[BEl J]

Now how am I going to express my hurt feelings?

[Bad News Rogers]

Am I the only one who feels like hugging everyone? This is the best news I have heard all year. Makes me glad they even tried doing paid mods. I'm almost (maybe half) as happy as if they had announced a new game (though not nearly as excited).

[Amy Cooper]

Bloomin Eck.


Yeah. This ^ Extremely apparent, and also confusing to us.

Single player cRPG's are a very VERY different kettle of fish compared to online competitive / cooperative multiplayer games. The types of mods are so different as are the end users expectations. Its not something really Valve have any experience in.

[mike]

Now we have to start making sure this doesn't show up in Fallout 4.

[Alexandra Louise Taylor]

These last few days have been by far the craziest I have seen on the PC side of the Bethesda fandom.

The fact that they backed out of it probably gained them more respect from me than they would have from just never doing it. Valve and Bethesda have proven that they respect the fans right now, and will listen to us. My faith was shaken in them with the news, but the fact that through massive community reaction they managed to reverse their decision, well, that rarely happens in gaming at all.

I don't think we'll have anything to worry about with our favourite games for quite some time.

[Rachel Eloise Getoutofmyface]

I'm thankful there rethinking the process and I hope to take to heart with the community has demanded of them as they have some very real issues to resolve before attempting paid mods.

Money always finds a way, hopefully it'll be better around next time for everyone.

As a personal note I'm extremely happy that that these two companies listen to their community. Despite all the crap they are going to dig through to find constructive feedback. Maybe there is a future for paid content. Personally I like it as is but if they focus supporting the community with tools, resources, patches for Skyrim and a fair share of revenue to modders who knows I might change my mind. At the end of the day I just hope they pitch it to the community for feedback before committing to a new model.

[rheanna bruining]

Who cares about F4? TES6 is what matters But seriously, this is the best news in quite a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js

[Dina Boudreau]

Well, that was quick.

[Isabel Ruiz]

Now I can go back to looking forward to Fallout 4 again.

[Emily abigail Villarreal]

Wow, it's removed.

I'm glad.

Still, best to see if this wasn't a door-in-face operation - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique-.

Quoting from link, "The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, compared to the same reasonable request made in isolation."

Edit: Added Quoting from link, "..."

[naana]

Relevant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRvAAYjmqkE

On a more serious note, Valve and Bethesda have listened to us. They have my thanks and my future patronage!

[sam westover]

Wow!

I think this whole thing was a rather stupid idea to bomb this on an already existing community where there was a sense of sharing which everyone understood, to suddenly try to turn that into something else was rather silly. I think they will still bring this into being for FO4 and TES in the future but the big difference will be that mod users and modders will be understanding what they are entering into in the first place and if either side gets burnt by that then they will have already know from the start and only have themselves to blame for it.

[Sammi Jones]

Im gonna go and fix my negative reviews now. The protest has ended. and im not an ass.

[Steven Nicholson]

Wow this is kinda amazing actually ! Got to say.. Didn't expect it to happen

[Richard]

I already did, I am re-posting my original 2011 review. To bring balance to the force and all that jazz.

[Marie]

Wow. I am very surprised that this occured. I want to celebrate, but man, I don't feel like I can. Despite this end result, a lot of people have showed a nasty side (on either side of the line), and our community has changed drastically despite the fact that it should fundamentally be the same. Nonetheless, I am satisfied to see that this decision was made, and I hope some semblance of normalcy returns to the community.

[Krystina Proietti]

The Great Schism is over!

Time for reconciliation.

[Sunny Under]

Faith in humanity restored

[Scott]

This is not the end. This is just a tactical retreat, they'll regroup, re-think their strategy and go at it again, somewhere down the line, and with a fresh game, maybe one more 'in tune' (wink, wink) with Steam Workshop.

Mark my words.

