A little rant about the patreon two-three weeks before posting EA āruleā
I wanted to discuss this because I am sick of avoiding the matter when itās being brought to the table by mostly mm creators (sorry but itās true).
First of all, for those who didnāt hear about this āruleā made by SimGuruDrake, here is the orignal statement from 2017:
This rule didnāt specify the creators that were concerned which I always thought was very very unfair because many creators, especially the alpha creators, always made their meshes from scratch and never even used eaās meshes or eaās textures once in their creations, which is my case and MANY other alpha creatorsā case. Thatās why I decided that this rule wasnāt fair for me and I decided to not follow it, but sometimes I felt bad because a lot of alpha creators that create their own meshes are following this rule.
Now a couple of days ago I went over this tweet right here: https://twitter.com/felixandresims/status/1293787383012491264/photo/1
This tweet shows a discussion between felixandresims on twitter and simgurudrake on twitter. Simgurudrake is the one that made the rule in 2017 about the cc locked behind patreon. This discussion CLEARLY states that if the cc isnāt made out of ea meshes or textures, then the rule doesnāt apply and itās 100% owned by the creator himself. Seeing this makes me really happy that finally EA acknowledges that this rule shouldnāt be applied to every creator because this isnāt fair and this isnāt even legal in my opinion (because the package format isnāt owned by ea, it can be used to put together meshes and textures for other purposes than the sims).
Now reading this I am truly hoping alpha creators and all of the creators who arenāt using ea meshes or textures will do whatever they want with their cc because itās in their own right to not follow any rules since they own their cc.
Last thing I want to talk about is some mm creators that were beyond disrespectful to alpha creators because we, as the alpha ācommunityā, didnāt always follow the rule. I am honestly disgusted by some of them with how disrepectful they could get with us even though we did nothing to them.. Also I was sick of their rants about the ea rule that THEY should respect and they are the only ones who are concerned about this rule..
Anyways sorry for my poor english, itās not my native language so please bare with me and I will see you soon.
I thought I donāt have time to be involved in another inconclusive and by that pointless discussion. But I received about 10+ asks about it so far andā¦ Well, Iāll try to be brief yet clear.Ā
1. Teaching morals is useless. No matter what would be called ārightā or āfairā, ppl who want to sell will continue to sell, ppl who want to pay will continue to pay, ppl who want to steal will continue to steal.
Ppl who create content can move to SL or simply sell their 3D models on specialized sites. Ppl who are willing to support creators can donate without being forced to do so. Ppl who share paid content for free can find countless ways to justify piracy [ or even learn to convert and create cc by themselves ]. Ā
What does matter - is the law. Since thereās no real regulation of paid cc issue, the situation in general will stay the same [ no matter was that twitter screenshot fake or real ].Ā
2. Patreon exclusives [ as well as so called āearly accessā released for free after a year or later ] are technically okay. Personally I donāt like or support such scheme, but in fact people have the right to sell their work, just as I have the right not to buy it. Actually, I would rather support those who provide an opportunity to get their content for free after a reasonable time, and any attempt to make me pay causes the opposite effect.Ā Ā Ā
What is not okay - is the fact that those exclusives are aggressively promoted within TS4 players some of whom are kids incapable of managing money adequately. Itās easier to sell a game mod [ esp poorly done ] to a kid than a [ poorly done ] 3D model to an adult, and letās stop pretending that the only reason why some ppl create content for TS4 is their huge admiration for the game.Ā
3. Piracy exists. Itās just a fact.
If a person is constantly bumping into things they canāt afford, they will feel disadvantaged and they will look for a way to get rid of this injustice without thinking about the consequences or whether itās ethical or not.Ā
And here comes the problem - first ppl shared stolen [ letās stop fighting about terms and start calling things by their names ] exclusive content. Then they started to share early access content too. Then they started to reupload absolutely free content to the same platforms for their own convenience. Whatās next?
The result is far from anything good - creators feel demotivated when faced with such consumerist and disrespectful treatment. Some move to other games, some stop sharing at all, some begin to consider their hobby as a job based on a principle āif it doesnāt bring me pleasure, at least let it bring me moneyā. Thatās not rational, thatās not fair, bit thatās how it is. Paid exclusives provokes more stealing, stealing provokes less free content.
Itās a vicious circle, or even a spiral, which leads the community straight to hell.
Both sides think they are fighting injustice - and both are partly right.
And while Iām at it, letās also talk about āyou do this all for money otherwise you wonāt feel demotivated when ppl share your early access contentā thing. Thatās funny how many times I saw this argument, but gosh itās so stupid. In a nutshell - of course money matters, Iād be a hypocrite denying the fact. But money is not everything, itās not even a reason to create smth.
If I didnāt like what Iām doing, money wouldnāt make me to. Iām not 15 years old, I have a job [ which I also like ] and enough of experience to understand that a person would do everything for money only when they or their family are starving, or have nowhere to live or cannot afford urgently needed medical treatment. But in that case person starts to work for three jobs, not sit in the warmth and comfort behind their PC or laptops, sipping tea and engaging in all sorts of discussions about morals.
So yes, my patrons motivate me [Ā āmeā bc I canāt speak for everyone ] to release cc more regularly and more often. But it has nothing to do with my decision to share my content. And the whole argument āyou care only for moneyā is nonsense.Ā
4. But whereās the end of all this? In ideal world EA finally begins to deal with this issue [ which, however, is unlikely to happen ]. In another ideal world creators who want to sell their content donāt go to sites where their stolen content is distributed for free and donāt spoil their nerves. Similarly, people who canāt or donāt want to pay for such content donāt go somewhere they can see paid cc in use - and donāt spoil their nerves either. But thatās not possible at all, bc the world weāre living in is far from perfect. Sad but true.
If you want my personal opinion, extremes are always bad. Both those who choose to create paid exclusive mods for a game that kids play [ mods, based on the resources of that game btw ], and those who choose to steal content that will be soon available for free, are equally wrong. Both provoke an escalation of the problem and both think only about their own benefit.
However it was never stated humanity is fine in general. Sad but true [ 2 ].Ā
People always seek their own benefit - this is a human nature. And since ethics that limit the abuse of that feature is everyoneās personal choice and there are no any real working rules hereā¦ Well, all we can do - is to choose wisely whom to support, be willing to see the difference and take responsibility for our actions, thatās all. Itās us [ both players and creators ] who can choose either to spread hate everywhere, to say toxic things and to make others feel bad - or to do smth else, for example look for some compromises and in general treat people with kindness and respect.
So itās all up to you, and reaction youāll get - is all up to others.
