wonder

Dambele, Italy | April 14, '26 🕊🌼🎨

"my hands are stained with ochre and the terracotta floorboards smell of linseed oil. this apartment is small - tiny, really - but the light at 4pm hits my canvas just right. It’s hard to believe I’m finishing my degree here. I have two semesters to soak up the culture, paint to my heart's content, and find my own way in a place so abundant and close-knit."

You're NOT going to support the Sims 4 Marketplace with money, reblogs, etc.

You're NOT going to harass or bully creators who go on the Marketplace. Ignore them. Make them irrelevant. Don't feed the trolls, DON'T engage with and be shitty to people.

You WILL support FREE (and/or reasonable early access) creators. That means REBLOGS and advertising people's stuff in builds on social media (within reason). Not likes. Reblogs.

You'll spread the word about free alternative content-- let's be real, it's out there somewhere. The Sims 4 has SO MUCH custom content out there. I easily have content from over a T H O U S A N D creators on my HD. There is NO SHORTAGE of a million variants of the same type of item and thanks to all the available tools out there, making custom content is easier than ever.

You'll share 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ on the high seas, if we can figure out how to do it.

You're not going to support billionaires' continuous human rights violations, environmental disasters, and global networks that literally want to take EVERYTHING from us, INCLUDING our creativity and our willingness to think for ourselves.

REASONS TO AVOID THE MARKETPLACE + ITS PARTICIPATING CREATORS + ITS CONTENT LIKE THE PLAGUE:

The Saudi investment group and TRUMP FAMILY buyout. 'Nuff said, but we'll continue.

The interest on EA's loan to do this buyout is going to be ~$1 BILLION annually. Them doing this means they are DESPERATE. We should NOT be rewarding them just because we want that fancy lipstick that, let's be honest, exists for free if you'd take like five minutes to go look on Google image or Pinterest.

EA is laying off workers to replace them with generative AI. They're closing other game studios. They would literally sell creators to Satan for a billion cornchips and they'd watch you roast in hellfire for a "cheap" laugh.

They haven't (as of this post) given an actual price-scaling metric - and in fact, have outright said it is subject to CHANGE. That means the pricing will NOT remain the same, EA has direct control over it, and the "value" of content is variable.

It's literally just gambling. Like holy fuck, this is so fucking predatory. And for those who don't know, the saying about gambling is, the house always wins. Casinos always rig shit to their favor to "run their business." Microtransactions work the same. Damn. Way.

Maxis literally wants the Marketplace to fail. They're hoping it dies and they're RIGHT to want that.

To be honest? I want to have sympathy for the folks who need $$$. But I can't, not at this point. There are multiple avenues of earning money through Patreon, Boosty, Substack, Modco, TSR (to a lesser extent), SimsFinds (formerly SimsDom), & even Curseforge - and yes, Curseforge does come with the caveat that they're part of an umbrella that helps support the IDF. Pretty sure I've even missed one or two other monetizing sites dedicated entirely to Sims content.

Creators who are joining up with the Sims 4 Marketplace are actively pouring little bits of gasoline on a forest fire in the middle of a dry summer with the reasoning that it'll help them be more warm at night.

Love that for you, but you are actively feeding something that is already wildly out of control and consuming the community.