Honestly, I don't like it either... I am not saying that the modders shouldn't be paid for their work cause they certainly should be but it should be optional and not mandatory... Like a donation or a monthly payment that is entirely optional cause the issue with it is that for decades, we have enjoyed mods for free for better or for worse but then charging for something that has been free for so long is kind of nonsense cause of the issues that it will have

The reason being is that mods can have various issues in the future such as if the developer of the game updates the game, it can 100% wreck the mod and cause it to not work anymore and the consumer can't do anything but to hope that the modder will fix it.

On top of that, there will be a bunch of copyright infringement issues when modders clone stuff like Lord of the Rings into games which have gotten taken down in the past. So if a consumer pays for the mods and then the mod gets taken down after a week due to DMCA, the consumer will be fucked. Before, it was not as big of a case because it was considered "non profit" so the companies were more lenient but if people are making money from it, companies will take action if there is any form of copyrighted material and etc. And we are already having issues of other modders "borrowing" stuff from different modders and using it for their own and the list goes on

Valve fucked up imo. They should have introduced an optional payment system instead which goes to the modders and not a mandatory payment method that goes to the mod itself

And I really can't wait until they start charging mods for Mario skins and stuff cause Nintendo's lawyers will be over that like a whore over jizz

The only thing people should be complaining about is the absurd take away that valve gets. It's criminal that they want 75% of the revenue for content they had nothing to do with

The most Steam should get payed is a small amount for making the mod easily noticed and accessible. No more than 5-10%.

Being a console gamer, I would normally have no goat in this debate.

However, being a somewhat knowledgeable computer Salesman, I have this to say: PC gamers spend a lot of money as it is. I've never seen a group of people so nonchalantly shrug a $1300 laptop for the $1800 laptop. I've never witnessed a niche of gamers who are willing to spend an amount of money that was obscene and insulting to charge for an entire console wielding two new types of technology (comparing the GTX980 to the PS3 and its CellBlu-ray double whammy).

PC gamers will spend ridiculous amounts of money on their hardware for one main reason: because they can get away with not spending jack on games. Between piracy and steam sales, PC gamers spend less on actual games than they do on being nickel and dimed (Somebody say LoL?). So when you start up a service asking for them to pay for content that they very recently got for free... Well, you've no one to blame but yourself. Praise Gaben, amirite?

See I don't mind this as much because I don't go mod heavy on all my games, I don't go for every mod and even then I feel some modders deserve to be paid for the hard work and effort they put into their mods, those that are in it for a cheap buck won't make that cheap buck if their mods are shit and will only get muscled out by those that do make good mods both free and paid for and that's a good thing because eventually the bad cheap mods will get pushed back while the better mods take the spotlight.

Only bad thing out of all this is Valve/Bethesda taking 75%, Valve already take that much from TF2 creations as well as a cut for each game sold on Steam including the selling of cards and emotes which I find is more than enough for them so this is Valve getting greedy.

But this is just on Steam so really it;s not such a abd doom and gloom thing for PC gamers, just some but not all and even then there are mods for free scattered over multiple decidated mod sites like Nexus, not every modder is going to suddenly charge for their mods anyway.

I also can't wait for this to be taken in such a major bad way that it will be used for future ammo of "I don't like/want to get into PC gaming", I wouldn't even try going there with this.

I have no problem with this except that I won't spend any money on third party mods. I love PC gaming mainly due to the ability to have access to modding content and tools but I am unwilling to pay for it.

Call me cheap or whatever but I just won't. Of course I'm not going to fault Valve or any other company for enabling paid mods nor would I fault a modder for charging for their works. Just count me out on the usage of mods unless they are free.

Why a petition?? I mean if the market simply isnt there it will eventually go away.
Voting will always and forever will be done via ones wallet.

Bandwidth costs? Infrastructure costs?

Steam is currently getting 37.5% and the publisher/developer gets 37.5%. Then 25% for the mod developer. I would think 1/3rd each would be fairer. 

I have a semi-complex reaction to the paid mods idea. I disagree with the notion that modders should inherently be paid for their work: for decades, modders released content because they were passionate about the game and wanted to improve/change it, not because they saw this as a possible source of income. Simply put, you didn't mod a game because you wanted money, you did it because you wanted to make a game you cared about even better, and isn't that what it's supposed to be about?

The only thing I see that could potentially recommend payment for mods is that it will attract more skilled modders, who will thus deliver improved quality content. Of course, I think it equally likely that things will take a similar course as the "quality fast food" craze from a few years back: a small increase in quality, a large increase in chest thumping (and price), and then the quality gradually and quietly settles to where it was before, only now we're all paying an extra buck or two for that cheeseburger.

Ultimately, I think Twitch, Youtube, and other for-pay streaming services show us the dangers that can readily appear when money enters a space that was formerly done for passion alone: the Let's Plays and streamers of the world just aren't as good, in my opinion, as they were before some folks started treating it not as a hobby but as a passion. The recent bruhaha with Angry Joe tells me money, not joy, now guides more than a few streamers, an impression reinforced by how so many streamers make it a point to interrupt their playthroughs with thanks for people who donated/followed them. 

As someone who's been taking advantage of the mod scene for decades, I would hate to see PC mods take even a few steps in the direction of streaming. It wouldn't be the end of the world by any stretch, but I doubt it will be worth the extra cost - literal and figurative - that it will entail. In the end, I am wary and pesimisstic about this change. But it's going to happen anyways, if not now then soon, so there it is.

Paid mods! YES, of course, I'm all for it!

Ahhhh... these kinds of mods...

I guess it's fine if the modder wants to make money from his work. Although, I do hope most modders will continue to offer their mods for free.