ARK seems to be a game of modders' dreams

http://kotaku.com/if-your-ark-surviv…e-d-1777179209

In short, a modder made a map. The map got popular.
Developers of ARK added it into the game officially, offered modder $ for it and a job!
It doesn't stop there as official statement came:

“Going forward,” said Stieglitz, “we intend to continue to regularly select what we consider to be the most and most polished Mods from among the many thousands available on Steam Workshop—often identified through open-entry cash-prize Mod Contests, such as the one we’re currently running, which we use to gauge community enthusiasm. And then when we determine what we think are the standout exemplars, we’ll make more offers.”

Meanwhile in Bethesda… Maybe I shouldn't go on that story.
I wish Vurt was here. Or in fact there on Ark modding it instead of wasting time on Nexus.

Modders getting hired by game company isn't that rare, them getting paid for their mod and including them into the base game is though.

There is at least one Morrowind modder who ended up hired by Bethesda and a few BG1/BG2 modders were hired by Beamdog too.

Thats pretty cool but after reading so many horror stores about working for a gaming company I sure wouldn't want to actually work for one. I highly value my free time.