Nope, no paid requirements whatsoever, http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/id0jc/free_to_play_tf2_free_source_mods/

I routinely hit 5.5mb/s on Steam, make sure your DL location is properly set. (Also not set to an overloaded server)

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Installation

The Source SDK is freely available to all Steam users.

I believe this is all in reference to TF2 items, Dark0ne, which the contribution site started off for in the first place.

By the way, thank you for your amazing contributions to the modding community. You are a fantastic human being.

That isn't even...

And one of the newest tricks in the book is customer relations. Be good to your community and they'll come back for more later. Valve does it, and Bethesda is attempting to right now, unless the fear-mongers here have anything to say about it.

Maybe it will all be good, but for the third time tonight...they are not doing
this out of the goodness of their hearts. There will be money to be paid,
paid by us.

This was released on steam long before TF2 was free to play.



That isn't even...

I'm looking for clarification on that point. The Blog article states "Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button.", which doesn't suggest there won't be paid for content, just that there will be free content. Have I missed something? Am I reading in to it too much?

Why do people keep talking about the Workshop like they're going to be charging for mods? As far as I'm aware, Bethesda themselves haven't said anything to that effect, so I'd love an explanation on how/why we're going to get charged that isn't some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory [censored].

Be good to the community? this is the company that has twice now broken our game and then stonewalled us, this is the company who tell lie after lie to the community in the lead up to a games release and this is the company who called modders "hackers" when that texture was found on the Oblivion disk and the game had to be re-rated. What does this company have to do before people see them for what they are? burn down your house? This is about centalising mod distribution with a view to profiting from them in the future, there is a lot of money to be made here, why do you think Curse have been throwing money around trying to attract modders?

Bethesda didn't even bother coding a proper UI for the PC version of the game yet now they're doing this out of the kindness of their hearts? yeah right.

Why do people keep talking about the Workshop like they're going to be charging for mods? As far as I'm aware, Bethesda themselves haven't said anything to that effect, so I'd love an explanation on how/why we're going to get charged that isn't some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory [censored].

It's all a conspiracy, man. The big corporations just want our money, man. We've got to resist, man! I've seen it before, man! I've seen terrible, terrible things before, man!

Because the terms and conditions of Steamworks, the platform Bethesda are using, say exactly that and Bethesda haven't said anything to the contrary.

Steam Workshop – We’re excited to share news that we’ve been working closely with Valve to integrate Steam Workshop into the [free] Creation Kit. Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button. The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You’ll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone. Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed. Everyone here is really excited about the opportunities and possibilities this opens up for our entire community.

Prefer to use existing modding sites? Not a problem. You’ll still be able to upload/share/access Skyrim mods on fan-created mod sites.

Indeed. For the coming Bethesda-made DLC's and TES 6, because Bethesda is awesome enough to support the modding community, which pleases us customers. That's where the money will come from, and that's win-win for everyone.

There's nothing pointing to paid mods, absolutely nothing, there's only paranoid speculation.

Why do people keep talking about the Workshop like they're going to be charging for mods? As far as I'm aware, Bethesda themselves haven't said anything to that effect, so I'd love an explanation on how/why we're going to get charged that isn't some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory [censored].

You can't be serious? Oh he gets less traffic that's a good thing! No, that's a horrible thing. Sure it becomes less expensive to run, but it also equates to less money coming in (less visitors less money, that applies to almost everything). Your example is like saying, man I hope they open a Walmart (official) across from a Mom+Pop store (unofficial). That way more business leaves the Mom+Pop store meaning I can get in and out faster! That would also put the Mom+Pop store out of business...Now that might not be 100% accurate because we don't know if mods will cost money on Steamworks yet, but it is close enough. TESN came around as a better alternative and look what it did to the other site. It didn't pop up out of the kindness of the guys heart so the other website would get less traffic. Its called fragmentation and people will gravitate to the best version. If anything, this could be bad for the Nexus.

Huh? What?

So you're saying, because they made all Source mods totally free when they made TF2 free, Source mods actually aren't free because at one point in time they weren't?

Yes that awesome Bethesda was also kind enough to lie about the PS3 version of the game, refuse to ship it to some reviewers, ignore problems with the game until people finally became to vocal, release patches that broke more than they fixed, and delay DLC for PC and PS3 because Microsoft paid them more money. Yeah, that sounds like a totally awesome company that truly cares more about its fan then the money it can make. The thing pointing towards paid mods is the common rules of business, IE: You spend time on something, you make money of said thing. Now I could be COMPLETELY wrong. I'm not saying Bethesda will charge for mods immediately. Maybe this is one big grand scheme to get free DLC for consoles users and increase sales of PC copies, but I think that sounds more far fetched then charging for some mods.

Is your download location set correctly?

Yes that awesome Bethesda was also kind enough to lie about the PS3 version of the game, refuse to ship it to some reviewers, ignore problems with the game until people finally became to vocal, release patches that broke more than they fixed, and delay DLC for PC and PS3 because Microsoft paid them more money. Yeah, that sounds like a totally awesome company that truly cares more about its fan then the money it can make. The thing pointing towards paid mods is the common rules of business, IE: You spend time on something, you make money of said thing. Now I could be COMPLETELY wrong. I'm not saying Bethesda will charge for mods immediately. Maybe this is one big grand scheme to get free DLC for consoles users and increase sales of PC copies, but I think that sounds more far fetched then charging for some mods.

Erm, what?

I am saying that when this was released on steam you needed a source game to play it. So it is not at all an invalid comparison.



If Bethesda is a greedy company solely out to get your money, why were the creation kits released for all the previous games which have brought zero direct income for them in the past?

