Will paid mods improve or damage modding.

In theory giving player an easy and convenient way of giving modders money for their work is great.

HOWEVER, the way Valve and Bethesda are going about it is nothing short of disgraceful.

Valve, what the hell? How can you enable Bethesda to rip off modders like that, given that you literally built your company on their backs? Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Dota, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Day of Defeat and Alien Swarm. Pretty much every game you ever made except Half-Life started off as mod.

Valve getting 30% I can understand. They provide the platform, the servers and the software. They actually contribute, albeit indirectly.
However, Bethesda having the audacity to take 45% is infuriating. Given that they are not involved in the creation of the actual mods, they don't deserve a single penny, let alone the biggest share.
Sure, they provide the base-game, but they already got paid for it.

Why not add a donate button next to the subscribe one? Let players directly donate to the modder's steam wallet. Valve takes a transaction fee and everyone is happy.

Both the players and the modders are getting ripped off pretty hard by this. The ones doing the most work, the modders, get the smallest share. Unless the mod makes 400$, they get nothing. Meanwhile, Bethesda does nothing, gets the most money and is unaffected by the 400$ policy.
If Bethesda breaks mods with updates, the players must hope that the modder is still active and fixes it, or they literally threw money out of the window.

I hope, for the love of god, that this blows up in their face.

Valve has been removing donation links from workshop mods, they've added this 'paid' mods not to support our fellow modders but to get a cut off people's work, let's not forget that Bethesda is into this aswell, since the EULA clearly states that a person cannot gain a profit out of their game, but I guess the rules change once they start sharing the 75% cut they get off of a paid workshop mod.

While paid mod content could in some cases be helpful to those developing that content, in most cases modding would turn into development for profit (not necessarily for the modders as other comments suggest) and development made for profit has already taken us to poor releases of games due to profitable alpha/beta versions with things like early access (which in theory is a good initiative but in practice rarely provides what advertises) and pre-orders, so the last thing we need is mods to follow a similar path. People can always support modders by donating and honestly there are better ways to show support then giving money despite the fact that money is usually pretty useful (unless a modder is so rich it doesn't make a difference which should be pretty rare).
Overall it would improve somethings (if done well) and damage others by separating free mods from paid ones and likely making it harder to use assets made in the same community due to profitability of unique things.

I see it as bordering as illegal, sure I would love money for modding but I'm against it because the whole concept for modding is to let people explore different mods for free, frankly should be illegal to charge for mods if the game isn't a complete major overhaul that completely changes the game while using no assets from the original game.

They do it for only one reason: to take profit to themselves. They don't care about modding community, they just see that there is too many mods and they didn't make money of them, so, why not to start it from now?

How much mods have been made only for TES series? Thousands! And because they are greedy too much, they decided to grab money from our pockets like if it's not enough for them by selling their games. THEY WANT ONLY OUR MONEY.

Money is a good incentive. It will attract/motivate alot of modders. But there is a good chance it will be more about quantity rather than quality.
The reason im ok with crappy mods is because i know im not actually paying for it. Modders who sell mods will have to be accountable now. And what happens when a game is patched and breaks the mod: "No refund, bitch"
It may incentivis developpers/publishers to make their games moddable in order to get a piece of the pie. But im afraid it will become what dlc is today. Selling games bits by bits. Putting less effort in making full games.
Its not like an indie developper. A modder is using whats already there. Its like taking a song, adding a few lines of your lyrics somewhere in the middle and selling it.
Im thankful to modders. Donations is something i can get behind. But paid modding? No.

Bethesda makes most of the money out of this so sure they are onboard, problem is the way everything is done they are also not responsible for any mods and problems such as if modder dissapears and patch breaks a mod, also if there are any license issues.

Further, whats more troubling is that if you publush a mod and agree to their terms and go direct sale on there u also lose full rights to your mod as far as owning ur work. SO be careful lol.

Modders should be paid through donations. Their work should otherwise be free and they should get as close to 100% of the donations as possible.

That said paid mods *might* allow modders to feed themselves while making mods thus resulting in more mods being made and finished.

I'd say it would definately hurt it. Corporate control will just mean censorship and simplifying of more complex mods. And you KNOW that this will end up in corporate control.

Copyright issues too. There was a Lord of the Rings mod for Skyrim that got shut down, or was threatened to be shut down, by Warner Bros for copyright infringement

Basically, good bye historically accurate mods, good bye mods with complex mechanics, and good bye any fan renderings of existing intellectual property.

