General Kunos shuts down modding section of official forums

[David Dominguez]

Will it be possible to post screenshots and videos of mods in their official forum?

And release sound mods of powerful Ferrari engines?

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

So far yes.

But I bet you that won't last long.

Screenshot forum will turn into users asking where did you find xyx mod.

Sound mods will go as well, I bet at some part it will be just support forum.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

So these laws didn't exist in 2014 or 2015? Why is it a legal issue only AFTER the backlash, when Stefano said yesterday it specifically wasn't legal issue?

 

[Repa24]

No, we are not allowed to show pictures and videos of our mods anymore. Ofcourse you can still post pics and vids (for example in the screenshot thread), but no screenshots to show how far your are with a mod etc.
Sound forum is still open, nothing to fear.

 

[Moxley6969]

sheesh, you cant even post official content (kn5) pics anymore.....eh Repa24...lol

 

[Amir Vodokotlic]

So these laws didn't exist in 2014 or 2015? Why is it a legal issue only AFTER the backlash, when Stefano said yesterday it specifically wasn't legal issue?

Two years ago AC was small game that nobody even knew about.

Now with them going to console they will probably get more attention.

They're already in well known racing magazines and they seem to be selling pro versions of their game to Porsche, Dodge, Honda etc.


Logically it would make sense to stop sooner than later.

Aris always tells the truth meanwhile Stefano likes to beat around the bush like troll.

 

[David Dominguez]

Sound forum is still open, nothing to fear.

Then we have a big contradiction here.

 

[Repa24]

Then we have a big contradiction here.

If there is no one who complains about the sound mods, nothing will happen. And that seems to be the case.

 

[David Dominguez]

So these laws didn't exist in 2014 or 2015? Why is it a legal issue only AFTER the backlash, when Stefano said yesterday it specifically wasn't legal issue?

Another contradiction here indeed.

Stefano said yesterday:

There is nothing behind it, no legal stuff, nothing at all, just a forum section that was not doing what it was supposed to do. Nothing will be deleted, the original message has been updated.

You can go on now fabricating your alien conspiracies theory behind a forum section closure now.. if that's the way you want people to know you on the internet I won't be the one to stop you.

Today, Aris:

Italian laws specify that on a moderated and private (i.e. need registration) forum, the owners of the forum are co-responsible for the content of the post of the forum users. We live and have our base on an amazing country, famous for its culture, art, nature and... food. But at the same time also famous for it's bureaucracy, complex law system and confusing law decisions. So when we get complains from other big titles about converted material in our forums, or when we see illegal mods in our forums, or when we are asked to make the referee between mod teams wars, stolen material, personal issues and such, then as you can see it is time for us to take action.

So either Aris is fabricating alien conspiracies, or Stefano was very confused, or I'm missing something here.

 

[David Dominguez]

If there is no one who complains about the sound mods, nothing will happen. And that seems to be the case.

There were some dudes just one week ago showing some Williams F1 with Formula V10 sounds (Reiza). So...

 

[yusupov]

david, are you still modding for AC or have you moved to a different platform/been picked up by anyone?

 

[Brandon Wright]

From @Aristotelis in the official forums:
As I said above, even though KS is still a very small company, we are very proud to have created a world wide brand with AC. AC has sold hundreds of thousands of copies on Steam and consoles version will bring even more. AC is mentioned on big magazines and websites articles together with historic names as Gran Turismo and Forza motorsport... this for us is something that still amaze us and makes us very proud.

Unfortunately with great powers come great responsibilities (I always dreamed to say that, yay!). Italian laws specify that on a moderated and private (i.e. need registration) forum, the owners of the forum are co-responsible for the content of the post of the forum users. We live and have our base on an amazing country, famous for its culture, art, nature and... food. But at the same time also famous for it's bureaucracy, complex law system and confusing law decisions. So when we get complains from other big titles about converted material in our forums, or when we see illegal mods in our forums, or when we are asked to make the referee between mod teams wars, stolen material, personal issues and such, then as you can see it is time for us to take action.

As you can see, it's not a matter to simply moderate, because even if we had the time to do it (we don't), we're still in a very grey area and can't deal always with it. So because of some community members behaviour and because of legal uncertainty and because of the need to do something about it, we decided to do the "bad guys".

Is our decision bad timed? Probably yes
Did we knew it would be unpopular? Certainly yes
Was it really necessary? Absolutely yes.
Could we have done it differently? Probably yes, we are not perfect, we do errors and this is something to learn from.
It is a very painful decision (your passion on this thread shows it clearly) that we had to take. I hope you can now understand better why.

Will we stop encouraging or supporting mods? ABSOLUTELY NO!

Thank you for all these years of great mod material and supporting AC. We try really REALLY hard to bring you the best and hope that our future news will alleviate a bit your frustration.

If they had been honest and just explained that from the beginning I'm sure there would have been a lot less whinging.

 

[LilSki]

If they had been honest and just explained that from the beginning I'm sure there would have been a lot less whinging.

No offense to them but they don't seem to learn from their PR mistakes. This was zandvoort not being laser scanned all over again...

 

[Alex72]

Finally a straight forward explanation !
It would have avoided more than 20 pages passionate discussion on their forum.

They did very early that it is due to people not respecting the forum rules of not posting ripped content.

 

[Brandon Wright]

No offense to them but they don't seem to learn from their PR mistakes. This was zandvoort not being laser scanned all over again...

Agreed. And sometimes I think Stefano likes to get people riled up just so he can call them "alien conspiracy theorists" and other degrading names. Probably been hanging out with Ian Bell too much.

 

[RMR1]

Agreed. And sometimes I think Stefano likes to get people riled up just so he can call them "alien conspiracy theorists" and other degrading names. Probably been hanging out with Ian Bell too much.

What about Stefano being a normal guy not being able to suddenly cope with a somewhat rock star status? Aris should do Kunos PR, but I can literally see the itching in Stefano's fingers.
So don't over judge all this hassle. It's just Kunos being Kunos. And I find their ways quite sympathical.

 

[yusupov]

you raise a good point though, i wonder why stefano doesnt just let aris handle the masses. he's got a talent for it, & you'd think it'd take pressure off stefano.

 

[A3DR]

Jeez guys, stop talking about this Stefano character!
Time to move on and look forward, the good folks at RD gave us a place here so let's take good advantage of it and forget about the old forum.

 

[RMR1]

Jeez guys, stop talking about this Stefano character!
Time to move on and look forward, the good folks at RD gave us a place here so let's take good advantage of it and forget about the old forum.

Just no! Stefano is the guy who brought us AC. I will not harshly put him in a box by the door for no reason. And I will for shure not abandon the official AC forum! You seem not to be around there often judging from your sore opinion.

 

[Mr Whippy]

Haha, I think I ended up winding up Stefano (Lord Kunos?).

He seems to have just as much trouble on the 'internets' as I do

It seems like their PR is more like a honey trap of mystery and intrigue. Everyone is left baffled, then everything becomes crystal clear after a 100 pager.

But between the news and eventual clarity, conspiracies fly wild, most people misunderstand each other, the fanboys run to the rescue, the ranters rant, and the placaters try placate everyone and keep the peace.

Ahyhoo, I'm glad RD is here to pick up the modders traffic that will be looking for somewhere to go, and somewhere that is already well established!

Can't wait to see a lot of the really promising content WIPs appear here. I really hope some people don't go missing and go elsewhere. It was so good to see so many people together all in one place!