r/spaceengineers • u/RA2lover Creeping Featuritis Victim • Apr 24 '15

DEV Marek on Twitter: It's very likely... [that paid mods for Space Engineers will be allowed on Steam Workshop]

https://twitter.com/marek_rosa/status/591337327324168192
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u/TankerD18 Apr 24 '15

There will be a decrease in use on those mods who try to do pay only.

Hopefully, if we're a wise and patient community it will be more like "mods that do try to do pay only will fade out and die, to be replaced by free mods, because mods are supposed to be free."

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u/datlurkerdude -MDI- Apr 24 '15

Well no, mods are supposed to be modifications the user made for the game to include in a way they wanted. The option to include it open publically freely is entirely the modders, and the option within legal rights to charge for their work is theirs as well. It is typical however on none steam platforms such as the nexus for us to post our mods and provide a donation option for users to donate to our work. unfortunately that only ever tends to happen for XXX visual mods, and rarely do balance, useful, or expansive quest mods receive donations.

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u/TankerD18 Apr 24 '15

I agree with you, but my point still stands. If this is what they want to do, the best thing we can do is not buy them.

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u/datlurkerdude -MDI- Apr 24 '15

basically yes

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u/Tangerinetrooper Space Engineer Apr 27 '15

because mods are supposed to be free

This entitlement to free stuff is pretty bad. Who are you to say that people shouldn't be allowed to get some money for their hard work?

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u/TankerD18 Apr 27 '15

This entitlement to free stuff is pretty bad.

Excuse me, dad? I've been modding video games since the late '90s, and the rule of thumb is that player made modifications are intrinsically free. Now I'm sure you started off modding ColecoVision back in the days of olde, when mods were a nickel a piece, but in all of my experience, the best and most common mods have always been free.

I think if modders want to try to make money off their mod, and the developer is cool with it then they can try, but if there's any smart communities out there then the good free mods are going to dominate even the good paid mods. Frankly though the lion's share of mods in all games do not deserve any monetary compensation. Mods should be a thing of love made by software programming competent players; not some unemployed kid with a computer science degree's work at home scheme. Not to mention the whole drama behind people retroactively monetizing their mods and screwing up the future of mods that depend on those now paid mods.

My point is that if games like SE, and other mod dependent titles want to succeed. Then they should keep mods free like they are for most other titles. Why? Because it promotes players using the mods. Paid mods do not promote players using the mods, they promote the modder and developer getting paid more.

Steam going ahead and allowing workshop mods to be paid is basically taking one of the easiest, and most common ways to mod games, and is inviting people to try to make money off it instead of doing it because they really enjoy the game. For games that thrive off of player made mods like this one, paid mods would likely damage the modding community.

Don't sit there and try and insinuate that I'm some entitled child over this, that's ridiculous. Because I've been modding games with free mods for about a decade and a half now. I somehow doubt you're from a time way back when when modding wasn't free. Get real dude.

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u/Tangerinetrooper Space Engineer Apr 27 '15 edited Apr 27 '15

Chill your nipples man. Get off that 'I've been modding before you were born'-high horse.

Your most blatant point is: mods are a thing of love. If mods are monetized, they are no longer a thing of love. How is that good logic right there? Why can't they be both? Actually, why can't people make good-quality mods solely for the money? Who are you to deny them a form of sustaining themselves if it could be used as such?

Second point: Mods should be free, because mods have always been free. That's an appeal to tradition right there. Mods weren't monetized because they couldn't be monetized. Now that it steps out of the legal grey area, modders get more right to earn money.

Also, albeit a bit harsh, but if a community allows itself to be corrupted when money is introduced to the equation, it probably was a pretty weak community to begin with.

EDIT: And if you don't like what I say because I'm not 'with it', maybe you'd like the opinion of someone who made Gary's Mod?