What happened to BeamNG's community?

I've been here for about a decade, originally only just lurking until I finally made an account in 2015. And it seems like the past couple years specifically, the community here has gotten increasingly more and more toxic. Half the time, it doesn't even seem to matter what the original topic is about. I'm constantly seeing insults thrown, names called, modders harassed, fingers pointed, you name it. It's insane the lengths some users will go through to make other people feel miserable at times.

What happened to this community? Why are people beginning to feel more self-entitled about a lot of stuff? Even if you don't agree with an opinion, why can't you just be civil about it? Or at least have a mature argument where you actually explain your reasoning for something? When you accuse someone, why don't you provide proof of it? If it's a private matter between you and someone else, why make it public?

It's just... ugh... there's so many things going on these days on here. A lot of communities and forums get their fair share of toxicity, but I personally feel like BeamNG's community in particular is one of the more worse offenders.

And more importantly, why isn't more being done about it? It feels like not a lot gets done about anything, more often than not. I report a lot of drama and toxic comments all the time on here but I'll check back like a week or two later and see that same comment or that same forum drama is still on there. Once in a blue moon something might get removed, or a user might get a warning, but that's still pretty rare to see nowadays.

I miss the good old days... what happened?

 

The game’s received more exposure to more people and more arguably unsavory groups of people. It’s sad, but it’s just real. The ratio of unsavory types to normal people has grown, and there are a significantly higher number of people in general.

 

nah i think it's just the old Back in my day and nostalgia goggles.
beamNG has always had its weak points. for example: the age of kids that watch those weird livestreams are about the same as those who watched insanegaz over and over and over 10 years ago. its still car crashes, and kids love those. it's actually not that bad for the game, as some of those kids are gonna grow up and become big fans of the game. more exposure to the game=better. in fact, it's how i heard about the game! i was a little kid on mom and dads ipad watching insanegaz gta 4 and beamng videos all the time in 2013. i grew up a bit and discovered whybeare.(2015 ish) he was very child friendly and enthusiastic, so many kids my age would also watch him. later i stumbled across steelorse (french) (2016) he had a great energy and his content was funny. by that point i was DREAMING of owning a pc to play the game. it wasn't until 2019 that my brother got a shitty pc so we could finally try out the game, and I FUCKING LOVED IT. we would always rush to his bed room to play beamNG all afternoon, and all weekend. he would rarely let me actually drive, which only got me more hyped to play it myself. I finally got to own my own pc just last year, in around april. it was great! i played all the time, and got soo into it that i bought a better cpu and a better gpu, just so i could finally play at 1080 high, like i always dreamt of. and that's where this account became. i'm again upgrading, and i dont think it'll ever stop.

anyways, i hate toxicity too. i spend a lot of time watching beamNG, and interacting on that platform. right now, i love playing BeamMP with small youtubers i follow, when they stream.
proof that it actually never changed: search for commonly requested features like modern supercars, modern trucks, tire thermals, scratches, dinamic mud, defomable terrain, etc. if you scroll down to the older posts, where it had already been asked many times, (2013-2015,) people would say the same thing: LEARN TO READ, USE YOUR BRAIN, blah blah blah...
personally i believe that there's one thing that's gotten severely worst. PAID MODS. in my opinion, they ruin the fun of modding, and defeat the whole purpus. no matter how much effort and time is put into the mod, ask yourself: would this have happened in 2021? no, no, never, and no one wanted it. it's becoming increasingly worst and worst, to the point of people making subreddits just about leaking beamNG mods, and MANY threads disscussing it. i find it makes the beamng community worst. it's known for its generous developers and amazing mod makers, and its great value for money. if everyone makes paid mods, then less people use mods, then the game gets boring, then they dont want to play it, then they leave the community. which would lead to the Bankruptcy of BeamNG i bet.

on that

 

Since I've been here for a few days or week too, I might add some salt to the salad:

The main problem I see with the BeamNG community is the split opionions or demographics people have, I won't name any particular interest or age groups, you can imagine them yourself - Certain people demand and demand, usually things that are very difficult to do or near impossible, be it ideas or feature ideas for the game or mod xyz - If they don't get that or the mod creator/developer says "No, sorry, we can't do that" or something along the lines of "We got it planned, but unsure" - It gets people frustrated, and I feel like, many people these days, especially the usually "younger audience" that grew up to other game standards than people my age or older - People just expect, and if they can't get it, they leave their frustration out on people who either can't do anything about it, or just outright insulting developers for being "idiots" while they don't realise they are being a bit of a dummy themselves. They just can't get into the position of being a developer for a game/mod - They don't appreciate the time, effort etc. that goes into, even small features or details at times.

I have made attempts to do modding for BeamNG and other games in the past, I have made maps for BeamNG before (granted, not the best ones honestly) but the specific demographic of people cannot comprehend the amount of time and effort that goes into mods/games.
And I honestly think, that this certain "impatience" is kinda spoiling some people and driving them insane.

