Arlie

Maybe I'll break it down to a few questions for your FAQ: How do you intend to resolve the issues that made Bethesda's endeavor into this crash and burn? Who is responsible if monetized content I paid for breaks and/or breaks the game and how do I get a refund which I am legally entitled to in that case? How can you guarantee the right modders (the ones who created the content) are the only ones who could monetize their content? And maybe one not for the FAQ: Is a healthy modding scene a priority for you and if yes then why are you doing this? It really doesn't improve quality. We've seen this before and it goes against the concept of modding and that's not a matter of belief, just history and logic.

No, I know for a fact it is not true. Look at literally any modding scene, look at the good and popular mods. First of all, they are free. They are good because people do it as a hobby and they do it for themselves, first and foremost. They want to shape the game into something they enjoy more, that is why they mod. Introduce monetization into the equation and anyone who wants to monetize will aim to quickly put out content they can monetize. That is the polar opposite of investing a lot of time into high quality content. Strange of you to reference Arma 3, considering there are no paid mods for that and it pretty much requires a healthy modding scene. Stranger yet, considering the franchise would be far from where it is now if it wasn't for the DayZ mod which essentially popularized a niche game barely anyone knew before. BIS endorsed it by specifically making a free or cheaper edition (can't recall) of Arma 2 which had everything to play DayZ and then advertise OP Arrowhead which improved textures in the mod. For many people it turned out Arma itself was an actually good game, too. Look, I don't know why you don't remember, because it wasn't that long ago when Bethesda did this exact thing on the steam workshop. They gave modders the option to monetize. Some did, some did not. Many took other people's mods from the nexus, uploaded them to the workshop and monetized them. A tear went through the modding community because it became obvious how some members of it threw ideals out the window for a few steambux. Also can you imagine how it must feel if your content you made for free and uploaded for other people to enjoy is monetized by someone else? How exactly will you prevent that? People would have to copyright their mods, this goes against the very premise of mods and would also be illegal, since it is assets for a game already copyrighted. So you would have to heavily moderate the steam workshop and if someone claims they originally made a mod that is now monetized YOU have to choose to believe them or not to believe them. What if the person monetizing the mod changes it ever so slightly before they monetize it? Do you take it down or do you leave it? Free market basics? What the fuck. Free market economics is the cause of planned redundancy, lowered quality to increase profit and outsourced labor. Please do not drag actual economics into this. Again. If I buy a mod for money. Actual money. I am entitled to a working product by law. Should the modder decide to stop updating it, for whatever reason and however unlikely you may find that, who guarantees the product keeps working? Who do I get my refund from? What if someone monetizes a mod which is not theirs and it is taken down? How do you get my money back? Why should they keep working after they've received x amount of money? I am not interested in arguing about how to do PR, that certainly does not work in a public forum. What I am trying to convey is that this is not just a moral nightmare, it is also a legal one. Make sure your legal department understands how the steam workshop works, that there are other sources for mods and how many claims they could be dealing with. Bethesda ran into all of these problems, combined with a very justified shitstorm. As of now you are on the same course, that is why the comparison came to mind. Modding is a passion, not a profession and that is what shapes it and gives it its potential. If that doesn't convince you it's a bad idea, think of how much this will damage the game's reputation.

I like how ANOTHER company tries paid mods as if the previous attempts had been completely forgotten. Apart from the fact you're damaging the modding scene it will also damage your reputation immensely. It is the same argument every single time. 'We give modders options, it will improve quality.' No. You monetize their work and they have the option to say yes or no. You get a share, Valve gets a share. Most modders do not want to get paid. If some get paid, the workshop will be flooded with free mods by people who did not make them in order to monetize them. Legally it makes mod packs close to impossible. Modders constantly use content of other modders in their own mods - with their permission - that's another clusterfuck they cannot get around if some mods are monetized. If I were to pay for a mod, I want it to work. There is no real quality control on the workshop. You cannot force a modder to keep updating their mod for years even if people paid for it. What do you do if a paid mod needs an update but you cannot get a hold of the modder or they are simply unwilling to comply? Do you honestly believe you can pull something off Bethesda couldn't? Unlike Ylands Fallout and TES almost RELY on mods to function. Or is that what you're counting on? Less publicity for a smaller game, you might get away with it? Best case for you: You destroy the scene before it develops. I do not like this. It makes me sick. I think it's a stupid idea and I cannot fathom how people still think it could work. I'll tell you what works and looks less like a cash grab, TWI did this for Killing Floor: They took high quality content from modders, integrated it into the game and made it dlc. How much of that the modders were paid I do not remember, but I hope it was most of it. I mean the dlc sucks but there is quality control, the company took responsibility for the content, the content is on every client and it's definitely the right modders getting paid.