Steam Workshop goes Market

[kail]

Failing to see the issue of someone wanting to sell their work. If the mod is overpriced, it simply won't sell and the author will suffer from pirating.

The option for free mods is still there.

Think mods are easy to create? Make them youself.

[Hellravager]

Failing to see the issue of someone wanting to sell their work. If the mod is overpriced, it simply won't sell and the author will suffer from pirating.

The option for free mods is still there.

Think mods are easy to create? Make them youself.

Problem is people are greedy pigs, when they can charge for something they will. 1 mod already got removed from nexus and thrown on the workshop for money

- - - Updated - - -

Btw an image of the pricing

[Arrashi]

Holy shit, they are expensive. I expected them to be 0.10euro or something. Just wow.

Failing to see the issue of someone wanting to sell their work. If the mod is overpriced, it simply won't sell and the author will suffer from pirating.

The option for free mods is still there.

Think mods are easy to create? Make them youself.

The thing is, that mods were always "From community to community" and were products of someones passion/hobby. Now they gonna end up as monopolised piece of shit. And then it will all die out.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Petition went up a couple hours ago, is here if anyone is interested.

I think putting a donate option into the workshop would serve the community and modders far better than simply monetizing the mods. Regardless of what happens, I am doubting it will end well.

[smackyslap]

I would of been happy if it was just a donation button I guess the pay what you want option the authors can put up is pretty close.

Another thing I wanted to bring up what if a mod uses assists from other mods or needs something like skyui or skse to work? will they get paid for their work will Bethesda/valve do anything about it?

[kail]

The thing is, that mods were always "From community to community" and were products of someones passion/hobby. Now they gonna end up as monopolised piece of shit. And then it will all die out.

Ok, they can still be free. That is entirely up to the author (as it should be). Mods are not created by imagination alone. They take time and effort. Some people have their works posted for free, not just mods. You going to raise your pitchforks over anyone who doesn't distribute their work for free? Start with music artists, book authors, game devs, painters, etc.

It just baffles me.

[Yvaelle]

I think it's a great idea with rudimentary implementation.

For starters, the money:
- the modder deserves a cut
- Steam deserves a cut
- the developer deserves a cut

Considerations: steam is doing all the legwork here of the transaction and distribution, but it's also entirely automated and requires no 'labour' on their part. Without them, this model wouldn't work at all - but I don't think they deserve a cut proportional to the modder (who is doing all the labour) or the developer (who owns the IP). So I'd think something more like:
Modder: 40%
Developer: 40%
Steam: 20%

Creating modding as a viable business model creates an entirely new industry for Steam to take a cut from - I think 20% is more than fair given their part in the process, and if a 40% modder cut is sufficiently to professionalize the hobbyists, that's great news for Steam and gaming in general. Some of the Skyrim mods are half as big as Skyrim itself - or provide essential new features that re-invent the game for the better: the success of Skyrim is almost as much the Mod Communities doing as Bethesda's.

While I wouldn't normally want to contribute 40% of the share based solely on the underlying IP of the game, I'm not attributing that value out of hand - I think that opening a game up to a mod market cannot be an after-thought by developers: it is a service model that creates an entirely new revenue stream and thus requires new employees to support and interact with those modders.

Responsibility must be shouldered by the Developer to create mod toolkits (Skyrim Worldbuilder, etc), ensure compatibility and interaction bugs are minimized (via strict file structuring between mods and games, such as WoW's Addons folder for addons - rather than older games which required you to modify or replace base game files with jury-rigged third-party alternatives). A whole new set of best practices is called for, before a game should be deemed (by Steam) 'ready' for market modding. So I expect Developers to work for that 40% (granted, they would not be doing nearly so much work as the modders themselves - but that other cut is the value of the underlying game IP).

Lastly I think the modders deserve a big cut (perhaps even 50/30/20 split) - it's their work after all - and it benefits literally everyone involved. The more professional modders you can create, the bigger these games become - the better the base game sales do - and the more money is made by everyone involved. The purpose of the mod market needs to be to professionalize modding.

What is the end goal here? A tale of two games: Skyrim vs. Dragon Age 2.

When Skyrim launched, it had a variety of bugs and quality of life issues - the game frequently crashed, and someone made a mod to fix that within a matter of hours which became ~mandatory until Bethesda released an official fix. Some of the interfaces were very buggy on PC (having clearly been designed originally for console controllers) - and someone made another mod to smooth and fix the UI - another ~mandatory mod. I (and a few others) wrote a follower AI script that made rogue followers playable: and anyone who played with a rogue follower shortly after launch probably had one of our mods (or didn't know about them and wished they did). The community was able to rapidly resolve problems and improve the game in ways Bethesda never could - and the success of Skyrim is not simply the success of another good Elder Scrolls game - what made it exceptional was the mod community.

