Charging money for mods was almost a thing!

[Kinsie]

Man, imagine how angry you guys are gonna be when the full version of Adventures of Square has a price-tag attached to it.

[The Zombie Killer]

I dunno about anyone else, but I'd happily buy the full version of The Adventures of Square, however, I wouldn't pay for some tiny-ass Skyrim mod that gives me some new armor types

[Snarboo]

Man, imagine how angry you guys are gonna be when the full version of Adventures of Square has a price-tag attached to it.

If you think we're being too harsh, you should see some of the discussion groups for the current set of paid mods. We're downright civil in comparison! :p

Edit:
It's kind of telling that none of the paid mods have any user reviews yet.

[Kostov]

Words on SKSE: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/151681 ... ry23943101

[JimmyJ]

Words on SKSE: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/151681 ... ry23943101

A level headed and reasonable piece really, I can't disagree with what he says at all, as much as I personally think this whole thing is complete garbage.

[Nash]

I don't mind paying for Square. I would fucking mind if it was possible to charge money for map WADs or gameplay mods (weapons, randomizers, BLOOD MODS etc).

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Soo, in the future we can expect everyone to churn out mass-market vanilla megawads for money as well as for praise/awards and for avoiding criticism?

We all know Beth has a habit of releasing buggy, unfinished games and as far as PC players are concerned, the Unofficial Patches are considered compulsory. Well be prepared to pay $60 for the next huge Beth game and whatever else on top of that when the UP teams decide to charge money for their projects too...

And be prepared for someone to make their own fixes, for free.

And be prepared for some kind of mechanic that makes it illegal for fans to create their own free version of paid-for fixes.

In other words...people will deliberately release unfinished, bug-ridden games and secretly hire modders to make the paid-for bugfix patches. (the sort of patches that everyone would expect modders to make anyway, so it wouldn't look suspicious to the masses)

[Nash]

secretly hire modders

Hire? More like, make them do sweatshop work by paying them only 20% of the income to fix their unfinished games for them!

[Kinsie]

And be prepared for some kind of mechanic that makes it illegal for fans to create their own free version of paid-for fixes.

Like? Tell me, what would be cheaper and easier for a big budget game developer: Spending months and vast sums of money developing some magical mystery mod DRM system that'll be cracked instantly, or just... never taking the time and money to ship public mod tools?

[Snarboo]

While it seems ridiculous to assume that this is some sort of scheme to get modders to do the heavy lifting for Bethesda, I could see Steam Workshop being compulsory for future Bethesda games. Paid for mods less so, since they have to go through an approval process, and it's easier just to dump something on the Workshop for free.

[MetroidJunkie]

I'm certainly disappointed that Valve would take this kind of step, given they're the company I usually praise for being more generous towards their community than others. That being said, I'm hoping the gaming community will stay together on this and collectively refuse to charge for their mods and also refuse to buy into this. We have the power to keep this from being a problem, just let your wallet do the talking and refuse to buy Steam mods.

[CorSair]

So, asking donations or linking directly to them are now prohibited in Steam when this new system kicked in?

What

And be prepared for someone to make their own fixes, for free.

And be prepared for some kind of mechanic that makes it illegal for fans to create their own free version of paid-for fixes.

Did you know there is a possibility to send DMCA notifications for mods, even if it is a fix without any game content?

Possibilities are unlimited.

[Trance]

What's to prevent someone repackaging and reselling a mod at a lower price and depriving a modder of that money? Unless they've made that impossible, I can see that happening constantly under this new system, even if each instance is short-lived.

[JimmyJ]

What's to prevent someone repackaging and reselling a mod at a lower price and depriving a modder of that money? Unless they've made that impossible, I can see that happening constantly under this new system, even if each instance is short-lived.

Nothing, and in fact you could just buy a mod, copy the files to a folder, get your refund, and keep using the files because there's no drm or anything in TES mods at all and they have NO way to prevent this. The whole thing is nonsense without any anti-piracy measures at all.

[Caligari87]

Man, imagine how angry you guys are gonna be when the full version of Adventures of Square has a price-tag attached to it.

I dunno about anyone else, but I'd happily buy the full version of The Adventures of Square, however, I wouldn't pay for some tiny-ass Skyrim mod that gives me some new armor types

I don't mind paying for Square. I would fucking mind if it was possible to charge money for map WADs or gameplay mods (weapons, randomizers, BLOOD MODS etc).

Guys, I really don't get what the difference is here. They're both mods. Yes Square is all original content if I understand, so that makes it more a new game like Hexen or Strife (or Total Chaos, primo example in the Doom modding realm), but if idSoft/BethSoft authorizes modders to make money from Doom resources as well, then what makes Square any better than say, KDiZD, or Stronghold? Is it simply the level of effort involved? Or is it the perceived value?

If it's the first, who's to judge what is "worthy" of being sold? You? Me? A review board at id/Beth? What kind of politics would be involved? Does Brutal Doom get a pass because SgtMkWhatever has obviously put dozens (hundreds?) of man-hours into it of his own work, lifted content aside?

If it's the perceived value, then DON'T BUY IT. Anyone looking to "get rich quick" is gonna be highly disappointed when no one buys their shitty BFG replacement, and they're gonna go away. Anyone stupid enough to buy it would have fallen for the next scam anyway, their loss. No skin off my nose.

Overall, I view this as a net-positive. The talented pro-ams get a chance to see some kickbacks on their hard, passionate work, and those doing it for a hobby can still give it away pro-bono, win-win. But the only way to be even close to fair is to give everyone a chance, and let the markets sort themselves out. That's the beauty of free enterprise. Yes, people will get hurt in the process; it's up to you to protect yourself, the same way you do with early access and kickstarters today. Same principle.

Now, if BethSoft started forcing payment for any mods on the workshop so they get their pound of flesh off the backs of modders who can't fight back, that's a different story...