Going by how many are willfully ignoring the obvious ploy SE is using to get more money out of the community, I think they have made the right choice in trying to benefit their shareholders. Dangle the right carrot in front of some gamers and they will empty their wallets without any hestitation!

Well done, guys. It may now be the case that every single FF title from here on out will be "episodic" in nature and we'll all be paying 180 USD for a single FF story to be complete...

On my 2nd playthrough and currently have 180 hours into this game. Based on gameplay alone, it's my GOTY. The open world isn't quite as enthralling as BOTW's was, but it comes pretty darn close, with a traversal system that is setting new standards.

I have to agree that narratively, the game fails in many ways, and Mads Mikkelsen was definitely underused. It felt more like Kojima regurgitating everything he's researched on the multiverse and extinction events than something that comes together cohesively as an interesting story. Mama was the only character I felt an emotion connection to (not so much her sister) but she doesn't get much screen time in this game.

Still, I'm rating this higher than BOTW simply because I haven't been this addicted to a video game in years. It gets a 8.5/10 from me and I strongly recommend a 2nd playthrough for anyone that hasn't done so. Playing the game again with all your accumulated knowledge so far is great fun.

@mirgamer: It's pretty much just a sneaky way for Bethesda to "hire" cheap labor. I mean they intentionally kept the "paid milestones" details ambiguous, so they can work out later the most effective way to pay less and get more out of everyone involved.

@darklight4: Support modders directly via Paypal on their nexus page, NOT via the Creation Club. If you do it via the Creation Club, Bethesda gets a cut for basically just hosting the content. There are already ways to support modders if you so wish, the Creation Club needs to die a swift death.

Yes, I understand that. But you seem to have completely missed my point about how modding started out in the spirit of the "good Samaritan" and the camaraderie among the community. A lot of modders are actually professionals who work in the industry and modding was their hobby, they weren't doing it for the money.

Besides, if this takes off, 99% of the mods on the store will be crappy horse and mud crab armor. Quality mods like Enderal for Skyrim will take months, sometimes years, to make and will only represent an overwhelmingly tiny fraction of the content. What is the point of this system in this case? There are already those who abused Steam Greenlight for money with asset flips, do you really want a repeat of that here? You have to remember there is a huge difference between getting paid to pay the bills & survive and making easy money for materialistic gains.

Like I said, there are already other avenues for modders to be paid, and it needs to be stop there. This new system will essentially kill off the spirit of unity amongst gamers and commercialize everything, which will kill off what little purity in gaming there is left. It's essentially saying "screw the good Samaritan, everyone needs to be paid". This is not the future of gaming we want to create guys.

Of course I'm ok with modders being paid, but it should be Bethesda and only Bethesda that pays them, and as I pointed out previously, there are other less intrusive ways to get paid. As a business model, monetising something that was previously free is tricky at best. If mods help sell their titles, Bethesda has the obligation the ensure these guys receive compensation. We're already paying for their crappy barebones game, mods are the only reason these games have any real value.

The most financially successful services in existence find ways to provide benefit to the user first, and themselves second. Services like Google, Facebook and Steam all revolve around providing a free service for end users and finding other ways to generate revenue.

Please don't mistaken this for an entitlement rant. I want mods to remain free, but if they can't be free and not exist as a result, I'm ok with that too. Mods were always one of those things where if they existed, cool thanks for the hard work, and if they didn't, then no worries I'll move on.

The golden rule of thumb is that any scheme run by corporations aimed at profit maximisation will always benefit them more than you. Be careful what you wish for, guys. The DLC era is proof these corporations cannot be trusted.

Modders were attacked for being greedy themselves, not because of the community being selfish. Modding started out with the spirit of camaraderie, where the community was there to help each other out when the devs couldn't or refused to do anything. It was also about showcasing your talent to the world. Modding was NEVER about making money, and when Valve and Bethesda tried to introduce that element into the mix they were ousted for it, and rightly so.

If you want to be paid, apply for a job or find a way where getting paid won't get you criticised so much - like creating Youtube videos and what not. There's also Kickstarter if you want to start a seriously large modding project that will require a lot of resources.

And no, DLC in its current form is NOT a good thing for the industry. I can't believe you actually think that after publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision routinely cut up their game for profits. Before DLC, we had expansion packs, which was a much more fair and ideal way to create extra content.

As it stands, I much prefer NO MODS at all than this new system. It's destructive and ruins the purity of modding.

@wiouds: Give it a chance before attacking? They tried to implement this via Steam and it was a disaster. The community didn't just lash out at Bethesda and Valve, we ended up fighting amongst ourselves, and modders that were previously respected were crucified for trying to move their content to a paid system.

The flight sim example was unique and only worked because it is still the community serving the community without the interference of the developer or publisher. It is an extremely niche market, and it was necessary to sustain the community as a whole. Without these mods there would be no community around these games. I'm ok with these tiny communities existing since they won't affect the industry as a whole. Bethesda, on the other hand, is aiming to upstage the whole modding community with this new system. I don't believe for a second they still want "free mods" to exist, their aim will ultimately be to replace it altogether.

Reading further, it sounds like the Creation Club is more of an extension of the DLC formula, since most of the new content will come from Bethesda internally. The expansion passes for Fallout 4 and Skyrim have been mediocre at best, and now they'll be even worse, because they going to be charging for each individual items as well as more fleshed out content like expansion packs. Remember the horse armor DLC for Oblivion? Yeah well, expect the market to be flooded with crap like that.

Also why are you comparing mods to a full blown game like FO New Vegas? That's a terrible comparison.

I like your optimism in how this won't affect "free" mods. If it succeeds, it WILL affect free mods. Once modders find out they can easily make money off this system, the whole concept of free mods will go out the window, because why would they bother uploading their stuff to Nexusmods when they can make hundreds of dollars off suckers who use this new system?

I apologize if there is already a thread on this, I can't seem to find it with GS's search function.

But yeah, Bethesda is yet again trying to introduce Paid Mods into the ecosystem, and even outright claiming it isn't, right after admitting you have to use real world money to purchase the mods in this new scheme.

Mods have been a "free" commodity for decades on PC, don't let the corporations get in on this. If this takes off, it'll become the new "DLC" model and we don't want this in the slightest! Mods are cool because it is about gamers helping out other gamers when the devs can't seem to do anything right, it's about showing off your talent to the world without forcing others to pay to see it. What it is NOT about is making wealthy corporations, even wealthier.

Ignore it, support Nexus or many other free modding communities instead. Bethesda needs to understand that if they want to implement this system, then it needs to be free to the community. I like that modders will be paid, but it needs to be Bethesda that pays them, not us. Reward the community and it will reward you - Google and Facebook are making billions from embracing this truth.

@killered3: This isn't about 30fps vs 60fps. It's about stable framerates. I don't mind 30fps either, but I do mind if it drops and becomes noticeable. If you're going to give me 30fps, then make sure it's rock solid all the way through.