Please do not start monetising mods#2793

I know this sounds great on paper but that’s just ignoring the many issues that can come with it

There’s the people that’ll try to make “DLCs” for content that doesn’t belong to them, there’s the people who will just make random stuff specificaly for money which will affect quality, and most importantly there’s also how the casual userbase will think about it

We are already BUYING the game, and if we want to support the creators we’ll definitively buy one of their original DLCs

But it’s alot less attractive to buy unsure user made content. I’m all for supporting creators, but that’s what donation systems are for in my opinion.

If you really want to give money to user creators, maybe make a program to help them make official DLCs for the game alongside the game makers? I think that’d be alot more certain and safe.

If this program functions perfectly as intended and no stolen content gets monetized, and no low-effort garbage gets monetized, it will anyway inevitably and inwhateverably (sorry, i forgot the word invariably) lead to workshop creators to either get demoralized or to get a grind mindset which of course will demoralize them when they don’t get their ‘product’ monetized (or they do, and no one evers buys it and they get sad and they cry), and it will be full of useless ‘content’ no one ever needed and no one will ever need made by evil griftminded ‘creators’ (as opposed to real passionate creators who try to make cool stuff). Like why would I make funny shek dice that say “somebody” on rolling when I can instead make the same thing without references to trademarked cartoon ogres and get paid for it (silly example, but surely you understand). People will chase coin by submitting-

whatever, idk
This feels like poisoning the ecosystem, but..
If there’s actually good quality control and if only full complete original games are monetized that’s ok I guess, good even, but you won’t stop at that. The post says the marketplace will feature “TTRPG assets & figurines, original models & assets (tables, tokens, miniatures, props, environments)” and that’s just evil I think. It’s an open invitation for some weird people (with no soul or heart) to start pumping out heaps of garbage models and stuff. No one needs it, no real person will get anything from it. The few good things will be buried under tons of valueless nothing. Please don’t let them turn this into a ‘content’ farm 😭😭😭

So anyway, my thoughts after writing this is: letting people sell cool awesome games is nice 🙂👍, but not props or environments please it’s so destructive like actually super devastating 🙅🙅.

Amendment: also there totally should be a pay-what-you-want system i think, like on itch and other places

Content will be approved for sale by us by verifying ownership of the content and that it’s high quality.

We will not approved content that was originally for free on the workshop for sale. It must be new original content.

You will not see a flood of low quality content.

This is also 100% an optional and non-obtrusive. Marketplace will not affect how the workshop functions as it is now.

That remains to be seen, alot of games/companies say stuff like this only for the oposite to be true

Copy-Pasting my comment in regards to this from their steam announcement:

Creator Marketplace will indefinitely hurt the game’s player base as a whole. If this is about your company taking a little $ with each monetization purchase while most goes to the creator, I would prefer if you just made 2.0 a paid DLC instead, especially since you’re working on it being compatible with everything in 1.0. Just code in a toggle, charge for 2.0 if you’re needing the funding.

Companies exist to make money and put food on the table for the employees, sure. You are putting work into a 2.0 and need to see some return on it, I get it. But don’t be tone deaf in regards to a Creator Marketplace. This honestly is an “enshittification” of a service attribute that will burn the playerbase more than help.

If you had plans on ever making a sequel to Tabletop Simulator, the players won’t forget the bad choices you made here. Put more thought into this decision, please.

Edit1: Look up Bethesda’s approach to Creation Club paid content and see how this just won’t be viable and will do more harm than good. I’m certain there are other examples of companies that had this kind of idea, but ended up shafting the playerbase as a result.

Even Bethesda walked back on paid mods, and it took a long time for their community to recover. You’re not better than Bethesda, your plan isn’t better than Bethesda’s, and your promises are empty.

Personally I would rather see the devs releasing stuff as they do have full access to the game code allowing them to make all sorts of amazing stuff which modders can’t, for example I would pay to unlock a feature that allow me to add animated foil effects to any card I make.

As for modding community selling games and assets I don’t really mind as long as it doesn’t change how Steam workshop functions and as long as the devs do supervise the quality of the content. I mean, Foundry VTT actually does something like this. And it works.

That said, I’m just worried that the toll TTS will have to charge to content developers for selling on its market would result in assets having really unattractive prices, which would result in devs having to spend resources and time in a feature that is not working well instead of using those same resources in adding new cool features TTS.

What are the methods you’ll use to ensure that there is a quality checklist and that you can ensure that paid mods are not stolen from elsewhere? How do you ensure that creators aren’t taking assets from other places and redistributing them here? There’s a lot of assets people can get for free or buy from other marketplaces and brand them as their own. How do you ensure that people aren’t using photoscanned models or generative AI? As content creator I am very hesitant and worried about this feature, especially after seeing it tried and failed with so many other games.

Just gonna copy/paste what I said on the Steam announcement, but it fits here.

My main concern about this entire thing, is that publishers will see the potential monetization, go money hungry, take down the previous free mods, and create a paid one for the marketplace. I understand it’s the owners’ imperative to do what they want with their IP (that’s why we have DLCs), but making it THIS prominent would incentivize everyone to paywall. Imagine almost every decently popular game being paid. You can’t even find one you like to try/demo first with your friends.

You need to understand, this isn’t like Minecraft or Skyrim where the mods are completely optional - the mods for Tabletop Simulator IS the game. A large appeal is people from other countries being able to experience these board games that cost an arm and a leg, either with players from the same nation, or overseas. I certainly had three other people buy the game for this reason alone. If a large majority of mods are paid (meaning we’re paying $20 up front, then extra for EACH mod), then my playtime on Steam would strictly be 0 hours, and that’s four potential players gone due to word of mouth. And it sucks, because TTS is the most played game in my library.

Please reconsider. Publishers still have the option of making official DLCs (as always), but with this new marketplace, it’s going to swallow the passion-driven workshop whole.

Also stop merging these threads? Listen here you, NOONE ACTUALLY WANTS THIS FEATURE. Stop trying to hide the absurd number of posts you’re getting telling you NOT TO DO IT by hiding them all in one thread. Meh, who cares, you assholes just gonna ruin something else nice for $0.000000000000001 Damn losers.

Making mods on TTS is for myself, my friends, and others to enjoy. Always stating that the game it is based on is not my creation or IP. TTS is my model train set in my basement. My hobby. And an absolutely incredible way to have a great evening of fun with my friends thousands of miles away. I am not looking to make any money off of TTS with my modding. The games aren’t my property. You gave me a platform to build things. The fun I have with those things is payment enough to me.

Create more licensed DLC from games already created and I will buy them to support TTS ( and support them when they break or need updating! ). Any creator should be able to work with you directly if they want to make a buck off of someone else’s idea. But only through your DLC system. Take a look at BGA’s model. They have a list of licenses that other people can build off of. You could do something like that. Just leave the Workshop alone. Please.

I absolutely agree. The very existence of a market place will negatively affect steam work shop.

This is never a good idea whenever any company brings it up, just get rid of the idea. No one who uses your software wants this

If you want to do this, the best way to go about it would be to allow modders to somehow integrate patreon/kofi/other “tip jar” sites in-game from their workshop posts. Outside of that, the official DLC store that already exists is a fantastic way to have curated, official content available for sale on the platform. An open creator marketplace, no matter how curated, will only drive modders away from the free workshop and dry up the best thing about this game/platform.