I never thought Iād support piracy...
But frankly, I love how they really give a big middle finger to those who think they can violate EAās TOU and the communityās trust and giving spirit towards them.Ā
Hereās the deal, if you are going to say thatĀ āartistsā deserve to be paid as an excuse to justify paywalls, then you have a ton of people to pay royalties for all the CC you put behind paywalls. Letās go through them shall we:Ā - EAās team of creatives:Ā We know by how well EAās f***ād the public over that they have to be doing it partly to their creative employees. If you say you want artists to be paid, why are you using their content, meshes, code, heck, the whole GAME they designed and worked hard on as aĀ ācash cowā for you to hold CC hostage?Ā - The creators of TSR creator and the Sims 4 Studio.Ā These tools are both offered to the community for free. TSR at least allows you to support them by doing a membership on their site, but I was very hard pressed to find ANY sort of patreon, ko-fi, or other sort of donation tool for the S4S folks. Considering MOST if not all sims modders use their tools for batch fixes, package edits, and other things, they deserve some cash too.Ā - Any company/creator whose 3D model you used, ripped, or borrowed parts of.Ā Because this is a common problem for manyĀ āexclusiveā CC creators. So if you bought part or all of your mesh somewhere else, that person deserves a cut of your profits as well.Ā - Any company whose brand you used to advertise your makeup, clothing, or furnishings for the sims. Because if you are selling copies of their brand, even for a video game, youāre not using it with their consent. Artists, designers, and other creatives made those products, not intending for you to rip it off, put it in a video game, and then charge people for it.Ā (This is much more understandable if you are someone who is releasing this content for free and just charging for early access as a donation to the creator. But to literally hold your version of a certain makeup brand, or an IKEA stool HOSTAGE behind a paywall to charge more is nuts and is obviously trying to āprofitā off of that trademarked brand.)Ā - Any person whose free guides, advice, or help taught you how to edit, create, or manipulate meshes, textures, or to create CC.Ā After all, these people helped you get started, teaching you (for free) how to make content for the community. Surely they deserve something for the fact that they gave up a very precious commodity (time) to teach you.Ā āāāāāāā- You see the insanity of this? This community has long had the custom of being a sharing and caring community, as evidenced by people like the creators of S4S who literally create a program the entire community and release daily updates for FREE.Ā
You really wanna stop theĀ āshare and share alikeā policy that so many creators have used to help make this community awesome, really?Ā And before yāall go off onto theĀ āI treat this like a jobā bull, letās get one thing straight.Ā THIS. IS. NOT. A. JOB.Ā Nor, frankly, should it be. In the words of @precious-simsā:Ā All im gonna say is, the sims 4 and all the things surrounding it is a hobby, not a job. Your life should not surround itself around making content for the sims 4. Why would you rely on a market so shaky and short lived to make most of your profits when in a flash the rug could be swept right under you. Its financially irresponsible.Ā
Preach girl. Preach. Because hereās the thing yāall. Even though right now EA seems to be sitting on its butt when it comes to violations of itās terms, things could change. For a long time, Nintendo did nothing to stop people from sharing and bootlegging amiibo files, until one day *poof* it wasnāt okay. All it will take is ONE person high enough on EAās team to sayĀ āWe wanna go after these people who violate thisā to make a ton of peopleās day really bad.Ā
And even ifĀ ābig bad EAā doesnāt ever step in, you have a right to the community to allow us to CHOOSE to support you.Ā Because, not all of us can afford to pay month after month of jacked up prices forĀ āexclusiveā cc due to job situations, medical issues, the pandemic, or other expenses.Ā āThen donāt pay for it, you whining babies! You shouldnāt expect us to create stuff for you for free! Thereās plenty of other free CC out there!āĀ But we donāt. We donāt expect you to create stuff for free. But we do expect you to eventually release it for free AFTER an early access period so that those of us who CURRENTLY cannot pay, can get a break. Many people love to support creators, but when you take away the choice of people and lock everything youāve ever made behind paywalls, it gets a little insane. And to be honest, we donāt expect you to make CC. Itās a hobby. Youāre lucky itās actually one youāre allowed to get paid for and people want to pay for. But when you refuse to play by the rules, and violate copyright to do so, itās not a very good look on you. Itās not that we donāt want to pay, itās that some of us cannot right now, and some of us really donāt like that youāre putting the work of OTHER people behind yourĀ āexclusiveā paywalls. (/cough secondlife and imvu /cough)Ā And, as Iāve said before:Ā If you cannot follow EAās simple (and very REASONABLE) terms, how in the world are we to expect you to follow any other TOU out there?Ā
Thatās why weāre frustrated. Weāre done with you guys preaching about how you want creators to be respected when you cannot even respect the terms asked by the darn creators of the game.Ā Weāre sick of you following EAās business model and locking everything away until we pay the steep toll price, regardless of the quality of what we get, or if we even **like it** or **use it** once weāve paid for it. (At least with EA we canā¦you know, have somewhat of a preview beyond pictures on a patreonā¦)Ā And yes, there are other creators. But letās be real, every creator is different, and has a different style, talent, specialty, etc. We may be able to use OTHER content, but it wonāt be YOUR special kind of content that you bring to the community.Ā Let us CHOOSE to support you. Let us support you because you make great content and you follow the rules and go about it the right way.Ā Because in the end, the more you play unfairly with the community, the more pirates will force your hand. Because ironically, they have a stronger sense of ethics when it comes to the community than yāall do. And no amount of complaints will stop them either, because they really donāt care about your hurt feelings when youāve been bleeding the community dry. Just saying. /shrug











