PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

[jk31]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

if mods Cost money, ignore them. thats the only way they Learn.if you want Send them a tip, but dont pay for mods.

[vetmin]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

Let alone them charging money for the mods, the prices are getting out of hand.
Not disrespecting the work they do but They charge 8 bucks for an already scanned face with a couple of touches. If I wanted to purchase 5 players' faces for every team for 5 bucks in average, that would be a whooping 750dollars in total. Lol. Not even including the stadiums, portraits, shoe mods etc.

I think there are 2 reasons why they charge money.
Back in the old days they didn't have any convenient platforms to sell their items on such as ko-hi, patreon etc.
Second reason is there are people who are willing to pay albeit a small number of. If there is demand, there is supply.

Yeah, it’s been interesting to see what’s happening with pricing this year. For those out of the loop, on 2K22, 23, and 24 there was a fairly clear distinction in quality between free and paid mods. Quick touch-ups and low-skill mods tended to be free; extremely thorough and detailed work tended to be paid. This year, suddenly a lot of work that would’ve been considered ‘free’ quality previously now has a price tag on it. I know that many of us who have been around—even those of us who in principle have zero problem with paid mods—are looking at this stuff like “Bruh, really? You want actual money for that?” …but ultimately the market will decide. If someone is charging money for subpar work, then the simplest thing to do is not buy it (since why would you want it anyway if it sucks?); if someone is charging money for good work that nonetheless involved very little time and skill, then the simplest thing to do is not buy it and do it yourself.

One thing I feel strongly about though is that, if you charge for something, you've opened yourself to very blunt discourse about your pricing and quality of work. The modding community is generally very supportive and constructive-criticism-oriented, in the sense that when someone shares their custom Stephen Curry cyberface and it's a little rough, experienced creators compliment the good things and give friendly pointers about how to improve it further, but if that same Stephen Curry cyberface hits the streets with a price tag, it's no different than if it's a shoddy vacuum cleaner being sold on Amazon. "Not worth the price" "Worse than the default face scan" "Wouldn't download it even if it was free" "Use this other one instead, here's a link -> ..." etc. It's all totally fair game and goes from being 'discouraging'/'mean-spirited' if it had been said about a free mod to now being honest consumer assessment, which is essential for a healthy marketplace.

Tbh, If I was a modder I would face a dilemma. Releasing mods free, reaching say thousands of people who loves the game, or charging money, reaching a small number of people.

For Which one of these option would I feel most rewarded?

I think what many people fail to appreciate (not you necessarily; your comment just brings it to mind), is that quite a few modders aren't interested in feeling rewarded (or are rather only interested in feeling professionally rewarded). They are making the mods they're making in order to make money, plain and simple, the same way a web designer accepts money to build a company's web site. If people collectively decided to no longer pay web designers, it wouldn't result in them suddenly designing everyone's web sites for free. There would be no dilemma for those designers; they would simply abandon web design in favor of an industry that actually pays them.

Granted, there is an increasingly large gray area where modders are maybe self-motivated to make the mods they're making (i.e., they would've made them whether or not money was involved), and they're simply slapping a price tag on their work now simply because not doing so would feel like leaving money on the table. This is the main phenomenon driving the increase in lower/mid-quality mods suddenly being charged for on 2K25 IMO, but...

if mods Cost money, ignore them. thats the only way they Learn.if you want Send them a tip, but dont pay for mods.

...I'd say if mods cost more money than you think they're worth (and maybe what they're worth is only $0), then yeah don't buy them. Or if you can't justify spending any money on mods—even if you think you'd really like some of them and appreciate that it took a lot of time and skill to make—then again don't buy them. There are plenty of freebies out there that enrich the game, and I would encourage anyone to empower themselves to develop some modding chops so that they can edit their game directly. I personally don't buy anything that I can do myself.

[zizoux]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

As a 2K Modder for years, I say my future 2K25 MODs will be free.

Well, that message didn't end well. Lol

[clinthc0003]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

The worst part about it is that people charging for it while 2K is paying ridiculous fees for the licenses of all of the players will give them a strong incentive to make it harder to mod the game and just wind up killing it altogether. People will do anything for a quick buck though sadly.

[vetmin]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

The worst part about it is that people charging for it while 2K is paying ridiculous fees for the licenses of all of the players will give them a strong incentive to make it harder to mod the game and just wind up killing it altogether.

As people have increasingly charged for mods (since 2K22 or so), 2K has actually increased its support for mods (by adding native support in 2K24 and expanding it in 2K25), so 2K's actions so far actually show the opposite.

[rwntrl]

Re: PSA: The best 2K25 PC mods won't be free

As a 2K Modder for years, I say my future 2K25 MODs will be free. I'll put my link (Payoneer and Paypal) in case anyone wants to give me a bonus, after all, I need to pay bills, but for me, MODs are something for the community, not for making money.

This certainly didn't age well, especially after that crazy thread on NLSC.