So apparently Valve has already killed paid mods:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2483348,00.asp?mailing_id=1238210&mailing=DailyNews&mailingID=21DD060CE9F09E15D4B675B83A7482C3


This is actually really sad to read. The gaming community (or a least a very vocal segment of it) seemed to respond as though Valve kicked down the door and demanded cash for every mod ever made for anything.

They gave modders a choice to go payware or freeware. The community responded with a reprehensible amount of entitlement, like spoiled children.

It's also incredibly short sighted for both valve and the community. FSX has shown that there can be a world where payware and freeware co-mingle quite nicely, and it can take a title far beyond what it's developers ever intended. Instead, people seemed to assume that mods would continue to be the same quality, but with a price tag attached. Instead, you can keep the same basic quality level for payware, but you also get a new level of quality from teams that are able to dedicate more time to a project that's actually helping to keep the lights on.

a real shame.

It's a good thing and it will come back, just perhaps not mixed up with all other mods. I like mods but I'm getting too old to wade through the piles of stuff that people put out there.

I still haven't understood how they will solve the "everyone using bits of everybody else's mods"-issue. I guess nobody wants a situation where everybody sues each other. It's a tough nut to crack but with the DCS campaign thing and this I hope we are looking at a situation where there can be some companies providing much higher quality stuff than earlier.

-C-

Its a good thing?I had 200 mods in my past Skyrim play thru and when I read that we are now being charged for mods I instantly thought it was time for a new hobby.

200? I had like 4, and they were all to fix bugs or things that irked me (like night vision making gigantic magic effects)

Yes, if you were using these and suddenly had to pay that would suck. It's a bit like a patent troll.
Now for an all-new mod being put there by the modder, I have no issue. But how do you know it's not some other guy who saw it and said "I'm gonna get people to pay me for it!" and put it up there and start making money without the original modder's consent, knowledge, or making a dime?




The Jedi Master

in therory Copyright laws should protect against that.

In application, that's another story.