Paid Mods

[zippypinhead]

Yesterday, Steam implemented a system that allows modders to list mods behind a paywall. They began this grand experiment with Skyrim. As everyone in the world could have told Valve and BethSoft would have happened, it immediately turned into a clusterfuck shit show. Players are incredibly unhappy about this, and I think rightfully so. It flies in the face of the whole point of what the game modding community has been about.

Now, I'm all for modders getting compensated for their good work. But a paywall?! It's being abused already. People putting up shit mods with huge price tags, people posting incomplete "beta" mods with a price tag. It's only a matter of time before people start ripping off mods and trying to make a quick cash grab from it. This whole situation just seems so poorly thought through! No vetting the content at all.

This situation is ridiculous. BethSoft and Valve really fucked the dog on this one. Why not just a donation model? This has the capacity to destroy game modding as we know it, and modding is one of the best features of PC gaming!

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Yesterday, Steam implemented a system that allows modders to list mods behind a paywall. They began this grand experiment with Skyrim. As everyone in the world could have told Valve and BethSoft would have happened, it immediately turned into a clusterfuck shit show. Players are incredibly unhappy about this, and I think rightfully so. It flies in the face of the whole point of what the game modding community has been about.

Now, I'm all for modders getting compensated for their good work. But a paywall?! It's being abused already. People putting up shit mods with huge price tags, people posting incomplete "beta" mods with a price tag. It's only a matter of time before people start ripping off mods and trying to make a quick cash grab from it. This whole situation just seems so poorly thought through! No vetting the content at all.

This situation is ridiculous. BethSoft and Valve really fucked the dog on this one. Why not just a donation model? This has the capacity to destroy game modding as we know it, and modding is one of the best features of PC gaming!

Personally I've never modded because I tend to get bored with the actual game long before the need to do more with it. But with something like this I would think a simple vetting solution would be to limit those which could be sold to only ones that have been downloaded and rated high enough.

Perhaps say it has to be downloaded by 50 or 100 unique users and has to have a rating of 75% thumbs up. Something like that. That way only the proven good ones would be on the list for sale. Also a voting system to click if users think it's still in beta. A certain percentage of the last 20 ratings say it's still in beta and it can't be put up for sale.

For either the rating or the beta flag make it so only the latest votes count. That would take into consideration any changes the creator made to it recently. There should have been a simple method to rule out the junk and beta ones if the are going to expect people to be paying money for them.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Just read a bit more on it. Turns out the split is even worse than most camsites. It's akin to shitty studios prices!

Under the current terms of the model, mod developers get 25 cents for every dollar in sales, with Valve and the originating game's developer splitting the rest. Further, cash payouts may begin only after a $100 threshold is reached.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/25/8496469/garrys-mod-creator-on-paid-steam-mods-im-all-for-it

 

[zippypinhead]

Yeah, it's just a crap situation all around. Here's a good piece on Forbes that summarizes most of the major problems this thing presents:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...ds-are-a-legal-ethical-and-creative-disaster/

 

[LITTLE JIMMY]

It's not going to last...hopefully.

 

[YelloMit]

They won't be getting any of my money, that's for sure.

 

[Magnolia]

Ah, just fantastic. This is a quick road to piss-poor, overpriced content. Not that the modding community hasn't been exposed to these types of shenanigans before.

You want to reskin some shit armor and sell it to me for $10? Get the fuck out of my face.
Want to create a sweet weather/climate mod that adds character and variety to the game and accept donations? :thumbleft:

 

[YelloMit]

I've already seen some idiots on Steam put "content" up for 100 bucks. I'm sure they are just messing about, but if Steam or Valve don't police this, it could turn into some seriously bad shit.

 

[YelloMit]

Well, that didn't last long.

http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-remove ... -workshop/

 

[zippypinhead]

Well, that didn't last long.

http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-remove ... -workshop/

It seriously couldn't have. The negative backlash was massive. It was just such a wrong step, I'm glad they didn't try to let it sit and wait it out. I'm glad they ultimately did the right thing, and reversed it.