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

[acidzebra]

I'm sorry, I disagree with your notion that TES is somehow extra special in that it can't possibly support paid next to free mods because reasons. I've been modding for some time myself.

 

And all you've proven is that some people don't like to share. That's a little different from the doomsday scenario you were painting which remains unprovable either way.

[soupdragon1234]

As I understand it SKSE could never be paywalled anyway because the author(s) are skirting legality as it is, from what I understand the game.exe has to be deencrypted and patched, in memory at anyrate.

And all you've proven is that some people don't like to share. That's a little different from the doomsday scenario you were painting which remains unprovable either way.

People don't like to share completed works already, how many times have you looked at a large scripted mod only to find the script source files are missing? Theres only one reason for that and thats so that other mod authors don't learn their "secrets". And this is for free mods never mind paid ones. I bet if there was some way to encrypt or "DRM-ify, to use Dark0ne's phrase) a mod so other authors couldn't read their contents I bet they'd do that too. Share techniques sure, but their completed work? That off limits sonny. Same as any other piece of software.

[Amyr]

Paid Mods will never become a thing. You simply can't sell a mod without giving at least half of the profit to Bethesda.

They will never let the modders to get 100% of the revenue. And because of that, I will always prefer donating over buying.

 

If you update your existing mod and try to sell it, it will become a problem.

If you combine your mods together and try to sell it, it will become a problem.

For this to work, the mod should be a genuine mod. Meaning, it's unique, it doesn't already exist, it's well designed. It's not some bullsht retexture for .99 cents, it has to be an actual MOD.

 

Would you guys still be against it if Valve didn't come up with updated mods? What if we had a brand new mod like Falskaar that adds so many things to your game. It's a huuuge mod and it's only $5. Wouldn't you guys just buy it? I know I would.

 

Like I said earlier, problem was that they were trying to sell already existing free mods for money, the ones we already use. Instead they should have come up with complete new mods.

[RurikNiall]

 

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.

 

But the fact remains that it would be far more profitable to throw together a bunch of swords that take you a couple of hours each that you can sell for $.50 - $1 than it would be to make something that takes months to create and requires you to get help from other people to provide models, textures, voice acting, scripting, or whatever skills you lack and who you would have to split the profits with.

[Deleted31005User]

I agree with what RurikNiall just said, if you expect a big mod like Falskaar to be a paid mod, then they would have to use nothing but original game assets or otherwise they would have to split their profits with whoever they used assets from.

Even simple house mods rely on many different modders resources, if that author needs to pay a % of hes own mod profits to all those other people who he borrowed those resources from, do you really expect lots of high quality mods to come out of that?

 

Now modding is a giant web of interconnected mods that all use stuff from each other, with paid mods that web will disappear, so in the end all you will get is junk mods for a quick buck that have no connection or relation to other mods at all !

If this is what you wish for, then by all means just keep preaching on how paid mods will make modding better then it is right now.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Guest

[Korodic]

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

Let the market sort them out. Chances are people will try to undercut each other if what they made was too easy to do or absurd.

[RurikNiall]

Because the market has done such a great job of sorting things like that out in the past, how do you think we ended up with microtransactions being an industry standard?

[soupdragon1234]

Paid Mods will never become a thing. You simply can't sell a mod without giving at least half of the profit to Bethesda.

 

Half of something is better than half of nothing, and as far as donations go well the beggars in town get more donations than the average mod author here I'll wager. I'm sure you happen to be the most generous donation giver on Nexus but you're in a minority.

 

For this to work, the mod should be a genuine mod. Meaning, it's unique, it doesn't already exist, it's well designed. It's not some bullsht retexture for .99 cents, it has to be an actual MOD.

 

What if we had a brand new mod like Falskaar that adds so many things to your game. It's a huuuge mod and it's only $5. Wouldn't you guys just buy it? I know I would.

 

Yes exactly, the market will settle down into those that are worth paying for and those that aren't. Don't know which one's to go for? Read or watch a review. Do you buy a game just because its on Steam and its New? I know I don't. I read at least half a dozen reviews, read some peer reviews and then decide if its worth it and if it is, I'll buy it. From the reviews of that mod Debut Pack I read I wouldn't have gone within a hundred miles of it either. But thats my choice as was theirs to market it in the first.

 

The dross that people don't want, well they'll end up in the digital equivalent of the bargain basement bin like anything else. At least with mods you get the chance to try them for 24hrs, good luck getting a refund for a game on Steam you purchased and decided you don't like it.

[Synsarah]

 

I copied the below from a reddit friend. i don't type very well and my english isn't very good but it says my arguements as well. Thank you

my current position I need to use around 7 programs and hours of my time to make mods work. It is not a plug in and play experience unless you have an extremely low number of mods. If they somehow eliminated compatibility issues, bashed, LOOT,nifscoped and cleaned themselves <-- all actions through different programs I have to do in order to make a mod play nice with other mods and not crash my game. then mods would be ready for paid consumption.

My main issue as both a modder and a consumer is they are treating this like dlc when it is far from market ready.

This all doesn't touch on the legality ((Programs most modders use under free license's,)) Theft of work, morality and the impossibility of making a large mod with multiple people under the 25 percent issue. I am attempting to approach this from a market standpoint and not a community one because the arguments there are passionate but fall on deaf ears for those who want dollars and cents reasons.

For anyone that reads this thank you even if you don't agree I appreciate your time.

[chidosity]

I can take any mod from the Nexus, and in a matter of hours or weeks, make enough meaningful changes to it to make it unique enough as to arguably make it my own mod, available for sale. The reason that doesn't happen often at this point is that there is no serious motivation to do it. Once thousands of dollars are at stake, the motivation exists.

 

This is just one of many serious issues surround paid mods. Thinking that the only reason we want modding to be free is because we're a bunch of cheap 14yr olds is naive.