Home Gaming The debate over paid mods rages ever on

The debate over paid mods rages ever on

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SteamMods

Lord Gaben giveth, and Lord Gaben, he taketh away. Paid Steam mods were pulled from the market nearly as quickly as they began, putting paid to a short-lived era of garage content creators getting paid money for the time and effort they put in to making existing games better. Some are happy about the rapid change, believing that game mods should always be free.

Here’s the thing though. People who make mods for games are generally people with incredible love for a specific game – and they use that love as impetus to create extra content, and make the games they love even better. There’s a frightful amount of work involved in making the sort of mods that effectively function as expansion, or even standalone games. And of course, there are people who aren’t too happy that a vocal group has had the option for paid mods removed.

Steam’s pages are filled with people angry about paid mods being yanked, and for good reason. While paid content will always cause sharks to circle, looking for easy prey – but paid mods could lead to bigger teams, making bigger things – something the creator of ModDB agrees with.

“Paid mods will definitely lead to more content, better content and well supported content,” Reismanis writes. “It will also lead to more free mods as tools improve, and more developers participate. A healthier mod community is a great thing and if optional (and I must stress optional) paid mod support is how we get there, then I’m on board. More games today support modding because of this potential than ever before, and if once-great moddable games were to contemplate a return to modding if it continues, isn’t that a win?”

One modder, though, is a little incensed.

“I started publishing mods two years ago. Since my first mod was released on the Skyrim Workshop my mods have received over 200,000 individual downloads and two donations. That means 0.001% of users donated.”

“And to all the people who say a donate button will help. I’d like to talk about the workshop ratings system. On every mod page there are two buttons that you can press (whether you have subscribed to the mod or not) that contribute to a mod’s overall rating. Giving a thumbs up is optional, but very much encouraged by creators. Most users simply do not rate.”

“My most popular mod has been downloaded by over 70,000 people of which less than 1.5k of them have rated it. That means 98% of users didn’t take the time to rate the mod (and that is above the average for most mods on the Workshop), an act which takes one click, and costs nothing to do.”

Without some sort of compensation for the time and the work, many modders just don’t have the time to carry on doing what they do. Bills need to be paid.

“Over the last year, I have been inactive in the modding community. I have several new mods that are close to being finished, some even got to a beta stage that users had a chance to try.Unfortunately, I could no longer justify investing my time in modding. It was not a matter of greed, but practicality. I needed to pay the bills.When I heard that Steam was going to make it possible for mod authors to charge money for their mods, It caught my attention. For me, it meant I might have a justification to come back to the modding community.”

“Most modders don’t mod forever, they usually stop at some point. Even the best. Have you ever wondered why? MODDING IS A LOT OF WORK. At a certain point, passion is no longer enough to keep you going. Without proper encouragement and validation, you become drained and burn out. The community needs to find a way to bring more incentive for creators to keep making mods. Paid mods may have been the solution to bring back modders like Chesko and ThirteenOranges, but I don’t see that happening now.”

It’s definitely a tricky debate, and one that’s far from over – and the general consensus from those who make the mods is that donations simply don’t work. I do believe that content creators should have the option of charging for their work, but the way it was being done through steam was a little less-than-ideal.

The modding scene will never be the same after this though. With a golden carrot briefly dangled in front of their faces, mod creators are less likely to put in the time and effort required for great big mods, without some hope of a payday in the future.

Last Updated: April 29, 2015

53 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief

    April 29, 2015 at 14:09

    If the mod is excellent, and has good ratings, yes, I believe the creator should be able to make some money off it.

    If it is a mod that changes the colour of your unibrow, then I say you can go suck lemons

    Reply

    • Pariah

      April 29, 2015 at 14:11

      I honestly think the big issue was moderated / curated mods. More precisely, the lack thereof. If Steam give publishers and/or a dedicated team to curating the paid mods section, and also not rip the creators off (25% of sales, for YOUR hard work? No.), then it can, and should, be implemented.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        April 29, 2015 at 14:17

        Aye, I’ve seen some truly awesome mods (here is looking at you Skyrim) and why those guys are not rewarded is quite frankly, a very weird thing.

