Paid Mod Solution Survey

[drmmrdude22]

Hey all,

 

I'm gonna copy in a post I made on Reddit giving a suggestion about how Valve and the modding community can meet in the middle. I'm a firm believer myself in that the modding community should always remain moneyless, and that it should even get rid of the donation button entirely. My PERSONAL opinion is that I would never (and have never) mod for financial gain at all, under any circumstance. But, I know that is an opinion, other people probably WON'T share it, and I've accepted the fact that this is not what's best for almost anybody. However, I think this proposed solution might be a really good common ground for all parties involved: mod users, mod authors, Valve, and Bethesda. If it gets enough attention, I think they would take notice and this might be the start of how everyone can benefit. Anyway, without further ado, here it is:

 

I initially thought of this when I was skimming through Areanynamesnottaken's comment here! and he mentions something along the lines of voting for mods, and if enough mods get enough votes, they become eligible for being a paid mod. I feel like this satisfies a number of concerns that I personally had (not all, but certainly more than the current system). It alleviates the issue of purely cosmetic cheapskate mods becoming the driven factor for profiting, it allows a community-based oversight system that was pretty much already around anyway (for anyone using the Steam Workshop), and it will still help Valve and Bethesda (and the modders) get a share of any money they want to be entitled to.

 

So, what do you guys think? Does it suck? How could it be improved? Should we disregard it completely and only accept an all-or-nothing policy?

[Mattiewagg]

There's still so many issues with paid mods themselves, legally, financially, and ethically that don't have anything to do with which mods are paid and why.

 

I'll list them in a sec.

[Erinaea]

It is awful. It destroys free exchange of information, makes creative modders paranoid about theft, creates an environment of competition where once there was only one of collaboration(or friendly competition, at most), breeds an environment that promotes piracy, brings in modders who only care about pushing out a product for cash rather than for the pure joy of bringing something new and exciting to the community..the list is endless.

 

It could be improved by adding a "donation" button, or a donation prompt when downloading/subscribing to a mod.That way, people won't feel alienated when their favorite mod suddenly goes Pay2Update.

[drmmrdude22]

I agree that the ramifications about collaboration and sharing would need to be worked out. I want to hold out on the principle that modding is "a labor of love" (Emma), however I don't think that Valve (and this Bethesda) are now of the mindset that this principle can remain. Once they've got those dollar signs in their eyes, I don't see them changing their minds. As a community we will probably only be able to accept this new system as it is, or accept a place in a middle ground. Thanks for your input, i appreciate it! I want more than anything for this whole stupid system to eradicated; just want to be sure that's clear.

[Arocide]

I believe they shouldn't be sold directly as they aren't large enough typically to do so not at the prices that are asked. I don't see myself buying anything that is on there currently cause to me it is just not worth it but I don't see it being revoked Valve will try their best to make it work (by make it work I mean figure out a platform that will work in rolling in the funds for them and their developer clients... and maybe by extension the community?).

 

It is supposed to be rolling out to other games on steam in the coming weeks too whether or not that is delayed due to the 'backlash' who knows.

 

Personally I think it should have been a donation button to start with at least but Valve and developers would never agree to that since it's their platform or IP. I almost think a subscription service would have been a better fit subscribing to an author or team or mod for I don't know a low monthly fee? At least it would give authors a reason to continue support beyond good will (I don't doubt authors would continue supporting their work but a trickle can be more beneficial then a lump sum)... I don't know the whole thing is Rotten but like I said I doubt it will go away Valves too invested now and will be even more invested as more developers pick it up... unless this somehow turns a loss which I doubt as well.

 

Maybe my view will change in time if the quality of mods on the paid WS increases to something I consider 'worth it' till then I will probably stick with this view.

[thenextneo]

I have always been for, and always will support the idea of donating to modders to support their work and show support to the modders. PAYING for a mod, seems cheap, will eventually reduce the quality of the mods that are put out, and reduce the amount of work going into high quality mods.

 

The marketplace will be flooded with thousands of minor mods priced at $0.49 per mod that edit single things, like reskinning a sword or retexturing a single building. People looking to do money grabs and quick sells from suckers who won't read the mod description in full detail to show that what it really does is a single building, not the entire town.

 

The other big issue is... what happens if the mod i want is incompatible with another mod im using? If i wanted to get 2 different mods, and they were functionally useless together, it breaks the game and makes it completely unusuable... this is unacceptable Valve.

[firepower02]

1. How do you know what to vote if you haven't tested them?

2. Why would you pay for it if you have already downloaeded it?

[ArtMurder]

I think the only way payed modding could ever work is with official bethesda approved mods, where the user has to be approached by bethesda. I would gladly pay for a mod if bethesda put their stamp on it and the modder.

 

But they've already kinda screwed that idea.

