Steam opens up paid mods for Skyrim.

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about how mods would be plied
But something touched me deep inside
The day PC gaming ...died

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/

 

Here's more info :

http://kotaku.com/paid-skyrim-mod-turns-into-a-clusterfuck-1699913114?
http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-users-see-big-problems-with-charging-for-mods-1699803962
http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/23/gamers-react-to-paying-for-mods-on-steam/
http://www.pcgamesn.com/the-elder-s...s-think-about-paid-mods-on-the-steam-workshop
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...l-mods-but-only-shares-25-percent-of-revenue/

more..
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FreeTheWorkshop


As the dev himself here says It's an end to the intentive modding community, Alas !
http://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/611704730313468690/#p1

Valve won't even give a jack about it, all these big big corporate moneyminded freaks killing off good things..
Still signed this Petition

 

Smooth move Valve/Bugthesda. The reason I buy Bugthesda games is because of mods. Without them they are too buggy and lack features. And Valve once again showed us how they care about the community by splitting it in half. Now even some mods started to disappear from Nexus... Good thing I downloaded my must have list a few months back.

Yes, there are a lot of mod authors who deserved to be paid for their work, because some of them are phenomenal.
The problem I see with this is that a seasoned, say, Skyrim played can have like 200 mods installed (I personally had somewhere between 150-200, Skyrim limit is 255), so imagine paying at least 200 buckaroos for them on top of the game, not to mention another couple of hundred for all other mods you bough to try out. I know, not all mods will go paid, but it opens a Pandora's box, and it may turn into something ugly. Next thing you know there's gonna be Mod Season Pass or worse, monthly subscription plan for all your modding needs for a convenient price of $10.99.

Too bad that all this time I was a fool and though it was all about community. You know, make something and share with the world for free (if you want to share it that is), sort of like an ordinary forum works, there you can ask and get answers for free. It worked so far, but it's sad to see some greedy companies trying to ruin it now.

Yes, I'm not a modder, so it's easy for me to say, I didn't spend my free time developing a mod for a month and trouble shooting it so it would function. Most I did was make a livery for PMDG 737NGX 800WL, and even that took me at least couple of days. I did put it on AVSIM for others to use, because I use a lot of stuff others put there. I think that's the essence of modding - everyone helps out the community how they can. Some people make simple retextures, others make high quality overhauls, and people who can't mod, but want to help anyway they can give tips on how to properly manage mods. And whoever want to help out finally, most modders accept donations. On that note, maybe Bugthesda ought to pay some of the mod authors instead of taking cut from their work. Just a suggestion.

In conclusion - PCMasterRace my butt and Lord and Saviour Gaben (or any other CEO) doesn't care about any of you as long as there's profit to be made. Nothing wrong about profit, but there's profit, and there's greed, and line between the two is thin.

 

I have a feeling that this is going to die out real fast. Most mods require use of other mods such as script and physics extenders, and they can't use those if they are used for commercial benefit.

Woah, woah. Sure, mods improve the games and fix some bugs, But let's not discredit Bethesda here. Games like Skyrim were phenomenal at launch and offer a very immersive experience, even in their vanilla state.

That aside, I've got 25 mods on my Skyrim right now. No way would I have paid for all of them, even if it was a buck a piece.

 

I didn't say everyone does this (though a lot of people do), but after I played Skyrim for half or so hours I went on Nexus to DL some mods. Their games always have so much potential, but fall short from reaching it.
Sure it's a nice game, no doubt about it. But vanilla Skyrim for me is like vanilla FSX - just a base where I can install mods and make it feel like something true to life/immersive. Without any mods both are just...dunno...plain, tasteless, in other words not very immersive for my liking.
I don't think I ever played an unmodded Bethesda game. For now there seem to be a lot of these paid mods disappearing from Workshop. Wonder in they are just temporally backing up. Will keep an eye on it as well as other options to get my games from. Valve has become a bit troublesome in recent times. Not sure I want to support it anymore...

 

Well to each his own I guess. Most of the mods I have for Skyrim are graphics mods, nothing really gameplay changing, and I still find it quite immersive. The one thing I'm looking for though is a good combat mod. Up-close combat is still pretty clunky.

I was waiting for this. 10/10

 

Normally I don't like those things, but that one was spot on. Perfect. I mean WTF?

