Valve monetizes mods (With Bethseda Launcher and Open Beta for Modding Released, Possible Return?)

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To play devil's advocate. One of my Steam contacts is actually excited about this for a few reasons.

1. It will encourage more mod support in games.

Something that is a huge problem with modern games is mod support is very sparse. You very rarely see it happen because of how big and complex modern engines are and the costs associated with it. If companies can make a small amount of money from adding mod support they'd be more likely to implement it.

2. It will encourage more advanced modifications

Most mods are broken and forever remain incomplete. This could lead to more polished and completed mods.

However there are a few HUGE downsides to this that I can see.

1. It encourages theft.

This will lead to people stealing mods and selling them. While there is a DMCA policy this still will happen.

2. It has already lead to people taking free mods and selling them.

Wet and Cold was a free mod that was turned into a paid mod. Midas magic, one of the most popular polished free mods has already become a paid mod I guarantee these will not be the last.

3. It will lead to people making incomplete mods to make more money.

I can imagine people splitting mods up into smaller packages just so they can make more money. Like "oh well you want Falskaar? Well there are now 3 packs for Falskaar all for 5.99$. And if you want the mounts we previously made for it that's an additional 2$. And if you want the extra races we added with it you'll need to pony up an additional 4$." This already occurs with DLC.

4. Mod creators only get 25% of profits

Just what

5. You must make over 100$ to make any money
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Bare in mind this is PAYOUT. Not money earned.

Picture this, you sell your mod for 1$ and you only get 25 cents per purchase. You need to make 400 fucking dollars before you see a cent of it.

EDIT: Upon further discovery it seems Bethesda were the ones who wanted to do this.
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Someone has already been selling a mod that features content from another creator
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This is a huge problem. For one thing mods reuse content from other creators all of the time. It's in fact encouraged because it leads to superior quality modifications. Counter Strike Source has hundreds of weapon skins that use custom animations created by a handful of users. If there is a "no borrowing" policy it leads to lower quality modifications being sold as a result. Many of the most popular mods for Skyrim require the script extender and most of the ones on the market right now haven't asked permission.

People are also predicting mods will start being created by third party companies with actual budgets. And as a result the little guy will get strong armed out because he can't compete with that.

Essentially what Bethesda and Valve are doing is making a climate where modifications will become third party outsourced DLC.
 
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Wow.

You know, I've always kinda felt that Bethesda was actually kinda lazy when it comes to polishing their games, bug testing, and providing additional content, so they're more than happy to provide kits for modders to play around with. Now, it seems like they're going to attempt to profit off of those same people for doing work they should have done in the first place.

This all seems wrong on so many levels.
 
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Cuddlebug said:
"there is literally no reason not to release your mod with a price tag though and in fact the way the systems set up in encourages it.
Say you make a horse penis crossbow mod and release it on the workshop. It's a niche mod so you're not expecting everyone to want it you could release it for free but that is leaving money on the table. Instead you release it for 2.99. If there's only 10 people interested in a horse penis crossbow, that's 7 bucks. You're safe from people pirating your mod because it's small and niche status will prevent someone from uploading and torrenting it.
and if your horse penis crossbow becomes a big hit? that's a lot of money you earned that you would just be leaving on the table if you released it for free. You'll be making a lot of money if you have a popular mod, and you won't even care about the few that pirate it because there are more inept buyfags on steam than anything. Steam was made for the people too inept to pirate games.
You as a mod creator are incentiveized to release all your mods as paid. Free will go away as there is literally no reason not to charge for your mod no matter what it is, just to pick up the few idiots who will pay for it because this is steam and if we all know one thing about steam is that people will buy anything just to say they own it. look at your own copy of bad rats for proof of that."
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Welp, I think I can tell where fallout 4's modding community is headed. I really don't like the idea, but whats done is done.
They should at least have some form of quality control on what gets sold,like huge quest mods get sold and not "Big Titty Sex Elves" the mod.
 
Well seems like the majority of modders who put the first mods up for sale have gone private on steam, and the few who havent are getting completely blasted. I have a feeling this may backfire right in valves face, cause the hate train doesnt seem to be slowing down.
 
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Commodore B.S. said:
Well seems like the majority of modders who put the first mods up for sale have gone private on steam, and the few who havent are getting completely blasted. I have a feeling this may backfire right in valves face, cause the hate train doesnt seem to be slowing down.
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It's more than that.

When both Reddit and 4chan hate something it typically means you did something wrong. Nobody likes this system because it's entirely in Valve/Bethesda's favour. Not even creators are enjoying it and the ones who are taking advantage of this system aren't aware of how bad it is.

Specifically, if you put your mod on the workshop, you only get a 25% cut. Not only that but you're not entitled to getting a buyout till it reaches a certain amount. Stories are varying between 100-400$. This is entirely in Bethesda/Valve's favour and nobody else wins with this.

This means Valve/Bethesda hold the money hostage until your mod makes serious money. This essentially means the vast majority of mod creators will never make ANY money.

Totalbiscuit is a huge apologist for selling mods and even he doesn't like this system.

This is not even mentioning the dozens of problems associated with selling modifications like I mentioned above. Problems that MUST be ironed out otherwise this system will fail and people won't trust the Steam Workshop anymore. The only way the current system can work is if it pays out to your Steam wallet exclusively and that's not what it does.
 
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@Cuddlebug

Amen to that.

This whole situation is going south fast. Hell this petition that got started up is getting a surprisingly large amount of signatures on it. Every time I refresh there is another 20 added.

Hopefully valve will come to their senses and realize that maybe straight up pay walling some mods isn't the way to be, and do an optional donate system instead.
 
UPDATE

The guy who made the fishing mod that uses animations from another mod posted a response about it
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The people who are on the workshop right now were under an NDA for the past month.
 
So yeah. 7 of the modders have gone private, 2 are defending the system throughout thier comments, 3 I have yet to see them say anything about this fiasco, and Chesko Seems to be realizing shit is going south fast.
 
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Cuddlebug said:
I unfortunately agree. I really hope this doesn't become a trend and people start turning free mods into paid mods.
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Especially since every good mod out there has 20 terrible equivalents.

Commodore B.S. said:
@Cuddlebug

Amen to that.

This whole situation is going south fast. Hell this petition that got started up is getting a surprisingly large amount of signatures on it. Every time I refresh there is another 20 added.

Hopefully valve will come to their senses and realize that maybe straight up pay walling some mods isn't the way to be, and do an optional donate system instead.
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And if Valve doesn't, they can no doubt lose a good number of users that don't want this system. We don't want to pay money for some free modification, especially if said mod is boring, causes CTD, etc.

*One thing I forgot to note: If Valve and Bethesda still keep this system, they may as well be giving mod websites like the Nexus a boost in downloads since those sites won't have you pay money to download some pony waifu/edgy sword mod/copyrighted weapon of a fictional character.
 
These are the kind of mods we'd be funding

I know one of these got a cease and desist because one of them was trying to get payed to make a mod.


 
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Oglooger said:
These are the kind of mods we'd be funding

I know one of these got a cease and desist because one of them was trying to get payed to make a mod.


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The worst part of this, the second one basically plagiarizes Neverwinter Nights 2. Seriously taking Bishop and Casavir and putting the two in a Skyrim mod mean't to be husbando's. The third one: what may as well be two edgelords, both of whom I feel would meet the same fate as Lucien LaChance in Oblivion if they actually met Sithis.
 
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