Steam Service Providers, and some how needing to clarify the Nexus stance again

[phantompally76]

Someone actually bought the current paid mods (well, let's not kid ourselves, they probably pirated them) and is reviewing them.

 

http://imgur.com/a/bqcla?gallery

 

I think there's another album by the same person with more mod reviews out there. Just search reddit.

 

To quote Gopher, "It's a question of value". Despite how you feel about monetization of player mods, most of these are EXTREMELY amateur efforts. Bleakdon looks like someone literally just got ahold of the creation kit two weeks ago and went overboard on spawning NPCs and ladders. How can any sane individual justify charging one red cent for that? There is so much ego at play here, these people are sitting comfortably behind the assumption that people are ridiculing their mods en masse right now because they've put them up for sale, and aren't even fathoming the notion that perhaps people are ridiculing them because they simply aren't very good and are definitely not worth asking money for.

 

Well, I emphatically oppose monetization of mods, and I stand firm on that. But if I DID think charging for mods was right, then I would damn well make sure the mods I was putting up for sale were worth selling. I would owe that to not only myself, but to the community.

[nekollx]

That's the issue that most regular users don't yet realize. I thought the Chesko issue would shed light on it, but it seems most casual modders don't understand that the best mods were created with multiple inputs. Popular mods like Realistic Lighting Overhaul and Immersive Armors weren't created by one person sitting at his computer typing away.

 

So the issue now becomes, will we ever see mods like this anymore? It's understandable that a mod as big as RLO might want some money for the huge amount of work that is put into it, but just how do you go about dividing the revenue between the handful of people currently on the RLO team? Even worse, what about all the contributors over the years that have retired from the team but submitted countless hours of labor to the project? How will they get any of the kickback?

 

Obviously a ton of work has gone into these projects, but unless you can divide the earnings somehow between the 20 or so modders will we see an end to big projects like this? Is it worth the trouble of releasing amazing team efforts for free when Valve is holding a fishing line in front of our faces with a $ hanging from the hook? I fear modders will be more concerned with making money than creating mods for the love of the community and projects like Immersive Armors/Weapons will be a relic of a time when things were good.

can't really see the big mods changing that much i mean i just got a voice actor today after months of searching for Woman's World, a colab I'm working on that changes 1,782 NPC in Skyrim, THAT'S A HUGE under taking, and what did the VA ask first "is this going to be free or pay walled?"

 

Free is our response

 

So dont see the big mods going away but i can see a varient goeing up behind a pay wall, a varient with features that just aren't posible on free credit, again look at SkyUi, the curent version we have been using forever 4.1 is still up on the nexus with no sighs of leaving but 5 is Steam Exclusive, when asked about it the explinations was simple "modifying the Barter windows and other requested features required the work of a experienced engineer, when it was free it just wasn't feesable so i made 4.1 as stable as posible but with the promise of money i could HIRE a EXPERIENCED programmer to assist in development for a couple weeks"

[TheknightofRand]

In response to post #24695449.

Arisette wrote:

this is a reasonable post but I am going to have to take issue with a few assertions.

First, this hasn't caused a mess, only upset people. Simple because a loud group (no matter how large) doesn't like something that doesn't make it wrong.

Second, it is fair to say that monetary incentive will in fact result in greater talent and dedication. This holds true in every economic school of thought. The realities of life are that living costs money and free modding doesn't pay bills. Paid modding may or at least could help. This effectively expands the pool of possible modders even if only by a single person and incentivizes people to enter into modding. Further this may give modding in Skyrim a second wind, because it was tapering off with the exception of several large products, and the pretty follower mods.

Finally, if there are "money grubbers" don't buy their mods, you aren't forced as a consumer to purchase anything, so there is no threat to you as a gamer. Especially when people stop putting up protest mods and start reviewing the paid mods in earnest so other consumers have a reference point.

[Grimblight]

The very Bottom quote from Dark0ne's post ^^

 

"my main concern now is the DRMification and closing down of free and open modding, the concept that modding can only take place if it's done through one OFFICIAL PLATFORM to the detriment of all others. Because up until now that's definitely not what modding has been about at all."

 

now think about the soon to be released " Steam machine "

 

Will games installed on a Steam Machine be modable WITH downloaded mods (like from nexus) ?

or only with steams workshop mods ?

[TheknightofRand]

In response to post #24695394.

