"Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers," Newell said in a Reddit Ask Me Anything thread. "If something doesn't help with that, it will get dumped. Right now I'm more optimistic that this will be a win for authors and gamers, but we are always going to be data driven."

"The goal [of paid mods] is to increase the total investment the community makes in extending its games," he said. "We thought we were missing some plumbing that was hampering that."

Valve's new modding program launched on Thursday only with Skyrim (other supported titles will be announced in the coming weeks), but it's already caused a great deal of controversy. Many players are saying that Valve is greedy for allowing modders to sell work that was previously free, and one mod's been removed after claims that it contained the work of another modder.

Read More by clicking the link

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/gabe-newell-says-valve-will-dump-paid-mods-if-they/1100-6426893/

What do you all think about paid mods so far? Was Skyrim being removed a sign to come?

It should have been dumped by now.

Not sure how I feel about this,

On the one hand modders can now revive payment for their hard work and dedication, on the other this could result in widespread use for modders overcharging for little to no content like pallets swaps and skins ect.

It could have been a good little earner for those modders that are really good but there are 2 problems :

1) valve and publishers taking most the money
2) modding has been free for years

The modders get paid laughably little. It's pretty much only good for Valve.

It should just be dumped except for the donation option

They should really just make it optional and make it so you donate to the modder and not the mod itself

The fact that the people that put in 100% of the work and costs into making the mod get 25% of the revenue just seems like a moneygrab. Then you add in the goverment's share of that 25% and it's crazy just how little they'll be getting.

If they can dissuade the abundance of low-quality mods, while being able to maintain a service filled with great mods, that'd be nice.