Paid Mods Aren't Inherently Bad, But Do We Trust Bethesda With Them?

Everyone should be allowed to monetise mods if they wish, but should Bethesda control them?

[Einhander1972]

Yes they are bad, and most of the biggest mod developers were against the idea when Steam and Bethesda tried to pull this crap in the past. Of course they did it anyway by bypassing Steam.

The basic thing here is that this isn't about modders getting paid it's about Bethesda and Microsoft getting paid.

If they cared about the modders they would add a donation system (which again was what the modders themselves wanted and Nexus mods has) and the vast majority of the money would go to the modders with the platform holders just taking a small cut to pay for the CC processing and other fees.

That is not what this will be though.

[Terry_B]

Paid Mods are really bad. Just like dualshockers after it was sold. The old staff there did a great job.

[Crows90]

Paid mods are inherently bad. What a stupid thing to say.

[isarai]

No you can't trust them, the fact that they are even there proves that.

Mods are free because the modders want them that way, they are passion projects meant to be a format of a fan community. It's always been this way, and modders fight to keep it that way. If money comes into the equation it's through donations, if Bethesda was really doing this for the modders they would give you links to donate to the modders.

This is just them making money off of other people's work.

[Inverno]

No we shouldn't trust a corporation and let them profit off content that's made for free, by a loving, passionate fanbase, even if they made the game initially. Their fan base keep these games alive and selling for years, they already profit from its continuous sales. Part of what makes modding so great is that the community keeps itself afloat by either donations, or by contributing to the mod making process. One of the few things where greed is put aside for passion, and when someone comes into the scene with a paid mod or subscription, the community just comes together and makes something better for free. That's why it works.

[anast]

Money for horse armor isn't inherently bad, but do we trust Bethesda?...FFs, game writers have zero concept of games and history.

If Bethesda is going to control modding, successful modders should be given a performance based salary comparable to all other successful devs in their company, especially since in Bethesda's case they are the ones that finish their games, and they should also enjoy all of the benefits that an employee would enjoy.

[dumahim]

If the people who make the mod want to charge, then that's on them. For Bethesda trying to swoop in and take a large chunk for nothing bust hosting them, that's the problem.

[Christopher]

As someone else said, it's not helpful to the modding community and it's only a paywall for some modders.

"The previous attempt to launch paid mods was disastrous because many modders operate on the assumption that they're participating in a gift economy, devoting their time for free to create something for others to enjoy with the understanding that everyone else is doing the same. This is a social contract, one that is instantly broken if someone chooses to sell their work. Similar controversies arise in fan fiction communities when an author finds a publishing deal and their work is suddenly yoinked from fic repository AO3 over night.

It's worse in gaming communities, too, because mods are often technically dependent on the work of other mods. If one creator pulls their previously free work to place it behind a paywall, a lot of other mods can be rendered unplayable. It also substantially disincentivises generosity within the community so that shared resources designed for other modders to build upon - such as SKSE, but also texture packs and so on - become less common."

[Tacoboto]

There's irony in the people here saying it's bad to pay modders, being the same people defending $10 upgrades for extremely profitable games to a company making billions in profits.

"Developers deserve to be paid". Only when they work for certain companies clearly

[gold_drake]

paid mods are bad.

because they're not mods but paid dlc at that point.