Locked behind a wall – Should mods ever be charged for?

With the release of Paralives, it’s brought a conversation up online (given the games similarities to The Sims) about the creators of mods. More specifically, the greed of a select few of them. The main target of a lot of these discussions seems to be focussed on TwistedMexi, who has released a script mod for Paralives mere days after release, to change how the camera works. Now I haven’t tested this mod, so I’m not going to comment on any of that, and as of yet, have not played Paralives. What I will be commenting on is how this mod is being distributed and how I feel regarding this.

I’m sure many of us know about mods and custom content for games, and sites such as Nexus Mods who hosts them. Nexus Mods for example allows users to upload their mods for free, and get donations for them. We’ve all used mods, myself having released mods for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion once upon a time, and never did I expect to be paid. Hell I was just happy if someone used it! There’s even a mod for Fallout 4 called Fallout: London, an entire official DLC, with voice lines and everything, completely FREE. Mods commonly add things to games, change textures, fix bugs missed by devs, add new weapons, create cheats and more.

The issue that the discussion surrounds is the blocking of this mod behind a pay wall, specifically patreon. It’s a time limited period supposedly, with a public release coming within around 30 days. The creator (aforementioned TwistedMexi) has said this is so people support them in their work, and allow them to create fixes for any bugs arising following updates faster. The other side says this goes against “Terms of Service” and pay walls content for the game, especially for a game that was released mere days before.

My personal thoughts on this are as follows. Mods should not be pay walled, however requesting donations is fine. Pay walling has never been okay with me, and if you’re utilising content from the game to create said mod, even less! Imagine someone creating a mod that simply added a chest to your favourite game and gave you a million gold and access to the ultimate weapon from the beginning. However to access said chest, you need to pay them £10 a month. You simply wouldn’t do it! However if they simply said “if this mod has helped you in anyway, I’d really appreciate any donations. These go towards keeping me motivated and producing more content!” Personally I’d be much more inclined to donate rather than be forced to pay £10 to access a mod which might not be what I wanted to add to the game and not end up using it anyway!

That all aside, this game is still in early access! A game actively in development, and yet someone is charging for a mod to make a slight change to camera movement, which might come in to the game at some point anyway with player feedback. Profiteering at this point from a game still so early in its development cycle, just feels greedy and wrong on so many levels to me. At least wait for the game to hit version 1 before making a mod you intend to profit off, if doing it at all.

In conclusion, mods are made with specific games in mind, and are for fun. Paywalling content like this makes me think less of the creator and ultimately less likely to use their content. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.