Author Topic: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday  (Read 30068 times)

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Offline Beskargam

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Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Edit:fone derp
Another topic that I didn't see.
Anyway steam has now introduced the ability for modders to charge money for their creations in the steam workshop.
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent/

This being a mod community I though you guys would have some interesting perspective on the matter. I'm not of the opinion that this idea is inherently heretical and evil, but I think some of the nuts and bolts of it are pretty bad. Valve also takes 75% of each sale which is absurd. Anyway TotalBiscuit pretty accurately summarizes my feelings :

Seems the first big game promoting this is skyrim.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2015, 01:17:53 pm by Beskargam »

 

Offline BirdofPrey

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
I think the concept is sound.  Getting paid for work regardless of what sort it is is perfectly fair.

That said, the absurd level of trash that has popped up for Skyrim is irritating, and I think it is similarly absurd that Valve is taking so much of the money for themselves.  That's just pure greed right there to abuse their near monopoly on digital distribution, and I hope they get brought up on anti-trust real soon.
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Offline Lorric

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Fixed that video:


The sheer gall and audacity to expect 75% of the money from something they didn't lift a finger to help with is absolutely unbelievable.

Some mods for things are at the level of an expansion pack so in some cases payment is certainly valid, and people would be happy to pay for the product and it could help drive up quality of mods. But there'd also be a lot of cheap money grabbing going on too I expect.

However, I would hope no one uses this particular platform. 75% is absolutely ridiculous. The lion's share should be going to the creators and it's a slap in the face.

 

Offline Beskargam

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Heh, oopsie. Thanks guys for fixing my yt links in both posts

 

Offline Shivan Hunter

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
The Unreal Tournament community has already been dealing with similar issues, since Epic's Marketplace downloads can be monetized and may include addons for the new UT. There may have been some interesting discussions from there (idk since I haven't been active there for a while). Although I think Epic gets a much smaller cut from things sold on the Marketplace- like 30%.

TB raises some good points, as always: well-implemented monetization could encourage skilled modders to create more high-quality work, and modders being paid for work is in principle a good thing.

OTOH, given the existing problems with Skyrim's modding scene in particular, this could lead to some egregious money-grubbing on the part of greedy modders (Steam Workshop is already filled with stuff stolen from Nexus, hopefully monetized mods will have more oversight here). Not to mention that, as TB brought up, users have no recourse whatsoever for refunds after 24 hours. It's acceptable an even expected that some mods be buggy and even broken at times - this is much less acceptable when the mod is a paid product.

Also, something TB didn't mention but I've seen talked about, not entirely sure if it's true: but monetized mods on Steam would have to make $400 gross before the mod author sees any money ($100 at that point) at all. Considering that many authors will attempt cheap cash-grabs like a single sword model for 99¢, which may not be downloaded by many people, they may not get any money from it at all - it would go entirely to Valve/Bethsoft. On the whole the system seems very exploitative both of users and modders.

 

Offline TrashMan

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
It's not 75%..
Most of it goes to the developer AFAIK.
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Offline headdie

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
It's not 75%..
Most of it goes to the developer AFAIK.

my understanding is that Valve grabs 75% and then apportions the agreed rate of that money to the publisher/dev
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Offline Shivan Hunter

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
It's not 75%..
Most of it goes to the developer AFAIK.

The split for Skyrim is 45% Bethesda, 30% Steam, 25% mod author from what I've heard. The mod author definitely gets 25% which is a fairly small amount considering the work that goes into some mods, and the fact that Bethesda and Steam have already been paid for people to own the game.

 

Offline An4ximandros

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
I hope Epic does not **** up their shot at this. Seriously.

 
Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Hilariously, one of the modders Valve contacted to make the first paid mods has now taken his down because he used assets from another mod without permission, and Valve told him this was totally OK. A lot of mods that have been converted for sale also apparently look significantly worse than the free versions which use modified assets from other free mods. This is so toxic, it's amazing.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2015, 07:14:21 pm by Phantom Hoover »
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Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Is this for non IP based mods only?  I don't see how for example Valve's agreement with Bethesda to allow modding of Skyrim keeps owners of said IP from dropping the CD on them profiting off their stuff.
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Offline headdie

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Is this for non IP based mods only?  I don't see how for example Valve's agreement with Bethesda to allow modding of Skyrim keeps owners of said IP from dropping the CD on them profiting off their stuff.

thats one of the points TB covers in his video that if you create say a Lichking armour set for skyrim and put it behind a pay wall you are going from borrowing Blizzard's IP for fun into profiting from Blizzard's IP without permission or compensation to Blizzard... potential to get very nasty.
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Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Well he talked about the implications not so much the mechanics, is Valve actually doing any content review or are they playing it as fast and loose as it appears on the surface?  Having an agreement between Valve, the Publisher and the Modder is fine and dandy but I doubt that means diddly squat to a IP owner.  Especially if the IP Owners have more money to throw at the problem the Valve.
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Offline Dragon

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
I think that as long as the modder only gets a measly 25%, we don't really have to worry about this. :) Mods can't cost too much, or no one would buy them, and 25% of not much would likely not be enough for most modders to risk backlash from monetizing their mods. It could also get ugly fast if the licensing issues came into play. In the end, I don't think that it will be a common practice to monetize mods. Too much backlash potential for too little gain.

 

Offline NGTM-1R

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Well he talked about the implications not so much the mechanics, is Valve actually doing any content review or are they playing it as fast and loose as it appears on the surface?  Having an agreement between Valve, the Publisher and the Modder is fine and dandy but I doubt that means diddly squat to a IP owner.  Especially if the IP Owners have more money to throw at the problem the Valve.

Apparently some stuff got through that probably was infringing IPs of actual companies already, so it seems things are really as bad as they appear.
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Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
I really don't know how the heck they thought this would work if they didn't police the content.  Who do they think IP holders are going to come after if they just let it be the Wild West?  Not the sheriff turning a blind eye and getting most of the kickbacks apparently.
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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
I remember the ****storm with Sims 2 and paid stuff.... there was even a ftp website for the payed stuff for free. 

Skyui is one of those to go pay...  :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
This will do a ton of damage to the modding community.
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Offline Aesaar

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Meh.  I expect that the more useful mods that go pay to download (like SkyUI) will just end up on pirating sites.  Bethesda games are popular enough for it, and individual modders certainly don't have the money to follow through on threats of legal action.

 

Offline Beskargam

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
Regarding steam not policing stolen or IP infringing work. Have they ever practicing any effective of content curation? Nope

 

Offline TrashMan

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Re: Mods for pay; internet declares doomsday
A lot of gamers are sadly thinking they are ENTILTED to get free stuff - including mods.
If the creator wasn't to give it for free, fine.
Otherwise, no.
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