Dragon Age 2 is the dark side of this story. While Dragon Age 1 was moddable (but much more difficult), Dragon Age 2 was virtually untouchable - and it paid the price. While I'm sure sales did very well - critical and gamer reviews alike found the game buggy, too linear, the combat too easy, and the main story disjointed and awkward. Imagine for a moment what DA2 could have been, if it had the modding community Skyrim had - it could have been Inquisition years before Inquisition ever hit market - and that should be goal. Entire new non-linear zones would have been made, bugs would have been polished out, player-made content would have enhanced the plots or explained or omitted the confusing or awkward parts. Combat mods would have given the turn-based PC crowd a challenge (as they did in DA1).

The potential difference is enormous - and this is only the result of amateur modding. The professionalization of modding could re-invent the entire industry.

[Dezerte]

My main concern is that it can cause a divide between free mod-creators and paid mod-creators, potentially stifling mod development.

[Zervek]

This is fucking retarded. Now one of the best advantages PC's have over consoles is no longer free. Were they not happy enough with a donate button?
FUCK!

[Edge-]

This is fucking retarded. Now one of the best advantages PC's have over consoles is no longer free. Were they not happy enough with a donate button?
FUCK!

Did I miss the part where they shut down the free portion of the Workshop or third party mod hosting sites like Nexus?

[Hauntlander]

Let me explain why this is all dumb:

Mods are a community effort, and should be rewarded with donations. It has all been about collaborating and creating a more enjoyable game for themselves and the community. Now, you're going to have people forcing out shitty code that probably breaks your game in some way just to make a quick buck. And don't even get me started on the copyright issues. I already see people on the market profiting from textures/models straight up ripped from different games. Modders should be rewarded by the community for creating a good mod, there should be no paywall for trying out a mod that you may not even like. What happens when there's conflicts between mods? What happens when there's other mod requirements that cost money?

This is the worst fucking idea in Gaming history that I've ever heard and whoever gave this the thumbs up in Valve should be fired on the damn spot.

If a modder is committed, well known, and dedicated then they can easily make money the legit way through people paying for what they think the mod is worth through donations.

Mods are NOT music, they are NOT movies. They are consumer-made modifications to an original games code, and they are extremely unreliable and prone to breaking over anything.

The layout of all of this is extremely unprofessional and they are going to step into legal hell over this. I wonder how many people are stripping mods off the Nexus as we speak and re-listing them for their own profit.

[TheDeeGee]

Ive just hidden some of my Mods on Nexus.

Don't want them stolen and sold by someone else on the Black Market Workshop.

[kail]

This is fucking retarded. Now one of the best advantages PC's have over consoles is no longer free. Were they not happy enough with a donate button?
FUCK!

With these comments, I'm actually starting to lose faith in the PC community.

[-aiko-]

I hate this.

Problems:

Mod compatibility. If I buy a mod that doesn't work with other mods, I will be pretty pissed. I know there's a refund option but it only goes to your Steam wallet. No thank you.

Pricing. As if we don't expect modders to start charging top dollar for their mods...I can't wait to see $10 modded armor and weapons.

Community. Mods are supposed to be a community effort. As is already evident this is just causing a huge rift. Good mods with donation options are already getting paid for their work, making it mandatory is only hurting the community.

[Schmeebs]

The good mod developers will know that the stupid shit (Oh I made this new shiny sword of awesome that looks like super cool) won't really sell, and leave that stuff free, then have the bigger thigns (Falskaar, town revamps, whole questlines etc) are worth a few dollars.

You know that cosmetic DLC for Mass Effect? Who buys that crap? People buy the missions. the Mod Community for skyrim will embrace awesome mods, but if you are charging even 99c for yoru crappy bugged as hell armor mod, nobody is going to want to dl it, and maybe if you make something cooler downt he road, people won't even give it a shot.

[Arrashi]

So i watched TB's video, and now i realised in how deep shit we are.

If money (75%) goes to steam that shares it with developer, we can see following: developerts are motivated to put less content in the game, so people will create it as a mods. You literally get paid for not adding things into the base game. I really hope that isn't how fallout 4 and TES6 will turn out.

[Nerevar]

I thought it's illegal to monetize mods?

The good mod developers will know that the stupid shit (Oh I made this new shiny sword of awesome that looks like super cool) won't really sell, and leave that stuff free, then have the bigger thigns (Falskaar, town revamps, whole questlines etc) are worth a few dollars.

No, mods shouldn't be worth anything except a good/bad review. Donations? Sure. Selling? Fuck that.

[Zervek]

Did I miss the part where they shut down the free portion of the Workshop or third party mod hosting sites like Nexus?

The free mods are going to be the shitty, abandoned ones. I don't want to start having to pay for my favorite mods I've been using for months.

[Nerevar]

Did I miss the part where they shut down the free portion of the Workshop or third party mod hosting sites like Nexus?

The current mods will remain like that but what about future projects? Would any modder now want to do something for free when they know they can get money for this now?

[Erolian]

I don't really think modders should be able to monetize anything based inside of someone else's work. A lot of mods are typically very small jobs with the majority of the work already done for you by the developers of the game and if they're interested in doing larger work than that for money then I believe they should probably get a job doing it and go all the way. I doubt a lot of developers would appreciate other people profiting off of their own work and brand with minor adjustments.