        Reply

        • Matthew Holliday

          April 29, 2015 at 14:43

          i honestly think that some of those mods should have been picked up by bethesda and included as DLC. with an automated process to install.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            April 29, 2015 at 14:47

            Agreed, but we all know that ain’t gonna happen

  2. eliteop

    April 29, 2015 at 14:10

    “Here’s the thing though. People who make mods for games are generally people with incredible love for a specific game”
    And therefore they have the right to ask for money, but should not expect it, imho. The donation option must/should be there but not this buying thing… This is just Valve cashing in imo, because why in the hell only 25% goes to the modder is beyond me.

    Reply

  3. Blood Emperor Trevor

    April 29, 2015 at 14:13

    The way they tried to implement it now was a joke. It was just throw open the gates & walk away whistling merrily because everything will work out great for everyone and no thought given to any negative consequences. So I’m glad this experiment was ended swiftly. I don’t have any problem with paid mods themselves, just revisit the idea after applying a bit more thought, thanks.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      April 29, 2015 at 14:16

      This.

      Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 29, 2015 at 14:31

      cant imagine they didnt give a thought to the consequences.
      pretty confident that they spent a fair amount of time thinking this up.

      but since when do devs see things from the perspective of the common user?

      could have been implimented better.

      Reply

  4. Pariah

    April 29, 2015 at 14:16

    Also.

    May the mods be ever in your favour!

    Reply

    • Mossel

      April 29, 2015 at 15:02

      huehuehue.

      Reply

    • konfab

      April 29, 2015 at 15:06

      With Valve’s value firmly on your back.

      ‘ramen

      Reply

  5. Ranting Raptor

    April 29, 2015 at 14:17

    Paid for mods. Oh the fight from yesterday……

    The thing is I still believe paid for mods could work.

    Our hate as a community for paying for DLC and on disc content aside, we tend to forget just how much time and effort go in to some of these things and how dissapoitned we are when our favourite series of mods stop because the modders don’t have time anymore.

    The system that was implemented was poorly thought out. Unfortunately it wasn’t ready for launch. However I still believe it’s something that should happen (Optionally however)

    There could be ways to rate and make sure that mods meet a certain minimum level of specifications before it can be put up for the chance to be “paid for”.

    A strong paid for base could end up boosting the mod community from just something done when people have time to something that could potentially be done more full time by certain modders.

    Yes, you will naturally get those that will try get in on the ride with horse armor style mods that they ask cash for, but with a proper regulation system in place this could be minimised.

    The whole thing though is that the gaming community at large should feel a little ashamed that they were so quick to pick up torches and pitchforks for something that was optional with no need to actually pay for a thing if you don’t want to. There would still be free mods. Just like there are now. There are hundreds of thousands of mods for Skyrim alone and most of them, honestly, are crap.

    Imagine how nice it would be to be able to go looking for superior quality mods in the paid section (If monitored and controlled correctly) knowing that what you get will be from some of the best and brightest modders around? Knowing that you are getting good things for failry little cash (Let’s face it, these mods could have limits set on price depending on mod size, type etc).

    I do believe a golden opportunity has been missed here and it’s something I think should still be looked at seriously. Perhaps this time with a little more planning around structure and how to avoid morons from trying to sell an ENB series color mod for a gazzilion dollars.

    Reply

    • Pariah

      April 29, 2015 at 14:18

      tl;dr

      😛

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        April 29, 2015 at 14:19

        #glares
        #FallsASleep

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          April 29, 2015 at 14:21

          How does one fall-a-sleep?

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            April 29, 2015 at 14:50

            Like th………..

          • Admiral Chief

            April 29, 2015 at 14:51

            [prepares to awaken Llew with 7 industrial size firework-clusters]

          • Ranting Raptor

            April 29, 2015 at 14:52

            Snores 7 times and doesn’t hear a thing

      • Admiral Chief

        April 29, 2015 at 14:21

        GG

        Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 29, 2015 at 14:36

      i dunno, skyrim has some pretty legit ENB mods.
      climates of tamriel changes the entire weather and lighting system, to the point where vanilla skyrim is the one that looks like a cheap mod.

      if there were an automated process through steam, to install mods of that scale, Id happilly drop a dollar or two on it.

      but yes, im not going to spend 5$ on a fancy unbalanced sword that doesnt fit the game.

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        April 29, 2015 at 14:50

        I was referring more to the ones that just change the color pallet to sunny or grunge.

        Some ENB mods are amazeballs and yes, if there was some automated process to get it all working I too would pay a bit for the ease of not needing to fiddle for hours to get it all to (maybe) work.

        With cash flowing in to the system this is something that could be done (Potentially)

        Reply

  6. Kikmi

    April 29, 2015 at 14:27

    When does a modder stop being a modder and become a *indie* dev?

