In a move that is not even remotely surprising to me, Valve has started rolling out the ability for mod authors to sell their works. I think it’s a nice move, and could even help some even more amazing mods be created. You already had some mods release as a full paid game on Steam, but they still required you own specific games.
It was a given that Steam Workshop would work towards this, and I’m surprised anyone is shocked by it. The first game to allow it is Skyrim, so it doesn't mean much for us Linux gamers yet, but in future we hope to see it rolled out to many more games.
This has already been met with a ton of negative feedback from a whiny crowd, and there’s even a petition going against it. No surprise that it has over 24,000 votes already, but it won’t stop Valve, and it shouldn’t. It’s a good business decision, and the whiny crowd will get over it eventually.
QuoteThe workshop is a place for people to share content with each other they made so all can enjoy it for free.
Since recently this is not the case for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Workshop. Valve has now erected a paywall for the mods.
Mods should be a free creation. Creations made by people who wish to add to the game so others can also enjoy said creation with the game.
We need to unite and reject this act by Valve. Unite have Valve remove the paid content of the Workshop.
It seems the creator of the petition feels that mods are supposed to be free, but I completely disagree. Mods can end up creating an entirely new campaign, or even an entirely different game, so why should developers have to release them for free? They shouldn't.
I just don’t get the big hoohaa about it. Nothing stops people releasing mods for free as the petition suggests by calling it a “paywall”, and there’s even a simple to use filtering system to filter-out paid mods.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
1mHfoksd1Z Apr 24, 2015
In the past, the workshop forced you to give away your work for free. Many people would have done it anyway (most modders, actually) but some didn't and either sold it somewhere else (very rare) or gave up the idea.
It's not up to us to judge this move. It's up to each modder. It's their choice if they want their mods to be paid or free. We can't force them to make free mods, we can't force them to make mods at all.
Comandante Ñoñardo Apr 24, 2015
Mods must stay FREE
If there's no requirements, then anyone can profit from the game developers work by making a single config file tweak and release it as such a "mod".
The amount of crap that is being greenlit over the last 6-12 months suggests that we are going to have a similar affect with mods.
I will not be surprised if the execution fails to provide any kind of quality control.
Quoting: Comandante oardoThis will be followed by A LOTof copyright lawsuits because of the comercial use of the assets..
Mods must stay FREE
The main developers would have to have signed off for it to be allowed. The developers are the ones who even enable Steam Workshop, it's not automatic for every game.
No, mods shouldn't always stay free.
To the extent free mods can still be allowed into the workshop, I'm happy about the policy. Sincerelly, there are some awesome mods and I don't object to the devs being paid back for their work.
Quoting: liamdaweThe main developers would have to have signed off for it to be allowed. The developers are the ones who even enable Steam Workshop, it's not automatic for every game.
Do they get to choose which mods are paid for? Or just that people in general can make paid for mods for their game?
Quoting: Comandante oardoMods must stay FREE
As we were discussing in IRC, modders can still choose whether or not it can be free.
Starting to conclude to myself, this isn't a moral issue at all like those people are claiming. People are unhappy, but I doubt it has to do with mods charging for $. Of course, people will naturally shift fingers because common ground for "tradition" is easier than sticking their brains to a logical argument.
When i first came to debian, I thought that debian developers should be paid...I was told about the dunc tank experiment incident in debian's project life... this was a big effort to get some debian developers to get paid directly from the project (notice that some developers manage to get paid for their work on their own ways, but not directly from the project or with the project donations). It suffered from a lot of opposition within the project... you can probably google about it
I did not agree with this at the time... but after my 7/8 years on debian I think I understand it now... when there is money involved it kinda breaks thing... envies sprout... -"why this this person is getting paid and im not, doing the same work", etc... plus now the decisions are taken by people that cares about them... when things are money driven they turn... different... not sure if better or worse...
I dont really know where I stand on this issue... but I totally understand the motivation behind the outcry... If I were force to choose a side, i would side with the 'money breaks things' group. I would had never believed I could say that a few years ago...
tuxisagamer Apr 24, 2015
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