Patreon, Paid mods & BeamNG.drive

I consider dev quality to be the latest dev creations so currently that would legran/wendover quality. The old cars I would not entirely consider dev quality, they are all getting remastered so the devs likely don't either.

 

Alright: my Take!
I modders should be able to make some money with the mods they make. the Question is how should that like? I my opinion it has to be a part of the mod repostory, when you download paid mod you should be able to get a free version of the mod that has a base config, to insure that the mod is up to your standards (at least for Cars because jbeam). If you later decide to get the full release, every mod should have a low base price of 1 to 2 dollars, and an option to support the modder further by naming you own price. There have to be different payment options that at least include PayPal, Credit, and direct Payment. Naedox (i think) previously mentioned the idea that Beamng.GmbH could take a small cut to pay for server costs, i think this would be fine as long as the cut isnt too big. Patreon, from what little research i did, takes a 16% cut, I think 10% would be good. There is also the option to limit the maximum amount of money a modder can make on one mod, something like 10.000 $ would make sense to me, after that goal the mod would be made free for everyone (the goal could also be defined by the author, within reason). There also has to be the option to get a refund for paid mod, within a certain time period. And the modder has to be somehow obligated to keep the mod updated, as long as there arent big changes with the tech that make that unreasonably hard to do. Otherwise there also should be the option to get a refund. The mods also would have to be rigorously teste by the staff, one more reason why thy sould get a small cut. Thats everything i could think of

 

You're probably right, but that doesn't solve the issue of the mod variety, you stated that the money perspective may encourage modders to finish their mods, that means that their finished mod will be paid, and other modder that usually do free mods may become paid mods creators. All this combined will end up with a majority of paid mods, and the only free mods remaining will be overall bad.
Obviously what im saying is in the worst case, where paid mods would be mainstream, in reality there would be a balance between free mods and paid mods but the problem is that we can't know in which side this balance will tend to, and if it tends too much to paid mods the diversity will reduce.
IMO the best choice is what Lucas choosed to do, it's the best compromise to have a little income while keeping the diversity of mods. Another question that needs to be thought about too is what's most the profitable for a modder : making only paid mods or making free mods with a fat patreon link on the mod's page

 

Oh, they're high quality too and if someone made a mod at their quality, i'd consider it pretty much dev quality but the textures on the legran and wendover are much better imo, mainly the chassis.

 

As a BeamNG content creator for 6+ years, I mostly agree with this decision. Making mods is hard, takes a loooong time, and you get literally nothing out of it except a lot pm's and requests to make more.
It's not quite like other games, it's a very specific skillset and not everyone can do it, you may be able to mod other games, but struggle doing so with BeamNG.drive.

Making decent mods frequently can be a full-time job because it's that involved, so I'm in full support of charging people for it, though I haven't personally done that(yet?)
You have to look at what goes into the mods, hundreds of hours of someone's attention just to release it for free and watch Youtubers make coin on it and give you 0 credit whatsoever.

my 2c

 

It's ok for the mod makers but its not ok for the people that use mods

 

As far as the "it'll get reuploaded the second someone who wishes to upload it gets it" thing goes, not really an issue

Pay the dev (an initial deposit to show you're not just gonna fleece them. Or just full amount, depends) to make said content, when its done you pay the remainder of the price, it goes on the standard repo/forums, and they still made however much they charged for it.

You don't necessarily have to sell the mod on a per download basis

People already pay for meshslaps to put into youtube clickbait crash compilation videos, knowing this games community which appears to value said quantity over quality, yes its likely the meshslaps will end up somewhat popular in the paid mod space, as very very few people talented enough to make better stuff currently appear to have the confidence to charge for their content.

 

I don't like paid mods, we should be able to download all mods for free.

 

could you at least give a reason as to why you should get access to someone's hard work entirely for free..?

 

I don’t think the devs originally thought that paid mods would become a thing on this game, but I have nothing against it.

 

If I request a modder something and he do it for me, yeah I have to pay him, but when another person requests him to do something and he do it for the requester, he should not receive money from me and he should receive money money just from the requester. Anyway it depends to the modder, if he love modding, why he makes us to pay him? And if he do it for money, he should receive money only from the requester.

I can't pay because I don't have money to buy a mod, my country has the lowest money value on earth, it's not a lie, I'm from Iran and Iran has lowest money value in the world, so I can't buy a mod by Dollar.

