Giving back to mod authors who won't charge...

[MrFlyte]

Hi,

I'm going to be going to all the forums I attend (whether it's frequent or infrequent like this forum) and post this same thing. We all know about Steam allowing mod authors to sell their mods through their Workshop service. There already appears to be a topic on this on the forum, so debating your belief in how acceptable this is should be left to that thread, and not this one. Personally, I think it's great that mod authors can get paid for their work, but Steam's cut is egregious and greedy - not to mention the number of possible caveats that can sink this (see Totalbiscuit's video on this).

 

I've always downloaded my mods from the authors, and rarely contributed much to them. Not an endorsement (on the nexus), nor a comment. I downloaded it, took it, and ran. I want to give back now for this, and I hope those who CAN, will do the same to show their support to the mod authors they love. Any mod author who is leaving their mods available for free on the Nexus, if you have a donation link, I will donate to your mod - regardless if I have it installed or not.

I am NOT an infinite source of money, so I can't give a lot, nor can I give to hundreds of people - I'm certain you understand. But, like I said, I'm hoping others here who have the ability to do the same, will. Please post a link to your nexus page below and allow me to buy you a beer. 

 

EDIT

let me make a slight addendum for LL modders:

Since some these mods are not work friendly and therefore are not on the Nexus: Share a link a link to your LL page (yes that seems redundant, but, do it for me, okay?)

[badbat111]

 Any mod author who is leaving their mods available for free on the Nexus, if you have a donation link, I will donate to your mod - regardless if I have it installed or not.

I am NOT an infinite source of money, so I can't give a lot, nor can I give to hundreds of people - I'm certain you understand. But, like I said, I'm hoping others here who have the ability to do the same, will. Please post a link to your nexus page below and allow me to buy you a beer. 

 

be carefull knowing my luck ill sound like a ass but there would be modders who would abuse that by putting a mod up that doesnt do a thing to the game and have multi accounts giving it good votings and good comments

 

if your going to do that test the mods first so you know they wont be viod mods

[MrFlyte]

 

 Any mod author who is leaving their mods available for free on the Nexus, if you have a donation link, I will donate to your mod - regardless if I have it installed or not.

I am NOT an infinite source of money, so I can't give a lot, nor can I give to hundreds of people - I'm certain you understand. But, like I said, I'm hoping others here who have the ability to do the same, will. Please post a link to your nexus page below and allow me to buy you a beer. 

 

be carefull knowing my luck ill sound like a ass but there would be modders who would abuse that by putting a mod up that doesnt do a thing to the game and have multi accounts giving it good votings and good comments

 

if your going to do that test the mods first so you know they wont be viod mods

 

You're not the first to bring this to my attention, and I am aware of this. Thus why I request the nexus link. I will be back checking it against the workshop too.

[badbat111]

 

 

 Any mod author who is leaving their mods available for free on the Nexus, if you have a donation link, I will donate to your mod - regardless if I have it installed or not.

I am NOT an infinite source of money, so I can't give a lot, nor can I give to hundreds of people - I'm certain you understand. But, like I said, I'm hoping others here who have the ability to do the same, will. Please post a link to your nexus page below and allow me to buy you a beer. 

 

be carefull knowing my luck ill sound like a ass but there would be modders who would abuse that by putting a mod up that doesnt do a thing to the game and have multi accounts giving it good votings and good comments

 

if your going to do that test the mods first so you know they wont be viod mods

 

You're not the first to bring this to my attention, and I am aware of this. Thus why I request the nexus link. I will be back checking it against the workshop too.

 

 

they could screw you over by having it free on nexus and not host it on steam once you given them money they put it on steam to make money just be carefull with money i only buy dlc i know from games stores not steam i never trust steam i only have it because resident evil 5 and 6 and skyrim and saintsrow gave me the bloody thing i prefair the old ways without needed steam like oblivion didnt need it

[MrFlyte]

 

 

 

 Any mod author who is leaving their mods available for free on the Nexus, if you have a donation link, I will donate to your mod - regardless if I have it installed or not.

I am NOT an infinite source of money, so I can't give a lot, nor can I give to hundreds of people - I'm certain you understand. But, like I said, I'm hoping others here who have the ability to do the same, will. Please post a link to your nexus page below and allow me to buy you a beer. 

