For those gamers who haven't been made aware of it in the past week (where do you guys game, under a rock?!), Valve recently introduced a new feature on Steam: paid mods, with a test run on perhaps the most popular moddable game in recent history, Skyrim.
This was met with overwhelming displeasure from the PC gaming community, with many die-hard PCMR brothers on reddit calling for Steam blackout days, boycotting Valve, and revolting against their so-called savior GabeN. The universal outrage was not only over the idea of paid mods, but the implementation of it that gave 75% of the proceeds to Valve and Bethesda. Both users and modders have expressed their disappointment in the way that this was handled, petitioning for its removal. Forbes has published an article outlining the legal and ethical mess this creates. Even YouTube personalities have spoken out against it, including Total Biscuit.
The feature's banner announcement has since been taken down after GabeN (unsuccessfully) tried to placate the gaming community with a reddit AMA session. The damage has been done though, between the poor implementation and the censoring of criticisms raised against the feature, and many have lost faith in the company they once revered. Skyrim, once one the the most highly rated games, on Steam and many other review sites, has seen its rating plummet dramatically (from ~97% approval on Steam to ~83% in just a few days) as users continue to protest and voice their displeasure over the idea of paid mods.
What are your thoughts on the situation, the events that took place, and what this means for Valve and its suddenly tenuous hold on the PC gaming market?
This was met with overwhelming displeasure from the PC gaming community, with many die-hard PCMR brothers on reddit calling for Steam blackout days, boycotting Valve, and revolting against their so-called savior GabeN. The universal outrage was not only over the idea of paid mods, but the implementation of it that gave 75% of the proceeds to Valve and Bethesda. Both users and modders have expressed their disappointment in the way that this was handled, petitioning for its removal. Forbes has published an article outlining the legal and ethical mess this creates. Even YouTube personalities have spoken out against it, including Total Biscuit.
The feature's banner announcement has since been taken down after GabeN (unsuccessfully) tried to placate the gaming community with a reddit AMA session. The damage has been done though, between the poor implementation and the censoring of criticisms raised against the feature, and many have lost faith in the company they once revered. Skyrim, once one the the most highly rated games, on Steam and many other review sites, has seen its rating plummet dramatically (from ~97% approval on Steam to ~83% in just a few days) as users continue to protest and voice their displeasure over the idea of paid mods.
What are your thoughts on the situation, the events that took place, and what this means for Valve and its suddenly tenuous hold on the PC gaming market?