Steam Mods Now Purchasable (UPDATE: No more)

[awkwardjoke]

That 8% statistic seems like BS. Unless they're taking that statistic from the Steam Workshop instead of the Nexus, and even then it seems way too low.

And if they feel so strongly about mod creators being rewarded for their work, why are they taking 75% of the "reward" for themselves?

[Mauin]

Yeah, I'm also questioning that 8%. Where the [&@%!] are they getting that one from? I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of PC player use mods. Most will get them from sources like the Nexus, though. Not Steam. Even when you're including PS3 and Xbox players, it should still far more than 8%.

The bit about being against DRM was funny, too. It amuses me how the PC version needs Steam to be played. Does that not count as a type of DRM?

[The SheoDovah]

To be fair, it's only 45% that they take. Valve only takes the standard 30% or so i've heard that it's 30% for anything that is sold on Steam. But it's still pretty [&@%!] due to modders getting a crap deal. Unlike Bethesda, who i doubt needs the extra cash due to their publishing arm being strong and bringing in the cash, most modders don't have that much cash to throw around(Compared to a company) and would probably like to make a bit of extra cash by using their hobby to do so.

The 8% figure is just [&@%!] as TES is home to a massive modding community and i would say 9/10 PC gamers have used a mod at some point either via the Nexus or Steam. I do wonder if they just slapped together a random figure and hoped that no-one would notice it. I mean, why not 80%? Oh right, because it would make it worse for them. Silly me.

[MetaCthulhu]

:

To Bethesda Game Studios:

If you want to treat modders like developers, if you really want to treat modders like developers, then hire them as (wait for it) developers!

Modding cost you millions on Oblivion? You stubbed your toe running from an aligator! Every dime you lost from it being rated M has been made back five-fold by people buying Skyrim and Oblivion because they know they were moddable!

You know why your getting deja vu of Horse Armor? because it's a rip-off! Just like how you're ripping of the entire modding community, paid or unpaid.

On a more pleasant note: Thank you, for not supporting DRM. I personally, and I hope the rest of your fanbase agrees with me on this, despise DRM. Thank you. But I believe you can go further. For one, requiring steam to play Skyrim on PC is quite restrictive. Another thing is the EULA which practically requires a user to sell their souls to use your games or the CK.
Hoping for the best,
MetaCthulhu

[Mauin]

Is it me, or are the paid mods on Steam hidden?

[Alarra]

Paid Skyrim mods on Steam are gone.

Official announcement:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWo ... 5253244218

[legoless]

All that for nothing. :/

[Jeff]

I have well over 2000 hours in Skyrim, between 15 Characters. I have used 0 - Zero mods.
1) None of them are necessary.
2) None of them are worth using.

Only 8% of the Skyrim audience has ever used a mod.

Skryim Sales By Platform
XBox 360 - 59 %
Playstation 3 - 27 %
PC - 14 %

They said Audience, not PC gamers/players.

Valve and Bugthesda have no means of killing game modding. (unless bugthesda opts to no longer offer editors) A lot of bridges have been burned over the weekend, and Valve and Bugthesda had nothing to do with it... That is all on a bunch of uniformed people over-reacting. The Internets at is finest...

[MetaCthulhu]

Turns out the modding community is a sleeping giant that even when divided has enough clout to influence Valve and Bethesda. Wow. But from their wording expect paid modding to make a comeback sometime in the future. Hopefully then it will be better implemented. In the meantime I think we should welcome back with open arms any one who made a paid mod, and, to prove we didn't oppose this out of personal greed, we should be much more willing to give donations to modders, I know I am now.

[Mauin]

If it isn't, they'll face the same [&@%!] again (they probably would anyway. It looks like a large number of people don't like the idea of paying for mods).

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded it if it was a donation sort of system where most of the cash went to the modder and not to Bethesda/Valve. The 40% that they would have taken was just a way to milk more cash out of the community. They get plenty of pay for the game and the official DLCs. A lower percentage would have worked for them. The same goes for Valve since all they really did was provide the platform to upload the mod to. Really, the modders should have received more and Bethesda/Valve should have received less. Much less.

The way it was set up was terrible. They way certain modders chose to use it was terrible (I'm referring to the ones that were to lock updates behind a paywall or removed their mods from free sites entirely. I wonder what they're going to do now?). They have some rethinking to do before this shows up again.

[Jeff]

You do realize that Chesko, and others received death threats... how willing to you think they would be to come back... to your open arms... expecting a dagger in your hands.

Maybe you should ask the "Witches" how well lynch mobs worked out for them... oh, wait...

[Mauin]

Didn't Chesko say he was done modding because of that?

I have to wonder: did the modders who were approached for this stop to think about what might happen? Did they not think that the mod community might explode into the internet equivalent of a violent riot? Or did they just blindly accept because money?

I hate to say it, but I definitely won't trust any of the modders involved again. If I had the means, I would have considered donating to them. Now, though...
I wouldn't dare donate to anybody that would lock a mod behind a paywall and force you to pay to access the newest version. I wouldn't dare donate to anybody that would remove their mod from free sites and force a payment. I just can't trust them.

[Jeff]

He probably decided to stop because he was thrown under the bus, because people reacted, without knowing what was really going on... as usual... the internets...

I mean really, this was even posted here: http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comm ... _from_the/

[MetaCthulhu]

You do realize that Chesko, and others received death threats... how willing to you think they would be to come back... to your open arms... expecting a dagger in your hands.

Maybe you should ask the "Witches" how well lynch mobs worked out for them... oh, wait...

You're right, they probably won't come back. Which is sad. Not just because they were some of the best modders, but because those people, yes people, which is so easy to forgot on the internet, loved to mod.

