The Video/PC Game Discussion Thread

^It may be different based on which version you play, but for me Venetica was literally unplayable: I can't remember the exact specifics, but I know I needed a certain ability in order to advance the plot, but I needed to find a certain NPC and I couldn't, because he had totally disappeared from the game. What a joke! Even when the game did work, I found the combat really clunky, and as you said, trying to fight more than one enemy at a time almost never worked out. I liked the main character and the lock picking was hilarious, but that was about it.

It's a fair point and I'm not sure I could blame them if they did, though it would be disappointing for certain, we sure don't need any new Giskard's in the TES modding scene. Much like the incident with Giskard and those other modders, neither side in this paid mods thing is entirely blameless for the current situation either. 

I wasn't into Oblivion at the time, learned about him after he quit public modding, though didn't get to read the (supposed) full story until recently. I actually joined his site and was there for I guess a few months but left after making a bug report for his latest mod and he outright accused me of lying about it as well as lying about another mod of his in a thread on his forum which didn't even exist. He did make good mods but the guy's a paranoid arsehole who thinks everyone is out to get him. The other side of his little conflict isn't much better, they both have stories up on their sites that contradict each other's version of events and they're probably both full of shit. Bottom line is though that that the other guys I've dealt with who Giskard brands trolls have always helped me with their mods when I needed it and responded with courtesy every time and don't make their mods hard to get. You basically had to kiss Giskard's arse to get his mods when I was on his site and I doubt it's any different now, not that I got the chance to tell, I tried to go back once just for a look and he'd deleted my account. 

bartosso wrote: adg211288 wrote: I know people like to bash EA, but I've personally never had any real problem with them. It's a minor annoyance to have to use Origin as well as Steam and not have my games library in one place, but I prefer that than the Ubisoft situation where they still sell via Steam and still enforce the use of UPlay, which is a piece of shit software in my opinion that has blocked me from playing single player games because of problems on their end and not mine.  Where do I even start! But I guess the number 1 nemesis is Ubisoft right now. EA has much longer history of mischief than Ubisoft, even though Ubi's fuck-ups of recent years are even more spectacular. They raised the bar so high that even EA can't reach it. Uplay's one of the main reasons I don't play Ubisoft games at all.

Great that Valve and Bethesda actually listened instead of just turning a blind eye to the uproar this caused, but queue a whole new uproar from mod authors who think they've now been shafted.

I know people like to bash EA, but I've personally never had any real problem with them. It's a minor annoyance to have to use Origin as well as Steam and not have my games library in one place, but I prefer that than the Ubisoft situation where they still sell via Steam and still enforce the use of UPlay, which is a piece of shit software in my opinion that has blocked me from playing single player games because of problems on their end and not mine. 

Another way to look at it:  what would the reaction have been if Bethesda took 0% of mod sales, and the modder got 70%? Not a single thing from Valve would have changed.

Triceratopsoil wrote: I think one of the biggest reasons there is as much reaction as there is, is that certain modders are pulling all their files off Nexus and other free sites to sell them on Steam.  Again, not Valve's fault.

I don't know much about the modding community, so I can't really add much to this (though my brother is heavily into Skyrim mods and he is quite upset about the changes) but I just wanted to mention this hilarious response from an obviously angry player on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=431426494&searchtext= 

A few choice quotes from Gabe Newell on the issue:

"The pay-outs are set by the owner of the game that is being modded."

"Our view of Steam is that it's a collection of useful tools for customers and content developers.  With the Steam workshop, we've already reached the point where the community is paying their favorite contributors more than they would make if they worked at a traditional game developer. We see this as a really good step.  The option of MOD developers getting paid seemed like a good extension of that."

"Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers. 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."

"Skyrim is a great example of a game that has benefitted enormously from the MODs. The option for paid MODs is supposed to increase the investment in quality modding, not hurt it."

"In general we are pretty reluctant to tell any developer that they have to do something or they can't do something. It just goes against our philosophy to be dictatorial."

"We would be reluctant to force a game developer to do "x" for the same reason we would be reluctant to force a mod developer to do "x." It's just not a good idea. For example we get a lot of pressure to police the content on Steam. Shouldn't there be a rule? How can any decent person approve of naked trees/stabbing defenseless shrubberies? It turns out that everything outrages somebody, and there is no set of possible rules that satisfies everyone. Those conversations always turn into enumerated lists of outrageous things. It's a lot more tractable, and customer/creator friendly to focus on building systems that connect customers to the right content for them personally (and, unfortunately, a lot more work).

So, yes, we want to provide tools for mod authors while avoiding coercing other creators/gamers as much as possible."

Edited by Triceratopsoil - 26 Apr 2015 at 2:01am