âWould gamers ever find it acceptable to pay for a mod?â
In this specific case probably not. Iâm a big fan of Half-Life and Portal, but we have been waiting how long to hear any progress on HL3, and not to mention Portal 2 itself is over 3 years old? You could have bundled something like this with a HL3 playable demo and charged $10 for it easily.
Would gamers ever find it acceptable to pay for a mod?
I think that depends on the mod, and on whatâs being asked as a price. You canât overcharge for a product, and that seems to be the complaint here. You can eventually make more money selling for less. More people will buy, and more might buy a second product if they donât feel cheated by the first one.
Mod1: 20,000x7=140,000 (but make 'em angry, and they never buy again)
Mod 2: No sales
or
Mod 1: 60,000 x2=120,000 (more people buy the first time at the lower price)
Mod 2: 30,000 x2=60,000 (some people will try a second mod if you make one)
Total 180,000
Itâs a trifle surprising to see a mod for sale, just because I was always given the impression that the owner of the game that the mod mods is in a very strong position to start making noises about derivative works and such if they arenât happy, which has encouraged the mod scene to avoid doing things that might attract lawyers; but I donât see why a mod ought to be judged differently than an expansion pack.
This doesnât mean that a given mod is worth paying for; but the distinction between âthe company that made the game made some new stuff for itâ and âsomebody made some new stuff for the gameâ seems largely irrelevant to the potential purchaser(as long as you have some degree of assurance that the latter case wonât be sued into the ground shortly after you buy it; because that could lead to support hassles).
It probably doesnât help that Portal already has some free expansion bits from Valve, as well as a lot of 3rd-party maps and such, and isnât a terribly new game, which makes the asking price look a bit optimistic. The idea of being outraged at somebody asking seems really weird; but the idea of not buying, less so.
There are mods for Civilization V that add up to about US$20, over and above two expansion sets. But theyâre perfectly friendly to fan-made mods, many of which are very professional.
Iâm really curious if this mod is any fun. The article argues that itâs not worth 7$ for 2-3 hours of content.
The gel was my least favourite bit of Portal 2, so Iâll pass.
I only got Portal when it was free on Steam to start with 
(although I did buy the second oneâŚ)
Itâs bizarre to ask âwould gamers pay for a modâ as if no one has ever considered the question before. Yes. Obviously. Itâs been done for years. The comment thread mentions a few successful examples like Counter Strike, DayZ and Garryâs Mod. Itâs right there in the name of the thing.
Pay? Hell, Iâve paid for Mass Effect DLCs that didnât add much besides a few new weapons (and thatâs ânewâ as in âwere formerly retailer-specific exclusive bonusesâ). I gladly would have paid for something like Marathon:RED, a mod to the Mac game Marathon (probably Bungieâs biggest game before Halo) done by Ian McConville that redid huge chunks of the game while keeping it in game canon and tying it in with a previous Bungie game, Pathways into Darkness.
Thereâs an argument to be made that mod or game isnât worth playing, or not worth the money, but that gamers get angry over how much is being charged - or even that money is being asked for at all - shows âgaming cultureâsâ sense of entitlement. Itâs this perverse thing thatâs contributing to the devaluing-to-the-point-of-worthlessness of PC games. Iâm afraid thereâs going to be another crash, or that only free-to-play games will thrive, given that gamers get really angry about paying less than the cost of a movie ticket for a game that provides many times the number of hours of entertainment.
real sins âDay one on the disc DLCâ ,âhorse armorâ and pay to win gaming. 7 is a bit steep imho.
Maybe they should of made a tf2 hat instead.
If youâre not interested enough to pay then you wonât. If you pay and are then disappointed then you have the right to give a negative review, you could even ask for your money back. But seriously, complaining about the price when you havenât bought it and have no intention of buying it? Tosser.
Yeah, never understood that. Vote with your dollars, move on.
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