Petition against paid mods on Steam draws 34,000 signatures in a day

Skyrim mod

It's fair to say that not everyone is happy with yesterday's launch of paid mods on Steam. And so, as is the way of things, there's now a petition demanding that Valve "remove the paid content of the Steam Workshop" on Change.org—and it's attracted more than 34,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

"The workshop is a place for people to share content with each other they made so all can enjoy it for free," the petition states. "Mods should be a free creation. Creations made by people who wish to add to the game so others can also enjoy said creation with the game. We need to unite and reject this act by Valve. Unite have Valve remove the paid content of the Workshop."

Internet petitions follow internet anger like night follows day, but as Tyler talked about yesterday, some of the concerns about paid mods are perfectly legitimate and understandable. Even so, I'm a little surprised by the intensity of the backlash. The Steam forums are alight with conversation, and of course the news that one paid mod has already been removed because it contained content from another, free mod has only added fuel to the fire.

Of course, Valve is under no obligation to respond to this petition, and so far today there are far more people actually playing Skyrim—48,000—than have called on Valve to end paid Skyrim mods. But the number of signatories is climbing, and eventually, if the growth continues, it's going to get awfully hard to ignore.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.