New FA at TSR

[RedLove]

RedLove, you're right, a grown person creating TS2 content and charging for it as their main job doesn't make sense. However, the less crazy ones create in their leisure time, and they might figure that if they're going to be creating anyway, why not make some extra cash off of it, especially if all they have to do is upload the stuff and profit.

I totally agree but both we all know there are some people on here who just use paysites as their main source of income. Thats mainly who my rant was at =] but I'm all calm now WOOSAHHHH

[LesserOr]

At first they offer you 10 dollars per 10.000 downloads, and 300 dollars max per months when you start out as an FA.
Then, you can get bonusses for most downloaded, best creations, etc etc so there is some competition among the FA's. This is monthly if I understood it right.

...oh, now that's just tragic. I hope the upper tier creators are getting more than that.  A lot more.
Otherwise, that's 30 single-month subscriptions to Peggy. Or four people buying everything from Rose.

It certainly doesn't seem worth it to chuck your personal do-as-you-please site to be just another file folder at TSR.

[redisenchanted]

At first they offer you 10 dollars per 10.000 downloads, and 300 dollars max per months when you start out as an FA.
Then, you can get bonusses for most downloaded, best creations, etc etc so there is some competition among the FA's. This is monthly if I understood it right.

...oh, now that's just tragic. I hope the upper tier creators are getting more than that.  A lot more.
Otherwise, that's 30 single-month subscriptions to Peggy. Or four people buying everything from Rose.

It certainly doesn't seem worth it to chuck your personal do-as-you-please site to be just another file folder at TSR.

I think things have changed a lot since TSR began. I've got no sympathy whatsoever to the new, bought-out FA's, but I think some of the older ones just don't want all the drama of leaving. It's not like they could take their creations with them anyway.

Edited because I hit enter too soon.

[Tchannie]

It certainly doesn't seem worth it to chuck your personal do-as-you-please site to be just another file folder at TSR.

I agree.

[tIIsuggas]

There have been a lot of changes at TSR over the time they have been open,  I was browsing their news archives today.

On 23 May 2001  Steve Bonham announced.

'Unlike other sites, we won't charge for access.' Among other things.

On 19 Aug 2001 Steve Bonham announced.

The simsresource is now providing 3 CD's of CC available @$11.95 each.
Or, £29.95 for all three.  

11 Jan 2002  Steve Bonham announced.

They were introducing a subscription option to provide a better service.  

17 Jan 2002 Steve Bonham announced.

The member area has been launched, for all those who want to subscribe, for the added benefits.


*These are only snippets I saved while browsing all the TSR news.  The one that stood out for me was the first one, where he said he won't charge for access.

Anyone can access the news archives, I saved screencaps of the ones I have mentioned though, in case anyone wants them.

[Quorneater]

No one talks much about SimSlice, but actually they are one of the worst offenders.  Their subscription is pretty high, and until you subscribe you can't read the forums so you have no idea whether or not people are having problems with the objects.   You have to pay up blind.

[neriana]

I don't talk about SimSlice because I've never had even a passing fancy for anything on there. It looks like useless junk that could royally screw up the game.

[Pescado]

It *IS* useless junk that could royally screw up your game. I've dissected the stuff. It's worse than even the Maxis code much of it is cobbled from.

[icedwhitemocha]

Thank you Inge for bringing up SimSlice.  I can show these pictures of actual content from that site:




Because every sim wants desktop wallpaper on their walls and My-First-Website-style backgrounds on their floors :roll:  
And these are just textures.   If they were like Pescado, brilliant hackers just lacking in the Skills of an Artist, it might be forgivable.  But clearly that's not the case...

It *IS* useless junk that could royally screw up your game. I've dissected the stuff. It's worse than even the Maxis code much of it is cobbled from.

[edited to fix poor sentence structure and improve clarity]

[Doursim]

Clearly they've gone to the Carla Niven College of Photoshop.  But still a C+ student.. *sigh*

[idtaminger]

They basically package up Maxis cheats as objects. Like, thanks, but I could do the same exact shit w/ boolprop and pay zilch!

Anyone who actually pays for their junk is retarded.

[Diamond_bollocks]

Those items from SimSlice made me eyes bleed.

[LesserOr]

It occured to me to play around with the numbers TSR provides.
I'm making assumptions based on scale, and prefer to go low rather than high, but you can do your own figures quite easily.
In fact, please do- I'm dyslexic, and numbers are not always my friends.

For entertainment purposes only!

There are 51 FAs right now.
We've been provided with the scale of $300 a month. It's a safe figure to use for our purposes, as some make more, but some make less. We'll assume for this that all the little FAs make their max each month (Oh, how we assume).

That's a potential payout of $15,300 per month.
Knocking off a month for fairness, that's $168,300 in 11 months.

$429,500 is 10,000 downloaders, if you give them all the cheapest subscription option ($42.95 for a year).

Logic Intrusion :
We all know the number of subscription members must be many times higher than this, otherwise the FAs would need every single member to download all their objects each month. We also know that most people will pay the higher fees, or won't be recurring members.
But as we haven't been provided real paid member numbers, we shall pretend TSR has exactly twice that number of constant members, all at the same rate.
The figure will be lower than the reality, but better too low than too high.
: End Logic Intrusion.

Doubled, that's $859,000 a year in subscription fees. $168,300 of that goes to FAs.

That's just depressing.

For entertainment purposes only! Do not try to use as actual TSR sales figures!

I've got no sympathy whatsoever to the new, bought-out FA's, but I think some of the older ones just don't want all the drama of leaving. It's not like they could take their creations with them anyway.

Yes, I do feel bad for the old FAs. Especially since I suspect they're some of the ones getting screwed in pay-rates.

But for the new FAs, holy hell.
Flip over for $300 max a month, with that many downloads required per $10? For this people are signing over their CC and all their other creator's freedoms?

Man, if you're going to sell out, at least do it properly.

[Quorneater]

That payement to FA,s while making TSR "ethically" fairer, makes it even further from EA's EULA I would have thought.  It's become a complete industry!

[jesserocket]

Sad thing about SimSlice is, they used to be pretty good, back in the TS1 days, when they were freeeeeee. Or at least, they seemed good...