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Regarding recent mod monetization rage *Discuss*

Proficiency··3 votes·666 views

Anyone reading this is most likely aware of the recent skyrim news on mods. This post is not specific to that game, however is has been a catalyst for discussion suddenly. I will simply start with a question and a statement.

"Why is it so horrible that people are being given the chance to make money off of something that they went time creating that people enjoy? A few various readings of forum post have simply left me with the idea that the ones complaining are just simply not willing to pay for someones work and want mods to stay forcibly free due to legality."

Obviously i want people to comment and post their concerns, but let me touch on just a couple things.

  1. Creative incentive - most people would argue that the love of the game drives the best modders/developers ( really anyone in regards to "doing what they love"). I generally would have to agree. However money is quite the motivating factor, and i feel like their love of said work in tangent with the ability to generate income is an even stronger force. Outside of just wanting everything for free, its just smart to give more incentive to great modders who put the time, love and mountain dew crazed minds into something that creates entertainment that you enjoy.

  2. Developers taking their percent of revenue - If this one bothers you rather than the concepf as a whole is probably due to what most people consider to be a large percent the companies take from each sale. I will not argue what I think is a good number as far as splits go, but just keep this in mind. The developer is providing the platform, the players, the advertising (mostly indirect), sometimes support and most often the tools. So with that mind the split rate is up for debate.

  3. Industry talent pool - Although this would seem to affect the company foremost, it does have an effect on is as consumers also. By giving these mod developers a platform for selling it also gives companys a better view of the large talent pool available to them. Then if great people are hired it will lead to better games for us (in theory obviously). Although they can see this in general by diving into forums and other means to check popularity, a direct sales platform will give companies more numbers to gauge off of.

  4. Increased revenue - I know more money for the game developers is bad...but i do not think so. Note: Yes, some game companies are greedy and this will not apply to them, however, there are many that do this as a labor of love although they are in this to make money, that is what a business does.. By increasing revenue, developers are able to spend more money on content ( aka have more employees/ pay employees better/obtain better employees). All the things we want cost time and money. Our hunger for content does have a cost. note: this is aimed at you RiotAlso, imagine you have a small design team. You open up you game for skin submissions, with being acccepted, would net you some percent of revenue. Now you are able to place a current team or hire a new one to sort through these submissions to discard garbage (not viable, stolen content, etc). The increased revenue allows them to do this and not only that, increases their work output ( through you, excellent artist!). Everyone gains! More money for company, money for creator and more content for consumers!

This list is by no means a complete howver its 6am and im doing this on my phone so forgive typos. Would love to listen to everyones input and just a reminder. People are still able to place mods for free if they wish to. This is no force of the hand. Get involved in the discussion!

Open the LoL board gates!

7 Comments

Sir ArmaMalum1 votes

Oh I had some great discussions with a few friends on this. Funnily enough I'm actually on your side with the whole thing but for the sake of discussion I'll bring up some good points they brought up.

  1. It further incentives a lower quality base game. While there can be clever solutions around this, like early access to modders pnly and what not, the previous complaint of mods and DLC encouraging developers to release 70-60-50% of a game and charging full price, and expecting modder and DLC to kake up the difference will only be exacerbated by this. Especially because it now distributes the 'total' cost of a game across multiple people, meaning there's very little opportunity to regulate the 'total' price.

  2. It will destabilize if not kill the modding community. Since the mod marketplace is only lightly competitive when it comes to visibility right now, once money is in the picture it harms an individual's willingness to share and teach their ideas and tricks. While this is good for the individual the community, and by extension new modders, will suffer for it. It may not happen immediately as the infastructure developed in the free atmosphere won't just evaporate, but the simple fact is one strategy is earning money and the other isn't.

  3. While it will increase the incentives to start modding (i.e. money), this will severely impact modder diversity within games. Since a user can only download but so many mods due to the price you have to choose between the best mods to make it worth it. This will destroy the audience base for the second-best mods and funnel everyone further towards the higher downloads.

  4. Steam will have too much power over the direction of popuar mods. And not in the way you think. Currently mods are all free, meaning the thing that makes them different in face value is popularity/word of mouth and visibility within the workshop. Steam can easily tailor the visibility of the workshop towards the higher priced mods and away from the free ones, and are in fact incentivized to, as they make no money of free mods. To be fair, this point is a hypothetical but a worrying hypothetical nonetheless

  5. There is a precedent to what a paid mod community will look like. The mobile app store market. No specific side to this really, just a question, would you mind your mod marketplace to look and act just like the App Store?

Proficiency1 votes

Thanks for joining in! Just as a pre-emptive strike before the "so you are a expert in the game industry", i am not. I am a multi-unit managment in a national food chain, so this is the opinion of a regular guy with general business experience not directly tied to the industry, although i have always been a avid gamer ( im that akward "cool" dad that plays games online with his older kids and theirs friends plus wife lol) However, i think general principles transcend industries.

