Paid Mod Rules Idea

Paid mods should always be better quality than free mods, the price should not exceed $5 AUD in most cases, Patreon subscriptions should be more frowned upon.

 

I think patron or any other subscription should only be allowed for paid early access, but a recurring subscription cannot be the only way to buy the mod. The mod creator would need to also offer a one time purchase option. This and the $5 price cap and minimum quality threshold all need to be enforced as hard rules, with consequences for violating them and loss of forum privileges for repeat violations.
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In terms of the price cap the $5 limit would be for complete vehicles mods, if it’s only parts then a lower price cap of maybe $2 to $2.50 would apply. (All amounts given are USD)

 

I do think this is fair. I understand mod creators would like kickback for their work, but lets be realistic: Its equal to buying an DLC car in any other game. There are mod creators that keep one time purchases up to date but there's also other creators that expect people to stay subscribed in order to receive future updates, which I don't think is a fair expectation, especially since that can add up quickly over time, along with no guarantee of continued support.

I know the devs want to stay neutral and leave it to the players to decide, but I do think theres times when moderators need to step in and acknowledge when its someone clearly wanting to abuse the leniency, IE that one $20 Lake Tahoe map that was just a google maps lidar scan.

 

My opinion -
Paid meshslaps of irl brands = bad + also illegal/copyright infringement
Patreon subscriptions = good if cheap, bad if expensive, as you have no guarantee that youll recieve any future updates
Paid scratch made/mostly scratch made mods with non-irl branding = good

If you want to make a good quality irl mod paid, then make it non branded and release a seperate free pack that adds the irl badges and logo etc, therefore you are not commiting a crime and everyone can be happy

 

Branding isnt the be all end all of copyright infringement. A case can certainly made on IRL mods even if they are carrying branding from the game.

 

I'm 90% sure I came across that Lidar scan on Sketchfab not too long ago

 

True to an extent yes, but this is how GTAV gets away with practically copying car models from irl, they just slap one of their own brands on it.

 

Aaaand now this just showed up
https://www.beamng.com/threads/introducing-our-first-mod-ford-transit-mk6.101964/

This mod is a 1:1 copy of the real world Ford Transit, with full real world branding, and they’re selling it for $3.75. This is the exact reason why rules are needed, otherwise people like the one selling this mod are emboldened by the lack of regulations.

 

Its not even finished either lol, at least complete the mod before making people pay for it

 

Exactly

Well it’s using a real brand and design with no changes so it shouldn’t be paid at all. That’s considered theft and copyright infringement from both Ford and from whoever made the model, which I don’t think is them.

Just looked at their website again, it’s 3.75 euros which is more than dollars. Plus they also made some ETS mods for like 25 euros. That is nothing but greed

 

More money than the game itself, incredible. Even worse, a guy sells trucks for 40 euro+ with parts stolen from other mods and with very little customisation.

 

I doubt anything like that would be working too well because of legal situation in EU and in Germany.
Paid mods tend to be using real brands and way laws have been changing in last 5 years makes it somewhat uninteresting for any online platform to host paid mods.

I believe there would need to be review method that blocks any content that would be infringement of some brands ipo. While user is responsible of content user uploads, after repeated notifications online platform might get fines.
Of course I do not know if all that applies 100% to BeamNG, but did you know that Germany has a law that requires online platform to send illegal content to police of Germany?
Law is quite recent, but let's say user uploads paid mod of F-brand vehicle, then F-brand sends letters to BeamNG, it is not just that mod would be taken down, this crazy law requires that illegal mods are send to police servers.

Also funny law mentions something called access to online platform for "researchers" and other crazy near dystopian like control methods.
BeamNG is in Germany, but I do not know if this board is enough big for all that to apply, just wanted to point out how crazy world has become and how times start to become impossible for any mods containing real car brands or car shapes.
P-brand and F-brand have been patenting their car shapes, so fake brand is not exactly getting one out of problems.
Those who create completely original content are not affected by any of this.

In free world paid mods section would work nicely, but world is no longer free.

 

had the Gavril Vortex that used to be paid mod it was good quality
and another thing Please keep negative comments (I.e "SHUT UP NERD!", "Nobody cares ", and "SHUT THE F*** UP!") to a minimum. This is supposed to be a civil conversation not a zoo. Scratch that be respectful to others K

 

I never said that.

 

You said that whatawhat's argument falls apart because a meal at a restaurant is "more of a physical product"

A copy of BeamNG is no more physical than a copy of a paid mod. Same applies for any piece of downloaded sofware or other digital product you might buy.

 

im sorry but the idea of rules on the subject is stupid
the current system works fine
you know who you can always trust to make a mod worth the money
and if the mod is a ripoff you can tell pretty easily if it is or not
if you buy it anyway that is a very good life lesson
not everything is worth the money and you dont always need an authority figure to step in and tell you no you shouldn't buy it think for yourselves
if the devs did make rules on the subject they would be actively endorsing paid mods and you know for a fact with how much y'all complain about the existence then if there was active endorsement of paid mods it would anger many people who demand that modders don't deserve the right to ask for compensation for their time and resources to make the stuff for this game

can we please let this subject die until someone new comes along and brings it up again

paid mods exist and the concept will be staying deal with it

 

I suggested that the argument falls apart since there is no warranty on a mod, typically you can send food back at a restaurant and they'll fix it or you can get a refund. A large chunk of paid modders out there do not give any guarantees and, if you go and buy the mod and it turns out it's just a shit meshslap, well, oops, say goodbye to your moolah. It's a surprisingly common occurrence given that many paid modders are just there to make a quick buck and don't put effort, love, and care into their mods like modders like Lucas and the Wilkinson brothers.

 

Yeah sure, but that has little to do with physical vs non physcal products. You're changing your point into a different one.

In any case, its still a weak argument against paid mods. You havent stated your actual views on paid mods here, but I very often see "paid mods should be banned because of patreon meshslap scams" as the conclusion to your line of argument.

Yes, banning the crap thats obviously just a meshslap scam from the forum should be done, and quite often the threads do get removed. But most of the scams arent even advertised on the forum, instead through discords and youtube channels and such, completely out of the control of the BeamNG team. Making a bunch of rules (beyond deleting the obvious) limiting paid mods on the forum, using "scammers" as justification, is pointless because it will have far more of an effect on honest creators than it will on any scammer/meshslap peddler.

Not to mention that people need to take more responsibility for how they spend their money online. If someone can't tell that something is a scam (and a lack of refund policy is a BIG red flag) then perhaps the'yre not mature enough to be trusted with mom & dads credit card info.

 

I phrased it a bit wrong.

 

My subscription idea wasn’t actually related to paid mods. It was about all mods that aren’t published on the repo. Personally, I find it very difficult to keep free forum mods updated.
(see; https://beamng.com/threads/98-11-ford-crown-victoria-v2-9-1-25-09-2024.84582/ or
https://beamng.com/threads/1963-vol...namic-horsepowers.52497/page-100#post-1660111 and more..)
That said, I don’t have much knowledge about the laws, so I can't comment on what you have said.