To say that some people are “upset” about Steam’s recent decision to allow users to charge for mods would be like saying that the ocean is “wet” or that Konami is “clueless”. So when Gabe Newell went on Reddit to talk about it, things got a little… heated.
As you surely know if you’ve ever browsed Reddit, comments bubble up and down based on user upvotes and downvotes (reflected by the up and down arrows), which in theory is designed to make the best posts rise to the top while the worst ones disappear off the page. Although just about every regular Reddit poster has seen a comment or two get downvoted to oblivion, we’ll typically see high-profile people — celebrities, game developers, etc. — get a ton of upvotes no matter what they have written, if only so everyone can see what they have to say.
Not this weekend. This weekend, we entered the realm of the surreal, a realm where even Gabe Newell (one of the most beloved people on the internet), CEO of Valve (one of the most beloved companies on the internet), gets massively downvoted on Reddit. All because of Skyrim mods going for sale.
Just look:
And:
And:
And:
Look at those numbers! -4212, -549, -396: those are impressive stats, and although Newell makes some cogent points — “With the Steam workshop, we’ve already reached the point where the community is paying their favourite 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.” — it’s clear that not everyone agrees with his views on this stuff.
We’ll certainly be continuing to monitor the paid modding situation as it develops in the coming weeks/months/years, but for now, if you want to see all of what Newell’s been saying, click his user page. After all, some of his comments won’t appear in the main thread.
Picture: Isaac Brekken/Invision/AP
Comments
31 responses to “Even Gabe Newell Gets Downvoted On Reddit”
So how does it work for games such as cities skyline. Where the auto save feature was a mod?
Will that lead to “here’s half a game, you can make the rest and we will take 75% of what you make”?
I can see Ubisoft loving the idea.
“Oh, the roof perches in Ass Creed 8 keep no-clipping? Rather than patch it, we’ll let our wonderful, inventive playerbase fix it! You guys are so clever with these things… P.S, that’ll be $2.35 per person.”
LOL!
I just got that. Lol
toxic community overload
I feel sorry for gabe for once, he only wanted whats best for the industry
whats best is modders getting some support, no not a donation, no not a like. proper support.
but here we have gamers with their pitchforks crucifying the project into oblivion and destroying future mods making death threats and intimidating their biggest supplier of videogames
sad
Add a donation button and your problem is solved.
As a community, we’re evidently sick of everything being monetised.
nobody even pushes the subscribe button let alone donates money, HA
Just like on twitch right..
Oh wait..
I second this, if Valve made it easier for people to throw a buck at mod devs, this would be an awesome thing.
Everyone has a Paypal donate feature, that rarely gets used. If I could throw the benefits from a couple of card sales to my favourite mod, why wouldn’t I….
they made it so easy it was mandatory
Some people would argue that making mods paid would be more likely to stifle future mods as you would need to pay other mod creators to use pieces of their mod and check who owns what a lot more carefully than you do now.
Mods up until this point haven’t been paid and the mod scene is thriving.
see what I mean its crucifixion of the project and mods in general. everyone who voiced there opinion over-weighed and overruled the plan.
all they are asking for is a little money for their work, or do you expect everybody to be a slave for your enjoyment.
a certain percent would of gone to designated creators.. but now you get nothing
Spoiled, whining entitled gamers ruined gabes plan and then down voted him into oblivion.
that’s the toxic community that gets more immature each day
What the hell are you talking about, who is asking for a little bit of money for their work?
where have you been? under a rock?
valve was spending way more than it was making
all to get mods a little bit of income for the work they do
but this was all spoiled by the larger community
Mate, if you think Valve was spending more than they are making then you are the one living under a rock.
The idea that Valve was looking to get modders paid for their efforts is a load of crap, they looked at how they and others could earn money from the work of modders and threw them scraps as a half assed incentive.
The larger community didn’t spoil it though they spoke out against it, consumers and modders alike.
This might of worked if Bethesda hadn’t been so greedy, but Valve let them and set a precedent that modders and players didn’t like, nothing to do with toxicity.
“little bit of money”
it was little indeed..
Evidently the people who decided to put a price tag on their mods?
there’s two sides to it though.
what you’re saying is valid, it gives support to modders, gives them incentives to produce good mods and continue to do so.
but at the same time, monetizing it can mean smaller people/groups generally making mods for the benefit of the community can find it intimidating and not worthwhile to make mods. as theyll likely get dwarfed by larger groups that have put some decent investment into their mods and are looking to make money.
it’s a double edged sword.
which one is better for the community? i dont know. but the modding community has been doing well so far – will it do better if monetized? maybe or maybe not.
Id say Gabe is a lot more educated and has a fair bit more insight into this than majority of people negging him though.
Yeah, paid mods suck. I mean, they don’t deserve to be compensated for the work modders put into them.
yeah copying someones free mod, the charging for it should be allowed
**** gabe.
I wonder how much of the downvotes were emotionally charged, based on a deep long lasting resentment for leaving half life unfinshed with a cliffhanger ending. It’s like being in a long term relationship and thinking Evrything is great only to come home one day and all your partners things are cleared from the house. No note,no closure, just gone. If he turned up years later talking about an investment oppertunity would you hear him out or slam the door in his face.
Long term I think it’ll be a good addition to the Steam platform and modding in general. But it needs to be done right.
This was not it. Not at all. Not even in the same ballpark as “done right”.
He should have started with a PAY WHAT YOU WANT system (even $0.00), THEN perhaps a couple years down track add some options for certain QUALIFYING mod makers. Opening this sort of system to every man and his dog is a real bad precedence. Abuse Abuse Abuse Greed Abuse… even the publisher was abusing it with a 75% cut of profits (insane).
Maybe more people would be OK with this if at least 50% of the money people spent on the mods actually went to the mod creator instead of steam and the publisher soaking up the bulk of it.
This isn’t about the community. This is about steam and publishers being able to have a 25% off sale on things that used to be free that they didn’t make.
Irrational love for gabe and valve, then irrational hate.
No gamer can be in between !
Guess I’m not a gamer then. Even though I play video games on consoles or pc for around 2-3 hours a day.
Dear Gabe, Bethesda, if you want the best mod makers to be paid more employ them. Problem solved.
I don’t know about Bethesda, but Valve do already do that.
But then their talents are completely wasted because they have to conform to what the publisher wants them to do. Go look at that game jam video where Bethesda decided to ignore all their constraints and make whatever they wanted for a week, and you’ll see what they are actually capable of creating. As soon as you employ a modder all that they add is no different from any other employee. If they’re independent they can do whatever the hell they want.
The mods Gabe would normally support in games like dota2 etc probably dont need the same kind of support you see in Skyrim mods. A Skyrim mod can use textures created by multiple mod creators as well as scripting and what not by a number of other modders, and thats on top of what they add themselves. So who gets the money from a mod like that? The legalities behind it would be much harder to streamline than a weapon or skin mod in dota2.
I’ve also read in the comment posts (so, possibly wrong) where Steam advised they have canceled the idea for now anyway (http://goo.gl/EUYImg) that the creators of the mods were only getting 30% of the “donation” in any case. I would rather donate via paypal than give money to the game designer (and steam) for doing no additional work.
If Steam wants to use a Paid Mod System (Seems this issue HAS caused PMS among gamers) i would suggest not doing it for games like Skyrim (or Minecraft-esque) games that use multiple mods within a mod, or just add a link to a paypal donate button on the workshop page.