Paid mods that are not sold through the IP owner always confused me.
If I make a mod for a game and only share it if people pay me then am I not making money off of an IP that is not owned by me? Surely, the IP owner is entitled to a portion of the profits.
And another thing, if a mod is monetized, how does it differ from a DLC?
You're god damn right it should be a passion project for everyone and not locked behind a paywall. These days we have Patreon mods that say "we will release for free for everyone!" but then they take multiple years to get the mod to a state of free release. By then, you're not even playing the game anymore.
Completely right, Bethesda need to refocus energy on learning to make good games again, and not rely on players with a passion for released games to pad their bottom line.
Never support paid mods passed through a developer.
NexusMods has always been a good place doing good things. Bethesda wanting to monetize modding is an example of out of control greed. It really sucks that they are still managing to get a slice of the pie and shouldn't be putting effort in to it but rather making/fixing their games.