I like games you can mod. Games out of the box are made how someone else likes them, or to please most of the people most of the time. Most devs will agree that games are released unready - no game is completely finished or bug free, they are just done to a timescale and degree of readyness.

I fine tune games to suit me. Plus it keeps my interest in a game long after the honeymoon is over. It can also become a hobby in itself.

Mods ARE gaming life.  The more they can be modded, the better!  Darn and modding is a consuming hobby--but cheaper than vintage car collecting.

But it actually would be really cool to hear what the developers think of modding.  Nice question.

10 years ago most developers would frown on mods... That was until the Quake 3 community started releasing a ton of GOOD mods, and then the Homeworld community started releasing GOOD mods from a game that was supposedly "un-moddable".SoA 1 pushed the engine well above and beyond its original limitations. Homeworld would have been dead in a year without mods.

Many games died because they couldnt be modded at all, or could be modded, but not modded well. Example: Nexus the Jupiter Incident. Yes you can mod it, but the Hard Coded AI of that game is so horrendous that it wasnt worth the effort. Hence dead game.

Since then it has been a mixed bag. Games like the battlefield 1942 wouldnt have stood a chance without mods. Then the developers of the Desert Combat mod went professional, and helped to create battlefield 2.

Starfleet Command modders went on to help create ST: Legacy (specifically Rick Knox aka P81).

In the case of SotSE i think it is pretty safe to say that the developers approve of modding the game, and took steps to make it so. Yes some of TSOP did make it officially into the game. SoA 2 is still going strong, and there are MANY other good mods for Sins.

Game developers would be foolish NOT to let, or help their games be modded now. Relic learned this lesson with Dawn of War, and Dawn of War 2 (unfortunetly NOT with Space Marine). As did Bioware with NWN, KotoR, and Mass Effect.

Most IP's have a permission, and non profit policy. As long as credit is given where its due, Appropriate disclaimers are posted, and no profit is made off of the IP then it is fair usage. Some IP even encourage the modder (Example EVE Online).

Mods do help boost sales of games. Mods can turn a boring crap game into gold. Mods help introduce, and train the next generation of game developers. So to answer the OP's question. YES, Mods do help a games bottom line.. Period.

There are games that I would only play modded.  Oblivion for example.

I still believe that the percentage of gamers that buy a game only cause of its mod potential is very small.

I understand all the benefits guys....its just when you play for free your not buying new......

While true that the percentage is small, it's because mod capability sucks on the whole.  If you tell Bethesda that the percentage is small for TES, you might kill them with the ensuing laughter.  Either that or they're self deluded, entirely possible since their new combat system is still inferior to previous mods...

Oblivion is a godawful example of an RPG compared to Oblivion modded.  It sold far better than superior contemporaries, and the download counts on Nexus indicate why.  OBMM has been downloaded nearly 2 million times.  I myself got it out of curiosity to see just how deluded it's fans were(lots), not an interest in the mods, but I bought the expansions purely for mod compatibility.  Assuming I bother to get Skyrim, it will be because I like the look of the mod community.  I can't imagine the main campaign this time around is less obscenely boring than the one for Oblivion was, and exploring 500 similar dungeons doesn't make up for a story that bores when the combat system sucks.   I'd take Dark Messiah any day without a very healthy modding community.

I expect the modding community only sold a couple thousand copies of Sins explicitly, but it was advertised in advance.  There are tens of thousands of people that have played the mods, how many close sales were tipped by mod access?  For something like Oblivion though, with the rich modding history of Morrowind before it, a few hundred thousand is more likely.

I believe (correct me if i am wrong) that the Half Life modding community created Team Fortress, and Counterstrike. Now those 2 "Mods" are being sold as full blown games. Those are examples of a developer taking advantage of the modding community, and making profit. Team Fortress, and Counterstrike use Half Life IP, and code with Valves approval. Which evolved into the "Source" Variants after HL2 was released. Mods based on the games original IP can, and have been turned into expansions that you pay for.

However Intellectual Property Like Star Trek, B5, Stargate etc. can, and WILL shut you down if you try to make so much as a PENNY off of their IP. I have already seen it happen in the Starfleet Command modding community when some IDIOT tried to sell his trek models on those very Mod forums (Turns out the idiot didnt even build those models, but that is another story altogether). The Legal Documents are too much wall of text to post here, but long story short is Paramount, and Amarillo Designs both handed out cease, and desist letters to damn near EVERYONE in the mod community (myself included), Threats to have individuals arrested, and sued, A major flame war ensued, and it damn near destroyed the Starfleet Command/Bridge Commander modding community. Until clear and precise documentation was posted on how we could use the Trek IP.

I dont make mods for E-Peen, or praise. I do it as a hobby, because it is what i enjoy doing. If i couldn't post them i would still do it anyway. If modding were a full time job i wouldnt enjoy it near as much as i do now. Plastic has been replaced by Pixels