Opinions on Paid Mods?

[Ragingman2]

Hello minecraft modding community,

I am writing a school paper about whether game mods should be paid for, if anybody here has strong opinions I would love to hear them!

Specifically I would like to address several of the following questions:
Should a game modder be allowed to sell their work?
Should a game developer profit from a game modder's work?
Would paid mods increase the quality of content available?
Should creators of paid mods be required to meet certain quality or review guidelines?
Should creators of paid mods be required to provide support to people having problems with their mods?

Mods: I wasn't sure if this was quite the right place to post this. If there is a better place on the forum for this please point me to it.

Thanks!

 

[SatanicSanta]

Should a game modder be allowed to sell their work?

I don't think it should be forbidden. I also don't think it should be endorsed or accepted by the community.​

Should a game developer profit from a game modder's work?

Well, they already do, so that's a strange hypothetical. Mods make people continue playing the game. Whether that increases revenue earned by the developer is pretty irrelevant.​

Would paid mods increase the quality of content available?

No. For that to actually work, the code would have to be closed source, or at least proprietary sourced. I can list countless open source programs that are either hugely superior, are equal, in quality to their closed source/paid counterparts, or just high quality in general.​

Should creators of paid mods be required to meet certain quality or review guidelines?

We don't review code before buying games, so why should we review code before buying game mods? We simply read/watch reviews, playthroughs, etc. to see if it is worth buying. The same would apply for game mods.​

Should creators of paid mods be required to provide support to people having problems with their mods?

All developers should do this, and all developers should have issue trackers for their publicly released code, despite their license/openness.​

I may or may not be the best person to ask on the subject, because I think just about everything should be open source.

If you need something to cite me as, you can take a look at my GitHub profile here: http://github.com/elifoster/ most of my projects with any sustenance/traction are sourced there, as well as all the organizations I am part of (CleverbotIO, HydraWiki, CurseStaff, FTB-Gamepedia, GHULS, and Esteemed-Innovation at the time of writing this).

 

[DeathOfTime]

because I think just about everything should be open source

I'm not really much for money. I have a fixed income that is equivalent to one week full time pay in my region and I receive it once a month. I find it more then enough to meet my needs. The only issue I have is I am horrible at spending it. I have noticed the entire world it pretty much a place where one has to have money to live. Even in the poorest nation in the world money improves quality of life a lot, from what I have read. As long as money is a need I don't see anything wrong with people earning it. I find it to be a lot of crap that streamers and youtubers are making tons of money off of modded minecraft. Mojang is making a tons off of modded minecraft. Pretty much the only people not making money off of modded minecraft is the modders. Of course I have yet to hear their side. Maybe they are making a load of money off their modded ventures?

I don't mind things being open source. I don't really understand all the different licenses actually. I have never found one I liked once I read up on what it actually does. I don't mind it though. I just think that making money shouldn't be a unacceptable practice and actively discouraged. I doubt selling the mods is the best way to go about monetizing them. I think they should be monetized though and that the modders should see some return for it.

Software should be free. Just because something is free though doesn't make it worthless and nothing a person gets a dime from.

Specifically I would like to address several of the following questions:

Should a game modder be allowed to sell their work?
Yest, though there are and should be much better methods to monetize it.
Should a game developer profit from a game modder's work?
No way to stop this. It is just how it works. A modded makes the game better. More people enjoy it, the more people buy it. The more money the game devs make.
Would paid mods increase the quality of content available?
No. From my limited experience with GNU.linux paid actually lowers the quality. Even free windows games have quality in excess more often then their paid counter parts (though they are usually lower quality ports)
Should creators of paid mods be required to meet certain quality or review guidelines?
Yes. As should everything else. Whether it be my fat ass that just sits here all day in front of this PC, government, or even software. It should all have to meet certain guidelines and quality. Doesn't mean it ever will.
Should creators of paid mods be required to provide support to people having problems with their mods?
No. People get their hands held enough. Modders should fix their stuff. They shouldn't be required to help the end user any though.

 

[Ragingman2]

Thank you for your responses!

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Hello minecraft modding community,

I am writing a school paper about whether game mods should be paid for, if anybody here has strong opinions I would love to hear them!