 

be carefull knowing my luck ill sound like a ass but there would be modders who would abuse that by putting a mod up that doesnt do a thing to the game and have multi accounts giving it good votings and good comments

 

if your going to do that test the mods first so you know they wont be viod mods

 

You're not the first to bring this to my attention, and I am aware of this. Thus why I request the nexus link. I will be back checking it against the workshop too.

 

 

they could screw you over by having it free on nexus and not host it on steam once you given them money they put it on steam to make money just be carefull with money i only buy dlc i know from games stores not steam i never trust steam i only have it because resident evil 5 and 6 and skyrim and saintsrow gave me the bloody thing i prefair the old ways without needed steam like oblivion didnt need it

 

 

I'm fully aware that if people want to be scumbags about getting just a couple of dollars, I'm weighing on the side that hopefully those who do respond are honest. I will be reviewing their nexus profiles, probably reading community feedback on their mods, and checking if their content is on the workshop.

[badbat111]

ok but be carefull

[MrFlyte]

ok but be carefull

Lol, thank you for your concern.

[Tm812]

I've already donated to mod authors who've come out against the paid for mods. I suggest you do the same to keep things easy on yourself.

[MrFlyte]

I've already donated to mod authors who've come out against the paid for mods. I suggest you do the same to keep things easy on yourself.

 

I'm not entirely sure which ones these are.

[aqqh]

Nice idea man but donation system may sound cool in theory but itsimply doesn't work.

Or rather the way it works atm make it that only a handful of modders would be able to gather more than say 100$ monthly and 100$ is not exactly a breathtaking amount of money.

 

Idea of what steam did was to give ppl a chance to become professional modders. To mod the game for a living. Personally i would like that.

 

But with donations - sorry but i simply do not believe this would ever be possible.

[MrFlyte]

Nice idea man but donation system may sound cool in theory but itsimply doesn't work.

Or rather the way it works atm make it that only a handful of modders would be able to gather more than say 100$ monthly and 100$ is not exactly a breathtaking amount of money.

 

Idea of what steam did was to give ppl a chance to become professional modders. To mod the game for a living. Personally i would like that.

 

But with donations - sorry but i simply do not believe this would ever be possible.

Hahahaha, oh, goodness, no, by no means was I implying for them to make a living off of donations!

Firstly: Running a proper donation campaign all by yourself is tough. If I wanted authors to do this, I would recommend they start Patreon campaigns.

 

I was simply saying I just wanted to give back to the authors for their work, and I was hoping my good deed would rub off on others who may also feel like doing a good deed...you know, doing your good deed for the day, hmm? Here to chat with an old...I'll just quit this joke while I'm ahead.

 

Steam may want to help push them to be full time authors, but unless the author gets serious traction (like...SkyUI levels of traction where the mod basically becomes a requirement) 25% isn't enough to go full time either. But, I digress, this thread isn't meant to debate the practicality of Steam's new policy.

[aqqh]

Really? i see some of them with 200 hits in less than a day despite all this crusade of hatred. That's probably like 50$ of income daily.

 

Not sure about your country but such money would make me somewhat happy and motivated to keep going.

 

 

Unfortunately donating makes modding stay as a hobby. Hobby that is extremely demanding.

[ousnius]

100.000 endorsements on the Nexus currently doesn't get you even $150 monthly. And you're one of the most used mods then. Let's see what Nexus has in store for the changes to donations they want to do.

[zzz72w3r]

To be honest, what you are proposing actually gives credence to the paywall.  All those wonderful mods have been up for months or even years and yet hardly anyone has donated money.  Now that Bethesda is offering the same authors a revenue opportunity all of sudden people say let's give.  If I were an author this would probably push me to support the mod-for-sale scheme even more.

 

An author thanked me a year ago for my buy-you-a-drink donation that was the only one she received in 3 years with hundreds of thousands of downloads of her mods on Nexusmod. 

[MrFlyte]

Really? i see some of them with 200 hits in less than a day despite all this crusade of hatred. That's probably like 50$ of income daily.

 

Not sure about your country but such money would make me somewhat happy and motivated to keep going.

 

 

Unfortunately donating makes modding stay as a hobby. Hobby that is extremely demanding.

 

Any amount of unexpected money is nice. I'm a content creator myself, if you didn't gather from my signature. While I may never ask for money for the content I create, it is set up for people to pay me, if they would like, and to pay me however much they would like. While being a fairly unknown artist the times I do get paid I typically know of because I was in contact with the person prior, but I have had a surprise visit of someone purchasing my content for $50. In fact, it's the most money I have earned off of the content I have created in a single day, and, it was so flattering and unexpected, it almost brought me to tears.

