TSR: IN UR COMPUTER, VIRUSIN' UR FILES!

[SnarkyShark]

ETA: For anyone who wants to read it, Thomas made 2 posts about their tool on MTS

Link: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=358021&c=0&ht=&page=2&pp=25#startcomments

Apparently, Thomass has used the free community to garner information while giving them little to nothing in return. Boy, who would have ever expected such self-serving and selfish behavior from a guy whose spent the last few years showcasing his self-serving and selfish behavior?

So, again, Thomass' (and johan's) reassurances about the safety of the TSR tool should only serve to underscore the fact that you use it at your own peril.

[Scurvy Cat]

That was about as fine an example of not-caring as I've every seen.  Yep, it was an excellent display.  Worthy of a sulky 13 year old.     

I salute you.  With one finger.

[kenmtl]

Yanno, I respect Delphy and Inge enormously. That's not even a question. However I am a little surprised that they would honestly expect the gang from T$R to all of a sudden start sharing their toys openly and freely with the community. I appreciate their efforts and best of intentions in trying create a new dynamics with this game release however the concept of "let bygones be bygones" depends entirely on both parties actually being bygones. But honestly, thanks for trying.

Thomas has one interest in this community and it's financial. He will never do anything that he perceives as being possibly detrimental to that. He's a protectionist, that what he does. Regardless of what they say, they have proven time and time again that they are not ever to be trusted to do anything that is not in their immediate self interest. Let them have their little tool and do with it as they see fit. They've never done anything that the free community hasn't done better and never will. Unless of course they steal something again, which is highly possible.

There's no reason in this community for anyone to hide anything. Unless of course you have something that needs hiding or you're just a douche. One or the other.

[ValancySterling]

Yanno, I respect Delphy and Inge enormously. That's not even a question. However I am a little surprised that they would honestly expect the gang from T$R to all of a sudden start sharing their toys openly and freely with the community. I appreciate their efforts and best of intentions in trying create a new dynamics with this game release however the concept of "let bygones be bygones" depends entirely on both parties actually being bygones. But honestly, thanks for trying.

Not that I know either of them particular well, but both Delphy and Inge strike me as very nice people.  Which is why scumbags like Thomas can use them to pull the crap he pulls. 

[CatOfWar]

My take is that neither Delphy nor Inge (nor Wes) were naive.  My guess is they thought "If we try, there's an infinitesmally small, but non-zero chance something good will happen, and if we don't try, there's no chance".  Take at look at this MTS thread, posts 28, 32, 34, they express disappointment, but not surprise.

[kenmtl]

Oh God no, I never thought for a second that they were being naive. Maybe there was no expectations at all, I'm just probably projecting a bit. However like I said, they made an honest and well intentioned effort and good for them for doing it.

Thomas doesn't have time to participate in community projects like that anyway. He's too busy tossing salad over at EA and teaching the Twat how to be a super sekkrit haxx0rtron.

[justso]

I don't think any one could be surprised by this. Inge, Delphy, WesH and co. all did what they always do give to the sims community, Thomas did what Thomas does naturally takes from the sims community. Now who in the sims community does Thomas have to vouch for his product, no one. but hold on, lookie here Sblade.  I feel as though once again my retardedness is poking it's head.  The way I am thinking is:- the examples Pes gave from the anti virus didn't say "OOOh TSR  doing bad things on your computer. Disconnect now."  It is warning that the programme has the potential to do bad things so don't let it connect.  Pes is 100% correct and the potential for TSR is enormous.  If they don't send bad files with their tool now, we know how vindictive TSR  are when protecting their money.  I think to protect their assets they would send nasties down to the tool in the future.  The good thing for TSR is the users will have got used to the anti virus kciking in and just click the allow button.  Just like now when they get alerts from Firefox etc they click ignore out of habit.  It may be retarded as I have no idea if this is possible, if it is why aren't people like Sblade, who at  least added "but it does phone home" to the forum title, not warning people of the potential threat.

[Darqstar]

This was originally a much longer reply but i've realised it just going to be a big waste of my time. Keep on believeing if that's what you want to do, i really don't care if you use the program or not.

No, I would imagine you would rather we didn't use the tool.  You'd probably much prefer that everyone in this forum stays far away from this tool, so we have no real idea of what's going on. 

Your answer is entirely made of fail.  Clearly you do care, otherwise, why did you bother to come here in the first place?  What you really want is for us to shut up, go away, and leave you free to fleece the Sims community as you're so used to doing.

Your words may say, "don't care" but the fact that you come here and try to sow these seeds of doubt speak far louder and clearer than your words.  You do care.  You care deeply.  Not about the active members of the forum, I'm sure to you we're all just a lost cause.  But you care about the ones that come here to get the other side of the story.  You care about the watchers, the lurkers, and the most casual of members.

And you've made a rather irritating habit of coming here, having your say, then when questioned, coming back with some response that boils down to, "I'm not going to answer you, so there!"  Do yourself a favor, and just don't bother.  Because the refusing to answer questions when you've joined the discussion, makes you look like you've got something to hide. 

[SoggyFox]

People who tend to be unselfish and altruistic will try and try to help others and give others a chance.  When it is something like this where it really doesn't make much of a difference for their own work, then they are even more inclined.  While it sucks to have someone benefit from your hard work, at least its not like you don't have it anymore.

I honestly think most people are going to stick with just getting the tools they need and learning how to use them.  Besides, I refuse to give TSR free advertising using their tools.

