As a modder, I'm really… god this is awful.
People, you really, really, really don't understand the kind of destructive and chilling effect this will have on the modding community
It's not as simple as "well if you don't like it, don't buy it" or "There are still free mods" or "but there are some mods worth paying for".
Neither is it about modders/mod users simply not wanting to pay cash.
The thing that a lot of people seem to forget is that there is a lot of collaboration and usage of other user's resources that go on in the modding community. A lot of people are willing to allow their resources etc. to be used for other mods for not much more than an acknowledgement in the credits or a request for permission.
Put money… actually cash money into the equation and what do you get? Coupled with Valve's atrocious customer service system for Steam?
You get paywalls established, you get conflicts between modders regarding who owns what or who should pay what, you get resources locked off from the rest of the community because the creators may either be fearful of others profiting off of their work or simply because they will only let others use them if they get a cut of the profits, you get collaborations dying in their infancy because of divisions between modders on if or how they seek a profit, you get unscrupulous "mod creators" skimming other people's work and repurposing them for their own, you get mires of copyright, you get…
You get any of the multitudes of issues that arise in any creative industry that involves paying for products. But the modding community *depends* on collaboration and a healthy, clean community that encourages collaboration. God knows there is enough drama that goes on in modding communities, introduce money? And these conflicts expand a thousandfold and *cripple* creativity and goodwill in the community.
I see some of the above posters mention that there are mods worth money, like Falskaar or Nehrim etc. But these mods rely upon not only using the resources of other modders, but rely upon drawing talented and passionate modders from the community and enabling team cohesion in order to achieve a shared goal. Money would not enhance or encourage these types of mods, but inhibit them due to, for example, people becoming nervous about getting involved in mods that need to paid for, as well as the aforementioned resources only being locked off because the modder in question would not want others to profit off of their work, or even that they would seek a cut of the profits (rightly in my opinion) in order to use their work, or would only allow their work to be used at all if there was a profit factor involved etc.
And remember, there are already systems in place that allow someone to support a mod creator without establishing a destructive paywall, called donations. But simply setting up a donation scheme in the Workshop wouldn't work for Valve/Bethesda because they couldn't justify skimming the money off of the mod creators (remember, a majority of the profits don't even make it to the modders).
And to even think of the conflicts that would arise from people deciding who gets what percentage of the profits *shivers*… modding is a hobby, throw money in the situation and you cast a chilling effect upon the community.
And the only people who profit out of this state of affairs are Valve/the developer in question, and that's in short term, might I add. In the long term it cripples the modding community
And at what cost? I can even begin to explain how angry I feel at Bethesda leveraging the incredible modding community of their games, the one that increases the longevity and value of their products, in order to turn a quick bloody dollar. FOR SHAME.
But I can at least appreciate Valve/Bethesda's willingness to engage with and discuss this with the community, giving them a headsup regarding these changes and obtaining feedback before enabling these changes-
Oh wait, Whoops, they did the exact opposite, and dropped the thing on us unexpectedly, without even bothering to consult to their incredibly vibrant community. Really feeling the love here Bethesda/Valve.
So to top it off, this is a ridiculous, ill-thought out change that will have long term consequences for the modding community at large (don't think other companies won't jump to adopt this), a majority of which will be negative. I hope to high heavens that they reverse this decision but I'm not incredibly hopeful on this front, Valve is anything if not obtuse.
I was actually having a debate with myself as to whether or not I should grab Steam versions for certain games or non-DRM ones, I gotta thank Valve for helping me make my decision for me.
PS: Apologies for the length
