Retail Sims

[Anouk]

The retail sims thread has just been locked http://forums.sims2community.com/showpost.php?p=649750&postcount=68

Heh. Even if Delphy's claim that "game content and materials" refers to only what was contained in the game, there's STILL a problem with that: Every single object ever made is an existing EA object that has been cloned and modified. The only thing that truly consists of completely unique code not at all derived from anything EA in origin is certain small hacks created from scratch-hexing and SimPE. Everything else is built on parts that were, at some point, extracted and cloned from an EA part.

Guys, I understand you don't like the giant paysites with huge amounts of pay items and only a few free. Because that IS close to ridiculous.

But why would you want to get a site that only has one or a few sets for a few dollars? Because that IS what EA/Maxis/whatever allows. And they obviously can't live of it.

Because you have to draw the line somewhere. And if they're really supporting just their bandwidth on it, then the money one of us paid to get that item in the first place covers that bandwidth already. Since the items are hosted at our expense, not theirs, we therefore can only alleviate their bandwidth costs in doing so.

Also, all paysites look the same to me anyway. If someone has acquired this item and claims to be a paysite, my criteria for not yanking it consists of the inability to acquire it for free. I don't actually *USE* any of this stuff. It all looks the same to me. As far as I'm concerned, a paysite is a paysite. Perhaps this is a somewhat hard-line view of the matter, but I was never known for doing things in moderation.

Oh, ok. So it's combo of 'hmm who cares' and 'we give em free bandwidth' and 'they get enough after selling a file'. Wich is true!

But you know, I often get more donations a month, and it all goes to hosting, picture hosting, or any site upgrade anyway. It's nice to save some money up for your site as well. Then you can be sure that you don't get any surprises and can always do an emergency payment on something or the other. Since you can't really know what a site's expenses really are, or their finances, it looks kinda unneeded to me. Especially since the sites I'm talking about, coudln't really be after the money to feed themselves or buy an extra pair of Levi's or something...

And if you have free bandwidth for the grabbing, could you host some of my hairs

[jesserocket]

But the difference is, you don't EXPECT people to donate. Your own donation system is the pure definition of donate, if people feel they want to give you their money, to keep your site going, then they can, they're purely doing it because they like your stuff, and want to keep it going. There's nothing there where you say 'You can ONLY have this IF you 'donate' the amount of money I dictate you to donate'

And you're incredibly open and honest about your donations, which do just go back into site maintinance. I think donation shouldn't be a bribe, like with many sites, but rather, an affirmation of a creator's skill, and the community's appreciation for that, by helping with site costs...

[ElmoLovesCyclops]

Just thought I would post a little something from Retail Sims that was posted awhile back:

Personal update:  I lost my job on June 15 which only added to some rather serious health issues (mental, not physical). I've had a lot of really bad events come at me all at once and considering the substantial mental (& physical) scars of a brutal childhood I discovered I had a limit to how much stress I could actually handle. I am in therapy and a small host of marvelously ineffective drugs, at least until my health insurance runs out. Doing this stuff keeps me from jumping off my 21st floor balcony or obsessing endlessly over every mistake I've every made in life, the death of every animal I've had (I had to put one of my cats down on the 14th of June, the day after my birthday), and every other bad event in my life. Oh yeah, I got engaged on June 21, 2006. Talk about a whirlwind. Anyways, the site should have quite a few updates for at least the next 3-4 weeks or until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to get another job (which causes a panic attack just thinking about it). At least I can pretend to be sane while I do this. *sigh* The bad news, for all of you, is that I may charge for some of the upcoming sets. I hate to do that but if it keeps me from having to leave the house for a job for a while I may have to resort to it. Of course that depends on my ability to figure out how to set that up. As you can tell I don't know a damn thing about web development so I wouldn't get too worried about having to pay for anything yet.

Make of it what you will. To me, it smacks a little of LyricLee's whole "feed my kids!" argument. :roll: Bad shit happens to people time and time again, but we're all just a little tired of hearing about why we have to give them our money.

Just out of curiosity how many of you have or have previously had a mental disorder?

[Anouk]

I did!!  :shock:  I was depressed because I failed a year of school. Was no fun at all... and it's much more common than people would think.
There's no shame in it, because there's not much you can do about it.

