Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

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JacksonCougar
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Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

Post by JacksonCougar »

Unless you've been under a rock you should have heard about this new policy steam has put into place
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent

there's much discussion happening right now about it
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ ... egathread/
https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/com ... on_thread/

and what do you guys feel about this as mod creators and as mod consumers?
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XZodia
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Re: Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

Post by XZodia »

Although I have seen this new, I haven't looked into it much.
I am kind of amazed that this is even on the table as a possibility considering all the legal implications.

The main question really is are people willing to pay for mods? Probably. Although, I expect that many would be annoyed that something which has been free for so long is becoming commercial...

I suspect that anyone trying to sell their mod would be held to a higher standard than free mods, but I could be wrong.
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JacksonCougar
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Re: Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

Post by JacksonCougar »

On the launch selection they had a few single-item swords and armour sets, wet and cold (an environment overhaul with new game mechanics) and others totaling seventeen ish.

I am one hundred percent in support of paying for expansion quality mods that actually add some meat into a game, but getting nickle and dimed over what is basically 'horse-armour' is bullshit and terrible for modders and the community around them. If a team works for half a year to a year on something of quality that is stand-alone then fuck yea sell it. But if someone throws together some scripts for a few new spells and re-links a few existing assets? ehhhh.

If steam had chosen to go the route of curating mods, guaranteeing support and compatibility with other curated mods that would have been a better launch. But what they did was literally place normal mods behind a paywall: mods not guaranteed to work after you've bought them, to work with future updates, or to work with other mods.

This is without even getting into the gray area of using another mods resources in your mods and selling it.

In skyrim-modding a lot of mods would use and share resources from other mods (SkyUI, and skyrim script extender being two huge ones) do you pay them to make mod using them?

Paying for mods actually stifles modding in skyrim because it creates 'paid-islands'. Places in the modding scene where mods rely on mods that need to be bought, so you can't play your favorite mods now without shelling out for every other mod it might use. On the other-hand who would want to pay for a mod... to make a mod with it?
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neodos
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Re: Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

Post by neodos »

Actually I was invited by Valve to make content for this but I didn't have time to as I am still busy with another project and on top of that the whole thing seemed quite strange.

They didn't give enough time (about 4 weeks) for contributors to make complex content, some of the people invited never used the Skyrim engine nor tools, hence why there is so little and single items for this launch instead of full fleshed mods like a brand new quest.

Basically an experiment for Valve to see how the community reacts, I think it could be great for mods that are large and require updates, bug fixes, maintenance and just long time production and big teams.

As far as weapon and cosmetic go, I am not sure it will be of much value, but I am sure there will be a market for it since paid workshop will bring better artists and technical people to create high quality content that surpasses anything seen before on the free workshop.

As for the legal issues, items go under review before they get added on the "shop", Valve can retract any mod that may have stolen content and refund users.

In my opinion this was quite rushed, I don't get why Valve/Bethesda rushed this, maybe they had to counter UE4/UT doing something similar, or maybe they just decided there would be no better way to test this than to release it and then improve on feedback.

The backlash from the workshop comments is ridiculous though, not surprising, although somewhat justified, some insults, dead threats to the authors etc are just plain stupid.

I don't think free mods are at risk, there are tons already and there will always be.

There's a bunch of other issues Valve/Bethesda were well aware of when preparing this, they knew mods could conflict with one another if they use they modify similar files, they knew copright and mod theft would be an issue etc

But like most new services on steam Valve puts out, every time there's hate at first, people abuse the platform, then Valve corrects and polishes things, it just takes time to flesh it out, prices will balance themselves out based on quality and what players buy.

Modders deserve to be paid for their hard work if its of value to players.
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neodos
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Re: Steam Workshop Paid Content from TES : Skyrim mods

Post by neodos »

Well it looks like Valve gave up uppon the massive backlash, at least for skyrim:

http://steamcommunity.com//games/SteamW ... 5253244218
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