Benefits of a Paid Modder - for the Modders, the Users, and for Business

[RexSeptim]

Free has its benefits. Mainly, being free.

 

In the case of the Nexus community, add to that a sense of family. Of being a part of something important, something that has become great, even unprecedented, as far as I know.

 

As in my previous post, I think that could continue even in the presence of a paid system for mods.

 

Imagine a professional modder. Able to put more of their talent into this stuff. Able to make a living at this.

 

Imagine perusing the free mods like always. Cool stuff. New ideas. And then imagine heading to a "shop" hosted on the Nexus for an elite cadre of modders with a proven record of groundbreaking releases. Here we find the wizards of nifskope, the masters of code, the champions of creativity, who, because they can now make a living by their modding efforts, are able to pour their ingenuity and creativity beyond anything previous into astounding new creations. Imagine the coming release of Mod X Super Edition, offering never before seen DLC level awesome-ness. Imagine a special Greatest Hits by your favorite modder, refreshed with new content at a special price. Imagine an alliance of the best modders joining efforts like Avengers and creating something beyond anything seen before, ever. Imagine mods released with regularity with the kind of anticipation the next TES is beginning to generate!

 

What if that could happen without killing off the variety offered by thousands upon thousands of free mods?

 

For such a thing to work, consumers would need assurances of quality control. Compatibility. Standards would need to be in place to ensure compatibility. The page describing the mod would need to be better written than is often the case, and screenshots would need to be better. Shoppers have to be able to expect something more for their money.

 

For modders, there would have to be some sort of system worked out to fairly compensate other modders whose resources are used. Someone would have to deal with inevitable refund requests, or perhaps a trial period. The market would have to be monitored to keep it fair and honest. Accounting for potentially thousands of micro-transactions when something big is released - that'd be a big job. All this would be a good bit of work for, say, Nexus to take on. And Nexus should get a cut for that. Certainly I'd rather see Nexus manage things with something perhaps built into NMM than to see a pay system managed by Steam. Nexus already shoulders a lot of expense hosting this site and, I think, has done an admirable job of it. I think they could do the same with a pay system and further think they should get a cut.

 

With the coming next edition of TES, I've been thinking about how Bethesda might develop things with modding in mind. I've heard over the years that the Creation Kit is illogical, limited and downright infuriating to use. Perhaps Bethesda would put a bit more effort into polishing up the Creation Kit if they're getting a cut of a pay system. Perhaps a continuing revenue stream such a cut might offer would also prompt Bethesda to chase a few more bugs with the next TES as well.

 

I really do believe a pay system for elite level mods could coexist alongside the free system we've enjoyed these past few years. And I do think this could offer tremendous benefit for everyone if it is done right. What do you think?

 

 

[RurikNiall]

Well, one of my first thoughts is these past few years? I don't know how long the Nexus has been around, but Elder Scrolls modding, and modding in general, has existed for more than a few years.

 

As for paid mods, I notice people always bring up the idea that it would lead to higher quality mods. I don't buy it. I don't buy it at all. Anyone here familiar with the Sims community? They've had paid mods for years, illegally I might add, but EA doesn't bother enforcing their own EULA. The mods offered by paysites, such as the infamous TSR (The Sims Resource) are, in fact, of much lower quality than the ones offered for free on other sites. They're buggier, their meshes and textures are of lower quality. And when Valve and Bethesda decided to launch their blatant cash grab I saw the same exact quality displayed by their release mods where the bulk of them were low quality assets ripped from other games and shoved into the creation kit.

 

Do I think modders deserve to get paid? Some of them, when Skywind gets released I'd gladly throw money at them. I'd toss a few bucks towards Moonpath to Elsweyr too, but I don't believe in the slightest that paying for mods will lead to better quality mods. The best mods, in fact the best works in general come from labours of love, not money, if money were enough to lead to better products EA would be the most legendary game makers of all time.

[Fraklestar]

There are pros and cons, and I don't think we've seen the end of this debate.

 

Enjoying mods a lot, I have no problems paying for them. I am a user only, not a creator, simply because I don't have the time. Which is why I love the ones who do.

 

On the other hand, paid mods is a slippery slope community-wise, seeing as how everything on the internet gets polarized so quickly and the amount of trolls and whiners out there are staggering, and I have no illusions when it comes to large corporations. When something becomes about more bout money than love for what you do... well, you know.

 

I can only do my little bit in all of this, and have decided from now on to donate whenever there is a donate-button, and endorse if I like it. As a member of this community and a user of mods, I would like to that whatever effect I have here, is a positive one. Credit where credit is due, and all that.

[notmyhome]

Imagine a paid modding system, even one without any Valve-like strings attached.

You're now a very, very skilled mod maker out to make some coin.

 

 

You could

 

1) make a retexture of a horse armor

Time invested: one hour

Price: 0.99$

Buyers: ~500

 

or

 

2) create a huge, complicated mod about adding an armor that has the player hunt down blueprints, exotic materials and Thalmor.

Time invested: four to five months, with ~4 hours per day spent working on the damn thing

Price: 10$ [let's be realistic, only a very small amount of people would buy a mod that's more expensive than the game itself]

Buyers: ~1500

 

 

Which one would you make? Considering the kind of mods that were up for sale in the beginning, it seems most people opt for #1

[acidzebra]

 

Which one would you make? Considering the kind of mods that were up for sale in the beginning, it seems most people opt for #1

 

Then again, nobody aside from a few modders under NDA had much of a chance to build any kind of meaningful project before the whole thing was scuttled. The whole thing was botched in so many ways it's not even funny.

