General Kunos shuts down modding section of official forums

[LilSki]

I think they are going to archive the current threads in a locked subforum, as it doesn't include any ripped content now AFAIK. Then they will reopen the new clean forums for pure discussion on how to mod. This would make the most sense to me.

Also I really don't think posting screenshots coupled with a question on shaders/materials is going to cause any issue. The screenshot thread is still open as well, and legit modded content is allowed there!
Download links are causing them trouble, so they don't want to see that, nothing more from my understanding.
I think Stefano's talking about modders egos was an awful mistake from his side, when considering that what Aris said later, and considering the screenshot thread is still open for modders to show their work. What Stefano said can easily cause misunderstandings, and it did.

They moved most useful threads out of the locked forums into the general modding forum. You can still discuss any type of modding and I'm sure showing shots to explain stuff will be no issue. It is simply not a place for WIP threads like we now have here.

 

[RMR1]

To be honest, the flames were fanned when Aris came out with a pretty different reason as to why the forums had to close. Stefano originally said that there was "no legal stuff" involved and that it was a moderation issue. Then a day or so later, Aris came out and said that it was down to basically potential legal action with effectively hosting "illegal" content.

At the end of the day, the reason(s) why don't really matter, the forums will still close so the point it a little moot, I just don't understand their full reasoning behind it and we will probably never know the full reasons.

Now you know, do you?

 

[xnorb]

If there are legal issues they could point it out. Don't see a reason to not let the community know that they simply can't share everything on the official forums.
If they just want a modding section without people spamming their content showcase, then all they need to do is opening a WIP subforum and moderating the modding subsection.

 

[AccAkut]

I know it's the same old talk, but a few things just don't fit in my opinion:

Very abrupt closure
Stefano and Aris contradicting each other
Choosing exactly that date
All the communication of the years before

There would have been many more occasions that move would have fit better. A free the koeniggsegg debacle, after Simtraxx "donate=buy" scheme, right at the beginning when Forza rips flooded in.

I can just see them acting on "advice" of Porsche or whoever, and just being too proud and emotional (there is no denying they aren't) to spill those beans.

 

[AlleyViper]

I guess the last moderator headache in the modding section was the FW23 thread, right before they closed the forums. And it wasn't that much about the use of copyrighted stuff (even if it's F1), but the use of other modders work without permission who then went vocal about it. Both in that mod, that started with uncredited placeholders for video previews, more claims after the first public release, and on outside sig links to other communities that distributed or showcased unauthorized "modified mods", where these same authors were present and also accused to have contributed to, for which they denied involvement.

The old mod thread was replaced with a new thread to "start fresh" and limit discussion to the OP mod, also with a change of the team name to distance themselves to that outside content. Soon the previous heated discussion started to land in there again, and the thread was cleaned again by moderators. Probably I'm missing or messing some important detail (for both sides), as I didn't follow the mod that much.

Given the timing, this could have been the final nail in the modding section before they decided to close it; a rare situation more about modders (and their IP) than brand copyrighted content. But not the sole reason, of course.

 

[Jim Layee]

After watching the latest 'What the cat hacked in' I now understand Kunos' and Stefano's motivations in closing the mod section. I still regard it as a mistake in the longer term but as a very small dev company time management must be a huge issue
I also admire Stefano much more as a person for his openness and passion

 

[Mr Whippy]

a rare situation more about modders

I've been modding for probably nearly 20 years in car games now and some modders always get a bee in their bonnet over 'their' stuff being re-used elsewhere.
I wouldn't really say a rare situation. I'd say an everyday one

Just because you *had* some ability to rant and rave about people using other modders content without permission in the official forums and get some sympathy, doesn't really change the fundamental point that modders need to grow some really thick skin.

They need to just appreciate those who do appreciate it, and forget those who will mod it and re-release it and whatever else, no matter what you might try do about it.


I can certainly understand why KS didn't want to moderate that kinda stuff.

Just running a forum is a pain in the arse before you have to actually moderate ranting people

 

[Brownninja97]

I've been modding for probably nearly 20 years in car games now and some modders always get a bee in their bonnet over 'their' stuff being re-used elsewhere.
I wouldn't really say a rare situation. I'd say an everyday one

Just because you *had* some ability to rant and rave about people using other modders content without permission in the official forums and get some sympathy, doesn't really change the fundamental point that modders need to grow some really thick skin.

They need to just appreciate those who do appreciate it, and forget those who will mod it and re-release it and whatever else, no matter what you might try do about it.


I can certainly understand why KS didn't want to moderate that kinda stuff.

Just running a forum is a pain in the arse before you have to actually moderate ranting people

you might want to add that never view any modding site for GTA. all our mods, all our cars are in that game.

 

[AlleyViper]

@Mr Whippy , when I used "rare" I meant as modder IP conflict ending in repeated moderator intervention in the 3D cars kunos forum. Not so much as a practice in modding in general.

 

[REM1976]

They are a business. The mods for PC is fine as long as it is not visible to the console community, that's why they've removed it from their website.

Console sales margins are much higher than PC, so that's where the money lies. They will be fine with PC mods continuing here, it is up to us not to f*ck the console sales market by blabbing on about it.

If we broadcast all the mods available, Kunos would be well advised to ban all mods, so let's just keep it here.

 

[Deleted member 130869]

I remember once I saw some GP4 helmet textures I made converted (awfully to F1C). It just led me to making them properly for F1C and I contacted the guy who made that shoddy conversion, always friendly. He was just a kid who wanted to see some things from drivers he liked in a game he had. I told him to update his stuff with my new material and that was it.

Then there were a couple of guys who took all the cars painstakingly made for GP4, bundled them on a CD and sold those updates for a couple dozen bucks online. Who knows how much they were able to make but the GP4 community soldiered on and rose above it and had those guys on a blacklist, much like SimDream and that one site with AC downloads. Some extremely talented guys from the early-mid 2000's, sadly I haven't seen many do anything else, a couple got tired and frustrated in the transition to the current era of games, and a few went on to full-time employment (UbiSoft, CodeMasters, etc).

Having a choice to work on mods for a hobby is great. You should do work to recreate something you like and want to use, not just work exclusively for money because public modding isn't a cashcow. If you go for the money you will get burned out and things will fail. That's why it's great to see some teams who push for excellence and are clearly passionate about what they make. That's when you decide to rework something because you had an idea that would make it better, etc. And you work late nights or through any spare time on weekends. Back in GP4 and even F1C days, I painted stuff I couldn't even use on my own because I had a very limited laptop... but I loved seeing it done and elsewhere.

The most successful modding examples I've seen were works done for free with an earlier release for people who chose to pay $1 or so for it. The guys made over $10.000.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

They are a business. The mods for PC is fine as long as it is not visible to the console community, that's why they've removed it from their website.

Wrong.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Wrong.

Maybe wrong.

 

[Moxley6969]

Maybe wrong.

100 % No questions asked Wrong,

 

[Mr Whippy]

Time will tell I suppose