ashecitism
Member
http://venturebeat.com/2017/02/10/valve-boss-gabe-newell-still-thinks-you-should-pay-for-game-mods/
More at the link including the Skyrim debacle.
More at the link including the Skyrim debacle.
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Gabe Newell thinks modders not being accurately compensated is a bug in the system
- Thread starter ashecitism
- Start date
What A Time To Be Alive
Member
I dont know wouldnt mind paying for mods. Just have to make sure it wasnt stolen from someone else or something.
Battlechili
Banned
I think some modders do this knowingly and are okay with it.
However I do think that whole paid mods thing that happened a while back was ridiculous. If a modder wants compensation for their work, I don't see the problem with that, and I think Gabe Newell has the right idea. Although if he ever does make it to where people can sell their mods, there needs to be some kind of system in place to help ensure people aren't selling copyrighted work or selling other people's mods.
However I do think that whole paid mods thing that happened a while back was ridiculous. If a modder wants compensation for their work, I don't see the problem with that, and I think Gabe Newell has the right idea. Although if he ever does make it to where people can sell their mods, there needs to be some kind of system in place to help ensure people aren't selling copyrighted work or selling other people's mods.
Starzonedge
Member
95% of the revenue should go to the modders, though. 
MrCunningham
Member
He's not wrong, a good mod can completely revive a game an give it a whole second life. I'm OK with paying for MOD's as long as they are original creations and not just made out of assets/ items that were spliced out of other games. I think modders deserve to make a little money off of their hard work. Sometimes I think publishers just just give modders a little money for making their games relevant for long periods of time.
95% of the revenue should go to the modders, though.
This.
TC McQueen
Member
Yeah, that's nice Gabe. How about you make the fucking Workshop rating system actual count ratings outside the initial release week and make it easy to see which mods have updated recently? Compensating mod makers is a noble goal, but it's pretty fucking meaningless when the current system benefits the most prolific mod makers and leaves the occasional modder buried in the ever growing list of mods.
KZXcellent
Member
If Steam creates a good system for paid mods it could work. One that doesn't have stolen mods or mods that are dependent on other mods to actually work. This could take a LOT of curation and Steam doesn't seem to have that in them if you look at the schlock that hits the store page every day. I hated when they first tried mods cause the curation was awful. Stolen mods, broken mods, horribly overpriced mods that make your horse's penis big. Ridiculous.
I feel like the dev/publisher could make it work. Have them curate mods for their games and then they take a cut of the profits.
I feel like the dev/publisher could make it work. Have them curate mods for their games and then they take a cut of the profits.
Yep.
If it would be about fair compensation, it would be the publishers like Bethesda giving some money to the popular modders, as those modders are the people that drive consumers to buy games like Skyrim in the first place.
But what instead happened, modders were supposed to get their money from the fans, while Valve and Bethesda take a nice cut, profitting off of the mods without returning anything to the modders.
Paid mods aren't and have never been about compensation for modders
Wowfunhappy
Member
The Skyrim system, where most of the money went to Bethesda, would not have been "accurately" compensating modders.
Like how xcom 2 long war mod was commissioned by firaxis? Yeah that's a good way to do it, I agree.
Though I would have no problem with payed mods if the service was set up in a good way and mods were vetted to see if the stuff really was made by the modder who sells it.
95% of the revenue should go to the modders, though.
That's kind of weird stance when valve always takes a flat 30% and the devs should get some compensation too for putting out the mod support and tools. It's no different from selling something made in another persons engine on steam, both the guy faciliating the tools and valve should get a proportionate cut.
Wolfgunblood Garopa
Member
I thought he was an advocate for PC gaming.
VlaudTheImpaler
tl;dr
I 100% agree with this. Especially with how modders a lot of the time end up fixing pubs' broken games or adding missing features like widescreen support, higher resolutions and unlocked framerates and such. *Cough* "Durante" *cough* *cough*
Only problem is that pubs would probably want to get their fingers even more into the mods themselves with rules and crap.
I dunno. All I know is that a lot of modders work very hard as it is to get stuff out there and an incentive like this would cause and enable them to work even harder bringing mods sooner and at a higher quality.
LizardKing
Member
By this logic maybe the game publisher/creator is the one who needs to compensate the modders.
Edit: See this was already said. I agree!
Edit: See this was already said. I agree!
The sales of Isaac Antibirth would eclipse Afterbirth+ if this happened. Its a good idea.
This is it.
Tip jars don't work.
According to modders such a small % of people tip so that wouldn't really make any difference. Though a built in tip jar that uses steam credits would still be a nice feature!
Crayon
Member
I like the idea of the publisher paying it. I think I see where Newell is coming from. Even a token compensation for top modders would feel more natural.
