Commissioning Question

[Dark Lunaris]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have a problem creating content for a commission fee?

Not actually charging for the files (after the commission is complete, the files are distributed freely and available to all who want them).

I mean, just charging for the labour it takes to create a 12+ hour all ages hair mesh with new alphas and textures specified for the person who commissioned it. (Or even a full sim with all custom content created by me..)

Just wondering because I wanted to maybe do some commission for people in the future, but wasn't sure about the idea.

I did requests in the past (and still do them at random) but when some things take LARGE amounts of my time, I feel like I'm actually being silly with my priorities without asking for some sort of compensation for my troubles. I love doing people favours for free. It makes me happy, and I do so when I can, but if I got commission once in a while, it'd be easier for me, especially when I don't exactly have a high income. >_<

I dunno. Just asking for an opinion.

[tngrspacecadet]

well, shall i give you a free legal opinion? SRSLY, i is a lawyer. but dont tell.

technically it's illegal to charge. the end user license agreement states that really clearly.

that said, if people ask you for a specific thing, why not ask for a favour back, that they can do for you? like a cooked dinner, or some work done around your home  

and to those people with websites who really want to make a living out of designing game content: why not get a job as a game developer or start a fresh original business designing new games. stealing copyrighted material from EA/Maxis.... is just not cool or creative.

[Marhis]

My opinion is that this would be against the EULA in the very moment you're asking for money in return for your work. In theory, any "price" of any kind (even not monetary) should qualifies as commercial.

Maybe the core question should be "I would make this <anything> only if I get <anything> in return". The 'only' part is that qualifies a task as commercial.

[Dark Lunaris]

Thanks. Just wondering.

I was thinking it was okay to charge for labour, not the files. But I guess the two cannot legally be separated right?

:/

It's okay, to be honest, I love creating content and getting wonderful comments from people I make happy with my creations SO much! Pay does not determine me making stuff. (I was hoping pay for labour would encourage me to make MORE stuff and get practice with my texture work..)

Ahaha, a kick in the butt to finish stuff for people faster basically. Asking for pay makes me feel guilty though... I used to do art commissions. I'm an animation graduate, so I SHOULD be working for a company right now, for concept design at least. But I have not done up a decent portfolio yet. >_<

But yea, I want to create a sims2 site at some point when I get more stuff done. All free of course... but I sew lazy.

[Lilyroseisapirate]

1. dont try to make a "commission" on something that you say is a hobby...if you dont want to do someone a favor for free, then dont do it all. yep, i know it takes 12+ hours to create, but you wanted to do it anyway, what else were you going to do with that time.
2. eula....nuff said, dont charge people for shit, a commission is the same as getting a fund for a product....a sale. commission is a pretty word that disguises the word sale.

[littlemisspirate]

Thanks. Just wondering.

I was thinking it was okay to charge for labour, not the files. But I guess the two cannot legally be separated right?

That's the excuse Birgit used at Juniper Sun when she tried to charge her friends for a project they were all working on together.

I actually consider it a little different if the content would then be freely available.  But the EULA doesn't make that distinction.  Besides, once you start accepting money, you're going to have the headache of making stuff you may not like, bitchy customers who want the item just so (which would be their right), and working on deadlines.  Plus you can't charge very much, even for 12+ hours of work.  You'd probably burn yourself out.

[Pescado]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have a problem creating content for a commission fee?

Not actually charging for the files (after the commission is complete, the files are distributed freely and available to all who want them).

I personally wouldn't see anything wrong with this, it'd be no different from, oh, say, buying a mesh from someone to stuff into a Sims file, which is then free. After all, if you want to get the item exactly as you want it, you're going to naturally have to bribe someone to do it for you somehow. After all, Linux is free to download, but people still get paid to work on it, install it on servers, and soforth.

[Anouk]

If you simply created the mesh, and let them make it usable for the game, there's nothing worng with it.

[Dark Lunaris]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have a problem creating content for a commission fee?

Not actually charging for the files (after the commission is complete, the files are distributed freely and available to all who want them).

I personally wouldn't see anything wrong with this, it'd be no different from, oh, say, buying a mesh from someone to stuff into a Sims file, which is then free. After all, if you want to get the item exactly as you want it, you're going to naturally have to bribe someone to do it for you somehow. After all, Linux is free to download, but people still get paid to work on it, install it on servers, and soforth.

Thank you very much for the input. I was never intending on charging for the files. Once finished, they'd be up for grabs for everyone! But your post above also made me think... it'd still be pointless. Because there's NO WAY I'd be able to put a price tag on a Sims commission like I could possibly do for an art commission. Sims actually take longer than artwork, because you have to do the artwork PLUS meshes AND Alphas, and all the testing and making sure your animations look good in game and WAH...

Doing an entire sim for a person with all my own custom content (which I handpaint the textures in photoshop and create and texture map highly customised meshes) would be days of work... and I couldn't charge nearly enough for that amount of work...  Min wage for 12 hours is $96 (canadian. And min wage right now in canada is $8 ). NO ONE WOULD PAY THAT. I'd have to hack the price to between 20-40 at most... and a full sim would actually take OVER 12 hours.... with requests, there is no deadline and no obligation. If I feel that I can help someone, I do it. But If something comes up, there's no money on the table for dissappointment if I cannot work for a few days.

More trouble than it's worth. Definately. It was a thought, but I thought that needed thinking to prove it's uselessness. :/

[IarePINJA]

Just work on the Sims 2 content for free! Every real fan does! As you said, the gratitude they give you makes you happy. Money can't make you truely happy. This is why the world has charities. People feel happy as they made an impact on other people's lives through charity work. Consider your work to be about the same, minus the impact of course, charity is second to NOTHING. Why not get a job first, if you can make a decent income, you could spend your weekends relaxing and designing some Sims 2 content. Just please, DON'T quit! I hate to see you go, as I respect every Sims 2 custom content designer, with the exceptions of paysite creators.

Lemme tell you a little story, cos I'm bored. I'm not sure if its true, but I'll go on. Mersenne primes is a number which is a power of two (two multiplied by itself) with 1 subtracted from it. When the inventor of Mersenne primes, Father Mersenne, was still alive, he declared 2^67 -1 as a Mersenne prime. (thats 2 times itself 67 times, or 1.47573953 * 10^20. The full number would be 147573953000000000000. Can you imagine after subtracting 1, anyone would bother actually figuring it out?) His word was treated as the truth until a mathematician, Dr. Cole, who spent, as quoted "5 years of sundays" working out the 2 numbers that multiplied to form 1.47573953 * 10^20 - 1. What this story is trying to say  is that you should consider only taking such a massive undertaking of juggling work and the Sims 2 custom content making over a long period of time. Look at Cole, and see the results of his hard work?

(PS. This was quoted from the book "Murderous Maths, Numbers the key to the Universe. I frankly doubt the story due to Dr. Cole's full name, Frank N Cole, bearing similarity to frank and cold, which is a good description on how he was depicted.)

[littlemisspirate]

More trouble than it's worth. Definately. It was a thought, but I thought that needed thinking to prove it's uselessness. :/

It wasn't a bad thought, either.  The only person I ever remember taking commissions is Sera - she took them for celebrity sims, but the commission was "exclusively" for the commissionee.  You can figure out what was going on there.   :roll:

But yeah.  It's just not going to be worth it.  Better to make stuff you'll actually enjoy working on, without the pressure and constraints of a bottom line, than create a new headache for yourself for a pittance.