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[Survey] Helping out a student. Paid mods: yay or nay? (Patreon)

Published:
2024-02-14 09:44:20
Imported:
2024-02
Tags:

Poll

[Survey] Helping out a student. Paid mods: yay or nay?

  • Yes, I think existence of paid mods would be a good thing 18
  • Yes, but not all mods should be paid for 265
  • Maybe, I don't have an opinion 31
  • No, I think mods should be free 334
  • 2024-02-14
  • 648 votes
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Content

Hello everyone!

This time, the survey is a little bit different.

I am trying to help a Law student with their thesis. They are writing their work about Modding, and how paid mods affect the community.

I'd like to ask you for your opinion: Do you think allowing modders (lets use RimWorld as an example) to charge some courtesy fee for their work would be a good thing?

I encourage leaving comments about your opinion on the matter too. By leaving a comment you accept that the content of the comment may be used as part of the written work by this Student.

I personally have developed a professional opinion of my own, but please remember it is just an opinion and it absolutely doesn't mean we will ever be charging for RimWorld mods.

Being paid for some of the mods would ensure that we have a steady cashflow that can be spent on further growth. This in turn would allow us to devote more time to maintain and develop new mods, fueling further cash growth. The reason I said ‘some of the mods’ is because I still believe that anything smaller than a full, DLC-sized mod should be free for everyone to access. This ensures that those less financially fortunate can still benefit from something free.

Being paid for the mods, however, means that the service provided in such a mod needs to be professional. Players should expect constant bug fixes and customer support - as after all, the moment they pay for a product they become customers. I don't think many modders are capable of providing such a service - us included. This means that if such a thing was ever to exist on Steam, users should be able to refund mods even after playing more than 2 hours with them - because you never know when the bug is going to occur.

Comments

Anonymous

I enjoy making mods, despite myself being a student with no financial gain. The donation model such as patreon would be the best course for modders who are dedicated to their craft and want to make money off of their content. Some of the most prominent City Skylines modders have been given the chance to not only rely on patreon but also work with the devs on adding new DLC such as the content creator packs which add a crap ton of new content. Bethesda also has their creation club, which are unofficial paid content made by modders. These are great ways for devs to work with the modders, and benefit both the devs and modders with more money, even if it isn't that much, as well as engage with the community if given the chance. Those are great examples as to how modders could make more money if given the chance, as well as developers giving them a chance to enter the industry or at the very least network or for both parties to make some side money. However, I think that mods should remain free. As stated above, despite being content made by modders, are still officially endorsed by the devs, and are of an expected quality control, even if for the bethesda CC is not lore friendly and non-cannon. They are optional content that are no more or less DLC. Mods should remain free, as mods are an unofficial way for individuals to modify and make the game more fun or add new fixes and balances. Paid modding would only encourage a corporate or transactional environment that incentivizes profit over creative endeavors and projects. There is also a major issue with the fact that most modding communities have their most popular mods being Framework or bug patching/opimizations. A player having to pay $10 for Harmony for example would force many players to lose access to hundreds if not thousands of mods, including the entire Vanilla Expanded series. I doubt that VE series would be as popular nor you Oskar be able to get so many patreon supporters if your content was locked behind a paywall. And it would not even be your fault, but that of Harmony, one of the largest frameworks on the workshop that the VEF depends on. A player could potentially have to endure multiple glitches or bugs other players dont have to worry about because they have access to the paid bug patcher. I think paid mods are great in theory, but will ruin the modding environment and change incentives for modders new and experienced to be more financially focused. It will limit the player's options for mods, as well as their gameplay experience, as well as hurt other modders who do not conform into this atmosphere or who depend on frameworks like Harmony if it were to ever decide to become a paid mod. My advice is to connect with the community, have a patreon, and promote the idea for devs and modders to work on collab projects.

Sondre

My opinion is that the current system of voluntary payment through direct single donations or subscriptions is the most sustainable. Once a mod becomes "premium" it becomes a purchased product, making it fall under different laws and regulations. Such type of DLC is best handled with a direct partnership with the developers should they be willing and encouraging it.

Johnny Nielsen

I won't mind a small price of a few dollars. Though that scenario will have me do more careful considerations about using said mod. Being able to donate something of my choosing after having used the mod is preferred, as I can take my time to valuate the mod and it's influence on my game.

Rosemari

I think paying for a suite like VRE or VFE, where new additions are always added and fixes are offered isn't ridiculous, but nickel and diming on every mod would add up quickly - especially with all the mods I've seen that looked good on paper but didn't work out in game well.

Dominic Read

The limit should be accepting donations, ignoring the questionable legality of making money from modding a wide variety of games, modding is generally a voluntary and community driven activity and allowing people to expect payment changes the expectations and nature of it.