Bethesda introduced
CreationClub at
this years E3 and has taken steps to reiterate the new initiative is
NOT "paid mods" (
#notpaidmods).
Is Creation Club paid mods?
No. Mods will remain a free and open system where anyone can create and share what they’d like.
So just what is what is CreationClub then?
Creation Club is a collection of all-new content for both Fallout 4 and Skyrim. It features new items, abilities, and gameplay created by Bethesda Games Studios and outside development partners including the best community creators. Creation Club content is fully curated and compatible with the main game and official add-ons.
It appears then that CreationClub is
not just a new iteration of Paid Mods, at least not directly. With that said however, and although
paid content didn't work out quite so well the last time it was tried via Steam, it looks like Bethesda learned a few things from the experience nonetheless, that gamers;
- do want new content and more frequently.
- are more than happy to pay for it (subject to "3").
- don't want to pay for previously free content (being especially leery of 'leaches'[1]).
- wanted guaranties co-dependent mods worked properly.
- and copyright/authorship wouldn't be an issue[2].
The only way to resolve a lot of these questions is for publishers to 'curate' or 'manage' User Generated Content to some degree. This is what Bethesda appears to have done with CreationClub; in limiting participation to a select few, proved, developers (individuals or otherwise)[3], Bethesda is then able to provide (premium/paid) content at an accelerated rate that works (subject to the usual caveats about games and content ordinarily working), absent ownership issues, whilst simultaneously leaving freely available community mods untouched.
Most of the Creation Club content is created internally, some with external partners who have worked on our games, and some by external Creators. All the content is approved, curated, and taken through the full internal dev cycle; including localization, polishing, and testing. This also guarantees that all content works together.
Further Reading-
Paid Mods and why they don't work
Footnotes:
[1] a big concern over paid mods was the potential it carried for the more unscrupulous to 'leach' from the community by simply reselling mods and content without change they had no hand in authoring, and the difficulties this subsequently presents from a remedial perspective (how to hold 'anon' individuals to account for misappropriation).
[2] from a creators point of view anytime publishing content involves money its becomes subject to abuse. Aside from concerns over content leaching, Copyright and Authorship can be difficult to prove, to such an extent that production can be stymied having to constantly deal with disputes over Copyright or ownership.
[3] participants in the program are likely treated as though they are commercial content developers, likely required to provide identifying information so they can be held to account should there be issues, especially so given the fact that money is involved.
