Hello,
Here is a full document on this situation with all evidence provide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bp9rVHX-N9uKTBjzbFcmjC6cblRKYSx9/view?usp=sharing
I have a question. I have seen Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord mods that are paywalling early access or just overall monetizing parts of their mods. I believe this is against TaleWorlds's EULA/TOS, but so many Bannerlord mods are doing it. The most popular of which being Realm of Thrones. Are Patreons/Afdian allowed to be used as a way of early access paywalling content?
The early-access/paywalled content is constantly updated with the base mod releases being every 4-6 months apart. This seems to incentivize or push people to sub to get content faster.
Realm of Thrones (Patreon): https://www.patreon.com/c/u22327201/posts
Realm of Thrones (Discord): https://discord.gg/MGUZVyhubF
I am a fellow modder in the community and I just wanted to know what is allowed in relation to these financial mediums. I say this as Nexus seems to not allow it and under Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord TOS/EULA you aren't even allowed to monetize the mods you make.
- TaleWorlds Mod Tools Terms (Sections 1.2, 2.2, and 3.1) explicitly mandate that modding tools and game-derived assets must be used free of charge and strictly for non-commercial purposes, expressly forbidding any direct or indirect commercial gain, benefit, or business purpose.
Realm Of Thrones via the Patreon has easily made at least 100k bare minimum off the mod. Me and another moderator averaged that at 2k patrons x $5 average that could easily be $10k/month. Carolina Warlord has claimed he has a couple thousand subscribers. This could easily be 100k in a year and who knows how much he has made already, but by accounting standards this is a material amount.
There is also the matter of the concerning behaviors exhibited by Carolina Warlord the creator of Realm Of Thrones. He has said xenophobic comments regarding the turkish as well as homophobic comments regarding his own son.
Is there any thing that can be done about this? Nexus can not really do anything as the Patreon is off the website, but this mod is clearly against TaleWorlds EULA and the behavior is not one that represents the Mount and Blade community either.
Update: For any of you still seeing this post. I want you to note that I responded to someone saying LOL and apparently that was my mask off moment. It wasn't. I am just tired, I have 50+ people responding saying all kinds of shit. Even crazier somehow the guy who claimed he would commit domestic violence to his kid if he was gay or straight up being xenophobic to turkish people is the victim. Me exposing these incredibly dubious actions is me trying to destroy the modding community. This is precisely why no other mods speak up about this due to the cult like adherence to this mod because the guy made a good thing. Carolina Warlord doesn't even know how to code and has essentially take the work of others culminating into this mod. He does rig models and work around with the modding tools, yet if you read the EULA/TOS you can't monetize that it is literally in the bylines.
I have instead been attacked directly because I will quote:
"Patreon for EA builds of big mods have been there since patreon was a thing - and without it we wouldn’t have great TC’s like ROT. Dudes trying to set modding back a decade because he doesn’t like the modder." u/traumatyz
This is a really sad way to view things that you think a single mod led by an individual who is clearly morally corrupt and further breaking the TOS/EULA of TaleWorlds holds such a massive grip on the modding community. Even more so you have to say I need to show my mod to others to prove my legitimacy? I find it really strange the glossing over of legitimate things in order to attack my character directly.
Furthermore this comment that has been heavily upvoted:
"Genuinely no way you’re upset over an optional donation for early access, so much so that you want the entire thing shutdown over it
So many entitled folks these days" u/Valuable-Drawing-915
If TaleWorlds decides to shut it down, is it my fault that they executed their rules? Why am I vilified for calling these things out. Furthermore, I have paid for that donation for multiple months. At least a year, I have no problem paying for it until I realized that is literally against the rules. However once again this is a personal attack meant to undercut my point. If we start monetizing mods before you know it every mod will have to be paid. You are literally using the tools of the game to make money when it is explicitly said you can't do that.
This is TaleWorld's EULA/TOS:
"3.1 You may use, reproduce, publish, perform, display and distribute any Mod(s) created and developed with Mod Tools but solely as part of the Game (not on a stand-alone basis) and only on a non-commercial basis. Any copying, sublicensing or distribution or making available your Mod(s) to third parties, directly or indirectly of for a direct or indirect commercial or strategic gain, benefit, advantage or other business purpose by or on behalf of you is forbidden."
I am not a machine that can relentlessly respond to people and no I will not provide my mod link. There are multiple bad actors here from Realm Of Thrones who are literally dying for a chance to harass me further. If I was clearly so in the wrong, then please explain why so many upvotes. I know that Carolina Warlord and his many staff have more than likely downvoted me. I do not care.
When this is an actual conversation in this reddit:
"Wait until someone decides locking mods behind mod for “early access” for 3 years is good idea (Kerbal space program and sims 4 cough cough)" u/ssd21345
"play a different mod then?" u/Dadecum
Clearly Dadecum doesn't care about actually making the modding community better. Go to 2K or any of the other modding communities overtaken by people demanding payments for stuff. I have nothing more to say. You can keep trying to say I am on my crusade and supporting a homophobic/xenophobic modder who believes he has made a better product than the original company. I personally won't back down from saying I find this stuff wrong and I understand now why no one really says anything when it is a quick push to personal attacks.