 

This whole fiasco got Forbes attention, I doubt that would have any impact on Valve's decision. Hope..
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...ds-are-a-legal-ethical-and-creative-disaster/

And over 68K supporters under 48Hrs span is quite fast...tbh

 

Expect the steam workshop to be flooded by a gazillion of mods and items... It's not that I have something against monetizing the precious work from modders, but imho a price tag is only worth for larger sized contents. But when I see single items sold (single sword, staff etc.) it reminds me of a greedy "throw something in to make quick ca$h" mentality, directly coming from the same mindset of mmorpg WTS/WTB jargon. Awful.
Btw. the possibility to sell anything (even low quality) has also destroyed item shops for common game engines (e.g. Asset Store Unity and others), which are now totally bloated and make it hard to find anything usable.

 

Whole Skyrim mod community is broken, I fear about the GTA V community now... this Valve's greed needs to stopped.
Good post : https://steamcommunity.com/app/72850/discussions/0/611704730313709437/

 

I hope it gets flooded and makes Steam's system break, and quickly. There is no way to know who made what, especially when it comes to items. Twenty people could reupload the same mod for the same thing and how do you officially determine who is the original owner? If they want to do this they should do it by voluntary donations only, not mandatory payment.

 

OH! Y'all aint gonna believe this bankety-blank!!

 

A couple other things on the topic worth checking out.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/33o874/hearing_of_this_paying_for_mods_issue_on_steam/


(Skip to 53:00)

It also caught the attention of the BBC.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32449141

 

I also like this one:

The worst part about this is that modders only get 25%... Talk about greed. "We want to encourage people to create quality mods" Put a sock in it Valve/Bugthesda!
IMO, donations is far more better system.

Sure picked up a nice time to get a new rig for basically just 3 games - FSX (P3D), GTA V, and modded Skyrim... Awful timing...
Anyway...

 

The Wildfire is spreading rapidly and annhilating all things in its wake --> http://steamed.kotaku.com/skyrim-modder-considers-quitting-after-steam-controvers-1700077114
this chaos that valve has spawned must really put to rest, quality content from & for $$$ is just ballsy move, look at that iCEnhancer for GTA IV. Wtf valve seriously...
& Over 89K now at change.org under 48Hrs , this is getting hot !!


And this -> http://kotaku.com/the-most-ridiculous-skyrim-mods-people-are-trying-to-se-1700002072
haha, couldn't stop laughing !!
xD

Yep my friend @killkenny1 , that Nvidia Employee video for GTX970 fisaco is one of the best !!

 

Hahaha, love it!
Someone should make a horse armour mod for $$$.

 

GabeN has opened a Q&A thread on reddit about this issue.

MODs and Steam

 

I often don't bother with mods, it's too much of a chore to get them all setup and working properly, I just can't be arsed most of the time. Most often I'll download the big, almost essential graphics and functionality mods like DSFix for Dark Souls. Never really could get into Skyrim, it's still languishing in my backlog of shame.

I see no reason why hard working modders shouldn't be allowed to ask for compensation for their time and effort in making decent mods. The execution could certainly be improved, but the same can be said for everything Valve has ever done (excluding their video games - gee, remember when Valve was a game developer?...). I disagree with those people who say that modders should only ever do modding out of pure passion alone and never deserve money for their work - usually the only reasoning given is that giving modders the option to charge for their products encroaches on one of the sacrilegious core fundamental pillars of the glorious PC Master Race. Riiiight.... It's not as if Valve are enforcing all mods to be paid for. Or even be hosted on the Steam Workshop to begin with. It's all entirely optional. Modders still have the option, as they always have done, to share their work for free. And many, many are still doing just that. Not the end of the world like browsing forum threads and the youtube comment section would imply. People love to overreact. If people are against paid mods then they still have the option to boycott any paid mods and pick from the plethora of free mods. That's how capitalism works. And there will always be free mods to choose from because legal copyright protection laws and stuff like that mandates it. And the passion of the modding community.

In summary, I believe that the execution is flawed but that the ultimate concept behind it isn't.

 

Signed the petition...twice.

Eff Valve and eff Bugthesda. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

 

The concept is flawed. It's forcing everyone to pay for a mod that has never had any quality control and likely no support. Not to mention dependencies of paid mods based on unpaid mods based on other paid mods, etc. What about when a full game patch releases and breaks half the mods that people paid for? It's up to the modders to fix it and in most cases likelihood of that happening is next to none.

I look at Minecraft. Most of these mods are free, with donate buttons. In many cases when the game patches, many of the mods don't work any more, and even if you run earlier versions of the game (which Minecraft lets you do) it also frequently does not work.

