You can now sell content through Steam Workshop

[FMPONE]

 

I wrote a post on my experiences that got to the top of r/gaming and then it was deleted LOL gg Reddit

paste it here. I want to see the otherside of this one.

 

 

 

So, let me preface this by saying that I understand the concern about paid mods.

 

-There are technical challenges to making it work. -There are copyright concerns. -Skyrim mods can break the game completely.

 

Here's what I really want to say: posts like this "they should just get jobs in the industry if they want to get paid!", have it completely wrong. You do not want to force all modders to have to go into the industry in order to get paid. We know that most game developers have lost their way, and make titles that aren't that interesting overall.

 

Modders going full-time means they don't have to work on games they don't care about, and work for bosses they don't like, in order to survive and pay the bills. Should modders go full-time?

I think the answer is simple: if they're good enough, absolutely. If you can make mods that provide people with countless hours of entertainment, why shouldn't you be able to do so and charge a fair price to do so? So here's what I think needs to be talked about: -The splits. I think we can agree that if modders are selling something they made, they should at least get a majority share in the sale of that item.

-Free mods should be allowed and encouraged if appropriate for that mod. -There should be a selection process that ensures that only mods of a certain level of popularity and verified capability go on sale. This part is common sense to me, and it should have been included in the deal to begin with.

 

I earn a good living making maps for Counter-Strike. By sending the signal that you hate when modders, mappers, whatever, charge money for their stuff, you're saying I should go work for generic AAA game developer, and that kinda sucks. Because the freedom I have thanks to Valve and the Steam workshop means a great deal to me, I'll go ahead and stick my neck out for the gaming brigade and see where the chips fall.

 

 

 

--

 

I also put together a whole article. On Reddit most of the post I've made literally just get mindlessly downvoted if not outright censored like before. I don't give a fuck, I'm going to speak my mind on this issue period.

[DrywallDreams]

Maybe try also posting it on /r/games, they tend to be a bit better than /r/gaming

[Skybex]

Not sure if I have anything to say that hasn't already been mentioned.

 

I am all for modders making some money or even a living out of making stuff for the community, but I get the impression a lot of the reactions are the same as when a website people have been using for years suddenly puts ads up. The instant reaction seems to be that people are not allowed to make money out of something that was once free and there is such a knee jerk backlash.

 

But on the other hand the Skyrim stuff has been handled quite poorly. A system like this needs proper moderation to function. I have played Skyrim to death and previously Oblivion. Mods greatly extend the lifespan of the game but so many of even the best mods are just not worth any money. So many mods have pieces for only one sex, require console commands to acquire or don't have all the proper UI elements. And that's before we even get into them breaking the balance of the game, or just outright breaking the game. There have been mods I wanted to download, but due to dependencies I have had to go through an entire chain of other mods I didn't want to just get the one I did. Do that with a few mods and you soon find yourself crashing every 10 mins (assuming you don't just get a CTD). All things that are unacceptable when you are parting people from their money.

 

And I feel the whole donation idea is just rubbish. Very few people will donate, because why should they when they don't have to? But the expectation towards the modder will be higher. How can you have such a broken mod when you are accepting donations? 

[Sprony]

I also put together a whole article. On Reddit most of the post I've made literally just get mindlessly downvoted if not outright censored like before. I don't give a fuck, I'm going to speak my mind on this issue period.

 

I would love to see that as a feature here

[blackdog]

Modding made much more sense years ago. In this day and age, the result of this is that the very skilled modders, those making the total conversions or really big stuff, are gonna say "fuck this" and make stand alone games with UE, Unity and Source 2.

[Pampers]

Gaben answered some questions here https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/33uplp/mods_and_steam/

probably best to go into his profile to see the posts as the retarded hivemind automaticly downvoted everything he said

[Pampers]

I love Gabe

[Sentura]

The biggest argument is perceived value.

 

The community values and looks at it completely different than the Publisher; and on a different subject level. This is where the major battle lies.

 

Community: effort(sometimes minor) + enjoyment

Publisher: Community DLC

 

Since Publisher's already charge regularly for DLC, this is a no brainer to take a cut off the back of the creator/modder. (my ip/my brand mentality)

Modders are working off the base of the core dev team. Should they have the opportunity to make more money than a dev? Is that fair? even when a dev cannot join in?

 

Aren't those essentially the same? Whether you call it DLC or a mod, it's still effort expended. It's not like mod creators get a free cash grab because they are still content creators. People build on the base of a core dev team all the time. Look at UE4, or CS:GO or any respectable engine with an SDK. Should Operation Bravo et al not exist as a paid DLC? What makes this different from any other mod? The only real difference is whether they are sanctioned by the developer - which seems like a needless middle man as it should be consumers deciding content, not companies.

[Vilham]

Sanctioned, quality control, held responsible. Those are the differences, I am amazed some of you are still defending this terrible system. It is so unbelievably anti consumer.

[FMPONE]

Sanctioned, quality control, held responsible. Those are the differences, I am amazed some of you are still defending this terrible system. It is so unbelievably anti consumer.

 

I think this is my big beef with the system still and the reason I feel I've said enough for the time being. 

 

If they're determined that anyone can put a price tag on anything, I don't agree with that and I think it will fail and hurt everyone. They need to improve the specific details of their plan, hopefully the terrible reception doesn't mean deserving modders never get paid for their hard work

[dux]

Gabe getting downvoated to hell on Redit. Now I've seen everything.

[mr.P]

ohhnoess...reddis is mad,

this is the best thing that has happened since; first. the creation of Steam, second: the creation of Steam Workshop, third: the creation of Steam Greenlight, hopefully we will see a Steam Asset Store or similar, that we already have in the other engines,

 

boy oh boy, wish I was 14 yo again, and launched hammer for the first time! this is the perfect time for new modders, old modders, people that havent realized they are modders to start/continue modding!

[FMPONE]

Here's that article

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/im-a-modder-i-deserve-compensation/

 

It's a fun discussion. I tried to be honest

[Vaya]

DDOS'd?

[Sentura]

Sanctioned, quality control, held responsible. Those are the differences, I am amazed some of you are still defending this terrible system. It is so unbelievably anti consumer.

 

The system can and will likely change, but the concept is solid and the way forward.

 

As for responsibility: Steam can still take down mods that are offensive if that's your issue. Quality control will develop on its own given enough time and a large enough consumer base. I don't necessarily see the need for sanctioning mods, but if this is somehow an issue, developers will likely perform any necessary changes (see responsibility clause).