Garry's Mod going retail

Sulkdodds

Sulkdodds

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Garry's popular and astounding enormo-sandbox mod will soon be available through Steam for a price, as reported in The Steam Review. The move is an interesting and perhaps surprising one that's sure to divide opinions (hey, if charging for expansion packs will draw flames then this sure will).
"Garry’s Mod, the Source-powered physics sandbox famed across the games industry, is to be sold over Steam for $10 US (convert), with profits split 50/50 between Garry and his team of contributors and Valve. What is currently known as version 9.1 will lose its number and become the initial paid release, while the current version (9.04) will remain as a free demo. All updates will be free. The sanctioned selling of full, third-party mods is new territory for the games industry, and with no sign of Black Cat’s Alien Swarm: Infested it seems that Garry’s Mod will be the first to cross the line."
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Those who have said in the past 'I would pay for Garry's mod' (such as me) will now get to carry out their proposal. Personally, I think it's justified, but I predict a riot in the comments section. Cue controversy!
 
Good luck to him and all who sail in him.
 
I'll consider it. $10 isn't all that much, and considering how much time I invested in the earlier, buggier versions of GM, it might just warrant a purchase.
 
Fair play. All that hard work can now be paid off.
 
You should see the Facepunch forums, everyones bitching.

I told everyone about it early, too.
 
I can image. When did this news actually break, by the way? If it's a little late, that's 'cause I woke up at 5pm. Sue me.
 
Sulkdodds said:
I can image. When did this news actually break, by the way? If it's a little late, that's 'cause I woke up at 5pm. Sue me.
Click to expand...

You got one thing a little late, and you want to be sued?

Better late than never, besides, its always the quality of your news post.
 
As i said before. Im buying it and nice job to Garry for his achievement. Congrats!
 
With the state of the currently available free version and its free add-ons, I don't see how he's going to do very well with a paid version unless he adds a bunch of amazing new features/content that can't be replicated in the free version by an add-on. I mean, I support the idea of teams being paid for their work, but I'm not too keen on the whole $10-for-Garry's-Mod thing. It just seems like a waste with a free version out there and the article mentioning that he probably won't change it too much because he'll be held responsible to the paying customers who like it the way it is. It just doesn't strike me as the best mod with which to test the mod payment system.
 
the days of free mods are over.

i have no problem as long as you can buy it without purchasing hl, but then again if thats the case then you'll have 40 versions of the engine on one pc fopr all the mods.


my only objection with mods going retail is the fact that 99% of them are using unlicensed software, and are living in their parents basements. this isn't good imo esp for competition in the market place. a normal game company has to hunt investors, buy computors, license software from windows to 4ds max, license engines etc. a mod has to pirate windows, piratd 3ds max, pirate photoshop, then they charge for the product? i don't like it a bit. if you go commercial, all your software should be legit, and you should have to prove it before valve ever enters into a deal with you, otherwise valve is just as responsible for the pirating as you are.

i remember in college when our professors started out (years ago mind you) with their business, they would have to show their clients their maya licenses in order to do business. thats the way it ought to be. modders , we all know, don't purcahse licenses, and selling a product made on stolen licenses is wrong any way you look at it.


not played garys in forever ,but if its just code it seems perfectly ok.
 
I hope every popular mod for Half-Life 2 doesn't all of a sudden get taken over by Valve to make a profit off of :angry: Mods made by the community are supposed to be free. Valve can make their own.
 
I only think it will be justified if the modification advances a LOT from its current state which is in itself great as a free offering but consists of little more than test maps and unfinished gameplay types.

If I'm to pay for it I want several polished and fun Lua gameplay types already implemented, each with their own nicely made and suitable maps. If that happens then I think the price will be justified. Sort of like a Mario Party Source + the sandbox tests already implemented and the ability to script your own little game types.

As for the people saying things like "omg the future of modding has changed" and other such over the top and exagerated statements... Well I find that extremely silly to say the least. This is nothing new. Anyone remember Counter-Strike? That's when things changed, not now.

Did Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat make it so every single other fun modification went retail? No they didn't, so there's no need to go into some exagerated panic attack over this and the consequences it will have. True CS and DoD are a bit different in that they were free at the same time but that is not the case with their Source incarnations.

Polyguns, don't accuse people you don't know out of the blue please. How do you even know Valve DIDN'T check on Garry on first place? Are you even accusing Garry for using pirated software? If not Garry then exactly WHO got a retail deal while using pirated software? Name someone and prove it or don't make such silly statements.
 
I said before, this is my opinion. I disagree 100% for mods going commercial.

People make mods for pleasure, portfolio or just to please an audience. I'm getting peeved off with every person under the sun who think they can make crappy mods trying to sell them for money.

I know Garry isn't one of them but soon we will have to pay for every mod.

I say, if the mod is good, they should accept donations.
 
From what I know, Garry and Valve were in talks about this for quite a while.

I support Garry's choice, for it is an incredibly clever choice. Those who disagree are just too stingy to pay money for hard work.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Personally, while I think the payment is easily justifiable in this case for such a quality release, it seems to dilute some essential purity. With his exponence of a gradual beta-by-beta moddy release model and with his mod he seemed to embody creativity, freedom and modding for the sake of modding. But hey, you'll still be able to get it for free and the price is only a fiver.

I'll tell you what surprises me: no flaming! Where are all the all-caps 'OMG GARRY SUCKS' posts?
 
