How to make paid mods better.

[IronAlpha]

When I heard about the addition of Paid mods on the Steam Workshop my jaw hit the floor.

 

I'd very much like to state my opinion on the matter and move onto the subject I'd actually like to discuss. Paid mods work extremely well for games like DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2 ect. Why is this? Valve personally balances and curates these communities, and all of the mods are guaranteed to work together and keep the game balanced and whatnot. But what about Skyrim?

 

Warning: Rambling incoherent waffling ahead. I try to present arguments and counterarguments for paid mods and explain my opinion. This might not interest you.

 

Skyrim, unlike the other games I mentioned, is single player, and so things like Balance don't matter and thus curation is less of an issue. Who cares if somebody cheats at Skyrim? However my first thoughts on the system were pretty negative. To me it seemed like Valve and Bethesda trying to get the community to develop DLC for them, and taking a disproportionate cut of the profits. However, after a great deal of thought I dismissed this idea as an absolute. My problem with the system as it was is the prospect of history repeating itself. I loved the idea of Steam Greenlight when it was first launched, and very quickly it fell into a bunch of scammers and cheats posting misleading trailers and lying about features to get onto steam, and the Early Access fiasco is even worse. Just look at the front page of that cesspool.

 

The obvious counterpoint to this argument is that we won't have to pay for trash, and that's true, but I also don't want to wade through trash on my way to the beach during a trip to the beach. On that note, there is actually quite a bit of garbage on the front page of the Steam Workshop regardless of whether or not paid mods exist. Mods, like all things, still adhere to Sturgeon's law. Another argument against Paid mods is that there are scumbags out there who will try to take advantage of the system and it's lack of moderation. We have already seen mods getting stolen and uploaded behind a paywall to practically steal money from the modder's hands, but these instances were dealt with by Valve. However, what about original works that pose as more popular mods, or mods being advertised as feature complete only to be unfinished? How could this be effectively dealt with?

 

My opinion on the system is thus: It shouldn't have been kept quiet until release. This is the sort of thing that should have been discussed before any changes were made, and maybe things would have gone differently. I hate the idea of having to pay for mods that may not work with my game, a problem that is easily solved with the current system where I can simply test a mod before I decide to keep it. However, I love the idea of modders being payed for their work in some way. (If a lot of you had patreon or something I'd be happy to pay you monthly for your work, in fact.) Quite frankly, I didn't enjoy Skyrim much until I encountered the works of great modders like Chesko who made the game more to my liking, and modders are the only reason I took the plunge into PC gaming. It's thanks to modders that I'm currently still playing a game from 2010 like it's new to this day. I love this community and the only reason I haven't financially supported the site or the modders is simply due to lack of funds. From the end user's perspective, I love mods being free because they're very much an inspiration for me to keep playing these games. They allow me to keep playing the games I love indefinitely and enjoy them in a way I never could before. From the modder's perspective (As close as I can get to it having no published mods yet, but I am working on one, so I have a very small understanding of the struggle.) I love free mods because without looking at other's work freely I could never have learned the craft myself.

 

On the flip side, as a user I like the idea of paid mods for the possibility of supporting the arbiters of my experience. We financially support let's players, but not modders? That hardly seems fair. I will surely catch ire for this, but as a modder the idea of paid mods because of the possibility of actually having the cash to hire my fellow modders to assist me with the parts of the process I am unable to do. Something like a DLC sized mod would be far easier to accomplish, and mods like Project Brazil might be able to get the support they deserve.

 

I think that the worst thing to come from the whole (bleck) 'modgate' debacle is the division of the community as a whole. I hate the fact that I have to point out that I never sent hate to any modders (I'm willing to prove it if I must.) And I hate the Us vs Them nonsense that has taken over too much of the discussion.

 

 

tl;dr: While I am not completely onboard with paid mods, The prospect of it being done properly is extremely exciting.

 

So, what could we do to make the system better? I doubt many of the modders here would support the idea, but maybe a sort of application process to become a curated modder. Just anyone couldn't flood the paid section of the workshop with low-quality content and we could be certain we were paying for the very best the community has to offer, or at the very least what Bethesda believed to be the best at the very least.. A lot of people would still dislike the system, but some people are against any sort of compensation for modders in the first place. This may already have been in effect, and if it is, I apologize.

 

This probably isn't the best possible idea for everyone, but I would very much love to have a constructive conversation on the matter. I'd prefer it if I didn't get any responses that basically say that we shouldn't have paid mods at all. I understand your position and I'm not trying to censor you. I even agree with a lot of what you're saying, but there are discussions about that elsewhere. This is a discussion on how the system might have been implemented better.

 

Thank you and keep doing what you love, everyone.

Video: Something to consider in these uncertain times.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qnMB7pOKA