Not like the Creation Club, but more like an act of willingness by both modders and gamers alike comes an idea from Nexus Mods that hopes to ship a modder donation system sometime by the first quarter of 2018.

You can read the full post explaining the modder donation system over on nexusmods.com/news. The gist of the system is to give folks or modders the option to donate points (as a token of appreciation) to other modders, which the points can be later converted to something else of value.

For starters, the amount of Donation Points earned through Unique Downloads, when the system goes live, will be private and only visible to you. In other words, others can’t see your points so that a race/competition won’t spark.

Moreover, the system follows an opt-in or opt-out method. If you don’t want to be a part of this system you don’t have to do anything, but if you do want to join the donation system you will have to sign-up.

A portion worth sharing about signing-up to join the donation system lies below:

“There may be stipulations about who can join up pursuant to further conversation with my solicitor about how best to legally set this up, as there may be age and location constraints (e.g. under 18’s might need parental consent, and we can’t donate or send items to countries that are currently under embargo from the UK/UN, silly stuff like that).”

After the sign-up process and you have an amalgamation of points laying around for future use, it’s worth noting that they won’t disappear. Each month they will accumulate until you spend them or donate them to someone. The minimum donation amount is said to be around $10 for Pay Pal and Amazon gift vouchers.

As noted above, the act of giving other modders points is a thing. The stated act is further elaborated on below:

“Yes, we’ll implement a point transfer system for mod authors to give their points to other mod authors or users if they so wish. We’ll likely make it possible for you to proactively and automatically donate the DP your files accumulate to users of your choice as well. For example, if you aren’t interested in receiving any DP but you’d like to donate any DP you would have earnt to another user (like, say, your favourite mod author), you’ll be able to do that.”

On the topic of Donation Points, the ones over this system will have a NET90 system in place. This means you won’t get your points until three months after that month has ended. The explanation behind this move is detailed as followed:

“This is to give us (and you) a grace period so that any potential issues with a file can be found and rectified before points are allocated and used by a “malicious” author. If a file is found to be against our TOS during this time then it will be dealt with and any Nexus Points that might have been due to that “mod author” from that file will be void. Case-in-point, imagine someone steals some assets from another mod author without permission and uploads that mod to Nexus Mods, opting in to the points system in the process. Without the NET90 system, if we (or you) don’t catch this straight away it could potentially mean this mod author receives points unfairly. The NET90 system provides a buffer for us to root out files that fall foul of our system to ensure, as much as is realistically possible, that only legitimate and “Nexus Legal” files are receiving points.”

As for official figures each month, Nexus Mods posted that the goal in sight to commit to sits around $5,000 to $10,000 every month:

“We cannot commit to an official figure each month as our financial situation and financial needs change from month to month. We need to be flexible on what we can contribute for what, I think, are obvious reasons. However, we aim to commit between the $5,000 to $10,000 range every month.”

Moreover, the ones over this system have it set up where if you don’t want to participate in this act you don’t have to. This applies to mods being used that you don’t want to be used under your portfolio:

“You don’t need to be rude about it, but be very clear with any mod authors who ask for your permission, or who have asked for permission in the past, as well as in your own file permissions/credits section that you are not comfortable with anyone receiving points in any mods using your work. If the mod author using your work tries to kick up a fuss, you can ask a moderator to intervene and set the record straight.”

Now that you know what Nexus Mods wants to do in regards to helping out modders, you can get a more concise or in-scope understanding of the situation, which currently has people on board and others worried, below:

“We are working on a Donation Points system on Nexus Mods that mod authors will be able to accumulate, through unique file page downloads, that can then be redeemed for rewards through a storefront style system. Let me cut to the chase and clarify right now that this system definitely isn’t going to let any mod author quit their day job. However, it should fulfill that original wish many mod authors have expressed for years now of wanting at least a little something tangible back from their modding hobby, even if it’s just some recognition and a couple of free coffees/beers each month to keep them topped up while they’re working on their mods. On a personal level, I’ve been wanting to find a way to personally donate to mod authors past the occasional donation I throw out to mod authors whose mods I use, from Nexus Mods to you, for a long time now, and this seems like the best way of going about doing that in as fair a way as possible. At the end of the day, this is going to be a way for Nexus Mods, and the users of Nexus Mods, to donate to and thank all the mod authors on Nexus Mods collectively.”

As it stands now, there seems to be some people for this donation system while others see this as a detriment. But what’s your thoughts on this donation situation? Do you think Nexus Mods should or shouldn’t go through with this move?