Why we can't use Patreon, and talking about donations and doing more to support mod authors

[sunshinenbrick]

I am pretty sure the word "modification" is older than computers. Older then Berne convention, as well.

Let us not forget that modding is actually short for "modification" which is as old as computers themselves... or even older in the broad sense of the term.

 

Sorry... :whistling:

 

I agree it is not obvious and difficult to put a finger on, which is why it is important to remain vigilant and not to assume what is 'imposed from on high' is the final word. We could also band together as there is a safety and power in numbers.

 

Together we stand, divided we fall. :smile:

[simtam]

But you know of Berne convention, don't you? Founded by our ancestors in XIX century. A lot of what goes on in the copyright law was established back then and perpetuates to modern times. Which is relevant, because nowadays the internet made the borders between countries somewhat less separating that they used to be, and it is the common denominator of these copyright laws, which governs our lifes - unless we're drilling down into particular cases.

[sunshinenbrick]

But you know of Berne convention, don't you? Founded by our ancestors in XIX century. A lot of what goes on in the copyright law was established back then and perpetuates to modern times. Which is relevant, because nowadays the internet made the borders between countries somewhat less separating that they used to be, and it is the common denominator of these copyright laws, which governs our lifes - unless we're drilling down into particular cases.

 

Yes, Europe, where it was signed, are still quite rigid about these things however America have been notoriously... shall we say, flexible, when it comes to these conventions, and especially recently regarding digital and online works - and as you say with the dissolving of borders.

 

There is also generally a lot of holes due to such legislation being written in a different age with ad-hoc additions being made to accommodate to technological change. Not only that but there are a lot of new bills, including SOPA, ACTA and TTIP that although have not been passed in full, have eroded the authority of such agreements over time.

 

Maybe change is not always for the better and perhaps we need to look to the past to help us in the future. It can be difficult to not shoot oneself in the foot however, as we have also benefited in many ways from deregulation and relaxing of rules. Its a difficult balancing act and with the complete shift away from the world of individual physical goods, its going to be interesting times.

[maximumguido]

Yeah complete reasonable, like how microsoft gets a cut of the profit on every program written for Windows, that happens right? Yep reasonable. Edited September 19, 2015 by maximumguido

[CardTaken]

In response to post #28662864.

Darole wrote:

... There is a small percentage of mods that are *almost* on par with an officially released/supported game. But most are not anywhere near that realm of quality.

I would say that there is a percentage of mods that are well above what was released as the game, in quality and content.
This is the very reason why mods exist, because people saw shortcomings in the game and sought to improve upon what the game itself had to offer.

Depends on how we're defining quality. Quality in terms of scope and design? Sure, I'll give you that, on a handful.

But no mod has the kind of support and bug-testing that a (good) company is going to have, simply because of resources (I say "good" because some companies botch releases and they get major flack for it). Game companies pay people to work support on their games and they pay experienced testing teams. Modders don't and would likely never have the kind of cash to do so (if they did, it would reach a point where they might as well be an honorary branch of the company whose game they are modding).

I mean, if modding becomes that big, then the people doing it might as well start their own companies and make indie games.

[fl3nxs2011]

thanks for nexus's great consciences for modders. here you could find the japanese bit-translation of this important nexus news.

http://anago.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/game/1430032881/375-381

 

about the crowd-funding for the personal mods and the Bethesda planning paid mod, both of them would involve various problems, i thought, might be caused some tragic things...

 

when it comes to the paid mod, and the forcing someone to donate or pay for mod,

= infered as the Fair-Use been not approved, if infringed

= gotten sued to hell by other copyright holders or police

 

in japan, July 2014, a female artist Ms.Rokudenashiko-san have been arrested by the Japanese police, by distributing the somewhat obscene 3D mesh data with using the "Campfire donation" crowd-funding systems. Sadly, this means, when it comes to the Skyrim mod, for example, the creating and uploading some adult mods of the CBBE or UNP or 7base Body or naked outfits something, with using the paid mod or crowd-funding system, would be becoming more too dangerous in some countries which have strict laws about the censorship of adult contents (in some europe, eurasia, asia, africa so on...).

