It's good that this happened but mod consumers need to stop acting like such shortsighted, cheap twats. It's like the modding community think they found a better alternative to capitalism or something. Yes, Valve's implementation of this was horrible, charging for previously free mods and giving only 25% to modders were both unforgivably terrible ideas, but there's nothing wrong with trying to create an infrastructure for modders to get paid.
Sure: a free Falskaar is more appealing than a Falskaar that costs $5. But you'd still pay $5 for Falskaar and you fucking know it. There's nothing wrong with the kid who made that fucking Skyrim expansion pack demanding money from anyone who wants to play it, and nothing wrong with Valve creating an infrastructure for that transaction to happen. And it's sad, and shortsighted because nobody seems to get or want to admit to the fact that the more money there is flowing through the modding economy, the more Falskaar's there would be. Giving programming nerds the freedom to do what they love AND pay their bills while they're doing it is a beautiful thing. It gets more of those nerds flocking to supply you with cool mods, and it frees up the time of all the other guys who were already producing amazing shit for you, because they no longer have to work a second job to keep their electricity running.
There's always this same exact massive outcry when someone mentions money for the first time in a system where money had previously been ignored. And there is something evil about money, something evil about capitalism that doesn't quite sit right. People know the kind of greed, the kind of scumbagginess that follows money maybe, deep down in their subconscious, and the violent reaction is from wanting to avoid all that. But for fuck sake, you can't just ignore capitalism in a capitalistic society, there are bills to pay. If you like mods, paying up is going to net you better mods in the long run. It's that simple. The people providing you with shit need money to sustain themselves. They want money too. They want to buy SLI 980 rigs, and fucking vibrating chairs and shit.
There IS a lot of great shit in the modding community already. I know a lot of you are thinking that. If it ain't broke why fix it, right? But what you see right now with mods, that's the fucking tip of the iceberg compared to what it could be one day. You see all these amazing guys that come and go. The Falskaar kid. They dip their foot into the modding world, they give you a taste of their talent, and then they're gone, off to more lucrative things. What do you think would happen if creating mods WAS a potential end game for people? How much would you pay for a Falskaar 2, 3, and 4?