I feel it's disgraceful that people think it's unacceptable for someone to want to be paid for their hard work.
If the original intention is to make profit, sure.
As I clearly stated in my original post, and as you even quoted me in your initial response, I am indifferent to slightly annoyed by the idea of paying for mods. We can see how they can work well in something like DotA 2. However, those mods are moderated and originally intended to be for profit.
The mod in contention has been around for nearly 4 years without any signs that it could make a profit for the creator. Like many who've been involved in modding, it can be assumed that the work was originally done out of a passion for gaming, an interest in programming, and a love of the community. It was hard work without a prospect of monetary reward.
After 4 years of expecting no reward except the appreciation of the community, suddenly an unexpected opportunity for profit arises. Within days a paid for version is released, and the original version has pop-up advertising implemented. This is less 'expecting to be paid for hard work' than 'Hey, I can unexpectedly make money off of this thing I used to do for fun.'
Now the free version has been pulled because of the backlash against the annoying pop-ups, and what was previously free is now a minimum of $3. Regardless of the idea of people wanting to be paid for content that was previously released for the love of the game, this is going to sharply divide the community.
There are already bootleg versions of the aforementioned mod being put up on and pulled down from Steam Workshop. Then there's the free versions that are still out in the wild. Is it mod piracy to use a previously free version of a mod that exists on the Nexus?
Mod piracy. I mean, seriously. That's going to be a thing now.
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Now, all of this is a major digression from my actual concern and the topic at hand — pop-up advertising in video games.
I think we can all agree that there is nothing more annoying that being suddenly pulled from being immersed in a video game, especially if what pulls us from that immersion is something suddenly asking for money. The mod in question had a 4% chance of the pop-up appearing whenever one of the spells for the mod was cast. That means you could be in the middle of a major battle when suddenly everything stops, and you have to manually remove a pop-up so you can return to the action. The 4% is per cast however, so although unlikely, it is entirely possible for the very next spell you cast in battle to have the same damn thing happen.
Game publishers are also going to take note of how people respond to this. An always-online requirement used to be one of the most vehemently opposed restrictions to PC gaming, and over the years we've seen the resistance lessen. It continuously returns, because publishers see value for themselves in it.
The same can be said for in-game advertising. Publishers have been pushing for in-game advertising for a long time, and it's made a lot of slow headway. Pop-up ads have been ubiquitous in mobile phone gaming for a long while now, and their nickle 'n' dime dynamic has been persuasive to the publishers of major retail gaming. If for-profit modders make the idea of in-game pop-ups commonplace, then the resistance toward implementing it in full retail products will lessen and may even eventually be implemented.
I would like to not have to install an ad-block to play my video games, personally.
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Full disclosure: I have not used the mod in question for nearly 3 years, nor played Skyrim for at least 2 years.
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