Posts from Motivation for modders. Auto-translated

A proposal to motivate modders for Heroes of Might and Magic V, but it can also be applied to other parts of the series.

The essence of the proposal:

A thread is created in the appropriate section:
requests for creating new mods

Any forum member can post a request for creating a specific mod in this thread. After that, he or other forum members voluntarily donate to motivate those who find time to create this mod; any amount can be donated, from 10 to 5000 rubles. Donations are made to a special account belonging to the portal administration.

The modder who creates the mod receives 80-90% of the total amount, while the remaining 10-20% goes to the website administration and covers current expenses: hosting costs, administrative expenses, bonuses for moderators, coordinators, clan leaders, prize funds, etc.

If two or more modders implement this idea simultaneously (which is unlikely, but possible), the amount is divided into 2-3 parts accordingly.
If no one manages to implement the planned project after a long time, the money is returned, but with a small deduction – 10%, for example.

This innovation will help motivate modders and generally increase the popularity of the game itself.
What do you think about creating a thread:
requests for new mods for Heroes of any version?

This proposal has already been approved by the Forum Creator; all that remains is to find a forum member from Russia whom we can trust with financial matters.

Note that there is a similar topic on the forum:
Mod Requests
/topic/9066/
Many forum members, including myself, have left their wishes regarding the creation of new mods in this thread.
However, there are many requests, but only 1% of them have been fulfilled. Why so few?

It simply takes time to create a mod, which most people don't have. Everyone is busy with work and a lot of everyday problems. Of course, it is possible to find time to create a mod, but for this, motivation is needed. Otherwise, people will not have either the time or the desire to do it.

Therefore, I proposed motivating modders and mapmakers not only with praise but also with money.

Donations are made to a special account belonging to the portal administration.

The main bottleneck is that no one will want to do this, I believe.
It would be better to use something like Patreon (or use Patreon itself). Whoever implements it gets everything. If they don't implement it or the implementation is not of high quality, they don't get anything.

However, there are many requests, but only 1% of them are fulfilled. Why so few?

This is actually normal (I doubt it's 1%, I think it's 5-10 percent). Many requests are physically impossible to implement, and others have a poor ratio of "development effort/audience reach."
Thank you for the idea.

Something like Patreon would be better (or using Patreon itself). Whoever implements it gets everything. If they don't implement it, or the implementation isn't high quality, they don't get anything.

Am I understanding correctly that this service can be used to safely accept payments?

Added after 23 hours and 21 minutes
I think that whoever accepts the funds can expect a bonus of 10-20% of the funds received. That would be fair.

Am I correct in understanding that this service can be used to safely accept payments?

Added after 23 hours and 21 minutes
I think that whoever accepts the funds can expect a bonus of 10-20% of the funds received. That would be fair.

I want to immediately put a BIG FAT PERIOD on this project, because any mod for Heroes cannot be done on a commercial basis! :smile27: Because for such actions, the copyright holder of ALL Heroes content will severely kick someone in the butt! I think it's clear who that copyright holder is! Therefore, publish such public offers somewhere else!

Am I correct in understanding that this service can be used to safely accept payments?

Patreon accounts are created by the authors themselves, so yes. The only possible risk is the political situation.

I want to immediately put a BIG FAT QUESTION MARK on this project, because any MOD for Heroes cannot be done on a commercial basis! Because for such actions, the copyright holder of ALL Heroes content will severely punish! I think it's clear who this copyright holder is! Therefore, publish such public offers somewhere else!

This is actually true. That is, following the principle of the elusive Joe, mod authors can organize something like this, perhaps... At their own risk, of course. But if Ubisoft cracks down, who knows what "lost profits" these guys will demand. It's better not to risk it.

I want to put a big emphasis on this project right away because any mod for Heroes cannot be done on a commercial basis!

Yes, I understand your position, but the issue of motivation still needs to be addressed. This is about voluntary donations in favor of the author of one or another mod. And that differs from commercial sales.

Because for such actions, the copyright holder of ALL content for Heroes will severely punish you! I think it's clear who this copyright holder is!

And so that this doesn't happen, I suggest sending a corresponding letter to Ubisoft, just as a precaution. I think there aren't people sitting there who are so stupid that they wouldn't understand that the motivation of modders and mapmakers in this form is not competition for Ubisoft, but rather: popularizing the Heroes Saga by increasing interest in the game itself.
You can use the information from these topics as a basis for the text:

/topic/14311/

/topic/14310/

+ I can also write a beautiful and correct letter to Ubisoft so that it would be more beneficial for them to allow this topic.

Hmm... The very idea of reaching out to Ubisoft itself isn't bad, but I have some doubts about whether they are at all interested in "popularizing" or even continuing the life of their project. After the last expansion was released, the game was abandoned so quickly, it was as if the development team had been kidnapped by aliens, and their patch 3.1 fixed, at best, only 10% of all existing bugs. But they could have at least opened up the game's resources (after a certain period) so that the fan Community could fix everything themselves. But, of course, they didn't do that. As far as everyone knows, the "source code" (which is access to everything, the ability to create ANY level of modification, bug fixes, any new features, AI) is owned by some programmer from abroad (someone who goes by the nickname Quantomas). But he has categorically refused to share this treasure for many years (back in 2011, when it was still possible to revive the game and make it a "classic of the genre"). He was the one who promised to do a lot and repeatedly hinted that this would require DONATIONS (apparently, he wasn't afraid of the wrath of the guys from Ubisoft). But, as I understand it, the lack of widespread interest in his project, and trust in him personally, did not have such a positive effect on his plan. Of course, he could still "somehow" pull off his plan, but no, and his lack of diligence led to the death of the fifth part of the game :smile16:.

You are right on many points; however, Ubisoft may return to the Heroes theme if sales of this series of games remain high in China. /topic/at/1129795/