[Mrs. Patton]

Continuing on...

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1516784-skyrim-workshop-now-supports-paid-mods/

Copy of the FAQ:

[Carolyne Bolt]

Just realized that some mods are pricier them the game itself .

Wow... this is crazy.

[Lisha Boo]

I assume this is just a teething process. The prices at the moment are pretty inflated, but will eventually settle somewhere more reasonable.

Heh, reasonable. They've got their claws in me already.

[CHARLODDE]

Absolutely the craziest thing I have seen in gaming in many a year, this changes much more than just my favourite games, it changes gaming as a whole.

The pay what you want system is very neat though. 1.25 doesnt seem so bad for Wet and Cold instead of the 6.25 that is on the storefront. Still going to wait a month before trying anything at all, though.

[Natasha Biss]

Sadly if this does actually end up generating significant income for Bethesda their next step will be to remove competitors. Why would they allow sites like the Nexus to continue when it's costing them money? They won't of course, everything will be moved to Steam Workshop and modding will stop being a passion driven hobby and instead become just another way to for Beth$oft to ravage their fanbase.

[Natalie J Webster]

I'd like to remind everyone about the early Oblivion DLCs, especially Horse Armor. Bethesda was still figuring out how much to charge and how much to release. People complained, Bethesda adjusted their structure, and with FO3 and Skyrim we got DLCs that most consider worth the money. Now, modders are doing the same thing. If they see that they can't charge what they are charging because people aren't buying it (or, worse, because of negative community pressure on other fronts), they'll adjust accordingly. Judging the whole system by its very first implementation is a very bad idea.

[Nikki Hype]

I live in Brazil so for me the conversion is really making stuff expensive.

People in other countries will suffer as well.

[Jessie]

I'm calling it right now, screen cap this post if you have to:

Valve will work with Bethesda/Obsidian and will find a way to implement workshop into the Steam versions of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 as well as Fallout: New Vegas and pull the same stunt. Same with Fallout 4...

[Alisia Lisha]

Oh already have seen it in the Sims 2 community. It didn't go well and I am sure this has the same bad effect.

[Saul C]

This is the most infuriating part to me honestly, it makes me sick that there are modders charging such exoberant prices for their mods. I understand that a lot of work goes into modding but AAA games go on sale for less. It's pretentious to think that your mod, as good as it might be, is worth more money than full games.

This too is another big concern of mine. I think this has hugely negative implications for the future of modding.

[Lil Miss]

This. Many countries get screwed because Steam only accepts a handful of currencies.

[Marquis deVille]

Is there someway I can highlight this post or upvote it for everyone to see?

There are so many different ways this can pan out. And we dont have enough information yet.

Its almost a given this will happen if there is success for Skyrim. As I said, this changes gaming as a whole, not just Bethesda. Being a modder is going to turn into a career now.

[Micah Judaeah]

LN,

You have a lot more faith in people than me. I've seen enough advlts act like spoilt kids when they do not get their way to have little faith in the self-regulation of the system; I see Mod authors, especially popular ones with those "Best Mods you can get/must have mods" taking a negative stance of, "It's the best, so you'll pay what I say or do without!" and just generally create a lot of discomfort in the community.

[Multi Multi]

I was just wondering what some of the modders I remembered from the past would think of this, thanks for posting this.

It is an interesting point you bring up about users being customers now. No more "use at your own risk, see uninstall directions if you do not like it" People will get angry when it doesnt work the way they want, and since they paid for it, they will not simply think "lets try something else" they will come after you to make it work. This could be nasty given the sometimes very picky nature of mods.

[Amelia Pritchard]

Meh, I doubt it. My biggest fear is that with Fallout 4 Beth will limit mods entirely to Steam Workshop in an attempt to completely kill off the independent modding community.

[Jamie Lee]

I think this is great for Modders to finally be getting some financial recognition for their amazing creations. This can also lead to a much higher level of polished quality work where the best will thrive as more people will support something that they like thus motivating the Modder(s) to grace us with their mods.

