Monetization of mods?

[Granyala]

Paying for mods? Ridiculous.
I always thought that mods were done by a games community for fun.

Most certainly will I never, ever pay for a mod of any kind.

[Soulwind]

if the mod doesn't work they just refund you into your steam wallet.

you can't get that money back.

Only the first 24 hours, though. If you buy a mod and two days later the game is updated, breaking the mod, you don't get anything back.

Unofficial, unreliable content easily found for free somewhere else. Who would support this system? It's not like the uploader (who may or may not be the original creator) gets most of the price even, Valve does. I expect this to fail.

Not that I think modders shouldn't get paid for their work, some of them definitely do. But this is not the way, this just doesn't work.

And Blizzard already monetizes mods by integrating some of them into the game you pay a suscription for.

[Wries]

In general I'm afraid it will incentivize developers to really not ship finished games, let the modders fix the issues and then take a piece of extra income from the mod sales in the end.

[Netherspark]

There is zero chance Blizzard will do this.

[Adarian]

Only the first 24 hours, though. If you buy a mod and two days later the game is updated, breaking the mod, you don't get anything back.

Unofficial, unreliable content easily found for free somewhere else. Who would support this system? It's not like the uploader (who may or may not be the original creator) gets most of the price even, Valve does. I expect this to fail.

Not that I think modders shouldn't get paid for their work, some of them definitely do. But this is not the way, this just doesn't work.

And Blizzard already monetizes mods by integrating some of them into the game you pay a suscription for.

don't forget how they don't care if you uploaded what you made for free, if someone else copies it and uploaded it for money they won't be shutdown and instead will likely get picked over the mod's actual dev for packaging.


i personally think a tip-jar system would be best.

[Notshauna]

if the mod doesn't work they just refund you into your steam wallet.

you can't get that money back.

Within 24 hours, when a single patch can break the mod. Also that's not a refund it's store credit, it's an exchange, funnily enough it might even increase their income.

[Orange Joe]

So for those of you unaware, Valve and Bethesda have come to an agreement to allow Valve to monetize mods for Skyrim on their workshop. To this point as a modder it is almost impossible to profit from your mods directly because they use copy right material. But with Bethesda's blessing and Valve's platform this is now a possibility and many modders have already begun pulling their mods from other free sites to make them exclusive on Steam for all future updates of their mod. If you'd like to know more I suggest watching TotalBiscuit's video on the topic, he does a pretty good job of explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGKOiQGeO-k


So bringing this back to WoW... does anyone else think this is just the beginning of whats to come for games and mods? Will other companies begin to sanction the monetization of mod's using their games for a cut of the profit? Could Blizzard come to a similar agreement with a site like Curse and we'd suddenly find that in order to have access to the latest version of Skada we'd need to cough up whatever the mod author deemed adequate?

In my opinion, just like DLCs and micro-transactions, this will catch on. Once video game companies realize they can make coin by doing nothing more than sanctioning other peoples' work, we will see many more games come out with similar arrangements. WoW is a bit of a trickier subject, the game has already been out for 10 years and has a subscription.

So what do people think? Will we be seeing cash for mods some time in the future?

If I remember right people were able to sell mods in the beginning. Carbonite was one that was behind a paywall.


Blizzard stopped this already. I don't think we will see them change it back.

[Etrock08]

Mods are not the same as Addons.

Mods change graphics, gameplay values, core mechanics, and more, it changes the actual game itself.

Addons are additional options, they do not changecore mechanics, graphics, etc, they provide customization to user interfaces, they do not, or are not supposed to allow you to interfere with core mechanics or graphics.

It is very likely that WoW will never charge to use add ons as it is a benefit to keep them. A symbiotic relationship. WoW provides the content and world while the UI and Quality of life changes are basically outsourced to these addon developers. Its almost like Blizzard having extra employes doing free work for them.

[Deleted]

I think its ok to earn money with great mods. People who create them put a lot of work into it.

[Moxal]

I will never pay for a 3rd party addon to a game. DLCs are bad enough.

