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Bethesda is once again adding support for paid mods to Skyrim
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this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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Paid mods is almost never a good thing for the game itself.
Almost every mod out there is addressing some (real or perceived) deficiency in the base game. Good game studios look at what's popular and either pull those features into the base game, or work with the modder to do the same.
Adding a paid mod system changes that cooperative relationship into an adversarial one, where modders see their revenue stream attacked by the game maker.
(Except maybe the make everyone nude mods)
In addition, mods always end up in a situation where someone's work was stolen, which no one cares about when it's free. Everyone's just using everyone else's stuff because it's all working to make a better ecosystem
That all changes when people get paid, justifiably
Taken from https://creations.bethesda.net/en/creators/bethesdagamestudios
Yeah, that’s sure stopped content mods being ripped off and reuploaded to paid platforms.
This happens every time someone tries paid mods. Someone rips somebody else’s work and profits from it.
Might not stop it, but having an approval process for developers and clear rules will make it harder.
They’ve had those before and it hasn’t worked. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I’ve never seen an official supported modding marketplace exist without a significant number of free mods being sold as paid by not the original developer
Which games has this been a problem for?
Skyrim itself for 1
I’ve seen it with minecraft too, when mod distribution was centralized there was a lot of issues with people reuploading other creators work
The only paid mods that Skyrim has are the ones for Creation Club, and I haven't heard of people getting through the approval process with stolen work.
The original setup for it did. I remember seeing SkyUI on the platform as a paid mod when it was and still is free
Wasn't that the actual developer of SkyUI who put it on the platform as a paid mod?
so, it won't.
reference: every single marketplace that lets anyone upload things that in some way drives revenue back, from app stores, to youtube, to music platforms.
Yes, I'm sure that will stop it
Bethesda's goal, as usual, is rent-seeking. They can't penetrate more markets, so they need to make new ones, and what better way to do this then to hire what amounts to contractors doing gig work. They don't even have to pay them except in commission, which is a really scummy thing to do.
Some people see this as a way for mod-makers to make money, but mod-makers already have those! Every mod I've seen and every modder I've talked to has a donation link you can send money to, and the ones who didn't had organizations and charities you could send your money to instead.
It's not exactly that, yes they want to get fees/rent that I agree, but this at least the current idea is not a walled garden, devs can decide not put it in there, or put it there but free. Of course if that changes in the future, and that might be the plan, then that's another topic.
Yeah but they cannot enforce it or totally make it a paid mod. A Bethesda implementation would be more enforceable, well maybe not so much on PC, due to piracy... but at least on consoles. So if somebody said, look this is good content I am not giving it for free, they cannot currently do, (in part maybe due to EULAs too... not sure, but not just that).
It is exclusively about money for Bethesda. You can tell by looking at the last time they implemented paid mods, where they took a 25% cut for doing nothing. They offered no quality control, no resources, and boy howdy were a lot of paid mods stolen content, but they didn't care because they wanted that money.
As to the modders, the only offer Bethesda can give is a wider customer base, but the assumption that you will make more money offering your mod for a price isn't founded. We will see a large amount of shitty mods clogging the store using asset flips to maximize returns, because that's what makes big money on mobile right now. Mod quality isn't going to be enhanced by this: Mods will remain the same. You will just more of the bad ones. $99 horse dicks, anyone?
Of course I didn't say otherwise.
Just feels like a nightmare for the devs too. If you push out an update that breaks a mod are you required to fix it?
Well, Minecraft marketplace for example shows that paid mods can work and be accepted by customers.
I am not a fan of paid mods but there are examples for it working.
Emphasis on "perceived". In my experience, the vast majority of mods are for things that I would never have asked for or expected from the developer.
Like Thomas the Tank Engine being everywhere. Or the other day I visited a friend and he was playing Civ 6 as Luigi from Mario. Or adding guns to Skyrim. Or adding tons of sexual content.
Should that content just not exist (licensing issues aside)? While I'm grateful to the noble people making and giving away mods for free, if I could start a decent side gig with it I might start making mods myself.
I can't imagine myself ever buying a mod, but it seems like opening the platform up to allow creators to monetize is better than closing the platform entirely, or relying on the generosity of a few enthusiasts. Seems like this closes a gap on the spectrum from making your own indie game, getting a job as a developer, or using some DIY creator like Dreams.
Are there other examples of games having paid mods that you can point to for the issues you are concerned about?
I can't think of any off the top of my head, mainly because so few games provide any supported tools for mods in the first place.
Edit: People are downvoting for asking a question? I honestly want to know if there are previous examples.
This is the second time Bethesda has done this.
Kinda true in two ways.
There was initial paid mod attempt that they walked back due to player outcry, not because the paid mods themselves caused any problems. Which doesn't really work as an example of "paid mods are almost never a good thing for the game itself".
The Creation Club has been around for years, so technically speaking "paid mods" have been around in Skyrim for a while. Which maybe suggests that paid mods aren't going to cause problems if they've been in place for this long?
If you want examples of games where the situation with mods is much worse than it is for Skyrim, you could look at literally any other game that exists. For one indication of that, if you look at the front page of nexusmods.com right now it appears to list the games it covers in order of mod files downloaded. Skyrim is #1 (SE) and #2 (LE) on the list. The next three are other Bethesda games. Skyrim Special Edition is ahead of the first non-Bethesda game on the list by an order of magnitude. You will not find a game anywhere else offering anything like the quantity, quality, and diversity of mods that Skyrim has, and this is a large part of the reason it ranks among the best-selling games of all time.
They're mad to try and mess with the model that has proven itself more successful than anything else for more than a decade.
I would argue that had much more to do with the fact that Bethesda is one of the very few companies who provide a decent SDK alongside their games.
I have an example, most of DCS World's content is made by external people, each "mod" that adds a new aircraft priced at full game price, and is actually worth the money.
Bohemia is trying to do something similar to Arma, with some community mods being sold as essentially DLCs.
I can't say I don't like the model, if the content is big enough. No microtransaction crap though like the first iteration of paid Skyrim mods. Those sucked.