I don't see a problem with asking for donations for your mods, but downright selling them to the public... I hope Larian (or any other game company out there) will never allow this.
I know why you think that, but you would get better quality if they could sell them. Some fear if you allow selling, then everything will cost. But imo most things by far would still be free, that precedence was set a long time ago. However major makeovers are worthy of $$$. Are you paying for a Speed Mod? No. Are you paying for a model? No. A re-balance mod? No. Nehrim for Oblivion? Perhaps.
Figure this happens all the time:
Should I soak 12 months into a mod with no chance of a return as a cool community thing, while rent is still due? Or can I come up with something small to do with Unity and have a chance at it paying the land lord? We have to figure in a capitalistic world this is a common thought for anyone. I also don't think it's necessarily right that we should expect all things of this manner to be free, what have you done for a year for free in a manner like this?
If there were a way for mod'ers who create epic content to be able to sell it, you always have the right to not buy. But allowing it will bring better developers into the mix who can and will get things done. The win for you is a quality mod in the game engine you enjoy, so most things would still have the D:OS flavor in them vs an indy just making something in Unity would have zero D:OS in it.
I predict that in the next handful of years there will be this new avenue for indy development as that scene continues to expand. Someone will see this from the Main Game Dev POV and say "What the hell, why not?" (they get a % cut) and if the engine and tools are great, it will be a hit for everyone. Why have all Indy's go to 3 General Game Dev Tools, when they could choose a specific game engines to have an even faster development cycle for themselves to keep costs and time down.
I for one would certainly pay for quality, I do all the time. I'd pay for a quality expansion, a quality mod could be approaching or as good as an expansion. I am very much price/performance based, there is no reason mod couldn't be quality and there is no reason why I should expect that quality to be free when everything else costs.
If I were here to sell the idea of Kickstarter to you before it existed, I'd be laughed at and hoped to God something like that would never happen, it would destroy games. That's how general audiences work, fear of the worst. But forward to today's reality, Kickstarter is a good idea and look at what comes from it. So instead of thinking the easy "no cash for mods, non-negotiable" think of what could be if we had more and better devs developing on the D:OS Engine. Perhaps a handful of real quality offerings each year for a $5 or $10 spot that I could decide on.
For us defending capitalism everywhere, we sure want our communistic freebies!
Only the very best, with tons of hours would ever be quality enough to ask for $.
