Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, decided to share his thoughts on his company’s new modding policy. In a Reddit AMA, Gabe Newell answered a number of questions about paid mods. As Newell claimed, Valve’s goal is to make modding better for both creators and gamers.
As Gabe Newell said:
“Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers. If something doesn’t help with that, it will get dumped. Right now I’m more optimistic that this will be a win for authors and gamers, but we are always going to be data driven.”
Gabe also revealed why Skyrim was the first game with which Valve decided to test this new policy.
“Skyrim is a great example of a game that has benefitted enormously from the MODs. The option for paid MODs is supposed to increase the investment in quality modding, not hurt it.
About half of Valve came straight out of the MOD world. John Cook and Robin Walker made Team Fortress as a Quake mod. Ice frog made DOTA as a Warcraft 3 mod. Dave Riller and Dario Casali we Doom and Quake mappers. John Guthrie and Steve Bond came to Valve because John Carmack thought they were doing the best Quake C development. All of them were liberated to just do game development once they started getting paid. Working at Waffle House does not help you make a better game.”
Gabe also claimed that Valve loves MODs in general, and that the open nature of PC gaming is why Valve exists, and is critical to the current and future success of PC gaming.
Gabe afterwards revealed why Valve decided to support paid mods.
“Our view of Steam is that it’s a collection of useful tools for customers and content developers.
With the Steam workshop, we’ve already reached the point where the community is paying their favorite contributors more than they would make if they worked at a traditional game developer. We see this as a really good step.
The option of MOD developers getting paid seemed like a good extension of that.”
When a fan asked Newell about one of the biggest issues of paid mods (people ripping mods from places like Nexus and re-uploading as their own), Newell had this to say:
“This is a straight-forward problem. Between ours and the community’s policing, I’m confident that the authors will have control over their creations, not someone trying to rip them off.”
When another fan asked why Valve was getting a 75% cut of profits, Newell said that the cut is set by the game (each game sets its own share), and not by Valve.
Last but not least, Newell talked a bit about donations and said that Valve will be adding a pay what you want button where the mod author can set the starting amount wherever they want.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Such a nice boy!, he´s a really great man, really without any interest, everything he does is for the comonwealth.
and for free 😉
He is not a saint, its a business man.
Have some patience and don’t pay for mods on Steam. Donate money by others means if you really want to support the modders. This crap will end if no one buys them through Steam.
And so it begins… https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1977/8627/original.jpg
I heard that mod uses exclusive Nvidia Physx effects.
Flash News (sorta): you can still pay for the mods, then simply copy the.esm files and ask for a refund within 24Hrs. It works: http://www.reddit.com/r/modpiracy/comments/33vn5g/if_you_purchased_a_mod_opt_for_a_refund_and_keep/
Petition to Remove the paid content of the Steam Workshop:
https://www.change.org/p/valve…
Remove the paid content of the Steam Workshop:
https://www.change.org/p/valve-remove-the-paid-content-of-the-steam-workshop
Here is translation what it say ->
This answer is TEXTBOOK corporate doublespeak.
“I don’t think these issues are specific to MODs, and they are all
worth solving.
For example, two areas where people have legitimate beefs against us are
support and Greenlight. We have short term hacks and longer term
solutions coming, but the longer term good solutions involve writing a
bunch of code. In the interim, it’s going to be a sore point. Both these
problems boil down to building scalable solutions that are robust in
the face of exponential growth.”
I’ll translate for you,
What he says: “I don’t think these issues are specific to MODs, and they are all worth solving.”
What
it means: “I do not plan to engage with you in conversation so I will
placate you by saying that your problem is important”
What he says: “For example, two areas where people have legitimate beefs against us are support and Greenlight.”