I think mods charging is one of the worst ideas ever, however, I understand Garry only did this because he got the entire Source engine free. Factoring that in, I feel it's entirely justified. As far as I know, he was offered retail through Steam before, but declined. The Source license was the clincher this time around.

I still wont pay, as I hardly use Garry's Mod.
 
Well Valve just offered Garry the entire source, uncompiled.

Think what you could do with that, Angry.
 
Angry Lawyer said:
From what I know, Garry and Valve were in talks about this for quite a while.

I support Garry's choice, for it is an incredibly clever choice. Those who disagree are just too stingy to pay money for hard work.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

Good move for Garry, he makes big squids.

But I just hate to see every single modification do the same. They should stay free. Entmod for HL1 didn't go retail. Svencoop didn't and they had loads more work put in.

I really can see every mod taking on this trend...
 
That's the thing, Garry didn't want to go retail. Valve gave him the entire fricking Source engine for free. I heard it costs $10,000 to license the Source engine. That's why he did it.
 
They won't. From what I've been told, Valve approached Garry, not the other way around.

And with the entire engine code to Source, I have no idea what I'd do with it. I'm nowhere near good enough to figure out anything clever to do with it.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Who the **** would pay for this mod?!
 
I'd do the same if I were him. But either way, I don't think there's that much to Garry's mod that is worth paying. The mods a great idea, it simply doesn't interest me.
 
xlucidx said:
Who the **** would pay for this mod?!
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Anyone who spend inornate amounts of time playing around in gMod, comic makers, fanboys, people with too much money to burn etc.

In other words, lots of people.
 
If you don't like it, beyotches, don't buy it. It won't change anything.

-Angry Lawyer
 
I agree with everyone that says this will not change the world of modding. It is just a prime example of another convert like DOD and CS. Plus, there is probably alot of work in making a deal like this, and that takes time, money, and contracts. I'm sure Garry and Valve have been discussing this for a long time and to think that Valve would just drop everything and deal with ONLY mods would be a ridiculous thing to say the least. I do however think that if a mod reaches a certain height of popularity, has decent implementation, and has a huge community base then yes it is probably subject to turn into a paid "add-on." I just don't think it will happen as often as people thinking its going to when they say, "the world of modding has changed." Also, I just think this is another example of those people putting in time and effort to make a game add-on that just so happens to get their foot in the door to game developing. It just goes to show you that if you are willing to put the time, effort, and money into it (buy your own maya software, etc.) you too can get just that much closer to getting yourself a job in gaming development.
 
Pi Mu Rho said:
Good luck to him and all who sail in him.
Click to expand...
:LOL:

I haven't put enough time into Gmod for me to consider it the sort of thing I would have bought in the shops based on knowledge of its features (or gameplay). After having played NS solidly for a couple of years I did decide to donate to its creator. It's kind of annoying that that money was given only to the creator of the concept and not evenly distributed throughout the team. Garry claims this is what will happen with Gmod, but I'm highly dubious, unless he defines team by 'Garry'.

Mods are a great source of free gaming, but as production becomes more and more technically demanding and time consuming it's less and less likely you're going to get something that competes with AAA titles without paying a penny for that privilege. The mods of yesteryear weren't necessarily lower quality, they often lived up to the same visual standards of the time. The fact of the matter is that modelling, mapping and texturing at that time required less time spent on it and arguably less expertise to boot. Animation was only really used to display essential movements such as firing, and 3rd person animations were practically non-existant. The extra attention to detail we have now means that mods are likely to spend less time in public Beta before going to retail. In my opinon that's where we're headed.

---

So I actually read the Steam Review article which made a lot of valid points and was excellently written.
[it's] the same price as the voluntary donations that have bought keen players banners on scoreboards, enhanced forum features and beta access in the past – although, citing logistics and the gap between buying banners and games, Garry explains that those donators will have to pay again along with everyone else.
Click to expand...
That's quite simply a slap in the face to all the people who have financially supported him in the past. I'm sure they didn't only make their donations for forum banners and exclusive forum access, but to give him something back for the game. It's sad to see he's not doing the same for his supporters. "Logistics"? Pah.
There is one final surprise. “I was pretty much done with GMod”, Garry says. “There was no reason for me to fix all the bugs (which required a whole lot of work). I planned to release a few bug/security fixes and leave it at that. This deal bought GMod back. There was a reason for me to work on it…the community wins that way”.
Click to expand...
This honestly wouldn't fill me with confidence if I were a fan. It's basically saying that Garry had lost motivation to develop the mod, but money solved that problem. Great modding stems from ideas that flourish from personal creativity coupled with a motivation to realise these concepts. With somebody who admits to have previously lost that motivation and a community which will lose a lot of its younger, more zany audience due to the newly introduced fee, it'll be interesting to see how this move goes. Can money seriously renew Garry's zest for working on Gmod? And how will the new-look community do for ideas and new concepts?

Somebody mentioned that Gmod could have died without the financial incentive, so the choice is effectively between 'no Gmod' or 'Gmod for a fee', but this could just be a clever PR ploy (being a PR ployster myself I wouldn't rule it out - it would be a very clever method to soften the blow).

Although I am highly critical of this move I'll finish with a positive remark to try to balance things out a little: with full access to Valve's SDK Garry's mod could feasibly move on to include some impressive new developments.

(I will actually kill anyone who quotes me on that without also including the rest of my comments, though! :p)
 
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