Valve adds paid modding

Zastlyn_sl said:

The way he talks in his emails/responses sound so much like business speak, really corporate. It just seems like he's lost touch. If his general opinion is to follow where the money is, then we should start moving our wallets over to GoG and other such sites.

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I don't think he 'follows the money' so to speak, I think he's gotten further and further divorced from reality and the day-to-day operations of his company. Valvecouldhave done this properly - instead it is an abortion.

It feels exactly like what happens when you add 3 levels of middle management.

Someone posted this on Reddit as some evidence that flys in the face of give modders money = better mods.

I wonder if Valve is thinking about rolling this back, or at least not expanding it to any other games ? Because the amount of shit they got over this is enough to fire the guy who came up with it in any other company and you know it didn't go through any management because those people would stop and think how people were going to react. From hero to zero in one single announcement, I'm impressed. Not even CDprojekt could do that by announcing console exclusive release.

Even worse, most of these problems if they added paid mods for a new release, so there are less tools/resources/compatibility issues and people can develop with that in mind and by letting the developer curate what get's sold.

I'm not a Skyrim player or mod user but I had a question. I'm assuming previously you just downloaded and tried a mod you had recommended to you or you took a shot in the dark. Free content so all it cost you was time. Now with this new paid model there's no 'return policy' so to speak. How will a new good mod actually become popular?

Hopefully we fight this shit off. I'm pretty concerned right now, though.

hodj_sl said:

Its simple. Do not pay for mods. Period. Just don't do it.

If you have any modding skills, make janky ass shit mods, flood the market with them, overprice them so no one will buy them.

Make it so that any modder trying to hock their shit legit is pissing in an ocean of piss so overloaded with shit that no one even bothers trying to figure out what is what. Give 5 star ratings to mods protesting the decision, and downvote legitimate mods. Downvote games that allow paid mods as well.

They will get the picture in short order if enough people do that.

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This is kind of why I think this stuff will sort itself out. A majority of players are not going to pay for mods if forced to, even mods that some feel are vital to enjoy the game. You would think most (not all) mod authors would see how much bad press this created and how much little in return they are getting and decide it's not worth it. What's the point of making a mod if no one is using it because it's behind a paywall?

Best selling mod at the moment seems to be this:

Steam Workshop :: Shadow Scale set

Which is a skin and probably falls into the same category as CSGO skins where people will buy it. It even has positive responses in discussion threads.

It'll stop the people who make 1/20th of an awesome mod from even trying. That's the only problem, really. Otherwise who cares if steam and bethesda fuck themselves.

They just managed to fuck everyone, is all. And I honestly do think that Nexus is going to start having legal trouble. Because I don't think any of this was actually an accident or an oversight or malicious incompetence.






Counterpoint: It's fine. It's fine! It's fiiiiiiiine. Fine fine fine fine fine.




It's fine.

The game companies are trying to emulate the music/movie industry.

I mean you would THINK that the advent of the internet, and the rise of their very own companies, would warn them against it. You would think that maybe.

But when you get rich enough...

But who's gonna stop 'em? The SJW / GG generation? Valve is gonna be selling a lot of mods to their parents credit cards! Modders can stop modding, that's true. But that won't stop 'em. That'll just fill up the Workshop with shovelware reskins. Just like greenlight.

Valve is the gatekeeper on this one. And gabe says it's fine.

Its horse armor all over again, heck its even the same company / game series.
Noone will buy the 5$ horse armor. That will backfire and no company will add DLCs to their game.
It will just lead to better gaming expirience, noone will ever be forced to buy DLCs to expirience the full game.
Nothing is cut out, its all fully optional and will make AAA titels cheaper.

Yeah this is clearly heading nowhere.

Zastlyn_sl said:

The way he talks in his emails/responses sound so much like business speak, really corporate. It just seems like he's lost touch. If his general opinion is to follow where the money is, then we should start moving our wallets over to GoG and other such sites.

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That's because people forget that Gabeisa corporate business man. He's been put up on a pedestal over the years for reviving PC gaming and doing a lot of pro-consumer things, but let's be honest, the bulk of that was driven by a desire to run a company and make money. That's completely in line with his philosophy of "money drives how the community steers work". Money drove him to do some fantastic things, things which gave him a ton of notoriety, therefore putting the money carrot in front of modders will do the same for them. In a way, it is sort of noble to look at this as Gabe wanting to give others the same opportunities he has, and perhaps that would be more the case if this wasn't implemented in such a shoddy way.

I honestly do believe him in that this wasn't drivenentirelyby greed, but ultimately, people are now seeing the man behind the curtain. Gabe isn't some benevolent billionaire who built Steam out of the kindness of his heart. Gabe is a businessman just like Bobby Kotick and John Riccitiello. He may have different things motivating him than them (and doesn't have shareholders to answer to), but Valve and Steam are still money making enterprises first and foremost. What I think I'm most curious about is how Gabe reacts from going to a tongue-in-cheek messiah to being outrated hated and put in the same league as people like Kotick and Riccitiello.

If money is involved now, wouldn't it be a crime to take someone elses mod and upload it to steam?

Quineloe_sl said:

If money is involved now, wouldn't it be a crime to take someone elses mod and upload it to steam?

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People might argue that as free mods are, well,freethat they've been released from copyright. They'd bewrong, but it's definitely an argument they'd use.

Simple solution: Put your mod up on Steam for a penny.