So I logged into steam saw their big announcement “New Ways to Support Workshop Creators”1)The main announcement made by Steam.. Basically they are allowing makers of mods to sell t heir mods for games. My first reaction was ” that sounds promising” but then took a moment and thought of the implications and it sickens me.
The first game that is supporting this new initiative is Skyrim2)Announcement made by Bethesda on Steam. So now rather than making a mod for fun and sharing it, people can choose to make the mod and sell it. This is Valve and Bethesda capitalizing on their communities’ love of their game. I have little faith that this will end well for the average user.
Now if they had gone a slightly different route such as allowing a limited number of pre-qualified mod authors to sell their mods, maybe it would work out well. That way it wouldn’t decimate the mod community but it will incentives mod authors to create highly polished products to get the chance to sell them. This would help give a game a much longer life.
So am I over reacting? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Modders getting paid for their work is a reasonable idea that’s being implemented in a very idiotic fashion. If this continues as is it will steer the modding community towards a very dark future.
Links in the Post
| ⇑1 | The main announcement made by Steam. |
|---|---|
| ⇑2 | Announcement made by Bethesda on Steam |
2 comments
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=428651577
This is good.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=430159429
This is bad.
However, in theory the market will decide.
Author
Yes, theory is nice, that is, nice in theory but it’s often proven wrong. The concept behind this isn’t new, just the implementation here on steam and mods in general. Why go throw the growing pains when you know how to avoid them and start in a stronger position.
On top of that Steam and Bethesda should have realized how much crap they were going to get for a move like this and they are getting a lot of internet hate and for a good reason. This is just another example of a plan not fully thought through.