I had a friend who played on the Sims MMO and said it was awful. People couldn't even talk or socialize they had to "work" and maintain their homes. If they'd made it like the game (except with the ability to talk to others on line) it might have been fun. But yeah, I can understand what you say about the "game design". Bioware has allowed people to mod the heck out of NWN. It is still a fun game for me.

Blizzard has always cared about its customer base unlike EA. When Diablo II came out they apologized profusely to the Mac gaming community because their port was several months behind. (And yes, their disks used to be ac/dc meaning it worked on both a Mac and a Windows machine) And Blizzard knows how to keep their customers happy. EA has a lot to learn about customer service and customer retention. If I  had the extra money, I might seriously consider playing WoW.

If EA was smart, they'd enforce their own EULA instead of relying on us (the customers) to do it.

Agreed Soggy. I wouldn't send my kid to the mess they call public schools now days. And I majored in Early Childhood Education. Where I live all they are concerned about teaching the kids is how to pass the SOL's (Standards of Learning). That isn't teaching that's memorizing crap. I call them the Shit out of Luck. Poor children don't know what the world is really like.

Agreed. Games like "Everquest" and "Asheron's Call" all have monthly fees. I play Neverwinter Nights 1 online and I only had to pay for the game itself. Bioware runs the server we use to log in for free.

There was another game I can't recall the name of that was from Korea (I think) that people paid really money to buy "gold" in the game. The game itself was downloadable for free. It was all the rage a few years ago in the Far East.


I would think that is true. And I know places like 'Gamespot' have user written online guides or walkthroughs. But they do not charge for them.

Thankfully Bioware has never charged for second party mods for Neverwinter Nights. They actually host them on their website. They do have modules they made that you can buy, but they were made by Bioware. EA would never be that helpful to the Sims Community.

Thank you Blue Soup. I will be writing my own letter to add to yours. Thank you for the address as well.

Oooo! I love the look and feel of the 'hood. Will play with it definitely.

I told my husband I didn't really want a fur coat as all I'd do is pet it. So, I have three furry, purry fur coats all very much alive and wonderful and warm. They are my three cats.

Everyone forgets this small thing called "Prohibition" in the 1920's here in the US. It didn't work then and it's not working now. The government (both Federal and State) spend millions in dollars to try and prevent drug trafficking. That money could be better spent else where. I think they ought to legalized drugs, advise rehab for those are harder substances and tax the heck out of it like they do cigarettes and alcohol. It would cut out all the middle men, the pushers and the drug lords. And yes, hemp can be used for many things and it is a renewable resource.

Just to add my .02 cents on BBB, perhaps the friend had stood by him many times in the past. Sometimes people can only stand so much and then they finally had it. Scotty said as much when he posted about banning BBB. Friendship is a two way street and yes, sometimes people on both sides act like jackasses and they make up and go on. But if one friend is always a jackass and never seems to change, then it is time to move on for your own sanity and maybe to stop being a crutch for the jackass in question. Maybe then the friend will wake up as I hope BBB has and realize what he destroyed. What BBB said about cancer (not just colon cancer) was immature and uninformed. If he suffers from a terminal illness, I pray his last days will be filled with peace and that he not know the pain that my husband's grandmother suffered the last month or so of her life as she died from liver cancer.

As for the items from the Exchange store, I wish I could be able to download them, but they don't download on a regular Mac like mine. I don't have an Intel Mac. And Maxis was nice and used to share the free items from the site with Aspyr to recode. EA sure is a bunch of greedy, non caring people.

It was Maxis during Sims 1, they had a costume contest and the winners were added to the game. You could download them if you wanted to, but Aspyr actually ported them and put them in the next expansion of the game (can't remember which one it was so long ago).

Thank you Scotty for what you said in your post on GSC and here. I have to admit those words about people getting cancer or any terminal illness really hurt. Not just me personally, but for others whom I know who suffer with all kinds of illnesses.

I know it is hard to defend a friend when they do something that is over the line. I myself have had to do that recently too in another online community. But again I thank you.

And you know what's really funny? I remember when BV came out and Pes posted the anti redundancy fix on MATY, EA was officially sending people there to fix the game! Before they came out with a patch. Now we can't even mention it because it's forbidden. EA is really stupid.

If I remember correctly at the time one of them came back and posted under her regular BBS sign on. She had a lot of RL things going on and did not want to deal with the shit that was being stirred up with Drea's announcement. They didn't agree with all the "you mentioned InSim six months ago, now you will be banned for one week" stuff. But to be honest, I don't think they have replaced any of the moderator positions. I mainly read the Mac boards and they hardly ever post there.

Agreed Soggy. And when they started this whole mess of not mentioning certain sites, many of the moderators quit at the BBS. I've seen very little from any of the Maxoids except Drea.