Improved Anvil v5+ and BWL

[lroumen]

*sigh*

 

The real problem is that modding is stealing. We steal. We use BioWare's copyrighted materials and manipulate them, breaking the EULA, and we adapt and modify. Almost all the tools used to create mods are freely donated to the community, and contain "don't sell this" notes. BioWare turns a blind eye because (we think) a. the original game is still needed, so we pump up a market for an older game, and b. we don't take other people's money. Otherwise, we would need to purchase the rights or get a contract going where BioWare or whomever owns the intellectual property gets a percentage of gross sales.

This happens with most games. People just want to fix the bugs that the original company did not yet handle in the official patch. That's how the first mods for a game start out anyway. Then people build upon that knowledge to make small mods and later bigger mods. It keeps a game alive for a long time, thereby prolonging its sales. As long as people like the mods or hear really good things about the original game from friends, they'll keep buying it. It's all in the interest of the gaming company after all.

 

Creating a great story or new technical tweak or manipulating the combat AI all derive from copyrighted materials. You can't escape that. The hiding behind "paying for access not the mod" crap is bullshit if a user cannot get a mod without paying for it.

I think they're just assuming that Bioware (or whomever) doesn't want to spend money to challenge them from breaking the EULA. There is not much to gain from it since it's not like they will receive a lot of money from the few members that will pay for the forum access. I wonder if the Bioware EULA is even valid in what country again? Hungary?

 

Anyway, it would have been more profitable for BWL if they asked sponsorship from Bioware and other companies related to the tools they use or games related to the genre and add a few adds on the page. The amount of money per monthly amount of clicks is quite good.

[Guest Matti]

u jokers with ur "comunity" principals

 

get back to Real Life

 

i make sixtimes more an hour , t h i r t y dolars's jack for me

 

This is very interesting, please continue.....

 

Anyway, it would have been more profitable for BWL if they asked sponsorship from Bioware and other companies related to the tools they use or games related to the genre and add a few adds on the page. The amount of money per monthly amount of clicks is quite good.

 

Yes, but their retarded concept of "elitism" will be destroyed this way. haha, claiming that playing computer game and paying for a mod will make you an "elitist" is beyond retarded. what a bunch of lulzy fuckwads. declining a job offer because, ya know, imma making professional mod right now...real life, sorry, Real Life, yeah right, BWL and real life - hahahahah...MOAR!

[Guest Excuse you]

Wait. This thread is missing something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C'mon temujin you know you're eager to post and taunt your most dear and sexy friend Baro

[Ardanis]

declining a job offer because, ya know, imma making professional mod right now

Well, if releasing a professional quality mod yields higher profit then sure, why not? It raises a question, though - was that decision a blind shot, or they actually knew the difference beforehand? Because if they did, then it begs for interesting conclusions.

[the bigg]

This happens with most games.

Except that in games with an official SDK, the EULA doesn't forbid you from making and distributing mods.

 

I wonder if the Bioware EULA is even valid in what country again? Hungary?

Corporations don't need to be right, they just need to threaten you with a ten years long legal battle you can't sustain. BWL has enough fans to sustain its server, but not enough to finance lawyers. Also Bioware = EA now.

 

Anyway, it would have been more profitable for BWL if they asked sponsorship from Bioware and other companies related to the tools they use or games related to the genre and add a few adds on the page. The amount of money per monthly amount of clicks is quite good.

BWL has an abysmal amount of page views (even before the paywall), so ads wouldn't have been profitable.

 

Well, if releasing a professional quality mod yields higher profit then sure, why not? It raises a question, though - was that decision a blind shot, or they actually knew the difference beforehand? Because if they did, then it begs for interesting conclusions.

That happened a couple of years ago, so I guess it was either a blind decision (really smart if you have a family) or a gross lie/exaggeration (which Sikret isn't exactly above).

[Guest Guest]

They aren't stupad.Wasting money. Something mmust be out over there,question is: WHAT

[Endless Twilight]

Nothing worth paying for, that's for certain.

[Valiant]

Some of BWL mods are still available for public on DHDC, and will remain public, THAT is for sure

 

Cheers.

[the bigg]

Some of BWL mods are still available for public on DHDC, and will remain public, THAT is for sure

I actually respect you both as a modder and as a person (unlike certain other people), but I still need to pay the 5$ to access the forum for those mods

[Valiant]

Thanks, the bigg, but that´s something I can´t manipulate with. I´m just a normal BWL modder and can moderate only my own section. I also do not have the access to, say, IA or NEJ forums...