Bullets will be in reference to your points:

  1. This one boils down to holding developers accountable. There seems to already be a growing movement of this consumer in the gaming industry. Just like in the food industry, if you do not like a establishment is doing, you stop eating there. Although 1 family is a small impact, word travels quickly, extremly quickly depending on whom you upset. This will in turn obviously start a chain reaction that ends in loss of revenue for the business and a tarnished image which is even barder to repair (more so for smaller chains). Now apply this to a developer who's core demographic is active in some form kn the internet. The speed at which the word will spread is massive. This falls on us as a community of gamers. As a consumer of goods. We must as a whole realise that ultimatly we are in control, and must hold these companies accountable. In the past, the key demographic for games were kids/teens. However this is not the case any longer. This group is now adults and still starting in our kids. Now that this medium is mainstream (video games on ESPN?), we will have to take control. The days of buying your kid a game and not ever thinking of it if they ever play it after a week is gone. YOU ARE PLAYING GAMES TOO! Young adults and parents are on the same forums as the new gaming generation. If we expect this infustry to be held to any kimd of standards, we are the ones that will have to say " you know what, I do not agree with how this company does business as a whole or how they dictate my product use after purchase". Then DO NOT give them your money. Yes, you might miss a good game, but if it means affecting the gaming industry in what you feel is in a good way then you have to take a hit sometimes. This has become a large portion of the worlds main passtime, so we need to dictate what we expect, just like we do when we choose where to eat.

  2. Possibly. However this also does something. It creates drive in the good ones and the others to give up. No one will teach you? Then take the time to learn it. This applies to anything. Drive and determination will destroy 99.9% of barriers. If you are doing it for the love it /fun honestly, this will not have an effect on you, you will just do it. I have no doubt that is this became main stream, you would have many communties spring up promoting free mods. It has happen in the coding industry and it certainly will be birthed here also.

  3. I suppose this only makes sense if you have this belief that gaming (maybe modding specifically) should be a community free of earnings and be completly based on love and social activity. I can not make an argument against it, but i just dont adhere to that. If you have a good product and it sells well then so be it. If you put in the hours, learning and leg work to put out a great product and get it out there you earned the money and popularity. The others will either strive to better you or drop out.

  4. Very possible and in some venues it will happen im sure. I have no problem this popular mods/modder spot lights, but even given my views, do enjoy the community diversity. Ultimatly this goes back to my first point. This is the time, right now, as consumers to dictate the direction of this constantly growing industry. Gaming has been around, but we are seeing the fledgling stage of the next great universal padt time. If we do not decide as a whole what we want this industry to look like when it takes full form now, it will be almost impossible to do 10 years from now when we are sitting in our coiches watching esports drinking beer or at a stadium.

  5. Like app store? I would think mods would need more room for description but in a general sense, i would mind. A store(s) where one could purchase mods in a steam like setting would not bother me. If i decided to sit down and design my idea optimal business structure i could elaborate but yeah, i do have to work lol.

Just to elaborate, am not saying that some companies will (some are already, do not have to mention names, everyone knows the big one) practicing horrible business practices. Such as selling incomplete games, serving sub-par dlc/expansions for uncalled for amounts, and more (some say online drm, but i umderstand there issue with piracy, and lets face it most people have internet). Not all companies will do this though. I can not peove that, but i like to think just like in my infustry there are companies that want to put out good product in a manner that pleases their patrons.

To sum up this book, it all will frely on us to hold these companies to standards. Personally I beleive, like it or not, that the time of simply creating a game you want it putting it out there is over in majority. Not that you can mot do it now or in the future, i just think we are seeing that the results are not the same. This industry needs to move to a needs based business model. For example, a certain developer had a dungeon crawler that was very popular. They waited years to out a sequel (which before you bash, i actually like it for the most part). The community as a whole stated over and over that they simply wanted a continuation of what they already had. Update the graphic engine, new story, items , areas, etc. However, they felt that need to chase the framework of the game, simply to do it i suppose. The game came out, people ate it up but then it died..why? It was not what people wanted. It has been updated and changed and the perception has grown better, but will be remember as a now ok game that could have been great.

Now, the old team that did the previous iteratin had left to work on a project in the same genre. Althouh a new IP, they kept the same basic concepts that peolle loved before and only elaborated areas. Game was a major sucess! Awesome reviews! They sold quite a lot of copies, although not as much as they would have woth their previous large company with marketing power.

Ok, im wrapping up this book, but you look like someone who likes a nice indepth discussion. Went down a fabbit whole buy this all does really apply. Creaters should be able to make money for their work. How it plays out, mods and gaming in general, is in our hands. Still doing this on phone, beware typos. :)

Sir ArmaMalum1 votes

I am currently finishing up a paper on electro-active polymer actuators (say that five times fast), so I'm also typing up a response in short bursts. But in the meantime, you're doing this on your phone?!?

https://media0.giphy.com/media/2t9sDPrlvFpdK/200_s.gif

Proficiency1 votes

Yea, lol. Pretty much go store to store i work out of my car. Sitting in one of my stores typing on the LoL forums with a company laptop would look funny i think. Although, im not working yet, so, im not on company time. :)

hüng1 votes

You can donate to people on nexus. Steam is just greedy fuckin fatass gaben

Proficiency1 votes

I would be interested in the percant of people that donate per mod, and a average of how much. I feel you are taking issue with someone looking at their mod work as a business? Also, no one is forcing them to use the steam venue. They are simply providing a platform to make money with their work, outside random donations. (Lets face it, given the chance to have a great product for free with no money required...most will not pay)

Karlyr1 votes

The main problem doesn't come from the fact that developpers get a cut. For the Skyrim case, specifically, the problem is that it's not even the developpers of the game that gets the large cut. It's Steam. I still think that 75% is too much, getting this down to 50% would be WAY more reasonnable. The developpers basically gets "free money" from modders. Yes it is their, hence why they collect a part of their share. But Steam getting a cut is just outrageous. (Insert Gaben+Taric photoshop)

Other than that, your points are pretty much all valid.

I'll just leave this link here if you wanna watch it / add it to your OP. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGKOiQGeO-k

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