Shit does happen to alot of people, and some let it effect every single thing they do... but do know, that when you are in this kind of situation your judgement of how you behave and what you do is completely warped. It's not an excuse, but then you do know why some people make an ass of themselves or do weird stuff when they are in a situation like this.

But the difference is, you don't EXPECT people to donate. Your own donation system is the pure definition of donate, if people feel they want to give you their money, to keep your site going, then they can, they're purely doing it because they like your stuff, and want to keep it going. There's nothing there where you say 'You can ONLY have this IF you 'donate' the amount of money I dictate you to donate'

And you're incredibly open and honest about your donations, which do just go back into site maintinance. I think donation shouldn't be a bribe, like with many sites, but rather, an affirmation of a creator's skill, and the community's appreciation for that, by helping with site costs...

That's true, but in my opinion, having a few donation items is not that bad... as a downloader you still have the choice not to buy the item.
But with big paysites, where the amount of payitems is huuuuuge, there really is no point in going there if you don't want to pay... unless you like the frustration and the drooling at stuff you can't have, lol.

However I will still not have donation items, because what's on my site should be freely available to all the poor kiddies (who DO have 1000 dollar computer, playstation 1 2 and 3 and Xbox and the stupid Elmo doll )as well XD

[ElmoLovesCyclops]

I did!!  :shock:  I was depressed because I failed a year of school. Was no fun at all... and it's much more common than people would think.
There's no shame in it, because there's not much you can do about it.

Shit does happen to alot of people, and some let it effect every single thing they do... but do know, that when you are in this kind of situation your judgement of how you behave and what you do is completely warped. It's not an excuse, but then you do know why some people make an ass of themselves or do weird stuff when they are in a situation like this.

Nice to have someone who has some understanding of mental illnesses. Probably why you're not being an arse like some people.

[Pescado]

And if you have free bandwidth for the grabbing, could you host some of my hairs

I already told you where to get the unmetered bandwidth!

Just out of curiosity how many of you have or have previously had a mental disorder?

Eh, I have a better question? Who here is NORMAL? Who *DOESN'T* have a mental disorder? Show of hands? Anyone? Am I the only normal person here? Is it really a disorder when everyone has one? Maybe I'm insane because I'm not insane....

[Rovam]

Up until a couple of months ago, I'd have been in the "Sane Like Pescado" club. But then I failed a university course I'd paid over £1000 for, my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, and I was diagnosed with depression. Before that I'd had a pretty skeptical attitude towards depression/anxiety disorders, and I always wondered why people didn't just "snap out of it".

But now I see I should just have opened up a paysite to get Teh Intarweb to pay for my antidepressants!  

[Surelyfunke]

Elmolovecyclops, I did not post that to mock or make light of people who have mental illnesses. I was trying show that here we have another example of someone using their illnesses and/or personal issues *as an excuse* to charge for their content. It is also worth pointing out that there are people out there who have physical and psychological disabilities who also do not charge for their content. I do not see how having a crappy life (which many of us here can empathize with) justifies "needing" to charge for content. As a community of Sims fans we do not owe our fellow community members money for indulging in their hobby.

It sucks that I am telling myself that "this is another ploy for us to fork over the money," rather than saying, "I feel bad for this person who is having a really shitty time." But my experience with paysite owners and their manipulation tactics, coupled with being jaded with all the fake internet deaths in the Sims 2 Community, has brought me to this conclusion. I wish it weren't so, but unfortunately I am extremely cynical at this point.

[Pescado]

Up until a couple of months ago, I'd have been in the "Sane Like Pescado" club. But then I failed a university course I'd paid over £1000 for, my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, and I was diagnosed with depression. Before that I'd had a pretty skeptical attitude towards depression/anxiety disorders, and I always wondered why people didn't just "snap out of it".

Are you sure you're DEPRESSED, as opposed to simply UNHAPPY? It seems to me you have plenty to be just plain ORDINARY unhappy about. People aren't always supposed to be happy, you know, despite what people tell you. The problem with all these diagnoses is that they can pin anything on you. I personally fit the profiles of tons of mental illnesses, but there's one key difference: I'M NOT SUFFERING FROM INSANITY. I *LIKE* BEING THIS WAY! I don't want to be a zombie!

