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

Did you just literally ask for a mod re-up-loader to upload the supporter edition? You're, like, actually a genuine asshole.
The community isn't gonna collapse on itself because someone paywalls 2 configs, give your [REDACTED] a tug.

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Here's my new, non-assholish review as to state how I feel about the whole thing:

Re-Doing my original review because I was rude and volatile (what else is new lol).

PROS:
-Great handling vehicle (I completely retract my statement(s) about this being a death trap, I wasn't really trying that hard to keep it under control.
-Quirky looks (Originally thought it was as ugly as sin but it's growing on me.)
-11/10 chassis design (Dude wtf why are you so good at this.)
-Gauge cluster is ridiculously in-depth.

CONS:
-Textures seem too flat, and not exactly very realistic.
-Spiky crashes when you actually smash it hard.
-Just seems slightly bland.

I decided not to rake it over the coals about the paywall thing as ultimately it's your choice as to what you do with the mod. Do hope to actually get my shit together sometime and get the supporter edition.

 

As mentioned in an earlier post, You can take the normal V6 version, put the Rally wheels and Tyres on it, add a rollcage and viola, you have a Rally car. Obviously its not the same rally car as the paid version, but it is still a rally car.

 

It's up to the market to decide what they want to pay for and what they don't.

Maybe the free mods are just undervalued.
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You talk about the community, but you need to remember that this "community" you speak of is supported by actual people who put in work, and I think the best of them should be compensated for that work.

 

Sooner or later, someone's going to leak the content regardless, right...?

Beam wasn't really meant for paid mods. If this keeps up, it might start a trend of paid mods, and we don't want that to happen as everyone should be able to enjoy all the content the mod has to offer, regardless of what it is.

 

so reward for months of work is a bad thing?

 

I don’t think making paid mods is all that bad. I really haven’t participated in modding besides skins and maps, but even those quick projects took a while. From what I’ve heard, mods do take quite a while to make, and then they get released for free. It’s the persons choice whether they want to pay for the race and rally version or not. Like someone said, if they really don’t want to pay they could try making a wide-body kit and better engine themselves. You get it for free but have to put some work into it. Personally, I’m not going to buy it, mostly because I don’t think I’d use the car enough to justify it and I don’t really like the kind of car it is. I would probably pay a reasonable amount if there was something I really wanted like a SUV or mid 2000s compact though. So I guess what I’m saying is that the amount of effort being put into the mod, even if it isn’t dev quality, deserves some sort of reward. If you really don’t want to pay you could just try to make it yourself or just not buy it and use the trackday K-Series.

 

Uh no, it's just that part of me just has this feeling that there are other ways to make money off mods besides a paywall.

 

Still, why not use a paywall?

 

Maybe there are people who download mods on this site that don't have any money to spare, or maybe they have financial issues. Also, I heard plenty of people on here say that a paywall would cause mod leaking.

 

if you can't pay the minimal amount aljowen asks for then I doubt you'd have enough for a computer. And even then, tough luck.

 

I never thought I'd see the day when content that costs the same as 2 slices of pizza (If your pizza costs more than $1/slice you're overpaying!) is such a big controversy...

And I love the "piracy exists therefore we shouldn't sell software" argument... Piracy exists on movies, music, videogames, and so on... BeamNG itself has a piracy special background. But all of those still get sold anyway...

 

Heck, there's even what you could consider copyright infringement/piracy happening with free mods being re-hosted without permission on other sites for ad revenue.

It's super annoying, but it's not going to stop me making mods.

 

$1 is not a lot, but that will add up over time. If you bought 100 mods for $1 each, that would be $100, nearly 4x what the game originally cost you.

If I was going to pay for a mod, it would have to be perfect, and guaranteed to be up to date for a set amount of time. Yes, there are a lot of great mods, but most would not be worth it to me.

 

You see paid mods for lots of games everywhere, BeamNG isn't any different.

What the others said, if you don't like to pay, then don't use it. It's not the end of the world as what some of you make it out to be.

I mean, it lines up with shit you get in Real life, don't like it, then don't buy it. Simple as that.

 

That's a lot of demands for as little as $1.

 

Not really, compared to what we get for $0.

 

Perhaps you should be grateful for that instead of feeling like you're entitled to it.

 

I would like to remind y'all the mod is free

It's just a "DLC" for it that YOU ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO BUY

 

It's not like you're getting nothing for $1, or like anyone is forcing anyone to spend money on anything, or like all mods from here on will cost $1 now...

If you want to spend $1x100 on user made content (should there ever be enough to even allow that) then that is what it is. You purchased something. That's not exactly unusual in a capatalist society. Not everything is a handout.

You don't even need to pay for this mod, but you get an extra bonus if you want to give the mod maker enough money to buy 2 slices of pizza.

Using pizza as a metric while I haven't eaten in a couple of days isn't my best idea...

 

I support aljowen's actions so far with the Raven R20. I won't buy it because I don't desire the mod - either the paid or free version. It's just not on my Christmas List. From the reviews and comments I'd say that it must be a bunch of fun for the people who're looking for that sort of thing though!

Asking for some money is the modder's prerogative. Giving that money is the end-users's.

LOL, from my perspective your comment was the most amusing part of this conversation! Things collapsed a while ago; you're just trudging around in the post-apocalyptic modding wasteland. It can really only get better from here. Put another way: I don't really want to be part of a community where the modders are slaves to end users.

I agree that updates for paid mods are an issue. In fact, I think it's the biggest legitimate issue, it's certainly one which I've brought up in private conversations about the "paid mods" topic. In this case though, aljowen has made it reasonably clear that you're throwing a few bucks down in "support" of aljowen. That's a little different from buying a product (although maybe not very different).

As for the total expenditure issue ($100 example), I think there are two ways to look at that. One is that spending more money on mods than on the original product is common - cars are the best example (blueprinted engine, supercharger, exhaust, suspension, oops... I spent more on mods than on the car!). The other way to look at it is that you don't need 100 mods. Be responsible with your money; research your purchases before making them. If your rejoinder is that you can't waste time researching a $1 purchase then it appears that $1 is a trivial amount of money to you. Paying a trivial amount of money for something which you want and have done nothing else to deserve seems very reasonable.

Your response shows entitlement. Fairness requires considering the modder as well as the end user. The end user has nothing to deserve free mods (a form of reward or compensation). Fairness isn't required here, but if we were basing things on fairness we'd find that modders would be fairly entitled to compensation. Maybe some modders would be more deserving than others - how would you deal with that while being fair? Who would judge their merit? Fortunately we don't have to judge that.

The perverted fairness you're imaging just isn't required here. Modders set the price (often the price is zero - a gift!!). End users either accept it or do not accept it. That is a form of actual fairness.