Valve’s decision to allow mod creators to charge for mods on Steam Workshop wasn’t an entirely popular one and in the aftermath Gabe Newell took to Reddit to discuss the issue.
Steam users were concerned that mod creators and the modding community would be corrupted by the ability to charge. Newell responded to these concerns by stating that Valve’s only intention is to improve the modding community and quality of mods and said “If something doesn’t help with that, it will get dumped.”
In addition to the ability to set a price, Valve will implement a “pay what you want” model for mods so that content creators can accept payments more like a donation similar to modding community Nexus Mods. Founder of Nexus Mods Robin Scott asked Newell during his Reddit AMA about Valve’s reaction to companies limiting modding only to Steam Workshop. Newell said Valve is “reluctant to tell any developer that they have to do something or they can’t do something” but added that Valve is “happy to tell developers that we think they are being dumb” if the need arises.
Finally, responding to concerns of content theft, Newell believes that between the gaming and modding communities and Valve he’s “confident that the authors will have control over their creations.”
What do you think of the paid mods model?
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