Steam Workshop now lets people put prices on mods.

Still no reasons to deny modders the right to try and ask for money. Modders will continue to provide a lot of stuff for free in the future, that is never going to change. All that may change is that some people might decide to make a mod in hopes to make money from it. Nothing wrong about that. Maybe they will find buyers, maybe not. Their choice.
25% is rather meager indeed, but that doesnt seem to be the reason why some people are upset with this.

Most complaints about this seem to boil down to "I don't want to pay for mods and I demand them for free because modders clearly work for passion, so how dare them to ask for money" and that is pretty bad argument.

I don't see anything bad about having a mod market system like this. It might attract some more people who will try to make mods to sell them. More potential content for you as a customer to consume if you like it. yey. If you don't like it do the same as you do about the thousands of bad games that you completely ignore as well.

Potentially some really well made mod that currently is free might turn out to cost you a few dollars because the creators of the mod realized they can make money with it. That certainly sounds "bad" to the customer who until now took high quality free work for granted, but the creator of such a high quality mod probably put in crazy amounts of work and has a very good right to ask for money. I personally don't consider it bad if I can pay a few dollars to the creator of content I like, so I don't mind though.

Yeah, some people are entitled douches, more at 11 and all that.

I see what you're saying, though, and yes it is wrong to take their rights away. I'm not necessarily saying that things should change now, I just feel that modders would get the same, possibly more money AND it would have pissed off a hell of a lot less people if Valve went the donation route rather than the paywall route.

Who knows, though. Maybe I'm entirely incorrect and this thing will really takeoff once people get used to it, but we live in a world where people pirate indie games so I'm gonna take a guess and say it probably won't succeed.

If it doesn't- who cares? I completely understand paid mods. People spend months working and perfecting something, they deserve money, if people don't want to pay it- lower the price. If _still_ nobody pays either your mod isn't up to scratch, or people are just being overly entitled.

This is all just a cultural thing, if mods had started off costing a bit of money nobody would see it any different than they did DLC.

Also @Geers about "mods are supposed to be passion projects" does this mean because indie games cost money they aren't passion projects? Or is it suddenly 'okay' then?

I am not against paid mods in particular, I would like the whole information industry to move towards PWYP and donate.
Also, https://www.patreon.com/search?q=minecraft mods&t=creators .

Is it something that workshop submitters tick a box and bam you need to pay, or does Valve have to give the go-head?

From the blog post:

So it looks the same as for phone apps. Just check the box and wait for the vetting.
(source)

The thing about paid mods is that mods that don't generate much interest, or are new, don't have much if any feedback, and buying into them is a risk, much like buying into a new game (I really don't like this. I like knowing all about my stuff before I buy it. Unless it's pretty...). However, with mods that are bad, people just won't spend money on and they'll rot away even faster than if they were free, and the mods that are good will generate at least some revenue for the modder, which is certainly an awesome form of feedback. Maybe this will lead to a standalone version, much like how Garry's Mod worked out.

What will suck is if people abuse it and pretty much everybody charges for their work. Steam Workshop is amazing, but it's amazing because it's free and easy. Once it loses the free, I think that it won't work as well, so it'll definitely be important to see how Valve handles this and how the community in general handles it. Big changes this week, eh?

I can't wait for the flood of mods from the Nexus to Steam's crappy workshop just so these modders can make a buck. And I can't wait for the thousands of crappy mods being made and turning it into Steam app store.

I am especially excited for all these modders using others work and selling it as their own or depending on free mods for their own to work. Are those others going to get a cut too? Are they going to have to issue a DMCA takedown?

STUPID.

God forbid people be compensated for their time.

This is a bunch of butthurt people sad that they'll actually have to compensate others for their time and skill.

Is steam's current implementation great? No. Is creating a new marketplace for people to make great stuff good? Yes.

Steam has essentially created a whole new industry. An industry that will bring forth a lot of kick *** stuff.

