TS2 Dramu YAY!
Some of you (i.e. monoshiri) know that I've become extremely observant of the Sims 2 community recently, and not just because I love the game to bits. Some drama went down in a big way on one of my favourite sites last year; before that, I didn't even know the TS2 community had a capacity for drama, because I never saw any. I've tried to explain it to monoshiri, but the written word outdoes my speech by far. It's a long story and boring for those who aren't interested in scandal, piracy and corrupt businesses freely giving out personal information.
Shall we begin?
Oh, and some terms that feature largely:
Freesite: A site which offers all its content for free.
Paysite: A site which requires a "donation" to download (i.e. buying the download). This nomer applies even if only one download has to be paid for on the entire site.
DDoS: A method of hacking that boils down to overloading the server with access requests.
EULA: End User License Agreement. That big long contract you have to accept before using a program.
Just to give you an idea of the setting.
We're all gamers, obviously. The vast majority of us are inactive or lurking or playing the fucking game, dammit. But when we socialize, we're generally very accomodating. We play God as a hobby; we don't need superiority. Unlessyou'reonMATY*cough* Sorry.
Most sites are also very observant of the law. For instance, every time a newtwit says "Why not just hack TSR?" on PSMBD, they get their faces beaten into the floor with the holy folding chair of "NO. ILLEGAL. CATTY. NOT DESCENDING TO THEIR LEVEL."
BNFs in the Sims 2 "fandom" work for that level of fame. You either have to be a gobsmacking artist/modeller, a programmer who commands epic win with his fingertips, or have the courage to be the best mod/blogger/investigator. But it all goes down the drain if you give us arrogance. Unlessyou'reonMATY*cough* I ought to get some lozenges. But really, the people I list below (except Thomas) are beyond belief in their dedication to the community.
The Sites
EA/Maxis/EAxis
Fundamental to the story, the creators of TS2. EA bought out Maxis many a year ago. I believe the situation for a while was that Maxis were developers and EA were publishers, but EA has engulfed much of the process now. Staff members are still called "Maxoids" on the BBS at the official site, though. The company has attracted massive criticism for releasing games too soon, resulting in a buggy experience.
ModTheSims2
The largest freesite in the TS2 community. A place you go to learn how it's done, with creation tutorials and all ranges of content. Run by Delphy.
InSIMenator
Another large freesite, although this one is a forum rather than a download site. Friendly to a fault as a community. Previously run by the founders, Eric and Kathy, who although they are rather decent people, were careless in their sale of the site. I'll save the rest for the story.
The Sims Resource
The oldest and biggest Sims fansite. A paysite. Run by Steve Bonham along with Thomas and his little league of Featured Artists (FAs). These guys crop up a lot.
Paysites Must Be Destroyed
The title says it all, really. If you see something you like on a paysite but don't want to pay for it, you go to the Booty. Its forum, the Site That Must Not Be Named, is much less sweetness and huggles than InSIM's or MTS2's, but much more personable. Run by J. M. Pescado. It gets a little bit like a propaganda mill sometimes, but a hilarious and intelligent propaganda mill.
TSR Must Be Destroyed
An unprofessional but hard-hitting and extremely well-supported blog by Coconut. When this blog was on LJ, it was repeatedly reported and hacked until Pescado himself stepped in and gave her some server space and hacking protection to create an independent blog. Receives some blog content from (often former) TSR members. Warning: contains name-calling alongside srs bznss.
The People
J. M. Pescado
I'm pretty sure he's enacting a peaceful takeover of the TS2 community. He now owns InSIM, PMBD, TSRMBD and another forum called More Awesome Than You. He's a crusty machine master admired by much of the community for his machine mastery and crustiness. AKA: Pesky, Pes, JMP.
Delphy
The man behind the MTS2. Another master programmer, except with great personal dedication to the community. Often gets buried in work.
Eric and Kathy
A husband-and-wife team who founded InSIM based on Eric's essential mod, the InSIMenator itself, and ran it for many good years with minimal drama. Then they sold it to the highest bidder and revealed !scandal!.
