@RehnSturm256@shota.house @caronnov@dill.burggit.moe @diff@dill.burggit.moe I've made a few mods in the past (mostly for myself and friends) and still work on them occasionally. I'm actually working on relearning what little I knew about blender to make more mods for my Supermarket Simulator savegame. I think there's a middle ground. Take the top 2 Minecraft modding sites, Curseforge and Modrinth, I think they use ads or other partnerships and pay mod developers based on the number of downloads they get. I definitely think something like that is worth looking into. And before that, many mod authors used adfly links, which weren't the best, but it was a compromise. I think things like that, where the platform is the one actually paying the mods rather than mods being released for a specific price tag, or rewards based on mod downloads, or other things like that, combined with donations. Things that encourage mod development, but doesn't actively hinder the player base. I can't imagine, for example, playing Minecraft with friends where say a Mod pack had like 200 mods in it and 100 of the mods had to be purchased for some price, even if it was just $0.99/mod. That's $100 + tax (probably) just to play a pack with your friends, and you know each person playing has to pay the price. If they want to play, that is. With paid mods, you also have to worry about more factors, such as the site/payment processor being up instead of just a download of the file being available. Sure, you can likely find the mod offsite if it's popular enough, but you don't know if that download is safe and if the mod isn't popular, you might not even get that. I've had multiple instances of me actively wanting to get a mod but the site/payment processor was broken, so I couldn't sign up, or I was unable to pay for it. Those mods are lost now and I hate it. A semi-related side-rant Occasionally, I like playing old versions of games and mods. Minecraft is the game I like playing older versions of. I'd say my favorite version (for modding) *was* release 1.5.2, it was the main release for (what felt like) a year or so. The wait between 1.5.2 to 1.6 was a long wait, because of this, there were a ton of mods for it. Unfortunately, various things happened. One thing that happened is The Minecraft Forum (at the time it was the place to get mods for minecraft) changed the way they did things to comply with GDPR or something. One of the changes was purging any account that didn't agree to the new, updated ToS. Accounts that didn't log in or abandoned the forum were purged, as were all their posts and downloads. Then this was right in the middle of the transition between Minecraft Forums to Curseforge. The mods that moved remain on Curseforge to this day, but so many mods used adfly alternatives which shutdown or other shorteners with broke. Some used their websites which went offline and others just deleted old mod versions to save space on their free download servers. All this to say that 1.5.2 despite being one of the most modded versions. (probably surpassed by 1.7.10 and other versions at this point) But despite having so many mods, so few of them are still available. Minecraft is a stand-out example, simply because for most games, you can't just decide to go back to an old version so easily. For games now, you are either on the new version, or you're not playing. (unless you want to go out of your way to sail the 7 seas, as it were.) I actually think this story might serve as a point to the paying for mods angle. If Modrinth or Curseforge existed at the time, those mods would very likely still be around. And the mods developers might've even continued developing them due to the motivation of getting rewarded for their hard work. I think platforms like Modrinth and Nexus Mods* and similar which have a way where mod developers can share in the profits of the platform and instead of a single mod being monetized, it's the platform that's monetized. And the mod developers get a cut, whether that's of the premium subscription (Nexus Mods*) or via advertisements and partnerships/sponsors (Modrinth and Curseforge) * I'm not entirely sure how Nexus Mods works as far as paying mod developers, but this is just how I gather based on how their site is constructed. I think there should always be a free option as far as downloads are concerned. But I don't know, If say all minecraft mods were on Modrinth and Modrinth required you to pay like $4.99/mo, and they split that $4.99/mo with mod developers based on what mods you downloaded. I think I might do it. I might even end up paying for Nexus Mods premium subscription if they end up having more games on there that I'd find worth modding beyond Supermarket Simulator. All this to say, I think there are ways to pay mod developers in a way which does not harm the player base and is beneficial to all involved.