How much does Bethesda owe the Skyrim modding community?

[Andy14]

5 minutes ago, notInterestedInFun said:

 

Really? Just because I have an urge or feel compelled to make something better, my actions have zero value? When I say owe, I mean it in the sense that Bethesda own Skyrim (SE) and the value of this game has increased substantially (or at least retained its retail value) with the efforts of the modding community. What other 10yo game sells for $40 in 2021?... And I want to emphasize that I don't care much about how much Bethesda has actually made from Skyrim. They could give the game away for free and it's still a high value creation from my point of view. Sure people don't always agree, but let's just say for you - if everyone on the planet see things as you do how good is Skyrim SE? And how much of its value comes from modding?

 

After you have an answer to that question, then - just for fun - you could put a dollar amount to it. If vanilla Skyrim is worth 50M+ in labor, how much would all the modding be worth? Again you can say from your perspective (if you think digital creature sex is worthless, then the pack is worthless; I disagree even tho I don't dig it personally), or from the perspective of a Skyrim connoisseur. 

 

From my limited exposure to Skyrim, and based on the fact that Skyrim is perhaps the only sophisticated sandbox game with a good sex mod, I'm very impressed with all the mods that exist (GTA V doesn't have a sex mod, though perhaps it's not even as "realistic"/immersive as Skyrim to serve as the best backdrop; Cyberpunk 2077 obviously doesn't have a sex mod despite its overly polished graphics - no city in the real world looks that good).

 

 

Really!
If you think you did something great for Bethesda, please contact Bethesda.

Bethesda, better said Zenimax is bankrupt and was taken over by Microsoft. But you will surely tell us how much Besthesda has earned on mods, right?

 

[Kendo 2]

Bethesda doesn't 'owe' us jack-shit.  It would be nice if they acknowledged their broken buggy-ass 10 years behind the gaming tech curve games wouldn't have a fraction of the hype they do if it wasn't for MODDERS making it happen.

[Harvald]

The modding community gives companies time. Interest in the game does not wane as quickly as with unmodified games and so they earn more money on balance. A few weeks ago Egosoft gave away a total overhaul on Steam for a game that was released in 2008 and asked for a € 4.98 donation for the modders..  I don't know how much money they made in addition, but it might be millions. But that#s not why we do mod the Game. We or most of us do it for fun, and because we can do it.

[notInterestedInFun]

10 minutes ago, Kendo 2 said:

Bethesda doesn't 'owe' us jack-shit.  It would be nice if they acknowledged their broken buggy-ass 10 years behind the gaming tech curve games wouldn't have a fraction of the hype they do if it wasn't for MODDERS making it happen.

 

Why doesn't anyone think that appreciation of contribution doesn't count as "owe"?... That modders made the hype happen is exactly what I'm asking

[notInterestedInFun]

2 minutes ago, Harvald said:

The modding community gives companies time. Interest in the game does not wane as quickly as with unmodified games and so they earn more money on balance. A few weeks ago Egosoft gave away a total overhaul on Steam for a game that was released in 2008 and asked for a € 4.98 donation for the modders..  I don't know how much money they made in addition, but it might be millions. But that#s not why we do mod the Game. We or most of us do it for fun, and because we can do it.

Interesting! I think that's really cool because modders really have lots to contribute. Graphics technology have plateaued in my opinion (but 4k is still nice), I don't give a shit about ray tracing that makes reflections look a little nicer if it means the game is hardly modable just so they can sell new games every year. Making money and making good content that people enjoy and love are not always tied imo. 

 

Also, total overhaul for a game is probably more expensive than you think... seems hard to justify normally when you can just make a new one that has a greater novelty factor. 

 

Totally understand that modders don't do it for Bethesda profit but because they like doing it. Just because you love your job doesn't mean you don't deserve credit (or pay if it's a real job :))

[notInterestedInFun]

56 minutes ago, Andy14 said:

 

Really!
If you think you did something great for Bethesda, please contact Bethesda.

Bethesda, better said Zenimax is bankrupt and was taken over by Microsoft. But you will surely tell us how much Besthesda has earned on mods, right?

 

 

I looked it up. Being bought for 7.5 billion USD does not equal "bankrupt". They also claim to have independence in operation. 

 

I'm not saying Bethesda should pay anyone anything, they aren't really in a position to acknowledge much either. But as players, surely you have an opinion on how Skyrim would've been without mods. Many support modders thru donation, but everyone at least knows how good (or worthless) the mods are.

