Modders: We need to talk

So you want to pay for every little car and track like you would in something like iracing.com and for an enjoyable game you would end up spending hundreds or even thousands? The only reason paid mods would be even slightly justified is because of how much the Devs lose from having mod downloads, mod makers on the other hand rarely lose more than a bit of time.

 

A bit of time? think of what they could be doing otherwise.

 

Now you're just being stupid for sake of obstinacy.

Probably nothing. Like 70% of the regulars here are antisocial neckbeards, if what they say in General Discussion is true.

 

Could be...

 

But they do it because they want to, I feel like if people could monitize their mods people would probably just make rushed mods.

 

That isn't really fair. I could be doing many other things like making software and doing research into things. As I am sure that most modders here could do and would be fairly happy to do. I don't think being a super sociable person who goes out every night has anything to do with it. The reason I (try to) make mods for BeamNG is because I like making things. Lets face it, im not going to be able to design and build a car in the real world but I can make one for this game. I get satisfaction out of doing it and when things work I feel awesome.

So personally I do it as an occasional hobby, but I don't want to turn it into a job. But equally I don't want to deny anyone else the ability to do that if they want to. But personally its not for me.

Hence I think that many people will not charge for their work. But there will also be some that may want to and more power to them if they want that.

 

This point has already been addressed on the first page of this thread. Read the whole thing carefully so we don't clutter up this wonderful thread eh?

e:

You're right. That wasn't fair.

65%.


Jokes aside, the points you raised regarding monetisation are quite valid; the option of choosing whether or not to charge for a mod is an difficult one -for me at least-, as ultimately some of that will go to supporting BeamNG. As I'm not interested in receiving reward, this issue can be solved with flexibility in the cut proportions. Charging a buck and routing the entirety of the profit to BeamNG would be ideal for me. Would certainly cover the file delivery of my mod, and several others as well.

That is, if I ever choose to charge.



...that is, if I ever finish my cars.

 

it needs to be closely regulated. if your mod is not at least near the quality of the official content you should not be eligible to receive a dime. this is also a good way for the game to get padded with a bunch of content for a relatively low cost. if you pay a modder 3 grand a month to produce 2 quality cars that's a win for everyone. from a project managers perspective, @gabester will need complete control of the entire process or infighting and artistic differences will quickly tear the whole thing apart. at least for the cars.

 

I mean, if you want to pay me for my mods, I won't say no. A good MAXIMUM price I would say is $0.99 per DL. Here's the theory, if the mod is that good, it will be downloaded a lot. So my Desert Highway map has been downloaded about 12,000 times.

At $0.693 (70% of $0.99) times 12,000, I would have made $8000+! IN ~ 6 MONTHS.

Honestly, I could quit my job with that!

Minimum of free for less valuable mods. I would want you guys to make sure that if someone pays for a mod, they will get free updates. Prices should be negotiated by a BeamNG team member and the author in a 1 on 1 conversation so as to pin down the actual quality of the mod.

In other words, a crap mod should not cost $0.99. Quality assurance is another must. The mod has to work.

ALSO, who's to say that these mods just won't pop up on the Russian sites again. You would need some hardcore DRM and definitely use the steam workshop.

It's a concept...paid mods have worked for some games before but I've seen more of them fail. CS:GO is a massive success, anything by Dovetail games is a disaster (I'd hope we never overprice).

In short, I'm open to paid mods. Very inexpensive at the maximum while allowing free mods still. Be clever with the DRM.

1 question I'd have is how would we get the taxes to work. I'm not knowledgeable on how, if it were to happen, to get my income taxed from this.

Also, we have lots of minor-aged creators here. Assuring that the money is getting to their parents tax info and not some fake, over 18 account may prove difficult. The IRS is brutal...Or just make paid mods available to provable adults?? Probably hard as we may be in the minority.

 

Bonus note. TDev mentioned in discord of using steam wallet for purchase. Therefore sell up your CSGO skins guys, get rid of some trading cards, boom, mod purchasing power.

 

But it could also be argued that if you made that map a paid mod that it would have had less downloads, its also likely that someone would have made a similar map for free which would probably cannibalise your sales.

 

Well, marketing is not my primary knowledge. I'm just doing the math. In time, I'd probably reach 12K paid downloads but, who knows. Maybe my map is greatly valuable at a free price. I wouldn't be surprised, I'm not a formally trained or experienced map designer.

Not to toot my own horn here but I'd say my map is pretty unique.

 

I honestly doubt that the money made from paid mods in terms of time spent to make then would even be as much as you could make from working minimum wage at a fastfood restaurant or something, so it wouldn't even worth it for the modders and it would ruin the community and would probably scare off people considering getting the game.

 

i think beamng should foot the bill. the modders are making content for your game that makes it more attractive to us the end user. modders should be treated like freelance contractors. the mods they pay for get white listed and become official content. we all see there are more cars so more people buy the game. its like comping gamblers at a casino. all the free booze and rooms and girls you give them keeps them gambling.

 

I would not want paid mods, mods should be a free thing, of course it would be quality mods, i am a mod creator and im looking into improving and learning how to do more, and that means that in the end, i could end up not getting money out of this, but if that means that 12 year old can download my mods for free and enjoy them, i will be happy.
Other peoples might be flipping out over the fact that they can be paid by modding, but i think paying for mods is just a bad idea.

i though you guys made the repo because you didnt want to use the workshop.

To be honest i dont know how i feel about this paid mods thing.

For other things now.
Making the wiki a little more in depth, it would help a lot. but i understand that its also a lot of work.

also, i though about making a tutorial about jbeaming, but im no expert sooo im not sure.

 

But that opens up a tonne of other issues. For example how would they decide what to subsidise. Or if they were paying me would I still retain total control over my mod or would the mod then become BeamNG's property and so on. Not to mention it would be hell on earth to keep track of all those pay rolls.

 

It might be worth asking Tdev to put that in the OP. Since that is where most people are going to look for this sort of information. It will get lost in the middle of here

 

No you sell the rights of the content as your making it on their time. Having more content will draw more users. The content pays for itself in the end.

 

I can see that as being functional. But im not sure that many mod makers would want to sell the rights to their projects. If many mods are indeed a labour of love then selling them might be a difficult prospect to swallow.