Clarify the ToS on modding of games, specifically BeatOn for Beat Saber
Due to the new ToS being shown in the "Unknown Sources" section, and the implications of it being unclear, the very popular mod "BeatOn" for custom songs, sabers and platforms for Beat Saber was discontinued. Since Beat Saber and Custom Songs are a huge buying incentive for a lot of people interested in the Quest, a statement should be made whether this type of mod is considered illicit or is accepted by Oculus.
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41 comments
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Mr Dan Master commented
yall are soo dumb
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jaxsonwinstead
commented
This is old it's now bmbf not beat on
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Anonymous
commented
ROCK BAND WAS ANOTHER POPULAR AND AWESOME GAME - I WAS ADDICTED TO IT. i LOVED THE DRUMS AND BOUGHT ABOUT $500 WORTH OF SONGS ON DLC. WHY NOT USE DLC. OR SOMETHING?
99% of us purchased the Quest because the exciting part was we would be able to use custom songs. It's too late for me to return mine.You can't sell something to people and market it with a promise and then say "PSYCH" "just kidding"
You are looking for a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT!
IF SOMEONE STARTS ONE - LET ME KNOW - I'M IN! -
Dan Groppa
commented
Desired Content is still limited. PC Modding is what accelerated PC adoption by allowing dev exploration. CounterStrike, etc
My friends that play Beat Saber only play because they have access to songs the community made.
Now that FB owns the studio, they should strike a deal with Spotify. Users can play any sound based on their spotify account and FB allows a community to create the blocks around the songs.
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B Dumas
commented
First, a simple fact. I will always pay for anything Beat Saber puts out because they are the pioneers and their maps are inspired. But being new to the custom song arena (which incidently made me pay for the game a second time because I am also on psvr beat saber, and i totally dont mind) It is the most beautiful, constructive, healthy, artistic, complex-in-its-simplicity community evolution of the most brilliant video game idea ever. This is the game that makes you not care that you are exercising, and different people of different ages having access to songs they like is crucial. This is a revolution, please just let it happen, it will in no way hurt the sales of anything, it encourages older people to find new artists which they might pay for on a different platform, and is good for everyone, especially oculus, it's literally the whole reason I got one.
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Bill Bergovoy
commented
i understand the points of those that would argue that the artists should be paid.... clearly, anyone who works or creates should get paid...the question I have is, HOW MUCH. When the artist created the songs, (in this case), the anticipated how much they would like to earn for this song and for how much over all for a specific lifestyle. They try to estimate a lot of things, like inflation, economic changes, how many children, how much it will cost to send them to college, etc.
They arrive at a number, they factor in competition factors, like they can't charge more per album then other performers, I mean, not twice as much or three times as much.. it has to be kinda inline..
They figure how many times the songs might be sold online and downloaded by the masses. they might even figure about how much might be stolen/pirated...
but, I am guessing, NONE OF THEM FIGURED THAT SOME DAY, SOMEONE MIGHT INVENT A GAMING CONSOLE ABD CREATE A GAME THAT PEOPLE MIGHT WANT TO HEAR AND PLAY GAMES WITH.
All the costs / anticipated / real have been paid, and hopefully more then anticipated.
To keep charging 'current' rates for songs that are decades old or more is crazy.... the benefit for creating a good song is that people will keep buying it for year after year after year.
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Roland
commented
But this is basically pirating, we all know BeatOn was doing the wrong thing but people still used it.
The correct solution is for the developer to natively support custom songs in their game, so go email the developer to make that a priority. It really doesn't have anything to do with Oculus.
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TechMasterJoe
commented
I think a best option is for custom songs and for beat-on to tie to mp3's but to not include them simply post a link to the song on Amazon or what ever the custom map used and make beat-on show all maps that use the song md5 hash database or something for a backwards lookup and the custom songs.
If the beat-on dev wants to reach me my username at gmail i have built systems like this for tracking anime. JMM project.
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Anonymous
commented
great $500 brick on my desk now. only reason why i bought the quest was for custom songs. Without the custom songs might've as well just play on the PSVR which has way better tracking anyways. The DLC just doesn't cut it. There isn't enough song variety. Wish i could i return the thing now and go buy a switch instead.