 

Just to reiterate, when I say "owe", I mean it in a provocative sense since it's pretty natural to think the studio is responsible for all the success of its game. And people often translate the extent of success into numbers. In this case, Bethesda got $7.5B from Microsoft.

 

PS. I know nothing about modding, I just download other people's mods for free. But let's just say that many stuff that I downloaded I would've gladly paid for in differing amounts. No wonder Bethesda made Creation Club. But modders just want to release their stuff for free!

Edited July 11, 2021 by notInterestedInFun

[chaimhewast]

50 minutes ago, notInterestedInFun said:

PS. I know nothing about modding, I just download other people's mods for free. But let's just say that many stuff that I downloaded I would've gladly paid for in differing amounts. No wonder Bethesda made Creation Club. But modders just want to release their stuff for free!

That highly depends on the modder. There's a reason why modders have had links to their Paypals and Patreons in descriptions, why Bethesda briefly had paid mods on the Steam Workshop, why Nexus has its "donation points" system, why some modders paywall their mods (in part or in full), etc.

[27X]

2 hours ago, notInterestedInFun said:

$40 in 2021

 

Any tecmo game

[Guest]

2 hours ago, notInterestedInFun said:

I haven't played TS4 in a long time

I have never played it. It looks like a cartoon and is for children... being that everything has nice tidy presets. Again, no stress on the 64 bit system, and no stress on the players imagination. I'm always testing CC, and currently, my version of 2B, Baby Doll, Alice M1A1, Marie Rose, D.Va, Pebbles Flintstone and a few others are running around China. Can't do that in TS4. Alice Liddell just ran to a neighbor house to stab someone. It's why TS3 remains strong.

 

My husband was military and actually steers our son away from realistic war games. At least for now. Only 7 years. 

2 hours ago, notInterestedInFun said:

closed-source

Yes, but the comment was about open source and still making profits, which seems counter.

[notInterestedInFun]

5 hours ago, chaimhewast said:

That highly depends on the modder. There's a reason why modders have had links to their Paypals and Patreons in descriptions, why Bethesda briefly had paid mods on the Steam Workshop, why Nexus has its "donation points" system, why some modders paywall their mods (in part or in full), etc.

 

Sure. But there are way too many serious mods on nexus or here or somewhere else that are completely free. I won't believe you if you tell me that someone put in so much effort often upfront because they might get some donations/sponsorship. The whole thing with mods is probably a bit more nuanced than I originally thought. Probably only a few million people use mods, the majority just play for a while and move on to the next new thing, or something like that.

 

For now, I'll just quote Bethesda's comment on SkyrimTogether (which I just learned about) when they declined to let them host a page for it on Steam (presumably a mixture of trademark protection, since they've sued many others over the years for sharing keywords in their game titles; and preventing people from identifying SkyrimTogether as the Skyrim multiplayer since they made ES:O; and I just read on Tamriel:Online comments that it might have to do with Bethesda only having a single player game agreement with Steam, so they can't share IP addresses to connect players for co-op like gameplay):

Quote

I don't want to diminish how impressive those earlier attempts were, but what you're accomplishing here is simply astounding. It's not just the scope, either, but how thoroughly you've adjusted gameplay to fit the new mechanics. That's not surprising given your experience.

 

Bethesda was okay with SkyrimTogether releasing as long as it's completely free. Apparently the main developer cares even less about charging anything for ST and released a statement publicly a couple of years ago after development delays that he doesn't owe the Skyrim community anything and he might keep the final release private bc some people were toxic towards the developers... I mean, they made a multiplayer mode for a single player game.....

Edited July 12, 2021 by notInterestedInFun

[woodsman30]

13 hours ago, notInterestedInFun said:

Title says it all.

@Andy14 summed it up in their first reply. Simply put how many games can be modded?... not many. Skyrim was and is a perfect storm heavily influenced by The Lord of The Rings and I suspect the Hobbit series.... people were and are captivated by those movies it is easy to see why Skyrim took off... An open world game with the ability to make anything you want do what you want a true RPG in every sense... but, I digress. It is buggy.. yes... but we still love it and play it... instead of looking for thanks "We" should say thanks to them for the game and the ability to make it better.

[t.ara]

To be clear: Without modding we would not touch this sort of games which here are modded. Modding access is exactly the price of the popularity of this games-it´s everything and the ONLY reason, why people have this games installed since the long time they have been released. So they "owe" to the modding community EVERYTHING. And even Bethesda LEARNED from modders new ideas for new(er) games.

Quite easy to understand imo.