You can blandish as much as you want. You can protect the affected modders as much as you want. You can still think this whole thing has no negative effect on the community...but all of you are then completely wrong, and the truth will fall on you in the forseeable future. What bothers me most, is how a lot of recently 'payroaled' modders, which on top of it are also pillars of this community, have waved the flag of integrity all so high year after year, and now completely abandoned any sincerity whatsoever. I'm not even surprised, as I probably had a repartee with any of them and knew that their moral standards are all but high. On the other side, I do understand their notion of being payed for 'work', even though they completely fail to see the very definition of work and the conceptual difference between business and hobby. Beth and Valve also did everything right.They've created a win/win situation for themselfs and the modders. Being compensated for effort is a good thing after all. But there's so many factors to why the whole concept of charging money is wrong, that you simply can't bystand and act like the do-gooders want you to. It's the same situation as every other hot-headed serious discussion about copyright, concept of art, free share, state of ownership or any other related theme. The pillars of this community had and have power simply due to their presence, long affiliation aka post count, and superior attitude, and they were and are not ashamed of utilizing it. Anyone who was in doubt before what I said in the past about the elitist nature of parts of this community, specially here on this forums, should have now be torned down their blinkers.
Also, the whole Chesko situation is not worth anything. He brought that situation on himself, and the main reason why users/modders are now bashing him is amplified by pulling everything that's paywalled, showing a lack of backspine. If I as a advlt person make a decision, I stand by it, no matter how much others insist it's wrong. I followed his statement and arguments, and they're valid and well thought (as everything he ever posted), but I always imagined the pillars would never fall for something like this. Agreeing to keep quiet what was going on in the background was the biggest [censored]-move I'm afraid. Nothing good ever came from intransparent decisions/ideas/concepts on top of millions of affected users, and in this situation modders.This got even more explosive force, because Beth has picked the most prominent of modders and not considering so many others. Does success equal the quality and effort of work? No. If so humanity would have never characterized words like unfair and unjust.
However, seeing how the 'leaders' of this community turned modding into a business I don't feel like anylonger acting like a preacher. I'm totally giving into this by adding myself to the business strategy because I feel this community doesn't deserve any better. I, as a single modder, am entirely sure I invested so much more effort on any of my projects then those having a team behind their back, that I fail to see why I should wave high the flag of integrity now. I want your money, and I want it now! My daughter will have her benefit of this situation. Three days ago was the day that modding died. This becomes specially true because Beth was one of the last big companies that openly supported modding without gaining any financial profit from it, and I've never even remotely thought they'd let themselfs down to something like this. And I'm not talking about how people should be compensated for their efforts, but how they together implemented this terrible idea, which will have a 100% destructive effect on this modding community and the relationship between modders, users and developers/publishers per se for the whole gaming industrie. Never I believed Beth would agree to Zenimax decision, to dive into payroaled modifications.
The numbers of already purchased Mods speak a clear and loud language...the community wants this (or at least the fail to see why it's wrong, and probably are to underaged to even figure). It will grow in size like a cancer and everyone will adapt to it. We will all produce quality Mods for conceptual business and don't give a d about the consequences. It will divide the chaff from wheat and turn the Beth modding community into a even stronger elitist unit. From the point of view of the supporters of this business idea everything sounds valid, and who am I to question their notions? Behold...the future will reveal everything that I propose...modding in the form we know it will be buried.
Let Modding how we knew it die! Adapt to the new situation! It won't disappear anyways!