What it means: “here is a a true statement that you
cannot possibly disagree with me on, as to lend credibility and weight
to my otherwise empty response”
What he says: “We have short term hacks and longer
term solutions coming, but the longer term good solutions involve
writing a bunch of code. In the interim, it’s going to be a sore point ”
What it means: “We have no plans to address this
issue so I will intentionally leave out any specific information and
instead substitute another empty fact you cannot disagree with: ‘Quick
solutions are not sustainable, and sustainable solutions require lots of
work. For an unspecified amount of time you will just have to deal with
it'”
What
he says: “Both these problems boil down to building scalable solutions
that are robust in the face of exponential growth.”
What it means: “Again I will leave you with a true
but empty statement, Solutions to problems must be tailored to fix the
problem no matter how big the problem gets”
Now that this is out of the way, let’s talk about how this
reply was engineered for one purpose: Making you feel like you agree
with and can trust GabeN.
What you saw: “Hey guys, i know these are problems,
just like greenlight and customer support are problems. But trust me i
have big plan to fix everything..Soon!”
What you felt: “Yes Gabe I agree, GreenLight and
Customer support need to be fixed! Of course Gabe, long term solutions
will require more work than quick bandaids, we agree again! Obviously
you are right Gabe, these solutions should fit the problem! We agree
100% I didn’t disagree with you at all at any point during that
response!”
The reality of the situation is that this reply is a copy/paste Corporate PR template and you have probably even seen it before:
“I don’t think these issues are specific to young voters, and they are all worth solving.
For
example, two areas where people have legitimate issues against us are
Immigration and Defense Spending. We have short term hacks and longer
term solutions coming, but the longer term good solutions involve
writing a bunch of legislation.
In the interim, it’s going to be a sore point. Both these problems boil
down to building scalable solutions that are robust in the face of
exponential growth.”
“I don’t think these issues are specific to Stem Fields, and they are all worth solving.
For
example, two areas where people have legitimate issues against us are
the gender gap and workplace diversity. We have short term hacks and
longer term solutions coming, but the longer term good solutions involve
writing a bunch of history.
In the interim, it’s going to be a sore point. Both these problems boil
down to building scalable solutions that are robust in the face of
exponential growth.”
“I don’t think these issues are specific to Education, and they are all worth solving.
For
example, two areas where people have legitimate issues against us are
Tenure and Tuition Costs. We have short term hacks and longer term
solutions coming, but the longer term good solutions involve writing a
bunch of policies.
In the interim, it’s going to be a sore point. Both these problems boil
down to building scalable solutions that are robust in the face of
exponential growth.”
Here ->
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/04/24/valves-paid-skyrim-mods-are-a-legal-ethical-and-creative-disaster/
Your goal is to make more money! We are not idiots! This has to stop!
This is capitalism my friend and the profit is the main goal of any company! everything else is optional.
Since it seems we can’t avoid capitalism we could have a better and healthier capitalism. But no lets suck every single cent we can and f’ everything in the name of money. Great stuff!
I hope every one will make the right decision.
I’m pretty sure the community won’t be really policing the mods out there… just like they absolutely aren’t on Greenlight… and everyone knows how that is turning out. It’s impossible to keep up with the quantity, specially mods that are way simpler to put there. This means, that’s actually the modder now that has to be his own police, browsing other mods in order to avoid scams using their copied material and making sure he gets his (small) revenue.
Just like Greenlight, Steam has the correct “vague idea”, but then it screws up the execution in style. Donate button (as optional), would be the only way to do this. And even then there would be some degree of scams. And the modders out there defending and applying this “DLC paywall” system as the only option, that saying they already have “donation” setups on other websites and they received none or very little, they’re failing to note that: it’s way easier to transfer/donate and even buy game+mods in one go through Steam. The exposure and accessible purchase system is what makes Steam work.
Everybody obviously understands that good mods take a lot of work, and some people that actually respect the modders and show their support, would be willing now to easily donate through Steam… But up until now they(modders) all were doing it without receiving a cent or receiving very little… so it’s “curious” that now this system immediately turned their speech(of SOME modders) into something they were absolutely entitled to, making it seem like they were being absolutely robbed before (voluntarily, let’s say). Most of players / mod supporters show their respect, contribute with infos and don’t rage when the mod has problems or whatever… because the mod is free, they’re not expecting a 100% flawless item, are not entitled to it, and they know that good modders have talent and put great work on them.