 

http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/154581565731694927

 

Look at this link. Questions about quality aside, there's obviously a massive market out there. I doubt Valve/Beth will touch skyrim again, because of the poor way it was handled and because it weird to just randomly and out of nowhere switch models on a game that's been out for ages, but for FO4 or TES6? It'll be back.

[bben46]

@Rurikniall - would you believe that the Nexus has been around for over 14 years now? It started as Morrowind Source, a resource for modding Morrowind and has evolved, with several name changes into what it is today. We now support 115,815 mods for 173 games and have nearly 9 million members. And have had over 1 billion downloads. All FREE. We have never charged for mods. :thumbsup:

 

As you must be at least 13 to register, we have members who were not even born when we started. :tongue:

[Deleted31005User]

The problem is that free mods and paid mods cannot coexist with each other.

You claim that it will bring better "quality", but the fact is that money will bring an incentive to modders to not share their assets and knowledge with one another, simply because now they view it as a "market", and sharing would actually be fueling your own competition.

So right now with everything being open and free, being a nice guy and helping someone comes at no cost, in fact it makes you feel good because your doing a good deed.

With paid mods being a nice guy does come at a cost, you will still feel good for doing a good deed, but if your serious about the money aspect then your actually shooting yourself in the foot by giving candy to your competition.

 

So in the end, I suspect less mods, and less quality mods to come out of the basket if money is involved, nobody can deny that money corrupts and bring out greed in people, simple as that.

 

I know where I came from, this open and free community helped me to learn the ropes with improving my modding skills, if I need to learn something I can just google it or simply ask mod authors and most of the time I can easily find what I am looking for.

If I were to pay 5$ for every single tutorial or modders resource pack I want to use to even create my own mod, do you still think I would be modding here today?

In the end paid mods might be good in the short run, but in the long run it will diminish the actual amount of "pro" modders we have around simply because its harder to learn how modding work and it also costs you money.

Every single modder started out as a newbie that had to learn things and get help from others, if newbie modders cannot get nourished and supported in a free and open environment then we will see less of them advance to being any good with their skills, just remember that.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Guest

[acidzebra]

The problem is that free mods and paid mods cannot coexist with each other.

 

Free mods and paid mods already coexist with each other in other games. Free games and paid games coexist with each other. Free software and paid software coexist with each other.

 

As for the rest of the statement, there are already so many tutorials, videos, wikis and other stuff on the internet, if you want to learn to mod you can, and that won't change. I don't even see your specter of refusal to share knowledge happening except maybe in very specialized cases (where, say, someone is trying to do EXACTLY what I am trying to do and even then I don't know). But I can't prove that either way, and neither can you. I just wanted to point out that free and paid in many different disciplines have managed to coexist.

[soupdragon1234]

Every single modder started out as a newbie that had to learn things and get help from others, if newbie modders cannot get nourished and supported in a free and open environment then we will see less of them advance to being any good with their skills, just remember that.

 

 

The last time I looked every Photoshop forum was filled with people happy to share their knowledge and no-one even questions that the most skilful of those will be selling their talents for profit. It works both ways: those who have the knowledge encourage others and maybe they'll get some inspiration and cross fertilization results, everyone's a winner.

 

Hoarding knowledge is counter productive, how did those top artists learn in the first place? From other people. The only thing withheld is copyrighted subjects such as completed works, techniques are free.

[Deleted31005User]

You cannot compare apples with oranges, bringing in other games or other platforms has nothing to do with the way Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind/Fallout modding has been living and thriving for 20 years.

I'm talking about Bethesda games, not something else...

 

As for free mods co-existing with paid mods, its not possible.

Free mods will have to rely on free modders resources, or free alternatives to a set of "core" mods, such as SkyUI and SKSE.

Paid mods will have to rely on paid modders resources, or free resources if they are allowed to use those to earn money in other mods, and then the paid alternatives to a set "core" mods, such as paid versions of SkyUI and SKSE.

 

You can claim all you want, but there will be a distinct rift between free and paid mods, effectively creating two seperate modding communities.

And lastly, if a free mod becomes popular enough that author might decide to move it to become a paid mod as well, which would make all other free mods that relied on it to be totally screwed.

 

 

But I can't prove that either way, and neither can you.

Actually I can, I've been modding on and off for 2 years now and some authors of other mods simply refuse to help people because they are in a sort of "competative" zone where they don't want you to create or use anything from them, and this competition is just about endorsements.

Now imagine if money gets involved, then competition would skyrocket and people will share less assets and knowledge with others.

I could give you specifics, but I'm not going to since its clearly not going to change your mind and I would have to dig up and show you PMs of others, which is against the rules.

 

Money creates a market and it will completely change how everything works on how people will view each other, instead of friends and fellow modders we will now become competitors, if anyone believes that these things will remain the same as they are in a free and open environment then your just lying to yourself.

 

I read this post about Dark0ne commenting on this, even he says that there will be a rift between free and paid mods with major compatibility issues, so please don't just take my word for it, read for yourself instead: (but tbh anyone with a basic knowledge of how mods work should already know this)

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/04/28/nexus-mods-on-paid-mods/

Edited April 30, 2015 by Guest