Y'know... free initiatives -already- continue to keep the community creative - it's the paysites trying to bribe and buy out people that's causing the biggest problems. I think you're either missing the point entirely, or deliberately fishing here.

Seriously. If you're trying to convince paysites to improve their policies, preaching to the people who think they deserve to be disemboweled and roasted over their own exclusivity contracts is not an efficient way to go about it. If you're trying to convince people that maybe if they leave the paysites alone, they'll learn something, I think there are a number of counterarguments to that. If you're trying to tell people that maybe if they stop sharing their files, paysites will give money to free sites, I'm going to have to point and laugh at you. A lot.

Myspace is about whoring. Pure and simple. Groups and businesses and bands use it to attract sheeple, and proceed to advertise on each others' myspaces through the comments page in order to try to get the attention of other sheeple. It's actually quite effective as a promotional tool, if you know how to use it.

Of course, if you use it to promote yourself and you don't have anything particularly worth promoting, you're setting yourself up to deal with the worst set of asshats since Livejournal.

So it goes. Anyhow, it -could- be useful... but Myspace has been deleting a lot of accounts lately, and there's a fair chance that a dedicated paysite affiliate could start up a series of complaints to Myspace to get it pulled:
http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Help/Pages/HelpCenter.aspx?Category=3&Question=31

under the 'we have the copy-right and these people are E-VIL!' clause, like how they try to get people's Internet access and web servers cancelled at times.

Heck, if -I- was one of the artists and had the talent to back it up and get into an FA spot, I'd make some things, put them up on TSR, then release the same things on every goddamn free site I could find simultaneously. What're they gonna do, sue me?

Better, if someone could convince a critical mass of the FAs to do that... could they possibly try to cease-and-desist every free site out there?

And this, alia, is why we can't ban everyone under the age of 18. How do we tell them apart from the forum posters who are just acting fifteen because it's fun?

<long crazy rant>
Well, it would be nice if people didn't occasionally come to the point where they realize that they can get away with selling things they make to people for far more than they're worth, whether because they feel they need the money, or need to recoup on that $250+ in cash given to EA for the Sims games, or because the flashing blinking site of death they've made is now taking up too much space for Geocities.

The problem is, the idea of 'wait six months and it'll be free' has been tried by The Sims Resource. Their original business model promised that 3% of the site content would be free at any given time, and the free 3% would rotate on a weekly basis. So, in theory, in 34 weeks, you could get everything! Right?

Wrong. As many people have noted, the 'rotation' was erratic, poorly managed, and often would unlock items without required parts. Furthermore, the only thing this really caused was the "Bandwidth Bitchslap"; when a smart user DID get in, they'd immediately download EVERY object, regardless of quality, so that their investment wouldn't go to waste. Imagine a few dozen users downloading the entire site on the same day.

Actually, you don't have to imagine. Prior to TSR's declaration that they were making everything but their FA content free-access, they had a period where 100,000 items (or something like that) were free at the same time. The entire site bogged heavily. Why? I'd guess because people made mad runs to grab as much of this content as they could before the ivory tower doors slammed closed again.  I'm willing to bet that in the first week or two after their 'everything but the FA is free' announcement, another massive spike occurred as users rushed to grab it under the assumption that TSR's limited generosity wasn't likely to last long.

I think that as a general rule, this scheme HAS been tried. And failed. People won't make an object free while selling it is still incurring revenue, and some people won't pay for an object ever if they can get the same or a similar object for free.

As a side note, I think that if people have to make a business out of Simming, they should be receiving a fair share of the profits. I've never heard of a Sim site that went like this:

"Okay, we earned $555 from our subscribers, and $320 from our advertisements. Each of our creators gets a share of whatever money doesn't go towards keeping the site running."

Instead, it's shadow conspiracies, behind-the-scenes wrangling, and currying favor. And that shit just ain't kosher, and puts everyone off the concept. You show me a pay site that's actually worth more money than the next Sims expansion pack, though, and I'll show you a group of modders that should be applying for a job at EA instead of trying to bilk people into buying the modified game code they've come up with.

And then there's the argument that once a person realizes they can make money for selling ANYTHING, they stop putting effort into making good objects, and start focusing on quantity instead of quality, thus making paysites responsible for degradation of quality and lack of community improvement.

Honestly, I'd love nothing more than to explain the following to site creators: "People are going to prefer free objects. No, this doesn't mean that you can order people to click the ads. That's against most ad sites' terms of service. People expect quality in pay objects. This doesn't mean that you should charge more for a single object than a single object in a Stuff Pack costs, unless your object is truly Greater-Than-Maxis-Quality. If it breaks the game, you definitely can't make money from it. And just because Maxis sometimes releases broken content doesn't mean people are going to be just as content to pay for yours!" And so on.

Pay sites could work in theory. In practice, the Sims is one of the few games where people have actually gone out of their way to embrace the concept. Most people settle for donations, or if they can't make ends meet and can't afford to spend money on their hobby, they host at a free site or go find something better to do with their time. And with people quite used to being able to download custom content for their other games for free, sites like this will continue to proliferate to handle those who choose to sell game modifications.

</end long crazy rant>

Actually, I think this -is- vaguely... VERY vaguely... relevant to paysites.

Expansion packs are generally collections of expanded content, upgraded interactions, and occasionally actual improvements to the UI. Much like some offerings from Sims 2 fan sites.

(Oddly, when I hear the phrase 'paysite' I usually think 'a set of objects or clothes', not 'an engaging and enjoyable expansion of the game'. Okay, maybe Paysites are more like Stuff Packs...)

Anyhow. I'd like to see Sims 2 Mad Science! Chemical experiments, blackboards full of equations, create-your-own-monsters, and mobs of torch-wielding villagers! (More craftables, ways to hurt sims without killing them - and I don't mean 'drop comfort', I mean 'something better than the four-motives-red-makes-you-dead', more nifty objects, more skills...)

Heh... honestly, I like that the registration agreement notifies you that you must convincingly act more intelligent than a seventh-grade reading level. The Rule of 12 sounds much nicer than 'If you act like an utter moron, you will be fed to the sharks.'

...

Of course, if anyone managed to devise a system whereby people who cross a certain threshold of unintentional or intentional idiocy, they were immediately dropped into a tank of angry sharks, I'd gleefully recommend using that instead...

Or "Those who are not in aspirational failure are welcome"?

I'll try not to screw up further, at any rate. <wry grin>

Heh... <notes that yes, Virginia, there IS a sticky.> Terribly sorry.

I'm not here to request anything, beg for anything, or complain about anything.

I'm here to say...

Thank you.

No, really, that's the only major thing I had to say. I stumbled upon this site thanks to a friend, and the front says everything I had been thinking for years far better than I ever could.

So, thank you, whoever you are, and whoever is responsible for taking part in making sure that creations are as free as the bandwidth of the site that hosts them.

That is all.