TSR Sharing your infomation!

[SoggyFox]

Would they really?  I think they would lose fewer than they lose with the securom business.

Seriously, how many of the paysite owners, in their greed, actually -buy- their games?

[daniyagami]

They can cut down on the amount of EP's they release, and instead release them in individual pieces in the EA store.

We never had "objects packs" in Sims 1. I was pretty much disappointed when I discovered that some things from the basic TS1 game like the pooltable were not available with the basic TS2 game and that I have to buy an expansion to get it (one of the reaons I got Uni).

EAxis certainly learnt a lot in these years. I remember when TMOG was first released the big worry about EA reaction. EA never planned that we could make objects in TS1, they expected that walls, floors and skins were the only customization. When we started to hack stuff to add new options, make animations and other advanced customizations they had an attack. I don´t know how many of you will remember the whole Edith drama? That´s why also the Exchange never were able to properly handle the custom content included in lots.
But them, for EA surprise, the custom content helped to sell and sell.

When the whole paysite problem started (due to internetz buzinezz problems at that time, it was pretty much sinking after a whole "we has internetz, we´ll be rich" wave) they decided to not take any position. That´s the true, they never really get any position. They "tolerate" paysites, they never made any clear statement about, they are too scared to really say "stop to sell our shitz cause our shitz is ours".

Now let me reveal something I avoided to talk about so far but I believe is the approppriated moment. Sherry asked me why there is no paysites in Brazil (well, not exactly, but this fits to what I have to say). Brazil is basically the number #1 or #2 (if the chinese are not the #1) in software piracy in the whole world. In TS1 time barely nobody bought the original game (I bought, all of them) and most gamers in Brazil are kids. When I went to talk to EA Brazil about several things (I work with games here and other media stuff) we talked a lot about piracy. I got some kind of "gentlemen agreement" with them that they will not endorse paysites in Brazil if we help them to lower/diminish the piracy (when I say "we" I include a company I was working with at that time that develops brazilian games, the case is so serious that brazilian games are not sold in brazilian territory, only to other countries because the companies afraid the piracy).
That´s why Brazil don´t have paysites. We shut them all off with brazilian EA support (and the valuable kids support, the kids here are awesome). It wasn´t an easy process, specially educate the kids that piracy of software is wrong. I was attacked to death in brazilian boards, as you can imagine.
In the end some of the older kids went to work as "maxoids" at EA Brazil, paysites don´t exist here and the piracy really lowered.
Brazilian EA site is quite different than other countries. There is a lot of custom content made by the kids posted there and lots of fan sites links. The still have a hard time with piracy but at least we are free of paysites.

I think is very possible that TS3 will be more restricted to custom content. I have no idea how much restrictions but based in all I´ve been reading, specially related to the game engine (that EA says they wrote from scratch) it sounds like very less customizable. I can be wrong, of course, but I always remember how Half Life was an open game and they closed the latest versions. Is not complicated to close a game, all you have to do is create a key code in C/VB to compress the files (pretty much like PGP keys).

I think EAxis wants moar money from the gamers. Free customization are a problem. Paysites are a problem. I won´t be surprised if they lock the game.

(aliensim, this was sweet of you to say, thank you)

[Paleoanth]

You could always open an account at Insane Journal and post them.  I don't think they'll care.  I doubt Journal Fen will either, but it's harder to get an account there, they usually have the place running on invitations only. 

Thanks for the suggestions and for the support! That rant was priceless. Don't be concerned, I will be reposting this stuff and new along with it. 

[SoggyFox]

That's the rub, isn't it.  EA is currently run by a greedy fuck in a greedy business [ as in, he's an order of magnetude worse].  After all, why open up a rather pricy CC store with utter crap that modders have to fix to make it worth using [ Gods, the hairs still hurt. ]

The only thing they are releasing info on, re: CC is the whole texture thing.  But...they never gave us more than that, really, anyway.  Homecrafter and Bodyshop were only supposed to be for recolours, and without something like Simpe, our recolours of clothing would be always worse than the EAxis originals, at least in image quality.

If I were in charge of something like the sims, I'd release the base game with a ton of basic items.  Full sets of matching furniture, and make liberal use of repository - curtains, couches, beds all pulling from a master texture, wooden items, the same, etc.  Its not hard, really.

I'd release tools for recolouring objects, sims clothing, making walls and floors.  I'd make everything recolourable.

And I'd make sure people knew that I wasn't going to tolerate this greedy crap.  I'd also go back to proper simsdays, where there was always some sort of good quality download, or something.  None of this paysite crap for the company either.

[Zazazu]

Jfade, nice how you completely evaded the fact that you posted in a thread where TSR was sharing peoples' private information and talking about illegal attacks on PMBD. That's what we were concerned about, not the stupid wiki. But I can't say I'm surprised by your response.