[Guest Baronius_himself]

Positive elitism is fine. It keeps away populists and the masses of naive idiots who follow them. Populists who pretend they finance their site out of good will and selflessness (e.g. SHS, to my knowledge, is mostly paid by Conrad & fellows, and people actually thank it to them, what naive fools), or populist jokers (PPG leadership). World is full of fools and idiots. I'm glad most of them now avoids BWL and rather believe their "masters" & avoid BWL. Talking of PPG jokers, PPG modlist is a great way of spreading malicious lies and propaganda against BWL to people, for instance:

Black Wyrm Lair: a site which requires paid membership to access most of its services beyond basic mod downloads.

 

...unless these qualify as "basic mod downloads":

i. Community Assets (lot of content, e.g. all BG2 and other game graphics, tons of custom things etc.)

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~chevar/community.html

ii. Portrait City: http://portraitcity.blackwyrmlair.net/

iii. Rabain Portrait Edits: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/rabgallery/

iv. The Dragon's Hoard (a lot of downloads with great speed): http://dragonshoard.blackwyrmlair.net/

v. Faerun Map (no link: type "faerun map" without these quotes to google and see what the FIRST match is)

vi. All official patches: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/patches.php

vii. IFIET: http://ifiet.blackwyrmlair.net/

viii. And several forums remained open (while the PPG Modlist lies that only basic downloads remained free)

 

We expect and require a donation of exactly $0.00 for the above things. We're talking of a myriad content, including graphics resources.

 

About irrational resource allocation: Fact we've been doing some cost optimization, but they're still high. Not just page hits, but much traffic too, many "undocumented" hits (not everything goes through DHDC php hitcounter, as simple directory-based static access hasn't been blocked yet either). So we need the donations, also for reliability, and as a common agreement in the Administration and Council of the site, we practised the right to restrict privileged forum access to site supporters. I don't open a discussion about other alternatives, we do know what we're doing. If you think we don't, simply avoid BWL or join "temugun" (or what was his name?) in the usual hater talks I usually never read and rather just hear about from BWL modders. (This is a general statement to everyone). So far, the new system works very well. Thanks to those who have supported BWL to cover its costs. For example, one of our new Gold Members just started saving two months ago and now he got the chance to donate to BWL and became a Gold Member. On a side note, the new system at least filters out those who pretended to be great friends until now but now became haters because they can't access their favourite things "for free" anymore. Jokers.

 

When I check other forums now & then, it's actually funny to see how some people "protest" against BWL's new system. They take the time to write down how unfair it is etc. Hahahaha!

[the bigg]

Who spends that much time writing a fake-baronius post (with links and whatnot) and then fails to remember the man never says "idiot"?

[Endless Twilight]

Positive elitism is fine. It keeps away populists and the masses of naive idiots who follow them. Populists who pretend they finance their site out of good will and selflessness (e.g. SHS, to my knowledge, is mostly paid by Conrad & fellows, and people actually thank it to them, what naive fools), or populist jokers (PPG leadership). World is full of fools and idiots. I'm glad most of them now avoids BWL and rather believe their "masters" & avoid BWL. Talking of PPG jokers, PPG modlist is a great way of spreading malicious lies and propaganda against BWL to people, for instance:

 

I think it says something about the kind of people BWL attracts that there are idiots like this guy posting in its support. The way I see it is simple: SHS, PPG, CoM, and G3 do not have any fees. BWL does. SHS in particular offers a lot of useful information, guides, and services for modders. Again, without any need for fees. BWL does charge fees for its services. Given that the modding community is completely voluntary, is it any surprise that most people stick with the open, welcoming atmosphere of the free sites and all the content they have to offer?

[Guest Bozgor]

Everybody chill the fuck down. There is nothing worth browsing at the BWL forums except IA forums.

 

They have maybe 4-5 Gold Members and maybe 8 premium members right now. (5x150)+(10*30)=1000$ roughly. Even less after paypal fees.

 

I doubt that number will increase even slightly in the near future. And after the mod gets leaked out and the whole IA forum copy/pasted, they will try to milk more money out of their current premium and gold members. But I honestly doubt it that those nerds will cough up more dough. "Every retard wakes up sooner or later."

 

In the meantime be patient, go play some Metro2033 or BC2. Or better yet get the fuck outta house, it's summer kids

[Ardanis]

I also do not have the access to, say, IA or NEJ forums...

A hosted modder can't access neighbour forums? I'm slightly confused then, I thought only regular members had to pay. It can't get anymore silly then.

 

it's summer

+30 C is already brainmeltingly painful to merely exist in, let alone go breakdancing in a street