I also welcome fully the fact that I can now show my financial appreciation through a Steam Card payment since I don't use credit cards, PayPal etc which probably would limit my use for such things as Patreon.

As for negatives the market will correct itself and decide what's what.

[Ronald]

Looking at what seems to be the process for adding a paid mod to the workshop, it seems that all mods first go to a 'Under Review' tab where before payment is possible it can be viewed by the community. Which, if people are paying enough attention, could help stop most uploading of other people's content. (No, it should not be the responsibility of the users to make sure people aren't stealing content, but at least there is some holding space before it is added to the market.)

[Rachael]

Maybe someone mentioned it, but I saw it mentioned a bit on the first thread's first few pages.

This can not be compared to selling artwork. Artwork is something you made, perhaps using learned techniques, but largely made by yourself.

Modding uses the creations of someone else as a base. It's fanfiction, but with games instead of writing. Having a donation button is fine, but another issue is that paying for a mod implies that it will work with every set up and will include everything shown in each image.

If someone wants to go out and make a new open world RPG, then I'll probably support it. But paying for fanfiction? No.

[Khamaji Taylor]

You always could before, many offer paypal "donation" links etc, without steam taking a giant bite out of what you are trying to give to the modders. And if you really wanted to, nothing would stop you from sending them a message, offering to paypal them some money, right to them, that they get all of.

[Fiori Pra]

I feel for those modders who made free mods in good faith with other mods as prerequisites only to have those prerequisites suddenly go behind a pay-wall, limiting access to work they intended to be free.

[Kevin S]

Seeing how a game that was already published on Steam (under a different name) passed Greenlight, I have my doubts...

[Sophie Payne]

@ Vals-Fan Well the problem is I don't use PayPal etc. So for me paying through Steam is the only way since I don't have to worry about privacy concerns etc.

[NEGRO]

Can understand and respect Chesko for making their mods timed only,

Hate the whole idea of the pay for mods, its like the whole old games now charging you ￡4 on GoG that was free for over a decade on abondonia, just cheeses me off as they really not done anything with it just tweaked it to run better with dosbox.

Next we are going to get mods that are just re-skins for content all ready in the game.

Also the milking of skyrim makes me think they aren't about to announce fallout 4 or the next elder scrolls game anytime soon.

[Sakura Haruno]

@Flibble,

Your signature just gave me an idea for a mod An NPC who charges you gold to go on a quest for him (and then takes all your loot at the end of it )

If I could make Quests, I would totally make that

[Gemma Archer]

The worth of something is entirely artificial. A AAA game sells, at launch, for upwards of $60. It's cheaper now, years later, because it's already sold all the copies it can at higher pricepoints, and is now relying on volume of sales. Just how low the price point drops depends on how much demand there still is for the game.

The mods you're looking at now, on the other hand, have that $5 as their starting pricepoint. They cost as much as a small DLC for a game did at launch, which is an apt comparison. Comparing them to a game after it's had years/months to depreciate isn't fair. As I noted before, these mods could very well drop in price in the coming weeks/months.

Price is entirely dependent on demand, on how much you can charge and still have people buy it, while not charging so little that it's not worth it to you. It's got almost nothing to do with the actual work put into the project.

I think there will always be jerk individuals, and I think this being made available months before the release of any new title is a great thing. It'll give us time as a community and as individuals to figure things out for ourselves. If TES6 is released next year (purely hypothetical) and someone starts an Open Cities mod that costs $10, I'll probably be the first person to start an Open Cities mod that is free. There are things that truly are unique, and there are probably people that will try to charge stupid amounts of money for it. Those people will get flamed and generally shunned, and I doubt their attitude will earn them the sort of money they want. The vast majority of mods is replicable, though, and the vast majority of modders aren't total [censored]s. Or so I like to think.