And Pescado, you've seen apeshit enough to know that was quite an exaggeration .

Quite the exaggeration, and probably contributed to Jfade's overreaction. Cart & cartload for Pescado. I'm torn between smacking Pescado (pointless) and chiding Jfade for taking anything he says as he says it.

I have no problem with Jfade other than the participation on the "thread".  I would love to know what got deleted.

Finally got an email from Live Journal.  Here it is:

Dear LiveJournal user paleoanth,

It has come to our attention that you have created your account for the sole purpose of harassing another person. As this is a serious violation of LiveJournal's Terms of Service, we have permanently suspended your account. Please be advised that repeated violations of the Terms of Service in this manner could lead to the permanent suspension of all of your LiveJournal accounts.

Regards,
Douglas
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team

Atwa strikes! Who else would care?

Didn't you post on your normal account that you've been using for months at least? I call bullshit.

[neriana]

Seriously, I love you Cala.  I was racking my brain to figure out when anyone said anything about jfade being a horrible person.

Is it just me, or are people from TSR almost always deluded about how we feel about them?  Remember one of Atwa's friends who was all angry about how "badly" we'd treated Aikea Guinea and Geldyh when they went free?    

Notice that if there's a slightest hint of disagreement amongst themselves (the Dr. Pixel thing), they go crazy. Apparently over there, if someone isn't constantly hugging you and telling you how omg perfect you are, they're your enemy. It's nauseating.

[Light_Angel]

Would they really?  I think they would lose fewer than they lose with the securom business.

Seriously, how many of the paysite owners, in their greed, actually -buy- their games?

   Now that you bring that last part up, I have to wonder how many as well.  

It's too true that they screwed over a lot of people with SecuRom and have already alienated a vast amount of people due to their ignorance over the issue.  But since they're in denial that SecuRom isn't doing people that much harm and is the "lesser evil", I still say they're too scared to do take a firm position in it now, even with the smaller amount of people involved.  They just don't want to loose their "sheep" that seemingly have more money than others.  Instead, they take another route around the whole paysite v. free site issue and start selling their own content, sending some mixed signals to the consumer base once again.  On one hand, some people believe that the bold move EA pulled in making the Sims 2 Store was a sign that they support what paysites are doing and like the idea so much that they had to try it out for themselves.  On the other hand, some could see it as EA deciding that they're sick of seeing paysites steal their profits and want to send a sign of what's to come in the future of the Sims franchise concerning distribution of custom content.  Both sides can't really tell for sure what the higher-ups at EA are thinking but we all know the greater view of it.  Over all, like you and dani said above, pure greed in the works on either version that you look at.  No matter what the case, they just wantz our moniez.  

Meh, that's just part of how I see it.  I used to wish they'd give everyone a clear signal on where they stand, but now days I don't really care as much... they've screwed up enough for me to stop buying anything from them, so whatever happens from here on out concerning their bad business sense isn't going to draw one bit of sympathy from me.


As for Paleo's PMs:  I caught those last night, and I'm glad I read them when I did.  It wasn't even two minutes later after I closed out the browser that everything was gone.  Sucks about your LJ being suspended that quickly, though I'm glad you'll get around to reposting the info.  It's a little awkward seeing how obsessive you-know-who was about this place, and how low she was willing to stoop just to try and make others just as miserable as she is.  Sure signs of what happens when a game goes far beyond the borders of imagination and reality...    

[ooglafina]

I think EA's motivation has always been money. I don't think they saw the abundance of paysites as encroaching on their rights or anything, but on their wallets. I forgot about that stupid EA store, which is just a company version of the paysite setup. They have backed themselves into a corner because they don't want paysites, but they can't do anything against it outright. I think they are going to nip CC in the bud in some ways in TS3, so that they won't have to deal with it again. It's easier to stamp it out if it isn't really possible in the first place.

I'm in an Archaeology of Civilization class and I suppose I tried to relate it to the whole Paysites have power issue. I think the very act of taking money for CC implies some kind of superiority, but i't only implied and not actual. And the fact that EA does nothing furthers this dillusion. I hope that made some sense to someone.

[Darqstar]

And as for the "I'm so hurt, I can't speak" comments. People say that as a way of deflecting blame. It's a way of closing down logical arguement. You don't accuse someone who's crying right?

 

Not to derail the thread, but you're right, people rarely argue with someone who's crying and I hate that.  I'm one of those people who cries very easily, I always have been.  I don't cry at physical pain, but I cry when I'm frustrated and confrontation frustrates the hell out of me.  And offline I hate it.  I feel like I'm taking advantage of people, because we get into it and I start crying.  It's not right, and I feel like I've gotten special treatment or "won" arguments on it. 

