And here is a choice quote which shows that there is no way Valve is going to back out on this decision no matter how many people get pissed off and sign petitions.

"Our view of Steam is that it's a collection of useful tools for customers and content developers.

With the Steam workshop, we've already reached the point where the community is paying their favorite contributors more than they would make if they worked at a traditional game developer. We see this as a really good step.

The option of MOD developers getting paid seemed like a good extension of that."

And here is another one that is really ironic coming from Valve:

"As a baseline, Valve loves MODs (see Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and DOTA).

The open nature of PC gaming is why Valve exists, and is critical to the current and future success of PC gaming."

Yup, Gabe on reddit is just there to say "fuck you" and shove his middle finger into our faces.

Welp.

Wonder how long it'll be before the backfire from this scorches the pounds off of Gaben's generous figure?

Well fuck him too.He's never seeing any money from me ever again.

Here's a short and rough translation of a german column with Nicolas Lietzau, creative director of the upcoming Skyrim total conversion mod Enderal (same guys behind Nehrim for Oblivion):
german source

Quick facts: Enderal is a total-conversion mod, completely new landscape with deserts, jungle, forests, a roughly 100 hour campaign. Nicolas states that he's working since the beginning of the project in 2011 about 8 hours daily on it, so over 20k working hours. For free.

In that context it's clear, why this new pay-system from Valve is a revolution for us. So far the only way to live from our work would have been starting a real studio with all the financial risks.
He talked with his team and they quickly came to the solution, that Enderal remains free.

Reason 1: money isn't equal with profit
Even if they would sell it, it's unreasonable to really earn money with it - quite the opposite.
Assuming they would charge 30 bucks for it, that leaves 7,5 for them. However, even just 1 cent earned creates an avalanche since it's no longer non-commercial and would have immense repercussions.
- they would have to pay service contractors (voice-over artists, sound studio, external artists). With their current german and english voicework, that means a six-digit figure.
- Software licenses for programs that are free for non-commercial use. A five-digit figure.
- compensations for the few modding ressources coming from other modders, even if it's just a shield or a flower.
- on top of that, the split in their own team, currently consisting of 15 people.

Reason 2: the non-existant fine print
Are you obliged to support a paid mod?
How are they responsible for possible system failures through bugs and can they get sued?

Bethesdas take on it is: "Mod at your own risk." Understandable at the amount of mods one had to control, but a huge minefield for every amateur modder.

---------
Personal note: as understandable it is for me that modders would love to get a bit compensation for their work, this system doesn't do the job. And as long as guys behind projects like SKSE, Enderal or Falskaar see it the same way, I'll stay with the storm in a teacup. ;)

Why Dota 2 paid mods works while Skyrim paid mods failed?

Because Dota 2 paid mods is ACTUALLY MODS WITH DONATION BUTTONS.

mods in Dota 2 is purely cosmetic, it will not affect game play, hence people buy skins because they want to support the devs / modders, they don't feel like a wallet waking on two legs. It is quite similar to a donation when whether people pay or not will not affect their game experience, just make their characters shinier.

Skyrim is already a paid game versus free Dota 2. Skyrim already have DLC to be paid to improve the user game experience while Dota 2 improve user game experience for free. It can be said Skyrim sucks by itself, people need mods to get a good experience out of it.

In short, Dota 2 generate much good will from Free, Free, Optional Donation business model, and Skyrim employ buisness model of Pay, Pay, Pay more in terms of base game, DLC, and mods.

How can it not fail.

I have given up on Valve and Bethesda. I am keeping my Steam account and the games in it but I am NEVER buying anything from Steam again if possible.

GOG, here I come baby ! Hopefully the Galaxy will be ready soon.

Welcome, the first time I see people from my country of birth is joining GoG.

Selamat Datang. Harap anda menikmati dengan suasana di sini.

I'm pretty much with you on this.

Over time, games that I can get on GOG (or DRM free somewhere else) will be repurchased, but Valve isn't getting a dime out of me. And if a game requires Steam, I will not only hold it to higher expectations to purchase but also I will be sure to buy it on another store to cut Valve out of the picture. If I keep Steam offline except when playing a game online or downloading something, I've just made myself a liability for Valve.

That Reddit thread from Gabe was comical- he dodged all of the tough questions and the downvotes are incredible. Hopefully this is the beginning of people realizing we shouldn't want everything to be tied to Steam.

I don't remember anyone from Malaysia before though.

And that why I say country of birth. :P

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but what I can't figure out is why Bethesda is even getting a cut.

In case nobody else has posted this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/33uplp/mods_and_steam/

Gabe's answers can be found on his user page:
https://www.reddit.com/user/GabeNewellBellevue

I just thought of another thing. Though not a steam user myself, but it is in regards to DRM.

Essentially if developers can monetize mods now, well it leads to all sorts of problems. It's been mentioned that this becomes now a third party DLC. That said, developers can actually say: If you make a mod and not sell it on steam, but instead upload it somewhere else, we're going to give you all sorts of problems by striking things down with a big hammer.

On the positive side, this can also lead to developers giving out the tools to mod their game to gain some revenue for it through modders charging for their mods.

Yay to damage control. Some of his comments...

Steam against exclusivity
"Exclusivity is a bad idea for everyone. It's basically a financial leveraging strategy that creates short term market distortion and long term crying."
Steam against dictatorship
"In general we are pretty reluctant to tell any developer that they have to do something or they can't do something. It just goes against our philosophy to be dictatorial."
Steam against censorship/bans
"As I said elsewhere, if we are censoring, it's dumb, ineffective, and will stop."

Sorry, I'm imagining things, I've clearly gotten too drunk.

I don't think empty bullshitting and trying to turn it into personal PR stunt is gonna cut it this time. At least I hope gamers are not that stupid.
DMCA takedowns of mods. It happened before, now they have the reason to do so. Unless you actually work for them (hint use paid system)

And they're not restricted to Steam mods either...