Ok I'm (hopefully) just going to hop off because I would like to spend my free time enjoying something before school starts again tomorrow. I recommend people also do similar.
There's a bit of a misunderstanding here: "paying for what was previously free"' Paid mods aren't mods that were originally free and then became paid over time- they're mods that otherwise couldn't exist outside of a paid system. Their development takes time and effort, as well as inherent costs for programs such as blender addons like Bake Wrangler, texturing programs such as Substance Painter, and image editors such as Photoshop. Without the potential profits to support their development, they simply wouldn't exist. It's not that you're being 'robbed' of an otherwise free mod, it's that the mods themselves rely on funding to exist, and would otherwise never be made. You're not suddenly paying for something that was originally free. If the mod was going to be free, it wouldn't have been made in the first place.
It will definitely change BeamNG and the new canalized efforts of the team if it’s ingame. After this effort they perhaps decide to make it to a money machine with the new tool they have. Just a dark guess.
I reiterate my question: Isn't the end user worse off being required to pay for something that was always free before the implimentation of this new system?
I definitely don't see BeamNG as the new Adobe. They've always been the company I respect the most just because they care about their community and not necessarily about the money they could make.
Yeah, but A LOT of paid mods don't have demo versions, so you have to pay to see if the mod fits your expectations, runs good on your computer, and so on. Having it to be required, would secure the buyers the possibility of demo testing, and would draw more attention to the paid add-on, if most people could test the mod for free. Also it solves the mods of mods problem, since other creators could have easy access to the mod structure and to all of the important things for them to do their improvements
All I can say is the flight simulator economy is definitely an interesting one lol. I've been around it for years and it definitely has its ups and downs (no pun intended) I've personally used a couple paid addons which were definitely worth it, but on the other hand I've also witnessed some pretty junky stuff getting released as paid content. BeamNG used to be much smaller previously, and required less effort to make nice content in the past. One could argue that it didn't really make sense to do it in the past times. However I also understand what you're getting at, it's a double sided coin. On one side it may encourage and motivate people to make more content, but on the other side it does limit the accessibility to their content (especially when considering there are many younger BeamNG players).
Y'all keep acting like implementing paid mod repo would lock you out from the main repo as well. Also, I hope you never discover Assetto Corsa. It will definitely be a scarring experience.
That is definitely something I can agree with. However I think the countless positives can outweigh this single negative point. Users will be worse off because they'll have to pay instead of just download, but they'll definitely have a bigger catalogue of quality mods to chose from instead. You're giving something to get something of equal value, if not actually more valuable IMHO.
I agree. It was a bit harsh example. But implementing the system you proposed leads to a couple of months work for the company and the focus will be on that topic then. But nevertheless if they find a feasible way I’m in. I bought your last mod over your shop system. Is the income so bad over third party platforms?
I do, however, think this would mean more people would need to be hired for approval. Your average Moe shouldn't be able to upload his first bumper mod that throws 5 console errors to the repository. That's obviously hyperbole but imho all paid mods should be held to a dev quality standard.
And, unlike marketplaces such as the one found in Microsoft's Minecraft Bedrock Edition, the BeamNG forums still presents free mods and paid mods side by side, a core component of BeamNG's ecosystem that is unlikely to change. Paid mods aren't the death of free mods, they're a way for developers of free mods to continue their development with paid mods to offset the costs (monetarily and time) associated with it, when they might otherwise be unable to.
I didn't even know Cities and Gmod had paid mods. But I guess it's better off that way then having the workshop be their free advertising service
