Mods costing money?

[silent]

LOL - Look when I joined and I'm already Prowler. Now that's sad.

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by marksmanHL2
Argh stupidity getting annoying now.....


The likely hood is that you wont have to pay for almost all mods

AND

By the way its set up there are likely to be alot of mods out there. The more mods there are the more competition there is which means LOW LOW LOW prices for us and lots of great indipendant games in the form of mods

at the same time that also means they'll be lots more crap out there to even up the good stuff, someone once said to every one great mod there's ten incredibly bad ones. change the word mod for just about anything and it still pretty much applies. Apart from reality shows, which goes more like for every one good reality TV show there are nine hundred and ninety nine really really absolutely bad ones

I don't think this mods for sale thing will sell, pardon the pun. Unless someone's mod is 100% original their just opening the doors to law suits and what chance has Joe Blunder got against the Big smiley Corporation

I think what might have been meant is Valve may pick up the odd mod or so and make it an official mod for purchase online. Like Op4 and Blueshift were for HL1.. something like that anyway. all and sundry selling their mods just wouldn't work, these are people in it for the fun of it, I doubt many mod makers have business heads on them and all it takes is someone sly enough and boom these guys suddenly lose all the rights to their mod and any money that was coming to them. Yep, just too risky

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

Markets tend to find their own equilibrium

Thats a fact


After some mods are out I am fairly confident that we will see sites come up to rate mods and advise people on what are good mods. Also word of mouth happens now. CS is a quality mod. No doubt about it. And everyone has it (almost) Where as a not so good mod that no one has heard of. No one will have. Simple as that. I am sure we will see the poor mods not get downloaded and the good ones will be accepted gracefully.

Anyway. Sorry for the babble. I am knackered and my English skills are poor anyways. (I am from........ England . Sorry but language was never my strongpoint)

The point is that everything will be fine in the end. And about mod teams getting law suits and whatnot. That aint our problem. We just play the games .

 

[Cheater]

Just Learn from the past, if there wasn't the counter strike phenomena, half life won't still be there today. Why counter strike is so popular??? Because cs is fun, MOST IMPORTANTLY, BECAUSE IT'S FREE. If hl2 mods and multiplay requires monthly fee, the majority of the hl community will dissolve. I payed my half life and all its mods for only 20 dollars; I can to spend 500 dollars on the videocard, but I won't spend more than 60 dollars for hl2 and all its mods.

If valve is really going to charge montly fee, I will be glad to see valve screw up.

 

[MultiVaC]

Originally posted by Cheater
If valve is really going to charge montly fee, I will be glad to see valve screw up.

Let me put this simply:
THEY ARE NOT CHARGING A MONTHLY FEE!
It's been stated and restated a million times. Now, if CS2 is just a reshash of CS (and it will be, just look at 1.6 and how afraid the CS community is of the slightest changes) and it costs money, people will just move to one of the hundreds of CS clones that are just as good, or probably better.

 

[phantomdesign]

I am thinking of releasing a racing MOD for Half-Life 2. I’d rather not rip off gamers or make them scrape up extra cash or work hard to get my MOD. I was thinking it would be cool if I could put a free 2-4 month demo through steam (based on people’s CD keys/subscription #’s). After that I would only ask for a 1-time small fee….about $5.00. That’s cheaper than a movie in most areas. I’m not sure what portion of the sale would go to valve, but that makes no difference to me.

Now, I’d only charge if my MOD ended up becoming a really good MOD. For example, I would have to have plenty of “beautiful” locations, lots of bonuses, replayability, etc. If people are bored with my MOD after 2-4 months, no one buys it, I see no reason to improve it. If people do buy it, I’ll add even more extras, improve the quality of everything and consistently update it.

Honestly after a 2-4 month demo, I’d have to kick some serious butt with the replayability factor. The MOD would also have to be very unique and very hard to beat(quality). But if I can successfully pull it off, and it is something everyone would want to continue playing, then a $5 fee for something which lasts 100x longer than a movie. You’re getting a serious deal for a really good game. With the extra cash, I have a reason to update the game, or even put out more.

I hope that people aren’t stupid enough to charge for make their TINY/non-replayable MODs, even if it is a bunch of levels. I’d honestly pay a simple $5 extra if I knew it would support a Valve & MOD team that made a very good replayable MOD, and I see no reason for anyone to complain if there was a 2 month or longer FULL-VERSION demo.

 

[Hallucinogen]

Its all speculations, we wont know shit 'till the game is out.

 

[OCybrManO]

A one-time fee of $5 is something I would consider paying for a MOD... but it would have to be great.

... but I don't care how good a mod is, I am not going to pay $20 for any mod.

Making a MOD (modification) for HL2 is MUCH easier than coding your own Source engine (probably took up the majority of the dev time for HL2), then making your own game based off of said engine.

For example, in HL2, with a racing mod you just need to make new vehicles, a checkpoint/lap system, and a bunch of maps.
That's a tiny fraction of the work it takes to make a $50 game... so you should charge accordingly.

If I actually get one of my ideas off the ground I wouldn't charge more than a one-time fee of one dollar (maybe two if it turned out to be a great mod) if I even decided to charge at all...

<< For the next statement, I'm going to assume that HL2 will sell 5 million copies. >>

Think about it... if you make a $2 game and only 1% of HL2 players buy it that's 50,000 people... and you'd get $100,000 (well, less after Valve skims some off the top for Steam distribution and the IRS gets their chunk of it).

That's quite a wad of money for the work it takes.

 

[ASnogarD]

So it begins... money plus mods = money hungry mod makers = loads of mods that are made purely with hopes of getting $$$.

Considering the fact the mod makers of HL 1 never even considered they would get money , they merely twisted HL to be what they wanted to expeirience and added and added ..till you goet CS and DoD and NS.

Money as a mod making motive will not be a positive change.

 

[Aknot]

Well nowhere does Gabe say mods will be charged for. It appears if you WANT mods you will have to buy a certain version. Of course I read things different then other people so the link is here.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5867

 

[Guest]

I don't have a credit card (and I won't be getting one) so I can't buy anything through Steam (not that I'd even want to). I'm fed up with greedy people who are so obsessed with money that they refuse to do anything just for the sake of having fun.

 

[silent]

Originally posted by OCybrManO
A one-time fee of $5 is something I would consider paying for a MOD... but it would have to be great.

... but I don't care how good a mod is, I am not going to pay $20 for any mod.

Making a MOD (modification) for HL2 is MUCH easier than coding your own Source engine (probably took up the majority of the dev time for HL2), then making your own game based off of said engine.

For example, in HL2, with a racing mod you just need to make new vehicles, a checkpoint/lap system, and a bunch of maps.
That's a tiny fraction of the work it takes to make a $50 game... so you should charge accordingly.

If I actually get one of my ideas off the ground I wouldn't charge more than a one-time fee of one dollar (maybe two if it turned out to be a great mod) if I even decided to charge at all...

<< For the next statement, I'm going to assume that HL2 will sell 5 million copies. >>

Think about it... if you make a $2 game and only 1% of HL2 players buy it that's 50,000 people... and you'd get $100,000 (well, less after Valve skims some off the top for Steam distribution and the IRS gets their chunk of it).

That's quite a wad of money for the work it takes.

I was thinking about the tax side of things and it does not look good. The government takes about 30-40% or so (could be different in this case) of whatever you make. That would take an assload of cash away. The other problem is then a million people would make mods on the hope of making dough. Do you have any idea how good your mod would have to be for people to buy your mod and not someone elses? It would have to trump CS and basically any mod to date. There are many talented people out there who would come together to create one hell of a monster fun game. Yes, this is a good thing for us gamers. With so many mods to choose from you can't complain, but Valve needs to watch out. If their expansions packs (which cost about $30) sucks and this one on Steam only costs $5. hell, if you're a kid with no dough and parents who won't pay for your stuff... THis mod will look mighty tempting.

Just my say.

 

[phantomdesign]

Chances are Noobs from nowhere won't be able to charge for their maps, and if they did, no one would touch their map(s)/mods.

I think the option to charge (assuming it's a minor fee) allows some of the more talented people (like 3D modelers who could make $50/hour+ instead) to put in some extra work. But realistically if you aren’t a professional, you’re a moron if you think you are going to make any money.

Sidenote:
I'd I merely used their vehicle engine and 4 car models, that would be stupid to charge for my MOD. Take a look...... http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=249466#post249466 ....that is no simple race game. I'm actually thinking of tweaking the physics engine with forumlas related to aerodynamic down-force, and adding aircraft, regardless of whether they are default supported. I should probably shut up about the possibility of charging until I actually make something worthwhile.

 

[OCybrManO]

There are at least several flying vehicles other than the gunship from the videos... and I've also seen a screenshot of a jetski and an airboat, both unskinned, in the hl2 model viewer.

I'm sure your mod idea might interest some people... but, after reading it, I'm not one of them.

I'm not a fan of the Racing RPG genre... especially the "underground"-themed ones.

If I want to race I want to jump right into a fun race... not have to buy a cheap car, then work my way up the ranks to earn money and new cars until it actually becomes fun... because by then I've already lost interest and gone to play another game.

 

[phantomdesign]

The theme is irrelevant. It's total BS. Both teams are practically the same, and the objective is kill the other them. Maybe I should eliminate the "story line" as it is irrelevant to multiplayer It's more action/rpg/fps + action/intense-vehicles....you can upgrade vehicles, but I don't think that makes it an RPG/Racing.

I've thought of doing both a racing game and the other. Maybe 2 mods in one...(of course you load one or the other). Chances are the racing one would be ready first anyways....just because I have a lot of materials ready for that one.