Co-founder of #Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell, is taking questions in an #AMA on Reddit right now about Steam’s introduction of paid mods on #SteamWorkshop. This now controversial new feature enables modder to create and release mods and charge for their creations. The money gets split between Valve, the original game publisher, and the mod creator. A level which is set by the publisher. Now there seems to be a lot of rage over what were decades of free mods.
“Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers,” Newell replied to one Redditor. “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.”
“As a baseline, Valve loves MODs (see Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and DOTA),” he said in another reply. “The open nature of PC gaming is why Valve exists, and is critical to the current and future success of PC gaming.
Others chimed in asking about moderators banning those who complain about paid mods on Steam forums. “Well, if we are censoring people, that’s stupid. I’ll get that to stop,” Newell says in a promised.
This week when Valve announced that it would introduce a system where creators of modified content could sell their work, the program began with The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Which already has seen 24,000 mods since the release in 2011.
Newell said this new change led to his receiving 3,500 emails, while other Valve employees are also are managing similar volumes of feedback. To compensate, the company has had to launch extra email servers, which is apparently getting expensive.
So while the gaming community convulses over this new change, some are saying it will kill the modding hobbyist culture. Others argue that such hard work does deserve to be compensated.
What are your thoughts on the matter? How do you feel about paying for mods?
