Modding is not and cannot become more professional. That is the nature of mods, they are unprofessional, they are hobbyist works, they don't have quality control like products do. Mods have always had the ability to turn into an actual expansion, just look at stuff like starcraft in the 90's, they had "official addons" you could buy, which were essentially polished versions of the top-tier addons. Those mods were turned into products and sold. The difference is that this stuff isn't an "official addon" it's, at best, a quest or new land which might be full of bugs, and, at worst, a stuffty weapon or armor that doesn't even work properly in the confines of the game. The moment you slap a paywall on a mod it becomes something you should be liable for, and that's the thing we're lacking here. No quality control, everything so far is stuff. Even preexisting mods are stuff for compatibility and glitch reasons, the new ones are stuff because they aren't worth forgetall.
i disagree one million percent!! it's not in the nature of mods to be unprofessional, it's simply how the culture has always been. just because they have been traditionally hobbyist (just like things such as independent film, writing, artwork, etc.) doesn't mean they can't/shouldn't be industrialised or made into a profitable, viable job. for what reason in particular
shouldn't they evolve? the fact that they aren't professional isn't a compelling claim against becoming professional, it's simply a statement of the contrary status quo which is shifting.
one prospect that's exciting to me that i just considered is the possibility of bigger entities coming into the modding scene. valve already had a space core mod on the workshop for skyrim. if modding becomes a profitable business, it's not unlikely that bigger companies will make small side teams to work on mods for games they don't own, which is a really cool concept if you consider what that could actually mean for games. of course, that has some cashgrabby nonsense potential as well, just like DLC, but the possibilities for really cool, high-quality, third-party, licensed content made by skilled teams for already fantastic games is ridiculously fantastic to the extent that i dedicated a paragraph to talking about it. we actually already see this with some patreon-supported maxis guy makin awesome mods for cities: skylines, of course he's acting on his own. what if valve set aside a small team to make a little portal adventure questline for skyrim? would that kind of thing not be amazing? maybe it's just me, but that's something that definitely wouldn't happen if they couldn't profit from the investment
quality control has always been naturally community-run, and will likely continue to be, or the platform itself will provide it. the market will run its course as it does for any other product. another reason why, as it stands, the workshop isn't proving to be a promising implementation of this idea.
in addition, i'm worried this is beginning to deviate from a productive temperament of discussion, so i'll say that i'm not trying to be a big meanie pants mcgee or get up in your face or anything. if at any point you've felt like i'm attacking you or that i've been overly aggressive in my approach, i'm genuinely sorry; i don't want to fight or anything, all i want to do is play a part in a discussion that everyone can take something away from, and that can't happen if the discussion is overly polarised or heated. i guess that's all fluff and nonsense but i'm not lookin to make anyone upset or be upset
