Guru3D.com
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • Channels
    • Archive
  • DOWNLOADS
    • New Downloads
    • Categories
    • Archive
  • GAME REVIEWS
  • ARTICLES
    • Rig of the Month
    • Join ROTM
    • PC Buyers Guide
    • Guru3D VGA Charts
    • Editorials
    • Dated content
  • HARDWARE REVIEWS
    • Videocards
    • Processors
    • Audio
    • Motherboards
    • Memory and Flash
    • SSD Storage
    • Chassis
    • Media Players
    • Power Supply
    • Laptop and Mobile
    • Smartphone
    • Networking
    • Keyboard Mouse
    • Cooling
    • Search articles
    • Knowledgebase
    • More Categories
  • FORUMS
  • NEWSLETTER
  • CONTACT

New Reviews
Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 PULSE review
Gainward GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GHOST review
Radeon RX 7600 review
ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 Ti TUF Gaming review
MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Gaming X TRIO review
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB (FE) review
Corsair 2000D RGB Airflow Mini-ITX - PC chassis review
ASUS PG27AQDM Review - 240Hz 1440p OLED monitor
MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk WiFi review
Mountain Makalu Max mouse review

New Downloads
CPU-Z download v2.06
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 23.5.1 WHQL download
GeForce 532.03 WHQL driver download
AMD Chipset Drivers Download 5.05.16.529
Corsair Utility Engine Download (iCUE) Download v5.1 (5.1.1114 )
CrystalDiskInfo 9.0.0 RC3 Download
Intel ARC graphics Driver Download Version: 31.0.101.4369
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 18.0.6.4
HWiNFO Download v7.46
7-Zip v23.00 Download


New Forum Topics
Have low-level APIs been a net failure so far? Seems devs are struggling with them NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 532.03 WHQL Download & Discussion Extreme 4-Way Sli Tuning AGESA Combo V2 PI 1.2.0.A? Windows 11 and built in andriod support? Very high CPU usage when gaming AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.5.1 - Driver Download and Discussion Guide for those ready to make the switch to Linux gaming RTX 4090 Owner's thread NVidia Anti-Aliasing Guide (updated)




Guru3D.com » News » Gabe Newell From Valve Talks About Paid Mods Policy

Gabe Newell From Valve Talks About Paid Mods Policy

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 04/28/2015 08:23 AM | source: | 26 comment(s)
Gabe Newell From Valve Talks About Paid Mods Policy

The Founder and CEO of Valve is sharing his ideas and thoughts on his company's new modding policy. In a Reddit AMA, Gabe Newell answered a number of questions about paid mods. It really is about Steam's new paid mods initiative, and how it could destroy modding as we know it. Read more below the fold (updated).

Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers stated Gabe. About half of Valve came straight out of the MOD world. John Cook and Robin Walker made Team Fortress as a Quake mod. Ice frog made DOTA as a Warcraft 3 mod. Dave Riller and Dario Casali we Doom and Quake mappers. John Guthrie and Steve Bond came to Valve because John Carmack thought they were doing the best Quake C development. All of them were liberated to just do game development once they started getting paid. Working at Waffle House does not help you make a better game.

In response to a question about Steam banning/censoring discussion about paid mods:

"Well, if we are censoring people, that's stupid. I'll get that to stop. On top of it being stupid, it doesn't work (see Top Gear forums on Jeremy Clarkson)."

Replying to Robin, the owner of Nexus Mods, who wants Valve to prevent the "DRMification" of mods:

"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. With that caveat, we'd be happy to tell developers that we think they are being dumb, and that will sometimes help them reflect on it a bit."

In response to a request to add a donation button to paid mod pages on Steam:

"We are adding a pay what you want button where the mod author can set the starting amount wherever they want."

In reply to concerns that Valve might require exclusivity for mods:

"Exclusivity is a bad idea for everyone. It's basically a financial leveraging strategy that creates short term market distortion and long term crying."

Newell explaining the reasoning behind the initiative:

"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."

On stolen/plagiarised content appearing in the Workshop:

"This is a straight-forward problem. Between ours and the community's policing, I'm confident that the authors will have control over their creations, not someone trying to rip them off."

Read it all here at reddit.

Update April 28th 8:32 AM

Just moments  after launching paid mods on Steam through the Skyrim Workshop, Valve is now removing the payment option based on the backlash and feedback from end-users. Valve says it will refund Steam users who purchased a Skyrim mod on Steam.

"We've done this because it's clear we didn't understand exactly what we were doing," Valve said in a post on Steam. "We've been shipping many features over the years aimed at allowing community creators to receive a share of the rewards, and in the past, they've been received well. It's obvious now that this case is different."

"We wanted more great mods becoming great products, like Dota, Counter-strike, DayZand Killing Floor, and we wanted that to happen organically for any mod maker who wanted to take a shot at it," Valve said.

Valve added the payment option to Skyrim's Steam Workshop days ago allowing mod makers charge for their creations and set their own prices. The overall response was very negative, with Steam users submitting negative reviews of Skyrim and the initial batch of paid mods. After "pissing off the Internet," Valve co-founder Gabe Newell attempted to address customer concerns over paid mods on Reddit this weekend (see above).

"Our goal is to make modding better for the authors and gamers," Newell said in reply 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."



Gabe Newell From Valve Talks About Paid Mods Policy




« Kingston Launches its HyperX Savage SSD · Gabe Newell From Valve Talks About Paid Mods Policy · Review: Be Quiet! Shadow Rock LP CPU Cooler »

Related Stories

Gabe Newell hints as to why Half-Life 3 isn't a real priority - 01/08/2014 05:03 AM
During an interview with the Washington Post, Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve Corporation, gives a hint as to why the highly demanded 'Half-Life 3' video game isn't a real priority. Andrea Peterso...

Gabe Newell has plans to turn Steam into a network API - 02/05/2013 06:38 AM
Valve's Gabe Newell thinks the current form of Steam is becoming a bottleneck between consumers and content creators. Newell says Valve needs to get out of that connection as much as possible, and th...

Gabe Newell talks about Half-Life 2: Episode 3 - 04/25/2012 10:33 AM
Half-Life fans, here is some bad

Gabe Newell - Piracy Isn't About Price - 11/28/2011 01:03 PM
Valve CEO Gabe Newell explains to IGN why piracy is a result of bad service rather than high price, and how Valve expanded Steam into Russia without rampant piracy resulting and grew it into their big...


6 pages 1 2 3 4 5 6


scatman839
Senior Member



Posts: 14123
Joined: 2004-11-19

#5060622 Posted on: 04/29/2015 10:45 PM
What about the mod that popped up asking you to pay every 1/25 spell casts?

6 pages 1 2 3 4 5 6


Post New Comment
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.


Guru3D.com © 2023