I'll just say I admire the tool creators who stuck out their necks to be better people, even if again it failed.  It didn't fail in one regard, because it again illustrates that the free community is superior.

[Darqstar]

I'll just say I admire the tool creators who stuck out their necks to be better people, even if again it failed.  It didn't fail in one regard, because it again illustrates that the free community is superior.

That's because the free community does it out of love, and when you do something for love, you don't set the same restrictions. If it takes you 200 hours to make a tool or an item, it's worth it, because it's something you love to do.  When you start expecting money for something, then it becomes a choir.  Then, suddenly your time has to be figured into it.  Yes, I'm sure there are some folks at TSR even, who love what they do, as well as the money, but they are more the exceptions that prove the rule.  The FA's that do love to create and don't give a hoot about the money often end up leaving, because they don't want to hold up to demands on the amount of stuff they have to make and when they have to make it. 

One of the real eye opening things with me and TSR was the "I'm sorry your mother is really sick and you have to take care of her and your computer was stolen , but we had to drop you from being an SA, because, well, you know, it isn't really fair to TSR to have an SA who isn't producing."  I really didn't care, because at the time, my mother was really sick (still is, just slightly less so) and my priorities did NOT include making pixel items.  But later, when I thought about it, I realized that was so business it wasn't funny.  What would it have hurt to have kept me on as an SA?  None, really.  Or, what would it have cost TSR in matters of time/energy/effort to have put up an "Inactive SA" list?  In the case of me, it wouldn't have helped them at all, because there was no way I would ever go back to a site where pixels take priority over real life.  However, I do know of other SA's who left for various reasons and when dropped, never came back, because they felt they were being punished for not producing.  "Sorry, you've gone back to sucking.  But maybe, if you produce like a banshee, we'll invite you back into the speshul club!"  That's a turn-off. 

Look at the situation with Nouk.  When she left the free community, most of us cried a few tears because a friend was leaving, and wished her the best.  If she decided to return and start over again, I'm sure she'll be welcomed with open arms, enthusiasm, and gratitude.  Had she been an FA on TSR, she might be on the retired FA page, but I'm sure she'd have to start earning her way back to true FA status for awhile.  Nice way to treat someone who's having trouble, right?  But, it's a very business like way.  Business is cold.  Business is about the bottom dollar.  This is supposed to be a hobby. 

[kenmtl]

*ahem*

Small update: Thomas at MTS today

Regarding the open source debate - this is something we're currently discussing with everyone involved and I think it's important that you're all updated on this. We are going to share the knowledge on 3D view and other things we have figured out, so yes we will be doing our part also. This will be confirmed once it's done by the parties involved, for now I hope Inge, Delphy and others will be able to confirm this discussion has taken place and that our ambition is, very much, to participate openly

Apparently he changed his mind and is in fact in discussions with someone to possibly maybe do his part, sometime.

[lewisb]

Now he was called out on the 'sharing', he changes his mind?

Do Thomass ever take a "true" stand? I don't trust his post, til I see it. FAIL!

[SnarkyShark]

If I were them, I wouldn't confirm anything until Thomass ponies up. He seems almost desperate to get Delphy and Inge to confirm what a generous guy he is before he actually shares anything.This all seems to go back to what coconut told us not long ago -

They have come up with several ideas including advertising, letting the community think they are contributing to the development and putting “trusted free community faces” to spearhead the campaign, and to get the trust of the free community.

Which, of course, makes coconut's following update  -

It reminds me very much of that nasty little virus Steve sent out  recently via Email to all the staff and artists in the guise of a new version wizard, what followed were many questions on how easily it was detected by our AVs and a claim it was sent by ‘pirates’. Oddly enough TSR were more interested in the AV detection then they were with the fact that someone with Steves Email was mailing viruses  hidden in their own tool! Dummy run anyone?

 - more relevant than ever.

[TheraBada]

I don't know if this post is relevant. ..I don't think it adds anything you all don't already know but back before I really hated TSR- when I was extremely late to the PMBD party- I. ..*gulp* downloaded TS2 Content Manager from their site. ..this was late 2007, early 2008- maybe earlier. Right around this time my computer had a total meltdown and I lost everything. I'm not sure if the CM had anything to do with it because due to my enemy ignorance I still have it- even now, I *finally* figured out what that CCap that kept running even when I was logging off default (sorry, not very tech savvy) was all about by reading this thread. Then, I realized I don't know how to get rid of the damn thing. 

[THE Antagonist]

We have tested and confirmed most of the content created with TSR Workshop, with the exception of meshes. Meshing is still on an experimental level and thus we would prefer that you only upload new meshes to TSR until we can confirm they will not cause problems and we're no longer in a beta phase. This is to make sure any "damaged goods" is not spread too far around the community, making it very tedious to repair if needed. So the simple answer is no, you can upload your creations anywhere you want, with the exception being meshes.

Seems a trasparent try to get a monopoly over new meshed TS3 objects to me. Just like saying "hey, you can do whatever whit our program, but when it goes down to cool thing that someone would pay for, you must upload only to our site so we can transfer all their moneys to our wallets!", if you consider also what stated in the infamous EULA that we all know. I suppose that open beta of the Whoreshop will last a long, looong time.

BTW, does this program saves objects in .sims3pack files? 'cause it seems that only EA know how to make the Download Manager (Or however is called that shit) to attach not those nasty files to lot's one. T3W made patterns comes whit lots for now, and it would be dumb if their gonna-be-pay items behaves in the same way.