Noobfeed Writes: "SkyUI is the first of likely many essential mods that have put themselves behind a paywall, and only time will tell which mods will follow the same path."
People think this will be a good thing eventually but it will not. People act as if the mods will also drastically improve but they won't. It will cause a lot more mods to be thrown at a game and most will be equally worthless. Wading through all the trash to find the diamond will be even more problematic. Mods for money rather than love of the game. Devs that are already lazy and complacent leaving more work to mod makers. Yes that has success written all over it.
I would like to see The Witcher devs step forward and block monetization of mods.
Well they're releasing their own modkit, but it's up to Steam how they work it out. Maybe they can allow mod hosting on GoG (owned by the guys who own CD Projekt Red).
Before Witcher 3 i'm positive they would block monetization of mods, but currently i'm not sure. The only way to know is to see what happens when the game releases.
CD Projekt and/or the 6 publishers can forbid the monetization regardless of the delivery platform, including Steam. Monetization of mods on any game isn't the decision of Valve and Steam (unless they own the game property) but rather the relevant IP holder.
Pretty sure there are already hundreds of shitty Skyrim mods out already. That's what sorting functions are for
As much as people are upset, I also support modders who have spent countless hours making our game more fun and are now asking for a little bit of money. People are throwing stones at them as if we're all entitled to their mods.
Also, being paid for something is more incentive to make sure the mod stays good/becomes better to keep the income comings, rather than trying to fix things for free and having angry people tell you how much you suck all while they still use your mod.
I also support mods. That is why nexus smartly has a donation application. Then good work can be freely rewarded and monetary compensation is truly earned.
They are not "asking" money for mods..they are "demanding" money for their mods. Big difference. If they wanted to ask for money, go with the route of tips and donations. Demanding money for mods is pathetic and toxic to the PC gaming community, no way to spin that into a positive at all.
SKYUI has been around for quite some time. I'm sure they have gotten their fair share of donations at this point. I have the latest version, so I guess their gonna add some petty stuff to justify an update purchase, no thx.
first I'm not a PC gamer, but I do make content and freely distribute it online (webcomics) I am currently testing taking my work to a convention and selling it as a physical release, yet am continuing making the webcomic and keeping it free. There is a big difference between greed (taking something once free and charging for it) and trying to make a living doing what you love (making something a bit more professional and offering it to those interested, while not shutting out the many that love your stuff) Again as said this isn't a exactly similar situation, but I think it is a bit low to take something away and force people to pay to enjoy what was once free. Those modders should instead use their mods as a way to show what they can do and find some like minded people and make a game, use the mod to reach an audience and try to kickstart something, instead of being drug dealers (first times free...)
The newest update is already on pirate sites, as a matter of fact so are all the now pay for mods, I get my mods from nexus tho , steam is a pile of junk for mods. This new idea of paying for mods on steam will die a fast death, no one will pay for them, especially considering the modders only get 25% of the money.
"eople who claim to "not understand" the backlash are either being cute in an attempt to make a point or are blessed with an incredibly short memory. Much of what now costs money in gaming used to be just a part of the experience. Some monetization is to be expected, but if you can look at the state of DLC, paying for the privilege of playing your games online and companies creating more and more vectors for DLC injection and be happy with the situation, I don't know what to say.
PC and mods have gone hand in hand since day 1. Mods have fixed broken games that have become known as the best the platform has to offer, from Arcanum to Baldur's Gate II to Oblivion. Bethesda allowing this for their games is particularly abhorrent, as much of the enjoyment out of every single one of their games has come from the long shelf life provided by modders.
Modders like Oscura have made careers out of their abilities and naturally formed fanbases. OOO saved Oblivion and Bethesda hired him. Very often, modders like him would create things that would be much better than anything the base team could come up with.
Just as often, though, they would create something that would break your game and you'd have to either uninstall or fix it. But hey, they were free, so no worries. Now, unlike say, DLC on XBL, there is no quality control and a price tag. Valve cannot reasonably test every mod that goes up for sale. But they can still make money off allowing the sales of broken mods through their service.
If you're still "confused" as to what the big deal is, Valve has essentially set up an easily abused system of monetization, with no possibility of oversight, no possible repercussions for people selling broken mods and no actual benefit to the end user. Combine that with their legendarily bad customer service, the immediate censorship that took place following the decision and the fact that this flies in the face of the very heart and soul of PC gaming as it has always stood, and maybe some of the "confusion" will start to fade."
Nobody is/was forcing modders to create stuff. It was about the love and joy of creating and sharing cool content and improving everyone's experience, as a community.
Now it will just be about greed.
Also, your comparison makes no sense. People work to make a living, so when they stop getting paid, they'll find another job.
Great logic there. Now instead of game devs actually finishing games, like bethesda and their "completed" games. now they can just release even more half-assed games and have us pay for mods to make it "better".
Yes, that is exactly what's going to happen. Games are only going to get rough geometric shapes as characters and will now cost 400$ a day to play. Gaming is ruined, the past time you know and love is dying. All because an artist wanted to get paid for their work.
If these artists wanted to get paid, they wouldn't be making mods and distributing them for free in the first place. No one asked for mods to be paid for, probably not even the modders expected this.
Actually, yes a good amount of modders have wanted this for a while. Most modders modders would like to spring into a full on career but this industry is VERY hard to crack into.
@Fireseed: OMG, you ARE that thick. No one was making a living off of mods. This was never anyone's job. Until now you couldn't sell mods, so your examples are not even close to being the same thing. Mods were always a gesture of good will from devs to the gaming community, modders took advantage of that good will gesture and made the most out of it out of passion. There was never an expectation of making a living off it. Geez.
