Charging money for mods was almost a thing!

[Kinsie]

If you really think manchildren aren't going to try pulling chargebacks and such on this out of "protest", then would you be interested in pre-ordering bridge.wad?

[Nash]

I'm already browsing through some of these paid mods. The Wet & Cold mod could feed me for 2 days and Midas Magic could fill my car petrol for 5 days. LOL ridiculous.

[Gez]

When an item is sold via the Steam Workshop, revenue is shared between Valve (for transaction costs, fraud, bandwidth & hosting costs, building & supporting the Steam platform), the game developer (for creation of the game and the game's universe, the marketing to build an audience, the included assets, and any included modding or editing tools), and the item creator (including any specified contributors).

transaction costs, fraud, bandwidth & hosting costs

fraud

fraud

Excuse me while I die from laughter ...

I don't think you understood that the way it was meant to be understood.

[scalliano]

Of course not, but it's funnier my way

[Nash]

LOL, the Wet & Cold that's on Nexus isn't even the latest version, it's like from last year. The latest version is the paid one on Steamworks. Others will follow soon...

[CorSair]

fraud

*reads the link again*
Err, I think I don't get it, I have one way to describe word "fraud", tell me there's other meaning for it.

[scalliano]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud

Only meaning I know of

[leileilol]

shit's going to turn Roblox so fast, badly done forced memes being on the market, loads of unauthorized exploitation etc.


Valve had better bring out its asswhipping stickhammer if they're going to be serious with this

[MetroidJunkie]

It honestly depends how well done it is. I imagine a mod to cost around as much as a mobile game so you can use that as a standard of quality. Also, naturally, the expectations would be much higher for mods you have to pay for versus ones you can get for free. Given all the amazing mods that are available for free, that's going to be very hard to do. If there's one mod I can imagine would actually be worth a small price, it's the Total Chaos mod. That's really well done so far.

[Nash]

Apparently paid Steam mods will eventually extend to all Steam Workshop games... Skyrim is first in line in testing the implementation. So yeah, basically, there is a legit reason to freak out. In 2 years' time this will be the norm. Look what happened to Greenlight.

[MetroidJunkie]

All we can do is hope that most modders choose to provide their works for free out of simple generosity to the video game community. After all, look at all the open sourced game projects that could be making money but they choose to make it free. Not every modder is out to make a buck and I doubt most people would choose to buy such things unless they were professional quality, given there's no shortage of mods available for free so they have to be extremely high quality to have a chance of getting people to spend money on them.

[Gez]

fraud

*reads the link again*
Err, I think I don't get it, I have one way to describe word "fraud", tell me there's other meaning for it.

Valve is saying that fraud is one of the things that make them lose money (notably this kind of fraud) so they need money to cover up this cost, just like the other costs they have to pay for. Scalliano is reading it as Valve admitting they are frauders, instead of victims of fraud.

[Xtyfe]

Apparently paid Steam mods will eventually extend to all Steam Workshop games... Skyrim is first in line in testing the implementation. So yeah, basically, there is a legit reason to freak out. In 2 years' time this will be the norm. Look what happened to Greenlight.

I do buy some newer games, but I will quit entirely if this is the future. I sure as fuck will be actively participating in making sure the industry crashes.

[BouncyTEM]

I have extremely mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, I do think it's pretty cool that someone can spend hundreds of hours making something cool for a game and legally selling it without issue. That the opportunity's there? Pretty nice.

But, simultaneously, I'm seeing a few problems with this, namely the execution.
The largest of which, that I don't think I've seen discussed here yet?
Valve couldn't even manage Greenlight all that well. An absolute plethora of crap, some illegal even, came through it, even when a paywall was implemented just to get in. A move like this is going to need a lot more management to keep the paid modding market fair and honest, and Valve has a history of failing at this completely.

I can't trust them to manage it properly. They barely manage their own storefront; are they really going to pay attention to who's selling what on the paid mod marketplace? How many complaints of fraud and scam is it going to take for them to even notice that someone's selling a mod they didn't make, let alone pull it?

It would not surprise me to see a second plethora of crap coming through skyrim's steam workshop as scammers, lowlives, and exploitative gold diggers all scramble to make a quick buck. I hope that's not the case, but, well, history says otherwise.

Edit: And while i'm thinking about it, how the hell is this going to work in regards to derivative mods? If something requires SKSE, is it even legal for that mod to be paid for while SKSE's three developers get nothing?
Seems like a great way to get a community split up and divided and arguing over nothing.

This idea, as well meaning as it may have been, seems really short-sighted in terms of its consequences and its implementation.

[IMX]

Can't wait for Hotline Mexico