In some games, they do a good job of interacting with content creators. Little big planet series did a good job of recognizing makers.
In some games, they do a good job of interacting with content creators. Little big planet series did a good job of recognizing makers.
MrCunningham
Member
I remember an old video where Gaben said something like "My job is to find ways for you guys (the audience) to do our job's for us."
I don't remember where he said it, but it was at a public "ask me anything" type event.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
fabricated backlash
Member
I agree, but without any involvement of Valve or any publisher. Patreon is a good platform and I'd rather see modders get compensation, than Valve monetizing yet another aspect of games.
Bethesda is by far the entity that profits off of mods the most in the current world already.
Skyrim wouldn't even have half the lifetime sales it does if it weren't for mods, they're compensated more than enough.
My thoughts as well. I don't really see this working properly anyway, too many parties and too much complexity involved.
MrCunningham
Member
that is actually not a bad idea. Modders could choose on one fixed price or a donation system with a money slider.
Right. They benefit the most--they should foot the bill.
Yeah in skyrims case that is pretty much it, but I really don't see the same situation for all games with mod tools.
Imho you can't really expect the og dev to get less than Steam and then there is only 40% left at max. for the modders.
Ideally i think it would be best if Steam created a pateron style system within their store.
Each modder could have their own page and then Steam would take their cut for the facilitating of modders being able to get paid generally speaking for their work.
I doubt publishers would go for that though. Which would make things a legal nightmare
Each modder could have their own page and then Steam would take their cut for the facilitating of modders being able to get paid generally speaking for their work.
I doubt publishers would go for that though. Which would make things a legal nightmare
Hari Seldon
Member
A lot of niche mod communities do the patreon thing. That seems to work, but of course cuts out the publisher out from the loop which is probably what they want to avoid.
Wolf Akela
Member
Should just be donation only with no cuts, personally. Modding is done out of love for the game.
He is absolutely right. But.... Theres going to always be a visceral reaction from the gamers as we have spent forever getting mods for free. And ANYTHING that comes along and threatens that is going to get pushback, whether the speaker has a point or not. People are not going to want to part ways with 'free'. No matter how justified.
This right here is probably the only way this could be realized without a bunch of gamers revolting. Have the pubs that are reaping the additional sales from these free mods, turn and share profit with the mod developer instead of having the mod developer charge upfront for the mod.
There has to be a way to disconnect the gamer from coming out of pocket directly or they just won't accept it.
This right here is probably the only way this could be realized without a bunch of gamers revolting. Have the pubs that are reaping the additional sales from these free mods, turn and share profit with the mod developer instead of having the mod developer charge upfront for the mod.
There has to be a way to disconnect the gamer from coming out of pocket directly or they just won't accept it.
I wouldn't say that's the case for everyone if you look back at the payed mods skyrim debacle and it should absolutely not be taken for granted.
Modding is done *by only certain people* for the love of the game. But you really can't put "exposure" on the dinner table.
If more modders had a full legal path to charge money for their mods, I can guarantee you there would have been more modern paid mod content. Hell, paid mods existed in the 80s and 90s - the modding industry actually started as a paid venture.
Sure, it isn't nearly as extreme for all, but it still holds true for most of them. They wouldn't build mod tools if it weren't the case.
At the end of the day, i already paid money for the game itself, including the modding tools, and so also did the modder. Everything after that is something that happens exclusively between me and the modder, without the publisher providing anythign of additional value himself.
I absolutely do not see any justification for the publisher taking a cut. Valve at least hosts the mods and the webpages and thereby provides something, but the publisher only provided the game i and the modder already paid for. He's out of the equation.
If paid mods were to be introduced, I feel that it would need to be curated, which goes against Valve's Laissez Faire attitude.
Mods in the past and present have been free generally, if they introduce paid mods again and again it is filled with mods like weapon packs and cosmetic packs, history repeat itself. When/if they attempt the paid mod thing, they need to come out the gate swinging with quality mods such as the Falskaar mod, show that paid mods can lead to even better mods.
Also Valve should add in a built in tip jar for modders.
Mods in the past and present have been free generally, if they introduce paid mods again and again it is filled with mods like weapon packs and cosmetic packs, history repeat itself. When/if they attempt the paid mod thing, they need to come out the gate swinging with quality mods such as the Falskaar mod, show that paid mods can lead to even better mods.
Also Valve should add in a built in tip jar for modders.
Ever heard of Counterstrike or Dota?
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
There are an awful lot of Valve stories lately, is this all coming out of one big event they hosted or something?
Even if he wanted to, either personally or through Valve, legally, that's quite murky. As much as it frustrates me, it seems like modding is at the whims of the original creators, and they could at best legally harass and at worst totally stop any mod they wanted.
paperspace
Member
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