Paid mods are now available on the workshop

[keithinhanoi]

• Chesko's Reddit post helps towards confirming a suspicion I have. He mentions that Nexus is listed as a "Service Provider" which can be selected to receive a percentage of Valve's revenue from the sales of Skyrim Workshop mods. Chesko also mentions that he had a month and a half to prepare for the introduction of the new workshop. Connecting the dots tells me that the Robin Scott / the Dark One was very likely already well aware of Valve's/Bethesda's plans when he posted his blog entry about the idea of paid modding. If true, then is appears this post may have been an attempt to get people mentally prepared for the inevitable. Chesko questions this profit sharing relationship between Valve and Nexus Mods (keep in mind to become a Service Provider at the start, you had to be approached by Valve/Bethesda, since everything was secret, under a NDA.) in light of Dark One's more recent blog post reaffirming that there are no plans to add a mod payment system to Nexus.

Here I go again, quoting myself - this time to show I was off the mark.

 

The Dark One had this to say regarding Nexus' presence on the Skyrim Workshop "Service Provider" list:

Hmmm, the reason we're positioned there is because (1) I don't want to charge for mods and (2) even if I wanted to, I can't. Valve approached me about being a service provider, where I could take up to 5% of their cut of things and it was seen as the Premier League paying a very, very tiny amount towards grass roots football. Which is handy, because it'll end up paying about 10% of the cost of upgrading and running the forum server in light of the increased traffic we have right now, which adds nothing to the upkeep of the Nexus sites. Every little helps, right?

It was offered as a gesture of thanks, directly from Valve, to Nexus and several other tools and sites in the community for the continued work done within the community, and is accepted as such, with the stipulation that it wouldn't stop me from forming my own opinion and sharing said opinions openly and publicly. And I said up to 5%, so if a mod author selects 5 service providers, each service provider gets 1% of Valve's cut. I knew this was coming since they messaged me a few weeks ago, but I had no idea when. I was under no NDA, though, and a few mod authors approached by Valve have said the same. Wasn't for me to get involved, I'd already made my news post pre-empting everything.

 

See his full post via permalink here.

 

So, forget my somewhat conspiracy theory-driven conjecture, I guess.

 

I'm glad this information is at least somewhere, but since it is not in one place, there is such an immense amount of misinformation being spread, and I'm sure will be for some time.

[Octopuss]

This is a nice video.

 

[keithinhanoi]

And from that same Reddit thread of Chesko "failed experiment" post, someone dropped a link to a 2006 article about the release of $2.50 Oblivion horse armor DLC blowing up in Bethesda's face. I didn't get back into gaming until 2012 (Half Life 2), so it's very interesting to read about this, 9 years later!
 

For Saerileth:

I'd like to comment about the "I can't give a mod for free here on Nexus, and asking for money for the same mod on Steam" thing you mentioned. That doesn't necessarily have to come from Valve (and even if there is such a clause in their terms, I really doubt they'd bother enforcing it). It might also be from the modder's own volition, because can you really ask money for something on one platform, and give it away somewhere else? How would you feel if you spent money on something and only later found out that you didn't need to? Customers who miss the Nexus link for some reason could quite easily feel duped and complain. So I think it's more a question of good form, rather than a legal issue. A paywall with an optional (maybe not so easily visible) free link is not the way to go for a true "pay what you want" scheme, that's what donations are for.

 

Okay, so - thankfully - you were correct. Here's what Laast had to say about that:

Now that I've sold a product, I've customers to take care. I can't sell them something then make it free the day after on another site. I can't even lower the price because people who have spend the highter price will feel injured (though there will be sales period just like any other product on Steam). Selling something is not just for fun and money, I've to take responsabilities towards my customers.

 

It's clear to me that he is taking the sale of his new mod very very seriously, and personally I feel he deserves a lot of respect for that. But it does highlight how different selling a mod is compared with sharing one for free.

Edited April 25, 2015 by keithinhanoi

[Nozzer66]

I also recall reading something about how there's no paid Sims mods any more, basically due to people just pirating the bejasus out of the paid stuff and posting it for free...