Thomas Isaksson
Voice of TSR. Lives in Sweden in a house built using TSR subscribers' money. No, really. It's a butt-ugly house, too. Encourages DDoSing as a method of discourse. AKA: Thomass, Thoma$$.
Coconut
Runs TSRMBD. Is a high-ranking member of TSR, but no one knows who. Uses this fact to take screenshots of incriminating discussions between Thomas and his FAs. Is in contact with and mutual admiration of many top TS2 community contributors.
All others don't really warrant description.
InSIM: The Drama That Drew Me In
So Eric and Kathy have a life. Big surprise. Their life finally got too busy for them to support a site. Fine, it happens. They sold it. Sure, fine. To a businessman (Walt) who's never even played TS2 and intended to turn InSIM into a paysite. Uh, fuck no. Massive drama ensues (which I didn't even notice until afterwards), moderators leave the site in droves, it's revealed that Eric and Kathy were making personal profit, and the entire thing goes down the tubes. Delphy repeatedly offers to buy the site. Walt gets butthurt and shuts down the site for "maintenance". The old URL now leads to nowhere.
Pescado notices and immediately undertakes an effort to transfer all the data onto a new server. InSIM rises from the ashes and returns to business as usual, except there's a shrine to Pes somewhere in there. It's much better accounted in this post by a BNF otherwise called Devilfish. Unfortunately, one of her screenshots is gone, but it existed. She ain't shittin'.
Hairy Paysites and That Tricky EULA
This is the original EULA for The Sims 2 and its two main editing tools, Body Shop and Homecrafter, with important bits highlighted. It's been chopped up a tad since then, but that middle highlighted bit with the inverted "noncommercial" is still there. And that's the important one. It's the one that means that paysites are technically in breach of the EULA. The last highlighted bit may seem irrelevant, but the one thing that major paysites (especially TSR) argue in their favour is that "EA is okay with it!" or similar. Which is specifically discounted in the EULA. And the "pirates", anti-paysite debaters, fire back with the EULA itself. They've been doing this for years. It's similar to what "It's not natural" and "Neither are your pants" are to the gay marriage debate. That's a summary of that.
Dastardly Villains and Disillusioned Miscreants
TSRMBD has better coverage, as I've mentioned.
Essentially, TSR is at war with PSMBD, TSRMBD and, more quietly, MTS2. Oh, and every "pirate" (so called because TSR defines them as people who "steal" their content) on the Net. PSMBD revels in its "pirate" status, to the great lulz of all members.
Multiple sites have sent (null) legal threats to PSMBD, none of which ever followed through, probably because as soon as the threatener talked to an actual lawyer, they got laughed out of the office. Except TSR. They're big. They're angry. They haven't noticed how hard the "pirates" are laughing at them. They seem to believe that MaxoidDrea's "clarification" changed the EULA. It didn't. If it did, EA Legal would post the new one.
Which wouldn't matter because they're breaking copyright law by selling anything with the EA-copyrighted .package file extension! :D (For clarification, it's essentially similar to putting a third-party expansion or stuff pack on the shelves.)
Besides, TSR should have more to worry about than a guy hosting their downloads for free. For instance, other people pissing on them for serious stuff that actually risks breaching the law, like, oh, sharing personal info in a community of over two million or encouraging harassment or hacking/DDoSing other sites or putting trojans in downloads and calling them "watermarks." or exposing minors to adult material in a PG13 setting (TSR has many members well under 13).
Oh, and I should mention that TSR's latest legal threat calls the "pirates" associated with PSMBD "disillusioned miscreants". Good job, Thomas. You got it in one.
That's all I feel like posting for now. That took a loooong time.
Shall we begin?
Oh, and some terms that feature largely:
Freesite: A site which offers all its content for free.
Paysite: A site which requires a "donation" to download (i.e. buying the download). This nomer applies even if only one download has to be paid for on the entire site.
DDoS: A method of hacking that boils down to overloading the server with access requests.
EULA: End User License Agreement. That big long contract you have to accept before using a program.
Just to give you an idea of the setting.