Plus, wouldnt it mean the end of ModDB, except for the few who dont jump ship to making mods for um, what was it, 25% of what they earn?

Imagine how much that'd happen if there was actual profit motive, and not just the possibility?

I think the option to pay mod developers is great however the way Valve implemented their recent system is bloody aweful.
They should have left it at a customizable donate button and that's it.

In my opinion I think that the option to pay for mods is great but not giving people the option to use a mod for free takes away from the spirit of modding.
Developing a mod is not like developing a full game, mods are made to improve, change or personalize a video game experience.
I wouldn't be surprised that if DLC wasn't so common nowadays, this new system on Steam would never have taken shape.
DLC and mods were always two separate things but now... can you still say the same?

Nice knowing you steam workshop, I won't be playing skyrim much anymore. If it carries over to other games on there then screw the workshop.

Well , Mods like DLC's , adding new maps for example is awesome! , i would pay for something like that!
but then for Armour , weapon mods.
is just awful

I believe that it is neither bad, nor good. I mean, do modders have to put a price tag on their creations? Can't they just continue to distribute them for free? And I am sure they could still get donations via so many other ways (if they need money). At the bottom line, some teams create some great total conversions of games, working on their projects for hours and hours, without having the ability to legally ask for money. No matter who gets the most % of the money, modders can now have a legal benefit from their labors, while before they took nothing in return.

On the other hand, mods are the best, free way for a company to promote itself, the game it created and the engine it made it with. Everyone played even the most beta mods, because they were free. If people will start charging them, there will be (I believe) a 70% drop of players who will play the mods that are being made, thus less promotion for the companies. But, I say it again, IF the modders have to charge their mods. They could still distribute them for free and the problem is solved.

I think it's good to allow modders the chance to make money off their work if they so wish. However, and perhaps I am being naive, I think the majority of modders make mods (or indeed levels, skin packs or whatever) for the fun of it. I think most mods will remain free, hobbyist creations.

Let's be honest now.I don't think that paying for mods is good idea at all.Specially not if valve can have some percent of money they have earned.There are mods,that are excelent,they add lots of items.If that moders don't need money for their services,who are we to discuss about that.
VALVE'S NEW POLICY SUCKS !!! That's the point.Everyone will make crappy 1 item re-texture,not no note that valve is robbing them.I can't see anything good on valves new policy.I only see greed.

I think it's a good idea since you can sell items from games and so you can buy a mod... but the fact Valve is taking 75% of the selling... that's just unfair...

Whilst many mod developers do deserve money for their efforts, putting mods behind a pay wall will severely damage the modding scene. All mods should have a sorta patreon like system, where the mod teams get paid for their updates

Even amazing expansion pack sized mods suffer from the fact that they haven't been tested by the developer QA. What guarantee do we have that an update won't break them? And what guarantee do we have that paid mods are compatible?

It will devestate everything dont expect money.

I think it will do a bit of both...

Let me preface this by saying, I just found out about this last night.

ok, the percentage distribution is shameful, as a moder I only get 25%? I think it should be closer to 60-70%.

If you require payment, you change the entire motivation paradigm. People mod because they love the original game, and feel inspired and motivated to create.
Once you tag a mandatory price tag to it, the motivation shifts.

use of mods would go down 80% and creation would go up 20% or so.
Furthermore the 80/20 rule would come into effect of it hasn't already.

Game design is hard and time consuming, I'd thought Valve would understand and respect that.

Reading Material:

Gamersnexus.net

As it says, a postmortem analysis.

Imgur.com

A quality check list on the mods.

Personaly I like the way to support modders and here are a lot of work who are worth to receive some rewards, BUT paying for mods should be OPTIONAL thing. Everyone should be able to download mods for free and supporting modders shall depend on person's will.

Some people don't like to pay for mods since they already bought the game itself, this is just added content by someone that is a big fan of the game or wants to see extra features, a different approach to the game or otherwise.

It all depends on how big the mod is and how much time the developer has put into his work. Plus the developer of the mod should at least get most of the shares if it is available through steam or any other distribution.

I would not pay for just a small change in gameplay or some small added items/features etc. Perhaps when I start up the mod and I am playing a totally different game with different feel I might consider buying it.

It's hard to say whether or not the mod should be paid or not. For me the best choice would be a donating system. For those that want to support the mod and are enjoying it.

I agree with Donations but paid mods? Uhmm a little no.. A generous donation is better than paying especially to some people who don't have money to buy expensive games. :)

My 2 €¢: it could work, but it needs quality control. Something like Greenlight for mods... Otherwise the market will get flooded by fast reskins instead of great total conversions that build and improve on the original.

