Is any mod content free?

[Peculiar Head]

Holiday season is coming up and I'm trying to keep a tight budged and it made me think, I do like this game but I feel as though I'm being "nickled and dimed." Is any "creator content" (what normal people call "mods") offered free? Particularly as if yo want something that's 100 credits, you still have to buy 500. It's a really sleazy way to make money and Bethesda has really gone downhill with their business antics when they started this a while back. Thanks for any insights, though.

[space]

uh, nexus mods?

[MrNewVegas87]

You own the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game mate, you could open the game itself and see that most of the Creations, including even some of the official Creations that Bethesda has released are free...

There is still the Nexus mods, a platform where everything is free...

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Originally posted by Peculiar Head:

Holiday season is coming up and I'm trying to keep a tight budged and it made me think, I do like this game but I feel as though I'm being "nickled and dimed." Is any "creator content" (what normal people call "mods") offered free? Particularly as if yo want something that's 100 credits, you still have to buy 500. It's a really sleazy way to make money and Bethesda has really gone downhill with their business antics when they started this a while back. Thanks for any insights, though.

Nexus mods are FREE.

And if you want to support the creators, you can by directly donating to them instead of using creations, which skim a portion of any money from the actual creators, if they even receive any to begin with.

Just ignore any "FOMO" (Fear Of Missing out) as most the "paid mods" are absolute garbage, or cash grabs, or buggy messes, or out-of-date, or screw up other mods, or do not have proper load order, and have NONE of the so-called "quality" Bethesda promised with the whole "paid mods scam".

[RasaNova]

Most mods are free. All on Nexus & other sites, as well as the overwhelming majority of mods on the creation club.

[Darth Revan]

The majority is free, yes, but not all

[Jᴧgᴧ]

"Normal" people who have been playing the TES and FO series for years don't pay for mods, pretty much ever. As it's been mentioned, use NexusMods, NOT the in-game Creator Club.

[momopovich]

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

"Normal" people who have been playing the TES and FO series for years don't pay for mods, pretty much ever. As it's been mentioned, use NexusMods, NOT the in-game Creator Club.

Most creations on the creation club are free and Bethesda gives away creation credits with pretty much every game purchase. They also do sales too. I've "bought" a bunch of creations for Skyrim, Fallout 4 and starfield for 0$ over the last 5 years.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Originally posted by momopovich:

Most creations on the creation club are free and Bethesda gives away creation credits with pretty much every game purchase. They also do sales too. I've "bought" a bunch of creations for Skyrim, Fallout 4 and starfield for 0$ over the last 5 years.

Which is just their tactic to get you "shopping" on their Club, where you *might* just see a paid mod you like the look of and drop some money on it. It's about controlled presence and marketing directly when that attention is given.

If you stay off the Creation Club entirely and use a free (donations only) platform that has pretty much everything the CC has (and then tens of thousands *more* mods), you can avoid that altogether. It's basic monetization for content and game improvements, most of which Bethesda didn't make in the first place, and it's a scummy shop as a result. Free content present or not, I just don't recommend using it, and I think a lot of people agree.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

Originally posted by momopovich:

Most creations on the creation club are free and Bethesda gives away creation credits with pretty much every game purchase. They also do sales too. I've "bought" a bunch of creations for Skyrim, Fallout 4 and starfield for 0$ over the last 5 years.

Which is just their tactic to get you "shopping" on their Club, where you *might* just see a paid mod you like the look of and drop some money on it. It's about controlled presence and marketing directly when that attention is given.

If you stay off the Creation Club entirely and use a free (donations only) platform that has pretty much everything the CC has (and then tens of thousands *more* mods), you can avoid that altogether. It's basic monetization for content and game improvements, most of which Bethesda didn't make in the first place, and it's a scummy shop as a result. Free content present or not, I just don't recommend using it, and I think a lot of people agree.

I mostly agree. But I don't really think of it as being scummy so much as just not being worth it. Like with previous Bethesda games, in time the CC will be mostly an afterthought, there will be more (and better) on Nexus while stuff on CC will be out of date junk.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Originally posted by RasaNova:

...in time the CC will be mostly an afterthought, there will be more (and better) on Nexus while stuff on CC will be out of date junk.

I agree. But people who don't know any better need to be aware of that, and that frequently they don't need to pay for an equivalent type mod that's usually on both the CC and Nexus. Informing them so they can make a good (and usually free) choice is just the right thing to do. I don't think Beth deserves to get paid for not lifting a finger, and community modders doing work anyway. Why not (if you want to donate), give the modders 100% of that via Nexus? It's just a better choice.

[Zmidponk]

Whilst I do look at the idea of Bethesda distributing paid mods (and taking their cut, of course) with a rather jaundiced and cynical eye, the overall situation isn't that bad. The Creation Club itself has a decent selection of totally free mods, and there's plenty of other places (like Nexus), to get a lot more. As such, it isn't the case that you have to hunt out the few obscure mods that are free, it's actually the case that mods you have to pay for are, by far, a small minority of the mods that are available.

[Berserk Belta]

Originally posted by Peculiar Head:

Holiday season is coming up and I'm trying to keep a tight budged and it made me think, I do like this game but I feel as though I'm being "nickled and dimed." Is any "creator content" (what normal people call "mods") offered free? Particularly as if yo want something that's 100 credits, you still have to buy 500. It's a really sleazy way to make money and Bethesda has really gone downhill with their business antics when they started this a while back. Thanks for any insights, though.

Yes for most creations you don't have to pay anything, just find them and click to dowload / install.