this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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...you are aware of the perverse incentives that kind of system would bring right?
"Here's alpha 0.01. It gets to the title screen."
"If you donate here's version 2.00 to download with experimental (wink) features such as actual playthrough complete testing."
Sure if the code is open you can just build it yourself. And if 2.00 builds go open in a time window it's just time gating.
But your right the incentives are to keeping pumping out a parade of changes to make donating seem worthwhile to get early access
The modder in question for this case is not above placing DRM within his paid mods to prevent free distribution. So I'm skeptical of any system of monetization not immediately succumbing to malicious compliance.
Mods are by the community, for the community. If your mod has enough significance that you believe it is worth monetizing - create your own game with the endless amount of tools available with that hallmark feature. (Or actually talk to the devs to work out an official arrangement rather than being a hardass and witnessing the consequences of your arrogance)
Whoa now. Jumping straight to malware payloads is pretty extreme. Has he done such a thing before, or are you just pulling it out of your ass to support your argument?
Alright, after checking Polygon, GamesRadar, and IGN articles, there are mentions of DRM but not the malware payloads (I guess the original article I looked at might have conflated this guy with someone else). I'll retract that part of the statement.
It's a bit of telephone, I got that segment from an article discussing the topic. Let me see if I can locate it.