Specifically I would like to address several of the following questions:
Should a game modder be allowed to sell their work?
Should a game developer profit from a game modder's work?
Would paid mods increase the quality of content available?
Should creators of paid mods be required to meet certain quality or review guidelines?
Should creators of paid mods be required to provide support to people having problems with their mods?

Mods: I wasn't sure if this was quite the right place to post this. If there is a better place on the forum for this please point me to it.

Thanks!

Should a game modder be allowed to sell their work? That depends on the EULA of the base game. Typically, the original game developer is going to cite violation of their EULA if someone tries to monetize their game without them getting a piece. It might be possible to set up a store where the original game devs get a cut of every sale, but it wouldn't be one I would participate in. I know I wouldn't buy a mod. Might donate to a mod author if I liked it, but requiring me to purchase it is going to cause me to walk.

Should a game dev profit from a game modder's work? Again, depends on how the dev sets up the rules to begin with. I could see a game developer requiring this. I don't approve of this mindset, but many things are legal that I don't particularly approve of.

Would paid mods increase the quality of content available? No. In fact, it would encourage 'shovelware' where people put minimal effort into cashing in. After all, there's a sucker born every minute. All you need is to get people to buy your mod and you've cashed in.

Should creators of paid mods be required to meet certain quality or review guidelines or provide support? Well... this doesn't happen with actually released software itself, I don't know how you could possibly enforce such guidelines or rules. Look up Steam and the dozens of dozens of games on it which are of exceedingly poor quality that the devs don't support, but are still available for sale. Since it has proven effectively impossible to police actual game releases, I don't see how it would be possible to do so with mods.

 

[Azzanine]

When it comes to value for money. The variables are the quality which could be;
The workmanship of the mod, lack of buggyness, well thought out mechanics and aesthetics.

The potential useage of the mod, as in time useage. If I spend a dollar I want a dollars time back. This could be considered an aspect of quality but sometimes the two things don't always coinside.

Then there's the big one... PRICE. To use an example the new Doom game looks pretty neat (glory kill cheese aside) but I haven't bought it because it's 80 bucks AUD so... no. I've been down that expensive short lived AAA road, not worth it.

The value you get out of a thing you buy is determined by a combo of those three things.

If modders could pump out a product worth whatever price they give it I'd say it would be OK. However I have not come across a mod yet that has been worth over 3$ of course I find a lot of the mods awesome but my opinions would sour and expectations soar as soon as money is exchanged. As free products they blow me out of the water.

If they could give us value for the money then I think it would be ethical.

Frankly I think Mojang should give some of the key modder a token sum or a propper thank you. While Mojang really don't get any extra money for me sticking to the game. If it wasn't for mods I would have quit Minecraft 4 years ago, maybe returning sporadically for updates.
Despite modders not really boosting the revenue stream directly they do provide a lot of FREE unarguably "value add" services to their product.
Mojang would be utter fools to so anything to punish and or harm the modders or the community.

If they supported the modders more they could spruke it as a valuable feature for Minecraft itself. Modding makes Minecraft a more valuable product, a lot of the mods sometimes won't even work on cracked versions. (Although it's usually a matter of time before they do)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[DeathOfTime]

However I have not come across a mod yet that has been worth over 3

Forge, and NEI are the two I can think of off the top of my head that would be worth a pretty penny. If I was into donating I would have thrown them a bit awhile ago (if that is possible, never actually looked). Can't really think of any other mod that I really want something aweful in a pack. They are all worthwhile and many deserve some money thrown at them. Those two would take a chunk of change a piece to meet their value. (Though nether can stand up on its own. They both are a big want on my list for any modded game I play.)

 

[SatanicSanta]

Forge, and NEI are the two I can think of off the top of my head that would be worth a pretty penny. If I was into donating I would have thrown them a bit awhile ago (if that is possible, never actually looked). Can't really think of any other mod that I really want something aweful in a pack. They are all worthwhile and many deserve some money thrown at them. Those two would take a chunk of change a piece to meet their value. (Though nether can stand up on its own. They both are a big want on my list for any modded game I play.)

You can donate to lex, and probably fry too, through PayPal/patreon. I'll bet covers and chickenbones have donation things too.

 

[Moritz30]

I think ads and things like the Curse Author Reward Program are okay, but really paid mods aren't even allowed (see minecraft's EULA)