We do not want the company-developed mod makers.

[Reneer]

It's quite the restriction if you want to create a large project, monetize it and invest into it purchasing assets, paying artists and voice actors etc. Actual game development is slightly different than modding someone else's game. Certainly requires more responsibility/ is more risky you know?

I'm totally in agreement with you. But Bethesda was willing to get rid of that restriction. It's not their fault a bunch of entitled players raised a big stink about it and Bethesda's partner in the program killed it without really consulting them.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Reneer

[Jeoshua]

Basically, I think that the entire community has committed a Type A Error in assuming that paid mods would be a bad thing. The problem with the Paid Mods Fiasco on Steam was not that people could charge money for mods. Rather, the entire situation was just poorly handled, and the only party who was set up to truly prosper in that situation was Valve.

 

First, only a select few modders were allowed to post their mods as paid. These were just the early set of people, more Beta Testers, really, but but these slots were offered to the preeminent members in the community, and thus were immediately placed in an unfairly advantageous position.

 

Second, the amount of money that was being paid out was grossly skewed in favor of Valve. Further there was no limitations placed on how much money could be asked for, and the modders were allowed to price their own goods. Those two factors led to prices far in excess of what the mods could have costed, as the mod authors priced their offerings many times higher than the money they wanted to receive, in hopes that since they were only receiving a small slice of the pie, the higher price would mean that they would be more correctly compensated for their efforts. A similar situation occurs in the Health industry, where the Insurance companies pay out only a fraction of what they are asked, leading to situations like having a simple checkup and being charged hundreds of dollars that the Insurance companies refuse to fully pay.

 

Third, and finally, when these problems became apparent, they pulled out. They could have fixed these errors, as none of this is insurmountable or truly a problem inherent in the idea of people being able to sell things they make. This has been a list of errors, and this was the final one. Everyone in the community hated the way it had been set up, and their response was to throw out the baby with the bathwater, issue apologies, take their ball, and go home. That's the worst error, of all.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Jeoshua

[tartarsauce2]

also don't forget the most important thing
everyone hates microtransactions
honestly who's trying to buy stuff every 30 seconds instead of play the game? remember deadspace 3?
I suggested bundles of mods for DLC
I've mentally addendum'd "plus free mods that are smaller, flavour changes etc" of stuff like weapon balance or whatever
making it charge for consoles only
remove bethesda.net as a free for all uploading scheme
generally though the consensus was do it right or not at all (with no leeway for "trying hard")
would definitely favour more popular modders though and would require bethesda to be willing to leave nexus alone :>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microtransaction

it'd be one step away from total consignment as bethesda's cash cow and plebeian peasant slaves to an enclosed pasture but it'd be one step away still at least
remember that it's not just all about the allure of gold, but about a community, the only reason this is getting traction again is the theft of mods thing too - which is about disrespect
soon as you put money into the equation theft isn't about respect it's about sticking it to bethesda

and you've now put a pricetag on the thing, you've monetized it in a "petty" way (irritating manner) the community in a way that far from being a genuine reflection of good quality works/popular works, turns it into a rat race, and any respect is thrown out the window at that point for anyone, it's now just a commodity IE: it turns into "sorry nothing personal it's just you or me and the wallet"

but a bundle package of DLC, now there's a different story, I can't put my finger on it, but the irritation goes away, the price to value is probably more reasonable too... the blood boils less

think about it, how many mods do you go for, if you go for 40, imagine 10 being paid mods, how much would they cost, would you value or cherish going through 10 individual things that you've paid for, or having to go through 50 different things just to figure out if they're worth buying?
or would you be sick of the whole thing and either ignore the entire thing, killing the advertising base of it (beth.net already has a glurge of stuff that's disorganized and irritating but it's free so the edgy teen crowd is all over that because they don't know better)

or would you maybe be interested in buying a good value package deal where maybe some things you won't be interested in but overall it's pretty good
and maybe some packages can be... mmm more niche oriented

Edited June 9, 2016 by tartarsauce2

[Di0nysys]

 

snip

People who were used to years of free content suddenly found that they had to pay for some of it, hence the outrage. Although if we look at it from the positive side, it has caused BGS to sideline valve and now may be willing to offer a more fair paycut in case it re-introduces the system. Apple just slashed theirs on the store to 15%.

 

@Jeshua

These and other issues. The entire launch was poorly handled. It's been gone over many times now.

Before they do paid modding, they gotta fix their broken platform, introduce a more functional forums, real moderation, actual punishments for thieves and then they can start thinking about paid modding. I have my doubts about that personally. I question the wisdom of risking all the goodwill behind them into paid modding again. But i could be wrong.

[Blacksage81]

Modding to me means that there are things that I want in my game, and I will put them there. If I choose I will then share it with the community. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Jeoshua]

These and other issues. The entire launch was poorly handled. It's been gone over many times now.

Before they do paid modding, they gotta fix their broken platform, introduce a more functional forums, real moderation, actual punishments for thieves and then they can start thinking about paid modding. I have my doubts about that personally. I question the wisdom of risking all the goodwill behind them into paid modding again. But i could be wrong.

 

 

Yes, we can only be aware of these problems in hindsight, after much dissection of the issues. In order to work (and TF2's hats and UE's community both prove it can), it has to be handled very carefully. It has to be done by a party which can foresee these issues, and the only way to do that is by learning from the past.

 

I'm not sure that Zenimax would even allow it be handled correctly, tho. These are the same people who preemptively sued Notch when he tried to copyright the very word "Scrolls", tho... so maybe they do have foresight.

[yzerman19]

When they start charging for mods, I am just going to pick up my ball(s?) and go home. Just revert to old games like Skyrim, FONV, Oblivion, etc...when mods used to be fun to use.