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Steam enables charging for mods? WTF?!

Mods are one of the main reasons many opt for PC gaming over console gaming and Valve are doing their best to screw up a model thats worked for countless years in one move. I get that it would be nice for mod creators to get paid for their hard work but thats what donations are for. Also some of the mods take years to make and I can understand that some modders might want to charge for these as many are better than official expansions. However I dont like that mods are appearing for skin packs and a single weapon for 99p etc as this is creeping into micro-transaction territory. By all means encourage modding and I want more developers to provide proper mod tools for modders so we can see more ambitious mods but this idea feels rushed and slapped together and many of the issues it could cause have not been thought through enough for it to have been implemented so fast.

All those issues are currently being seen as...

  • Piracy for mods increases.
  • People have started stealing others work and then selling it as their own.
  • Some mod creators unhappy that parts of their work are being used in other mods that people are paying for.
  • Some modders are leaving older versions of their mods on Nexus available for free but then charging for further updates.
  • Mod teams are splitting as some want to make their mod free and others want to charge.
  • If the mods dont make over $400 then the modders receive nothing.
  • When a mod is taken down from being sold Valve are taking ownership away from the creator.
  • Some long time modders have now put ALL of their mods behind a paywall and removed them from Nexus. So the community who had grown to respect them has now cast them out and social media has blown up with abuse at them.
Also a lot of abuse has been thrown at Bethesda Game Studios who developed Skyrim (Todd Howards team) when its actually their publishing wing Bethesda Softworks that has given the go ahead for Valve to do this with Skyrim first.
 
See, this is why I support piracy. We follow the rules only to get screwed over in return -- leaving us little choice but to retaliate.

Edit:

 
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After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop. Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear – this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you." - Bethesda

Full post: Click here.

Valve's response...

"We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree. We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different." - Valve

Full post: Click here.
 
Good to know that Valve isn't a total scumbag like Tim Schafer, EA, Capcom and the rest.
Really they rushed into it too much, a way to encourage publishers into modding is something every PC gamer of the 90s wants, but this was just too rushed and poorly handled.
 
xMobilemux said:
Good to know that Valve isn't a total scumbag like Tim Schafer, EA, Capcom and the rest.
Really they rushed into it too much, a way to encourage publishers into modding is something every PC gamer of the 90s wants, but this was just too rushed and poorly handled.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I mean by all means give modders systems to allow them to get something for all their hard work and give them an incentive to go that extra mile to create better and better mods but dont push them to feel like they need to lock things behind paywalls to get something for that work. If they didnt lock things behind a paywall then it made it harder to hit that minimum requirement level ($400 raised) to receive the 25% from the sales. So in the end if they didnt hit that mark they wouldnt get anything anyway.

Lots of developers these days started out modding and the popularity of their free mods extended to paid mods and then full stand alone products but making modders pretty much copy the hated DLC/Micro transaction trend simply isnt the answer. It was rushed and not thought out at all and Valve are far too hands off to have moderated this correctly as they have shown.

All about choice and not forcing modders or gamers to feel they have to do something. A shame that some great modders have had their reputations tarnished because they saw the $ signs from this scheme. Just hope they can rebuild that reputation and learn from it and everyone can move on from this.

Did make me laugh though how most modders constantly speak about the tyrannical business practice of EA/Ubisoft etc but at the first sign of them being able to make money they follow the exact same business practice. Selling single weapon reskins etc for cash and offering multiple small DLC packs for money and locking updates behind pay walls. Just goes to show how fickle some gamers/content creators can really be when it comes down to it.
 
Dark Drakan said:
After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop. Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear – this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you." - Bethesda

Full post: Click here.

Valve's response...

"We're going to remove the payment feature from the Skyrim workshop. For anyone who spent money on a mod, we'll be refunding you the complete amount. We talked to the team at Bethesda and they agree. We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing. We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different." - Valve

Full post: Click here.
Click to expand...

Okay. Good to know Valve knows their sh!t after all. I take back that "F you".
 
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