Insim under new management!

[neriana]

What liegenschonheit said.

Paying for an interface tweak for World of Warcraft? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA -- no. Blizzard would sue their asses off if the site didn't disappear under a shitstorm of foully worded mockery and blatant server hacking first. Cuz, guess what, lots of nerds play World of Warcraft and other computer games, and don't necessarily have even the moral standards of Pescado when it comes to the ridiculous fiction of "creator rights" over something said "creators" don't bloody own.

I don't think the Sims 2 community is ever going to be capable of hearing the fact that it is a horrible aberration. I'm pretty sure I've never gotten through to anyone about this fact. It's too stuck up its own ass about "respecting" "creators" and everyone getting along and letting itself be blatantly conned by people who know how to cut and paste free textures.

[Quorneater]

So, having read that copy of Walt's announcement, it seems Walt *is* connected with Kathy and Eric in some way.  Would some anonymous businessman who picks a site to buy off a site advertising list know anything about their personal circumstances, or be interested enough in the ex-owners to be bothered to try and defend them?   And even if they did tell him a sob story, he only just heard of them like a few hours before he decided to buy - how does he think he knows them well enough that they're not exaggerating etc?    Sounds to me like stupidly he's letting slip he thinks he knows them better than their long-term fellow community friends did.

This is smelling even scammier now.

I want my donation money back.

[dusdeedawn]

First I'd like to give hearty applause (cheering, bra throwing, all that good stuff) to liegenschonheit. Was just explaining this to hubby, but not nearly as eloquently as that. Mine had much more cussing.
Also want to ask a question:

In fact, when this phenomenon is even mentioned to most other gamers, they laugh their asses off at how fucking stupid the sims community is for letting that shit happen.

I got into Sims on PC a year or so after 2 came out (Yup - had no computer til then. Point. Laugh. It's okay.) So I feel like a crapper for asking, but how did that shit happen?

[Delphy]

Actually, no, he wouldn't be better off buying a game for another game, especially WoW. Sims is an aberration in the game community, there is no other game out there that has a fan base that is willing to spend money on fan created content. In fact, when this phenomenon is even mentioned to most other gamers, they laugh their asses off at how fucking stupid the sims community is for letting that shit happen. I say it wouldn't work especially for a game like WoW, because as an MMO everything is run on server side, and so all mods are cosmetic or user interface related at most and don't even effect game mechanics in any large way, other than maybe where you put your buttons.

Sorry but the Sims is not the only game that has fan created mods that people pay for.  Flight Sim communities have been doing it for just as long if not longer. (An example is here: http://www.realairsimulations.com/list_box.php?page=spit08_buynow )

Extremely rare? Yes.  The only single game community ever that it happens in? No.

[Delphy]

I got into Sims on PC a year or so after 2 came out (Yup - had no computer til then. Point. Laugh. It's okay.) So I feel like a crapper for asking, but how did that shit happen?

Most game communities are actually fairly small.  The actual files themselves have only gotten bigger fairly recently in gaming history terms.  Remember that the Sims franchise is pretty much one of the best selling in history.  So initially the main factor was probably purely popularity and more expensive bandwidth and hosting costs. 

Most free sites are usually fairly small and can be done with pocket money.  Most medium sites have a voluntary donation scheme.  And anything larger than that needs either a really good ad deal or a hell of a lot of donations.

While I can certainly understand why this happened, obviously there are some large sites that *are* free and don't charge anything, thus proving that it can be done on a larger scale.

[Quorneater]

The actual files themselves have only gotten bigger fairly recently in gaming history terms.

The whole Sims and packaged lots are huge downloads compared with anything you could get in Sims1 days.  I can only host one or two lot creators at a time on Simlogical

[kattenijin]

I got into Sims on PC a year or so after 2 came out (Yup - had no computer til then. Point. Laugh. It's okay.) So I feel like a crapper for asking, but how did that shit happen?

Back in the ancient day of yore, Sims 1 era, hosting and bandwith were more expensive than they are now. Larger sites who weren't covering costs through donations began to charge for "bandwidth" or threaten to shut down (sound familiar?). I believe it was T$R that was first, or was it Mall of the Sims? I've forgoten. I also sort of recall that T$R's original reason for charging was not for content, but to have use of extra features, a la download basket, etc. Items used to be on a rotation, but somehow, some items never made it (popular items, or the repository item for a set). Other sites saw T$R charging and got on the bandwagon. When The Sims 2 came out it was already part of the culture.

[Quorneater]

I didn't mind TSR at all when they had everything on a fair rotation.  The subscription simply bought the perks of no ads and download anything any time.   Once they started ringfencing certain downloads it was a different ballgame.

[vexed]

There used to be a loophole in the rotation in that individual items could be pay, but full sets of those items were free - muahahahaha.  At that point I was a big downloader at T$R (what can I say?  It was free for me and I didn't know any better).  Somewhere along the line somewhere in the chain of command there realised this loophole existed and turned sets pay only.  That's about the point I discovered MTS2 and some other sites and stopped even looking at T$R for a long time.

Aside from the legality of the whole paysite situation (which for a long time I paid no attention to), I'd paid for my games, I didn't feel the need to pay for additional pixels as well.

[Amazone]

I played sims 1, and i remember simfreaks, they were early out with paystuff. And they had a lot of real good things. I don't recall i subscribed for TSR, but both of them were some of the first paysites i think.

[Pescado]

Cuz, guess what, lots of nerds play World of Warcraft and other computer games, and don't necessarily have even the moral standards of Pescado when it comes to the ridiculous fiction of "creator rights" over something said "creators" don't bloody own.

I don't have "moral standards" and actually don't believe in "creator rights" at all. It's more a question of objective-relevance.

[Alvid]

Sorry but the Sims is not the only game that has fan created mods that people pay for.  Flight Sim communities have been doing it for just as long if not longer. (An example is here: http://www.realairsimulations.com/list_box.php?page=spit08_buynow )

Most game communities are actually fairly small...While I can certainly understand why this happened, obviously there are some large sites that *are* free and don't charge anything, thus proving that it can be done on a larger scale.

The Elder Scrolls/Bethesda community is still very huge.  Especially now with the realease of Fallout3.  Even Oblivion is still going strong, TESNexus doesn't beg for donations like Kathy did.  Many Oblivion modders also use FilePlanet for their uploads.

[Pescado]

Most people don't beg for donations like Kathy did, because most people are not fraudulently using the donations for personal purposes while skimming the budget surplus from advertising at the same time.

[Alvid]

Most people don't beg for donations like Kathy did, because most people are not fraudulently using the donations for personal purposes while skimming the budget surplus from advertising at the same time.

So true, so very true.

[cheekylilgirl]

Most people don't beg for donations like Kathy did, because most people are not fraudulently using the donations for personal purposes while skimming the budget surplus from advertising at the same time.

Very true, and exactly the reason why I never donated a cent.