Such as like what Starcraft Universe is doing through crowdfunding.
Personally, I think it's great. I remember when Starcraft 2 was in it's early stages, Blizzard talked about map creators being able to set up a price on their map. I think they eventually decided to go against that as it would likely cause a lot backlash.
But with third-party crowdfunding, it sort of lets the community decide what your map is worth and if it's a good investment to support the creator.
I've found a lot of people tend to stick with 1-3 maps and spend hundreds of hours playing them. These are usually larger scale maps, that probably required thousands of hours to get to where they are at and could be considered a full-time job.So it make sense that the community should be able to support it.
You see Youtubers get $10,000-30,000 a month for a lot less work (trust me, I work full-time as an editor for a television station).
But what do you guys think?
Do you think a map needs to prove itself as something that can be played long-term before the creators can consider crowdfunding?
I dont think crowdfunding will replace having a job or whatever form of icncome, but its nice that effeort can be monetarily rewarded. All it matters is that the fanbase is pleased with the product they are donaitng for.
I think the entire topic is opinion based. There is no right or wrong answer. I think it is great that some people could get money for their projects. Some people may be against it, for the purity of the concept. There is no requirement to crowdfund, so no one should have to prove anything.
Personally, I wouldn't take money for a project, due to the fact that I feel I would owe someone something. I make the project I want to make; not the project I want everyone to want, or partake in the development of.
Hobbies are not jobs, and should not be viewed as such. Imagine how much SCU would be worth if you combined their work hours, and multiplied it by the salary of their respective positions at at a real job. they are working for pennies on the dollar.
I think the entire topic is opinion based. There is no right or wrong answer.I think it is great that some people could get money for their projects.Some people may be against it, for the purity of the concept.There is no requirement to crowdfund, so no one should have to prove anything.
Personally, I wouldn't take money for a project, due to the fact that I feel I would owe someone something.I make the project I want to make; not the project I want everyone to want, or partake in the development of.
Hobbies are not jobs, and should not be viewed as such.Imagine how much SCU would be worth if you combined their work hours, and multiplied it by the salary of their respective positions at at a real job.they are working for pennies on the dollar.
Hmm, how do you really define a "real job". My current job gets their money through advertisers, who sell shit like mattresses.
Does that guy who sells mattresses have a real job, but the SCU guys have a fake job? They're essentially providing a game with the 20x the effort of an indie game you'd see on Steam. Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't played it, but doesn't SCU mostly use custom assets? That's way work than just making some rectangles without textures in Unity and calling it artsy.
But yeah, I suppose you're right in this is all opinion.
I just sometimes think, as I spend 4 days straight on one small aspect of my map, if this is just a hobby. I can only speak for myself, but making a large scale map feels like a full-time job for me. And I'm not really making it for myself, but the small community that plays the map that expect you to fix the problems with it.
And you say there is no requirement, but there is, time. Like you said, imagine the time you could be spending working an actual job. But I would love to make a map (or a mod, because they are technically mods of Starcraft 2, at least the ones that are games within their own right) instead of getting a part-time job on top of a full-time job.
It's sort of like making music, yeah it can be a pretty casual hobby. You can throw a song together pretty quick in Ableton, Maschine, or whatever you use.. but is it something people are going to want to listen to?
Same case with maps, you can make a nice quick-and-dirty DotA clone, but are people actually going to play it longer than a week/month/year?
I just think if people want to see the arcade grow, crowdfunding is something that needs to be embraced to encourage development like the contest Blizzard had for the fantasy map.
But, there's one problem with money that I found. It's like the chase for subs from other mod sites.
Devs begin to take things competitively, keep things to themselves, and aim for dominance. Not everyone, but most who are motivated by profit becomes overly protective, wont share knowledge, etc.
This means death to dev community. Not many new mappers, etc.
But there will always be two kinds of people in this groups: one will be looking to corner the marker; another driven by passion and desire to create care only about growing their knowledge base, quick, through community information sharing and exploration.
What I realize is this: you can either have a big number of modders trying to eat each other; or have a small community with passion for the game.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
@GnaReffotsirk: Go
I see what you're saying but I don't think that would be the case at all. You have communities for engines like Unreal and Unity, which are made up of developers who are definitely in competition within one another, but still share information with a passion.
If the Arcade became a market place like Blizzard spitballed, I think SC2Mapster and other communities would be in the exact same state.
