Forums » Elder Scrolls

Paid mods?

    • 19 posts
    April 27, 2015 2:12 PM EDT

    So I just heard (and noticed) that Valve allowed modders on the steam workshop to make people pay for their mods, and that they decided to test this new idea on Skyrim. I'm not too sure on what to think about this.

    On one hand I think it is great that Valve allows the people who create amazing mods (Wyrmstooth for example) to get paid for their work, and that they are looking to support modders in this way.

    On the other hand I think that a lot of people will just get greedy on the workshop and start charging for everything they made, wether it's good or not. It'll also mean that people who are short on cash or people with parents who complain every time they buy something on steam (like mine ) will just miss out on mods that, prior to this update, were free for everyone to play and enjoy.

    Personally, I think that, instead of a forced payment, Valve should add a donation option so that we can still show our support to the great modders out there, without being locked out on mods that we just don't want (or can't) pay for.

    But what do you guys think? Do you think it's a good or a bad idea to pay for mods on the workshop?

    • 168 posts
    April 27, 2015 3:15 PM EDT

    I think it would be better to add a monthly subscription if the user want to download top-quality mods.

    • 12 posts
    April 27, 2015 3:24 PM EDT

    Personally, I think that a donation option would be much better than paying straight up. Also the modder only gets 25% of the income, and some of these mods are what less than £2 so thats um 50p for one purchase I think that scraping the barrel a bit Valve

    • 2 posts
    April 27, 2015 4:00 PM EDT

    While people complain about modders getting 25% only you still have to consider that before they got nothing. Well done mods are going to get lots of downloads and perhaps even make back the money and time poured into them. Obviously Steam/Valve did this because of the popularity of Skyrim. Consider that a game that came out 3 or so years ago is still one of/the most popular Steam Games is really something. This brings me onto my next point. Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls 6 are coming, no question about that. With the new capabilities of next gen consoles the next games will be incredible. The fact that a game for ps3 and xbox360 consoles can almost be compared to current gen games is very impressive and I believe the next games are going to really impress and blow everyone's mind. Valve/Steam are most likely to do the same get paid for mods system for Elder Scrolls 6 and possibly Fallout 4 depending on it's success. I believe this may set up a whole new business idea of skilled modders creating mods for popular games. This is definitely good and although Valve/Steam are being a bit greedy it is still something. In the end it creates a small monetary incentive which rewards modders and may persuade those possibly thinking of modding.

    • 1467 posts
    April 27, 2015 5:21 PM EDT

    It get's even better when it turns up that they don't just get the %25 straight up, they need make a certain amount of money from the mod before they even get any of it. A donation option would solve everything and the problem is that Valve doesn't really deserve a big chunk of %75 (Bethesda gets some of it), they aren't making the game, all they're doing is selling it and hosting the mods.

    But in the end it's kind of pointless, the Nexus will remain available and honestly most, if not all people are kinda pissed off with the whole thing (including a lot of bid modders) if Valve continues to make it this ridiculous people simply won't get mods on the Workshop

    • 4 posts
    April 27, 2015 6:43 PM EDT

    There's even a petition on change.org to remove having to pay for the mods. I think a donation option would be an amazing idea because modders could still get support from the mods they spent time on(or only 5 minutes for some). Due to all of the fuss that Valve is causing on Steam, Nexus recently added a donation button for anyone that's trying to download mods,so that shows that it's not really that difficult to add.

    • 125 posts
    April 27, 2015 8:11 PM EDT

    It's a good idea in theory. But like any first try, it's in need of proper polish before we can call it a good idea in action.

    • 87 posts
    • 237 posts
    April 28, 2015 1:20 AM EDT
    Paid mods aren't necessarily a bad idea, though a community built on sharing like skyrim modding doesn't work well with it.

    The big problem is that Steam is a terrible platform for mods to begin with. Adding pay-to-play mods to the Workshop is like stabbing a pickaxe into a sword wound.
    • 8 posts
    April 28, 2015 7:59 AM EDT

    Honest, I dislike it, it truly opens up a new way to pirate mods on Steam Workshop. Plus not everyone has money at their direct disposal. I've also noticed that the new lands mod, "Falskaar," will remain free on Steam and Nexus. Not sure about "Wyrmstooth," though.

    • 12 posts
    April 28, 2015 11:34 AM EDT

    No need to worry anymore, the Curated Workshop for Skyrim no longer exists. Valve and Bethesda probably recognised they had made a mistake and pulled the plug out. 

    • 19 posts
    April 28, 2015 12:37 PM EDT

    Well, that's somewhat of a relief. It just shows how well Valve listens to their community, since a lot of people were complaining about this change. I hope for the modders' sake that they do add a donation button though.

    • 12 posts
    April 28, 2015 1:25 PM EDT

    Now we stare at the big modders who took down mods on the nexus and moved to the workshop to get payed