When Beth wins, and mods cost money...

[PoliteRaider]

 

Donations are of course the first thing that comes to mind but as you said they dont really work. However I cant help but wonder if thats because the user isnt willing to donate or because the number of people using mods is low so the frequency of donations are low. Possibly its because what seems like, at least to me, the nexus' aversion to marketing donations maybe? Ive heard of mod authors being warned for mentioning users can donate or asking for donations which seems odd.

 

The terms of service have been clarified recently regarding donations. There's a link up in the top right of most pages to the terms if you want to take a look at them, but basically you can talk about donations so long as it's kept appropriate.

 

I've never had a donation, which is understandable since I'm a fairly minor mod author with only a few mods. I don't expect to have had any. It's not really a small number of users though. If we look at my decontamination booth mod, it was 4,527 unique downloads from nexus accounts. Out of them only 389 have even endorsed it and no one's donated.

[cossayos]

 

The terms of service have been clarified recently regarding donations. There's a link up in the top right of most pages to the terms if you want to take a look at them, but basically you can talk about donations so long as it's kept appropriate.

 

I've never had a donation, which is understandable since I'm a fairly minor mod author with only a few mods. I don't expect to have had any. It's not really a small number of users though. If we look at my decontamination booth mod, it was 4,527 unique downloads from nexus accounts. Out of them only 389 have even endorsed it and no one's donated.

 

 

I admit to being a leecher. Since I'm broke most of the times, I'm unable to donate most of the times. But if I like a mod and keep using it, I always endorse it. That's the least I can do, if someone provides me with a new fun element for my game.

[Alexotero1219]

 

 

What you said about self-publishing and publishers is 100% true and its why publishers are becoming more and more predatory. Just look at the business practices of publishers from machinima to EA and you'll see what im talking about. This is exactly why im urging mod authors to be wary about the monetization of their work. When your work is monetized predatory organizations will try to take advantage of you. This is not a case against paid modding but more words of warning. Also please dont count bethesda as a non-predatory company because they have proven they 100% are.

Would you stop exaggerating for a second? EA is not predatory. They sell stuff that you can buy if you want. Just because you follow that internet opinion cloud that EA is an evil cult does not mean it is true. You are being a predator too, working in your day job, doing it for the money and not for the "love" of it.

 

Yeah man you're right. EA isn't that bad they just constantly purchase smaller studios and gut them for profits because they cant make or publish good games, they just blatantly prey on consumer ignorance by putting two year entitlement clauses in origin so you'll end u having to repurchase all your games after two years because they totally think consumers don't rtfa. Thats just the two main grievances people have. Just googling EA's misconduct will produce a tidal wave of waste that will flow out from your screen crushing you.

 

Im not going to get into this with you but EA actually fits the definition of "predatory company" more closely than most venture capitalist firms tbh.

[lelcat]

 

 

 

What you said about self-publishing and publishers is 100% true and its why publishers are becoming more and more predatory. Just look at the business practices of publishers from machinima to EA and you'll see what im talking about. This is exactly why im urging mod authors to be wary about the monetization of their work. When your work is monetized predatory organizations will try to take advantage of you. This is not a case against paid modding but more words of warning. Also please dont count bethesda as a non-predatory company because they have proven they 100% are.

Would you stop exaggerating for a second? EA is not predatory. They sell stuff that you can buy if you want. Just because you follow that internet opinion cloud that EA is an evil cult does not mean it is true. You are being a predator too, working in your day job, doing it for the money and not for the "love" of it.

 

Yeah man you're right. EA isn't that bad they just constantly purchase smaller studios and gut them for profits because they cant make or publish good games, they just blatantly prey on consumer ignorance by putting two year entitlement clauses in origin so you'll end u having to repurchase all your games after two years because they totally think consumers don't rtfa. Thats just the two main grievances people have. Just googling EA's misconduct will produce a tidal wave of waste that will flow out from your screen crushing you.

 

Im not going to get into this with you but EA actually fits the definition of "predatory company" more closely than most venture capitalist firms tbh.

 

The last 10 EA games I bought were awesome. And are you sure Origin forces you to repurchase games every 2 years? Because I do not see that.

[Alexotero1219]

 

 

Donations are of course the first thing that comes to mind but as you said they dont really work. However I cant help but wonder if thats because the user isnt willing to donate or because the number of people using mods is low so the frequency of donations are low. Possibly its because what seems like, at least to me, the nexus' aversion to marketing donations maybe? Ive heard of mod authors being warned for mentioning users can donate or asking for donations which seems odd.

 

The terms of service have been clarified recently regarding donations. There's a link up in the top right of most pages to the terms if you want to take a look at them, but basically you can talk about donations so long as it's kept appropriate.

 

I've never had a donation, which is understandable since I'm a fairly minor mod author with only a few mods. I don't expect to have had any. It's not really a small number of users though. If we look at my decontamination booth mod, it was 4,527 unique downloads from nexus accounts. Out of them only 389 have even endorsed it and no one's donated.

 

 

I guess what im saying is that donations are talked about way more directly in other forms of content creation (youtube and twitch being the examples that im using.) I always personally wondered why donations arent mentioned on mod pages themselves or a prompt about donating isnt brought up every time one tries to download.

 

Out of curiosity what is your opinion on non-direct price point monetization? I personally think it could be possible for Nexus to force a video add to play before the download starts and then give that add revenue 100% to the mod author. I dont know exactly how add revenue on websites like this works but if its similar to youtube in anyway the video add itself would be a separate stream of revenue and I think most people would be willing to watch an add before each download so long as it wasn't super egregious and they knew that money was going to the author.