But crowdfunding is waaay different than having a real market place. Crowdfunding (except with things like Kickstarter) lets the people who are supporting the map be able to stop supporting it whenever they want. If the author of a map isn't providing worthwhile content, stop supporting them.
I think a Blizzard advertisement deal would be a decent idea. All custom Maps have (optionally) advertisements in their loading screens. The more traffic your map generates, the more you make off the map. Blizzard would get their cut, and "purists" could simply not check the "enable advertisements" box in map options.
I think a Blizzard advertisement deal would be a decent idea. All custom Maps have (optionally) advertisements in their loading screens. The more traffic your map generates, the more you make off the map. Blizzard would get their cut, and "purists" could simply not check the "enable advertisements" box in map options.
I haven't seen advertisements in a Blizzard game/platform since Diablo 1 and Starcraft 1.
I like the idea. But the idea of bringing back ads on Battle.net is probably not in Blizzard's interest.
And depending on ad revenue is really lame. Look at what's happening on youtube for example, their videos are getting a reduction on monetization from ads because their videos have certain tags.
Crowdfunding is definitely the way to support content creators.
I kinda really really really hate ads, they are the last thing I want to see in a game. It's like "It's a game, don't use me, don't try to sell me real world stuff plz".
I thought the way Valve added monetezation into dota2 mods was pretty elegant, but idk whether it took off or not.
As for crowdfunding, is there is a crowd for it? I mean, SCU got funded - but they were making a thing that already had an established demographic - people who wanted to see world of starcraft for like 10 years, and at the time they got exposure by both blizz and gaming media. And NOTD2 got funded by what I imagine were diehard hardcore 145 backers (7k USD) in the beginning of 2014 and is still being worked on. I can't imagine too many people being like "Oh I can't wait to back up this starcraft mod that I'll be able to play 3 years down the line disregarding whether SC2 is still relevant or not at that point!" An investment like that is shrouded in uncertainty.
Recently Warcraft: Armies of Azeroth tried to crowdfund and did not succeed, they canceled because they weren't getting enough attention.
Where are the arcade people? Nomewhere. Sc2 reddit? It's almost entirely e-sports (with a weekly coop mutations creeping in). Sc2 arcade subreddit? More dead than blizz picked spotlighted arcade mods.
Besides blizzard adding UI to directly reach Arcade audience - I don't see a way to get to these people. And blizz really doesn't seem to have much interest in the arcade. Hell, we don't even have any way to get stats from our games played. How can you approach anything semi-professionally when you can't reliably gather statistics?
As for the original question - from the player point of view - absolutely yes. There are various maps and map types that I would love to see more of but that are currently extinct. Anything that would bring more people to the arcade and more mapmakers that can make maps I want to play I welcome.
And from the mapmaker point of view - my current motivation to make maps is something like this "I want to make cool things but since it takes an abysmal amount of time to make stuffs chances are it won't get finished. I could try being more professional and push myself into better organization, but oftentimes coming back from 9-6 job I just can't seem to bother. I map mostly for the process and not for the result". Being able to reap any material benefit would prob. over time make me more result oriented, finishing more things and hey, I imagine arcade would be better for it.
Quote from zrankzappa:
Hmm, how do you really define a "real job". My current job gets their money through advertisers, who sell shit like mattresses.
----
By real job, I mean a steady job, with an employer, reported income, ect. Where you can say "whelp, I should make about X dollars every week, and be employed all year, if I am not the weakest link." This is not to bash self-employed people, or business owners by any means. I think it is pretty obvious the direction I was going with my statements in that "relying on donations" is not a stable source of income.
as always i fully agree with ducky. crowdfunding (for mods) only works with alot of attention and a critical mass of players.
carbots is a good example, they gained the attention at a time where still ppl were around, if they will ever deliver a finished mod? i doubt that due to the amount of data editor work needed to finally deliver.
and i think that's a problem of crowdfunding in general, they underestimate (or set it low to reach the goal) the amount of work and therefore money needed to get something done.
it's sad that blizzard lacks vision for the arcade, it could have been so much more. *random ranting about blizzard, you can pick any post in "general section"*
I'd love to see Team Antioch getting paid for the work we're doing. However, it's hard to imagine being able to raise anything like the amount of money that would be "fair" compensation at this point. Even in the case of something like SCU, I guarantee that most people are working below market rates.
My whole feel on money in mapmaking is that donations are nice, but money shouldn't be expected or the only way you'll make a map. It's like finding that one present that was hidden under the christmas tree, as you take down the tree. It's nice to find, but you shouldn't expect it every time you take the christmas tree down, and shouldn't be the reason you take down the tree.
