Steam Workshop now lets people put prices on mods.

http://www.vg247.com/2015/04/23/steam-workshop-mods-money-skyrim/

Oh man, it's almost like people will need to put effort into research and become informed consumers in order to not waste money on a scam! What a horrible thing right?

Mike

Yeah, become informed and don't waste money on scams.
Scams like paying for a mod.

Implying that a "Mod" can never be sold for a legitimate value?

Mike

I'm implying that putting mods behind a non-optional and fixed paywall is ridiculous.
I'm implying that going straight for maximum dosh and making a nearly $50 mod bundle is ridiculous.

Supporting modders is great, but this is just ******* stupid.

so supporting modders is great but modders are not allowed to ask for money?
I find this kind of weird, people seem to think that a person modding a game is not allowed asking for money for their work?

The problem is, there are really only 2 kinds of pay for mods.

Ones that have huge userbase and development base and documentation and version history.

And ones that list a huge userbase and development base and documentation and version history, just to look legitimate on the surface when everything it promises is impossible with said game even via modding, and anyone it fooled gets suckered out and the publisher of the mod gets at least a little sucker cash and moves on to another distant game to scam new targets.

FTL Captain's Edition for example, I'd pay for that, but I would rather Steam have a greenlight for their mod-marketplace. Some sort of system that a scam would be generally obvious and wouldn't make it to public marketplace, and mods like FTL Captain's Edition would make it.

I've never seen that kind of scam at all and the skyrim swords and other funny things also dont look like that at all?

Is that the case thought? From what I see/know of this is optional.

Implying that everyone will do that? Like I said, it's only so much of a scam as the potential customer is un-educated. And yeah, trying to sell BS is BS I agree with you there, but you're basically implying that because it could happen, it's all that will happen.

There will be growing pains of course, and the whole thing could be mishandled by Valve but why call it out for potential outcomes only instead of striving to make the best of what is handed to us?

I'm going to guess based on your comments so far you also hate things like Patreon too because it can be used for BS despite the fact that there are plenty of other content creators that have been using it legitimately?

Mike

I've been looking at the more expensive mods on Steam right now for CAD6.25. It adds a new character apparently with 600+ lines of spoken text. That doesn't seem so outrageous to me? The creator is even releasing it for free later on AND also has a pay-what-you-want option. Additionally, it seems Steam allows everyone to give plenty of feedback, so it would be easy enough to see if that particular mod is a scam or not.

The $50 seems to be the price for buying all of the paid mods available right now. Not a single mod.

(By the way, while reading the feedback on the mod on Steam: Holy crap, people are entitled. You are not giving this free to us anymore! I hate you! You low-life. You are "forcing" us to pay. Waa-waa...)

In any case, paid mods don't seem like a bad idea. The modders do work. Many do it for fun and will continue to do so and some want money for their efforts. It's not for us to decide why they should be making mods. If you don't want to pay, don't pay.

I feel like if a mod costs money then no one will buy it, unless it's absolutely amazing.

It's optional to be put on a mod, but is it not a better idea to have a donation button for all mods rather than a forced payment for some?
I don't know, maybe I'm just absolutely insane but that seems like a much better way to handle it.

"could be".

You'd be wrong, I actually support a Patreon. I like the idea of supporting content creators like this, but if paywalling mods is okay, why not paywall Youtube videos to Patreon supporters? Or only allow art to be seen by commissioners?
Again, ridiculous.

so you are saying that mod creators have to provide their work for free and then maybe beg for a donation?

I mean valve is not randomly paywalling mods right? they do this together with modders who decide to only provide their work for people who are paying for it. They have the good right to do so and it is ridiculous to try and deny them this right.

Sounds reasonable to me. The point is that you want to hit a balancing point between The Author's and the Consumer's perceived value of the product.

It's also to be expected that initially there will be higher standards put upon the offerings. If this pans out over time to standards will be relaxed as the market figures out what is reasonable and what it not.

It's a completely different market thought. Releasing a Weapon/Unit Pack is completely different from paying for more frequent updates on an online comic for example. Also I believe that Patreon can "Pay Wall" things if they choose to (thought it is easier to work around from my understanding) and it comes down to the circumstances of the project and it's audience that dictate whether or not that is okay.

Mike

F*ck. I hate this. Mods are supposed to be passion projectd. Driven by love. Now we're going to get even more shovelware crap made by people who watched a couple of modelling tutorials on youtube.

Donations is a completely separate topic honestly. In all the years we worked on BlackOps we were never once even asked if we accepted donations. On top of that I'm willing to be had we gone through the trouble to set it all up and trusted one of us enough to ensure things would be split up the contributions in a fair manner(for the record I don't think this would have been a problem, for the BO team, just complicated) and pushed it enough we probably would have received some donations but I doubt it would have been a notable amount.

It's not the same thing as creating a complete quality product for sale and it's not fair to try and tell someone how they're allowed to profit off of their own work. Content creators need to be allowed to figure out what methods work for thier needs and allow the consumers to decide what is fair in any given set circumstances.

Mike

Adding random crap won't change anything about real passion projects. Random crap will be added to the market and people will mostly ignore it. So what? Let them try.

And? How well do you think that will work if applied to the rest of the worlds markets. Ford F-150s are supposed to be passion projects. Driven by love. Now we're going to get even more cheap imports made by people who took a 2 year design course in Not-America!

See how it breaks down? The world is already filled with "Shovelware" products based on other good products, it doesn't stop the world from turning thought. All you need to do is educate yourself and not support the shovelware.

Mike

Well first off, if Valve were working with the modders the modders would be getting more than 25%. If anything they're kind of screwing the modders.

Second, okay when you put it that way it sounds heartless, but is it really begging?
People make mods because they like making mods, it's not an overly costly thing like making an actual video game (unless you host online servers) and it's a good way to get your feet wet and potentially make it into the games industry.

My point is, modding isn't a business. It never was a business and it shouldn't be a business, and saying that a donation system would make people "beg" is crazy talk because modders were already providing this stuff for free.

No, but 3D Modeling, Animation, Rigging, Texturing, Lighting and Coding are things that ARE businesses.

When I use my skills to make a 3D Model 3D Printing Compatible and design a Custom Stand for it I deserve the right to charge for that application of my skills as I deem appropriate. Once you break it down, it's not any different for modding, you're just getting stuck up on labels.

Mike