Steam donations would be the good middle ground to elevate the good modder-player relationship… But now, there’s a war between them. Hope all the 25%’s are worth it, and since those modders will be basically selling payed “DLC”: don’t be surprised by the raging technical complaints, and (justified) demands (they’re paying you now, they’re are the ones “entitled” to something now).
PS: I’ve done some mods/skins before (+shared them), I’ve used plenty of mods in the past, and I’ve donated before. Good modders deserve respect and donations, and I’ve seen a lot of them being respected a ton by the community, but I don’t think mods = payed DLC, and this system not ideal. Even if I payed for some of them, I sure won’t be wasting my day policing other mods on top of that, while modders just bank on it. Not even fair or logic to expect so. Just my opinion.
Zenimax or ANY other company around the world would let modders to get money while they are getting nothing.
That’s only because Zionmax knows that without mods TES series would not even sell 25% as it sells now.
Look ->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDyXIXyAZq0
Wow, that video really gets around.
so Gabe have you paid Blizzard yet? cause by your logic you should.
I have no real problems, buying a game which is digital content, is really no different from buying mods, also digital content in the same way. same to me as dlc. if you believe the game is the right price to pay, and that a mod was the right price to pay, again it’s no different.
If you believe that the products price doesn’t reflect the value you believe it’s worth bargaining for, then you simply don’t buy the DLC/mod/game/micro-transaction.
Thats good, as there people like you buying, companies will keep abusing. Good Job!!
Great reading skills bud. Good Job!!
The thing is roughly 90% of mods out there are pure garbage.
If you believe that the products price doesn’t reflect the value you believe it’s worth bargaining for, then you simply don’t buy the DLC/mod/game/micro-transaction.
“then you simply don’t buy”
Sure, I’m all for voting with my wallet, it’s the only real, effective way to accomplish something. But that doesn’t mean corporation that are, objectively speaking, trying to screw customers with s**t deals are free from criticism.
make modding better or make butload of money?
Gabe doesn’t care about what we think.
He will if we use our intelligence. Its WE that give him money. If this stops something “magical” will happen. But we continue being ignorant as ever as gamers, as consumers…
It does not matter how intelligent you are, the vast majority of the 75 million users will just do as told and hand over their money.
Agreed dude but being a sheep or an aware individual has to do something with intelligence don’t you think? 😉
Yes but the problem is they only need a very small percentage to use it to make it profitable. They generated $10,000 in about 1 day.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/33uplp/mods_and_steam/cqojx8y?context=3
Yes they did.. 🙁
Nobody here can read, but its weird how they can actually write. He said Valve has been always data driven, it means that any new idea that comes to Steam and doesnt work it will be removed. Now dont come with greenlight and Early Access, because people vote and buy EA games, thats why those features are still there. But if this new paid mods doesnt work it will be removed for sure.
making a perfect thing better by putting it behind a pay wall and take 75% of it ? how exactly this makes it better ? it’s called DLC and we hate it. put an optional donation button there with at least 50% share for modder and free for all.
“critical to the current and future success of PC gaming”
yeah and you dominated the PC market and trying to destroy it. didn’t he said Win8 is catastrophic and MS wants to dominate PC market and it’s not a good thing, blah blah ? because he is doing worst.
also this:
Timestogo asked:
Isn’t the 75% cut seen as a bit high?
Gaben Answered:
The pay-outs are set by the owner of the game that is being modded.
_____
so expect s**ty launch for the next fallout or elder scrolls game and wait for paid mods to fix it and bethesda takes a big share from it.
The percentage may be set by the owner, but the fact it is set by the owner is set by Steam.
WHat?