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 29, 2015 at 14:29

      when their mod becomes standalone.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        April 29, 2015 at 14:31

        XD

        Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        April 29, 2015 at 14:51

        *Throws upvotes*

        Reply

  7. Matthew Holliday

    April 29, 2015 at 14:28

    its a difficult area to bring payment for content creators.
    dota 2 cosmetics has the market, which was there from the start and now have massive teams bringing in mega bucks.
    youtube has adverts and youtube money.

    and i agree that content creators should be compensated for efforts over and beyond the norm. they bring a level of exposure to games that developers cannot.
    but mods dont have that luxury. mods have always been free, forcing us to pay for mods that have been around for years wont be tolerated by the community at large.

    dota 2, was created from a FREE mod, if people had to pay to download the map, it wouldnt be were it is. the moba genre in general, wouldnt be here at all.
    -dota was a mod that got popular enough to become a standalone.
    -day z was a mod that got popular enough to become a PAID FOR standalone.
    the potential for mods to make money is there, but nowhere near feasable as it is in other content creator areas.

    but i can just imagine the how the skyrim mods would end up, if they had the finances available to access proper script writers and proper voice actors. we’ve seen it in one or two, but even those need some serious work.

    Reply

  8. Brady miaau

    April 29, 2015 at 14:30

    For me it all boils down to accountability if said mod does not work or works improperly. on my system. Who pays then? Who must ensure it works? Compatibility with other mods?

    BUT I have seen several mods over the years I would have paid for. Freelancer Game, Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5 ALL full conversion mods, with all the ships from those franchises you could think of. How much effort was that? Wow. I would have paid for that and now regret not even looking if there was a donate button. Hmm, tricky.

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      April 29, 2015 at 14:58

      If those were paid-for mods, they would most likely have been shut down by the rights owners. Can you imagine Disney happily letting modders create Star Wars mods for Skyrim, with everyone but them getting a cut?

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        April 29, 2015 at 15:21

        Um. Yes. I remember reading that Babylon 5 actually gave permission for their ships and stuff to be used in the mod.

        Hmm. Silly me. Copyright. Which is super silly. Guess which lawyer I am seeing later this week? oops

        Reply

    • Skoobaz

      April 29, 2015 at 15:30

      Freelancer Crossfire much??

      Reply

      • Brady miaau

        April 29, 2015 at 15:54

        Do not understand? Crossfire?

        Reply

  9. Kikmi

    April 29, 2015 at 14:31

    We’ve also been fucked over with the shittest DLC and on the disk paygates. Of course gamers are going to kick back. Are we expected to pay 10$ for some shitty programming vs 10$ to bypass a paygate from a AAA dev? This wasn’t a well thought out decision, and I’m pretty shocked at volvo’s lack of market research.

    Dont get me wrong, good work needs to be payed for and I think every dog should get his day, but who works on these pricing models? I mean even above that, how do you as a modder decide on cost?

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      April 29, 2015 at 15:01

      If modders want to get paid then they should be held accountable for their work because they’re selling a product. No more “shit it doesn’t work, shit it’s not compatible, oh well, uninstall, no harm done.”

      Reply

      • konfab

        April 29, 2015 at 15:19

        That is simple to solve, allow for refunds.

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          April 29, 2015 at 15:28

          Steam don’t even give refunds on regular purchases without exceptional circumstances.

          Reply

          • konfab

            April 29, 2015 at 15:51

            Which is wrong IMO, they could easily implement it.
            Android manages it quite fine.

            All they need to do is start the timer once the game is installed.

      • Kikmi

        April 29, 2015 at 15:38

        BRA FUCKING VO

        Reply

  10. Lardus-Resident Perve

    April 29, 2015 at 14:32

    Looking at something like the Long War mod for XCom – when that is out of Beta, it would be worth a few extra $$. But that is a VERY big mod adding a lot of stuff. If it was just one new class I would not bother. Mods need to “deserve” payment.

    Reply

    • Brady miaau

      April 29, 2015 at 14:33

      And that does not mean they are big, they add something, a new dimension, an enhancements that betters the gaming exp.

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      April 29, 2015 at 14:35

      Hold the phone, what is this mod you speak of?

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        April 29, 2015 at 14:39

        OH FFS!!!

        MY DAMN XCOM ADDICTION JUST FLARED UP AGAIN!!!!!!!

