I have no interest in “proving” anything to you, but I have contributed to the scene for literal decades in both my talents and funding.

There are a hundred other revenue streams that don’t require turning the sandbox into a sales floor. Go do one of those. Or don’t, just don’t assume that we’re all going to be okay with it.

If they want an income source they should find a job.

Sometimes are sacred, and the community sandbox should never become a sales floor.

If you can’t see how paid mods have already enormously increased toxicity in the modding scene, you’re either blind or ignorant. And people will always make things they love for free. Graffiti will always exist. There’s no reason to pretend art will only exist for the profit motive, or that it is better for it.

Maybe they want to make a living or extra money by working on something they like.

Exactly the problem. I don’t want my hobby spaces to be filled with entrepreneurs looking for a revenue stream, I want them filled with people who love the hobby enough to sacrifice for it. And when those spaces do get filled with money-makers, it pushes the people with the actual passion out because they aren’t interested in competing in another fucking competitive capitalist space.

If they won’t do it for the love of the game, then they aren’t part of the community.

I don’t really care about the developers tbh, what I care about is the community, and paid mods hurt the community. Well-received mods have always been thanked by donations, and there’s nothing stopping that system from continuing today, but the idea of monetizing the community sandbox is toxic and should be wholly rejected.

I agree with this.

That said, the prohibition of paid mods should be a cultural matter, not a legal one. It shouldn’t be illegal, but we as a gaming community should refuse to engage with them as poor practice

If you want to make money for your effort, Dev a game. The idea that you should be able to piggyback off the work of another dev team and profit from it is BS. It’s like saying you should be allowed to walk into Starbucks and start selling custom mugs to their active customers; no way they would allow that