[Rovam]

Up until a couple of months ago, I'd have been in the "Sane Like Pescado" club. But then I failed a university course I'd paid over £1000 for, my grandma was diagnosed with cancer, and I was diagnosed with depression. Before that I'd had a pretty skeptical attitude towards depression/anxiety disorders, and I always wondered why people didn't just "snap out of it".

Are you sure you're DEPRESSED, as opposed to simply UNHAPPY? It seems to me you have plenty to be just plain ORDINARY unhappy about. People aren't always supposed to be happy, you know, despite what people tell you. The problem with all these diagnoses is that they can pin anything on you. I personally fit the profiles of tons of mental illnesses, but there's one key difference: I'M NOT SUFFERING FROM INSANITY. I *LIKE* BEING THIS WAY! I don't want to be a zombie!

You make more sense than my doctor does. I'm disturbed now. D:  And an old pirate grouchy zombie would be the awesomest thing ever. >_>

[jesserocket]

He does and it would!

[Anouk]

Simply unhappy is something very different from real depression... because a depression is feeling like you want to die, all the time, without a good reason, and even making your body suffer because you can't be arsed to even move around much. You know you want to snap out of it, but it never works. Trying to be rational with yourself hardly works. And even when you know that what you feel and think is not logical, you can't quit without help.
That is very frightening. There's something wrong with your mind and it's ruining your behaviour, feelings, joy, everyhting.

That's when you need to go for help. Depression CAN go away after some time, but without proper help you'll be at more risk of being depressed in the future, and more severely.

About the 'escuse' for the pay items and how that is too much info and not acceptable, well it is. But read this:

When I was depressed, I made large amounts of sims 2 stuff at that time, up untill the time that I spent 8 hours a day at the computer to get some hair right. When it's really not worth spending 8 hours on some hair (within one day), but you do it because then you don't have to think about what's wrong with the rest of your life and what you're supposed to be doing.
At the moment you're in it, it is not strange and even sick to you. You just want it done.

But now I'm healthy and look back, I think: What the HELL was I doing sitting on the pc for 8 hours straight!!! That's insane!

And I can also say, that my sims 2 stuff was an obsession and I found it overly important to get good feedback on it. So I'd post, then check the thread I posted a million times to see what people said about it!

I am glad that I'm over THAT stage and that the depression is gone, because it's really pathetic! But at the time I found it normal behaviour, or didn't think about it.

So maybe the people who use this kind of things as a reason to 'justify' pay content (wich doesn't really need to be justified in my opion, but anyway) really don't know what the heck they are saying, seriously. Or maybe it's all a fake, but in that case, screw them, they have no morals.
But I can't know in this situation, what is the real truth, because on the internet you can write anything, really.
So I can't judge.

[Pescado]

You make more sense than my doctor does.

Of course I make sense. I'm old! I'm old and I have a long beard. The bottom line is that people have this strange belief that if you are not happy, something is wrong with you. This is nonsense. Life isn't all happy things. Bad shit happens. People who are still happy are probably a little loopy in the head. Promptly going on "anti-depressants" whenever you're not happy is simply another form of drug habit, and does nothing to teach you how to cope with setbacks. It just makes you a happy and well-sedated zombie.

[Rovam]

You make more sense than my doctor does.

Of course I make sense. I'm old! I'm old and I have a long beard. The bottom line is that people have this strange belief that if you are not happy, something is wrong with you. This is nonsense. Life isn't all happy things. Bad shit happens. People who are still happy are probably a little loopy in the head. Promptly going on "anti-depressants" whenever you're not happy is simply another form of drug habit, and does nothing to teach you how to cope with setbacks. It just makes you a happy and well-sedated zombie.

Santa?!  

I feel the same way about anti-depressants, so I went off them after a week. I was way too scared of getting addicted to them or something, and didn't like the sense of forced calm they gave me. People then told me that I must WANT to be depressed.  :roll:  

Pescado > councelling! Psychiatrists must be destroyed!

[sickpuppy]

"Everything you think do and say is in the pill you took today"

Ah--what year was that, I can't remember...

People that are happy all the time make my ass twitch.