As for that new EP, I’ll put my brief thoughts on it here while I’m at it. I think it is at risk of falling to the problem of the “Sims 3 facade” – the principle that everything outside the active household is fair game for the story progression and opportunity/event engines. You can see the results in the game’s utter disregard for the other inhabitants of your town, randomly inflicting on them death and misfortune via EA story progression, or by its random plucking of denizens for jobs and roles (in the theatrical sense) they are in no way suited for. (I’ve probably touched on it before – ever been asked to convince a genius scientist and computer whiz about the supremacy of logic? Or been asked by a neighbor to repair a TV that 1) you know they don’t own 2) you’ve never seen before and 3) you never will? When they’re a technophobe, to boot?)

Ambitions might just be a continuation of the same trend, drafting town inhabitants to play roles without regard to the consequences of having certain problems or dilemmas. What do I mean? Well, such as Sims calling for doctors because they’re sick even though they never act sick or spread disease. They’re just sick for the sake of giving your locum Sim another mission. (I really do want sickness/infectious diseases to be in the game, though? How fun would that be?) Or for firefighters, starting random fires around town in places that don’t make much sense. I hope they check for obvious things like fireproof appliances and fire alarms.

Ryan,
Well, first, my reply was more just me being a flip smart-ass than what you would call an official statement of policy. :) My point, I guess, was that if these guys were really doing something wrong or illegal, I guarantee you that EA would not be linking to them, and would probably be going after them. So, your questions are worth trying to get a more official response. I’m off for holiday break now, but after the new year, I’ll ask the Sims folks to help sort this out. –Jeff

Will we get satisfactory answers? Official licensing? Another forum sticky? Nothing? I think a “To Be Continued…” is appropriate here!

In other news, the Error 12/13 problem with my old save unexpectedly disappeared. (I posted on MATY about it; no, I don’t know what the hell I did to make it work again.) So now I’m on the verge of Generation 6 in my “don’t call it a Legacy”. It’s definitely the furthest I’ve ever played in a Sims game. What? I think it’s cool. Pics soon.

Also, Create-A-World. Man, I plan on having some fun with it, but my handmade efforts so far have sucked, and I tried to import a heightmap only to get crazy spikes everywhere. I have another modding project that I want to finish before starting a new custom town though.

Anyway, I got a public response to my pointed letter on paysites! Yay for corporate sincerity.

Jeff Green writes:

Well, the fact that we link to many of these sites ourselves, as you say, gives you the answer to part of your question: These sites aren’t doing anything wrong. Part of why The Sims is so dang popular is this ability to create and trade objects with other gamers. There are a ton of sites that do this completely for free, too, offering thousands of items at no cost at all. So, really, you don’t have to "put up" with anything. You can ignore the pay sites and go to the free ones. Or, make your own stuff and sell it yourself.  Capitalism FTW! God Bless America!

I posted the following (long) comment to the post on ea.com. In case it fails moderation, I’m posting it below.

Thanks for the response Jeff. I appreciate hearing straight talk on the topic of Sims paysites from an EA rep but I have serious problems with what you’re telling Sims fans.

Firstly, I want to say that if  such sites were officially licensed by EA, there would be no problem. I have no problem with people being fairly compensated for their work, but not if they’re breaking laws to do so. As it stands no paysite has a license from EA to conduct their business.

Secondly, you didn’t address why The Sims is the EXCEPTION to the rule for EA’s games when it comes to charging for user-made content. For example BioWare has spoken out through their forum moderators against any attempts to sell mods or offer them as “donation incentives” (where you must “donate” to receive the content at all) for their games. Doesn’t it disadvantage the large casual audience of The Sims 3, new to gaming, who might stumble on a pay site and not know that there are free ones out there?

Thirdly, your response basically sanctions the selling of derivative works of EA’s assets – in breach of their EULAs – because it’s a free country and a free market. Why then has EA Legal stopped people from trying to sell machinima, even when they were trying to raise money for charity? (Do a web search for "Bloodspell DVD EA" and "Male Restroom Etiquette EA").

