Save the Sims Community Forum

[calalily]

Yes, but Sims 2 was made for sharing - and that's not being done freely either.  There are ways in which someone can stop the sharing.  

And as for the system they've set up - it should be good, and hopefully will be foolproof - but I'm not holding my breath.   Maybe all this extra time spent designing it is putting in the failsafes to make sure there's no selling.

And yes, I've watched some Spore videos - and know that Will Wright is interested in a community built game.  He's not interested in exclusivity, or any of the other crap that paysites do.

[BastDawn]

I'm too cynical for my own good.  I don't think EAxis will be able to shut the paysites out of Sims 3 or Spore just through programming.  After all, the Sims 2 was supposed to work almost the same way:  content was supposed to be both uploaded and downloaded from the game itself, without any need to search the web.  We all know how that worked out.  

How is Spore going to take content off of my computer if I use my firewall to refuse it access to the internet?  How is it going to prevent me from searching my game files until I find the item I just created so I can extract it manually and put it online on a personal website?  I hope they find a way to shut out Spore paysites -- and I hope the solution isn't to force me to let my game go online.  (I  don't want my game to download random crap it thinks I'll like!)

[Ry]

Maybe all this extra time spent designing it is putting in the failsafes to make sure there's no selling.

What kind of failsafes do you think they can make?
I'm lost on this subject...lol.
It seems to me that including the Upload to Sims2.com option should have been a *DING* for the paysites and exclusive forums. If they ask you to do it and share the files, how can there be arguement about whether or not they condone file-sharing? :?:
What other options are there in order to make 3 more sharing-minded? Either I'm too burnt or I just can't figure out a way on my own...lol
Help me Dr. Calalily!  :lol:

[SparklePlenty]

Maybe all this extra time spent designing it is putting in the failsafes to make sure there's no selling.

What kind of failsafes do you think they can make?
I'm lost on this subject...lol.
It seems to me that including the Upload to Sims2.com option should have been a *DING* for the paysites and exclusive forums. If they ask you to do it and share the files, how can there be arguement about whether or not they condone file-sharing? :?:
What other options are there in order to make 3 more sharing-minded? Either I'm too burnt or I just can't figure out a way on my own...lol
Help me Dr. Calalily!  :lol:

They could code the game so that no custom content works without passing through EA's hands someway before installing on your game.

[calalily]

Help me Dr. Calalily!  :lol:

If I knew that I would be a future doctor of computer design and graphics - not criminology  :lol:  But knowing criminal activity like I do - they always find a way around things.  And I found something curious this week (been fortifying the puter for the release of Bon Voyage - I'll be damned if I have any adware installed by EAxis). I found a tracking cookie on my PC - with the name Maxis in it - so what else they could install is beyond me.

I don't what the hell they're doing with Spore.  It looked ready in 2006 for fuck's sake. Why the hell is it's release a tease?

[Paden]

I prefer to be the one who decides what gets installed and when, so if a program tried to do that to me, I'd yank it out, uninstall and either snap the disk or write the maker one hell of a nasty letter for leaving a backdoor into my computer. MY computer, that I paid for. That kind of shit just leaves you open for a hack, no matter your firewall. If one can get in, others can find a way to exploit it and get in as well. I got hacked through ICQ back in '98 and from then on, I wouldn't and will not, ever have ICQ again. Bite me once and I'll slap you so hard your teeth launch down your throat... Not seen the ads for Spore, am thinking of checking them out... But Sims 3 sounds very interesting, very interesting indeed... I'd love to have a dummies way to make my own cc because as it is, I can't get my head around it...

[Zazazu]

There was a Spore video someone posted about recently (either here or MATY, I can't recall) that was over half an hour long. It's one that a lot of clips have been extracted from to GameSpot and the such. The whole video just gives it a lot more context when it comes to how custom content is created.