I wish I could like this three times.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that mods need to be free. If modders can be compensated for their time and build an entire business on mods, think about how awesome mods will become, on top of how awesome they already can be. Also, think about how many awesome mods were eventually no longer supported. With financial backing, mod creators will be able to afford to dump more time into them.

Ok well here's my opinion as a modder.
I don't mind if people put a button on their page to donate to the mod.
But when they are asking for you to pay to play their mod i'm a bit on the concerned side, but its not a big deal.

What really infuriates me is that Valve are greedy enough to demand 75% of what that mod earns. Yes you heard me right 75% goes to valve not to the modder. So the modder gets piss all.
Oh and if that wasn't bad enough valve won't pay the modder until the mod has accrued $100 which is the bullshit topping on the bullshit cake (atleast this is what I've heard).

If valve asked for a small 10% or 15% cut and didn't include the bull $100 business I still wouldn't be happy, but I would have not cared as much. (It's somewhat reasonable that they took a very small percentage since they are hosting your mod "still not happy though")

If you are a fellow modder and reading this, by all means put a donate button on your mod. But make your mod paid through valves stupid system and my repect for you will drop this includes any support from me. (If you are one of these people then you probably don't care for my respect, but had to state it anyway).

EDIT:
Oh and more good news.
If a cut of this goes to the publisher as well then this would further encourage devs to release half assed games then proceed to effectively get paid by the modders who go to the trouble to fix that crap.

EDIT2:
yep confirmed that the modder won't be paid till their balance reaches $100

People can sell the media they make. People can take donations. Arguing against either of these is a bit silly here, in my opinion.

I don't think the 1:3 cut is fair here; a mod could add a completely new gamemode or feature set. This is not the same as submitting a skin for a game like TF2, DOTA2 or CS:GO, where the items are added to the base game in exchange for a cut of in-game sales. Because those are being added to the base game, Valve are in a position where they can make the terms for submitted content. They're in a way buying rights to use someone's creation.

On the other hand, I'd argue that the mod creator still has all the rights to their product, and should be entitled to sell it on their own, which means the 75% valve/dev portion is simply the price for steam integration / visibility. Hopefully. I'm a little worried that this new system may cause problems for those who want to sell or accept donations for mods outside of the steam system (without giving royalties to the developer). If any developers start cracking down on mod monetization outside steam, then I'll have a real beef with it.

I also don't think valve is capable of handling the myriad of customer support / copyright claims issues that will need to be addressed here. That's just due to their track record; it'll be interesting to see if they can keep up with the number of stolen mods / mods using assests without proper permission, and how they'll deal with those issues.

This is actually not much of an issue. When I receive a wire transfer, I'm charged a flat rate of $14. It makes sense not to pay out until the amount is above a certain threshold, otherwise the amount would mostly end up going to bank fees.

Go be a game developer then if you want to be compensated for your time and skills. Modding is a largely derivative hobby that should not be allowed to go pay for play: it hurts the community, it unnecessarily divides the player base, it injects politics and lawyers into the creative process ( do you want to have the modding community to behave like the patent trolls?), and it creates a whole new level of piracy (modding piracy! Really?!).

Plus once you start monetizing the mods, well you need to ensure that no one else can get them for free otherwise your scheme falls apart. So now we all get to deal with another round of further encroaching DRM, and this time it will not be just for the games, it will also be for their modifications as well.

Asking for donations vs forcing people to pay to play is an entirely different level, especially with the many of those modders (especially in Skyrim) using or deriving their assets in whole or part from others.

You like $1.99 swords for Skyrim? More items like the infamous horse armor DLC? Steam is essentially transforming hobbyist modders into game developers without the accountability, the legal protections, etc for a bastardized rip off of the Android app store. And the people buying these "mods" have already paid for the base game. At least in the Android app store, the near unanimous amount of apps available work on their own independently.

This is going to create a more competitive, cutthroat culture in the modding community that seeks to stomp out the competition and hinder new modders from getting into the modding scene. WHY would any long term modder want to help out a new modder who can potentially take away sales from him/her? Does anyone think that PA modding would even exist if people starting setting up paywalls for their mods?