[Gracie Dugdale]

"Update: After discussion with Valve, and listening to our community, paid mods are being removed from Steam Workshop. Even though we had the best intentions, the feedback has been clear – this is not a feature you want. Your support means everything to us, and we hear you."

http://www.bethblog.com/

[Britta Gronkowski]

Yeah, probably... :/

[Ana]

If a mod has to lock this now, at least have this link be part of the last post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI

Boy oh boy, what a crazy weekend, eh folks?

[T. tacks Rims]

Most certainly not. Paying people up front with a high risk project like a mod is not a sensible thing to do unless you like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_machine.

However, you negate the point. Which is that people will require compensation. The more people are needed to contribute, or the more external resources need to be licensed, the higher the cost. If you compare the costs involved in a major project like Falskaar or "10x Falskaar" versus the projected revenue, with the costs involved versus the projected revenue of a much smaller project, the smaller project is much more profitable.

Also, smaller projects can per definition be finished quicker. You can churn out a steady stream of those. If the goal is to generate some semblance of a proper income then you need a steady flow of revenue, a steady flow of new content.

Besides all that. With a price tag of $10 a mod won't sell all that much. That's a big leap for most people since they get no guarantee of quality or support. And last but not least, $10 buys a whole new game.

We already have such mods. No need for a paid mods scheme to "improve" things there imho, but alright.

Your whole argument above leads up to substantial extra costs that a pay wall might not come close to cover.

"They could split the actual sales they get from the mod. They could then contract out the voice acting and any scripting Kris can't do herself, paying others for their services at an agreed-upon rate/value, and writing up a contract transferring asset ownership to Kris and the iNPC team."

Contracting out and transferring assets via contract requires legal consulting. Not cheap, especially since transferring asset ownership is legally quite hard in most developed places outside the US.

The contracted people will expect wages or percentages either way.

"to hire more voice actors, to purchase recording equipment or studio time"

More costs, more costs. If you hire studio time, or invest in recording equipment, you're going to need to fly in the extra voice actors. And while they're there you'll need to pay for their stay/upkeep. None of which is cheap. The other route is to hire voice actors who have good studio equipment of their own, who have particular talent, or both. Again, these can be relatively expensive.

Also, more voice actors = more costs.

"They very well could even lose money, as they do now, to continue improving the mod. But the mod would certainly be even better than it is now, and they wouldn't have to try and cover 100% of the costs themselves, which is just unreasonable (and why many parts of the mod still aren't "professional quality" as many mod users complain now)."

Hypothetically speaking perhaps. But it's for sure their costs will rise substantially even if they don't set out to spend the substantial extra cost you pictured above. Everything they've not done themselves until now would have cost them extra. Most won't help mods behind the pay wall for free.

Most of all, I'm properly pleased with the work they've done thus far. It's an excellent mod that far surpasses the depth (or lack thereof) which Beth gives their NPC's. I'd be happy to donate, and donate again and again, if they asked. Had the mod been behind the pay wall it's very unlikely I would have ever bothered to check it out. Complainers will always be there no matter how "professional" your work is. Just look at the real professionals here: Bethesda with their multi-million franchise.

However. Nothing you said above made an actual point that there are better quality and/or more expansive mods to be expected specifically due to this pay wall. The return on investment is simply not there or is hugely in favour of quicker, simpler and/or smaller work.

Just look at which of the paid mods actually generated sales in the past weekend (http://steamcharts.com/). It was the quick and easy armour and swords mods which sold plenty. The sale of the other mods which offer more quality/gameplay was quite pathetic in comparison.

[Ells]

Then we can times it by three which makes around 1.8 million mod users. Although I doubt it. 1% of pc gamers making mods would be around 70,000. I it was all consoles that would make it 210,000 which seems way too high.

[Luis Longoria]

Just don't forget that now Mod authors must rely on donations, and http://i1022.photobucket.com/albums/af345/Drakkmore/WORK.jpg~original for their income now. Please remember to tip your mod authors if you appreciate the work they've done. If you can afford it at any rate.