I wonder how big or small that $10K compared to the game's monthly income. Guess I'd be OK to share the 70% of that with the modder if it'd be up to me (no wonder why I don't get rich huh?).
* 70% was the amount of loading time the modder helped to cut.
This is the gaming industry we're talking about here. I wouldn't have been surprised at "a box of swag" level of compensation. Although given what's en vogue right now, maybe some NFTs would've been more likely (not to mention potentially more valuable, at lease for awhile).
Yes, but this is GTA V we're talking about. Games like this aren't simply games, they're virtualized social platforms. There are many people who have spent thousands of dollars on that game to upgrade their in-game cars, apartments, businesses, clothing, and weapons. It's also one of the reasons that it is increasingly difficult to come up with an MMO (and GTA V is basically just an MMO with cars and guns instead of horses and sword) with any sort of staying power: your competition is not only much better funded than you likely will ever be, but they have years of content that new players can play through. The long-term players are heavily invested in both time and money and the new players aren't going to run out of content any time soon.
Rockstar makes about $600M annually off of Red Dead Redemption and GTA V. They basically gave him 9 minutes of their net revenue.
> I wouldn't have been surprised at "a box of swag" level of compensation.
Back when I was learning to find vulnerabilities and report them, I'd be lucky to get a box of swag. For VG companies, the usual compensation was some amount of free in-game currency or premium subscription for N months. That being said, I didn't ask for compensation anyway, so it was no skin off my nose.
The worst reaction was when I told my university that one of their websites had a broken link that gave you a zip of sensitive student information, and they threatened to call the FBI (in hindsight, I was probably talking to someone non-technical).
$50k and he has a plaque dedicated to him in one of the city parks in the game.
$10k is not nothing. Some companies would have responded to that fix with a lawsuit for hacking. It reads a bit low to me only because it fixes what was the #1 complained about issue from day one for the game, but it's better than a box of swag.
* 70% was the amount of loading time the modder helped to cut.