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.

Regard this as your forewarning.

Well, it was 99% certain to happen early, but the Sims 3 (weighing in @ 4.94 GB) has leaked.

Edit I: SecuROM is BACK. Run.

Edit II: Whispers that it may be an early leak of the Download Edition (already confirmed to contain SecuROM). Jury is out on whether the disc version will have the Blight. Alternately, may be preview code, due to missing content. Smart to wait until retail version is up. Smarter to buy the freakin’ thing.

I’m angry at this. Two reasons.

Firstly, don’t you fucking realise they’ll go back to SecuROM now? They have the perfect excuse, don’t they? The EA seniors will lament using weak DRM and slap SecuROM on the next expansion that comes out. They must still have a contract with Sony.

All because of an early leak. And I am more angry and frustrated because really there’s nothing individuals can do about it. It’s macroeconomics. Hundreds of thousands (millions?) will pirate because it’s free and there’s almost zero marginal cost. I am against oppressive DRM as most gamers are, for obvious reasons, but this sort of phenomenon is a slap in the face to honest people.

The cycle will go on. Hardcore pirates will unabashedly pirate games, hide behind weak excuses of ‘I HATE DRM’, and publishers, as corporations, will respond in the same way they’ve always done.

Secondly, I admit to pirating games (so don’t call me a hypocrite for saying this). I’ve done it because of why everyone does it. It’s free. It’s easier than going out and finding a copy of the game. Sometimes, it’s easier than finding a copy you own in your own house. So, I’m admitting I would be tempted to download it right now. Just to poke around the files, see what its like, etc. I’m dead set on buying it, but that doesn’t excuse the crime. I wholly admit to doing it rather than hiding behind groundless, pithy justifications.

But in my country, bandwidth is a rip off! I have gone over my bandwidth cap for the month (well, I pin the blame on others in my household, I pay the whole bill though) and I’m on a 64kbps connection until the 30th. I have to spend a substantial amount of money on 50GB of bandwidth and ensure it lasts the month, which is a check on torrenting stuff willy-nilly.

So, game companies? If you want to stop pirates, buy the internet companies and force people to accept ridiculous bandwidth costs. I guarantee it will work in Australia at least.

…

Phew. That feels better.

What nefarious schemes will EA implement instead? Here are some ideas for them…

1) Intentionally program the game ‘broken’, and release a day-one patch while restricting its downloading as much as possible to genuine owners. Games for Windows Live, etc. Issue a statement on your official forums; don’t acknowledge what you did but apologise for the issues and then accuse people with broken games of piracy. Hilarity ensues.

2) Create an awesome bonus feature for your game that increases its replayability 500% OR makes the game so much more functional that it’s practically a necessity for all serious players. Restrict the Awesome Bonus with a one-time code packaged with new copies of the game. Gamers will complain: “It’s too Awesome! Why isn’t it in the game itself? I don’t want to download it!” Accuse the complainers of being pirates. Six months later, release the update for $10. Leave it out of the ‘game of the year’ edition just to piss off a few more people. Extra points if Awesome Bonus isn’t ready for three months.

3) Package the game with a proprietary content delivery system which is a mandatory install with the game. Make it impossible, or at least heavily frustrating, to play the game without the PCDS running in memory, chewing up system resources. Accuse anyone who complains of being pirates.