Where does this permissiveness end? Can I also rip game art or music from a PC game, upload it and sell that as my own? Is it OK to sell multiplayer cheat hacks for games like Crysis or Battlefield? In a totally free market it’d be logical to do all this, plus pirate games and plagiarise its content without mercy. The only thing stopping that in the real world, apart from one’s morals, are intellectual property and contract laws…

Finally, the Create A World tool that just came out this week for Sims 3 has a clause restricting distribution to "personal noncommercial website(s) for the noncommercial benefit of the fan community." (I know that not all modding uses official mod tools, but a large proportion does.) How are paysites EVER operated for the “noncommercial benefit” of fans? Their very purpose is to generate revenue from commercial transactions – subscription or per-download fees, giving out items in exchange for “donations”, etc. Also, how are the for-profit companies that run some paysites “personal noncommercial website(s)”?

Sorry to chill the vibe of this blog, but I hope this response is seriously considered.

- Ryan D.

Next step? I’m seriously thinking about writing to EA Legal.

Anyway, here’s the contents of my short letter, preserved for online posterity.

(And in case it ever gets a response…but I’m not very optimistic.)

Dear Jeff,
I love The Sims 3, but we fans of The Sims have had to put up with paysites for years. These sites make a tidy profit from selling unlicensed user-made content and mods. As a lifelong PC gamer and modder, it disturbs me that The Sims is virtually the only modern PC franchise where paysites operate so openly and rampantly. I’m not seeing a Dragon Age or Battlefield 2 paysite taking off any time soon, either – it’s just The Sims where you’re ‘allowed’ to stick a price tag on your pixels and get away with it. My question is, why does EA turn a blind eye to Sims paysites? Selling modified game files breaks all sorts of IP laws and the game’s license agreement to boot, so it’s entirely within your rights to be cracking out the legal threats and busting these scumbags. Instead, I see paysites getting endorsed on the official forums and their representatives invited to fan events. What gives?
–Ryan D.

Additional remarks:

• If you search Google for “dragon age paysites” and “battlefield 2 paysites”, guess what? All roads lead to The Sims. That’s how idiosyncratic this problem is.
• If anything the second-to-last sentence is too hot for EA! However, it is factual. Here’s my evidence should I need to back the claims up:

TS3 forum sticky: Custom Content Sites – Share em’ with us! [sic]

• Save parsimonious.org, all the sites listed withhold a portion of their content from non-paying customers. I believe this advertisement is a pretty prominent endorsement of their continuing operation.
• The PMBD definition of paysites: “a paysite is any site that offers user-created content that you must pay for, whether through a donation or a subscription. If it is not freely available to all, it is a pay item.”

Another sticky: SIMPOSIUM Write-ups and Reviews from the attendees

• Both The Sims Resource and Holy Simoly are paysites whose agents attended this recent event. This was just the most recent one: paysites have attended past events, and if nothing changes, future Sims events too. It’s a bit like a cop inviting a gang lord on a skiing trip, isn’t it? (Don’t tell me, I suck at analogies).
• TSR is definitely the worse offender of the two, being an incorporated business and all. That’s just the tip of the murky iceberg that is The Sims Resource.

That’s all I’ve got today. Well, seeing Jeff Green’s name makes me want to go and watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm, so I think I will now. You know, I keep meaning to actually post some screenshots of my TS3 games or something up on this site. I’m sure I’ll eventually get around to it.

Not long ago, the Left 4 Dead 2 “boycott” amicably wound up (I hate to admit it, it seems like an instance where online petitions do work.) Now outrage is brewing and gamers are cracking out the signatures with the news that the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will not support dedicated servers – the tried and true model of multiplayer FPS gaming. A brief but amusingly weary summary can be found here. Naturally, this sort of news would not be easy to accept for casual gaming communities, competitive clans, modders and their fans. The developer, Infinity Ward, already indirectly responded to this controversy, rebuking ‘the modders and the tuners’ who want to ‘bifurcate the community’ in favour of a solution that will satisfy the majority of their audience. But is it necessarily good to alienate your most ardent fans in this way? Sound familiar?

Now, neither of these are actually games I play. I rented Call of Duty 2 AGES ago if that counts for anything. It’s just interesting to see that video games will always arouse strong and passionate opinions, and there are circumstances where a game company simply has to make concessions for its own sake. Interesting sort of interaction.

Also interesting how apart from the SecuROM fiasco (for which The Sims was only one game affected) EA seems to be largely immune to its community opinion. Outside of their official forums, is there any meaningful interaction or contact to speak of? I believe this dynamic is no doubt driven by the ‘silent majority’ who help keep Sims games on the bestseller lists constantly. I wish they’d speak up more.

