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Gamers react to paying for mods on Steam

@jeffgrubb

Here's a livefeed of a gamer learning he may have to pay for certain mods.

Image Credit: "Mars Attacks!" by Warner Bros.

Everybody hates change.

Free, fan-created modifications is a revered aspect of PC gaming. People love taking something like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and sprucing it up with a collection of mods and add-ons that other people create. But Valve, the company that owns and operates the Steam digital distribution service — is changing how that works. The company just announced it is enabling mod creators to charge for their work on the Steam Workshop. This means that people may have to start paying if modders decide they want reimbursement for their efforts.

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As you can imagine, the PC gaming community has some feelings about this.

Some people are just confused:

Some others have an alternative idea … which is actually already included in this Steam update:

https://twitter.com/Theuaredead/status/591293486852349952

Him and others are concerned about paying for something that might not work.

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Of course, this ignores that Valve announced you can get your money back for 24 hours if a mod is broken or you hate it.

Still, some people just simply don’t like the idea of this change:

https://twitter.com/TheMrSaturday/status/591293847398907906

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And this person has more of an issue with the price of the mods compared to the full game itself:

https://twitter.com/toob223/status/591294566810128385

And this guy can’t imagine anything more crazy than paying someone for their efforts:

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But not everyone hates the new paid mods. This guy seems to think it’s reasonable:

https://twitter.com/jbu3/status/591293160460046337

And Bryden Easton puts things into perspective:

https://twitter.com/BryEaston/status/591291744785985537

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And, of course, developers like the idea of getting paid for doing work:

And here’s Civilization IV director Soren Johnson on the matter:

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