I agree that it would be nice for modders to gain compensation, but a donate button would alleviate most of the issue with this. That way the best mods and with best support earn the most money, with no direct requirement for supporting it through future game patches. And it is completely at the discretion of the user.

Also, Steam pretty much requires you keep the game up to date, so even if you were OK with using an earlier version of the game for all your patches to be compatible you likely would not even be able to do that.

 

Such a blatant cash grab. Greedy Valve and game companies win. Content creators and consumers lose.

There are so many issues with the system, it's a massive joke. It's gonna fail even harder than Greenlight.

 

Seriously that AMA, go to hell man...
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/valve...ng-policy-our-goal-is-to-make-modding-better/

He says Valve is mod friendly, As a DotA2 player I used to use all mods for free and boom valve makes all of em go away in a single patch saying it was affecting the gameplay which is pure BS there are so many things that changed during the beta phase of DotA2 from economy of cosmetic items (there are items that cost $200-300+), trading scene, no of players, scams etc etc they just manipulate everything possible for their sole profits and that's only said with DotA2....


The deal with Icefrog the maker of custom DotA Warcraft III Map to make DotA2 by Valve made them super rich, Every year since 2011 valve hosts a Championship like LoL.
Since the 3rd championship (2013) they had an interactive compenduim for 10$ from which valve had contributed 1/4 making a $1.6M added to the prize pool making it $2M and in the 4th (2014) one valve contributed 2$ from each one purchased this one fetched a whopping $13M highest $ paid in eSports history...they are really disgusting when it comes to the profits made, still they just search for every hole possible to earn cash by whatever means.

All those AMAs are just a bunch of corporate lies with a dark stench of rot for $$$..
Having read a couple of threads on Nexus will let any one know how Valve killed / splitted / spliced the core mod community of Skyrim, modders blaming modders, people flaming on modders...too bad it's a horrible shame that this had happened.

Atleast the sign count is not stagnant...100K+, but from that stupid AMA it seems the future is bad. This sucks, Valve is still being shameless and a rotting pit of hell despite all the negative PR surrounding this case !!

 

"You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the EAs and Ubisofts of the world, not join them! Bring balance to PC gaming, not leave it in darkness!"

GabeN sold us out. Judas!

 

I agree, I actually donate more, than paying for software.

Me and you both. Just last week I was checking the prices of Skyrim and the Dragonborn add-on around here to finally get and mod the hell out and dig into it. Now I wonder what to do. Might just get the "free" version of the damn thing and donate to the few good mods that are still around.

 

I used to see Gabe as a open minded entrepreneur that understood PC gaming and needs/wants of PC gamers. After reading his reddit comments I see him defending this whole idea to the core and not listening to what people are saying. He's so far removed from reality now, he's gotta go. Seriously. They need a new, fresh face that understands the needs of the PC gaming community. But not before releasing Half-Life 3.

I'm glad to see this whole thing reaching critical mass. It has struck a nerve with pretty much everyone. I rarely mod, but I just don't like the idea. I used to really like Steam for its vast library, excellent sales, and overall general community. But if the paid mods continue who knows what other things they'll attempt to do to nickel and dime users to death. Steam's support is already abysmal, now imagine what happens with all these paid mods.

This isn't Steam, but it's pretty relevant, where we're heading. Saw it posted on reddit somewhere:

Spoiler

 

A lot of people have been suggesting Linus or Luke as the new face lol. If I had to pick, I'd probably choose Logan or Wendell from Tek Syndicate.

 

Linus is a tool. He doesn't understand gaming, just desktop PC hardware primarily. Not sure about the other guys you mentioned. I know it won't happen because Valve is Gabe's baby. But I'd be curious who he has lined up should he kick the bucket.

 

What makes you say that? Aside from the whole 'don't overclock your notebook' thing.

You should check them out on youtube at Tek Syndicate. I feel like they really and truly understand PC gaming. They are also big advocates of Linux and open-source stuff. Logan is the face of the channel, but Wendell just has an incredible wealth of knowledge when it comes to tech and networking.

 

You know who is also a big advocate of Linux gaming and open source? GabeN & Co.
Go figure!

Can I plz haz dat poziton?
Vote for Pedro killkenny1!
I swear I won't go crazy from all that money. C'mon guys, you know me, I don't need much. Guys? Guys? C'mon!