Tell that to the SOPA bill and Xbox 0ne policy reversals. Don't play ignorant, if a large mass band together it always affects something. However, it will typically take an extended period of complaints over time to get valve to reverse this. The people need to complain for weeks instead of jumping off it a week after.
"Pay what you want" seems like the perfect business model for mods. I'd probably throw a few bucks at SkyUI under that model, since it's become an essential part of Skyrim for me. But if they set a price that's above my limit, I'll just stick to the free version or rely on more underhanded means of acquiring the latest version.
Then that's what it all boils down to. Lets put it out there so the greed can be known. Is it for the modders benefit or actually because devs want money finally.
This is the start just like all the dlc and those games on the cell phone were u pay to beat the lvls this is the start so please pc community don't buy it to let the test flop speak with your wallet do not spend money on mods. Sadly gaming is heading down a dark path..
" but I thought I'd let you know to get you hyped up a little. Anyway, gotta run now!” lol this guy is an idiot, how anyone will be hyped up to pay for something is free. modders should get money but not like this.
The only problem I see with this is the "unknown". We know that valve and the game developer take 75% in total. Which 25% to the game developer for the use of their IP, 25% to valve for hosting the material on their server and offer the pay infrastructure, and 50% to the mod developer would be more fair.
But with that said, you have a choice not to buy a mod, or rather a fan created dlc now. You are not entitled to anyones job for free if they don't want to make it free. I got firends that make their living on making skins and couriers for DOTA 2 and they make a good living doing what they love. It is great for both them and Valve.
I doubt this will last long. Mods were fine as long as people weren't making money off them. Now that modders are charging money, it's only a matter of time before the devs and publishers crack down on them.
If a team of people spend hundreds and hundreds of hours modding something , why shouldn't thay get some sort of kick back . One thing I have sadly noticed is how selfish a lot of so called gamers have gotten . This makes me sad :(
Giving money to a creator is fine, but being forced to give segmented money to valve and the creator getting paid a quarter of what they make to enjoy their work is not fine. The big picture is not that people can't pay it, it all lies on the ripple effect and how this will/affect other modding sites now. 6000 mods were removed from nexus out of fear of theft of uploading the mod to the workshop and making bank off the creators work. The creator has no way to prove they made the mod and by the time it's removed the uploaded already has money.
To add to this most of the mods you come across are made by 1 guy in his spare time when he's not working at his actual job. Don't expect a salary for something you enjoy because chances are you won't enjoy it for long
For one thing i never said all gamers. Ok valve are being greedy SOB ,but i still think some modders deserve some sort of incentive to continue modding. This is capitialism my Ass,someone spends thousands of hours on something , tens of thousands of people use it for tens or hundreds of hours and abit of praise from someone thay will never meet,you think thats fair? I do think the developer of the game should also get apiece of the pie. In this day and age when some stupid cat video can generate huge amounts of cash on utube, paying a small fee to maybe get abit more life out of agame that is sitting in a draw ,is not to much to ask
Modders weren't sitting around thinking about the money they could make from it. When Skyrim came out, they saw stuff they wanted fixed and did it. They never expected money for it. Bethesda and many other companies never asked for money for a mod before. Mod tools were a marketing piece to sell a game to PC gamers. Now, years after SKYUI has been out, now they want money. F that.
Most modders do what they do because they enjoy it (and want the mod for their own use), or because they want to develop a good reputation within the community (or both). Others want to gain experience with which to break into the industry.
Money is a great incentive, but we should only embrace it if we can be sure it is going to deliver much better content for us at reasonable prices. As can be seen with other games which already allow payment (FSX, The Sims 3, L4D), the content is hardly any different, however everything comes at prohibitively high prices. Consumers lose, and we lose BIG.
The smart decision would have been for Bethesda to allow proven modders to release sizeable projects with prior approval for sale as optional DLC. That way we see more stuff like Falskaar and Enderal without seeing the utter destruction of the modding community in the process.
And your definition of "fair" is not the same as my own. Would I donate to good modders? Yes. Would I pay a few hundred microtransactions for things which may or may not be compatible with each other? Hell no.
Wow this is terrible! Valve really did destroy the modding community and what's worse is that Valve is getting a cut from their hard work when they can make a full profit from their own site!
Modders made mods out of love for the game. With no money to be exchanged, they could update and fix at their own pace. Yeah, buggy mods were an issue, but they wouldn't get attacked so much simply because it was a free thing. Now that it's paid content, they have to be on alert or face consumer backlash. They're also going to be on watch by gamers too.
Then there's the whole issue about quality control. Mods aren't made by a company and people can easily steal assets (or an entire mod) change the skin, and sell it. Some mods might be released and extremely buggy too. You just paid $5 for a system destroyer.
IMO, it should've been donation based from the start. If you like the mod, then give them a tip for their work. No pay wall and people can pay whatever they want. But there's still the Valve issue. Why are they taking a cut? Just because it's on Steam? Well Modders can just sell their mods on other sites! What's stopping them from doing that? What would the money exchange policy be like there?
terrible news. Destroys the very basis of what the mod community is all about......doing it for the love, creating a name for yourself and the possibility of future employment.
good for them, all the hard work they put into the mod, they should get some money out of it. (grabs popcorn)
Its no mods anymore, its called dlc. Can't cry about paying for dlc if you are willing to pay for mods.
Well congrats Valve. You have just effectively destroyed the modding community.
so should i download it now & fuck the paywall in the future? Or i just wont be able to get updates & why bother at this point?