You can now sell content through Steam Workshop

[TheGuma 402]

This is huge

 

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/

[Sjonsson 1,154]

You're dang right it is! Freelancing artists might have a new way to survive in the future!

Looking forward to see how this plays out.

[Vilham 1,241]

and thus begins the gradual death of the modding scene.

[FMPONE 6,057]

and thus begins the gradual death of the modding scene.

 

Disagree

[Vilham 1,241]

Every single good (or near enough) mod will be on sale within a month, that isn't modding that is community content. Not the same thing.

[FMPONE 6,057]

The difference is people making it are getting paid. Hard to see the downside in that

[PogoP 2,372]

Ah fuck that... That really sucks to hear.

[SotaPoika 275]

Every single good (or near enough) mod will be on sale within a month, that isn't modding that is community content. Not the same thing.

 

I'm pretty sure those who make good content for fun, mostly would charge just enough to get something else back than just nice ratings and numbers in downloads. I doubt you'd make a living (at least, not easily) with this system, but time will tell.

[Vilham 1,241]

I'm fairly sure people were saying that about Greenlight before it launched, now we have the store crammed with clones, early access titles and garbage games all going for the low low price of £15.

[TheGuma 402]

I think we would need some sort of regulated system where Valve only allows quality content to be paid, in a similar fashion to CS:GO Operations but at bigger and faster scale.

 

Also, one of the problems is that plagiated content will be possible to be sold off the bat, so I'm not sure how Valve will deal with that.

[Grinwhrl 273]

If money is involved, the whole magic of modding is gone. The freedom of creativity within the community is broken. The workshop here is what gave these games longevity. It expressed the creators talent and expressions. It was a place to start for some, a place to learn for others, etc. Money involved just weakens all of this in my opinion.

 

Edit: Following up from what Sjonsson and FMPONE said,

 

 

 

You're dang right it is! Freelancing artists might have a new way to survive in the future!

Looking forward to see how this plays out.

I agree, art is definitely better when the people making it are starving

 

I do agree, from a freelancer perspective much like a Youtuber/Streamer, which I was not thinking about earlier; if the market is truly large enough now, its great people could start making decent income doing what they love within the comfort of their home. I hope its somewhat regulated though. Like other people have said, it could be risky to buy some of this stuff and not have it work, or whatever reason.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Grinwhrl

[FMPONE 6,057]

I agree, art is definitely better when the people making it are starving

[TheGuma 402]

That's not necessarily the point, if people want their mods to be bought they want them to be high quality, thus work harder? There is still some sort of incentive to work harder to bring good content. I doubt people will pay for shitty stuff

[Vilham 1,241]

Shawn you are mixing up paying creators and charging consumers, they aren't exclusive. You should know, Valves map packs don't charge consumers playing the maps, but creators still get payed.

[FMPONE 6,057]

Creators can also still release stuff for free or basically accept tips, in the form of "pay what you like" model. So nothing has really changed as far as that stuff goes.

 

The difference now is that people can market their good ideas, and one good idea could earn you a lot of dough that you would otherwise not be getting. Word of mouth on one really cool mod could make that creator revenue that previously would have been completely lost, even though that creator was providing people with hours of enjoyment and did deserve compensation for their hard work

 

If you're worried that a lot of people will try to market their stuff and it will flood the marketplace, I look at that as being Valve's problem to fix, it's not going to prevent their from being deserving and high quality content.