 

well, about the paypal donation, currently it can not be available to send donations from singapore and japan, etc... So, how about adding the web-money point donation? (i don't hear any good reputation about the bitcoin and happened some it's incidents. otherwise, the web-money are very popular in japan). The web-money point is hard to re-exchange to the real money itself for personal, although, it's point can be freely used in steam to buy any desired games in many countries. Thus, the person, who lives outside of the paypal donation, would be able to send its point as donation for mod authors, and the mod authors would be helped freely to use it for purchasing games in steam or online game tickets. and more, it would be also connected for the help of entire game developers and industries. Although, i'm also a little mod author about tes, fo and other games, sometimes my created fansub mods to open public in other web site with spent many times, and personally, i'd never & not want to be rewarded any for my created mods.

Again, thanks for nexus's consciences, and this wise decision.

Edited September 19, 2015 by fl3nxs2011

[Gormghlas]

 

In response to post #28567949. #28568274, #28568494, #28571489, #28572304, #28575029, #28575269, #28593339, #28594674, #28596009, #28596734, #28602924, #28604599, #28614394, #28614759, #28620629, #28622439, #28622704, #28630589, #28630739, #28630799, #28630989, #28631099, #28649744, #28671734 are all replies on the same post.

 

"Typically speaking, you can't just turn a hobby into a job."

 

And yet millions of people do. They may be the lucky few, but there is nothing inherently 'illegal' with turning your hobby into a job. If someone will pay you to do something and that something is not against the law and hurts nobody (in a legally relevant sense), then you can very easily turn a hobby into a business.

 

===========================

 

With all conspiracy theories and corporate greed (or any old greed) set aside for the moment...

 

---We have here in the ether a version of the game itself, some far off empire (Beth) that pervades our thoughts with its walls that once felt comforting, various fiefdoms (incompatible Mod communities within Skyrim) and wandering bards who will sing longer and sweeter when tipped politely. Really, most of us simply do not possess the time in the day to become modders. We depend upon the services of these sword hands who produce all of this. We the tech-noobs (read myself here) rely on them and often tip when able out of respect for the time and effort put in to help all of us.

 

This quaint online village has those who mod, those who teach us how to instal or mod, and those who entertain by reporting same in video or forum. I end up feeling a bit like Breniun at times wishing I could get into the cool Modder Inn yet I just am not worthy and penniless... but if I could just get one more mod...

 

Those few, those happy few, who can roll up the sleeves upon Upload day and show their scars of de-bugging and packaging their mods in simple NMM scripted loads. Nexus is the equivalent to going to the farmers' market rather than the supermarket (the Coop for Gopher's sake).

 

Minecraft. What is the draw of the simple low-rez Minecraft? Everyone has simple easy tools to mod from the get-go, Skyrim et al is simply beyond most of us... yet we love Skyrim and such ilk for their ability to be tweaked.

 

So, in closing, I need to go tip people it seems, and hope, they continue to feel inclined to mod and amaze me... and I just don't have a problem with that concept.

 

In the meantime, I guess I could always go finish my cool desert castle in MC...

 

 

 

[Grimisy]

Would it be possible to add a donation feature in to the nexus mod manger itself? The problem I have with donation to mod before a download is mods don't always work or they don't work very well and sometimes there not really what I wanted but it would be nice if u could put pay pale information into the mod manger software itself and give the moders the choice to ask for a user difine donation and/or feed back of the mod after about a week of using the mod so they could pay if the chose to this would improve the nexus by encouraging the modifiers to help users to get there mods working correctly.

