Valve might have already decided to ditch its paid mod initiative, but there’s still plenty of debate on the subject. ModDB founder Scott ‘INtense!’ Reismanis has weighed in with his own take on the issue, pointing out both the positives and negatives of charging for community-created content.
Though he believes that paid mods will lead to ”more content, better content and well supported content” in the long run, and will encourage developers to provide more support for their games, Reismanis accepts that there are a few major concerns that need to be addressed if any such system is to work. Put simply; the prospect of money changes things.
”Money will put enormous pressure on modders,” he explains. ”Want to collaborate but don’t know how to share the profits, or don’t want profits? It’ll be hard to compete with teams that have money, so you will be forced to take less risks and a lot of the incredible creative work we have experienced in the past may be lost to make something safe and simple.”
Reismanis’ other concern is that we will end up drowning in a tide hats and other cosmetic trinkets, much like Team Fortress 2 already is, with modders pursuing the quickest, easiest way to make a buck. Total conversion mods will disappear, he argues, as the issue of how money is distributed tears teams apart. Scammers and plagiarists will try their hand in hope of an easy pay day, and ”freedom of speech will be difficult to protect when money is involved and the sharks are circling”.
Despite those concerns, however, Reismanis accepts that companies like Valve need to explore the concept further, and though he promises that ModDB will never host paid-for mods, he believes that sites like his can potentially co-exist with different payment models.
”We need to be understanding that growth may come at a cost, and to approach all change with an open mind,” he concludes. ”Doing so as a community and our voice will continue to be heard. We also need to encourage game developers to keep their mod platforms open, and for modders to share their work everywhere they can (Steam, Nexus, Curse, ModDB etc). In this scenario Valve can experiment and attempt to make installing mods easier and ask users to pay for the convenience, and we can continue to offer an alternative that is free and open forever.”
