Steam introduces paid mods..Starting with skyrim.

[leelaa14]

So what do you guys think of this? to me it just seems like skyrim will be bloated with what are essentially micro transactions.
It seems like a lot more game will get the same treatment.
To me mods where to escape the devs ramming paid dlc down your throat and it now seems to have took a turn.

[Firearm2112]

Skyrim Nexus Mods all the way <3

[Goussy]

If they introduced paid mods then I don't think there should be a lot of them.

[brownninja97]

Not gonna end well, paymods has always been a rough topic. Being part of the racing community for a while there have been a few paymods which have cropped up and man have the creators taken a belting.

[leelaa14]

If they introduced paid mods then I don't think there should be a lot of them.

Well for the first day there  stacking up..

[Tagiau]

As someone called gopher said, it most likely will not be every mod. It most likely won't be your mods like UFO, Wet and Cold, mods like these mods that are very simple(in terms mods later on in this post). The mods that will most likely be charged for would be mods like Falskaar, and Helgen Reborn. Big adventure mods. Mods that can be called DLC. Well everything is dlc, but the newer term of dlc. In all honesty it won't be anything to worry about. 

 

 

I should say, there will be a lot of mods out, but the mods that are out you can get others that are the same for free, and those that are minor mods you have to pay for, will never be worth it. Nexus will always be the best site for smaller and larger mods. 

[Guest]

It will probably flop. No one will pay and everyone will hate the creators of them.

[The_Warbird]

Well first and for most, the skyrim dlc's are awesome ecept for heartfire but it was only 5 bucks so who cares, just don't buy it, youre not missing much. But you are right, if all the modders put up their mod's with a pay wall, it will make modding more difficult but you could also say that some modders have put so much time and effort into their mods that they should deserve some recompensation. But if those modders are true fans of the game they will consider their decision to make you pay for their content.

[leelaa14]

As someone called gopher said, it most likely will not be every mod. It most likely won't be your mods like UFO, Wet and Cold, mods like these mods that are very simple(in terms mods later on in this post). The mods that will most likely be charged for would be mods like Falskaar, and Helgen Reborn. Big adventure mods. Mods that can be called DLC. Well everything is dlc, but the newer term of dlc. In all honesty it won't be anything to worry about. 

 

 

I should say, there will be a lot of mods out, but the mods that are out you can get others that are the same for free, and those that are minor mods you have to pay for, will never be worth it. Nexus will always be the best site for smaller and larger mods. 

Sorry but nope. Wet and cold mod is on there for £3 and there are other mods on there that are literally what we would class as micro transaction if the dev had published them, see for yourself.

Edit, I would like to say though that yes, if any mods are worth buying it would be the big adventure ones..but already it doesn't look to good.

[Remilia]

Honestly I don't like the concept of mods being sold freely. If anything I'd rather see something like Dota 2's model where cosmetics have to be approved before they can be sold.

Personally I think giving modders a proper page for themselves and the option for donations would be better.

[rmac52]

Is it going to be comunity created apps or dev created mods? If it's comunity created mods then I don't mind. People deserve to be compensated for there hard work and I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for a good mod.

[Kevin_Walter]

Well, Isoku still has Wet and Cold on the workshop for free... It's labeled under his files as "Wet and Cold (free)"... and it's still on the Nexus.

 

So for him, it would seem as though he's using the system sort of like a donation option. I'm okay with this.

 

What I'm not really okay with is people removing previous free mods and making them paid-only... it's a dick move. 

 

As for the armors and weapons and such that people want pennies for... I don't care. I won't buy them anyway, and I doubt most other people are willing to either.

 

The biggest issue is going to be copyright infringement. What's to stop people from just ripping Geralt's armor from The Wild Hunt and loading it up as a $5 mod? Valve and Bethesda need to be careful with this... and yet they said in the announcement that it's a "free market" and neither company is curating it.

 

I'm surprised Bethesda would open things up that much, considering their past of frivolous litigation and arbitrary rules...

[ThomasD]

Allowing independent content creators to sell their products through steam sounds like a decent idea.  But could prove to be more hassle than it is worth for Valve - people are not going to be as forgiving of bugs, flaws, and conflicts once they are paying for something.

[The_Warbird]

Well, Isoku still has Wet and Cold on the workshop for free... It's labeled under his files as "Wet and Cold (free)"... and it's still on the Nexus.

 

So for him, it would seem as though he's using the system sort of like a donation option. I'm okay with this.

 

What I'm not really okay with is people removing previous free mods and making them paid-only... it's a dick move. 

 

As for the armors and weapons and such that people want pennies for... I don't care. I won't buy them anyway, and I doubt most other people are willing to either.

agree

[ChineseChef]

Allowing independent content creators to sell their products through steam sounds like a decent idea.  But could prove to be more hassle than it is worth for Valve - people are not going to be as forgiving of bugs, flaws, and conflicts once they are paying for something.

 

I see this as the biggest hurdle.  When the mods are free, there is an understanding that it might not work.  When it is paid, in the steam store, there is an assumption that it WILL work. There is an assumption that bugs will be fixed.  And the game companies are going to be the ones to suffer, because most purchasers are likely to associate the bugs and bad mods with the game itself, not with whichever developer it was. 

