selvadorada with my piña colada

I've seen a lot of posts going around calling on Simmers to stop using Curseforge, a modding platform that enables creators to monetize their downloads, with plenty of outrage directed toward modders and CC-makers who are still on the platform. But I've also seen a lot of people who are confused about why there are calls for a boycott.

Curseforge is owned by Overwolf, a company that is donating money to the IDF in support of its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

In late October/early November, Overwolf posted a graphic on their social media asking followers to "defend our defenders" by contributing financially to a fundraising drive for the IDF. They were met with backlash and quickly took the graphic down, replacing it with one that used language about raising money for "those affected by the violence in Gaza" (my phrasing may be inexact) but the money is still going to the IDF and not to any agency actually supporting civilians or doing humanitarian work.

You can see the original graphic on this change.org petition, which provides some additional context.

If you are using Curseforge in any way -- by hosting your content there or downloading from it -- you are giving money to a company that is raising funds for an ongoing military campaign against a civilian population.

This is why people are calling for a boycott. If you are a modder or CC maker for the Sims, you should remove all of your content from the website and redirect people to other DL sources. If you are a consumer of mods and CC, you should stop clicking curseforge links and send (polite!) messages to modders and CC makers to urge them to pull their content from the site.

Even if we decide to take them 100% at face value (which I don't think we should) and accept their claim that none of their corprate revenue goes to "defend our defenders," (their original claim) and only to help "terror-affected families" with housing...is any of this funding going to support the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians? I'd say people living in refugee camps because their homes were bombed to matchsticks because some of their neighbors were maybe allegedly supposedly aligned in some vague with Hamas are pretty "terror-affected." Are they eligible to receive any of this aid, or just Israelis?

There's no word on the website, but considering that the other major donor listed on equal footing with Overwolf is the Israeli Leadership Forum, which states on its English-language "About Us" page that it is a platform for those who consider "the advancement of Israeli society....as their mission," it seems fair to say that this group and donation drive have broadly settler-colonialist aims.

So. My original post was not 100% accurate in all the details, I'm willing to own that. Mea culpa, I'm a random guy on the internet who tried to make a post to summarize a lot of discussion that had been happening in a lot of different places, and I didn't do any investigative journalism to verify those claims (see above: random guy n the internet).

I still think that boycotting Overwolf and their products is a good, simple step to oppose Zionism. Using Curseforge (and other Overwolf products) still fuels the bottom line of a Zionism organization which aligns itself with other Zionism organizations. Vote with your feet and don't use these products.

If they're releasing corporate statements to try to dispel concerns over a consumer boycott, it means it's working.

Here's the original tweet:

A lot of creators are trying to use curseforge to host their content, and then hide this from their blogs or download posts, hoping you wont notice when the link takes you to a direct download from curseforge.

Hey, all! Not sure how many people will see this, but if you do, please reblog. This is a 'little' post regarding a potentially big problem affecting the Sims 4 community. If you download mods/CC at all (and yes I know CC is a type of mod), this applies to you.

TL;DR: For the sake of your personal info, identity, bank account, et cetera, please STOP downloading any mods/CC for the time being. Especially from the following sites: CurseForge, ModTheSims, The Sims Resource. It doesn't matter if you know the creator or not. Give it at least a week while we all figure out what's going on. If you must, I would recommend only downloading directly from a creator's Patreon (assuming they have one).

Other people have written at length about the mods in question, so I'll just share their posts below.

What's going on?

From the Sims 4 After Dark Discord server (a server you should join if you're not in it already):

⚠️If you downloaded any mod listed in the above post and played the game with them installed, this is the cleaner program Kuttoe (creator of the Home Regions and Townie Demographics mods) mentioned in their post: GitHub - overwolf/sims4-social-events-cleaner: Source files and exe release for a tool to clean up your machine if you have downloaded the "Social Events - Unlimited Time" Sims 4 mod ⚠️

Got confirmation from Kuttoe that as long as you didn't boot up the game with the malicious mods installed (or deleted them completely from your computer before playing the game), you *should* be fine. Still, I recommend that anyone who thinks they might have downloaded any of them run the cleaner program.

Here's an explanation from @anadius2 (reposted by Kuttoe) in the Sims 4 After Dark server (not providing a link to prevent brigading or spam, but you can DM me and I'll give you the link) about what the malware will do to your computer:

And a little dive into the back-end coding stuff for the more tech-savvy Simmers out there:

So, to recap:

Fake mods were uploaded to Curseforge, ModTheSims, and The Sims Resource

@msqsimsofficial had their account compromised on 2 of those sites (they are a victim of hacking, so do not send them hate!)

If downloaded, these malicious mods have the ability to steal very sensitive info (your passwords, credit card info if saved somewhere in your browser, data)

As of right now, antivirus software may not be able to detect the malware

Mac and Linux users seem to be safe; Windows users are the ones that could be affected

Why is this happening?

Unsure. Lots of theories are being made by people far more knowledgeable than me, but from the looks of things, could be crypto bullshit and/or an attempt to steal your data and sell it. This is very, very serious, and could wreck your life if said data/personal info falls into the wrong hands.

Identity Theft: What It Is, How to Prevent It, Warning Signs and Tips - NerdWallet

It's always a good idea to change passwords every couple of months or so, but if you think you've been affected, you also need to change your passwords for things like online banking, email and social media accounts, healthcare sites AFTER running the cleaner.

What now?

I want to talk about how we approach modding our games and downloading files in general.

Please STOP downloading mod file folders from people who did not create the specific mods. Period. This includes Sim dumps, building/lots with CC, mod folders promoted on YouTube, etc. This does not mean that anyone sharing them is doing so maliciously. In fact, I appreciate the amount of effort people put into compiling these resources! But unless you're super careful (and super knowledgeable), you run the risk of downloading malware like this on your computer. Make no mistake, the malicious files in question look like run-of-the-mill, everyday mods. Two of them were even posted from a trustworthy creator's actual account! The only way to know what they actually do is to peek into the code, and idk about you, but I don't know Python. So even after this issue is resolved, you really should only download files from the creators themselves.

But what about CC shopping?

Here's how I like to approach it: I stick to lookbooks and combing through the Patreons/accounts of creators who make items I like. If I see a Sim dump with CC that I'm interested, I try to reach out to the poster and ask where they got specific CC. If I can't do that, I see if it was shared via Drive, look at the individual files themselves, then head to the original CC creator's official download page and get it from the source.

the joy of life legacy challenge by @simelune 35 generations to keep you playing.

as i was looking for legacy challenges that were being updated as new packs came out, i had the thought "hey, why not just write one myself?" so here we are! i'll do by best to add new generations as time goes on, but seeing as this already has 35 (!!) generations, i think we'll be okay for a bit.

a few notes:

this challenge incorporates mods. i tried to include options for players who do not use gameplay mods, but some generations are built around them.

this challenge uses (almost) all packs. some generations are based off specific packs though, so you could pick and choose which gens you want to do.

this challenge has story aspects. there's a lot of room for you to come up with a story yourself each generation, so have fun with it!

some generations are longer and more involved than others! this is meant to give you a bit of a break and provide variety between generations.

GOOGLE DOC

please feel free to tag me if you try this challenge! i would love to see how you interpret some of the story aspects and seeing your simmies makes my day <3 you could also tag it with "#tjol challenge" / "#tjolc" if you prefer!

D'you know what?