Paying for mods reveal the most Spoiled of Gamers
Hello, everyone. This topic was already covered briefly in my Piracy, Paywall, Public blog post, but I think it's about time I create a whole blog post about this seemingly controversial topic. Small disclaimer: this is all common sense. I didn't need to explain, but common sense is SO obscured today in the horde of drama media.
So, free mods. Yay! Lot's of people enjoy getting free stuff. But, what is the old saying we tell children? Too much gifting can create an entitled and spoiled child!
"Gimmi, gimmi, gimmi! I want it now! whaaaaaaaaaa!"
That's you guys. That's how some of you guys are when it comes to modding in videogames. We demand mods for free and standing against this is an injustice!
--Modding History
Well, let's take a pause and remember that in the history of gaming, modding has always been second hand questionable.
If something did not originate from the base game, then modding was always there with a raised eyebrow. Especially in consoles. I remember my older cousin use to drive us to a shop just so he could "JAILBREAK" his Xbox or Ps2, thus allowing for all sorts of pirated videogames, dvds, even allowing for some games to be modded like GTA San Anreas or Vice City.
Now, of course we don't need to cover Piracy again, but this real life example that did happen to many people in that time highlights that practices such as MODDING were always second hand installations. Thats why its called MODIFACTION. We have just forgotten that part in how gamers shorten and lessen the stigma with just "mods" or "modding."
But why? Why did people feel the need to physically modify their perfectly working consoles? It's because MODDING was always a legal taboo. Modding was NEVER encouraged by official companies. It was in fact, frowned upon. It was discouraged. It was viewed the same as Piracy in some companies. Using mods were the backdoor features that many sought out, but that companies always discouraged because of their unofficial tampering and the always dangerous risk of breaking your gaming consoles. In fact, to the legal law, modification was viewed in the same practice AS piracy(which it was being used in most cases). And we all know how deep piracy laws go in counterfeits and reselling goods.
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So, this is all just a brief example that Modification has its roots in the sketchy unsupported practices of videogames, and that has never changed! If a gaming company DOES NOT support you modifying their game, then it's still discouraged. If a gaming company DOES support you modding their game, then it's encourage.
Have gamers forgotten that? Or do new gamers just not know this history?
Because mods are MODIFACTIONS, they still stand as being unsupported features. Features that can break your game, features that may cause way more bugs, features that make them modifications and not official implementations. Mods are always the amateur production while the official game is the professional production; of course there are some modders that aren't amateurs, but they are the few to the majority that is public modding.
Thus, because modifications are never officially sponsored, in it's history it's a no brainer that mods in the past have been STRICKLY free for obvious legal reasons. You know what hasn't been ever free? Paying that over the counter price to jailbreak your console. Yeah, not always free modding huh?
This illegal practice of unofficially modifying your game means that Modders were NEVER allowed to be paid, even if they wanted to. This has carried onto our current digital pcs where many Modders can only publish their mods for free, and tag their donation pleads on the side.
How does this affect gamers?
Well, when gamers download these sometimes incredible mods, they never once need to donate or pay a dime to the Modder!
It becomes easier and easier to say "Yeah, I'll get around to it. or Someone else will pay for me" EVEN WHEN AT WE KNOW WE DO HAVE THE CASH, BUT JUST CHEAP OUT BECAUSE IT'S FREE.
Modders have come a long way since jailbreaks when it comes to PC. They make their own programs, reverse extractions, make a whole bunch of tools and sometimes even offer free modding 3D assets to use.
All this while Modders are legally chained to not accept payment at the risk of being sued by the company they are modding from.
So because Modders are always legally unable to make money, and thus carry on with just asking for donations, what affect does this have onto the gamers?
SPOILED ATTITUDES! That's what happens. Not to all. But to the majority as vindicated by recent drama about modding and steam reviews, to the majority mods MUST stay forever free. Because how else will they keep their favorite modders in chains? If their favorite slave modder were able to get officially paid, then that means some gamers will be forced to pay cash for their free mods! You know, cash. The thing we all need to survive in this societal world.
Gamers have gone to length to bad mouth not just gaming companies, but to actual modders that want to jump at the opportunity of finally making some income to support themselves.
Gamers have used so many excuses from, "it's just a hobby, so work for free" to "money taints the creativity" to "paywalls are a scummy move" etc.
