# the problem with valve monetizing mods on steam to consider that the problem with valve charging for mods on steam - at least from valve's experienced (yet limited) perspective - is that they're only ever able to endlessly effectively quantify exactly how much of a problem they or anyone else has with charging for mods that is: "to what extent can we as valve quantify how much of a problem players have with us quantifying ir culture?" the following twitter exchange with someone called james murff possibly illustrates the difficulty with discussing valve from valve's viewpoint (which robert what tries to assume here) > there's that odd word 'healthy' again. valve thinks its helping increase the quality of the experience for ir users by allowing content creators to earn a little side cash for ir hard work. it thinks such a decision is a 'healthy' one and was probably willing to scientifically (ie. fiscally) back that decision up - indeed test it thoroughly - by any number of quantitatively verifiable measurements the problem is that money making corporations like valve display difficulty with understanding a cultural phenomenon / meta-garming community activity like modding - that is it can only really understand them financially capitalistically from a quantifiable view once again valve realizes it has little to no say or control over the meta-garme of how real people and dynamic communities generate meaning from valve's perspective - which is difficult to analyze even from within valve itself - helping people charge for mods was seen as a good and healthy thing (process) and yet - despite andor because of all the recent (very temporary) internet noise about 'charging for mods' (/ allowing users to make money from mods) valve seems unruffled and unconcerned. this is because it is valve and is far larger and more complex than james murff's simplistic conservative concerns about the rise of online 'anarchy' or the apparent need for some special species of holy curator with perfect taste that can deal with the massive volume of user generated content(tm) non paradoxically such a failure to understand valve as a fascinating but inherently limited system is the same failure valve has to understand its users - fellow garmers - and ir often (/in)decidedly non-material culture of digital play having said that a simple 'donate' button for users might be a good idea **update patch** valve cancels paid mods (for now) and garry newman weighs in (pdf file): paying for mods / garry's blog // republic of bob