 

Sorry about your financial state, but if somebody was in a restaurant and they were an adult and that person was the only requester, then that person should pay up. If you're the only one who requests the mod, then (I assume) according to you. You should pay for it. Maybe I'm misrepresenting your argument.

Again, not to be mean, but if somebody puts a bunch of effort into a mod, then surely. They deserve some form of compensation, right?

 

Can't make exceptions because a small portion of players is too poor to buy a 3$ dlc. It sucks but that's the way it works. Supply and demand, the price is determined by what people are willing to pay for it. If you don't wanna spend the money, perfectly fine but stop whining. I'm not in the financial position to buy a Lamborghini either, do I contact them and complain about why they don't give their cars away for free?

Not that it all matters, every mod will end up on cursed Russian websites the next day anyway, and there's nothing you're gonna do about it.

 

Alright so here's my take on this whole mess.

Personally, I am not a supporter of paid mods. We've had this discussion on this forum so many times and it usually ends in the same way: paid mods are not really sustainable in this community.

However, for those who insist on paid mods, here's a proposition.

Respected and qualified modders with an established track record of quality mods and good behavior could apply to join a BeamNG certified program which would work as follows:

1. Modder proposes a mod and has a fundraising goal. Whatever BeamNG staff that manages this program must approve the mod proposition and the fundraising goal.
   
2. Community members raise money for the mod.
3. Once the budget target is reached, the modder receives half of the money upfront, while the rest is withheld until the mod is complete.
4. Community members who supported the mod get some sort of early access. The mod is released publicly on the repo for free some time later.
5. If the mod is cancelled, the modder must refund the initial 50% of the money to BeamNG for the money to be refunded to the donors, or else they would face moderation actions.

This would not require everyone to pay, as not everyone can afford to, and would provide financial support for the modder both during the mod's development, and a reward upon completion. It would also be more secure for users as they would be able to be refunded if the mod is cancelled, and since only established modders could join this program, it would avoid tons of low quality mods being spammed for a quick buck. This would not be enough to make a living on either (it's impossible to do this for the most part, if you want to get paid for working on BeamNG content, hopefully the company is hiring because then you'd get a salary). I believe something like this was discussed by Tdev back in the day, but I believe it was more of a paid repository than a crowdfunding thing iirc.

 

I heavily debated not even posting this due to the attitude of some people towards paid mods here, but I'd also like to help change the public perception of it.

I have worked full time developing my mod on Patreon for over a year. I work 40-80 hours a week developing my mod. If I wasn't getting paid, I'd be working a different job and my work would be much slower and lower quality, maybe even have stopped development by now.

Some things to consider. You are not entitled to a modders time and skill, I could simply be not making the mod. A modder making a product you don't want to pay for takes nothing away from you, we're not forcing you to pay for anything. If getting paid means the mod is able to get developed, the alternative is development slows or stops entirely, and either way you're without their product. From a modders standpoint, it's feels a little disrespectful that the people who refuse to put the time and effort into learning how to make their own mods demand that your time and skill be available to them for free, and that if you don't you are wronging them. If $5 is too much for you to pay, then $0 is equally too little to work for. That said, if anyone has ever told me they couldn't afford my work, I've always sent it to them for free.

For those who think it's greedy; being able to turn a hobby and a passion, in my case modding & derbying, into a full time job, isn't greed - paying my rent and supporting my wife isn't greed. An artist selling their painting isn't greed.

Now, for where it's different. Many of my players are only playing beam for my mod and the sport of derbying. The vast majority of players not involved in the sport wouldn't really get the meaning of a lot of the work I do. I am in a niche corner with lots of demand. Other modders are not in this position, and I wasn't at first either. So to those modders, consider, is it worth putting your time into something that only x amount of paying patrons will get access to? People on this site are not friendly or supportive towards patreon, and don't expect to make significant money. I'd rather make a mod for the entire playerbase for free than make $100 a month so that 20 people can play my mod. So, can you make a free version that satisfies players, but also a paid version that gives people sufficient reward for their money on a monthly basis? That's a hard line to draw in my opinion, and will just result in less people paying.

 

Definitely the best take so far, thank you for taking the time to write this out and point out both the benefits and downsides of paid mods.

 

"My country has a the lowest currency value on earth" "Stop whining " "Listen I can't afford a Lamborghini but that doesn't mean they should give me their cars for free"
This take is so unfathomably oblivious and ignorant...