Valve is not really the bad guy in all this.

[calranthe]

(Yes mods I know there is other topics on the steam pay debacle please do not delete or group this with it)

What I say here will probably be a controversial point of view an opinion but that does not make it any less valid because it is not popular pitch fork rhetoric.

 

As the real details come out about this situation certain things come to light and please let me explain each of the statements that I make.

 

75% is fair

25% to the mod maker, 30% to valve and 40% to bethesda

 

30% is valve's normal cut for both game or dlc, so that is a 30% cut for being seen on a unique IP the steam client by more gamers around the world than anywhere else AND it has come out that steam even introduced a 5% optional, when you put up a mod for sale you can tag certain places as being intrinsic in the development of your mod and that 5% is shared between them examples include nexus so if a mod author thought that nexus was a place that deserves some of the money they get a share.

NOTE:that 5% does not come from the money to the mod author but from steams cut.

 

Bethesda's 40% we may bitch at them for releasing bugged games but the simple fact is if you look at the pc gamers landscape no other developer of games has given the mod authors tools and support they created the IP they developed the software, without them we arguably would not even have a community to bitch about . I personally have 800 hours in Skyrim, 2000+ in Oblivion and who knows how long in daggerfall and elderscrolls. 40% for use of an IP and building off another persons work is actually pretty cheap if you look at the industry as a whole.

 

Chesko walked into this with his eyes open, he was involved for months before this went public with both with high ups in valve and Bethesda they had many meetings and discussions and he would have been made aware of the terms of the agreement, after all lets remember he was to be the premier first ever on the front page dancing lights mod maker for this.

 

Valve has every right to keep the mods an author puts up, up even if the author wants them removed.

Lets say you or me buy a mod from an author on steam that is an agreement between a customer a publisher and the author a service being provided a sale of goods  as a customer you have rights. yes refunds are available but unlike a full game a mod is part of your install how does valve go about removing that mod from the customers computer without breaking skyrim or causing the pitchfork brigade to go up in arms, apart from that on a purely business side customers have rights.

 

When EA first created Origin they came to valve and tried to make them remove games like crysis and crysis 2 (in the end after about a year they came back as for sale items on steam) Valve said no, yes we will remove it from sale but every customer who bought them items through steam has the right to redownload them from steam and get patch support. Valve sided with customers over EA even.

 

It is so easy to say "poor mod author" when you take money for something it becomes business not hobby, if this had gone right then Chesko would have had prime time fame and be known as the first of a new breed.

 

The two biggest problems with the current system is following

1)Mod manager support, we all know steam workshop is a pain to work with and can really mess up your game, if this is to work we need steam workshop integration option in mod manager and organizer just like you can log into nexus from Mod organizer.

 

2)Quality of mods, the current system is open to abuse by people creating bad/cheap/stolen/copies a system far better than the 24 hour system of grace needs to be implimented, eve something like the steam curators who could review and check mods.

 

I know some will not agree with me and some hate steam on principle but I do not think valve is evil, it is in there benefit to encourage modders and paid items worked really well in team fortress 2 for both the authors and valve.

 

Or to take some thing Gabe himself pointed out over the weekend (lost the quote so putting it in my words)when some one on redit called him greedy.

Do you mean I am short term greedy or long term greed ?

Short term greed is usually a burn bridges make a quick buck thing and anyone impartial about valve will know this isn't true.

Long term greed is basically every business out there, you grow your market you encourage profit and you take your piece of the pie, if the market dies it makes no sense.

 

Thank you for reading and hopefully not hating me.

[DoctaSax]

there are threads about this, you know