RE: Steam jumps the shark

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RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/28/2015 5:17:27 PM

aaatoysandmore

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Due to the huge outrage word has it that Steam is pulling the plug on money for mods program. Hurray for petitions and the people.

(in reply to Eambar)

Post #: 31

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 4:00:49 AM

marcpennington

Posts: 335
Joined: 1/31/2011
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As I understand it, Steam is re-evaluating. But it seems to be a feature that will still come in the future, hopefully with all kinks worked out.

Out of curiosity, is there any official position by Matrix on paid for mods created by users? The obvious one being that someone creates a new scenario in one game or another, then wants to charge a nominal fee for it. And honestly, given how high quality so many user scenarios I've played over the years are, I personally wouldn't have an issue with it. And if a certain price paid allows these modders to create even better and more accurate scenarios, well again, it might be win-win. Honestly, I could see it as being the future of the niche war-gaming hobby, and probably in practice bouncing back more money to Matrix (or any other wargaming company) in the long run.

Just to establish my position, I'm not a scenario designer, nor will I ever be. I just don't have the patience to wade into the OOB's and such, but do appreciate many of the "modders" who have done that over the past, and I have very much enjoyed many scenarios they have created in one wargame or another.

(in reply to aaatoysandmore)

Post #: 32

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 9:48:47 AM

IainMcNeil

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Joined: 10/26/2004
From: London
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From a legal stand point any mods created for games cannot be sold without the game developers/publishers permission, but we've worked with a lot of modders over the years to help them become fully fledged developers. For example the Panzer Corps Grand Campaign designer start out as a modder and we recruited him. The Lordz started as modders and we recruited them too. A number of the developers we work with used to be modders. The idea of paid mods is interesting and I think could generate higher quality mods, but there is the danger of quality control. You really need a user rating before you allow them to be sold unless the developer is going to sign them off which is too time consuming. There is also potential backlash if the game changes code which breaks a mod people paid for and who is responsible to fix this? Its a bit of a can of worms really but if done right could be interesting.

_____________________________

Iain McNeil
Director
Matrix Games

(in reply to marcpennington)

Post #: 33

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 10:05:25 AM

zakblood

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Joined: 10/4/2012
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all those who paid have had a full refund, so fuss is all over now tbh, and never should have happened anyway but in there comments they said as such and also said it was a big mistake...

(in reply to IainMcNeil)

Post #: 34

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 4:07:34 PM

marcpennington

Posts: 335
Joined: 1/31/2011
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Those are interesting comments on who has the responsibility to keep the game up to date and compatible with paid mods---- especially as in the Steam experiment the game publisher was getting roughly 50% of the price, per the Rock Paper Shotgun article covering the debate.

I guess that makes it obvious why a game like Skyrim, which I imagine is at the end of its patch cycle, was chosen for the experiment. Also, maybe why an older game that Valve itself published (Halflife 2 or Portal for example) was not. But I really don't see an easy solution to the problem.

(in reply to zakblood)

Post #: 35

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 7:38:18 PM

gradenko2k

Posts: 935
Joined: 12/27/2010
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It's really a six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other kind of deal: any monetized modding scheme is going to need developer or publisher oversight to prevent it from damaging the rest of the game's community, and if you're going to do that, you might as well either license your game officially or fold the mod/modder into your company and it circles back around.

(in reply to marcpennington)

Post #: 36

RE: Steam jumps the shark - 4/29/2015 7:40:05 PM

Orm

Posts: 22154
Joined: 5/3/2008
From: Sweden
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iain McNeil

From a legal stand point any mods created for games cannot be sold without the game developers/publishers permission, but we've worked with a lot of modders over the years to help them become fully fledged developers. For example the Panzer Corps Grand Campaign designer start out as a modder and we recruited him. The Lordz started as modders and we recruited them too. A number of the developers we work with used to be modders. The idea of paid mods is interesting and I think could generate higher quality mods, but there is the danger of quality control. You really need a user rating before you allow them to be sold unless the developer is going to sign them off which is too time consuming. There is also potential backlash if the game changes code which breaks a mod people paid for and who is responsible to fix this? Its a bit of a can of worms really but if done right could be interesting.

Thank you for telling us this.