modders get rich?

[Jonathan88]

Thank you very much Meems and Buggy123 for such an amusing read!
I shall definitely bookmark: MMOs and You, a guide by a irritated forum-goer

The thing which I'm seeing here, which I have found in many other smaller games with relatively large active modding communities, is the relationship between modders and certain types of players. Most people appreciate what the modders have made, free of charge, for the community.

However, I have noticed that a lot of people see modders as a tool which comes with the game to make their visions come true free of charge. If you have an idea for a mod, it is perfectly fine to suggest it and a modder may come across it and think it is a great idea. What is not fine is pestering the modders to make what you want, or even complaining that they won't make your idea come to life.

Also:

I need to hang around the community to make friends.

a few faceless 20 somethings that I'll never meet

Yeah... best way to make friends within an amazing community of developers, modders and players who all work together to collaboratively make and play their favourite game without demanding money or getting upset no-one can turn their ideas into reality for free, is to insult their developers... good luck with that one!

turn Factorio into a free-to-play microtransaction mega online community

This doesn't sound like someone who's played Factorio... at all...
One of the best things about Factorio is its non-mega community, who are all very passionate and dedicated. If you have come to appreciate Factorio like the rest of us, you'd understand that the Factorio community is the opposite of "mega online community". If you look at the multiplayer side of Factorio, there are barely any griefers: Factorio has the nicest online players in any game I've ever seen. If you want any more evidence of why an MMO is the opposite of Factorio, I'll direct you to the MMOs and You, a guide by a irritated forum-goer

And now to the most important part: money

This seems to be the focus of your post, and the part you understand the least.

Personally, I loathe anything with microtransactions - they are perfectly designed to suck the money out of you and punish anyone who tries to avoid them with endless timers and grinding. Even if they are "only cosmetic", they put social pressure on people: "Hmm maybe I'll spend another teeny £/$3.99 for that extra spacesuit so I look cool like all the other gullible addicts". But enough about my opinions - what about what the future potential players of """F2"""?

My guess is they probably wouldn't buy any of it. Factorio players tend to be sensible, logical people who like playing a game about making sensible logical decisions, the complete opposite of some of those MMOs. The only people who would possibly fall for this, would be those looking for a microtransaction ridden hell-hole, and a game like Factorio... which at the moment seems to be limited to you

Finally, it seems like you've never encountered these "few faceless 20 somethings". Possibly one of the greatest things about Factorio is the devs. They put their hearts into making this game and are a model to all other game developers. If there's one thing they have a firm stance on, it's the way Factorio makes money.

Have you ever noticed the price of the game? It's £15 or $20. No .99s in sight. Almost every other single game in existence ends in .99, but not Factorio. Furthermore, did you buy Factorio in a sale? No - they don't put it on sale. At all.
These are obviously stupid marketing decisions if you're, like Koub said, "I want to make a lot of money. How could I design a game so that I can a maximum of it, with minimum efforts?"

But the devs are different. They want to make a game which is good for the players, not their pockets. There's no .99 since that tricks people into thinking it is cheaper than it is. Factorio is sold for a certain amount, and they want you to know that. No sales? That would give an advantage to people who bought the game at a certain time. Even when they increased the price, they spent a few weeks letting everyone know, so they could buy the game at the lower price before the increase. This is why they are such nice developers: they develop a game which they want everyone to love, not so they can live in a mansion on an island paradise.

This is who the devs are:
https://youtu.be/zdttvM3dwPk
not:

We're trained to make excellent games, which people can't stop playing. Money and great games are inseparable.

The plan should be to convert successful games into their MMO version.

And if, after all this, you still think there is a fraction of hope for your """microtransaction ridden, MMO style F2""", I'll direct you to their "business model" here:
https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-132

TL;DR: If your idea truly is the """god tier mod""", then start learn learning programming and make that game yourself! The rest of us will stick to good old """F1"""...

[meems]

Sounds like me. Well, I wouldn't say 50 million sales just to play my mod, but there has been people post comments like "I bought the game so I can play Bob's mods."

Hi Bob.
Wrt modding, you're the main man. I'd get you on the F2 Astroidia staff in a heartbeat.
But 1st I have to jump thru this hoop that the community has, fairly, set out for me.
I have to learn to mod and do a proto-type of Astroidia, by myself to show its potential. I hope u will have a look when I'm done. Even in its prototype form, it should shine enough to cause a few modders to at least join as part-time Astroidia staff.

[buggy123]

10x Harder
https://mods.factorio.com/mods/withers/10xHarder 700 downloads

Yes but getting 700 downloads is not at all a indication that most of the playerbase would be ok with such a change, or that such a change is even good for the beyond appealing to a few masochists.

Sounds like me. Well, I wouldn't say 50 million sales just to play my mod, but there has been people post comments like "I bought the game so I can play Bob's mods."

Hi Bob.
Wrt modding, you're the main man. I'd get you on the F2 Astroidia staff in a heartbeat.
But 1st I have to jump thru this hoop that the community has, fairly, set out for me.
I have to learn to mod and do a proto-type of Astroidia, by myself to show its potential. I hope u will have a look when I'm done. Even in its prototype form, it should shine enough to cause a few modders to at least join as part-time Astroidia staff.

Meems, enough. At this point you're just holding your fingers in your ears and shouting "LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU". Your idea is terrible and it won't work.

[meems]

>modders get rich?

I think I have the answer.
If the mod can make money independantly of Factorio sales, there is every reason for both Wube and the mod company to support it. Wube still make £15 on the factorio sale, while the mod company makes its money which ever way it chooses. I'd go with micro transactions. It's win win.
If a mod is god tier and is boosting factorio sales then it would be plain good business to support it.

Hopefully we can talk about this later, once Astroidia proto-type is finished.

[buggy123]

*sigh*

If the mod can make money independantly of Factorio sales, there is every reason for both Wube and the mod company to support it. Wube still make £15 on the factorio sale, while the mod company makes its money which ever way it chooses. I'd go with micro transactions. It's win win.
If a mod is god tier and is boosting factorio sales then it would be plain good business to support it.

First of all, a mod that is so popular that it substantially boosts the sales of the main game are, while not unheard of, extremely rare. Given how far into development Factorio is, and the status of it's most popular mods (bob's, etc, are largely complete and popular, but not $50m popular), it seem exceedingly likely that such a mega mod will NEVER appear.

Second of all, I just spent several pages going into detail about how, exactly, microtransactions (among other things) are a terrible idea for Factorio. Did you just completely ignore that?

Third of all, again, given how consistently rude and condescending you are, both to the Factorio dev team and players, I sincerely doubt the dev team would want to work with you.

Hopefully we can talk about this later, once Astroidia proto-type is finished.

There won't BE a Astroidia proto-type, because you've alienated absolutely anyone who would might want to work with you, and I doubt you can create it alone.

[Koub]

I don't think there is anything productive that can come out of this topic, I'm locking it.
If someone thinks he can bring something useful to the debate AND if he/she can convince me (or any other moderator) so by PM, I'll consider reopening it.