ABlindPerson wrote:

Aside from making the game, scripts, assets, world, story, lore, etc. etc. etc. But these are all minor things that are never included in top mods. Further Valve has revolutionized PC gaming with the steam platform and the accessibility to games it provides. Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2 have had paid mod content for a long time and things are fine. As to the 25% cut well that is a different and much more difficult argument. Edited April 27, 2015 by TheknightofRand

[nekollx]

Another point i would like to add, reguardless of the philosophy of the Paid Steam Mods this is now a new Job field which mean i can now start training fellow students at my university not just in Unity but also the CK, whicn means people going to school with the EXPRESS GOAL of beciming GAME DEVELOPERS will start making (paid) skyrim mods and i like to think between the large Paid Projects many smaller (free) mods will make it here to the nexus...end result.

 

More Mods on both sides, created by trained professionals with a passion for the field....

 

HOW is that a bad thing?

[sunshinenbrick]

We certainly can bring this down to the idea that basically they are paying you for your work... the word "job" leap out to anybody?

 

But what is to say that they do not change things in the next game engine and sdk so that a modder has to learn how to use it again. Like the long winded process of the plugin system with GameBryo (Ha we laugh now...) The idea here is that I suppose the long term idea here is that they are looking to employ select number people in their company, not us old fuddy obsolete farts that might be pissed off cuz we lost our hobby, but no the young who buy in to the entire market, merchandising thing that will be on a screen near you any time soon.

 

Why is this important? Well its because of the time it takes to make a mod. Should I go into the numbers? Well I have but it's late and I can't be bothered to type too much, but safe to say that you will be under paid for a fair while before you start raking in the money that you need to pay for your ever increasing mortgage, possibly kids, divorce etc etc...

 

Well what does this all have to do with law? Well it means that you are now divisively being employed "off the grid" for under the minimum wage, just because they know humans like to play with computer like a possessed idiot and they don't want to have to pay everyone health insurance and a proper wage.

 

If we are going to talk law then we need to be more broadly minded than we are being. What do you really owe a company?

 

EDIT: The flip side to this, I forgot to mention, is that once you get past that and start making bigger mods if you sell a 1000 or so downloads at say £2.99 to £5 or more a pop, you end up earning some pretty tidy money. Except they will be a minority and they will be busy making money to pay for the licences for the tools they need to make mods.

 

Donate money to modders, great! Bring in payment from a company into it and you welcome in the legal implications.

Edited April 27, 2015 by sunshinenbrick

[KaiserDeathIV]

 

In response to post #24695394.

 

 

 

ABlindPerson wrote:

Aside from making the game, scripts, assets, world, story, lore, etc. etc. etc. But these are all minor things that are never included in top mods. Further Valve has revolutionized PC gaming with the steam platform and the accessibility to games it provides. Team Fortress 2 and DOTA 2 have had paid mod content for a long time and things are fine. As to the 25% cut well that is a different and much more difficult argument.

 

are you kidding me? sry, but .... HATS ARE NOT MODS!

 

Another point i would like to add, reguardless of the philosophy of the Paid Steam Mods this is now a new Job field which mean i can now start training fellow students at my university not just in Unity but also the CK, whicn means people going to school with the EXPRESS GOAL of beciming GAME DEVELOPERS will start making (paid) skyrim mods and i like to think between the large Paid Projects many smaller (free) mods will make it here to the nexus...end result.

 

More Mods on both sides, created by trained professionals with a passion for the field....

 

HOW is that a bad thing?

this isnt a job field. just because you can now make money from mods doesnt make it a job. its still a hobby. and im still thinking that a hobby shouldnt be paid.

[beeter56]

At the root of all this is the bottom and blatant fact that less people, in fact, way less people, will want to pay for a mod. Because of that, any revenue and popularity that comes out of this will be small for mod authors - especially if they have free versions of their mods out there (or if most people already have their mods). Add to that the disproportionate percentage they get.

 

I support a mod author's decision to make mods free or paid, but I'm saying that it logically makes sense that a large number of people won't pay for modded content.

 

However, I can't imagine why Valve or Bethesda would want to do this in the first place - the modding capability of Skyrim is among the biggest factor for people who continually play it to do so. Why they would hinder that, I don't understand.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[beeter56]

In response to post #24696394.

beeter56 wrote:

Also, this may be popping up just now so they can get feedback and such with this system in time for a future game *Fallout 4*.