Bethesda and the awful E3

[JEMC]

pokoko said:

JEMC said:

Steam tried paid mods and Bethesda was the first to jump in. Then Steam, after the awful reaction from its users, backed off and made mods free again (tho it still says it has plans to monetise mods). It seems like Bethesda loved the idea and wants to try it for themselves, plus they won't have to share the money with Valve.

It's an awful idea that I hope fails.

Why hope it fails?  If you don't want the professionally made stuff then just stick to user created content.

We'll see how professional those mods are.

We're talking about a company that, while allowed mods for consoles, they didn't bother to find a way to prevent PC mods to be used on the console versions resulting in negative side effects. And on top of that, there were a lot of cases of PC modders finding their work "stolen" by other users who published them for console users claiming to be their own work, and when problems arrived (because those mods where designed for a PC, not a console) they blamed the original author and tried to get rid of the problem with an "ask XXX (original creator) to fix it".

And what was Bethesda doing while this happened? The answer is nothing. They were probably already thinking about this payed mods system.

I have zero confidence in Bethesda.

vivster said:

JEMC said:

Steam tried paid mods and Bethesda was the first to jump in. Then Steam, after the awful reaction from its users, backed off and made mods free again (tho it still says it has plans to monetise mods). It seems like Bethesda loved the idea and wants to try it for themselves, plus they won't have to share the money with Valve.

It's an awful idea that I hope fails.

How is it bad though? People underestimate the willingness of consumers to pay for quality content. I mean just look at Kickstarter or Patreon. I think paid mods are pretty great. Now they just have to find a way to do it right and most importantly convenient.

Maybe we need a unified platform rather than a system by a specific gaming company. An open marketplace for mods with a client that allows for easy modding.

As I said, I have zero confidence in Bethesda and what will this new business will mean for modders that don't want to take part on it.

Time will tell what happens but, given what we saw when Steam tried it, I'm not optimistic.