» Thu Apr 30, 2015 3:03 pm Since Bethesda seems like they are actually reading some of these forums, and the voices of those in support have been drowned out in vitriol I decided I might as well return to these forums and post something.
Paid mods, or outsourced community made DLC could have been something amazing, and benefitted all involved. The community could have got an endless stream of professional quality DLC type mods with more love, care and quality than an original developer would make for a lot less than the original developer would charge. The modders and developers could have earned enough to justify spending more time and effort, and possibly even being able to work less on their "real jobs" and more on content for your favourite games. Bethesda could have profited from a system, that if properly implemented, could provide a nice revenue stream for relatively little additional work and a more solid and ongoing commitment in their community. Sounds pretty amazing to me.
Instead we got a terrible implementation and a PR disaster. This particularly hurts me, because community made content like this is the future, Valve knows it, Bethesda probably knows it and it should happen, there is a world of people out there who are willing to work longer and harder because they love the IP more than the original developers probably do. Now however due to this mess the opportunity to sell my work as an artist while working on content for an IP I love is gone. In all my time in various modding communities the most common thing I hear from modders leaving is "I don't have time anymore" not "I have lost interest". Their time is directly related to having to actually live and work in this capitalist world, a lot of them would probably choose to continue to develop for games like these if they could.
I feel it would be remiss to post this without addressing some of the valid concerns that were brought up and also to point out some things to Bethesda.
Also apologies if this is poorly written, I am severely lacking sleep at the moment.
Shared content or required mods
Despite what the community thinks if implemented better paid mods could actually make these "necessary" mods even better and still completely free.
Possible solution.
Add the option of every mod to give a percentage of the total profit (taken from all parties) to "service mod" providers up to a maximum of 25% or something. Curate a list of free service mods that then get a part of this percentage. You end up with a huge incentive to provide up to date quality content that other mods can build off for free and users can download for free. I can pretty much guarantee that SkyUI wouldn't be asking for money if this were an option.
Stolen content
This was an inevitable problem, paying any attention to the community would have shown that creators are already concerned about their content being taken without credit when money isn't even involved. How this was overlooked I don't understand.
Possible solutions
Add a report stolen content button on steam with the option to have the mod checked against any other mods on steam. Enable mods to be uploaded and unpublished so creators, or even anyone can upload a mod to check another mod against. Require a matching check, or a relatively high number of reports before manual checking is done, and the offending user banned permanently from the workshop if applicable.
Quality of content
Even with the current terrible system this would have sorted itself out over time. However I have no idea who thought the initial crop of mods were suitable to open with, let alone charge that much for.
Possible solutions
Curate the content, or provide ways for the community to vote on things where they can get downvoted out of existence. I have no problem as an artist if the community deems content "not good enough" that I am unable to keep it as a paid item. If you are a restaurant and sell terrible food, then expect to go out of business. If this were possible on the initial content almost all of it would have disappeared, unbuyable due to the outcry, then at some time in the future some mods would have come up that were good enough for the community to think "hey, this is actually worth paying for".
The split
This was utterly ridiculous for what was being offered and makes a farce out of Bethesda and Valve's statements that this was done with modders in mind. It has been mentioned that Valve takes 75% and 25% goes to the artist in Dota 2 and TF2.
With Dota 2 Valve provides
Workshop tools integrated with the engine and an almost flawless import system meaning almost zero bugs
Curated high quality content (Content better than their own in many cases)
Provides highly detailed documentation for almost all aspects of adding content
Provides source files for the models and keeps them updated
Has to add the content to their own game, and distribute to every single player seeing as it's a multiplayer game.
Provides a market on one of the most played multiplayer games in existence.
The market includes trading, artists stand to make money beyond initial sale.
Promotions for content.
Different sections and types for content (part of curating) HUDS, voice packs, armor sets etc.
In contrast what Valve and Bethesda proposed was seemingly.
Nothing beyond what was provided free before aside from a way for modders to make some pocket money.
How this possibly could have been fixed.
Give a fairer split.
Alternatively provide a better service. Update the CK, add features to steam workshop to make this whole thing a better service.
Do some work for the money and actually at least partially curate the content.
Thanks to those that read, if I see any other important issues, or responses outlining the holes in my argument I will probably edit them into this post.
