Paid Mods... a response to the backlash Aljowen faced for his newest mod...

Alyowen as we all know recently released his second major mod the Raven R20 A great Car with an innovative Gauge cluster, superb handling (like a race car)... But.. he got imo many unfairly negative reviews, for the cars handling?!? seriously learn to drive, the styling (not my favourite either, but keep in mind not evreybody has that talent, id like to see you design your own car from scratch, many very popular mods on this forum are just bad meshslaps...), the way it crashes which is absolutely fine imho but also keep in mind that beamng.drive, contrary to popular opinion among 12yr olds, is not a game about crashing, but driving, and driving the r20 does (like a buttered racehorse)... but the biggest backlash came because alyowen has a supporter edition of the car that you only get access to if you pay 1,5 - 15 $.. this however is absolutely great imo id love to support a person who spent hundreds of hours crafting a magnificent mod without getting even a dime for it... the minimun cost of 1,5$ is so insignificantly low.. no one in their right mind should think they get ripped of when they get a great mod for free, and have the opportunity to give a little back.. i think there should be a official system for donating rasonable amounts of money to our dear modders.. of which btw the developers could take a part to keep this forum running but thats jaust an idea... #TossACoinForYourModder ;P

 

I believe paid mods has been talked about before and it wasnt moved forwards with because of reasons, Nadeox and TDev sorta said it wasnt a practical method to things it was either 2018 or 2019 when a thread appeared about it but the idea wasnt that much well received and it was halted indefinitely

 

As Robert states, this discussion has been had before and it was rather polarising.

Personally I quite strongly believe that people should be able to ask money for the work that they create should they wish to do so. Then people can decide to either take it or leave it based upon their own preferences. Preferably with curation to ensure that no one is taking the piss.

Its worth remembering that these forums are not representative of the general public at large. As such its not easy to gauge public reception of something until it is done.

As it stands the R20 has a rating of 4.12, the R60 has a rating of 4.6. So I would describe the reception as being lukewarm to the existence of the supporter tier, but equally its hardly an ongoing riot. I went into this expecting some backlash, since I think I am the first person to do this in BeamNG. I am positively surprised to see that I haven't received any hate-mail yet (I'm sure there's always time).

At the end of the day, this exists in other simulation games, and to my knowledge, they haven't exploded.

 

the main argument against it, other than paying for a thicc body, is that it:
1. has mad understeer
2. looks like an automation car

all in all that's a petty complaint at best

(also, recieving a small amount of cash for a few months work is a reasonable expectation)

 

You raise a good point. Assetto Corsa, for example, is riddled with paid mods. However...



...they're bound to get leaked.

 

And how would you happen to know...

But yes, piracy will always exist. That doesn't mean legitimate avenues for digital media should all shut down.

And for what its worth, I could have laced the R20 with DRM if i wanted to in order to reduce the ability of pirates to operate (since they would have to repurchase with a new payment method for every update), but I didn't see it as a worthwhile use of my own time. So it is provided DRM free.

 

I don't see any problem at all with paid mods; people should be able to capitalize their time. Games/simulators like X-Plane have a rich and very worthwhile paid modding community and a freeware side that challenges them to create paid content that is worth the price. That being said, would I ever pay for a mod on BeamNG? That really remains to be seen, but I certainly wouldn't scoff at the idea.

 

The thing is that @aljowen didn't do a fully paid mod, but only something that you could compare to a DLC at worst. You still get the car for free & every tuning part with it, but having a "special" version of a mod available as a paid resource isn't bad, as the mod in question doesn't hold back much on the paid one. In my opinion, modders that spend hundreds of hours (me, Blijo, aljowen, bob_blunderton etc.) have to right to set up a way to get paid in one way or another, as long as the whole mod isn't behind a paywall

 

yea, the bob holds back updates to the forum but releases more updates and more often to patreon supporters and noone flips their shit

 