EA now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game. That’s because advertising is critical to getting a game in the top ten rankings. If you have a $10 million game, don’t be surprised if the the TV advertising costs drive the ad budget to $30 million. If a $60 game yields revenue of $35 for EA, then (according to my math) the company has to sell 1.1 million copies just to break even.

I’d sure like to know how much it cost to develop The Sims 3, and exactly how much of that budget was spent on flashy billboards and product placements.

(Source)

If you agree or disagree with me, feel free to comment.

DISCLAIMER: These are just my personal opinions. As I’m a storytelling player more than a gamer or modder, that’s the perspective from which I’ll approach my choices. Also, I completely ignored the mods that fixed many of the problems I mention. EA/Maxis didn’t provide those; the community did.

On with the awards…

“Most Annoying NPC” goes to….

Rod Humble from FreeTime

Every one of TS2’s EPs added NPCs to the game. Rod Humble was the worst. Sim Rod Humble, upon installing FreeTime, would appear on every lot and bring you a shiny new computer loaded with Lies and Propaganda for…The Sims 3, of all things! Way to break immersion. Sim Humble would also give families free computers, effectively free money; and he was annoying. What more can I say.

Honorable mentions go to: strays from Pets, the professors from Uni, and the apartment townies from Apartment Life.

“Least Value For Money” goes to…

Pets

The Sims: Unleashed added a slew of great features besides pets: Old Town, gardening, the sweet sax player, all that carnival stuff… What did The Sims 2: Pets add? Pets, strays, werewolves, some superfluous build/buy stuff…and you could breed pets. Not that much new gameplay for the price. Nevertheless, Pets was EA/Maxis’ highest-selling EP. Go figure…

They definitely knew that pets were the #1 most demanded feature, and proceeded to charge full price for pets and pets alone. And they got away with it. I’ll never understand the appeal of having virtual pets to go with your virtual humans. They take too long to train anyway. Boring.

“Worst Supernatural Creature” goes to…

Bigfoot from Bon Voyage

Bigfoot is completely illogical. He is a master of every skill, gets free gifts from co-workers EVERY DAY, and is sterile (where’s the fun?) Plus his name is ‘Bigfoot Bigfoot’. And you couldn’t ‘create’ a Bigfoot or ‘become’ one; you had to go out and drag him home by sucking up to him. WTF?

“Most Detrimental to Storytelling” goes to…

University

Sure, Uni was fun the first few times… but it takes so freaking long to complete if you don’t cheat. If you play a hood ‘by the book’ you end up going through Uni for every Sim. It’s hard to avoid because the game intrinsically awards and punishes Sims based on university. So monotonous and there was only so much I could take of it.

“Worst Supporting Stuff Pack” goes to…

H&M Fashion Stuff

H&MFS signalled EAxis’ first foray into the realm of licensed, non-free product placement. Whether the content was fashionable or not is a question I’ll leave to others. No, this SP was the worst because of its blatant in-game advertising. They gave players building tools and decorations to design their very own H&M fashion store to place in their hoods. So what do impressionable players do? Write H&M stores into their stories like it’s second nature! There’s a name for that: guerrilla marketing. (I think.) Thanks, EAxis, for outright marketing expensive clothing to kids through a video game so subliminally – and making the kids pay for the privilege.

H&M only edges out IKEA Stuff by being 1) the first in time and 2) advertising a brand not even available in the countries it was released in! At least we have an IKEA here.

”Worst Expansion Pack” goes to…

Bon Voyage

Rehash of old EP? Check. Crippling, game-breaking bugs on release? Check. Boring after the first time? Check (for me). Badly integrated with other EPs? Check. No spring break from college. No pets on vacation. No running a hotel as a business.

I enjoyed TS3’s freedom from expansions while it lasted, but all good things come to an end. EA have announced the first TS3 expansion.

I am wholly, WHOLLY unimpressed with a single flaw in this game design.

From the press release:

"[Players will] discover new cities in China, France, and Egypt, and share new stories."

Why am I unimpressed?

Because using real countries is a freaking stupid idea.

I once called this sort of thing a rule of the Sims universe: it’s not Earth! It’s fiction! Suspension of disbelief matters – but obviously not to EA, where money comes ahead of creating a coherent, entertaining game. Did not one person designing this game speak up and point out the ridiculousness of using real country names? Maybe they didn’t want to lose their jobs.