Gamers live in this self entitled world, and its so hard to change given their past.
There's a reason why in most other sites, new content isn't posted until someone makes a commission. If no one commissions, then no one gets any free stuff. Because among people, people KNOW that they aren't slaves and if you want someone to do anything, then you have pay them!
Gamers aren't aware about this as much. I would love for more gamers to say"please someone make this mod. I want it. So someone please commission to make it happen!"
But Gamers will most likely never get that cornered. Not when there is a willing community of modders that knowingly or unknowingly continue on their donation leashes. The environment is set and gamers will remain with some form of entitlement through all this and continue to hide under their "its a hobby, so do it for free."
I know, as a modder myself. I was more than happy to release free mods starting out. I was just testing the waters if I could actually mod something, just as most release free stuff for the casual enjoyment. BUT, when you finally learn how to mod at a more higher quality than just a simple farmhouse, it would be nice to get some income for the free labor if it means I will have financial support to make even more and better refined mods.
That's what gamers don't understand. That by supporting modders you're allowing us to make even better mods in the future. Not all of us have financial freedom, a sugar daddy, a trustfund, or even a well paying job. Some of us don't even have a job! We could have been laid off, could have been fired, could have a disability, could have a family situation, so many factors that never get heard because people just say "get a job if you want money because mods are a hobby."
Yeah sure, it turns out if label anything as a "hobby" you're allowed to not ask for money.
That's the thing about money. Modders can be jobless, and people that mod their games can be jobless. And either one will always attack the other. When it comes to money, only those that have it can spend it. But, just because you can't afford something doesn't mean it's time to raise your pitch forks and declare anarchy on the entire practice of world economics.
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Bethesda is a better company than you think
So....all this brings us today. The most insane situations have occurred. THERE ARE ACTUALLY COMPANIES THAT ENCOURAGE THE PRACTICE OF MODDING NOW.
Not all. Good luck with your modding projects if you want to mod Nintendo or Rockstar games!
But, Bethesda is one of the spearing gaming companies of our time that is actually always supporting their fanbase projects.
AND YET, THEY ARE THROWN UNDER THE BUS FOR ANY SINGLE PETTY REASON BY GAMERS!
It just baffles me. How this game company goes out of their to not only support unofficial mods, but also release their own engine for us to make mods!
Toxic gamers have successfully spun this generosity around by saying "Bethesda releases empty games and expects modders to fix it!"
Oh! I have such a hatred to these gaming trolls. SHUT UP. They release their full games AND a modding engine, and people have the AUDACITY to slander them! Since when do gamers now get the entitlement to say such things? Mods are extra and we all know it.
Take Elden Ring, for example. In my opinion, it is an empty game with a large open world with few npcs and scattered monsters. The pros about that game is its art design, its level designs, and its awesome boss fights. But it's still packaged within a very empty open world. So, why aren't people complaining about Elden Ring's design as much as they jump to call Skyrim, Fallout, or Starfield as empty worlds? If any of these games, ER, Skyrim, Fallout, Starfield got mods, then its a bonus isn't it? All those games are finished, but mods would be the icing on top. I would personally want more npcs in my Elden Ring, but I'm not going to go online and bad mouth FromSoftware and say "YOUR GAME IS SO EMPTY WITHOUT MODS."
Why? Because I know mods are just extra add ons. Any of the games above are already finished on launch, so I have no reason to start a tantrum.
Some gamers also say, if the game's are finished then why the updates? In which I have always reminded gamers that updates are extra. They're modern bonuses. All those games we grew up with never had this privilege of getting their bugs fixed or getting new content over night! Updates are for our current games. Take Cyberpunk for example, it was a finished game on launch. Story was there, side missions, everything! What did updates do? Simply bring in new content like the EdgeRunners update. Some updates brought misc bug fixes, but overall. Is Cyberpunk 2.0 a different game than Launch? No. It's still the same except 2.0 move around its perk system and brought in a new feature such as cars with guns and so forth. NEW FEATURES. Those are what updates and dlcs are.
So, this is a long way of saying, shut up about "MODS FIXING EMPTY GAMES" the games are finished, you dang adult babies. That's right. call them what they are that make these drama tantrums.
