IF they will have user made content that costs money on Steam I will not mod for Skyrim. Simple as that. I really hope that is out of question though.

I would comment but I will just qoute JDFAN instead,

Well that would be a terrible thing, wouldn't it? I don't know how I'd get to sleep at night if I knew you weren't out there modding.

The benefit of them having a bunch of good mods at their disposal is that they may be able to then take those more popular mods, scan them over and convert them to (possibly) free DLC for the 360 players. Of course if I was a 360 player I would say screw that, I'd buy a PC capable of playing Skyrim and I would convert my 360 save files to the PC so that I could still play my characters. Then I could mod to my heart's content. Of course, I'm already a PC player so I don't have to worry about that.

I will not mod either.

I hate to say it and it is all very nice that people are giving Steam/Bethesda the benefit of the doubt...I just hope that people can see that the logical reason for this move is to make money from previously free user created content. This is a trend that has been moving into all modding communities recently and already larger sites have cast covetous eyes on the free large TES modding communites. Why do you all think Gmod and Curse made sudden appearances and even attempted to throw cash at modders to lure them away. It is no coincidence, it is the start of this move to paid for mods.

I am not saying that overnight all our mods will be pay for mods. This is the start, it may progress fast or slow.

The mods will still be free but they will rake in money from all the adverts they plaster all over the download pages and with pop-ups for games Steam is selling. Its all about the $$$.

In the comments on their blog they have said there are no plans for the 360.

Actually, your blatent rudeness aside, Phitt just so happens to be one of the very best modders, period. You may not give an expletive, but I assure you that the community would be deprived of some incredible mods.

And I'd add that there are many other experienced modders out there that feel the same way and losing all of them may not kill the modding scene but it definitely will not improve it !!

What I'm currently expecting is basically an alternative to Nexus + Nexus Mod Manager: A new host to download mods, along with a tool to manage mods, both being completely optional.

I don't expect that Bethesda will be turning selected mods in official DLC: Valve can do this with hats and such because those items are simple: They test the items ingame for 5 minutes and know if it's working. Bethesda doesn't have the time or resources to anolyze something as immensely complex as Skyrim .esp mods for potential issues.

But we'll see, I'm sure we'll get more info later this month.

As far as I know trolls don't sleep at night anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem for you.


Well, I'd be fine with that. That's how it is on Nexus as well after all. Even Steam has to pay server bills and if thousands of people download a 100mb mod that costs money. But if I have to pay for a user made mod I'm out. I'm not interested in getting 5% commission for my own mods either when I did 100% of the work. Modding was always about sharing stuff you made because you wanted to make it for me. If money comes into play it will destroy the spirit of modding imo.

What means incorporated and sales share?
lol if Ican gain by making mods then I am all for it lool .....

And actually thinking of it this may also mean that if some mods are screened and incorporated into the game then means also on Xbox may appear ....

It may just be as simple as the nexus being outside of bethesda's control while at the same time they understand that mods and modding are what keeps the game truly alive. Since they have have clearly stated they are putting more effort into post-release support than in previous titles it makes sense that they offer their own mod hosting/distribution system. While they may have said there are no plans for 360, it looks like a standard packing format and approval process are critical foundational requirements for eventually making community mods available to other platforms.

And in any case, another mirror can't be a bad thing right? If you don't want to support it, there's no reason to change your pre-workshop-announcement plans. However it goes the nexus will still be home base for me... I honestly don't see how the workshop can compete without changing the rules and alienating the community horribly.

The thing with Portal 2 and TF2 is that, with both games being multiplayer (the workshop is not related to Portal 2's single player) there is no way to mod in new hats and stuff for free. So when modders make new stuff, it has to be approved by Valve to be put in the game. There isn't a TF2Nexus type of site. At least that's how I understood it.

This isn't the case with Skyrim. Skyim mods don't have to be officially approved since it's not a multiplayer game, everyone is free to install whatever mods they like and get them from whichever site they like. So I don't see how Bethesda could charge people for mods, on PC at least.

