A bit of both, I think.

One of the things that makes a game great is a good modding community, IMO.

If the game developers have chosen to only have Steam workshop for modding, then it would hurt the community and eventually the game if it sucked.

Then, if there are other channels to share created mods, people will start using these instead of Steam Workshop.

The reason why Bethesdas games have been so successful is because of the huge modding community. Will they screw with that? I don't think so. That would be silly, because people would have no reason to buy their games many of which are so old that the only thing keeping them alive is the community.

I hope I am not wrong.

Oh look, first victim: http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/33qcaj/the_experiment_has_failed_my_exit_from_the/
That went well for that mod author.. the man behind the Nexus responded to him later too.
Truly win-win for the community.

Because these two points are the absolute worst for me.

Let's say rating after buying is OK to prevent the so called "one star brigading", that scams and stolen content can go through the DMCA complaints channel and let's assume they did the right thing and after refund the one star given to scams and bad mods will stay to warn others...

But do you really mean to tell me it's sensible that after first 24 hours all customer support you get from companies who just took 75% of your money (and who doesn't curate the marketplace quality AT ALL) is to "go ask the author politely on his page", which he can delete or ignore?

ok, but neither of those FAQ really deal with those two points. One is a common sense review process and the other is saying valve isn't responsible which they shouldn't be. So I get what you were going for but you didn't really make that point.

Read this a couple days ago from here: http://i.imgur.com/HkwFSPZ.png felt it summed up some of my thoughts on this subject pretty well:

Modding was the last innocent corner of gaming, The one little socialist community island created by hobbyists in an industry ocean driven by greed, con?ict of interest, risk aversion and opportunity cost, The one environment where creativity is not sti?ed and that allows niches to be ?lled regardless of their commercial viability, The one area of gaming that people treated as a hobby instead of a job, and everyone was happy living like that. But no, valve had to build an oil rig on it, and some people are dumb enough to cheer that on, because apparently a niche like modding is not allowed to exist, and it should be picked apart when there is money to be made, Because that is all that matters in this world, money,

What's especially baffling is the complete lack of foresight and the naivety of the people who are willing or even eager to let modding get monetized.

Why do more mods have to be made? why does it matter if some don't get made? What matters is the environment in which mods are made(a unique environment that no longer exists anywhere else in gaming). You're willing to throw the baby away with the bathwater and you don't even see it,
People saying ‘let the market sort it out‘ are
>naive as fuck , if they think modding is going to a better place once money and corporate interests become involved
>completely and utterly missing the point that modding has been something that exists OUTSIDE of market forces, and that that is what made it valuable

Somehow people are too short sighted to understand the second point, There is literally nothing to be gained from trying to make modding more like regular game development, You don't try to make cheese more like meat, there's already mountains of meat to choose from, Let cheese be cheese.

Buyer beware. Steam and Bethesda are NOT the developers of the software you are purchasing. Steam is the distributor, Bethesda is licensing tools and IP usage, and both are offering the mod developers market space visibility.

If you go to a mall and buy something from some small little booth in the back that popped up yesterday, and a few weeks later is breaks on you, do you go and complain to the land lord and the company who made the retailer's tools? Not their problem.You aren't buying this stuff From steam, you are buying it From the mod developer Through steam.

Lots of doom and gloom predictions, and lots of modding is dying and this will be the mod-Jesus predictions. Will certainly be interesting to see how it unfolds.

How does "What happens if a mod I bought breaks?" not deal with what happens when mod you bought breaks...?

valve isn't responsible which they shouldn't be

Valve and Bethesda are not responsible for selling and profiting off of possibly buggy mods sold via their own workshop and say it's best to go ask the author if one breaks after initial 24 hours? And that is OK with you? Seriously?

How would you feel if you were one unlucky person in a million customers for whom his Windows that came with his laptop totally broke? And laptop retailer points to his EULA and FAQ which say they are not responsible for that and will not refund nor replace. And then when you go to Microsoft they will ignore you completely or ban you off of customer support.

Because this is how the situation is shaping up on workshop right now, with MS being modders, who can apparently ban and ignore you, and Valve and Bethesda being hardware retailer who takes a good cut and disclaims any warranty, customer support, QA, responsibility for negligence,... you name it - they don't provide it.

This is so open to abuse.

Modding is either real work with real money and responsibilities or shit and giggles that can break and no one cares because it's free.

It can't be QA of the latter and price tag of the former.

Or at least it shouldn't be, but customers these days will take everything apparently.

Ya, if windows was broken on my laptop I wouldn't complain to Dell, HP or whatever manufacturer. Why would I? They didn't make Windows. I would obviously go to Microsoft for support. Pretty strange analogy to throw out but also did nothing to sway me in that specific point. If a mod breaks, valve have nothing to do with that and I don't see why complaining to them should be an option.

What keeps Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim alive is exactly the modding community.

Will Bethesda take a crap in their own nest?

The suspense is killing me .. ;)