I still can't get over how disgusting it is for Bethesda to try and take a share of any money modders earn while improving and fixing their games.
Bethesda owes so much to modders and the community, and not just the sales that keep coming long after release. It is absolutely appalling that Bethesda would try or even want some of the money someone else may earn while improving things for Bethesda.
Steam isn't much better in this situation, wanting a cut of others hard work as always while they do little more than provide hosting.
Once mods become a source of income, for a developer or Valve, things will change.
There are also bigger concerns about where this is going, once these companies have a form of control over mods, don't think they won't see other sources as competition which has an obvious outcome. Also as they gain more control, if not full control, over mods they will also exercise that control by choosing what mods are allowed/available. Not just for legal reasons (avoid trademark infringements etc) but stopping many things under guises of "moral" reasons or whatever other spin-doctored nonsense they will, certain mods could even become considered competition for their own DLC plans something which has long been the case in many games.
It to often seems far to many people forget these are companies and not some kind of saints. They are not interested in mods to improve them or the games, they are coming for the money. Once they turn mods into profit they will want to control it, make those profits predictable and manageable, and avoid or control anything that could threaten those profits. Lets not forget when it comes to software, control comes under the name of DRM, so many still think DRM is to combat piracy (it's useless at that), DRM is about control, control over paying customers. Just like a game server going offline when the new version of a game comes out.
Also for Steam this is not purely about profits, but is entirely still self serving. They improve profits but also further solidify their hold on the market, if mods become locked into Steam then only Steam/Valve wins, not the consumer, not modding.
Some might think or say something like "but they couldn't stop modders, or stop them releasing for free", well that's not thinking things through. Once the profits are there the attempt to control will follow, which means DRM (dev tools only working via "approved" channels for distribution etc), EULA's to prohibit "unapproved" mods, and all the rest basically.
It may seem far fetched to some but again, these are companies not saints, they are getting into this for ultimately only one obvious reason.
Well I guess that interview is a warning. They will try again and will use heap of propaganda to tell people how cool it is to pay for mods on Steams…
That's pretty much it, the sad thing is there are so many people who blindly and zealously support all things Steam chances are they will pull it off.
edit,,
I don't care as long as pirating software exists as a error corrector for human greed.
This is a point I was avoiding for a few reasons, but if things go far enough it could potentially lead to a situation where you have "pirate" mods and "authorised" mods, and these groups of mods only work with only the respective version of the game, ie an uncracked game could reject unapproved mods. Remember once mods becomes a controlled source of profit, they will have no less DRM than the game they are for, if they get enough support/control to take things that far.
