I love “Starfield”. I have loved the game, warts and all, since it launched in September 2023. I have played the game nigh religiously for the better part of 18 months now, and have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
Why? Mods, or as Bethesda likes to call them, “Creations”.
Now Bethesda has added in many bug fix patches and content updates into the game over the last year or so, but by far, the most impactful addition has been the addition of Creations into the game. Yes, PC players, I know you had mods to the game way before us sad little Console peasants, but there are way more of us playing “Starfield” than there are of your kind, so settle down! For the purposes of this discussion, we’re focusing on Creations in the Xbox Series X/S sphere.
Anyway, I digress.
I know that Creations are a bit… controversial… as they are now dominated by Paid Mods from Verified Creators, and a lot of the community doesn’t like that, not one bit! They don’t like how Verified Creators are placing even minor Creations behind a paywall, or how they say Bethesda is using Creations as a way to drip out small quests and so forth, rather than provide proper Updates for free. In the end, it appears that most of these people’s complaints can be distilled down to one core issue: They don’t want to have to pay for these things.
My response: Okay, so don’t pay for them. Enjoy the game as it is, what you have paid for already, and that’s that.
Look, it galls me that many people complained about “Starfield” needing mods for the Xbox in the months leading up to the addition of Creations. Most of those same people said they would be happy to pay mod creators for their time and efforts, even. But when Creations were added to the game, and there were… GASP!… Creations that had to be bought among the many free mods available, suddenly this was some crime against God and Man alike!
Like all other “Starfield” players, I paid for the game, and I paid for the first expansion, “Shattered Space”. But I waited months before I bought my first few Paid Creations, because I was doing just fine with the free mods, and only dropped $10 in points to pick up “The Vulture” quest, and some skins I really liked. Since then, I’ve bought a few more Creations, because I wanted to show my support for the person knocking out the fine “Useful” line of Creations (Useful Mess Halls, Useful Morgues, in addition to the many free mods they have created beforehand).
I’ll likely drop some more money into Creations, since many of my most-used free mods now have “Achievement Friendly” versions for only 100 points each (basically $1 each). This is because Bethesda requires “Achievement Friendly” creations to be from Verified Creators, and be behind the paywall.
Now I do understand why some players might dislike how “Achievement Friendly” mods are only available for points, but since Bethesda has to review these mods to make sure they deserve that status, and aren’t a complete cheat that renders Achievements meaningless, I get why they cost money. We all want the most value for our dollar, and buying mods you have been using heretofore for free, just because it is now “Achievement Friendly”, might seem like a bit of a rip-off. But then again, no one is saying you can’t just keep using the regular free version, if you want. Hell, if you want to do your Achievements without paying a single dollar for microtransactions, just follow this simple guide:
- Gather all of the Macguffins (Artifacts), and prepare to enter the Unity.
- Uninstall and delete all of your regular, non-“Achievement Friendly” mods
- Pass through the Unity into a new Universe. This marks your save as able to do Achievements again.
- Focus on doing all of the Achievements, until you have completed this dark task.
- Re-download and re-install all of the mods you had previously removed.
This was the method I used when “Shattered Space” launched. I had completed 100% of the Achievements prior to SS’ launch, and wanted to retain that ranking by doing all of the SS achievements in my first playthrough of the expansion. It took the better part of the weekend, and yes, it was a bit of a slog, since I had grown quite attached to many mods that were now “Achievement Friendly”. But I got it done, added back all of my mods, and slammed through another playthrough of the expansion a couple of weeks later, in my preferred manner.
I see these “Achievement Friendly” versions of previously free mods as a way to avoid the pain of having to delete most of your mods, when the next expansion launches later this year. If achievements are important to you, as they are to me, this will allow you to enjoy the game mostly as you already do, and still be able to knock out those achievements without cheating to do so.
Is this a bit of a cash grab, of Bethesda’s part? It’s rather hard to say it isn’t, considering many of these mods are nothing but the free versions with an attached flag that allows for their use without disabling achievements on the Xbox. Is the whole advent of paid mods stifling the collection of free mods available to the Xbox community? Also yes, after a fashion. Modders work hard to create this additional software to supplement “Starfield”, and don’t those creators deserve to be compensated for their time and effort? Of course they do. Is it also fair for Bethesda to take a cut of that money, since they have to review and moderate these paid Creations?
Well, I’d say so, but I understand where others might disagree on that subject. In my opinion, that’s between the Creators and Bethesda, and players can voice their opinions by choosing whether or not to buy those paid Creations. Many of these Creators have a Patreon page, where they accept money from their fans without giving a portion to Bethesda, and you can support them there, if you like.
Anyway, I think I have sat here ruminating on the state of microtransactions in “Starfield” long enough. I need to go build a few new ships, and test them in the “Serpentis” run a few times…