But, $50 isn't enough to quit my job, and ultimately that's what leads to a lot of abandonment on projects (even my own), which is not having the time to contribute to the project. Money can help this a lot, no doubt. And some money is ALWAYS better than no money. I, in no way, DISAGREE with Steams idea. It's more in principle that it begins to fall apart; From the lack of proper curation of the distribution of content, the cut they take, and all manners of other problems that causes this to be more of a problem. The reality is, modding will stay as a "hobby" (I hate using that word towards something that someone might be passionate about) until the developer can quit their job, or at the very least, significantly reduce their hours, to make time for their own projects. Or you can tough it out like me, who makes minimum wage but still demands I only work 30 hours so I can have more free time for my projects...I'd rather struggle to get by but surround myself int he solace of my art than to live comfortably but be without my creation.

 

The donation idea is really just to show the existing mod authors (who still release their content for free or pay-what-you-want) that just because they do this, they shouldn't have their work appreciated. Instead, even if it's less than what they might make if they did put it up, it's the principle of standing for what you believe in, and that is something I want to support to the best of my ability. Of course, on all 4 forums I posted, I haven't had a single link posted so, just like the monetization of the Workshop, maybe this idea sounded better on paper, hahaha.

[ambria]

I'll never charge for my mod or future mods.

And I spent a fairly long time on it, voice acting, quests, dungeons and even a soundtrack

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57023/?tab=4&&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fcomments%2F%3Fmod_id%3D57023%26page%3D1%26sort%3DDESC%26pid%3D0%26thread_id%3D2010214&pUp=1

I don't have a donation set up but there is a link to my bandcamp where people can buy the soundtrack if they wish.

[ZaZ]

 

Really? i see some of them with 200 hits in less than a day despite all this crusade of hatred. That's probably like 50$ of income daily.

 

Not sure about your country but such money would make me somewhat happy and motivated to keep going.

 

 

Unfortunately donating makes modding stay as a hobby. Hobby that is extremely demanding.

 

Any amount of unexpected money is nice. I'm a content creator myself, if you didn't gather from my signature. While I may never ask for money for the content I create, it is set up for people to pay me, if they would like, and to pay me however much they would like. While being a fairly unknown artist the times I do get paid I typically know of because I was in contact with the person prior, but I have had a surprise visit of someone purchasing my content for $50. In fact, it's the most money I have earned off of the content I have created in a single day, and, it was so flattering and unexpected, it almost brought me to tears.

But, $50 isn't enough to quit my job, and ultimately that's what leads to a lot of abandonment on projects (even my own), which is not having the time to contribute to the project. Money can help this a lot, no doubt. And some money is ALWAYS better than no money. I, in no way, DISAGREE with Steams idea. It's more in principle that it begins to fall apart; From the lack of proper curation of the distribution of content, the cut they take, and all manners of other problems that causes this to be more of a problem. The reality is, modding will stay as a "hobby" (I hate using that word towards something that someone might be passionate about) until the developer can quit their job, or at the very least, significantly reduce their hours, to make time for their own projects. Or you can tough it out like me, who makes minimum wage but still demands I only work 30 hours so I can have more free time for my projects...I'd rather struggle to get by but surround myself int he solace of my art than to live comfortably but be without my creation.

 

The donation idea is really just to show the existing mod authors (who still release their content for free or pay-what-you-want) that just because they do this, they shouldn't have their work appreciated. Instead, even if it's less than what they might make if they did put it up, it's the principle of standing for what you believe in, and that is something I want to support to the best of my ability. Of course, on all 4 forums I posted, I haven't had a single link posted so, just like the monetization of the Workshop, maybe this idea sounded better on paper, hahaha.

 

 

I think its a good a gesture , but no one will post links and such cause its too soon .  Not all mod makers are from the West the petty change means a lot to them if they are no so well to do.

 

When this whole thing came up for paid mods  , I too thought "Hey Look a way to make some $ and buy some better PC components and upgrade to a better system "  I was thinking about making some of my own animation replacers (Not using FNIS) , but the backlash has made think twice from doing so .