Really? Since Valve is the only company doing this (for now) we only have their example to go by, and looking at it in detail, there is no way someone is going to have a functional business around this. They are getting less than 25% of the actual sale of the mod, plus whatever tax is put on top of that, PLUS it has to be over a certain amount of sales to even be given to the modder. Bethsesda and Valve wanted to start milking the Skyrim modding community (coming to the wider game modding community near you soon) because the base game plus its official "mods" AKA DLC is not a large enough cash cow apparently. In Valve's system, we get customers modifying/enhancing games for game developers FOR FREE and they share 75% of the profits with Valve if the mod sells. If it doesn't, well the game company has absolutely no investment to lose. And even better, WHY release the game in a workable state at all, just give out the base game and have your customers furnish it for you FOR FREE! Win/Win/Win/Win for them.

I can't wait until Skyrim's unofficial patches start getting price tags on them. Or even better, official patches for other games too. Why not just start charging by the mouse click in game?

I think the few mods trying to ask for money would quickly stop because too few people would be willing to pay for them.
"it hurts the community" is a pretty arbitrary argument. I say it is good for the community if modders can see some form of positive feedback for their work.
Just because there is an option to get money for their work (again how "horrible"...) won't change what most modders do. And those who change what they do have the good right to do so. You're not entitled to playing their work at all.

Do you not realize that this argument could have been applied to literally all software in the past? The only difference here is that you don't think artists should ask for compensation because it 'hurts the community'. That's based on your ideal, it's not a meaningful reason why people can't ask for compensation.
The fact of the matter is people can ask for compensation for their work; you can't tell them that they're not entitled to that *(unless they're distributing assets or I.P. of other people without their permission, obviously). Not everyone will ask for it, mind you, but that doesn't mean the option is wrong.

Asking for donations is not the same as pay to play. A model like Patreon is much better than what has been set up at Steam.

What positive feedback is there now being given for those modders charging for their work on Steam? Again, this stifles new modding if the model moves towards this. You don't see Microsoft helping Sony and Nintendo with their consoles.

It is not about the entitlement in as much as it is about the precedent and what this will lead to. Any widespread acceptance of monetization of modding will lead to more encryption, more DRM, and more legal headaches for players and modders.

And especially with this scheme hatched up by Valve, you are far better off going with Unity 5 or Unreal Engine 4 than getting some paltry 25% of the profits plus taxes on Steam.

Modders are not creating solely their own work. They have to use a base game with its assets for it to be a modification. They should not demand to be paid for this.

I don't want to see the game industry get even more micro-transactions than it already has. This also will create a metric ton of legal issues for modders and Valve alike because of all the cross dependency and sharing of resources that is pervasive in the Skyrim modding scene. Just look at isoku who produced the Skyrim mod, Wet and Cold. He took the work of other modders and incorporated it into his mod and is now selling it on Steam. This system is going to encourage more of this type of behavior and is only a net negative for this. Like I previously stated, modders asking for money on this system are enabling future and more intrusive DRM and encryption due to monetization of their work. It harms everyone's ability to play these games in the future because it WILL tie people to a digital platform (Steam) that cannot be assured to continue for years on end. A simple donation button in Steam would have been much, MUCH better.

And as such, I strongly believe that it is wrong (though it is completely legal) for modders to demand payment for playing of their mods (through a pay to play scheme) especially since it requires the base game to function. Modders should ask for voluntary donations. This system works better for gaining reputation than money, many modders have gone on to successfully work with game developers, develop games, and gain funding through kickstarter and other venues. If modders really wanted to have compensation for their work they need to look to the free game engines right now and create their own games. This new Steam crap is just opening Pandora's box on thousands of horse armor-like DLC.

I found another way Steam can nickel and dime everyone:

Mod API DLC $29.99
Mod Support DLC $49.99

I can't wait for next gen Starforce to protect us all from the modder pirates.