I personally was worried about the world-sharing. I don't want anyone else messing with my game. Typically, in simulators, I like creating the most balanced happy experience possible. This was true for SimCity, for Sims 1&2, and will be true for Sims3 & Spore. I avoid  games that include a strong pvp component. If I later decide to muck it all up for laughs, I want to muck it up my way.

Anyways, with world-sharing other people's worlds  populate your game universe. You can visit them, abduct things, bomb the poo out of them, perhaps even play them. But you only effect your copy of the world. I suspect it's similar with custom content. What remains to be seen is if you have complete control over what you download or are given suggested items/meshes/textures/races/whatchamacallits based on ratings kind of like Yahoo! Radio does. Honestly, I could see both happening but suspect it will be full control with the Sims3. The amazing thing is that Will Wright stated that world files are only about 56k in size.

Thing is, we (as a community, because I can learn to read specific coding but hacking/modding is beyond me) like to push the game into unintended avenues. We will do it with Spore and Sims3....how could we not? There still will be something out there that isn't included in the normal game parameters that feasibly could be charged for. TSR will find a way.

[calalily]

Half an hour long:

https://www.poptech.org/popcasts/PopCasts.aspx?viewcastid=33

One of the paysite supporters on s2c tried to use it as an indication that EA likes TSR.

To which I said:

One of the things he said about TSR was that "anybody can download" 5.03, and that the "quality of the majority of it was low" 5.11.

He later said that game developers take great cost to create content, and so the solution is to pass that cost off onto players - 10.56 - I don't think he was envisioning that paysites would be able to charge for content, so that EA would forgo charging more.

He also stated that "we want to be able to redistribute it (content) automatically" 17.20

Finally, he said this in 2006 - 0.41 - it wasn't until December 2006 that NeptuneSuzy suggested that TSR start withholding content - in the infamous "make all FA stuff pay screenshot".

[neriana]

Yeah, Exnem was one of them.  There's been a few.  The Civilization community had a couple pop up a while back, too, according to my in-law.  They were "kindly" showed the door.  

Someone attempted to charge for Civilization mods? That's hilarious. I would have loved to have seen that.

Any paysite jackasses who are reading this: put a year, at minimum, into one far-reaching mod that touches every part of the game, and works correctly. Then... I would still make fun of you for charging for it. You are a bunch of freaks.

Paysites may find some kind of out with Sims 3, but they are totally s.o.l. with Spore, and considering the community overlap... yeah, this is gonna be fun.

[Ry]

Calalily, for Halloween, if you dress up, you should buy some smarties candies and safety pin them all over your britches, cus you're Miss SMARTY-PANTS! :lol:

But yeah, they'd have to come up with something that doesn't put a bunch of crap directly into the game, though, because that's a horrible thought.

[calalily]

Calalily, for Halloween, if you dress up, you should buy some smarties candies and safety pin them all over your britches, cus you're Miss SMARTY-PANTS! :lol:

But yeah, they'd have to come up with something that doesn't put a bunch of crap directly into the game, though, because that's a horrible thought.

No Halloween in Aussie land.  

[Duckie]

No Halloween in Aussie land.  

No Halloween? NO HALLOWEEN? OMG! That's sheer blasphemy! *Falls over dead at thought of NO HALLOWEEN...*

[KingElizabethI]

Then how else do you get free candy off your neighbors?

[Hecubus]

No Halloween means...

....no riffling through your brother's bag for the Snickers and replacing them with those godawful Mary Jane's

.... no scary old guy at the house at the end of the road that your friends dare you to approach

... no Greenwich Village Halloween parade, full of amazing costumes, drag queens, freaks, goths, and other assorted weirdos (an event worth going to at least once!)

... no costumes you have to cover with your coat because your mother thinks it's too cold in just that sheet you turned into a ghost costume

.... no egging the principal's car

...no TPing the minister's trees

What the hell do you do for fun then, Cala?

[Paden]

If it involves toilet paper and koalas/kangaroos, I don't think I wanna know...