Even in the case of something like SCU, I guarantee that most people are working below market rates.
This is the case of SCU tho:
"How were you able to support yourself while developing the mod?"
"I took out some loans, had a lot of help from friends and family, and now am doing foundation labor again to dig myself out of a mountain of debt! :D"
Heeya Funky! Heh, I wanted to say that to crowdfund a map you'd have to be a youtuber, but the thought was so bizzare in itself, carbot completely slipped my mind =D. Also in recent update he said that all work is done (just the remaining small polish/bugfixes) and they'll be officially launching it in a month or so.
But he did mention some time ago that several of his editors dropped off the face of the earth during the making of mod. Data module, I swear it eats away mens souls.
So, the general consensus that I'm gathering is the community is for creators being compensated for their work, but also feel the time has passed for crowdfunding and that it could never replace a full-time job or even a part-time job.
But I still feel some of the creators of the top played games could get more than enough money for a sandwich and coffee every day if they just integrated crowdfunding in a meaningful and responsible way.
Totally agree it's not an easy task though since there is an average of only 14,000(?) players on Starcraft 2, and yeah, I imagine only a small percent of that is arcade people.
Starcraft 2 is going to last a long time though, possibly even longer than SC1 since Blizzard doesn't seem to be stopping new content for it any time soon. And it's still going to have a place even with the inevitable Warcraft 4 down the pipeline.
So, it's not too late to deliver on something that could gather the attention at the level of something like SCU.
Also, sad to hear the SCU guy had to take out loans? Didn't they get $84,918 from Kickstarter alone? That's some serious money mismanagement if they only spent 2 years on it. Well, props on them for delivering what they promised either way.
I think SC2 arcade area is empty of money. Blizz only pays to contest winners ($20K a year). Players can sometimes pay a couple of bucks to 1% of popular crowdfunded projects ($50K a year). Rarely people invest some to have their game ideas implemented ($10K a year). So, the whole mapmaking area has roughly $50-100K a year. So, there's maybe 20 mapmakers who are being payed somehow, and their income is about $500 - $5000 a year, depends on how lucky they were to find sources of payment. So, even richest of us are poor relatively to normal salaries. SC2 arcade area has no fucking money.
My usual advice stays the same. Love to make games and want to be payed? Spend a month to learn Unity. Start creating games and release them for mobiles or Steam. Then there are 2 main income sources: revenue from your games or unity-related job. Depends on luck, game design ideas, time spent, marketing skills, coding skills. The more you work, the more money you are able to attract. Indie games area is full of money. Insane billions of bucks circling there - from players and from companies via ads. Best/luckiest individuals involved in indie game development make millions a year. Hard working decent professionals can easily make $1K-10K a month.
Oh yeah, without a doubt Steam is a much better place to put your content out on. And Blizzard COULD be doing more like Valve to encourage content creation.
But I don't think the arcade is completely hopeless. If you have a map that stays on page 1-2, I guarantee you could be getting $500-1000 monthly from crowdfunding if you dedicated your time to working on it.
That's about what I'd be making from an extra part-time job which would totally justify absurd amounts of time spent working in the editor and would encourage me to put some extra quality into the project I'm working on.
I will state one unfortunate truism: Those who make tools, almost always, make money then those who use the tools.
Modding, especially the technical aspects, will never be financially rewarding compared to a normal job. Decent coder will always collect more doing other work. We can cite the extreme examples of indies making millions, but those are statistical noise in the face of indies that never start and indies that go bankrupt.
SCU crowdfunded 80k. That sounds like a lot. It is basically nothing. Average software developer gets paid 60k+, and good ones are easily 6 figure. So 80k over 2 years over 2 people = barely above minimum wage. This doesn't cover the costs of acquiring anyone or anything (assets, voice work, etc.)
Frankly, making games for money is one of the worst ways to make money as a technical person, since almost every other industry either A) Pays more or B) More stable. This doesn't even get into the ethics behind many games, that the game is borderline just a glorified slot machine in digital form.
To answer the base question: I don't mind, but anyone who is looking for modding to be financially rewarding will be disappointed, it is no different then ANY other form of entertainment, where 0.1% will collect the vast majority of the money (See Sports, Hollywood, Music, etc.).
Such as like what Starcraft Universe is doing through crowdfunding.
