Not sure what to think of this

Dutchygamer · Posted: Thu Jan 02, 2014 5:56 pm Post subject: Not sure what to think of this

Got this email this morning, and I'm not 100% sure what to think of it:

Yldrania wrote:

Hi Dutchygamer,

Mod

--------------------
Hello,

I have recently come across the mod you are developing: Frontline Chaos. Your work on the mod impressed me a lot. Concerning this mod, I would like to propose an offer to you. The offer comes from the company I work for: Ex Unitae Vires. We are a very new and upcoming company, but have already managed to gather a couple of good people, and have big plans for the future. As you can see in the references below, we have already started working on it - and we are working day and night to improve the company and increase the progress we make. For us, it would now be very important to find more competent people who are interested in a company like ours and are willing to join, and in the future work for us (obviously paid).

Before I continue to tell you stuff about offer, let me give you some references about the company to ensure we are actually serious:
1.1 - Ex Unitae Vires Homepage: Exunitaevires.com
1.2 - Ex Unitae Vires YouTube: Youtube.com
1.3 - Ex Unitae Vires Teamspeak3: Teamspeak.com
1.4 - Ex Unitae Vires Forums: Exunitaevires.com
1.5 - Ex Unitae Vires Warband Clan: Forums.taleworlds.com
1.6 - Ex Unitae Vires on ModDB: Moddb.com

Now, I repeat myself, we are very new, and haven't really been able to manage that much yet, but we are definetely on a good path. For us it is very important to keep progress coming, and to keep improving ourselves and our community. Our goal is to be able to make a living out of whatever we love to do and can do best. Meaning, we would like to make it possible for game developers to be employed at our company, for let's players to be able to make a living from their let's plays on our channel, and for anyone else working with us in any other way, to make their passion their job.

I would like to offer you to publish your mod within the company. That would include the following things:
- Moving your mod under the company "Ex Unitae Vires" on ModDB. You remain the "boss" within this project, but will receive the full support, task- and money wise, from our community.
- Registering on our forums as a developer. You are allowed to use our forums for your mod, and will receive the proper rights and the required amount of boards.
- Using our teamspeak as a developer. You are allowed to use our teamspeak for your mod, and will receive the proper rights and the required amount of channels.

In return for that, we will provide the forums and ts above, and also the following things:
- Free homepage URLs and databases required for your projects. (You would be able to choose the URL you want in front of the "exunitaevires.com"))
- Support with future projects, software, money, and task wise.
- A large community capable of offering constructive ideas for your mod and future projects.
- A competent team of developers willing to give you any support they can.
- A YouTube channel you can be given the login info to, where you could publish your mod's trailer and other stuff about it, with a high chance of people seeing it and getting to it - especially once our YouTube community really gets started.
- Our company promoting your mod everywhere we can, and getting many new people to take a look at it and possibly track and download it.

Moreover, we are (as said before) aiming to make our hobby our job. If you would literally work with us, you have a good chance of becoming a member of our permanent development team, and will be able to make money with this in the future. Age, graduation, gender, nationality, religion, etc. does not matter to us. We will have enough proof of your passion, and skill can be developed.

It might also occur that some of our members donate to us for your project. For TheDuelMod we have already received a total of 160€. If you work with us, the money given for your project will be sent to you, as the project leader.

I think I am pretty much through the basics now, if you have any more questions please let me know. I know that this was a lot of text, but I wish to explain my aim right away. If you are interested, or if you have any questions, doubts, or anything I can reply to, please let me know.

Thank you so much for reading this,
Yldrania

Initially I thought it was a scam, and for fun decided to look at the sites/pages he mentions. Found out that they do exist.
Now my thoughts are: first of all, has anyone got a related email about his/her mod? Second: why my mod? It's not that spectacular, and there are hundreds of mods out there that are better then mine.

So, what do you guys think? Scam, or actual honest proposition from this guy/this company? I'm leaning towards the former, but I'm not sure Confused

Holy_Master · Commander **Joined**: 21 Jul 2004 **Location**: Thailand

what you think you will lost from make contract with them? it not maybe you can try and let see if they can give you money for real. :p

if some one tell me that he can pay me to finish ROS i'll not heritage to accept it since what ever how good my mod is it still can't sell and mod resource like model texture still with mine.

blubb · General **Joined**: 31 Jul 2005

read everything they send your way very, very carefully.

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OmegaBolt · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:00 pm Post subject:

Honestly, what have you got to lose? It doesn't SOUND like they could scam you out of anything at this stage. Don't miss an opportunity by being too careful early on, just, as blubb said, read things thoroughly and make sure you understand it.