This whole situation really got me uncomfortable. I mean, no prior warning, and overnight BUM, paid mods! Really leaves bad taste.
So what if people rable, discuss, sign some petitions. Unfortunately they did this, and Valve doesn't really walk away from something they already did, no matter the resistance, GabeN will continue to reassure us that he's a good guy and this all is for our own benefit. I knew they wanted to lock us in to their system with all those game sales and had a bigger picture (heck they even named one of the features that way ), I just expected a little bit more warning before they really go nuts.
Unfortunately, the way I see this is, paid mods are here to stay from now on. People will oppose this for now, but once this lies down, vast majority will forget this ever happened, except for the few ones, but they won't matter. And this whole shebang will lie down. 2 weeks, 1 month, a year, it will lie down. I potentially see few bad things which could happen - piracy (thing that GabeN was so proud he put a big nail in), Bugthesda/other devs will release even worse games with less features (why bother, mod makers will add extras, and we'll still get paid!), and mod DRM with sites like Nexus and MoDDB becoming the things of the past. Well OK, everything will be fine for some time, I mean there are still a vast number of great modders who would rather get donations than put their work behind paywall, but I'm afraid this will continue to develop and once Fallout 5 or TES VII will be released, by that time we will have new blood, and they will take paid mods as a norm, thereas old farts like us will already be trained to cough up the doe for a golden potato and GabeN genitals on geckos. Some others who don't like to get bent over will go and pirate, because who the hell can afford 200+ mods after they spent all their money on a gimped nVidia graphics card. Unfortunately in this case, mod devs will get screwed.

Man, future sucks! Soldered CPUs/GPUs, DRM for mods, etc. Everything that made PC world great will go extinct...

 

Not a Skyrim player myself. But can I say paid mod workshop is a lesson learned from microtransactions? Instead of a one-off price you need to pay day by day or item by item, and before you know it your total purchase goes way beyond the typical price of a monopiece. Some casual players may like it but hardcores are no-no.

BTW, I really want to get into Cities Skylines right now and modding is a big deal in that game. Please don't ruin this... Please don't ruin this...

 

It was like taking an arrow in the knee. I get it. haha.

 

Worse, it was like taking arrow everywhere - heart, knee, head, etc. Basically this:

 

Holy crap.

 

Yes, that's exactly how it feels...

 

Uh just no. Horrible choices all-around. Christ Roberts for president, at least until he too turns to the dark side.

 

Another person who makes money from games? No thanks.

 

Tech YouTubers who don't understand a lick about gaming or the business and commercial aspects of the industry? No thanks.

 

Logan and Wendell are actually quite knowledgeable on these topics.

 

Have they any game industry experience? Logan's an actor who used to work retail for TigerDirect and CompUSA before he became a YT personality. Wendell is an IT guy/basement nerd.

 

Okay, so a few things to report.

The petition has now surpassed 120K signatures and is still going strong. Yay us.
Skyrim's user rating on steam has taken a skydive, currently at 86% and still dropping.
A guy on /r/pcmasterrace claiming to have experience in marketing has started a subreddit called TheNewWayToPlay. It's supposedly going to be a new platform to rival Steam. There's also a group of people that have started working on a launcher called Project Ascension.
Bethesda is essentially blaming this whole thing on Steam, according to an e-mail received by another guy on /r/pcmasterrace.

Knowledge and experience are two different things my friend.

 

Right...OK then we might as well let TotalBiscuit or, god forbid, PewDiePie, become the new CEO of Valve.

 

I just thought of an interesting parallel for this situation. Charging money for mods is like charging money for fanfiction. Kinda loose but I think it's appropriate.

Woooooaah, I never said that. I feel like they would make a good fit because of their knowledge and understanding of the gaming community and PC community in general. I think that if someone should be the face of /r/pcmasterrace, I'd rather have them be from the community side rather than the industry side.

 

There's nothing inherently wrong with content creators making money for themselves through their own hard work. The principle is just; the execution is flawed.

That's fine. /r/PCMR and /v/ are sh*t communities anyway like most of Reddit and 4chan. They can do whatever they please. HTWingNut and I assumed you were talking about the head of Valve.

 

I think this sums up the current situation pretty well:

They're not the best, but they're not that bad.

Wait, what? Nononononono, absolutely not. Besides, it doesn't look like GabeN is leaving anytime soon.

 

Ofc it's hypothetical. The assumption was made because of the post you responded to.

Anyway I agree with HTWingNut about GabeN kicking the bucket. He's getting on in age and has never looked, um, healthy. I'd be curious who he has lined up as his successor if he were to, say, suddenly drop dead of a massive heart attack.

 

Sorry about the misunderstanding. In that case yeah, Chris Roberts isn't a bad choice, but I'd be concerned about a guy who does developing suddenly becoming the CEO of a multimillion dollar company.