To my mind, damage. Better to give players opportunities to donate for interesting mods.

In my opinion it will do damage to the modding community.

I think if people want to support mod makers financially it should be done through donations and the such.

Both Improve and Damage.

It would improve the chances of Indie development and encourage the developers to assist MOD groups. However those who are not fortunate enough to have money to pay employees (working on MODs within their free time in the garden shed) won't get the recognition they deserve and in turn won't get as much assistance.

I myself have struggled to find resources for my MOD, and I am working nearly single-handedly on the creation of my MOD. My first MOD was done on my own (using resources gathered from free downloads and unfinished fragments), and I hadn't got a Development team for the MOD. My current MOD is facing a complete standstill due to a lack of a proper Development team able to design units/structures. I have gathered all of my units and structures from external websites (PPM and MODdb). I have also extracted textures from the original CnC games (CnC4) and I have requested the usage of material from other MODs to some success.

Only through time and cooperation I have managed to get as far as I have.
Certain MODs wouldn't even be here if a paid service was a standard thing, but on the flip side, certain MODs wouldn't be here without a paid service.
It's a three edged sword as to if they are good or bad.

I'll support donations and kick starting, but paid mods? Look at kick starters for example, some of them hit it off to early access and then drops the game or barely improves on it afterwards. I see the same happening for mods. Once paid, there's no gaurentee to finish it. Instead of selling mods off to people who love mods like us, rise up against aaa companies and have them support modders. I mean, look at company of heroes. a group of modders made a mod which added a whole faction, the russians. shortly after they release coh2 which, yeah, adds russians and sucks the bloody money out of us with dlcs. Come on people, i don't mean diservice to modders in any way, but soon we'll be looking at cash grabs everywhere. Pay for the game, then pay for dlcs, and THEN pay for mods while your at it. Oh, and lets add subscriptions as well in the near future.

Sooo they want make people pirate a mods also ?
good move.
no im against it :D

Honestly II have no way of knowing. Mods like Black Mesa went on for 10 years of amateur developers. I've waited and watched the mod grow since 2005. After playing it, I'll gladly give up $20 for the last 15% of the game and its multiplayer aspect. Though, $10 seems more appropriate to me, it's not about me- it's about the developers. You plan to release a game for free, I'll donate. You plan to release it for retail then complain when people don't buy it, no thanks.

I guess it'll help out the people that want a foot in the door

I think its a 50/50 some people may want to help developers and some may not want to pay. I personally don't want to pay for mods

if you do a mod of the game i think you do it because you like the game and you want to add more content or atleast modify the game to have more fun.

i already commented on this situation some time ago, but i think mods + paid should remain separate, it will destroy communities and i think it will further the flame of this new fad we seem to be living in where games get released as finished products and then dropped with no support, (look on steam) it is a disaster waiting to happen mods should always be free (with optional donation perhaps) because a lot of mod teams + communities love modding its a passion and when you turn that into a financial gain you destroy the very soul of modding in my own humble opinion.

I believe modding should be free. Paid mods are basically player-created DLCs, which all in all is stupid. Think of... 5 years ago, You're on Steam and you're looking at free-to-play games. However, this is Steam, so the free-to-plays are ****. So you go and look at your games library. Lets say your most played game is Skyrim or Half-Life (Conveniently heavily modded games.) So you hop onto ModDB, Desura, or the Steam Workshop. (Hopefully the former than the latter.)If you've noticed, most of these sites have mods available for free, which is obviously better than "other" sites that require paid memberships in order to access mods. Why, you've been a part of these sites for so long you've never even thought of them relating to your wallet at all. So you explore mods of mods and moddings of the such when you come across one that really seems to strike your fancy.Though you can't download it for free, for it is a paid mod. Of course you want the modder to benefit financially from their work but is it really worth paying for? Probably not. I mean, was this mod made by Jesus? That might be worth paying for right! The only way modders should be getting money is for their work through donations via sites like kickstarter.Leave the get rich quick thing to the ****** Call of Duty youtubers. Unless I find a mod made by the Messiah, I'm not paying a cent.

I have no money :(

I feel it will damage it unless there is a group of people who look at it and quality check it, most gamers complain about bug-laden releases, so they don't want to pay for a mod that does the same that may or may not go dead. It's feasable for some things but the point of mods is so I don't have to pay 8 dollars for things that need to be in a game