Paying for game mods

[Crzwaco]

I am seeing reports of people saying after one refund they can't use the market place for a week. So basicly if you bough a few mods you can only get a refund on on of them.

 

[DieGrootHammer]

[MENTION=20]Solitude[/MENTION], I'm with you on this issue. I honestly don't see this as the extremely damning thing that everyone is making out to be. People are so eager to jump onto the hive mind collective that is "paid-for mods are the worst thing ever". But I don't think it's as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Sure, there are some issues with the system, but all new systems have their growing pains. So many people are way to eager to complain the moment you try and change the status quo. How did people not complain the moment Steam was introduced to the world? People were livid and didn't want anything to change. Fast forward a few years later, and now everyone hails Steam for the amazing tech it is.

There's no real reason it start panicking and losing our minds just yet. No reason for all this negativity at all.

 

[Graal]

However it doesn't look like you read the Gamasutra article and its comments. The writer of the article specifically mentions that he is writing a mod and that he will be releasing it for free.

1 modder != the modding community. Lots of previously free mods have already been paywalled.

In fact he doesn't say anything like that. Can you please quote what he says to give you that impression?

He continuously laments the fact that modders don't make money off their mods, ignoring completely the fact that the average modder isn't going to make a lot of money off this at all. Bethesda and Valve are the only ones who will make any significant amount of money here, excepting maybe one or two top modders.

As for the Nexus article that you posted. I believe this reply answers it quite well: "The guys from Nexus mods have invested so much in their community and their site that they will have no choice but to take the side of everything staying the way it was."

I love how you completely ignore the content of the quote just so that you can undermine it by claiming the entire article is biased. Modders have pulled their mod resource packs out of fear of theft or unaothorized monetization. That's cold hard fact. Fact cannot be biased.

So if that is your issue then it's taken care of. Since there is a pay what you want option. Isn't that exactly the same as donation?

No, that is not the issue taken care of. How is paying something to unlock content the same as giving a voluntary donation if you liked something? Lol.

Like I said before, I have no issue with modders making money off their mods. What I have an issue with is Valve turning the modding scene upside down. What used to be a collaborative community-driven scene is now being turned into a competitive marketplace. That will only end badly. Though I guess if your only involvement in the modding scene is reading a Gamasutra article then you wouldn't see why this is an issue.

People need to look past the "waaah I don't wanna pay" and see the real concern that people are raising, which is how this will impact a modding scene that has been growing for more than a decade. It's very understandable that people are upset at the possibility of a complete change in how the modding scene operates. Selling mods for money runs counter to the modding culture established in more than a decade of existence.

 

[Solitude]

1 modder != the modding community. Lots of previously free mods have already been paywalled.

He continuously laments the fact that modders don't make money off their mods, ignoring completely the fact that the average modder isn't going to make a lot of money off this at all. Bethesda and Valve are the only ones who will make any significant amount of money here, excepting maybe one or two top modders.

No, what he is saying is that modders now have the option of selling their mods. And that it's not about the amount of money that will be made but rather that "there’s still nothing wrong with creators at least having the choice to set their own terms, and that’s all that Valve is trying to do here." Giving them the option.

I love how you completely ignore the content of the quote just so that you can undermine it by claiming the entire article is biased. Modders have pulled their mod resource packs out of fear of theft or unaothorized monetization. That's cold hard fact. Fact cannot be biased.

How many have done this? Also isn't it premature for them do pull their mods? People are scared without giving it a chance.

No, that is not the issue taken care of. How is paying something to unlock content the same as giving a voluntary donation if you liked something? Lol.

Did you miss the "Pay what you want" option that I quoted for you? You can try something out and pay what you want for it? If that is the option that the modder chooses. I don't see how that is different from a donation. Pay what you want.