[Alexotero1219]

 

 

 

What you said about self-publishing and publishers is 100% true and its why publishers are becoming more and more predatory. Just look at the business practices of publishers from machinima to EA and you'll see what im talking about. This is exactly why im urging mod authors to be wary about the monetization of their work. When your work is monetized predatory organizations will try to take advantage of you. This is not a case against paid modding but more words of warning. Also please dont count bethesda as a non-predatory company because they have proven they 100% are.

Would you stop exaggerating for a second? EA is not predatory. They sell stuff that you can buy if you want. Just because you follow that internet opinion cloud that EA is an evil cult does not mean it is true. You are being a predator too, working in your day job, doing it for the money and not for the "love" of it.

 

Yeah man you're right. EA isn't that bad they just constantly purchase smaller studios and gut them for profits because they cant make or publish good games, they just blatantly prey on consumer ignorance by putting two year entitlement clauses in origin so you'll end u having to repurchase all your games after two years because they totally think consumers don't rtfa. Thats just the two main grievances people have. Just googling EA's misconduct will produce a tidal wave of waste that will flow out from your screen crushing you.

 

Im not going to get into this with you but EA actually fits the definition of "predatory company" more closely than most venture capitalist firms tbh.

 

They tried to do it a couple years ago. It was called the "re entitlement clause". Basically said if you were inactive for a certain amount of time your entitlements (games, purchases relating to those games like DLC or cosmetic purchase) would all be erased and you would need to repurchase them.

 

The amount of skeletons in EA's closet is waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too large to start talking about here lol I would personally rather stay on topic.

[iXenite]

 

Easier to have someone pay for a mod, download it, and then redistribute it freely on a PC. Doubt it will kill paid modding by any means but it will probably be a persistent problem with piracy no different than piracy of commercial software. Probably a little more prevalent because I can't think of a good way for Bethesda to guard against this, but they might find a way.

 

 

There is a fairly successful pirated games market for console games surprisingly enough, so I don't think piracy justifies why it will work. Maybe from a company perspective, but even then, it's a bit of stretch.

 

Considering how DLC has contaminated the games market for quite some time now and how many people on all platforms are getting fed up with it, I kind of doubt mods will take the same pay model as DLC. Which is exactly what paid mods will be compared to, whether people want it to or not.

 

I love mods (naturally, or I wouldn't be here) but let's face it - the troubleshooting forums do not exist for no reason. Mods are a bit fussy, and many console players will not be willing to pay money for something that will give them trouble. Remember, they bought a console for its simple plug and play mentality. Troubleshooting things, especially something they paid for, isn't really going to fly. Even really popular and high quality mods need compatibility patches and conflict with other popular mods. Paying for that experience is a lot to ask for, and I doubt many (even on PC) would want that. Just saying.

[cossayos]

 

 

There is a fairly successful pirated games market for console games surprisingly enough, so I don't think piracy justifies why it will work. Maybe from a company perspective, but even then, it's a bit of stretch.

 

 

 

Market, as in being paid? Or sharing free of charge?

[iXenite]

 

Market, as in being paid? Or sharing free of charge?

 

 

Free of charge. There are torrent sites out there that provide cracked versions of console games, which are in turn playable of "jail broken" consoles.

[NorthWolf]

 

There is a fairly successful pirated games market for console games surprisingly enough, so I don't think piracy justifies why it will work. Maybe from a company perspective, but even then, it's a bit of stretch.

 

Considering how DLC has contaminated the games market for quite some time now and how many people on all platforms are getting fed up with it, I kind of doubt mods will take the same pay model as DLC. Which is exactly what paid mods will be compared to, whether people want it to or not.

 

I love mods (naturally, or I wouldn't be here) but let's face it - the troubleshooting forums do not exist for no reason. Mods are a bit fussy, and many console players will not be willing to pay money for something that will give them trouble. Remember, they bought a console for its simple plug and play mentality. Troubleshooting things, especially something they paid for, isn't really going to fly. Even really popular and high quality mods need compatibility patches and conflict with other popular mods. Paying for that experience is a lot to ask for, and I doubt many (even on PC) would want that. Just saying.

 

 

Not questioning that there is a piracy scene for console games. It's also difficult to quantify the degree of piracy that takes place on any given platform but I think it's not a stretch to say: it is much easier to pirate a game on your PC than it is on your console. In the former version you torrent the game and hopefully it doesn't have viruses. In the case of consoles we're talking about a higher barrier to entry as you usually have to hack your console into cooperating with you. I'll recognize in advance it's not difficult but it tends to be "dangerous" enough that a lot of console users will just steer clear to avoid bricking their box.

 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by DLC contamination but I can try to talk about the potential pay model for mods. I don't see why they can't take the same pay model, honestly, provided their pricing is a lot more reasonable and accounts for the fact that they're not being distributed by a reputable company but instead by an independent author and that their end users are taking a significantly higher risk by comparison. If paid mods take a reasonable pricing scheme I could see them working, i.e. $0.49 to $4.99 depending on scope and content, I could see myself paying for them if Bethesda is actually giving a reasonable portion to the mod author. Otherwise it's hard to justify paying for the content.

 

 

 

As to your final point, I think I mostly agree. I think console users will still purchase mods, but I think they'll get frustrated when they start having bad experiences and having to deal with the technicalities of modding. Not meaning this in a "console users suxx they can't do anything because they is simpletons" kind of way so much as that they won't really have the tools to fix it. Something breaks? You don't have the developer console to fix them. You don't have as powerful a set of tools to handle your saves. You don't have the ability to download utilities to help fix it. You're just stuck.