Mig Eater · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:30 pm Post subject:

If you take away the money part it just looks like a hosting service like Revora/PPM trying to grab new ppl.

There income seams to be based on donations that are then split between the hosted projects which I doubt will go very far.

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Aro · Alcohol Fueled **Joined**: 10 Sep 2006

I got something similar a while ago. A company contacted me and told me that if I removed all downloads to Twisted Insurrection on all websites and made the download exclusive to their page, they would pay me every time somebody buys premium membership. I would have considered saying yes if anybody in the ztyping world was stupid enough to pay for premium membership on a download site... -.-

Dutchygamer · Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:00 pm Post subject:

Still, I don't understand why my mod. Because of the original storyline? Hell, I prefer to keep that to myself as I have some plans for that (if I can find some time for it).

Dutchygamer · Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 3:12 pm Post subject:

Alright, asked him why my mod was so interesting to them, and basically he/they found my mod interesting for the storyline (as I suspected), the fact that I lead the mod (apparently all their other member are also mod leaders), and that my work for other mods (I guess TI mostly) is interesting.

I'll see what I do, but I don't want to pinned to do stuff for my mod, as my interest for it comes and goes depending on how I feel and if I see something inspiring. That, and I'm more working on the background/universe self now instead of the actual mod.

Banshee · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 3:06 pm Post subject:

Mig Eater wrote:

If you take away the money part it just looks like a hosting service like Revora/PPM trying to grab new ppl.

There income seams to be based on donations that are then split between the hosted projects which I doubt will go very far.

I think Miggy has said it all.

The only addition here is that their site doesn't seem to be popular at all at the moment. It's not even close to PPM or Revora. The forums has 67 members and most activity lies on spam. Their hosted mods barely have replies in their topics.

Anyway, speaking from PPM's side, I know PPM won't pay you a cent, directly. But it can be a good opportunity to promote your work for bigger companies (not this one, which seems to be really small and has no sign of revenue outside donations) to hire you as a game developper in the future.

Dutchygamer · Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 6:24 pm Post subject:

Banshee wrote:

Mig Eater wrote:

If you take away the money part it just looks like a hosting service like Revora/PPM trying to grab new ppl.

There income seams to be based on donations that are then split between the hosted projects which I doubt will go very far.

I think Miggy has said it all.

The only addition here is that their site doesn't seem to be popular at all at the moment. It's not even close to PPM or Revora. The forums has 67 members and most activity lies on spam. Their hosted mods barely have replies in their topics.

Anyway, speaking from PPM's side, I know PPM won't pay you a cent, directly. But it can be a good opportunity to promote your work for bigger companies (not this one, which seems to be really small and has no sign of revenue outside donations) to hire you as a game developper in the future.

Hmm. I do have to admit that I may be interested to do something with the storyline/universe I'm creating now in the future. Hell, if it continues the way it goes now the mod may even become the side project instead of the storyline/universe.
But the fact is that my interest for either the storyline or the mod comes and goes, and I don't want to be pinned to keep producing stuff. I still want this project to stay a hobby, and not become a second job. That, and I'm just very cautious with these kind of offers.

Hecthor Doomhammer · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:40 pm Post subject:

They come to you, so you should hold some aces in your hands given you accept this offer. You should make some demands regarding a contract and if your demands aren't met, you don't sign it.
just make sure you make big bucks out of this, without having to do too much :p

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Banshee · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 3:08 pm Post subject:

Honestly, he won't do it. This network (I don't even consider it a company) is a PPM or Revora that offers a bit of money, but it has zero popularity. Considering its progress, I doubt there will be any money at all.

Dutchygamer · Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:41 pm Post subject:

Frankly, I don't care about the money. Hell, that is the thing that makes me doubtful about this.
Also, note they say that they now rely on random donations instead of a stable source of income. And I may get a place in their development team, which may in the future earn a salary. Lots of mays and chances. I don't even know what kind of game development. They seem to focus on Mount&Blade Warband and Guild Wars 2, two games I have never played (and most likely won't as they are not interesting to me). I'm also a bit doubtful as I expected that all projects they have would be special or unique in some way, but one of the mods is a thirtheen-in-a-dozen Generals mod (not to do low about other mods, but it's really not unique as far as I can see).
So yes, it may be a way to get some attention for my mod, and it may have some perks (hosting, site, possible cash), but I still wonder if it's worth the effort. I'm still working out the part they want, the story, and I'm not fond of already 'selling out'. I also doubt they would allow me to keep the forums here as they want everything under their site/company.