Paid Mods 2.0

[Stoney Mason]

Complicated situation. Will be interesting to see their next try at this.

“The Skyrim situation — well, it was a mess,” he said. “It was not the right place to launch that, and we did some hamfisted things in the way we rolled it out. But the fundamental concept that the gaming community needs to reward the people who are creating value is pretty important.”

Valve now says it needs to figure out a way to do it so that its customers buy into it while also keep mod developers happy because they’re getting a piece of the reward.

I also asked Newell and Johnson if they think Steam would have paid mods by now if they didn’t have the Skyrim blemish in their past.

“I think we would’ve,” said Newell.

http://venturebeat.com/2017/02/10/valve-boss-gabe-newell-still-thinks-you-should-pay-for-game-mods/

[Rufus]

They better be ready to support their games for longer then, because I don't see people paying for something like SKSE or unofficial patches.

[VomKriege]

Hopefully they'll have another go a Steamboxes too.

 

[D3RANG3D]

They axed greenlight.

[archie4208]

Hopefully they'll have another go a Steamboxes too.

 

Steam Link came out of that which is a great little toy. 

[Stoney Mason]

Like I said its complicated...

There are great mods that absolutely have enough content to be a paid thing. And a paid market would no doubt create more of that sort of content.

But there are tons of issues which will complicate this. And having thousands of 50 cent to $1 dollars mods that nickel and dime people are just going to drive people to pirate the mods they want or free knock off versions of paid mods to be created.

I think it would be smarter to embrace a patreon/twitch style model for mods where donations are heavily supported and encouraged.

[Bebpo]

I think people should be able to sell mods if they want.  I don't want to pay for mods and if I made mods I would release them for free, but I see it kinda like indie games, there's lots of indie games that are free and there's lots that are paid.  Just depends on what their creator thinks they are worth and whether people want to pay for it.

I do think Publishers shouldn't want it as far fewer people may buy their game if they also have to buy mods.

[Stoney Mason]

There is nothing against a person selling a mod right now. You just can't do it through a specific steam supported infrastructure at the moment.

The problem will always be that for certain games there has never been a history for this and in fact the history has been completely the opposite way.

Steam/Gabe wants to be the "good guy" always but they are scared of standing in the face of the onslaught of inevitable backlash this will get them. So that's why they backed down with their tail between their legs in the skyrim situation. (It was also a horrible implementation of it for a game that had already existed for years)

The other thing is that the ecosystem of mods often depend on each other. Some in very specific ways. Some in less specific ways. Mod authors build upon the work of other mod authors. So its a very incestuous community affair that will get way more complicated when a real business interface is applied to it.

I'm not really on either side here. But I think its a more complex situation than just opening the floodgates especially when consumer perception is totally against it at them moment. They will have to PR their way into convincing consumers to give up something that has almost always been free and that is very difficult in the videogame market.
 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I agree one major problem are mods that use other mods within their own.  A lot of total conversion mods use a ton of other stuff so that'd be problematic.  Like there's a ton of reasons why paid mods are a really bad idea but at the same time if someone makes a really good mod like DoTA or something and wants to sell it I think that's pretty fair.  Yeah, it's a tough choice.

[Joe Molotov]

Unlike you dirt peasants, I would gladly pay for high quality nude mods.

[seagrams hotsauce]

It's a good idea in practice, but I just don't see how you can transition from how mods have worked for the last 30 years to a structure that allows for them to be paid for. Besides the inevitable mess around authorship of mods that are worked on by large teams or use assets from other peoples work, people pretty flatly rejected the notion of paying for mods at all when they tried to implement it last time.

[VomKriege]

PC Grand Pubahs by Gabe Newell

See, the thing is that you know--you know who I--You know who I am
I'm-- I'm the man. I'm the man
You get your mod out there and you sell it
Because that's what--the people in the market for mods!
They're not--They're not at the supermarket lookin' for fruits and vegetables, they're on the discovery tools
No, t-they lookin' for you, and they're lookin' for mods, and you got the mods so you know what to do
You get the man, you take him to the page, and you know the routine--You put your mods up and face down
You take the money, you take the cash
And you bring it back
You hear me?
'Cause if the money don't come back to me, then there's going to be some repercussions
I'ma have to put my foot in yo' sternum
And after that, I have to go upside yo' head and give you two black eyes and make you look like a raccoon
And ain't nobody wanna dev lookin' like a raccoon. Looks like somethin' that came out the forest. Man, you know what? If you wanna play forest, you can play like a squirrel instead of a raccoon and put the nuts in your mouth. Now, that's what it's all about
You get out there, and you make the cash and bring it back, and there won't be no problems between me and you!
You hear me? I got you you off the torrent, I got you on the store. You got a place to stay, you got a place to sell your game? That's because you're workin' it. Now, get out there and work it and everything will be fine, and then you can just have a place to stay and there won't be no problems
What? What you say? You--Get out there! What this--You better--You done pissed me off!
You better get your mods--Get on out there!
Get the money and bring it back!
That's what I'm sayin'
That's--I'm not playin'
Nobody sellin' no whoopie tickets around here!
You know yo' massa whips!

[thisismyusername]

There is nothing against a person selling a mod right now.

...Except the fact that certain mods use other peoples textures without their permission. Which was the problem last time.

You can't ask for payment if everyone that did the work isn't getting paid. This is the whole crux of the issue with "paid-mods."

[archie4208]

Valve's multiplayer game skins are basically paid mods.   

Of course, I understand single player games require a different approach.  A tip jar is likely the least offensive way Valve can approach it.

[Positive Touch]

unless they're gonna have an approval process, just let them put a link to their paypal and be done with it. it ain't gonna work otherwise.