Paid mods are “against the creative and open spirit of modding,” say Valheim's developer
Iron Gate aren't fans of the idea
Developers Iron Gate have been receiving questions about Valheim mods, and “what we as a company approve of - as well as what we don’t approve of.” So the team decided to clear up their stance on mods, and most notably, their stance on paid mods which is what they’ve been asked about the most.
Iron Gate say “We are definitely happy to see that people are engaging with our game and creating their own mods for it,” calling the idea “flattering” in their recent blog post. Although, since the team doesn’t have any official mod support, they warn that “creating and using mods is done at your own risk,” and there’s no guarantee that mods will be compatible with the newest version of the Viking survival sim.
The developers were less hot on the idea of paid mods, however. “We definitely understand that you spend a lot of your time on creating a mod and that you might want financial compensation for that,” the team explains, “but Iron Gate does not condone locking modded content behind a paywall.” The statement continues to say that paid mods are “against the creative and open spirit of modding” and encourages modders to make their entire creations available for free, rather than paywall certain parts. They also note that voluntary donations to modders are a welcome way to show appreciation, “but we do not want payment to be a requirement.”
The subject of paid mods became a contentious one when Valve planned to officially support paid mods on Steam circa 2015, but quickly abandoned the idea after internet backlash. Valve haven’t dived back into those waters since that fiasco, although some modders do now take donations on platforms such as Patreon as a way to get paid for their efforts.