[sunshinenbrick]

 

 

In response to post #28567949. #28568274, #28568494, #28571489, #28572304, #28575029, #28575269, #28593339, #28594674, #28596009, #28596734, #28602924, #28604599, #28614394, #28614759, #28620629, #28622439, #28622704, #28630589, #28630739, #28630799, #28630989, #28631099, #28649744, #28671734 are all replies on the same post.

 

"Typically speaking, you can't just turn a hobby into a job."

 

And yet millions of people do. They may be the lucky few, but there is nothing inherently 'illegal' with turning your hobby into a job. If someone will pay you to do something and that something is not against the law and hurts nobody (in a legally relevant sense), then you can very easily turn a hobby into a business.

 

===========================

 

With all conspiracy theories and corporate greed (or any old greed) set aside for the moment...

 

---We have here in the ether a version of the game itself, some far off empire (Beth) that pervades our thoughts with its walls that once felt comforting, various fiefdoms (incompatible Mod communities within Skyrim) and wandering bards who will sing longer and sweeter when tipped politely. Really, most of us simply do not possess the time in the day to become modders. We depend upon the services of these sword hands who produce all of this. We the tech-noobs (read myself here) rely on them and often tip when able out of respect for the time and effort put in to help all of us.

 

This quaint online village has those who mod, those who teach us how to instal or mod, and those who entertain by reporting same in video or forum. I end up feeling a bit like Breniun at times wishing I could get into the cool Modder Inn yet I just am not worthy and penniless... but if I could just get one more mod...

 

Those few, those happy few, who can roll up the sleeves upon Upload day and show their scars of de-bugging and packaging their mods in simple NMM scripted loads. Nexus is the equivalent to going to the farmers' market rather than the supermarket (the Coop for Gopher's sake).

 

Minecraft. What is the draw of the simple low-rez Minecraft? Everyone has simple easy tools to mod from the get-go, Skyrim et al is simply beyond most of us... yet we love Skyrim and such ilk for their ability to be tweaked.

 

So, in closing, I need to go tip people it seems, and hope, they continue to feel inclined to mod and amaze me... and I just don't have a problem with that concept.

 

In the meantime, I guess I could always go finish my cool desert castle in MC...

 

 

 

 

 

I have been thinking about this the past couple of days...

 

I think there has to be the mobility that an inexperienced and/or poor person has the opportunity to reach great heights and is not just stuck with mediocre and inferior prospects. At the moment we still have that, but if we are not careful it will be given away because we do not realise our own worth... someone else said something similar here and I think it is an aspiring message.

 

Going off on a little tangent...

 

A great deal of what happened at the time of the paywall seemed to surround the ideas that there can only be and simply are two classes of modder. There is some idea that brilliant and professional grade modders are just ejected into the world, knowing all, and never having used trial and error or asked anybody anywhere for help on anything. It has been said before but it is worth saying again, that we all stand on the shoulders of giants. They too who were the 'first', rarely did it alone, nor would they probably claim as much.

 

On the other hand we also have a popular sentiment that the world is just full of worthless parasites who will and can never amount to anything. Ugly truth is that at times we can all come across as 'entitled' or ungrateful, but what grinds is when arrogance surmounts to ridicule and the apparent attitude that some people are exempt from having fault... Me? No, I have never nor would I ever behave that way about anything!

 

Probably 95% (if not all) of us fall in between these two extreme (ideological) camps, the truth is always more colourful and complex than the battleground of the Internet makes things seem. Thank goodness.

 

If we cannot be open and honest with ourselves and others then all the blood, sweat and tears will be for nothing.

[gamefever]

I've made a living getting on 20 years as an Artist.

 

Does that count as turning a hobby into a paying enterprise?

 

You realize that on the internet that saying loses its validity. You now know a man that goes against that grain and now its just not so rare anymore.

 

As an Artist, I can personally tell you that the mod user's, interested parties, and damage control teams have all been hurtful to the creative parties involved.

 

I find some of the passages here to be very spiteful, poorly worded, and downright insulting.

Edited September 21, 2015 by gamefever