See, the sensible angle would be to describe locations as “European”, “Eastern”, or “Egyptian” (whatever, it’s a dead civilization anyway.) These vacation towns already have unique names – why not market the game with those, like Bon Voyage did?

Seriously, are we to believe that there’s a Sim Taiwan/China and a Sim Israel/Palestine too?

Will these places have real-world languages (hell no), terrible accented gibberish (probably) or just the same Simlish we’re used to (most likely)?

Are the developers trying to shove pro-Yankee imperialism down our throats by having Sims governed by a Leader of the Free World?

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Just the fact that all these questions exist shatter my suspension of disbelief and will ruin any enjoyment I could probably get out of this expansion.

But don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more reasons to hate on World Adventures. The linear, mission-based stories turning the game into less and less of a Wrightian sandbox. The inevitable bugs. Being the harbinger of the upgrade cycle. Cultural stereotyping. My loathing of Vacation and Bon Voyage. The content-stripping (taking content out of the game to plump out future EPs/SPs/the Store).

And the neighbourhood editor that has yet to see the light of day and probably never will. Now that EA is on the expansion wagon, this is the kind of thing that will get pushed to the bottom of the pile and stay there, despite pre-release ‘representations’ that it would be out a few weeks after release.

Really, the editor is the one thing that I’m still ‘following’ TS3 for apart from modding because I will never get attached to premades and premade towns.

Anyway, I’ve never been in this camp before. Before I would eagerly look forward to new expansions. Actually with the Sims, it would be what ‘brought me back to the game’ after not playing it for some time. But I am not going to buy World Adventures. I have no interest in it at all.

For instance, pets are all but confirmed.

The fact that ages are defined for the same animals as in TS2 seems to reduce the chances of a Farm EP. I mean, farm animals age too.

Also, Piano?

Did they cut pianos from the game? You know, I’m 99% sure one of the Store hairs was shown in a preview video somewhere as part of CAS. As if you needed more evidence that EA is out for the money.

TS3′s REAL core audience

“The Sims 3 is looking at 16-24 year-old PC players .. [it] has been developed from the ground up specifically against those consumer audiences.”

“it’s not just about appealing to the current Sims fans – they’re critically important, but we know we have to bring new consumers in too.”

So the people complaining about unnecessary changes, and who aren’t in this nicely-segmented age bracket or are ‘old consumers’, have a point. It’s not “developed against” them.

More below about the delay, social networking and kids, and the surprising use of the Internet to market games.

Intentional delays

When it comes to the reason for the June date, Arons replies, “Half strategy, half shifting.“. She gives the standard “more marketing” reason, adding that they intend to bring in new consumers (as quoted above).

She also talks about why EA went out with all these “trial experiences”: to bring in the “lapsed” flock who played TS2 when they were 12, but have probably moved on to KillBlow 3 and such games.

“A lot of what we’ve put significant effort into since we moved from February into June was creating trial experiences for new and lapsed players … “

Making kids buy stuff – I mean, network socially

“…what we’re leveraging on The Sims 3 in terms of social networking being a primary marketing vehicle – actually that’s not as appropriate for, say, young kids, but as we go into building up Littlest Pet Shop online, or any kind of kids online sites, we now know a lot more about social networking and how you dial it down for younger consumers.”

I think “dial it down” means “make it less obvious/offensive so we don’t end up on the news”. Parents should be concerned when they hear marketers talk about things being “primary marketing vehicles” for their children.

‘The online’

On marketing strategies:

“…with The Sims 3 (16-24 year old primary target) – those folks aren’t watching TV. Good luck there, they’re all Tivo-ing or watching online, so we had to go online. It’s probably one of the first marketing plans in EA where the online is more heavily weighted than television – and that’s an evolution. We have to spend a lot more time getting to this consumer group, that’s a lot harder to find than ever before.”

This is why they delayed it four months; because the core demographic is so hard to find! I’m a bit surprised that marketing mainly on the Internet is considered ‘novel’ for EA. In 2009.

Brilliant quote

“EA Play is less about “Let’s make a great game, because we know there’s a market out there.”"

OK, in the interest of fairness…

“It’s more about seeing that girls are really getting into gaming, younger and younger…So I’d say it was (sic) a consumer-centric approach that asks where the market opportunities are, and then goes about building the right titles and game experiences towards them.”