Personally, I think it's great. I remember when Starcraft 2 was in it's early stages, Blizzard talked about map creators being able to set up a price on their map. I think they eventually decided to go against that as it would likely cause a lot backlash.
But with third-party crowdfunding, it sort of lets the community decide what your map is worth and if it's a good investment to support the creator.
I've found a lot of people tend to stick with 1-3 maps and spend hundreds of hours playing them. These are usually larger scale maps, that probably required thousands of hours to get to where they are at and could be considered a full-time job.So it make sense that the community should be able to support it.
You see Youtubers get $10,000-30,000 a month for a lot less work (trust me, I work full-time as an editor for a television station).
But what do you guys think?
Do you think a map needs to prove itself as something that can be played long-term before the creators can consider crowdfunding?
I dont think crowdfunding will replace having a job or whatever form of icncome, but its nice that effeort can be monetarily rewarded. All it matters is that the fanbase is pleased with the product they are donaitng for.
Go play Antioch Chronicles Remastered!
Also, coming soon, Antioch Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos!
Dont like mapster's ugly white? Try Mapster's Classic Skin!
I think the entire topic is opinion based. There is no right or wrong answer. I think it is great that some people could get money for their projects. Some people may be against it, for the purity of the concept. There is no requirement to crowdfund, so no one should have to prove anything.
Personally, I wouldn't take money for a project, due to the fact that I feel I would owe someone something. I make the project I want to make; not the project I want everyone to want, or partake in the development of.
Hobbies are not jobs, and should not be viewed as such. Imagine how much SCU would be worth if you combined their work hours, and multiplied it by the salary of their respective positions at at a real job. they are working for pennies on the dollar.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
@Alevice: Go
Honestly, I think some creators of the maps on the front page of NA/EU could replace their job if they just tried crowdfunding.
Hmm, how do you really define a "real job". My current job gets their money through advertisers, who sell shit like mattresses.
Does that guy who sells mattresses have a real job, but the SCU guys have a fake job? They're essentially providing a game with the 20x the effort of an indie game you'd see on Steam. Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't played it, but doesn't SCU mostly use custom assets? That's way work than just making some rectangles without textures in Unity and calling it artsy.
But yeah, I suppose you're right in this is all opinion.
I just sometimes think, as I spend 4 days straight on one small aspect of my map, if this is just a hobby. I can only speak for myself, but making a large scale map feels like a full-time job for me. And I'm not really making it for myself, but the small community that plays the map that expect you to fix the problems with it.
And you say there is no requirement, but there is, time. Like you said, imagine the time you could be spending working an actual job. But I would love to make a map (or a mod, because they are technically mods of Starcraft 2, at least the ones that are games within their own right) instead of getting a part-time job on top of a full-time job.
It's sort of like making music, yeah it can be a pretty casual hobby. You can throw a song together pretty quick in Ableton, Maschine, or whatever you use.. but is it something people are going to want to listen to?
Same case with maps, you can make a nice quick-and-dirty DotA clone, but are people actually going to play it longer than a week/month/year?
I just think if people want to see the arcade grow, crowdfunding is something that needs to be embraced to encourage development like the contest Blizzard had for the fantasy map.
Everyone who does honest work deserves a can.
But, there's one problem with money that I found. It's like the chase for subs from other mod sites.
Devs begin to take things competitively, keep things to themselves, and aim for dominance. Not everyone, but most who are motivated by profit becomes overly protective, wont share knowledge, etc.
This means death to dev community. Not many new mappers, etc.
But there will always be two kinds of people in this groups: one will be looking to corner the marker; another driven by passion and desire to create care only about growing their knowledge base, quick, through community information sharing and exploration.
What I realize is this: you can either have a big number of modders trying to eat each other; or have a small community with passion for the game.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
@GnaReffotsirk: Go I see what you're saying but I don't think that would be the case at all. You have communities for engines like Unreal and Unity, which are made up of developers who are definitely in competition within one another, but still share information with a passion.
If the Arcade became a market place like Blizzard spitballed, I think SC2Mapster and other communities would be in the exact same state.
But crowdfunding is waaay different than having a real market place. Crowdfunding (except with things like Kickstarter) lets the people who are supporting the map be able to stop supporting it whenever they want. If the author of a map isn't providing worthwhile content, stop supporting them.
I think a Blizzard advertisement deal would be a decent idea. All custom Maps have (optionally) advertisements in their loading screens. The more traffic your map generates, the more you make off the map. Blizzard would get their cut, and "purists" could simply not check the "enable advertisements" box in map options.
