http://techraptor.net/content/backlash-erupts-amid-reveal-of-steam-workshop-paid-mods

Valve’s ruleset claims that any developer selling their mods through the Steam Workshop (in which only Skyrim is currently supported) will take only 25% of the profits, once their mod has breached a limit of $100 worth of sales.

THAT'S SOME NICE DEVELOPER SUPPORT YOU HAVE THERE, VALVE

I MEAN YOU COULD HAVE JUST ADDED A "DONATE" BUTTON BUT THEN YOU WOULDN'T GET MONEY FOR DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Oh my Scarecrow, will you ever get it?

I think they still haven't taken out enough stuff
I mean, they can always take out the whole game and sell you an empty little plastic box for 60$

Quote from poppetje3D

Oh my Scarecrow, will you ever get it?

we now have to pirate mods, what is the world coming to

Just wait for the widespread outrage to make them take it back... until they try a sneakier way to put it back in

So, it has come to this.

I can't believe Lord Gabe would forsake our interest, unless of course, the paid mods are few compared to the legions of free ones. I hope this doesn't result with free mods imitating existing paid mods and causing some sort of schism.

Quote from GuardianTempest

So, it has come to this.

I can't believe Lord Gabe would forsake our interest, unless of course, the paid mods are few compared to the legions of free ones. I hope this doesn't result with free mods imitating existing paid mods and causing some sort of schism.

i hope this doesn't lead to perfectly good mods that have always been free suddenly becoming paywalled

oh wait that already happened

Can someone give me a quick "An idiot's guide to... " for this. What exactly is happening here? They are charging for something that used to be free? What is a 'mod' in Steam terms?

Quote from Nish

Can someone give me a quick "An idiot's guide to... " for this. What exactly is happening here? They are charging for something that used to be free? What is a 'mod' in Steam terms?

skyrim has always been mediocre at best. the only good thing about it was its flexibility due to the modding community - people on sites like nexusmods would put in some effort and produce extra content that users can add in to the game; stuff like new weapons and armor, new npcs, new quests, bug fixes, graphical improvements, combat modifications and more. all of this was done at the discretion of the modders, for free and out of passion and good will. if a mod developer wanted to be paid, they would include a donation button with their mod, and if it was good enough they would be supported by the community. more recently, steamworks has allowed steam users to host their mods there, so steam users can conveniently download and install them in client.

today, valve has introduced the ability to attach a price tag to mods on steamworks. this completely undermine the free modding community, creates a whole slew of legal issues for mods and mod developers, can easily be abused (users can easily download a free mod and sell it on steam, until a DMCA case is filed and processed by valve - which will take fucking forever based on valve's customer service), and most mod developers won't ever see a cent of the money their mod earns anyway (they don't get a cent until their mod earns >$100, and after that they only get 25% of profits, despite doing all the work) while valve and bethesda laugh all the way to the bank.

if valve really wanted to support mod developers, they would have just added a "donate" button to steamworks, but it's illegal to take a cut of a donation. skyrim is the first of presumably many more games in future to support this bullshit.

Indie games all the wayyyyy.

I really don't understand these cries about valve breaking the modding community. When I think of a modding community I think of Nexus, which is unaffected by all of this. Steam is a content delivery service and if they want to charge 75% profit for mod sales that's their decision to make. It's a fairly stupid decision but it's not like we're stuck without alternatives. All the best mods have always been on nexus either way.

I think the biggest issue is that people will make quick reskins of existing mods and sell them, causing a huge backlash from the original developers. Hopefully the reaction would be enough to reverse the decision if this hypothetical becomes reality. But either way as a consumer I don't really see how it makes a difference to me.

Quote from Exilement

I really don't understand these cries about valve breaking the modding community. When I think of a modding community I think of Nexus, which is unaffected by all of this. Steam is a content delivery service and if they want to charge 75% profit for mod sales that's their decision to make. It's a fairly stupid decision but it's not like we're stuck without alternatives. All the best mods have always been on nexus either way.

I think the biggest issue is that people will make quick reskins of existing mods and sell them, causing a huge backlash from the original developers. Hopefully the reaction would be enough to reverse the decision if this hypothetical becomes reality. But either way as a consumer I don't really see how it makes a difference to me.

you're forgetting about the legal issues. for example, all the interdependencies between mods.

FNIS, SKSE, etc are required for a ton of mods, and these are just the most obvious examples. these are all under creative commons licenses. it's straight up illegal to profit from content that uses them without the explicit permission of the relevant developers.

the dev for SKSE has already said that he's staying out of it and letting people do what they want, but already one of the mods that was initially released as paid has been pulled down for DMCA infringement (some fishing mod that used FNIS, the author of which refused to participate in valve's bullshit).

are we going to be expected to pay for four other mods in order to get one working?

what about stolen mods being put on steam workshop? do you really think valve has their shit together well enough to process that kind of volume of copyright infringement complaints? their customer service is notoriously awful.

then there's the problem of the best mods on nexus being roped in to this, turning their backs on the people who helped them get this far and demanding money for a mod that has until now been free. Wet and Cold is an example of this that has already done exactly that.

all valve had to do was add a fucking tip jar


[edit]

i think my biggest issue with this is that it really looks like the beginning of much much worse. time has proven again and again that the slippery slope fallacy stops being a fallacy really quickly when money is involved. the obvious direction for this to head in is for game developers to only allow steamworks mods for the sake of profit. this wouldn't be a problem if valve didn't have such a monopoly on the PC gaming industry. mods are one of the main reasons PC is the best gaming platform, and this poses a serious threat to that.

Quote from Scarecrow

then there's the problem of the best mods on nexus being roped in to this, turning their backs on the people who helped them get this far and demanding money for a mod that has until now been free. Wet and Cold is an example of this that has already done exactly that.

I mean, the best mods? I don't know about that. Wet and Cold is cool but it's fairly simple and there's a slightly older version of it still freely available on Nexus, along with more mods than you could possible install onto one computer.

I don't know. Maybe I'm getting too old to really give a shit about stuff like this. I understand why everyone is upset but I've never once needed to use Steam Workshop for modding and none of this directly affects me in any real way.

Quote from Exilement

I mean, the best mods? I don't know about that. Wet and Cold is cool but it's fairly simple and there's a slightly older version of it still freely available on Nexus, along with more mods than you could possible install onto one computer.

I don't know. Maybe I'm getting too old to really give a shit about stuff like this. I understand why everyone is upset but I've never once needed to use Steam Workshop for modding and none of this directly affects me in any real way.

it doesn't affect me either. i've never paid for skyrim and i don't intend to pay for any mods either.

my concern is the effect that this will have on the industry in the long run. refer here for a representation of the monetization and deterioration of game quality in recent years:

Quote from Scarecrow