Why does bethesda host PC mods?

[tartarsauce2]

To be fair, although Bethesda games are much easier to mod and can have more advanced things done, people will mod pretty much any game, regardless of how much its creator facilitates or hinders modding. Bethesda's stance and their subsequent design choices and CK releases allow for greater things in the FO4 modding community, but there would be modding even without it. Not that I'm ungrateful for their facilitating our hobby, but they don't deserve by any means to be hailed as gods for publicly releasing what they supposedly use themselves.

 

@tartarsauce2, I realize my post didn't exactly convey what I wanted it to. I meant to say that Bethesda having control over the platform makes them pretty much judge, jury and executor over what modders can make. Having 3rd party sites, such as the Nexus or Lovers' Lab, allows modders the freedom to make and publish content that isn't Zenimax-approved.

I'm aware, and I agree, these are valuable things, interference with that situation holds negative value to me, the criticism "my only gripe is it's empty and it's not really fallout" sticks to mind, the usual argument about it's their IP and they can do whatever they want etc, doesn't work either because a phenomenon has life beyond the authorial intentions, and the original games set a tone to it that the other stuff is completely reliant on, and potentially derivative (lesser copycatting) of if things get bad enough

 

 

Free mods will always have a quality limit. Because unless someone gets paid to go beyond the level of "fun hobby on the weekend", the quality of mods will always be limited.

 

That is nonsense. A professional game programmer, working at Bethesda no less would not require help for a weekend modder to code so you dont get wet in the rain.

 

giving money to people does not appear to improve the quality of products since it requires a conditionality, if bethesda taps into the console pleb market where they don't know better about the wide world of open systems like PC's and what they can do (admittedly with less convenience) then they'll be taken advantage of, and true to form for any group trying to control something and harvest people's efforts and value - it's important to keep the cattle unaware of the world beyond the barn stall more or less ;)

after all, game are expensive, if you can milk a cash cow for all its got then when it's spent up you can send it to the slaughterhouse to recoup any losses/get extra gains

and don't worry about morality arguments, corporations aren't people :p

 

also, if a professional game programmer doesn't need help then why'd someone else have to come up with it first? :p

[lelcat]

 

giving money to people does not appear to improve the quality of products since it requires a conditionality, if bethesda taps into the console pleb market where they don't know better about the wide world of open systems like PC's and what they can do (admittedly with less convenience) then they'll be taken advantage of, and true to form for any group trying to control something and harvest people's efforts and value - it's important to keep the cattle unaware of the world beyond the barn stall more or less :wink:

after all, game are expensive, if you can milk a cash cow for all its got then when it's spent up you can send it to the slaughterhouse to recoup any losses/get extra gains

and don't worry about morality arguments, corporations aren't people :tongue:

 

also, if a professional game programmer doesn't need help then why'd someone else have to come up with it first? :tongue:

I don't get the cow thing. If a modder sells a mod for 5€ and he gets 1.5€ out of it then that is still better than getting nothing. Also if money is involved everything changes. The quality expectations are much higher. Got spelling error in a quest? Some npc running into wall? a tree floating in the air? Customers will rain hellfire on your ass for that. There is a market for topshelf modders that are too skilled to do stuff for free, but who are too busy in their day jobs to work on games. Paid mods put them in the market.

 

Nexus is making money off modding for a decade now. Why should modders behave like vampires seeing a crucifix when money is involved? Nexus is milking the modders like cows. Bethesda wants to give the cows a share of the milk they sell.

[EmissaryOfWind]

 

Nexus is making money off modding for a decade now. Why should modders behave like vampires seeing a crucifix when money is involved? Nexus is milking the modders like cows. Bethesda wants to give the cows a share of the milk they sell.

 

 

I think you largely overestimate how much money the Nexus makes. Afaik, the ad revenue is just barely enough to support the server fees and the livelihood of the people who work on it full-time. Most of the "employees" of the Nexus are volunteers, and aren't paid a dime for their hard work.

[lelcat]

 

 

Nexus is making money off modding for a decade now. Why should modders behave like vampires seeing a crucifix when money is involved? Nexus is milking the modders like cows. Bethesda wants to give the cows a share of the milk they sell.

 

 

I think you largely overestimate how much money the Nexus makes. Afaik, the ad revenue is just barely enough to support the server fees and the livelihood of the people who work on it full-time. Most of the "employees" of the Nexus are volunteers, and aren't paid a dime for their hard work.

 

I don't believe that. If the Nexus were barely working out and the owner would make more money working as a janitor, then he would work as a janitor. Also making it look like you barely survive is the oldest trick in the book. But that is not the point of the discussion.

[EmissaryOfWind]

 

I don't believe that. If the Nexus were barely working out and the owner would make more money working as a janitor, then he would work as a janitor. Also making it look like you barely survive is the oldest trick in the book. But that is not the point of the discussion.

 

 

 

Have you considered that he might be passionate about what he's doing? Not everyone thinks money is more important than doing what you love.Living off of something you love, but with not a lot of money to spare, sounds better than making slightly more money at a job you hate.

 

edit: grammar

Edited July 2, 2016 by EmissaryOfWind