I know other people with the same issues and we all pretty much say the same thing.   Thus, when I run into someone on the net who talks about their tears in order to win an argument or to get away with poor behaivor,  I rarely believe it.  One of the biggest advantages of the net to me is that no one can see my tears.

That rant was priceless.

I'm just sick of it.  Until this whole thread came to light, I'll be honest, I did think Anita got picked on mercilessly.  I knew she brought it down on her own shoulders, but it did seem at times that she was being ganged up on by the mean 'ole Pirate bullies.  That thread has changed my mind.  She has the nerve to chortle over the sharing of private information and cackle over the idea of hacking paysites and getting other sites shut down, yet thinks that posting any information about her is wrong?  Talk about double standard. 

  Do you know who she reminds me of?  Annie from the book Misery.  (Stephen King.  Not the movie, although that was pretty good, but the book.)  She even looks a bit like Annie was described as looking. 

If I were in charge of something like the sims, I'd release the base game with a ton of basic items.  Full sets of matching furniture, and make liberal use of repository - curtains, couches, beds all pulling from a master texture, wooden items, the same, etc.  Its not hard, really.

 

Isn't that sorta like they're planning for The Sims 3 From what I've read/heard/seen, you can use the same texture for everything.  In one preview they show a room where al the furniture uses the same texture, even the clothing the Sims are wearing. 

I've been wondering what type of need will there be for people like me, who make walls/floors/ and do recolors.  Meshers will still be needed, because most of the Maxis meshes are unrealistic or rather ugly.  (just in general shape)

But, I can't see EA/Maxis wanting to stop CC.  They know that CC is what helped make Sims so hugely popular, long after interest in it should have died out.  How many people do you know that don't even play the game anymore, but buy every expansion pack, just so they can manipulate the items and make new items for the game?   Custom content helps keep the game fresh and interesting and it also helps each player to individualize their game so it really does become theirs.   

The only thing I wonder about with EA/Maxis is why they never could release a tool that made recoloring objects easier.  They said they were going to do that for Sims2, then backed out on that.  If it wasn't for SimPE, a third party program, I don't think Sims 2 would be nearly the game it is today.  Sims 2 has a lot more custom content creators than Sims 1 did.  If Maxis were smart, they'd include easy to use tools to make custom content right from the get-go. 

[neriana]

Atwat said, "Mostly I just skim through the garbage to find out other stuff that can be of use.."

First of all, two periods isn't even an ellipse. Idiot.

Second, I wonder what she thinks would "be of use". Does she mean in figuring out peoples' personal details so she can spread them around? Or does she mean more information on people at TSR so she can blackmail them? I'm quite curious about this.

[daniyagami]

I'm just sick of it.  Until this whole thread came to light, I'll be honest, I did think Anita got picked on mercilessly

To be honest, I think she is faking. I think she uses the whole "emotional drama" to manipulate everyone.
You know, she remind me too much my grandmother. My grandma was master in manipulation with the "poor me" speech and a lot of crying.

[HugeLunatic]

If I were in charge of something like the sims, I'd release the base game with a ton of basic items.  Full sets of matching furniture, and make liberal use of repository - curtains, couches, beds all pulling from a master texture, wooden items, the same, etc.  Its not hard, really.

Just think if EA took advantage of the repository and how much could be saved in pc resources!  Matching sets that only required one texture.  Actually, think of the novel idea of matching sets, and furniture from this century [/sarcasm]

I signed up at the EA store, being on a Mac there securom doesn't worry me, and chose items with my free points to dl.  When I get to the point of trying to dl, it won't let me.  The assholes aren't going to bother supporting my OS, so I went to look for someone to share them.  And instead of the free 6 items, I got all of it.

[Tabby]

To be honest, I think she is faking. I think she uses the whole "emotional drama" to manipulate everyone.
You know, she remind me too much my grandmother. My grandma was master in manipulation with the "poor me" speech and a lot of crying.

 My mother is the same way. She can make ANYTHING about her, and how bad she has it. People like that should be shot to the moon in a rocket. Yes Atwat, I am indeed saying you should be shot to the moon in a rocket ship. You can go ahead and call into work now, hopefully the poor people you are supposed to be taking care of will be better of because of it.
 

[SoggyFox]

I'd rather send them into the sun, the moon is too cool for the likes of her.

[HugeLunatic]

Can we shoot her to Venus instead?  As the surface of Venus is 460 degrees Celsius.

A human standing on the surface of Venus would be simultaneously sizzled by the heat, asphyxiated by carbon dioxide, crushed by the density of the planet's atmospheric cloak and scorched by hydrochloric-acid vapors.