 

I can also see the copyright becoming an issue.  There is no point in suing people who are making free mods and don't have money to take.  But once you are selling something, you are wide open for litigation.  Will the Thomas the Train mod be able to stay?  What about other blatant copies?  Companies may try to go right after Valve/Steam or the game producer, since they are the one allowing the sale and profiting from it.  The mod creators will likely have to start using a lot of their real name/info since they will be taking money. 

 

I am curious to see how this will stand up.

[Commander Llama]

In theory, neat, especially the "pay what you want" option for modders that have worked their butts off on great content and loyal fans can toss them a dollar.

 

In practice, will probably be horrible.  The average layperson is probably worse at pricing their own content than Activision.

[Blebekblebek]

you should look up dota

the content most of all, are fan-made

it's very well manage and everything available at store or even marketplace (for cheaper price, since they also dropped in-game)

 

however my main concern

1. game life cycle, many games are not even so alive, few months after released.

2. Who will QC those mods? and since the modder get paid they should always have responsibility to fix what's broken, are they willing to do that.

3. They could do it without steam or valve
.

 

probably this will encourage modders to make very good mod for big games, instead making indie games and green light it.

also games dev/publisher could make more money if the games stay in light spot for long time, I know good game with mods always stays on top list, and funny thing is, most top games by valve were made from mods.

[blackadder]

I went back to pc gaming because of mods, so do i get my money back if they conflict.

[Guest]

I'm going to make an example from some music I recently download. Gramaitk has made all of his music free and doing so may just earn him an extra £20 because I'm tempted to donate, but I never would have bought the album.

I can see similar situations to this happening. If mods are no longer free then the pirated mod trade will get worse than the pirated game trade.

[EChondo]

Well, Isoku still has Wet and Cold on the workshop for free... It's labeled under his files as "Wet and Cold (free)"... and it's still on the Nexus.

 

So for him, it would seem as though he's using the system sort of like a donation option. I'm okay with this.

 

What I'm not really okay with is people removing previous free mods and making them paid-only... it's a dick move. 

 

As for the armors and weapons and such that people want pennies for... I don't care. I won't buy them anyway, and I doubt most other people are willing to either.

 

The biggest issue is going to be copyright infringement. What's to stop people from just ripping Geralt's armor from The Wild Hunt and loading it up as a $5 mod? Valve and Bethesda need to be careful with this... and yet they said in the announcement that it's a "free market" and neither company is curating it.

 

I'm surprised Bethesda would open things up that much, considering their past of frivolous litigation and arbitrary rules...

The thing is that Isoku isn't updating the free version of his mod, same with Chesko with his Arissa mod. The paid versions are at version 2.0 while the free versions are at 1.4 and 1.3 respectively.

 

I'm totally fine with having a paid and free option, but not when the free option is outdated.

 

I see this as the biggest hurdle.  When the mods are free, there is an understanding that it might not work.  When it is paid, in the steam store, there is an assumption that it WILL work. There is an assumption that bugs will be fixed.  And the game companies are going to be the ones to suffer, because most purchasers are likely to associate the bugs and bad mods with the game itself, not with whichever developer it was. 

 

I can also see the copyright becoming an issue.  There is no point in suing people who are making free mods and don't have money to take.  But once you are selling something, you are wide open for litigation.  Will the Thomas the Train mod be able to stay?  What about other blatant copies?  Companies may try to go right after Valve/Steam or the game producer, since they are the one allowing the sale and profiting from it.  The mod creators will likely have to start using a lot of their real name/info since they will be taking money. 

 

I am curious to see how this will stand up.

It isn't illegal when the owner of the IP, in this case Bethesda, fully supports this and is even praising this on their social media pages. Right now the revenue is a 25/75 split, 25% of the money goes to the modder while the other 75% goes to Valve/Bethesda.

 

Anyway, any modder that has some decency would have a pay and free version or just setup a donation page and link it to your Nexus and/or Steamworkshop page.

[ThomasD]

...

I can also see the copyright becoming an issue.  There is no point in suing people who are making free mods and don't have money to take.  But once you are selling something, you are wide open for litigation.  Will the Thomas the Train mod be able to stay?  What about other blatant copies?  Companies may try to go right after Valve/Steam or the game producer, since they are the one allowing the sale and profiting from it.  The mod creators will likely have to start using a lot of their real name/info since they will be taking money. 

 

I am curious to see how this will stand up.

Agreed.  Valve can try to pretend that they are not responsible for what gets sold, but not when it's their website AND they are taking a substantial (heck, any) cut of the proceeds.

 

There will also be the problem of people who might not even fully understand that their mod could contains somone eles's content.  And if that content was actually licensed rather than given away, then there will be issues.

 

But I still applaud Valve for giving it a shot.  It could end up growing into something much bigger than anyone might expect.  Look at where the mods to Half Life ended up - creating entire market - both on Steam, and other websites - for Team Fortress 2 gear.

 

 

What I'm not really okay with is people removing previous free mods and making them paid-only... it's a dick move. 

Not sure how much this will happen, or if it will even work should they try.  The most successful mods are successful because they've already been downloaded - so the demand for them is mostly diminishing. 

 

Also, unless the existing versions have lcensing agreements aren't they in the public domain?  Current mod sites like Nexus and such have a code of conduct, but isn't that ultimately voluntary?.  What is to stop you from legally giving away copies of most any mod you already posses?

 

Not to say that those things are the issue, just that those sorts of things will tend to keep the market for pay mods, and their prices rather low.  What it may do is encourage modders to make the move to bigger projects, the kind we tend to call DLCs.