[AmericanJackal]

Point blank, I'm not using paid mods. I never will. I will never use free mods that require paid mods in order to get the 'full effect.' Some people may see it differently, but as a heavy modder with a limited 'throw away' budget, I can not be spending money on something that will have an extremely high chance of becoming incompatible with my build down the road (if not immediately). I can't even speak to the dark, ugly feelings in my gut concerning the ethical violations and drama I see in the modding community's future.

 

But, whatever...

 

I think the short-term greediness of offering a paid mod is going to blow up in people's faces. One of the things that tends to propel good mods into the spotlight and earn them those thousands of downloads isn't the fact that they're simply good, it's the fact that they get a lot of exposure from guides or work well with other very popular mods. An example of this would be STEP: take a look at the mods that STEP recommends, and you'll notice that all of the files they recommend often have 50k-100k more downloads than other files from the same mod page. I don't work with the folks at STEP, and I can't speak for them at all, but I find it dubious that they would include paid mods as a part of their mod collections. For one, it would make testing the 100+ mods far more difficult, because cross-mod patches for paid mods will be slow (if not plagued by drama).

It would be my sincere hope that Nexus would show some support for the majority of the modding community, and not offer any kind of advertising for these mods. Mods posted here should not be able to link back to paid-only updated versions or try to redirect people to a 'better' paid mod. If people have a legal right to charge for their mods, let them do so, but let's keep up the spirit of free development HERE, in this community.

I found it very bad form for some of our modders to make their -current-, widely used mods pay-only, without any warning. I am not going to point fingers, but it should go without saying that had these mods not been included in places like GEM or STEP to begin with, they would have to build a consumer base for that particular mod from scratch and wouldn't be able to strongarm players who want to keep their setups up-to-date to pay out. It's ugly, and that's all I'm going to say on that.

[OpenWorldAddict]

 

I initially thought of this when I was skimming through Areanynamesnottaken's comment here! and he mentions something along the lines of voting for mods, and if enough mods get enough votes, they become eligible for being a paid mod. I feel like this satisfies a number of concerns that I personally had (not all, but certainly more than the current system). It alleviates the issue of purely cosmetic cheapskate mods becoming the driven factor for profiting, it allows a community-based oversight system that was pretty much already around anyway (for anyone using the Steam Workshop), and it will still help Valve and Bethesda (and the modders) get a share of any money they want to be entitled to.

 

So, what do you guys think? Does it suck? How could it be improved? Should we disregard it completely and only accept an all-or-nothing policy?

I have been quite this whole weekend during this whole uproar, reading forum posts, and news articles, watching videos, and waiting to see what will happen, but now I think it is time that my voice be heard.

 

This idea of 'paid mod selection by community vote' is one of the best ideas I have seen since this whole ordeal has started. In matter of fact, the first place I saw the idea was forbes article, which a lot of good solutions for many of the problems brought up:

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/04/25/is-there-a-way-to-make-a-paid-skyrim-mod-store-work-for-everyone/

 

We vote all the time for our favorite mods, we vote for them by giving them endoresments, by tracking them, and voting for them for file of the month. Would it be that much harder to allow a user to give a vote for a mod author saying that this mod is so good that I would be willing to pay for it (excluding those mod authors who are never going to be willing to put their mods up for sale.) Only once a mod has recieved a large amount of votes (let's say more than 10,000), then it can be considered for going up for sale. It would prevent mods for going up for sale from those that just want to make a quick buck.

 

Also, I believe that mods that have been around for a long time and have huge fan base should remain free for those fans. Being able to pay for the mod should just be another additional option to support the mod author, however paying for the mod should block people indefinitely to getting the better version for free. Either do what the author of SMIM did, provide a free updated version on the nexus and have an optional paid one on the workshop, or have the version on the workshop eventually uploaded to the next for free.

 

Overall, I think paid mods are good for the community, but it needs to be done right, to weed out those that want to make a quick buck, and to stamp out mod pirates that are profiting from other's work. The way it is being handled now is terrible, and it needs to change if the modding community is going to be saved from modding crash.

 

Also I believe whole heartily that providing an option for donation doesn't entirely work. For several mod authors, they are exceptionally happy with any donations that the community provides them. However the amount the make from donations is rather small (many people may not be able to afford to donate to their favorite mod authors.), and it doesn't encourage mod authors struggling for money to continue making great mods. It just does not provide them with the funds they need to live on. This is why many great mod authors have left the community, as the need to make enough money to live on has overcome the passion for modding their favorite game.

 

So is paid modding good for the modding community? Yes, IF it is handled in a way that encourages great mod authors to continue their work, discourages people who come into modding just to make a quick buck, and drives out profiteers who only want to get rich off of the efforts of others.

 

So that is my thoughts on this issue. I just have one more thing to say: We should use this crisis to bring the modding community together and stronger than ever, and not let our anger and frustration of the situation split this community apart. 'United we stand, divided we fall'.