Valve, along with Bethesda Softworks, introduced a new initiative for paid mods on Steam with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim being one of the first supported games. The decision caused much backlash, leading to Valve removing the option but some people – like John Romero, who is a former id Software co-founder and co-creator of Quake and Doom – believes modders should profit from their hard work.
Speaking to Games Industry International, Romero said, “I’ve always believed that mod makers should be able to make money from their creations. In 1995, while we were making Quake, we had the idea to start a company called id Net. This company would be the portal that players would connect to and play other mod maker’s creations. It was to be a curated site, levels and mods chosen by us at id, and if we put your content on our network we would pay you an amount equal to the traffic that your content drove to the site.”
The effort didn’t quite pan out due to the team focusing on development of Quake but Romero feels that modders should be “rewarded for their hard work.”
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