a reasonable cut for the mod creators to receive given the support they receive in the Steam Workshop?

[TossMan]

First of all thanks for your kind and developed reply.

 

About the 25 %, any discussion is also welcome. One quarter of the total mod price seems really cheap, and unjustified from a service that was financed by DotA 2 and TF2 hats for years in my opinion. But to exacly know what it's all about we'll have to take a look into Valve's accounts to see where the money go. Still it is that the support isn't that good from Valve as they give no real support (besides a basic FAQ) nor a mod manager of their own. The screenshot showing that the solution in case of a broken "product" is to ask nicely for a fix to its dev circulated widely, and shows how egregious the flaws of Steam Workshop can be.

 

And about the donation probmems, it's totally personnal but maybe this button should be more visible (without getting intrusive of course), like, near the download counter ?

[Vagrant0]

Ads are never a reliable means of monetary gain. Even in the case of forced high-er yield ads you are talking about pennies per every hundred views. Meanwhile you annoy people and subject them to whatever base or exploitative thing that is usually associated with those kinds of ads (porn sites, malware, excessively paywalled f2p games). There would be no benefit to it for anyone involved and is, predominantly a horrible option.

 

Beyond that, I'm absolutely certain Robin knows how he wants to handle things as far as the Nexus goes. So the bottom line is to wait for the dust and blind rage to subside. When even people who have no connections with Skyrim or modding are commenting on the situation, you know that everything has gone ass end up.

 

That said, given that this topic is pretty much being talked about everywhere and in particular this thread borderlines on questioning site practices in an effort to get people rallied up over a cause, this thread will need to be closed before it degrades.