Just for full clarity, the free edition doesn't get *all* of the parts. But it does get most of them.
For example the rally springs and dampers are only in the paid version.
The paid version also has some parts in it that I haven't mentioned, such as the parts for an electric drivetrain. (in my internal lore there never was an EV R20, but it was used as a test mule). However, if I make an actual configuration from that, it may get added into the free version. Hence why I haven't talked about it. I also don't know if anyone has noticed it yet either

As an added aside, the free version contains the parts for a "Moonhawk 378 CUI V8" engine swap. Its not a recommended configuration, and I think the 3d models only show if you load in a Moonhawk first, but it is there should you fancy many brown trouser moments

 

I realize that my review of the mod came off way too strong, and apologize. Everyone's gotta make some cash somehow and I respect that, so completely ignore my bit about the paid version of the mod.
My gripe is with the fact that this car looks genuinely like shit. I'm not trying to flamebait or anything but it's atrocious to look at, not only does it look bad from a styling standpoint but it just doesn't look... real? I guess?
Also, the thing's a death trap to drive at above 60% throttle.

 

I personally think a modder can do whatever the heck they want with a mod if they made it.
you can put it behind a paywall, but like anything, accept that you will get 12 year olds whinging to you and people leaking the mod.

I personally see no reason to, as most of the mods I make are for my own enjoyment, so I don't really care for a profit motive. (wait, I've only released 10 of my mods? maybe I should polish and release more of them.)

 

Well it's not supposed to be made as a carbon copy of a car. It literally says "Original fictional design" directly in the write-up. I'm sure you didn't read that, and just slithered your mouse over to the download button. As far as it not being real, literally It's a mod for a video game. It's a scratch made mod available to you for free, none the less. So if you don't like it, don't use it.

That complaint has been around forever in RoR/BNG. What do you think is going to happen when you floor a 300hp coupe/roadster from a dead stop or in a corner? It's going to spin out. You can use the smaller engine or the traction control settings to mitigate that if you're unable to control the throttle. I had no real issues driving it on Mt. RoR, which is arguably the WORST road for this type of vehicle (low, sport susp., FE/RWD). If you're not familiar with the map, there's crests everywhere and off camber/flat curves.



Man I thought the reviews were abhorrent, but the entire discussion around this mod really just makes my head hurt. I never imagined that we'd have such arrogant, entitled children telling people that their mod "genuinely looks like shit". REALLY?? That's the best way you could find to word that? I'm not even going to waste my time writing about how rude and uncalled for that is. And for what?? Because you have pay 2 USD to get access to a different config? That's exactly what the negative reviews are all about, too. The Raven R60 never had these low reviews. Unbelievable.

 

the only reason i didnt get the supporter pack is because i didnt quite like the mod, i however can respect his decision to make a paid version for $1, i really dont understand the backlash, its a dollar, not 5, not ten, one whole dollar, c'mon now.

 

For seven years, BeamNG mods have been free- this includes some of the most revered mods ever released, like the Satsuma, Oldsfullsize, and Gladiator. Those mods are beyond top notch, so therefore it doesn't make much sense to pay for a mod that isn't as high quality as those are.
In other words, why should anyone have to pay for the full content of a mod that isn't up to par with some of the most high quality mods of all time, which were free?
Alijowen has done great work on the R60, and I'm not trying to discredit that. I'm just trying to funnel my logic into a single post.

 

If you don't think it's worth the money, don't buy it. How hard can it be? There is no reason whatsoever to demand from someone to release his mod for free, regardless of its quality.

 

Paid mods are a serious no-no here. There are mods such as the Oldsfullsize and Ibishu Kashira that have loads of content and none of those are locked behind a paywall, so why pay just to unlock the rest of the 2 of the 5 configs?

 

Honestly, I think this modder should start a Patreon account. I think having all the configs of the mod being free, but also having the modder get money from Patreon or some site like that would be a great idea. There are mods on the repo that are free to download, but they have Patreon pages where you donate and all that stuff.

 

I think the mod creators should be free to do whatever they want with THEIR content.

 

Okay, but I think it is unfair if the user has to pay just to unlock 2 configs when there are mods where they have a ton of content which is all free.