I haven't seen advertisements in a Blizzard game/platform since Diablo 1 and Starcraft 1.
I like the idea. But the idea of bringing back ads on Battle.net is probably not in Blizzard's interest.
And depending on ad revenue is really lame. Look at what's happening on youtube for example, their videos are getting a reduction on monetization from ads because their videos have certain tags.
Crowdfunding is definitely the way to support content creators.
I kinda really really really hate ads, they are the last thing I want to see in a game. It's like "It's a game, don't use me, don't try to sell me real world stuff plz".
I thought the way Valve added monetezation into dota2 mods was pretty elegant, but idk whether it took off or not.
As for crowdfunding, is there is a crowd for it? I mean, SCU got funded - but they were making a thing that already had an established demographic - people who wanted to see world of starcraft for like 10 years, and at the time they got exposure by both blizz and gaming media. And NOTD2 got funded by what I imagine were diehard hardcore 145 backers (7k USD) in the beginning of 2014 and is still being worked on. I can't imagine too many people being like "Oh I can't wait to back up this starcraft mod that I'll be able to play 3 years down the line disregarding whether SC2 is still relevant or not at that point!" An investment like that is shrouded in uncertainty.
Recently Warcraft: Armies of Azeroth tried to crowdfund and did not succeed, they canceled because they weren't getting enough attention.
Where are the arcade people? Nomewhere. Sc2 reddit? It's almost entirely e-sports (with a weekly coop mutations creeping in). Sc2 arcade subreddit? More dead than blizz picked spotlighted arcade mods.
Besides blizzard adding UI to directly reach Arcade audience - I don't see a way to get to these people. And blizz really doesn't seem to have much interest in the arcade. Hell, we don't even have any way to get stats from our games played. How can you approach anything semi-professionally when you can't reliably gather statistics?
As for the original question - from the player point of view - absolutely yes. There are various maps and map types that I would love to see more of but that are currently extinct. Anything that would bring more people to the arcade and more mapmakers that can make maps I want to play I welcome.
And from the mapmaker point of view - my current motivation to make maps is something like this "I want to make cool things but since it takes an abysmal amount of time to make stuffs chances are it won't get finished. I could try being more professional and push myself into better organization, but oftentimes coming back from 9-6 job I just can't seem to bother. I map mostly for the process and not for the result". Being able to reap any material benefit would prob. over time make me more result oriented, finishing more things and hey, I imagine arcade would be better for it.
Quote from zrankzappa:
Hmm, how do you really define a "real job". My current job gets their money through advertisers, who sell shit like mattresses.
----
By real job, I mean a steady job, with an employer, reported income, ect. Where you can say "whelp, I should make about X dollars every week, and be employed all year, if I am not the weakest link." This is not to bash self-employed people, or business owners by any means. I think it is pretty obvious the direction I was going with my statements in that "relying on donations" is not a stable source of income.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
as always i fully agree with ducky. crowdfunding (for mods) only works with alot of attention and a critical mass of players.
carbots is a good example, they gained the attention at a time where still ppl were around, if they will ever deliver a finished mod? i doubt that due to the amount of data editor work needed to finally deliver.
and i think that's a problem of crowdfunding in general, they underestimate (or set it low to reach the goal) the amount of work and therefore money needed to get something done.
it's sad that blizzard lacks vision for the arcade, it could have been so much more. *random ranting about blizzard, you can pick any post in "general section"*
I'd love to see Team Antioch getting paid for the work we're doing. However, it's hard to imagine being able to raise anything like the amount of money that would be "fair" compensation at this point. Even in the case of something like SCU, I guarantee that most people are working below market rates.
My whole feel on money in mapmaking is that donations are nice, but money shouldn't be expected or the only way you'll make a map. It's like finding that one present that was hidden under the christmas tree, as you take down the tree. It's nice to find, but you shouldn't expect it every time you take the christmas tree down, and shouldn't be the reason you take down the tree.
Still alive and kicking, just busy.
My guide to the trigger editor (still a work in progress)
This is the case of SCU tho:
"How were you able to support yourself while developing the mod?"
"I took out some loans, had a lot of help from friends and family, and now am doing foundation labor again to dig myself out of a mountain of debt! :D"
@FunkyUserName: Go
Heeya Funky! Heh, I wanted to say that to crowdfund a map you'd have to be a youtuber, but the thought was so bizzare in itself, carbot completely slipped my mind =D. Also in recent update he said that all work is done (just the remaining small polish/bugfixes) and they'll be officially launching it in a month or so.
