Well I don't see it as that simple. What if the mod deleted save games? A recent videogame demo in a major mag for a PS2 game erased any save carts installed, was that OK because it was free? As I said becasue the modder gets little direct reward doesn't mean there isn't any cost for the user.

What about the host? If a mod is broken or malicious do they have any responsibility? If their are more bad mods then good then what happens to the games mod playing community?

It's interesting to look at a very heavily supported and deep community like NWK. The major mod sites all have elaborate rating systems for mods which include breakdowns by feature and even reviews by users as wll as by staff. This sort of infrastructure is nessecary to support the sheer number of modders and users. It will be interesting to see what sort of changes the introduction of the profit element brings to the table.

I think a lot of the posts here are are in reaction to posts that complain about a mod in immature and useless ways. We've all seen these sort of posts, quibbling about every change, complainng about any percieved reduction in power of a favorite unit, lots of use of caps and !'s and the word crap. I don't think anyone objects to useful constructive criticism.

For instance with RTR, it was rushed out and it did have too many bugs but posts saying that it should'nt have been released unless it was completley bug free or that "THE NEW BUILDINGS ARE CRAP!" doesn't help anybody.