I just wish to emulate President Lincoln, who, after the US civil war, pardoned almost all the people who just weeks before threatened his very country.

[awkwardjoke]

I hate, hate, HATED this system and am glad it's gone. But the people who bullied, harassed, and even threatened these mod makers are sick.

I don't blame anyone who received misguided hate for leaving modding. I'd do the same thing.

That said, I'm proud of the rational group of people that did not harass the modders and instead stood up to Bethesda and Valve.

[Snake]

Do you think it was this that changed their mind or just the shear amount of backlash?

[AKB]

It was definitely not that.

[MARS]

Poof.

[Jeff]

...you do realize... that you lost.

[Deandra]

Didn't Chesko say he was done modding because of that?

I have to wonder: did the modders who were approached for this stop to think about what might happen? Did they not think that the mod community might explode into the internet equivalent of a violent riot? Or did they just blindly accept because money?

I hate to say it, but I definitely won't trust any of the modders involved again. If I had the means, I would have considered donating to them. Now, though...
I wouldn't dare donate to anybody that would lock a mod behind a paywall and force you to pay to access the newest version. I wouldn't dare donate to anybody that would remove their mod from free sites and force a payment. I just can't trust them.

And I won't ever trust the community of mod consumers again. After this display, you can be sure I won't ever publicly release a mod for TES VI. On the Nexus, my mods have got more than a quarter million downloads and over 12k endorsements. But even the thought of making thousands of people happy doesn't make me want to give even one more minute of my time making something for free for all of these toxic horrible people.

[Dohva.]

I'm surprised and glad that the paid mod plan has been removed, really because it seemed rushed and not planned out properly. Their letter states the intention of allowing modders to do their craft full time and be paid for it. I am in full support of that. However, with Bethesda and Valve getting most of the profits, where does that leave the modders they are trying to accommodate? I would have liked to see maybe even 30-40% minimum profits for the modders.

I also agree with Deandra in that this has all been super toxic. Just my opinion, but I think they went wrong in placing the actual modders at the bottom of the totem pole with what I explained above.

[Snake]

Wow. People here have absolutely no faith in online petitions. They do work, just not all the time.

But wether this one worked I have no clue. But I like to think that it at least helped.

[The SheoDovah]

So, it was an experiment by Valve. Usually, experiments don't end up destroying your reputation, unless it involves, Godzilla, but i refuse to believe Valve was experimenting with paid mods with one of the franchises that has a very large and active modding community as that would be a bit of a daft idea. I do believe that they and Bethesda wanted to reward modders but [&@%!] it up to the point where the entire idea was destroyed. A donation or offically endorsed by *developer* would have been a better way to approach it instead of allowing the modder to only get 25% whilst they get their standard 30% and Bethesda gets the largest cut to pay for their new batch of sweetrolls.

Regarding the nasty parts of the community that issued death threats to modders who wanted to make a bit of cash by using their hobby to do so, i'm not surprised that it happened as there are usually a few pieces of [&@%!] that feel that they must resort to being utter knobs and issuing any kind of threat they can until they get their own way in most communities. (speaking in a general sense.)

I don't think the petition was the sole reason for Valve ditching the idea but i do believe it was a factor into it. The entire community gave them negative feedback and they listened. They may have also went "Oh [&@%!], we just [&@%!] off the biggest market for mods. Quick, ditch the idea! Burn it with fire!" after realising how much damage it could do to their profits.

[likelolwhat]

So, one has to wonder what was accomplished from all this. The paid mod fiasco only served to create rifts where there were none before. No one looks good from this - not the developers, not the sellouts, and not even the people who united to stop paid mods without resorting to threats and ugliness -- for, as Deandra has shown, the actions of the violent and vocal minority stain them, too, even if most of us had nothing worse to say than "Shame!"

Honestly, Deandra. Just because some people are ugly on the Internet doesn't mean they represent the faction whose message they've decided to twist. I'm disappointed.

[Mauin]

I can't help but think that some of the misgivings that I've had (and that others have had) have come true in the past few days. The mod community is at each other's throats. As soon as I saw Dark0ne's Nexus post on the possibility of paid mods, I was worried about what that would mean for the future of modding. That future certainly doesn't look very good when everybody is fighting about it. People on the Nexus -and other places- seriously need to calm down (funny how I'm the one saying that. I went ballistic on a few garbage bags earlier because they kept ripping open and spilling rotting garbage everywhere). Throwing insults at all sides does not help. Dark0ne said to keep the debate civil, but it is far from that. It's not even a debate: it's a "[&@%!] you" here and a "[&@%!] you" there. Here a [&@%!], there a [&@%!], everywhere a [&@%!] [&@%!]. Old McDonald had a mod...

It's not going to stop me from sharing mods, though. There are going to be loudmouthed idiots anywhere. Hell, I was considering making some new eyes for the Argonians and Khajiit (because, for some reason, the hundred or more I have aren't enough)... I just haven't been able to make a decent texture yet. I am far from an artist.

I just refuse to pay for a mod. It's not because I don't believe modders deserve some form of compensation, it's just because there are so many things that could go wrong. I don't like the idea of paying for something that may or may not work in the future (which makes me think about games... There are already multiple games I can't play because my PC is too "modern." It's sad). I don't like the idea of paying for a mod and seeing most of the money going to companies like Valve and Bethesda. I don't like the idea of paying for a mod that might not be supported down the road. I don't like the idea of paying for a mod knowing that some things it contains might have come from people who get no share of the profit at all (or some things that might have been stolen). Some modders cause me problems as well, but they are few and far between. It's mostly the implications of paid mods that I don't like.