Paid Mods....

[Delwyn]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I actually don't see a problem with the concept of monetizing player created mods. There do seem to be some significant issues with how Steam is implementing it however.

1) There needs to be some form of robust rating or reviews system so that mods can be ranked by the players who buy them...the wheat will rise to the surface, the chaff will go away. This should alleviate issues with spam or junk mods cluttering up the sandpile, the best mods will quickly find their way on to the top of the list, and the top modders will see the money they deserve to make for the good work they do. (as to everyone just modding to make a quick buck, sure, you'll see a lot of this, but there will also be plenty of people who will still mod for the love of the game and just charge a nominal fee for their mods, a buck or two.

2) Obviously, as long as modders were modding for free, games who built in the capability to do so loved the players who extended and expanded their games. Being paid for now, there are significant intellectual property issues to be considered. Is Bethesda getting any of the money paid for mods for Skyrim that are sold by Steam? What about someone who creates a Star Wars mod for a non-Star Wars game...is Disney going to have some issues with it now that money is changing hands?

3) The revenue breakdown is backwards....it should be 75% to the modder and 25% to Steam (some of which should go to the game's developers if you really want the system to be fair to all). After all, even in the various app stores (Apple, Google, etc), most of the money charged for third party apps goes to the app developer....shouldn't the same be true here?

Modders put in lots of time and effort to create the mods we all love to use in the games we play...I have zero issue with them getting paid for it. It'll be up to us as consumers to decide whether to buy the mods that people put out, and up to the developers to charge a reasonable fee that sees them receive just compensation for their efforts. Like in most free markets, given a bit of time (and reasonable regulation, which Steam may not be handling in the initial incarnation) things will settle into a comfortable zone.

That's my take anyway...

[Husker]

As i understand it, Steam aren't getting the 75%, the game developers are. Which is fair imo since they're the ones that originally made the game. What i have a problem with is modders are now going to be asking money left right and center for every little mod.

[Ledgend1221]

As far as I know, it's 30% for Valve, 45% for Bethesda and 25% for the modders themselves.

I'm completely against this though. One modder said it best: "Modding is about sharing. When you start charging, it's no longer sharing."

[Johnny Macintosh]

Modding is like volunteering in real life. Once money gets involved it ruins the whole thing.

[JarekCyphus]

This has put me in an awkward situation, as I'm on the cusp of a career as a bonafide game designer, yet I'll always carry with me the reputation as the guy who brought ILM to Star Wars Galaxies; because of these recent developments, my inbox and youtube are already being flooded with requests to develop mods for numerous games, ranging from the Homeworld remastered collection to Minecraft. I have a Minecraft mod, but that was a Full Sail Project and was never intended for release.

I also actively skin aircraft in War Thunder, working very closely with ProX_Gaming and company (classmates). But the guy who gave me the guidance to make The ILM Experience possible for Star Wars Galaxies is now a genuine developer for Cloud Imperium Games, and his influence on my decision to be a designer has provided a major segway into what I hope will be a damned fun career.

...and then Valve goes off and does this, and the offers are nonstop. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Velzan Dar]

I'm very involved in Skyrim modding. Unfortunately I'm not talented enough to create mods to share, but I mod my game VERY, VERY heavily, and have been doing so since the days of Oblivion.

That being said, it would take more time and space than anyone would care to go through to really post how I feel about this paid mod situation, so to boil it down:

NO. Mods are a labor of love, not a cash cow. You can piss off with your paid mods (which the creators only get a pittance of the sale from).

I'll repeat what I said the day this started: I feel like we're seeing the start of the death of mods.

[cmdraftbrn]

valve already walked this idea back.

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

[JarekCyphus]

valve already walked this idea back.

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

But the precedent has already been set, which has prompted such a system for skinning in War Thunder, and now there are already modders and skinners charging for their work, even though it wasn't War Thunder's intent for it to work that way. The intent was to vote best quality skins into the game, and then make them available via eagles and split the profits between Gaijin and the modder. The policy has only been active for 24 hours, and already it's going off on a completely unintended direction.