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Ajedi32
commented
This is a bad idea. What are you expecting? For Oculus to come out and say "yes, piracy is ok"? Good luck getting their lawyers to ok *that* statement. Any sort of official acknowledgement from Oculus of this problem could only possibly serve to make things worse from a consumer perspective.
The status quo is much better, where yes, music piracy is still illegal, but minor infractions can fly under the radar as long as you don't draw too much attention to them (like this very request is trying to do).
Basically: under the current ToS mods are fine, but music piracy is not (and legally, it can't be). If you want to continue using mods which enable music piracy, the one thing you absolutely do *not* want is for Oculus to "clarify" their position on the matter.
To be clear: I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think mods which enable custom songs are illegal. Those are perfectly fine, and nothing in the current Oculus ToS suggests otherwise. Websites which exist to distribute copyrighted songs for free though, and mods which directly interface with those websites? Those are illegal, and nothing Oculus could possibly do will ever change that. (Fixing *that* problem would require an act of Congress.)
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Tony Nguyen
commented
my Oculus Quest keep frozen sometime, so i uninstall Beat Saber and retinstall, all my custom song gone, i still have return day for my quest, will return it morrow and return all the gameif there is no custom song for beat saber.
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Amanda Rogers
commented
Literally the entire reason i bought a Quest tonight was my excitement to play custom songs on my Quest. Ive been watching people play custom songs and i was so excited. But now i have a 500 dollar paperweight once i've finished the whole 20 songs you have natively on the system. This is ridiculous, Oculus. :(
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Scott
commented
The irony of this policy change is that I’m now refusing to update my copy of beat saber to the latest release because I don’t want to risk losing my mods. So, the new panic at the disco songs are the first official songs I won’t have purchased. And I’ll be unable to purchase any song packs released in the future. Are you sure that’s the outcome you were trying to promote by locking up your ecosystem?
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PojoYT
commented
Beat On needs to stay. It's only a matter of time before the game becomes unreplayable, the custom songs are the only thing giving the game more players and fun in general.
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Anonymous
commented
This is a very important issue. Oculus should be clear, and a huge portion of the community will be put off by losing the mods. They have stated that they want to find ways to keep people in the headset longer. Well cutting down your library in beat saber to a handful of songs absolutely does not support this agenda. I have several types of titles on the two quests I own, and almost invariably, when I put it on, it is for some beat saber time or a box vr workout. If we get some more rhythm games like power beats, synth rider, audica, pistol whipped, etc... that will help, but you can only repeat the same content so many times.
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Miguel commented
Si no puedo personalizar las canciones, dejare de usar beat saber. Personalmente no me gustan nada las canciones que vienen por defecto. Teniendo en cuenta que el 80% del tiempo lo pasamos mi mujer y yo jugando a este juego (imaginar la cantidad de tiempo que dejaremos de usar las gafas, una pena).
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ET3D
commented
I think that Oculus should clarify the use of sideloading in general.
At the very least Oculus should set up a clear method of dealing with infractions. Just saying that users may be hit with anything from a warning to a law enforcement action doesn't really tell users much. Users should know that they will get a warning first, what kind of response they are expected to make, how things can escalate, etc.
Sideloading is currently an important part of the Quest ecosystem. I think it would be foolish for Oculus to kill it, but it's fine to police it. If people know exactly what's right and what's wrong (including examples) and how Oculus really deals with infractions, that would be very helpful.
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thebloxer_ boy
commented
so? how about quest people (Cody Dell)
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Zach Baltzly
commented
Literally there is no way for Oculus to know if we own the licenses to the songs we play. How does Oculus plan to determine if we have the licenses are not? It would be unfair for me to be punished for using a mod with music I have the license to use. These vague blanket rules devalue the Oculus platform and actively deter users from investing in it. Poor move Facebook. You really should reconsider it.
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ABeck
commented
Since I don't like any of the songs on beat saber, and there are others like me, you should be very explicit on this. Beat saber is worthless if I can't put my own songs/maps on it. I think you should make a special refund policy for beat saber so if you buy it and can't stand the songs after say 6 weeks, you can get a refund. None of the add on paks are worth anything either.