Steam are trying to move the blame of the profits percentage to the publisher, but the Steam lets them set the price they could set the percentage themselves.
i agree. valve is the driver, bethesda is the hostage taker, paid modder is the safe cracker. they are euality bad, no lesser evil.
Yet again Evil$ide Strikes again -> This time in Open Moding Community, to conquer & divide.
Someone doesn’t Like Nexus and other Free Moding comunity. So its time to destroy it. All in one smooth move -> But Moding will prevail and after all, we are the Winners as always.
Do you remember OpenGL case decades ago? Same thing, it was removed by crapy DX 🙁
And now how many games are oGL? and how many DX?
Same thing could happen to Mods -> if sales continues -> so its profitable and Steam do anything to sustain it. Real Moders will be still working, but $Moders$ will be the slave of Steam -> making profit for them, so money for nuthin’…
And why is no HalfLife 3? what for? they have all money the can get now, so keep dreaming loosers (ggeabe $miling here). For them anything is Busine$$.
The pay what you want button sounds good, Now this is ZENIMAX and you already know that company is best known for being an a55h0l3s.
I can say it could be nice if other companies offer a better share to modders, like Croteam and Devolver offering 50% or 75% cut for serious sam 3 mods. So modders can move to games that offers better shares.
But not only prices and cuts should be changed, return policy should be extended to seven days.
Valve always talks about involving the community and giving them their rights but one thing that they forget is,,, people can’t do their job for them. First Early Access was left for community to deal with it with no Quality Check and now they expect us to help them locate frauds on workshop. It’s your job guys, not ours. Stop thinking about F2P and making money for once.
I have zero problems with my EA games so far, few games got in the spotlight because they were real scams like Garrys incident and that other game about futuristic robot battles which it was removed. But as far as I know they were games likes these even on consoles, one was Superman for Nintendo 64.
Valve removes that game Hatred because they decided that the game was too violent, then the community got mad because this, so Valve put it back.
Thats the community, a huge monster which is never satisfied, it Valve take off some game part of that community will be mad because there is a niche that likes “bad” games
Dude why you are EXTREMELY buttherted. just calm down and go do your stuff. people have the rights to complain about anything they don’t like and stop playing the devil’s advocate just because you love Valve. Valve doesn’t give a Fack about you or me keep this in your mind,
HAHA! yeah, he reaaally loves Valve and reveres Gabe as a god. He’s all over anyone who’s bad mouthing Valve or Gabe XD bwahaha!!!
Look at it this way, if Valve starts to make QA, most of the half of the Steam catalog will be missing, starting for all those TECMO, CAPCOM, NETHERREALMS and many other AAA companies that forgot how to make PC games.
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1352/13525917/2854348-2143936442-19602.png
WTF happened to game industry???
http://static1.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1352/13525917/2854389-2260213203-ZMTfc.jpg
The sellout is real boys.
The community will make the content, will QA the content, will police the content while you get a 75% cut doing nothing… Oh gosh Steam what have you become…
PS: Always the same blame game, it’s not us (puppy eyes) it’s the evil publishers.
and why you need to take 75% of the profit it should be 90% for those man or women ho worked very hard on it and 10% for valve but i don’t think you making modding better and safer place
And we will start that with taking 75% cut! Valve has turned to the likes of EA and such. I hope the new GOG app comes soon so we can see some of the customers migrate to GOG.
Also to those who say modders should get paid for their work, give me a break. It used to be that modding was like, apart from a hobby, how people built their CV and working resume while gaining some experience. There are tons of examples of people getting hired or downright making their own game out of MOD`s. Modding it like a trainee program, you don`t expect to get paid from it, you expect to gain experience and build a portfolio.
I’m all for paying for a mod if it’s a standalone and a lot of work has gone into it and is unique. But paying for skins ¬_¬ no thank you.
Strange that this all starts after the long awaited PC release of GTA5. Why do I have a feeling that Rockstar and a few other devs also have something to do with this Modding Policy.
F .A. T C. U. N. T
Morons paying for all that crap is what happened.