I don't see this ever coming to WoW, RE: carbonite.

[uopayroll]

So for those of you unaware, Valve and Bethesda have come to an agreement to allow Valve to monetize mods for Skyrim on their workshop. To this point as a modder it is almost impossible to profit from your mods directly because they use copy right material. But with Bethesda's blessing and Valve's platform this is now a possibility and many modders have already begun pulling their mods from other free sites to make them exclusive on Steam for all future updates of their mod. If you'd like to know more I suggest watching TotalBiscuit's video on the topic, he does a pretty good job of explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGKOiQGeO-k


So bringing this back to WoW... does anyone else think this is just the beginning of whats to come for games and mods? Will other companies begin to sanction the monetization of mod's using their games for a cut of the profit? Could Blizzard come to a similar agreement with a site like Curse and we'd suddenly find that in order to have access to the latest version of Skada we'd need to cough up whatever the mod author deemed adequate?

In my opinion, just like DLCs and micro-transactions, this will catch on. Once video game companies realize they can make coin by doing nothing more than sanctioning other peoples' work, we will see many more games come out with similar arrangements. WoW is a bit of a trickier subject, the game has already been out for 10 years and has a subscription.

So what do people think? Will we be seeing cash for mods some time in the future?

Works for Apple and Itunes...

[DPA]

Mods are not the same as Addons.

Mods change graphics, gameplay values, core mechanics, and more, it changes the actual game itself.

Addons are additional options, they do not changecore mechanics, graphics, etc, they provide customization to user interfaces, they do not, or are not supposed to allow you to interfere with core mechanics or graphics.

It is very likely that WoW will never charge to use add ons as it is a benefit to keep them. A symbiotic relationship. WoW provides the content and world while the UI and Quality of life changes are basically outsourced to these addon developers. Its almost like Blizzard having extra employes doing free work for them.

QuestHelper got integrated in WoW.

The addon allowing you to draw out tactics in 3d for everyone in your raid to see, led to placeable markers (pillars) in the world environment.

Addons doing reforging for you led to removal of reforging.

Atlasloot + websites with boss tactics led to the dungeon/raid journal.

Weakauras led to integrated proc visuals on screen.

DBM led to certain mechanics being warned by default.

And the most important change: Talent building got changed because of the sharing of cookiecutter builds and theorycrafters releasing info on the best talent setup.

How did these "mods" not change anything in the game?

Most of it is QOL implementations, but something like the talents got worked over and was game changing.

[Resa]

I don't see this happening for WoW..

One of Blizzard's rules for addons for addon authors, is that all addons must be provided free of charge to users.
Besides, addon authors already have a way to make money from their addons via Curse, quite easily too in fact, all based on the number of downloads a month. The more popular an addon is, the more money the author makes from it.

[Arrashi]

I really hope there will be golden potato mod for WoW.

[Jamash]

I think there's basically no chance Blizzard will do this, right now they have an explicit ban on monetised mods in fact.

This. They know that it's terrible for the community if there isn't an even playing field for everyone, UI-wise. That was one of the reasons they banned paid mods. They don't want people to be put in the position of having to buy a mod in order to compete in pvp or pve.

Skyrim is a single-player game. There's a huge difference. There's no such thing as gaining an unfair advantage.

[Edit] Financial disclosure: I make about $30 a year in Amazon reward codes from Curse's author rewards program for my AddOn Learning Aid.

[Deleted]

I don't see this happening for WoW..

One of Blizzard's rules for addons for addon authors, is that all addons must be provided free of charge to users.
Besides, addon authors already have a way to make money from their addons via Curse, quite easily too in fact, all based on the number of downloads a month. The more popular an addon is, the more money the author makes from it.

If only there was a way for Blizzard to change Blizzards rules.
Also, you can't exactly quit your day job from what you get from Curse.

[beanman12345]

To the people who say "never" or "0 chance" lol. Slim chance it happens anytime soon, but if it's something that Blizzard thinks they can make good money off of, they'll do it, especially if this endeavor with Valve proves successful.

