Valve Starts Charging Money for User Made Mods

[Terminus]

Valve has removed ratings for user-made mods now.


They've also denied access to the discussion boards for paid mods (spoiler because there are a lot of screenshots).

Spoiler

So they've made a complete pig's ass out of this and they know it.

 

[Mercedes]

I'm very disappointed Valve have screwed this up; after seeing everything un-fold and reading up on it more I've definitely changed my opinion on the matter, and for the first time I actively dislike what Valve's trying here. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but, I'm just not sold at all.

The concept is still great, allowing content creators to charge for things they work hard on. You look at all those games like Garry's Mod, Red Orchestra, Dear Esther, and Counter-Strike, full stand-alone titles we pay for that began their lives as free mods for existing games, and I think it's great people who put in such hard work get something out of it. I see no issue with that at all.

But, it's just not working in this format. It's a trainwreck. For a start I think unveiling it with an existing game was a huge mistake, it should have been some kind of experimental launch feature with Left 4 Dead 3, rather than slapping price tags onto existing free stuff. People will happily buy map packs for online games like Call of Duty, even on PC where there's free mods, so I think people would be accepting of map packs which feature high-quality maps the community made instead of just official ones. Pack a few of the best ones together, sell them as a reasonably priced downloadable map pack and give the creators the lion's share of the revenue. Could even release these packs on consoles, too. I'd be happy to see that! It'd be an easy way to continue to add lots of content into a game too, just let the community do it and see they get rewarded for it. Valve even did it with CS:GO and do it all the time with Dota 2/Team Fortress 2. And you know any content is tested and working before being added and just as high quality as you'd expect from official DLC, which you don't have the assurance of when it comes to paid mods on this Workshop.

Maybe Valve can rescue it, but, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But right now, I definitely won't be supporting it. This is them moving on their original vision of Steam becoming the community's tool, but I still don't think there'll ever be a time Valve moderation and regulation won't be necessary

 

[Salem]

Maybe Valve can rescue it, but, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But right now, I definitely won't be supporting it.

They could reduce their 75% cut as a start.

Second, only have donations as a start.

I would put a limit to how much can be charged based on how much is actually changed or modded from the base game.

 

[Jamie]

I'm very disappointed Valve have screwed this up; after seeing everything un-fold and reading up on it more I've definitely changed my opinion on the matter, and for the first time I actively dislike what Valve's trying here. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, but, I'm just not sold at all.

The concept is still great, allowing content creators to charge for things they work hard on. You look at all those games like Garry's Mod, Red Orchestra, Dear Esther, and Counter-Strike, full stand-alone titles we pay for that began their lives as free mods for existing games, and I think it's great people who put in such hard work get something out of it. I see no issue with that at all.

But, it's just not working in this format. It's a trainwreck. For a start I think unveiling it with an existing game was a huge mistake, it should have been some kind of experimental launch feature with Left 4 Dead 3, rather than slapping price tags onto existing free stuff. People will happily buy map packs for online games like Call of Duty, even on PC where there's free mods, so I think people would be accepting of map packs which feature high-quality maps the community made instead of just official ones. Pack a few of the best ones together, sell them as a reasonably priced downloadable map pack and give the creators the lion's share of the revenue. Could even release these packs on consoles, too. I'd be happy to see that! It'd be an easy way to continue to add lots of content into a game too, just let the community do it and see they get rewarded for it. Valve even did it with CS:GO and do it all the time with Dota 2/Team Fortress 2. And you know any content is tested and working before being added and just as high quality as you'd expect from official DLC, which you don't have the assurance of when it comes to paid mods on this Workshop.

Maybe Valve can rescue it, but, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But right now, I definitely won't be supporting it. This is them moving on their original vision of Steam becoming the community's tool, but I still don't think there'll ever be a time Valve moderation and regulation won't be necessary

How did you have no issue with it when you saw that the Skyrim mods were fourty ****ing dollars? Did you read the OP?

 

[Mercedes]

They could reduce their 75% cut as a start.

Second, only have donations as a start.

I would put a limit to how much can be charged based on how much is actually from the base game.

Valve don't actually take a 75% cut. The current revenue split is 25% modder, 20 - 25% Valve, 5% co-creators (not quite sure how this 5% works actually, wasn't explained much on GAF. Something to do with the Nexus and mod partners, though), and Bethesda take 50%. So it's Beth who are taking the biggest share, Valve are just taking their classic cut; content added into Dota 2/CS:GO are a 75:25 split favouring the content creator.

