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General: Game On #65 - Paid Mods on Steam: Good or Bad?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
This week we bid farewell to Jessica as a host and remind everyone to read her new column, Tales From the Neighborhood! We also welcome Braxwolf as a regular co-host. This week we break down the pros and cons of Steam's paid mod program. Good or evil? [NOTE: after our recording, the Steam program was quickly cancelled. The conversation, we think, is still relevant for modding's future and hope you enjoy it]. Later we talk about LotRO shutting down in Russia, Star Wars: Battlefront and more.
Check it out on the MMORPG.com Game On Podcast page.
Comments
Paying modders? Good.
Paying Valve for the work of modders? Bad.
The way it was implemented was just a cash grab by Bethesda and Valve.Taking 70% of the money, but shoving all responsibility away as far as possible.
If they care so much about recognizing the hard work of modders, why don't they pay themselves? A good mod is free marketing, and potentially more sales.
They should be forcec to pay the creators of widely used mods a percentage of the profits from the "box" sales. After all, when someone download a game illegally, it is automatically counted as loss for the company. So if someone buys the game once a mod reaches a certain percentage of downloads compared to number of copies sold, it must be because of that mod that someone bought it.
Should a mod reach a significant portion of the "box" sales, or even get higher downloads, the creator should recieve the majority (70% sounds good, doesn't it?) of the revenue from the copy sold. I mean, it's clear people only bought the game to support the modder. Why else would you buy the game that late?
And if multiple mods qualify? Well, everyone deserves his share, so we just have to raise the percentage given to modders to 90%, so we can pay them appropriately. If the publishers didn't manage to make a profit before the modders take over, it clearly wasn't all that popular, and the game is basically just a empty hull the mods give life too.
Digital copies cost the company nothing anyway, so they would stil make some profit. If they want to avoid having to pay all those modders for evey copy sold, they are free to talk to the modder in question and offer to buy the mod and/or to hire him/her.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore