The only way paid modding will be viable is if they are guaranteed a steady income while they make the mod, especially for the larger ones. Probably through some sort of system like Patreon and maybe releasing it early for 'backers'. Anyone who quits their job to do full time modding though is probably just going to get royally ****ed over and it won't be a very long term thing due to the lack of highly moddable games and how few people will probably even buy their stuff.
Since they get only 25% of the cut, and only after they have sold $400 of it, and even then it takes over a month (Chesko stated it would take 45 days before he received the money) as well as some other specifics like going directly into a certain bank account (possibly incurring another fee) plus they are going to have to keep track of it all for tax purposes, it really limits the potential for making a living off of it unless you hit upon a really popular idea that someone else isn't just going to make for free.
There are just too many problems that will scare away customers as well due to how likely it is the mod won't work anymore due to the modder losing interest, not making enough money to keep working on it, game updates breaking the mod, mod breaking other mods or vice versa, a WIP mod that is never finished, the price being too damn high compared to what you could spend the same money for on other games or DLC (especially during a sale) or rage quitting as they threw a tantrum over some slight and/or don't know how to ignore idiots on the internet.
The only kind of mod I might consider giving a few bucks to (let's say $5) would be something like Europa Barbarorum. Except the bigger the mod the more people work on them, so they would have to sell even more copies to make it even a nice bit of compensation for their time but still nowhere near livable.
I won't pay $1 for one or even ah alf-dozen weapons if they're DLC as it is, no way would I be buying a single weapon or suite of armour no matter how much effort someone put into it. Especially since the armour and weapon stat values in mods can be all over the place, and it gets messy and confusing when you start using overhaul mods to balance the combat and make it much better (ie less damage spongeyness and more realism).
Since they get only 25% of the cut, and only after they have sold $400 of it, and even then it takes over a month (Chesko stated it would take 45 days before he received the money) as well as some other specifics like going directly into a certain bank account (possibly incurring another fee) plus they are going to have to keep track of it all for tax purposes, it really limits the potential for making a living off of it unless you hit upon a really popular idea that someone else isn't just going to make for free.
There are just too many problems that will scare away customers as well due to how likely it is the mod won't work anymore due to the modder losing interest, not making enough money to keep working on it, game updates breaking the mod, mod breaking other mods or vice versa, a WIP mod that is never finished, the price being too damn high compared to what you could spend the same money for on other games or DLC (especially during a sale) or rage quitting as they threw a tantrum over some slight and/or don't know how to ignore idiots on the internet.
The only kind of mod I might consider giving a few bucks to (let's say $5) would be something like Europa Barbarorum. Except the bigger the mod the more people work on them, so they would have to sell even more copies to make it even a nice bit of compensation for their time but still nowhere near livable.
I won't pay $1 for one or even ah alf-dozen weapons if they're DLC as it is, no way would I be buying a single weapon or suite of armour no matter how much effort someone put into it. Especially since the armour and weapon stat values in mods can be all over the place, and it gets messy and confusing when you start using overhaul mods to balance the combat and make it much better (ie less damage spongeyness and more realism).
