Steam Workshop now lets people put prices on mods.

Ah, that wasn't clear before.

Mike

Duh. Of course modding projects have lasted more than five years. I was referring to a personal business plan for profitability. Tamriel rebuilt has been around since the early 2000s.

Please point out where I said they couldn't ask for donations.

Have you ever played an elder scrolls game? Have you seen the list of bug fixes the unofficial patches that have been made for Skyrim and oblivion?

Don't worry fans fixing bugs in the games they love is not going to change...

Of course not. The question is whether or not they'll charge through the nose for it.

well maybe a few more bugged old games would have bugfixes if people could expect payment for the work of fixing them.

Feels kinda... exploitative.

So then wouldn't that mean that PA was exploitative? Being a largely neglected niche of RTS games wasn't Uber asking for money for the PA KS because no one but us really cared enough about our favourite RTS Subgenre?

Mike

Charging people to fix bugs... Doesn't sit right with me.

Why? Why are people so against paying people for the application of their skills?

Do you hate paying the Plumber that you have to call in to fix something because the original contractor 15 years ago made a mistake?

Mike

One game doesn't define reality.

If Bethesda were going to make community fixes an official patch they'd have already done so. The modder being able to charge for it wouldn't make a difference. No-one would buy it. They'd shoot themselves in the foot.

Honestly, have you ever made a mod?

They do. Look at many old games, there are plenty of fan fixes made for them. And in any case, fixing bugs in games is the developer's responsibility. Now, with game developers, what exactly is the incentive for them to fix bugs if modders can now do so without having to be on their payroll? Especially if they can get almost 50% of the sales of said mod when desperate players need it to play?

You are comparing apples to oranges. PA wanted funding for making a GAME, not fixing bugs. If they demanded people pay them to fix bugs in their product, people would be, rightly so, apoplectic about it.

Are you two seriously floating the idea that you can, for example, sell a new car with a defect, that prevents someone from actually using the car, and then charge them to fix your defect?! What the hell? That is lawsuit territory.

How is that an ethical or legal way to do business?

That sounds you don't want people to fix bugs in games they play.

Moving the goal posts now huh? I listed TWO games, but since I apparently need to list several hundred to get it through your head, how about a few more? Like Battle for Middle Earth I and II, Battlefront, Total annihilation, Age of Empires II, Morrowind, Dragon Age, Jade Empire, etc. Modder fixes have ALWAYS been commonplace.

Bethesda hasn't made the unofficial fixes official to everyone's detriment, especially to the console players since they cannot use mods. People know this by now that you never buy a Bethesda game for consoles because they rely on their community for fixing their games. And they have done so for over 10 years now.

I want game developers to fix bugs in games they create. I don't want the expectation to be to expect modders to do the work of developers, as it is with Bethesda's games.

Modders always will have an enormous amount of more time (because there are usually a lot more modders than devs over time) to fix and improve stuff, that will never change.
In combination with the missing financial pressure they'll always end up producing extra features and bugfixes.

Why should developers do anything at all now beyond the basic minimum? Why include extra features when the modders will do it anyways? Why patch their game when the modders will do it anyways? All they have to do is get a sandbox up and running and let the modders come in a fill it up for them as they and Valve laugh it all the way to the bank.

Lets just all live in a micro-transaction hell, where every patch is going to cost you $5 and you go to modders to ask for extra features because they are now employees of the company.

Because hopefully they will not find many customers if they do that for a while. If they still find customers then go complain to those customers.

Damn, and I thought Yahtzee was cynical.

Bethesda has been doing it for years.
I leave you with this:


And a little lighthearted entertainment:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=431426494