Why are Mods free?

[Reneer]

First we're not talking about software companies, were talking about members of the general public, making stuff for a game in their spare time with, in many cases, licensed assets taken from the original game or another licensed game and modified ...

 

Indie game developers are no different than mod authors, for one. Mod authors work in their spare time, as do (most) indie game devs. Mod authors use licensed materials (Fallout 4, Skyrim, etc) as indie game devs do (Unity, CryEngine). The only difference is indie game devs are allowed to sell their work, while mod authors get nothing.

 

And two, 95% of "real" game developers use licensed content in their games. Bethesda, for example, uses Havok Behavior (licensed from Microsoft), the NIF format (Gamebryo), the XWM / FUZ file formats (also from Microsoft) in their Creation Engine (which is itself the Gamebryo engine that they bought the source code to and tweaked a lot in house). And let's not even get started on using things like DirectX and OpenGL.

 

Thirdly, the licensor (Bethesda) of the content mod authors use is fine and dandy with mod authors selling their work (so long as Bethesda gets a cut). They tried to allow mod authors to sell their work in April 2015 but the system was halted by Valve (which is partly why we now have Bethesda.net so that Bethesda can have end-to-end control over mod hosting and distribution). This is no different than an indie game developer using Unity to make their game and then selling that game and giving Unity Technologies part of the profit.

Edited January 17, 2017 by Reneer

[Fkemman11]

In my experience on this earth, especially in this country (U.S.A.), any product or service of value will be exploited by SOMEONE to make a profit. I have seen a few exceptions to this. I just wonder if this will be one of them. The simple formula is this; Mod author wants to be paid for their work + I am willing to pay for it = a system of paid modding. I also suspect their are more people that fall into that simple formula than anyone might think. I will personally say that I am willing to pay for a mod if I like it and it is reasonably priced.

[MKSaibot]

Mods are free because charging money for a mod would violate Bethesda's policies/EULA. That's the primary reason (and not because it's a hobby).

Yeah, most definitely this. Skywind for example would have been released by now if modders/developers could be paid for there work. Skywind will release, its definitely going to happen, and there are modders that there work really wouldn't be effected by the money (too much). So the money part is irrelevant for some, but there are actually people that would pay developers/modders to work full time on a project, therefore something like Skywind would actually have even more production. Not to say i'd be some drastic change of production or anything, but it would definitely help. There is some tedious work, and a lot of busy people, money definitely doesn't hurt. Modding is really just a portfolio for some anyway.

 

Then you have those that are just really talented, have the free time, and legit just like doing it totally free. Though there is such a thing called donations. If you really like a well done mod that your going to put hours into, you probably should donate something.

Edited January 17, 2017 by MKSaibot

[Fkemman11]

“We believe most mods should be free. But we also believe our community wants to reward the very best creators, and that they deserve to be rewarded. We believe the best should be paid for their work and treated like the game developers they are.”- Bethesda official statement. What does that mean exactly? Are the contributions on this site the best answer?

 

​Ultimately , I think the decision should be in the hands of the mod author.

[Reneer]

If by contributions you mean donations, then not really. Most people don't even endorse mods here on the Nexus, let alone donate.

[Fkemman11]

If by contributions you mean donations, then not really. Most people don't even endorse mods here on the Nexus, let alone donate.

 

I endorse ALL mod authors-even if I don't like their mod or it has technical issues. I will start donating, even though I do not make much money. But, I see your point. It is a severe case of under-appreciation. Especially in the wake of console mods.

[steve40]

Not all mods are free. There are TONS of commercial mods for MS Flight Simulator and Prepar3d.

[Joglee11]

Because my BoS overhaul mod was made solely for my personal enjoyment, and I then released it to the public so they could enjoy it.

 

I don't need to be paid for something I did for myself.

[Moksha8088]

Mod free and beauty surrounds you
The world still astounds you
Each time you look at a star

Mod free, where no walls divide you
You're free as the roaring tide
So there's no need to pirate

[TheSpaceShuttleChallenger]

1) For legal reasons, modders can't sell mods of Bethesda's game (which use Bethesda's assets and run on Bethesda's engines) without Bethesda's permission. Bethesda and Valve (Steam's developers) have looked into ways to provide a legal, officially-supported means of distributing user-made mods to the general public. But Valve kind of screwed that idea by being the greediest middlemen ever. Now Bethesda is trying to develop Beth.Net as a way to distribute paid mods without Valve's interference, unfortunately, Bethesda faces the following problem:

2) When you're selling something rather than giving it away for free, you need a much stronger infrastructure to accommodate customer demands. If you pay money for a mod, you're going to expect a bunch of things that you don't currently expect for mods: For example, you're going to expect a good-quality preview and review system so that you know exactly what you're getting before you pay for it. You're going to expect mods to be supported. You're going to expect there to be quality control. At the same time, if the distributor holds mods to high standards, you're going to be mad if a certain mod doesn't make the cut. If you purchase a mod and you find out it's complete garbo, you're going to want to file a claim, have somebody review that claim and then issue you a refund. That's just the tip of the iceburg, but you get the idea.

So here's the question: Who's going to perform those services?

3) Mods have been (mostly) free for the past two decades. This gave genesis to a lot of entitled brats who think it's perfectly normal for strangers to spend hundreds of hours creating gifts for them. Every time somebody so much as peeps the word 'paid mods' they show up to scream and whine about how mods always have to be free and they're not paying money for anything. They don't really care that there might be practical reasons why compensating people for things that cost resources (time, energy, wear on computers and social lives) may be necessary if you want bigger, polished projects in a reasonable time frame. So if a somebody does try to implement a system for paid mods, they'll have to be ready to deal with a lot of whinging and possible disruption (protest-pirating, ddossing, etc) from people who simply don't want paid mods to be successful implemented.

Edited January 19, 2017 by TheSpaceShuttleChallenger