The Video/PC Game Discussion Thread

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I find a lot of mods to be better quality and add more to the game than official DLC's ever have.
With that said, I am most definitely against the placing of mods behind a paywall. That's not what modding has ever been about and thriving communities for Skyrim and he previous two TES games, as well as Fallout 3/New Vegas proves it. It would be fine if the system was like that of bandcamp where you can pay what you want including getting it for free, however the current system isn't good for either the mod makers or the players. The mod makers devalue their hard work for effectively selling it for a 25% cut and it's far too easy for players to exploit the system if they have ill intentions (pay for mod, download it, back up files, request refund in 24 hours, return files to Skyrim folder = free (pirated) mod) and also far too easy for players with no ill intentions to get screwed over, as mods don't always conveniently start causing problems within the first 24 hours of install. Skyrim is far too huge a game for a 24 hour refund window to be effective. 

I've played with mods on my Bethesda games since Morrowind and the process is hardly smooth. At the end of the day mods will never be official content whether you pay for them or not and Valve/Bethesda isn't going to care if a mod you pay for ends up screwing your save, even if between them they have 75% of what you paid for it. The responsibility is down to the mod maker who in my experience probably won't be able to help or will be unwilling to due to deciding to end support for the mod, which happens a lot in modding as the creators move onto different projects or their day job gets in the way. 

Already in the couple of days since this system launched problems have been evident. Mods get pulled because other mod makers take exception to a mod making money that requires their free mod to fully function and popular modders back out of the scene. 

Here's where I think the biggest problem is though: Skyrim mods have been free since they launched and every mod maker up until this point has still modded the game out of a labour of love rather than with profit in mind. Someone in a suit however smelled a profit to be made (exploit) and so made a deal that has caused the dynamic of the modding community to be completely changed, and not for the better. This idea stinks of corporate greed, not having mod makers interests at heart. 