        Geez, thanks Lardus

        Reply

        • Lardus-Resident Perve

          April 29, 2015 at 15:17

          Well, I don’t mind because 1 working day left then Sabbatical!!!

          Reply

      • Lardus-Resident Perve

        April 29, 2015 at 15:17

        http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Long_War
        It is MUCH more difficult. But every class of soldier is split into two, more research, more interception options. Aliens are tougher and more spawn. Had a terror map with almost 30 Crysalids…almost wanted to cry from all the deaths!

        Reply

      • Skoobaz

        April 29, 2015 at 15:34

        *Screeches to a halt* Ooooh, purdy

        Reply

  11. Eric

    April 29, 2015 at 14:47

    “My most popular mod has been downloaded by over 70,000 people of which less than 1.5k of them have rated it.”
    Well how many people would of actually have downloaded it, if it had a price tag on it? When I look for mods I tend to go through a whole list of mods that I’ve downloaded that I don’t end up liking. If only 1.5k out of 70k went through the effort to rate a mod, then a LOT less would actually buy the mod imo.

    People also forget the bit where content creators would only get 25% of the profits. And when there’s money involved, you know some publishers and dev houses are going to want a stake of it too… because you know… it’s going into THEIR game in the first place.

    Reply

  12. Craig Lotter

    April 29, 2015 at 15:09

    One of the horrible things that the Internet has brought to us without a doubt is the thought that content is (and should always be) free. Of course in the real world, it can’t really be (unless you’re bankrolled by a very rich mommy and daddy).

    Reply

  13. konfab

    April 29, 2015 at 15:18

    All applications for computers are technically modifications or addons to the operating system. So I think it is pretty hypocritical for people to happily fork out cash for a game on sale, yet refuse to pay for a modification to a game.

    Personally I would have a tiered pricing structure.
    Free – like the current modding scheme- mods do not have to work properly
    $1 – mods need to work for most people, mods add basic items or functionality (Sword or extra menu)
    $5 – Mods work well for most people, they add significant gameplay/graphics changing functionality (Ultimate survival )
    $10 Mods must have same reliability as official DLC, adds extra content to games in terms of story

    Or something like that.

    Reply

  14. Corrie

    April 29, 2015 at 15:18

    There is valid points on both sides, but the biggest issue is those that would abuse it, I understand modders put in alot of work but why not take that same passion and drive and build a game instead of modding it, with so many free engines out there, I feel mods should be a fan service to the game, also what ticked everyone off was the pay percentage I mean 25% and the rest was split between Valve and Bethesda, I mean they never had to do anything in the first place in order to maintain it yet they felt ever so deserving, I love steam but that kinda put me a little off the fact that if a dollar can be made they’ll do so and Gabe didn’t at first want to budge but the backlash was just too much to handle, I still prefer the nexus, love how they went from something small to something really great.

    Reply

  15. Skoobaz

    April 29, 2015 at 15:23

    I’m an avid Flight Simmer and there are some portals with access to tonnes of mods. There are some serious creators of content out there and the sell their wares through these various portals. Not only planes or choppers created to close to real as possible within the parameters of the sim itself, but also real world scenery recreating various parts of the world. BTW, I am doing my PPL at CT International Airport and I buy into a lot of this stuff to train and practice on my rig before a real world flight. So it depends on te game / software that is being modded, how big the user base is and if it is big enough to start up or partake in a portal where these creations can be marketed and charged for, and also thereby be judged by the community on quality / content. This will lead to possibly new start ups and even careers creating this content. It really does depend on the game and how active it’s community is.

    Reply

  16. SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

    April 29, 2015 at 18:24

    I have a question. Can modders not charge outside of Steam? Is this a thing that can/does happen?

    Reply

  17. CuddlesaurusRex

    April 30, 2015 at 07:26

    I know im late on this one. Heres my 2 cents anyway. If a modder has put in a ton of work to bring a quality piece of content to a particular game then he/she should be paid for his/her efforts. Most of these mods take a ton of time and effort to produce and deserve some remuneration.

    Reply

  18. Axon1988

    April 30, 2015 at 08:24

    I wouldn’t call it a golden carrot. Seeing as you only get 25% of your total sales. More like the illusion of a golden carrot. I agree that paid mods will help authors, but then be realistic about it. Don’t ask $3.99 for a fucking sword, although I can understand them asking that much due to how the payment system works. It all just felt rushed and needs more work, and a better approach.

    Reply

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