And yeah, I agree with the limit. Or at least, some kind of price guidelines/rules for what the content actually is, like how most games will have a defined price for everything; a map is worth $4, new skin worth 99 cents, etc. etc. In general I think this, if ever it was to work, needs a lot of regulation and moderation. And if that's the case, they should just keep doing what they've always done and officially add in the best. I don't see this working as just some open market where people can do anything.

 

[Jirohnagi]

I like how some guy is selling a mod that give 250k gold on skyrim for 25 cents I dunno how to do the lowest denomination of american currency on my comp so imma go with cents

 

[Mercedes]

I like how some guy is selling a mod that give 250k gold on skyrim for 25 cents I dunno how to do the lowest denomination of american currency on my comp so imma go with cents

Can't you just... spawn in an infinite amount of money from the console? Lol. It's sad that some people out there will pay for that.

 

[Jirohnagi]

Yup you can spawn it from the console ^^

 

[Ominethious]

https://www.change.org/p/valve-remo...ium=email&utm_campaign=share_email_responsive
Everyone, sign this glorious concordat.

 

[Emma]

There's a protest menu replacer that I thought was interesting.
It is found here:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65022/

And it has a new menu theme song!
Here it is:

 

[Ominethious]

There's a protest menu replacer that I thought was interesting.
It is found here:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65022/

And it has a new menu theme song!
Here it is:

Omg yes. When I'm on my pc I'm downloading this.

 

[Emma]

I saw this comment on Reddit. It's rather grim. But the more I read it, the more it's obvious that this is going to be the case if paid mods continue to be propagated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods...y_much_one_of_the_most_essential_mods/cqnqocl

Yup, same here. It's gonna be hell for modders if they create a new engine for Fallout 4. For those that aren't familiar, the modding scene goes through a learning/discovery phase when a new game/mod tool comes out. There is documentation, generally, but it's often hard to understand, and there are lots of tricks you can force the modding tools to do that results in cool stuff.

The Skyrim modding scene start was like a gold mine rush. People were reporting like every hour on the nexusmod forums about new tips and tricks of stuff you could do and it was awesome. Without this, a lot of stuff would not have been done.

Now if we look at the potential Fallout 4, what happens then? No one will want to share. If you're the first person/group to figure out a way to push the modding tool into modifying the behavioral AI, and other peoples are mining at it but can't figure it out, what would you do? Hoard that knowledge and create a unique mod that others can't recreate, obviously!

It will basically turn one of the most helpful and generous modding community into basically nothing. Nobody will want to help each other except core modders that have known each other for years. New modders will be shunned as "Quick money ****s" or whatever, no help will be given to those, I can guarantee you that.

This is exactly what is going to happen. It'll devastate future modding in Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. Previously, there was a very strong community collaboration rush at the beginning. People helped each other figure the game out and mods interacted and supported each other a lot. This is not going to happen anymore. People will selfishly horde secrets to maximize their own profits.

 

[Ominethious]

I saw this comment on Reddit. It's rather grim. But the more I read it, the more it's obvious that this is going to be the case if paid mods continue to be propagated.
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods...y_much_one_of_the_most_essential_mods/cqnqocl

This is exactly what is going to happen. It'll devastate future modding in Elder Scrolls and Fallout games. Previously, there was a very strong community collaboration rush at the beginning. People helped each other figure the game out and mods interacted and supported each other a lot. This is not going to happen anymore. People will selfishly horde secrets to maximize their own profits.

I'm in awe in the fact a fringe group for Nintendo's Zelda franchise is even affected significantly xD.

Its like Gaben set off the bull**** nuke across the codes of the internet.

 

[Jedizora]

So, it would appear that Valve is no longer charging for mods. I wouldn't start celebrating yet, as no announcement has been made, but the paid section of the workshop has been completely removed. Hopefully a donation button will be added to the workshop, a reasonable compromise imho.
EDIT: wait, just found the official announcement. Start celebrating.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/208632365253244218

 

[Emma]

So, it would appear that Valve is no longer charging for mods. I wouldn't start celebrating yet, as no announcement has been made, but the paid section of the workshop has been completely removed. Hopefully a donation button will be added to the workshop, a reasonable compromise imho.
EDIT: wait, just found the official announcement. Start celebrating.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop/announcements/detail/208632365253244218

More here:
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-removed-paid-mods-functionality-from-steam-workshop/

And yeah, I think a donation button is a good idea. Or maybe a system like Patreon, where people could voluntarily agree to pay modders on some sort of regular basis. For YouTube, it's when new content matching a certain criteria is made (for singers it's when a new song is uploaded but not any other videos). For modders, I'm not sure what would work. But it's still a better direction to look at than paid mods.