But he did mention some time ago that several of his editors dropped off the face of the earth during the making of mod. Data module, I swear it eats away mens souls.
So, the general consensus that I'm gathering is the community is for creators being compensated for their work, but also feel the time has passed for crowdfunding and that it could never replace a full-time job or even a part-time job.
But I still feel some of the creators of the top played games could get more than enough money for a sandwich and coffee every day if they just integrated crowdfunding in a meaningful and responsible way.
Totally agree it's not an easy task though since there is an average of only 14,000(?) players on Starcraft 2, and yeah, I imagine only a small percent of that is arcade people.
Starcraft 2 is going to last a long time though, possibly even longer than SC1 since Blizzard doesn't seem to be stopping new content for it any time soon. And it's still going to have a place even with the inevitable Warcraft 4 down the pipeline.
So, it's not too late to deliver on something that could gather the attention at the level of something like SCU.
Also, sad to hear the SCU guy had to take out loans? Didn't they get $84,918 from Kickstarter alone? That's some serious money mismanagement if they only spent 2 years on it. Well, props on them for delivering what they promised either way.
80,000 to pay a full team* for two years doesnt seem that high of a budget.
Go play Antioch Chronicles Remastered!
Also, coming soon, Antioch Episode 3: Thoughts in Chaos!
Dont like mapster's ugly white? Try Mapster's Classic Skin!
I think SC2 arcade area is empty of money. Blizz only pays to contest winners ($20K a year). Players can sometimes pay a couple of bucks to 1% of popular crowdfunded projects ($50K a year). Rarely people invest some to have their game ideas implemented ($10K a year). So, the whole mapmaking area has roughly $50-100K a year. So, there's maybe 20 mapmakers who are being payed somehow, and their income is about $500 - $5000 a year, depends on how lucky they were to find sources of payment. So, even richest of us are poor relatively to normal salaries. SC2 arcade area has no fucking money.
My usual advice stays the same. Love to make games and want to be payed? Spend a month to learn Unity. Start creating games and release them for mobiles or Steam. Then there are 2 main income sources: revenue from your games or unity-related job. Depends on luck, game design ideas, time spent, marketing skills, coding skills. The more you work, the more money you are able to attract. Indie games area is full of money. Insane billions of bucks circling there - from players and from companies via ads. Best/luckiest individuals involved in indie game development make millions a year. Hard working decent professionals can easily make $1K-10K a month.
@Zolden: Go
Oh yeah, without a doubt Steam is a much better place to put your content out on. And Blizzard COULD be doing more like Valve to encourage content creation.
But I don't think the arcade is completely hopeless. If you have a map that stays on page 1-2, I guarantee you could be getting $500-1000 monthly from crowdfunding if you dedicated your time to working on it.
That's about what I'd be making from an extra part-time job which would totally justify absurd amounts of time spent working in the editor and would encourage me to put some extra quality into the project I'm working on.
This is a complex topic.
I will state one unfortunate truism: Those who make tools, almost always, make money then those who use the tools.
Modding, especially the technical aspects, will never be financially rewarding compared to a normal job. Decent coder will always collect more doing other work. We can cite the extreme examples of indies making millions, but those are statistical noise in the face of indies that never start and indies that go bankrupt.
SCU crowdfunded 80k. That sounds like a lot. It is basically nothing. Average software developer gets paid 60k+, and good ones are easily 6 figure. So 80k over 2 years over 2 people = barely above minimum wage. This doesn't cover the costs of acquiring anyone or anything (assets, voice work, etc.)
Frankly, making games for money is one of the worst ways to make money as a technical person, since almost every other industry either A) Pays more or B) More stable. This doesn't even get into the ethics behind many games, that the game is borderline just a glorified slot machine in digital form.
To answer the base question: I don't mind, but anyone who is looking for modding to be financially rewarding will be disappointed, it is no different then ANY other form of entertainment, where 0.1% will collect the vast majority of the money (See Sports, Hollywood, Music, etc.).
For me i use patreon and it work fine.
Here is my link http://patreon.com/user?u=2885655&u=2885655&ty=h
Also i get some money from youtude channel of the project with adds.
My trick to boost the view with some facebook advertissement.
Its not that much but i am 1 men working on this project.
I hope this give you some idea. Egod