Like I said before, I have no issue with modders making money off their mods. What I have an issue with is Valve turning the modding scene upside down. What used to be a collaborative community-driven scene is now being turned into a competitive marketplace. That will only end badly. Though I guess if your only involvement in the modding scene is reading a Gamasutra article then you wouldn't see why this is an issue.

People need to look past the "waaah I don't wanna pay" and see the real concern that people are raising, which is how this will impact a modding scene that has been growing for more than a decade. It's very understandable that people are upset at the possibility of a complete change in how the modding scene operates. Selling mods for money runs counter to the modding culture established in more than a decade of existence.

This reminds me of when rugby became a professional sport. Man, people were angry. Saying this will destroy rugby! In the end it didn't. It led to the game becoming much bigger than what it ever was. Money drives the game and the players go where the money is but the sport has become so much more. With players playing full time. The level of athleticism has increased tremendously. The same will happen now with modding. Some things will stay the same and some things will change. There will still be the collaboration and there will be a competitive marketplace.

It's exciting! We now have something that we didn't have before. Modders now have the chance to charge money for their mods should they want to. They couldn't do that before. But you'd prefer that they don't have that chance because it brings change. People are always so scared of change. I believe in trying things. See if they will work. I understand that most people do not like change though. They do not like new things. It's scary. It's out of their comfort zones. They like how things were. It makes the road to innovation difficult.

I say accept change. Give it a chance. If it doesn't work out then at least it was tried. Rather than stopping it before giving it any time at all.

 

[Tsar]

Bam and it has been taken down. Well soon anyway

http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop#announcements/detail/208632365253244218

Donations would be a tone better.

 

[Solitude]

Bam and it has been taken down. Well soon anyway

http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop#announcements/detail/208632365253244218

Donations would be a tone better.

Unfortunately it was never given a proper chance. People are too scared to try something new. Removing their mods not because they were used but in the fear that it will be used. It's a shame.

 

[Graal]

How many have done this? Also isn't it premature for them do pull their mods? People are scared without giving it a chance.

Did you miss the part where a mod using other modders' assets got pulled on the very first day?

0Did you miss the "Pay what you want" option that I quoted for you? You can try something out and pay what you want for it? If that is the option that the modder chooses. I don't see how that is different from a donation. Pay what you want.

How is being forced to pay to get access the same as being able to freely use something with the option to donate? The former requires money before you can use the mod, the latter does not. I'm not sure how you're not getting it.

It's exciting! We now have something that we didn't have before. Modders now have the chance to charge money for their mods should they want to. They couldn't do that before. But you'd prefer that they don't have that chance because it brings change. People are always so scared of change. I believe in trying things. See if they will work. I understand that most people do not like change though. They do not like new things. It's scary. It's out of their comfort zones. They like how things were. It makes the road to innovation difficult.

I say accept change. Give it a chance. If it doesn't work out then at least it was tried. Rather than stopping it before giving it any time at all.

And change needs to be gradual, not turning an established community on is head in a single day. Like I said, Valve's implementation of this system was terrible. People shouldn't launch Skyrim one day and find that all the mods they used yesterday don't work because suddenly you need to pay for them.

I'm glad they pulled the system entirely. They need to sit down and rethink it.

 

[PsychoFish]

Then this happened

http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-removed-paid-mods-functionality-from-steam-workshop/

We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree.

We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different.

To help you understand why we thought this was a good idea, our main goals were to allow mod makers the opportunity to work on their mods full time if they wanted to, and to encourage developers to provide better support to their mod communities. We thought this would result in better mods for everyone, both free & paid. We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZ, and Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it.

But we underestimated the differences between our previously successful revenue sharing models, and the addition of paid mods to Skyrim's workshop. We understand our own game's communities pretty well, but stepping into an established, years old modding community in Skyrim was probably not the right place to start iterating. We think this made us miss the mark pretty badly, even though we believe there's a useful feature somewhere here.

Now that you've backed a dump truck of feedback onto our inboxes, we'll be chewing through that, but if you have any further thoughts let us know.

 

[czc]