[Soulwind]

To the people who say "never" or "0 chance" lol. Slim chance it happens anytime soon, but if it's something that Blizzard thinks they can make good money off of, they'll do it, especially if this endeavor with Valve proves successful.

Spoiler alert: It won't.

A day after, with only one game and a handful of mods, people are already having issues with the system. Incompatibilities, stolen and reposted content, no refunds, arbitrary pricing... and the huge uproar against it that hasn't stopped ever since it was announced. Again, that's with a few mods and one game. This system just doesn't work. Valve must have been incredibly optimistic or stupidly greedy to come up with this idea.

Mod developers should get some money if their work is worth it, but this system doesn't even provide a fair price (25%), nor guarantees that people won't steal, resell or just upload your content somewhere else for free.

They'll probably keep the system around, for the few that actually fall for it and give them free money, but I expect upcoming games to not support the Workshop because of this, and most modders to keep using Nexus and asking for donations.

If anything, this might kill the Workshop, which could have been a better system, or at least more trustworthy, than third party software.

[guardian_titan]

There is a difference between Skyrim and WoW:
1.) You buy Skyrim and you actually own it. You can do what you want to it. You can cheat all you want. Game is also single player.
2.) You "buy" WoW and you only rent it. You don't own your account (hence why it's illegal to sell it). You can't cheat (without hacks which aren't allowed by Blizzard). Game is also multiplayer.

With single player games, quite often DLC is added that's anywhere from $0.99 for things like armor or weapon packs or even outfits up to like $20 for an additional campaign that adds a fair bit of content. With mods for Skyrim, don't a good chunk of them add things like weapons, armor, NPCs, quests, new maps, etc? Some might do texture updates. They're effectively fan made expansions. Dragon Age Origins had similar fan mods. What do mods do in WoW? Change the UI. Not even remotely the same.

Unless fans can start adding content like their own quests, etc, mods won't become monetized in WoW. People already complain mods make the game too easy or are required. Come on, how many guilds don't raid without DBM or BigWigs? If modders were allowed to charge for addons, then people would go after Blizzard to incorporate addons into the game better (such as a recount/skada or timers for bosses). Modders, in turn, would go after Blizzard to remove features so they can add them back in at a profit. There's also the fact that mods are openly modifiable by other people. I alter my mods from time to time as I'm sure others do. If Blizzard monetized mods, they would have to close this option off so people can't just rip someone else's work and repost it cheaper or even for free. What's to stop people from keeping the last free version of their mods and just getting someone else to maintain them for free? Or for someone to learn how to code just so they could maintain their own mods?

I very much doubt we have anything to worry about. Blizzard already went after modders like Carbonite for charging and it's now against the rules for modders to do so. I also don't see many other companies going this route. As I stated with Dragon Age Origins, that was popular to mod but Dragon Age II didn't fair so well. Now Dragon Age Inquisition can't be modded, either. Bioware's excuse is the complexity of the game engine, but I doubt that. Some companies are really protective of their work and to allow mods on a scale where you can feasibly charge for them and make money would require they open the code up to others. I don't see this being a regular thing.

This also reminds me of the Marvel debate going on. Supposedly Disney is shafting Fantastic Four and X-Men because of the film rights. Makes sense, though. Disney gets massive profits from Avengers but partial from X-Men and FF4. If you had to pick which franchise to boost and which one to give the shaft, you'd go for whatever makes you the most money. Not many companies are going to want to share profits with modders, especially after opening their game up to being modded. It would also shove a big middle finger in the face of the company if fans made better content than they did. Imagine if players could make their own content in WoW and Blizzard continued to release expansions. If players made better content for free or fairly cheap, no one would buy Blizzard's stuff. Blizzard would be competing with their own fans. Isn't Skyrim's development effectively done making this a non-issue for that company? It's one thing to open up mods like this when the game's still being expanded by the company, another when the game development is done.

Sky's not falling. I'm not worried about Blizzard jumping ship to something like this.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I can't wait till charging for early access mods becomes a thing!