And then there's the testing this as I mentioned in my last post. A TF2 hat is easy to test for bugs, a large gameplay overhaul isn't. If Bethesda would charge for a mod, they'd have to be absolutely sure that this mod doesn't have any big issues. And they don't have the time to anolyze complex mods to see if they're okay.

The problem is that you won't make much from your mod. This 'make money from your mod' thing is a con. You would need an insane number of downloads before you even get anything you could remotely call compensation for your work. However Steam and Bethesda will be raking it in from your mod.

This is what happened to the Sims community. It started with the spirit of sharing, then it became about charging for mods and the community got nasty, seriously nasty. Accusations of theft, hacking each others websites, no sharing and on and on......

In the seven years I have been part of this TES community it has been about the free sharing or ideas/knowledge/work and about fun and community. Introduce money and that goes out the window. What you get instead is people hogging the resources they created so others don't make money off them, people no longer sharing information because that modder could produce a more popular mod, less quality mods and a broken community. Modding becomes a competition.

@Sirkorgan,

The unfortunate truth is that when someone percieves something as being successful and potentially profitable, they will take steps and attempt to make that thing theirs. MS is one of the larger parties guilty of this in the electronic arena. Beth so far has treated it very well, despite the potential for making lots of money with it via advertising and DLC placement. If it doesn't hurt the way the players and modders have interacted in the past, and costs nothing for any involved party, then let them surge forward with it, I say. Still going to be keeping an eye on it, whichever way it goes.

They charged for horse armor. Nothing from them will ever surprise me again.

That said...

There's got to be some reason we still don't know about. Something with $
involved somehow. Why else would they go through all the hassle of doing
this in the first place. Nexus, has always worked great, now better than ever.
So there's no real need for any other way to distribute/host mods. There's
something fishy about this whole thing.

I don't like the idea of mods being spread out all over. Right now 99% or so
(whatever %) is on the Nexus. Will just be harder as a user to track them
if spread all over.

I doubt the steam distribution will change things much. It will make things a little easier for newbies to download and install mods. Conversely, a lot of the more complex mods won't play nicely with the steam installer (just look at the problems with BAIN/OMOD stuff using Tesnexus' installer) so a lot of the more expeirenced modders and mod users won't use the steam portal at all. There will be a split in the mod player-base but hopefully it won't get in the way of creativity and collaboration.

Has steam stated whether they will be allowing mods containing advlt content? That could be a potential public relations disaster if someone like Fox News found anything risque.

Good Lord! The world is really coming to an end in 2012, isn't it!?

I'll stick with TesNexus and TesAlliance and hope that the money-making stays on Steam.

I've written a pissed post on this same forum after reading that post, which has comments closed (after letting in some really devoted fan comments).

If they still allow other platforms to deal with mods...well...no problem with that. But given their approach with the game (they forced down our throat that CRAP), I really don't think this is the case.

If, like it's likely, they will force that CRAP down our throat, they're a BUNCH OF MORONIC IDIOTS!

I'm just asking Matt to provide me with some clarification on the "money for mods" thing. The initial response seems to be that this will be a completely free system (e.g. you won't pay for any mods except Bethesda's DLCs), but I'm just trying to get a little more clarification before confirming that.

Worst case scenarios for me is:

Censoring what you can do with the CK. I.E Saying you CAN'T make nvde mods, Steam or Nexus.

And randomly profitting off a modders hard work, and barely giving them anything, and turning the modding community into a competition.

Oh what a sad day this is.

I don't like Steam.. Period. Just glad they are allowing 3rd party sites to host mods. That makes up for it. Let them deal with the STEAMER.

I think the OP has vastly over estimated how upset people are with steam. Most don't care.

nvde mods and other replacers don't even require the CK and are available on Nexus already. There's no way for them to censor those. Maybe they won't allow advlt mods on their own mod hosting service, but there's no way they can detect whether a body replacer downloaded from Nexus has naked pixels.