Now we are in a unique setting because gaming companies are beginning to even support fan made mods, and not just that, allowing these fan mods to get LEGALLY paid. No more needing to do sketchy paywalls or be forced to depend on charity donations.
Now modders are able to get PAID. What's the big difference? The majority NEVER even donate. Let's just be real about that. Even in real life, those that have the option to donate rarely do if the payment was given as an option.
As a modder, with their own donation link. I can assure you from my own personal experience that NO ONE has donated to me in all the time I've been making mods. And that's just me, more notable modders probably get a lot more, like maybe 1 to 15 more people that donate. That's still 1-15 out of what? Thousands and millions that download a single mod?
If it weren't for the support of NEXUS MODS, who by the way, go out of their way to make sure modders get financial support, I would be doing even worse today. Nexus mods has a donation system that shares any income across ALL modders. That means, when gamers dont want to pay, but the few that do which donate tip that donation by spreading it among ALL modders. That means everyone that has earned any financial support from donations on NEXUS MODS has been made by those that DO DONATE. Maybe they didn't donate to me directly, but they donated to someone else. But they still donated!
This is such a heart warming system. Because if it were up to GAMERS and their angelic donation philosophy, most modders will not receive anything because, surprise, most Gamers don't donate! Just like in real life. But those that do donate, are still there. The proof is in the statistics.
In the Nexus Mods donation philosophy, to make up for all those that DONT BOTHER to donate, they made it so that those that Do ACTUALLY DONATE to be more of a significant impact by spreading their donation through out the rest of us. And yet, it's going to be the MAJORITY OF GAMERS that have the audacity to complain about paid mods, about not wanting to support modders to actually get paid.
Because the difference with donations and paid mods is that donation mods are almost always unpaid to the Modder when you download their mod, but with paid mods there is a 100% certainty that modders will get paid when you download their mod.
Donation mods = starving modder. Paid mod =no starving modder.
Nexus mods is a VERY great example that our Gamer's philosophy is so wrong! Because despite Nexus mods being free, they still work to make sure the Modders aren't treated as slaves when it comes to those few that donate and the many that don't!
But now we have companies like Bethesda that say, "come on over, upload your mods, we won't sue you. actually, we'll make it legal for you to finally get paid"
yet Spoiled gamers hate that! They hate having any of their slave modders on a paycheck. Why? Because Gamers love their free mods, but hate having to pay for it. It's entitled attitude 101.
How bad has it gotten? It's been so bad that Gamer's are saying things like "HOW DARE YOU. MY MODS SHOULD ALWAYS BE FREE" aka ("I'M CLAIMING OTHER PEOPLE'S MODS AS MY OWN THEREFORE I SAY THEY SHOULD BE GIVEN FOR FREE!"). That there is entitled 101.
I would love to paste here some examples, but it's been long since I've seen those videos, but there are plenty you can watch yourself if you just go on youtube and look up the horde of youtubers that are mad about paid mods and what they all selfishly have in common --slave entitlement without community support. People expect free stuff from the community but don't themselves support those that do contribute.
Others have said, "if you want to get paid, then just do Game Development and leave my Hobbys alone!."
Which is a no brainer thought to those that are Modders. How do you think people become Game Developers? By behind previous cooks and janitors? Most people that are Modding are already developing their experience in gaining game dev skills whether that's making 3d models, scripting, level design, etc. Again, who said modding was a hobby that wasn't meant to be paid? Most hobbies get paid if people simply turn the lights on and sell their content.
Again, this just leads me into the duality about our economic world. Those that do things for free as a hobby, that's great for them. Maybe they have a good job, but most likely they have some form of spoiled attitude because NOTHING IS EVER GIVEN FOR FREE. Those that do give away for free are often adamant about this lifestyle because they are already well off. But reality has sacrifices in order to provide free stuff.
Those that understand their value, their time, and their work, are much less willingly to be a sucker and work for free. Why? Because bills need to be paid, life is always expensive.
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You know what, I'm going too deep explaining the abcs of why money is important.
Just say, if you're broke, then stick to any free mod that's available and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
If you're not broke, then go and browse the paid mod sections.
One wants to do away with economics simply because they demand free stuff, and the other lives in the real world and doesn't attempt to abolish broke people. Yet, it's always broke people that find anything with a pricetag offensive.
Life has both options, and NO ONE should be demanded to be slaves to do Free Labor.
