First of all, the premise itself is poorly thought out. I'm pretty passionate about PC gaming and I try to support it all I can, but this decision will take one of the biggest draws for PC gaming and monetize it beyond repair. You're simply just going to have people pirating mods; the ones who don't pirate just won't use mods at all. And the small number of people who do purchase mods will likely encounter a myriad of problems.
Which leads me to the next point. Has no one thought of how difficult this system will be? Mods can be the most unstable parts about PC gaming. What happens when two mods conflict after they've been purchased? Will they get a refund? What happens when a game receives an update and breaks mods that are no longer being maintained by their creator? Will the customer receive a refund? There are so many fledgling modders who haven't gotten a hang of the skill yet and include a lot of bugs. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, until you start charging for this content. Seriously, this just like small, unofficial, and unstable DLC now. Who in the world will want to buy a weapon or armor for a dollar?
And this is exacerbated by Bethesda's decision to enforce no type of quality control. With a community as large as the Skyrim Workshop, the front page will be flooded with cheap, broken, or insignificant mods with beautiful and deceptive screenshots and descriptions to convince people to purchase them. And does Beth really not expect for this to be open to abuse? Because it is already being abused. At this moment, there are "modders" already who have uploaded the content of others and are charging for it. Yes, I understand that there is a DMCA reporting feature, but do you actually think this is going to be enough? These people aren't going to stop and since Bethesda wants this to be a free market, this will be a regular staple of the Worskop now.
On to my next point: "Modders should get paid for their work" and "Now you can finally support your favorite modder". Then donate to them. No seriously, I am among the firt to praise modders for their hardwork. I have helped bugtest Morroblivion for around three years now, off and on, and I make sure to tell Qwertyasdfg, Brainslasher, llde, and all the others there jsut how much I love their work and and their project. Hell, I've even thrown together a plugin or two in my day and shared it with other. Back when Oblivion was announced, I was a writer involved with defunct Library of Tes F'Ruum mod that was to be created for Oblivion. I am very much a supporter of modders and I've always defended their ability to create modifications of existing games. I actually am not opposed to large mods like Skywind, Black Mesa, etc from being eventually monetized as a standalone Steam release. I just don't think that should be policy, snd certainly not for Staff or Sword mods at a dollar a piece. No kidding, if all of the mods I use for Oblivion were suddenly monetized and cost around a $1, then I would have to pay at least $100. Mods are not something I am willing to pay for because they are free for a reason. They are fan modifications that exist to inspire and perpetuate creativity. This way, they will inspire putting the lowest amount of work into a plugin that adds maybe a house or a suit of armor so the creator can charge a buck for it. I realize that the really dedicated modders will continue to create big things and some of those things might have already been worthy of getting a full release on Steam and a price tag of $10 or $15. Those modders exist because their content is really good and the economy of free mods promotes their work. I have a feeling that they won't be rewarded so well, if they choose to monetize under this system. What Valve and Beth should have done is gone the Humble Bundle route. Allow you download somebody's mod for free or choose a pay what you will option. Hell, I'm even behind mods being given Kickstarter pages. I think that is actually a fantastic idea as it would ensure the mods that are really desired by the community will get the attention and funding they desire as will as ensure that the mod creators have an obligation to create the mod that they said they would. This, donations, or the pay-what- you-want system would encourage the users who are invested in the modding community to reward their favorite mods and the users who don't care about that sort of thing to continue downloading free mods as usual. As it is, the latter group will likely just resort to piracy now.
Another huge factor is that the creators are actually getting very little of the proceeds off their mod. 25% is hardly worth all the work you would put into your mod. Of course, modders create because they love the game and they want to see more content for it, but now that money has been brought into the equation everything is different. The biggest incentive to create mods were so that you had something significant to put in your portfolio when looking for work in the gaming industry. Mods have always been the forge on which the best creators were tempered and honed so that the best ones could go on to create amazing games for real companies. Now, how many modders are just going to forgo that, stick to creating one-off mods that practice pump and dump schemes in order to fund their next creation. Yes, you say "You can always go to the Nexus", but how long before this practice seeps in over there as well? There aren't very many modding sites anymore. Back in the Morrowind and Oblivion days, there were so many different modding sites that if one went down, nobody felt the sting because the same mods were likely available elsewhere. That isn't really so today. The Workshop and Nexus are the only viable modding communities and now one of them is charging for mods. You can't deny that Nexus creators will eventually cash in on this as well. Even if they didn't, though, that isn't the point; for a lot of people, half of the modding community just died because they won't or can't pay for mods.
I feel the need to, again, assert that I'm not hating on creators at all. Some of the most magical experiences I've had with video games were had because of modders. And the guys who create this wonderful mods have always had my hopes that they would go on to create amazing original content in the games industry. I am so passionate about this terrible decision because I care so much about The Elder Scrolls, it's modding community, and PC gaming in general. Seriously, I've been an avid lore fantatic since before Oblivion dropped and it's impossible for TES to not be a part of my identity at this point.
Valve and Bethesda have both been unique companies in my opinion, in that they seem to have always known what their fans wanted. They've always been really connected with their fanbase and very supportive of them. Bethesda, in particular, is a company that revolutionized modding for the better many many years ago. The Construction Set was one of the biggest changes to the way that fans show their support and harbor creativity among each other. It's so disappointing to see Bethesda throw up such a big roadblock in front of the modding scene.
I believe that this is all I had to say, but I may have let a point or two slip my mind. I will come back and edit my post if that is the case. I don't like where this is going and I do not think it will pan out the way that supporters of this system believe it will. There are too many problems, shortsighted aspects, and anti-innovation mechanics of this system that are being exacerbated by Beth's decision to not even moderate the market. What makes all this worse is seeing the defenders of this system deride anyone critical of it as freeloaders, pirates, children, or other insults. We are allowed to criticize this system. Like I said, I'm all for creators getting monetary compensation in form of donations or pay-what-you-will systems, but this current system, its premise, and the way it is implemented will likely be more harmful to the modding community, the PC gaming community, and fan communities in general that I don't think it's possible to avoid problems. As important as modders are, fans who consume mods are likely even more important. And I think it's pretty childish to accuse critics of this system as freeloaders. They've helped make this modding community just as much as modders have, by consuming the content they like, bugtesting, and word of mouth. They have just as much of a dog in this fight as creators do and it's entirely within their right to protest this.
» Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:29 am 