 

I'm Grateful to the people who donate , but .....,  I will send you a PM about my own experience with  donations that is  if you want to know , its not meant for all to hear 

[MrFlyte]

I don't really need to hear stories as to why or why not, lol. I understand some people don't accept donations: I don't. I will happily donate to a persons cause, but if someone were to donate to me, I would turn them down. I would rather give you some sort of goods or service in return for your money.

 

I believe if Steam can actually sort out the numerous complications around this, it can be a really good thing. But as of right now, no modders should support this due to what a breeding ground of filth and controversy it is. It needs to be regulated proper, with proper curation for mod authors. There should be price points to be expected for certain content, not some sort of godforsaken, "charge what you want" scheme that breaks down at it's core even at it's most fundamental level. Anyways, I hate to make this topic about more-or-less the same thing as the other thread on this topic in the forum.

 

Mainly I just want to support mod authors who have been doing it for free for a long time; I can't help to feel partly to blame as I never once even batted an eyelash at showing support for mod authors, regardless if they are going to charge or not, I went through my download history and donated to all the mod authors who uploaded mods I could not live without. I wish I could support more than that, but that was roughly $30 in total already, hahaha, and I made a promise here to donate to LL modders, and I do want to support those. While I am not entirely a fan of Sex Lab or the modules that can go with it, I do find it fascinating, and very much support the kind of work modders are doing. (and, godforbid, if someone saw my LO that I posted in my other thread and think I am a hypocrite because I have SL and Defeat installed: I had it installed to test it out. The short of that story is that I didn't really like it)

[KristyllLascivicious]

I'm very much in the same mindset as the OP currently.  It's tough trying to evaluate which mods to deem as "necessary" or "can't live without."  I've got basically 200 in the load order which would qualify, and frankly, I don't have the kind of money to go spending even a dollar on each.  The sad reality is that most of these mods are absolutely fantastic and should deserve to profit.  It's just really hard to determine which of these mods do, and how much to give or what's "appropriate."  Sure, I could give these mod authors like ten cents each per mod, but that just feels more like an insult and ultimately fueling the whole mentality of obligatory payments for the sake of money than just being thankful and being passionate about the game and the community as a whole.

 

At the very least, what has happened is that a lot of people are now thinking about the morality and economic concerns tied to compensation for mods and its pertinence to the community and collaboration we see as a whole.  It's that whole modder intention thing all over again; who "deserves" payment?  Are metrics alone indicative of how much money these people should be making, or how entitled they should feel to compensation?  Is it reasonable to pay for each mod when so many people have downloaded, tried, and use so many?  At what price?  We have a lot of questions and doubt floating around, and I'm not sure if any of these can really be answered objectively or equally by everyone.

 

That said, I think at the very least, we need to just be appreciative of our modders.

[stalfos81]

Mod authors do deserve appreciation. But not all users have disposable income to donate to them.

 

So show support in ways you can. Good feedback, helpful suggestions, words of encouragement, proper error/bug reporting. Not all support has to be monetary, There are multiple ways to support modders, but to put up a paywall, may kill it for those with fewer resources. Especially, if they heavily mod their game (close to 400 mods for me)

 

I am almost completely bored with skyrim to be honest, but I lack the funds to get a better system for newer games. So I mod skyrim to make it new again,

 

I've ,ade a few mods for my own enjoyment, and shared them with the world. A patch or 2 for other mods. I know I don't have the talent to be a developer, or the money to support mod authors. So I give back with what I can give. The mods I've made for myself, and good natured respect for those who do have the talent.

[MrFlyte]

I'm surprised to see this topic back up again.

As I had mentioned: The idea was for that those who do have money the share should (if they really appreciate the work that is) and its not that those who don't donate are unappreciative.

 

On the otherhand, when it comes feedback and the likes: I thought I agreed with this until just a few moments ago when I got jumped by like....5 different Nexus users telling me why the bugs I was reporting were wrong, or my fault....even though I had compiled a video that clearly showed the bugs I were experiencing were minor things that had to do with either the placement of objects (floating objects), weird lighting, or things related to the meshes included (such as improper collisions)...god forbid the people who blame me for not reading the 10 chapter, 2000 paragraph mod description and the 10 stickies on the mod would actually not take the time to watch the couple minute long video to realize I wasn't full of crap XD Oh, dear hypocrisy. Anyways, stuff like that makes me want to go back to just being the anonymous mod-user who neither endorses nor comments on mods. But I suppose that might have just been the rare exception.