[Marthenil]

If those 688 sales are not inflated by Steam somehow (could very well be) I feel bad for mankind.

 

People will buy anything these days.

 

 

 

EDIT: I'm not posting this to belittle the author in any way, shape, or form. However, buying a mod for a 4 year old game when as of now there are plenty of free alternatives just seems unwise. And I doubt all those sales where in order to "support the author".

Edited April 25, 2015 by Marthenil

[CJ2311]

Alright, another bit of news. Welcome to the first mod with actual ad popups in it.

 

Midas Magic has a 4% chance upon casting a spell of triggering a popup advertising the paid version of the mod.

 

On a sidenote, people are already posting the paid mods for free all over the internet. I won't give links for obvious reasons but any 5 year old could find them.

[Nozzer66]

facepalms...

[Octopuss]

Alright, another bit of news. Welcome to the first mod with actual ad popups in it.

 

Midas Magic has a 4% chance upon casting a spell of triggering a popup advertising the paid version of the mod.

 

On a sidenote, people are already posting the paid mods for free all over the internet. I won't give links for obvious reasons but any 5 year old could find them.

What a moron. There are no other words.

[Guest]

If it is possible to funnel it straight to cancer research or a similar charity, then I would perhaps want to charge on Steam. Nexus = free, Steam = save the world. That is if the guy who manages my mods' wants to do that.  If that is a logistical nightmare, then I was thinking of giving the money to my host and this site as a split. I hope he replies with his thoughts. If he does not they remain free on Steam regardless. Good or bad plan guys and gals?

 

By the way... Pop ups? What is this? Mobile gaming? Yuck! Also, knew the piracy thing was going to take hold. I said it to Tech a few weeks back.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Guest

[Marthenil]

If it possible to funnel it straight to cancer research or a similar charity, then I would perhaps want to charge on Steam. Nexus = Free, Steam = Save the world. That is if the guy who manages my mod wants to do that.  If that is a logisical nightmare, then I was thinking of giving the money to my host and this site as a split. I hope he replies with his thoughts. If he does not they remain free on Steam regardless. Good or bad plan guys and gals?

I'm just a nobody on the forums, but I would say wait a bit or you will get harassed and pitchforked.

[Guest]

I'm just a nobody on the forums, but I would say wait a bit or you will get harassed and pitchforked.

I already suffer that for putting my mods' into a collection. If people want to quarrel over a good cause then they are not my kind of people anyway. Besides, it is up to my host anyway, that is just a suggestion from me. Instead of greed, he could spread the love. 

[Marthenil]

I already suffer that for putting my mods' into a collection. If people want to quarrel over a good cause then they are not my kind of people anyway. Besides, it is up to my host anyway, that is just a suggestion from me. Instead of greed, he could spread the love. 

You can't list a charity as a recipient though. So I guess the most charitable thing would be to only list the Nexus. If that's what you want, sure.

 

But we are talking harassment and flaming of nuclear proportions here. Stuff that makes the Nexus usual trashtalking children's play.

[Guest]

That's stupid and thus it won't happen then. Now to tell him to pull my Steam mods or not? Your opinion means a lot by the way.

[Marthenil]

That's stupid and thus it won't happen then. Now to tell him to pull my Steam mods or not? Your opinion means a lot by the way.

Depends on what your personal feeling is, really. 

 

It won't matter much, to be very honest. 

 

The most meaningful thing would be to make an announcement on the Nexus (or Reddit) about your personal feelings, without too much fanciness, if you dislike the practice and/or think it's unethical in some way. 

[TehKaoZ]

I think what makes me the most angry is how little Valve understands the modding community, they literally just up and one day thought "we could make some money off this, look how many people use these mods!", The protests, the hate, the petitions, ect. and I doubt Valve will care that they have essentially invaded a foreign land and forcefully established a new government.

 

On a side note, I love this forum. I view this place as a little safe haven for posting and reading legitimate concerns within the community without worrying about the storm outside :)