My name is Robbie. I've published a handful of mods here on the Nexus. A few small mods, but one that I'm quite proud of, the Witchhunter Spells and Prayers Pack. Some of you may have played these mods, but most of you probably haven't, and I'm okay with that. I'm writing now to clarify my stance on paid mods.
I am 100% against the introduction of paid mods to the Steam Workshop. First and foremost: All of my mods will remain free forever. Any mods I make in the future will be free forever. They will be exclusively hosted on the Nexus for the time being, because it's the site that has done the best job of supporting this community, period. Furthermore, if you see any of my mods being sold on the Steam Workshop for money, please notify me immediately, because that means someone is using my work to scam people.
The Elder Scrolls modding community has a rich history going back nearly thirteen years. I haven't been a part of it as an author for very long, but I've been a member of this community for quite some time. This community was built on like-minded people coming together to learn, create, and play. Not for profit, but because we loved the games we played so much that we wanted to try our hand at leaving our mark on them, by creating content of our own. From tiny modifications to massive DLC-sized adventures, the Elder Scrolls modding community has always been about passion projects, creativity, and new ideas.
The concept of charging money for mods is intrinsically opposed to these ideals. I find this change to the Steam Workshop to be an outrageous misstep for Steam, and the modding community at large. I am disappointed to see already that mods are either being removed from the Nexus, or being updated only on the Steam Workshop, remaining locked behind a paywall if a user wishes to play the latest and greatest version of a mod that they may have been a loyal fan of for years.
This mod storefront on the Steam Workshop, and charging for mods in general, is a blatant slap in the face to the very spirit of this community. I will have no part in supporting it. I would encourage you all to think about these technical issues before making the decision to buy mods or to host your mods on the Steam Workshop for profit:
- - When you buy a game on Steam, you have a reasonable assumption that the game will be supported and function correctly. Mods have no such guarantee. In fact, if you pay for a mod that is later broken due to a game update or other such factors, you are simply out of your money.
- - Many mods are incompatible with other mods, no matter how well-made. Some things simply cannot work together. You could buy a mod only to find out later that it doesn't function with another mod that you have installed.
- - Some of the paid mods on that are on the workshop this very moment have dependencies on other, completely unrelated mods (SKSE, SkyUI, to name a couple) for full functionality. You'd be paying for a mod that doesn't work to its full extent (or at all, in the case of some SKSE-dependent mods) without a completely separate mod installed.
- - Even the pay-what-you-want model Valve has put in place has a minimum required cost. No option to make the mods free with optional payment for those who want to throw a few dollars the author's way exists.
And on top of it all, mod authors only see an insulting 25% cut of the profit, with the rest being divided between Bethesda and Valve. If you want to support somebody who has created a mod you love, I would encourage you all to do as many of us have done: Donate to the authors directly if they accept donations. And if they don't, support their mods by endorsing here on the Nexus, as well as simply talking about the mod and getting the word out.
Speaking as a mod author myself, I would never for a moment consider uploading my mods to the Steam Workshop at this point in time, much less having the audacity to peddle them for the hard-earned money of my peers or fellow members of the modding community.
To my fellow authors who have made much greater things than I ever have and likely ever will, I ask you this: Is the paltry 25% that Valve is offering us worth locking our mods behind a paywall? Is it worth locking away the mods that we created because we wanted to, expecting nothing in return? The answer for me is a resounding "no".
If you are against this model, make your voices heard. If you're an author, leave a note on your mod description saying that it's free and will always be free. If you're a user who doesn't create content, don't support this model by purchasing mods on the Steam Workshop.
I am glad to see that hundreds of authors have already made their opinions known in their mod descriptions here on the Nexus. No matter how small a mod is, I believe it's important that we let the people who download our mods know where we stand, one way or the other. We owe it to the people who have downloaded and played our mods, as well as to the people who might.
I'm not very well-known, but I feel strongly enough about this to write this rambling statement anyway. In closing, I hope anyone who reads this will consider all that I've said.
- Robbie922004
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