So Steam is allowing people to charge for user-created mods... rant or priase away...

So Steam rolled out paid Workshop mods for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today... I don't know what to think of this. The Internet is in an uproar over this.

It's great that good modders can finally make money off of their fantastic work but on the other hand, bad modders can take advantage of this and throw out piles of junk just to make a quick buck. Shovel-ware is one thing but shovel-mods? That sounds crazy and thankfully there is a solution which I will talk about below.

This could be bad for Nexus Mods. Why post a mod for free on the Nexus when you can go upload it to the Workshop and make money from it? All that Nexus would become is a place for adult mods that can't make it on the Steam Workshop because of adult content. I like the Nexus because it has a mod manager that works really well for me and makes mod installs/booting modded games much easier. We will have to wait and see how this affects Nexus Mods.

This also presents a huge, possibly destructive, problem: user-created piracy. The monetization of Skyrim mods means people can steal other's work and pass it off as their own and charge money for it. That is a real problem. Piracy runs rampant on many gaming platforms we love, but pirating user-created content isn't really seen on those systems. This opens up the doors to a whole bunch of legal problems. Are mods even covered by law? I thought charging for mods was/is illegal. Either way, courts are going to see people suing over mods more often now.

Despite all of these negatives, there is still hope. The Steam Workshop offers a 24-hour return policy if the mod doesn't meet your expectations or if the mod doesn't work properly. Personally, they should extend this policy to at least 48 hours, maybe 72 hours. This would give ample time in case you buy a mod but have Internet issues for longer than 24 hours and cannot return it in that amount of time.

I'm still divided on this, part of me says this is a good thing for gaming and another part of me says it's the worst gaming-related thing in a long time.

What do you guys and gals think? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

 

Good. This is the type of thing that Microsoft advertised for the XBox 360 prior to its launch. Content creators deserve to be paid. I don't like the 25-75 split going on, but its a start.

 

Yeah, the money split needs to change. A good option would be 50-50. 50% for modders, 25% for Valve, and 25% for Bethesda.

 

I'm definitely torn. I do think that some modders (like the ones that make massive conversions and extensive reskins and etc) should definitely be paid for their work, this could hurt the modding community as a whole. If you have to put money down towards a mod, how likely are you to download it for shits and giggles? Yes there's a return period, but in a game like Skyrim 24 hours is nothing.

And yeah, the user piracy needs to be dealt with conclusively (supposedly it's already happened with people downloading mods off Nexus and loading them to Steam for cash), but given Valve's customer support history, I doubt it will be dealt with.

And why does Bethesda get to give themselves 75% of the share? It's not like they have to patch the game to make the mods work, they're just...not suing?

 

Probably because content you create, which may just as well be yours, is being used in something that's not. Everyone wants their cut.

 

Yeesh, I was going to complain that mod creators shouldn't get a higher cut than game developers (typical 70% with 30% lost to distribution), but then I saw that they are only getting the 25% cut. That is truly insane.

 

I think the TESRenewal Project guys deserve some money for all of their hard work with Skywind and Skyblivion. I would pay money for a Morrowind remake in the Skyrim engine.

 

Modding isn't about making a profit, no matter how much effort it thrown in, it's a hobby.

 

I guess what I meant was they should receive money for their hard work, but not by making people pay for their mods on Steam. Many mod authors have Patreon accounts and PayPal donation links on their mods' pages. Paying for mods upfront leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I would pay money for Skywind if it was officially licensed and released as a stand-alone game, but I wouldn't pay for it as a mod for Skyrim.

It's 2 in the morning here so I'm probably tired and not thinking straight. I really wonder how this is going to turn out. If that petition I heard about gets enough signatures, maybe Valve would shutdown the monetization of mods program or at the very least make some serious changes.

 

Frankly the way I see it...modding a full expansion or making a total conversion? I can see getting some financial kickback for that. There's a lot of effort there if it's completely your team's work & the game's assets utilized to create it. But what's happening here is the new version of Horse Armor: small bits tossed out so you're nickle-and-dimed for really no content at all. Much of it probably won't work together, some of it's taken from other people, and overall there's no quality control done whatsoever.

On paper this is an amazing idea and could do some good. But it was brought out of the oven way too soon. A friend of mine pointed out for example what if someone takes a game that doesn't work on current versions of windows (in this case Vampire: The Masquerade) and then charges for an unofficial patch so it runs? It just needs a lot more thought taken overall.

 

Donations are fine, but a major corporation wanting to take a cut from modified assets is stupid.

 

Pretty sure everybody who created WADs way back when now owes id Software some backpay...

"Hey, you put in time and work editing OUR game. We want a cut." They are indeed making money from others work. User-created mods already bring in money because some people acquire the base game for said mods. It's big business as usual. Generate revenue from everything and everyone you can.

 

They should just add a donate button to every mod on the workshop. Nothing more. The quality control on these will be awful... They already have issues with steam greenlight.
I agree that everyone should be paid for their work but this is not the right way to do it.

 

It wouldn't be bad for the modders themselves.
Wouldn't it be cool, if you get at least a little money for your hard work?
Although, I doubt that I would ever spend money for mods, unless if it's something amazing.

Oh and if the game company receives such a big cut from your money, then they should really support and endorse modding.

 

Well a lot of folks are already making shouts of "lol piracy will happen", which is true in and of itself. It'll be interesting to see how it goes from here, but I genuinely think Valve needs to take this concept down, see what did and didn't work, and try it on a smaller scale *first*.

 

I guess Bethesda realized they're incapable of making games that aren't boring and clunky as shit, so they might as well make money off people who try to make them tolerable.

 

Although I actually think modders can be allowed compensation for their work....... I actually think a donation button would make sense more........ And Valve can still take a cut in it. I honestly thought that 75/25 split was 25 for Valve, 75 for the creator. Which is weird for me.

 

Well it looks like Valve has cancelled the paid Skyrim mods program. That was fast. They should just replace it with a donate button and call it a day.

 

Yep. Took them less than a week.

"We’ve done this because it’s clear we didn’t understand exactly what we were doing."

Only proves that if people wouldn't have spoken up, it would have continued. Now it'll just take some time for them to implement it somewhere smaller in a more discreet way.