Sure, the entire phenomenon that surrounds this game, mods etc, (and I won't go into this weird crashtastic and hideous clickbait socialmedia garbage) but I think it plays a major role into why people keep on demanding, especially that specific demographic. Surely, ideas are good and great, but remember that games are made by other human beings?? I feel like, its what other people forget and, honestly? I think some groups don't care and just WANT that feature X and if they get banned or whatever on the forums...

Sure, I won't mention trolling etc. every Forum has them, I honestly just ignore troll posts.

But what I really wanted to say - certain demographics just get out of their way, insult people/developers, just because they cannot get something they want really bad. sure, I can understand, I want so many things too, but I am patient, and I can understand a "no we can't do that because it's technically very difficult or impossible currently" compared to others, and don't get mad about it or cry publically on a Forum or Discord channel.. Get real, grow up.

Sincerely ~Nistii

 

This is what literally anyone in any community says if they've been in it for a while - hell, even people who aren't online say the same thing, it's the old "Back in my day" trope (as simsimw said above).

The community hasn't really changed all that much from what I've seen, and I've been here for almost as long as you have, and I think over time you have changed yourself. Keep in mind it is only natural for things to change slightly over time, users come and go, trends change, old arguments get put to rest and then there are new things to argue about, and don't get me started on the rise of self-entitlement over the past few years - that's been happening everywhere, not just on this site. Generally though, the attitude on the site hasn't really changed overall.

We all enjoy BeamNG, we always have done, that's literally the only reason anyone signs up to the site.
And it's a damn sight better than a few other online communities out there.

I also think creating a thread like this is a bad idea and only set to make matters worse.
What a brilliant way to divide opinions and create an even wider rift between stuffy old players and clueless new players.

 

I feel like Beam’s community is one of the less toxic actually.
Like other than a bunch of „wen relez” kids and a bunch of other outliers, people seem to be decently polite pretty often.

 

My experience with this community has been horrible. BeamNG communities on discord are completely and utterly terrible (aside from BeamNG's official discord, of course), I have been absolutely destroyed from the inside out for making shit meshslaps, this has been worst experience with a community I've ever had. Since 2019 all I've gotten is hate. Forums are a different story, these forums are perfectly fine for me, I haven't been slated for making meshslaps here.

 

When I made my account I thought the forums were very friendly and polite. I wrote my first messsge and I got a serious, honest response. Thanks @Jackets64 without you I wouldn’t be using the forums. It’s still like that. You ask a question that’s been answered many times, but you get an honest and correct answer . Yeah sometimes people ask questions like when relez but other than that it’s pretty civilized and respectful here

 

I don't have alot of experience with the forums and posting here, so i dont know what it was like in here in the past, so if something's wrong, you know the reason.

I'm usually pretty active in here, but i dont post very much alot of other people do, i usually just take a look at stuff that look interesting to me and i pass on, but, from my personal experience, i dont think people are THAT bad in here, yes, some might be annoying and ask question that people posted above, or might start drama's that could even lead to accounts being banned, but i think the OG people here that have been around for atleast 5 years, know how the community looked like in the old days, and liked in better that way, cause i think when people are new and recently joined this place, like the old people did back in the day,they are more interested in the forums and posting here, thus they go along nicer and better with the members that have joined around the same time period, and as you can see, most of these OG people dont usually post as much they did in the past, some even have lost interest and left the site and or playing the game, but people that have joined recently (including myself, it's not bee even a year), go along with the other members that are joined recently and can communicate a bit better with them, most of the old people like the community in the old days, because of the reason i said above and also, maybe because they had more interest in posting and being active here, but as time passes on they start to post less and less and being active less and less here. it happens for everyone, they will slowly start to post less and less, and as you can see, the creator of this thread is a old member in here (well i consider 2015 to be pretty old by now), and my guess is that they like the community more when they were new in here back 2015, who knows, we probably will get bored of the community too for example, 5 years from now on and we will remain very silent by then, but that's my finall opinion.

 

Yeah I notice there’s only 2 ages for accounts 2021-2023 or 2012-2017

 

I've always found it really helpful and friendly, but I pretty much entirely post on the world editor and map modding posts. I think the vehicle mod posts might attract a bit more of the type of post you're talking about. I've had a couple of less friendly posts in the past, but compared to hundreds of great ones.

 

And then right after you posted that someone who isn’t in either of the ranges posts lol

 

Ha, I didn't notice that. I'm an outlier...

 

So.... can this topic get closed now?

 

…liad wendover

 

Oh SH...

 

…UTO expressway

 

Oh n AU-

 

TO AJ repairs
(Or rata)

 

Me when you didnt continue it to „Autron Xenira”: