The world's largest modding site has announced new paid mods policy, with caveats: 'as long it doesn't harm the free modding eco-system'

NexusMods announced a number of new policies in response to the issue of paid-for mods. This has pleased some people and angered others. This is a topic that has been discussed for a long time on the world's largest mod site. As modding becomes more popular and lucrative for some creators, it's common to see neat mods, only to discover you need to subscribe to Patreon in order to get them.

Pickysaurus, community manager at NexusMods, writes: "Over the last year, several game developers have introduced various paid modding schemes. These include Bethesda Verified Creators (Skyrim Fallout 4, Starfield), and InZoi Creations Marketplace." "As a consequence, we've had a lot requests for clarification on our paid-modding stance and paid-modding rules from a variety of our users."

NexusMods has revised its policies after consulting with modders. The new policies allow modders to link to monetised material, but with some caveats. The main new rules are:

• Linking to paid mods. If the uploader has free mods on Nexus Mods, and would like to link their paid content to the place they purchased it, we will allow this subject to the Advertising Restrictions.
• Lite/Trial/Preview/Demo versions of paid mods: We will not allow free mods to be shared where they represent an inferior version of the mod with features stripped out to promote the purchase of the full version.
• Patches/Dependencies for Paid Mods. We will not permit any patches or addons to user-generated content which require payment in order to unlock. (This excludes DLCs provided by the developer, including DLCs that bundle previously sold items such as Skyrim’s Anniversary Upgrade). Mods that require a paid mod in order to function will also not be allowed.
• Collections that require paid mods: Just like mods, collections that are not functional without a paid mod will not be allowed.

All of this seems reasonable, but the internet is a place where a large portion of the audience is not interested in paying for mods. The NexusMods team must also feel this way, as the post continues to explain why the policies above have been chosen.

Pickysaurus writes: "Our mission is 'Make Modding Easy.' We strongly believe that paid mods are in direct conflict with this goal." "Modding is a complex process, and forcing users to navigate the confusing split between free and paid mods in order to get their setup to work does not represent a positive and easy modding community."

There are also legal issues with mod monetisation, which in most cases violates a game's EULA. (There are exceptions) This could land a platform that hosts the mod in hot waters. NexusMods claims to want to build a "positive modding community" where all content is available for free, but it acknowledges "some community members don't share this view and they would like to use these schemes to earn money directly for the content they create instead of relying on Mod Rewards and donations."

NexusMods allows mods for games that have a creator program. Pickysaurus writes that "Several mod authors participating in the Verified Creators Program with Bethesda have been long-time community members who have provided great content for free and positive interactions with their mod users over the years." "We believe that these users should have the right to acknowledge their paid work, as long as it doesn't harm the free modding community and ecosystem."

The post concludes by saying that if the site finds out that bad actors are using the site to advertise their paid mods then the policies will change.

The main issue is the rules surrounding 'free mods' that depend on paid mods. Moonracer, a creator of the game Moonracer, was among those who asked for "clarifications on 'patches' for paid mods. Does this include Creation Club content for Bethesda? Most of that content was created by 3rd parties and not Bethesda directly (even before Starfield). I have a lot of Creation Club patches on the Nexus. Does this mean that I have to remove them now?"

More responses were received about this policy, and how it could backfire or unfairly penalize some modders. Pickysaurus acknowledged the feedback received in this area and said NexusMods "had spoken with Bethesda" to confirm the differences. In line with Bethesda, we consider Creation Club content to be 'official' content and will treat it as DLC.

This also applies to any Creations that are published on the Bethesda Game Studios website by their official account. Here you can find a list of mods for Skyrim, Starfield and other games. "Any other Verified Creator content will be considered unofficial, and this policy will apply to it."

So, good news for the modder who created the Armored Dwarven Mudcrab. Some are still concerned that the policy is not well-thought out and, as Pickysaurus says, "passionate feedback" is continuing. Pickysaurus writes, "We spent the morning going over all the comments that were made overnight and we had a meeting to discuss them." "Another update will be posted later today or tomorrow."

NexusMods' discussion thread has now reached 26 pages. It is not quite at "Is Wario Libertarian?" levels, but it shows the modders' interest in this topic. NexusMods, the largest mod site, is a good example of this. Many companies are now considering how their games will be used after release.

Most mods will always be free. There is a strong argument that certain mods can be sold to benefit their creators if the publisher allows this. NexusMods might not have all of the answers, but it is at least grappling with this question.