They understand that these mods bring in more money and charging for them all of a sudden will do nothing but cause a ton of acrimony towards them.

As of today, it’s been three weeks since we released Skyrim worldwide. We’re simply blown away by the response, from new and old fans, and amazed by the sheer number of people playing the game. It’s been absolutely fantastic hearing your stories, seeing early mods, and watching fan videos (more live music ones please, we love those).

We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do. We wouldn’t have this success without you, and we want you to know we’re committed to making your Skyrim experience even better. And not just in the short term, but over the life of the game. Here’s a quick peek at what we’re working on right now:

Creation Kit — Beginning in January, PC players will be able to download for free the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim. In tandem with the Creation Kit’s release, we will roll out a new Wiki and videos to help you get started. It also features something we think you’re going to love…

Steam Workshop – We’re excited to share news that we’ve been working closely with Valve to integrate Steam Workshop into the Creation Kit. Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button. The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You’ll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone. Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed. Everyone here is really excited about the opportunities and possibilities this opens up for our entire community.

Prefer to use existing modding sites? Not a problem. You’ll still be able to upload/share/access Skyrim mods on fan-created mod sites.
Continued Game Updates – This week we released update 1.2 across all platforms, and we’ll be releasing an incremental update next week. We anticipate it will be up on PC first, and then hit PS3 and Xbox 360 later in the week. Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon. Once the update is released, we’ll share the full release notes.

After the holidays, we’ll continue to release regular updates for the game — through full title updates, as well as incremental “gameplay updates” to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits. We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few. Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that’s a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers.

We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this. To be safe, we are prioritizing code side fixes right now over data fixes. Quest and balance issues are usually data, and those will start rolling in a large way with the January updates.

Thanks again for your continued support and patience. We truly have the best fans in the world, and we couldn’t do it without you.

Yes, I'm serious. TESN isn't a mom and pop store, it is a 4 million hits a day operation. TESN did just fine back in Oblivion and Morrowind, when it competed with Planet Elder Scrolls (among other sites). Those other sites did just fine too. On the other hand, Nexus is currently the only popular website for Skyrim mods. SW won't replace TESN, it will provide a welcome mirror for downloaders, and perhaps marginally reduce DarkOne's insane server costs. As you said, he does this out of the goodness of his heart - I don't see how having to pay less for servers is a bad thing for him.

This isn't your local grocery store vs. Wallmart, it's Wallmart vs. Kmart.

You would have a point if they did those things on purpose, the Microsoft deal being the exception. So far Bethesda has one of the best track records of game companies in my opinion, if they really went for the money alone, they would have made Skyrim a multiplayer game, a lot more money could be made with that than selling mods.

Taking it multiplayer would of been a tremendous undertaking both technically, and in $.
It would also go against the whole TES thing in always been a single player experience.
Sell mods, that OTHERS make, and yet OTHERS distribute...pure gold. I like to get paid
too, and not have to do jack sh*t for it.

As of today, it’s been three weeks since we released Skyrim worldwide. We’re simply blown away by the response, from new and old fans, and amazed by the sheer number of people playing the game. It’s been absolutely fantastic hearing your stories, seeing early mods, and watching fan videos (more live music ones please, we love those).

We want to thank everyone reading this for playing our game and supporting all it tries to do. We wouldn’t have this success without you, and we want you to know we’re committed to making your Skyrim experience even better. And not just in the short term, but over the life of the game. Here’s a quick peek at what we’re working on right now:

Creation Kit — Beginning in January, PC players will be able to download for free the same development tools we used at Bethesda Game Studios to create Skyrim. In tandem with the Creation Kit’s release, we will roll out a new Wiki and videos to help you get started. It also features something we think you’re going to love…

Steam Workshop – We’re excited to share news that we’ve been working closely with Valve to integrate Steam Workshop into the Creation Kit. Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button. The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download. You’ll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone. Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed. Everyone here is really excited about the opportunities and possibilities this opens up for our entire community.

Prefer to use existing modding sites? Not a problem. You’ll still be able to upload/share/access Skyrim mods on fan-created mod sites.
Continued Game Updates – This week we released update 1.2 across all platforms, and we’ll be releasing an incremental update next week. We anticipate it will be up on PC first, and then hit PS3 and Xbox 360 later in the week. Among other things, the update will fix issues like magic resistance not calculating properly and the rare, amazing backwards flying dragon. Once the update is released, we’ll share the full release notes.

After the holidays, we’ll continue to release regular updates for the game — through full title updates, as well as incremental “gameplay updates” to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits. We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few. Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that’s a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers.

We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realized that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this. To be safe, we are prioritizing code side fixes right now over data fixes. Quest and balance issues are usually data, and those will start rolling in a large way with the January updates.

Thanks again for your continued support and patience. We truly have the best fans in the world, and we couldn’t do it without you.

If Bethesda is a greedy company solely out to get your money, why were the creation kits released for all the previous games which have brought zero direct income for them in the past?

They understand that these mods bring in more money and charging for them all of a sudden will do nothing but cause a ton of acrimony towards them.

Yes, I'm serious.

Yes that awesome Bethesda was also kind enough to lie about the PS3 version of the game, refuse to ship it to some reviewers, ignore problems with the game until people finally became to vocal, release patches that broke more than they fixed, and delay DLC for PC and PS3 because Microsoft paid them more money. Yeah, that sounds like a totally awesome company that truly cares more about its fan then the money it can make. The thing pointing towards paid mods is the common rules of business, IE: You spend time on something, you make money of said thing. Now I could be COMPLETELY wrong. I'm not saying Bethesda will charge for mods immediately. Maybe this is one big grand scheme to get free DLC for consoles users and increase sales of PC copies, but I think that sounds more far fetched then charging for some mods.