This week, Valve released their pitch to allow mod creators to, in conjunction with the people who created the original game, sell their mods on Steam. The whole thing erupted into quite a ‘thing’ on the internet, prompting Gaben to come placate the masses, and in general put me into the uncomfortable position of generally agreeing with Milo and Brad Wardell,. So that’s weird. But hey, at least the same article points out that Mark Kern is wrong.
Brad’s points not withstanding, when I think about mods, I think about game events that unleashed real, marketable change on the entirety of the games industry. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking of LMCTF for Quake (among many others), Curse Add-on Management for WoW, DotA for Warcraft 3, and Team Fortress (1) for Half-Life. In many cases, mods are as popular (if not more) than the base game.
One of the things that bugs me deeply is the team that had the idea for DOTA aren’t the ones that got rich off of it. That honor went to Riot, who released the excellent if not entirely original League of Legends off of the core mod’s design. Meanwhile, most mod creators, even if they are downloaded millions of times, are thankful they can turn that into a bullet point on a resume to get an entry level job.
It’s a sucky position for mod creators. Many times mods amount to XPack quality of content that extend the life of their base games for years – they are vital in some game communities – and yet, mod creators rarely get anything for their passion other than an ‘attaboy’. We would see more good mods if the mod creators got some revenue that reduced pressure on them to maintain a day job.
From that thread:
Considering valve is a company that owes many of its early games to mods, do you think that if you had to pay 5 dollars for the original Counter Strike, or Dota mod, would they have ever taken off?
Depends on so many things. This includes the pricing, whether or not there was a free variant you could play, etc. But it also includes the fact that Valve and Blizzard are more inclined to support and market mods that earn them a revenue stream.
Mods should remain free, yo!
Why should Bethesda and Valve get such large cuts of the profits?
Well, because Bethesda spent about $85 million dollars creating the artwork, engine and dev tools for the game that is central to the mod. And Valve is providing an invaluable service in distributing the mods cheaply and easily.
Valve should let players donate what they want, including $0!
Valve has announced that that is part of their plans.
What if some mods suck?
You have 24 hours to turn around and ask for a refund. The refund will go into your steam wallet. Don’t pretend you’re not going to find something on Steam to spend your wallet on.
No, I mean, some of these mods REALLY suck.
In that case, you really want an integrated download system that allows for players to rank and comment on mods so you can review them before downloading. You know, one kind of like Steam. At any rate, half-baked stuff is no stranger to PC gaming. Early Access remains highly controversial, yet some love it, while many (probably most) others have learned that anything on that part of Steam is caveat emptor.
At any rate, selling mods IS NOT NEW. Wardell’s company has done it for years. Second Life has done it for years. Nexus has done it for a while now. Why people choose to get worked up because one of the most trustworthy names in the market has come along and said they want to extend that level of trustworthiness to a new arena is one I find kind of baffling.
I take it it’s the mod consumers that are having the hissy fit and not the modders themselves?
If the Steam workshop allows you to list your mod for free (or an honesty charge, pay what you like) what has actually changed in the realm of the modders? The only ones likely to be affected are those gamers accustomed to paying as little as possible for their content (usually nothing).
If anything I would say it’s been a slow process for getting such a system up on Steam.
Many web comics I read have a paypal donation system that lets viewers pay what they like if (or nothing) the aim is to get as many people reading as you can.
Amazon has it’s own set up for aspiring authors to list their works, some put their works up on a chapter by chapter basis with the first few being free and charging a minimal amount for subsequent work.
It seems to fall into that same zone as MMOs stumbling out of the subscription model and into the free-mium service relying on a vanity cash shop. If you want to make money you need to be able to offer up stuff the players feel has a value to them. I hate to think how much the ‘Jiggly Breast’ mod could have earned for Neverwinter Nights 😉
The only risk I could see is the plagiarism of others works and/or disputes between modders who co-operate to release a bigger mod. But isn’t that the case right now?
Oh, and how much of the payment goes to the mods. 25% feels a little on the low side but then again if the service wasn’t there to host their mod and make it available for all to see they’d be getting nothing for it anyway.
My first thought when I heard about this was, paraphrasing, “This is going to be exploited to hell and back.” People claiming other people’s mods as their own, mods selling content other mods provided for free, etc. etc. So many potential (and actual, as in already happening) problems with a blanket “anyone can sell anything as a mod” setup.
Modders – addressing the people who actually make content that improves/adds to a game – definitely deserve compensation for their work, but this just doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it. 😐
Well that was short lived :O
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32493895