We're all gamers, obviously. The vast majority of us are inactive or lurking or playing the fucking game, dammit. But when we socialize, we're generally very accomodating. We play God as a hobby; we don't need superiority. Unlessyou'reonMATY*cough* Sorry.
Most sites are also very observant of the law. For instance, every time a newtwit says "Why not just hack TSR?" on PSMBD, they get their faces beaten into the floor with the holy folding chair of "NO. ILLEGAL. CATTY. NOT DESCENDING TO THEIR LEVEL."
BNFs in the Sims 2 "fandom" work for that level of fame. You either have to be a gobsmacking artist/modeller, a programmer who commands epic win with his fingertips, or have the courage to be the best mod/blogger/investigator. But it all goes down the drain if you give us arrogance. Unlessyou'reonMATY*cough* I ought to get some lozenges. But really, the people I list below (except Thomas) are beyond belief in their dedication to the community.
The Sites
EA/Maxis/EAxis
Fundamental to the story, the creators of TS2. EA bought out Maxis many a year ago. I believe the situation for a while was that Maxis were developers and EA were publishers, but EA has engulfed much of the process now. Staff members are still called "Maxoids" on the BBS at the official site, though. The company has attracted massive criticism for releasing games too soon, resulting in a buggy experience.
ModTheSims2
The largest freesite in the TS2 community. A place you go to learn how it's done, with creation tutorials and all ranges of content. Run by Delphy.
InSIMenator
Another large freesite, although this one is a forum rather than a download site. Friendly to a fault as a community. Previously run by the founders, Eric and Kathy, who although they are rather decent people, were careless in their sale of the site. I'll save the rest for the story.
The Sims Resource
The oldest and biggest Sims fansite. A paysite. Run by Steve Bonham along with Thomas and his little league of Featured Artists (FAs). These guys crop up a lot.
Paysites Must Be Destroyed
The title says it all, really. If you see something you like on a paysite but don't want to pay for it, you go to the Booty. Its forum, the Site That Must Not Be Named, is much less sweetness and huggles than InSIM's or MTS2's, but much more personable. Run by J. M. Pescado. It gets a little bit like a propaganda mill sometimes, but a hilarious and intelligent propaganda mill.
TSR Must Be Destroyed
An unprofessional but hard-hitting and extremely well-supported blog by Coconut. When this blog was on LJ, it was repeatedly reported and hacked until Pescado himself stepped in and gave her some server space and hacking protection to create an independent blog. Receives some blog content from (often former) TSR members. Warning: contains name-calling alongside srs bznss.
The People
J. M. Pescado
I'm pretty sure he's enacting a peaceful takeover of the TS2 community. He now owns InSIM, PMBD, TSRMBD and another forum called More Awesome Than You. He's a crusty machine master admired by much of the community for his machine mastery and crustiness. AKA: Pesky, Pes, JMP.
Delphy
The man behind the MTS2. Another master programmer, except with great personal dedication to the community. Often gets buried in work.
Eric and Kathy
A husband-and-wife team who founded InSIM based on Eric's essential mod, the InSIMenator itself, and ran it for many good years with minimal drama. Then they sold it to the highest bidder and revealed !scandal!.
Thomas Isaksson
Voice of TSR. Lives in Sweden in a house built using TSR subscribers' money. No, really. It's a butt-ugly house, too. Encourages DDoSing as a method of discourse. AKA: Thomass, Thoma$$.
Coconut
Runs TSRMBD. Is a high-ranking member of TSR, but no one knows who. Uses this fact to take screenshots of incriminating discussions between Thomas and his FAs. Is in contact with and mutual admiration of many top TS2 community contributors.
All others don't really warrant description.
InSIM: The Drama That Drew Me In
So Eric and Kathy have a life. Big surprise. Their life finally got too busy for them to support a site. Fine, it happens. They sold it. Sure, fine. To a businessman (Walt) who's never even played TS2 and intended to turn InSIM into a paysite. Uh, fuck no. Massive drama ensues (which I didn't even notice until afterwards), moderators leave the site in droves, it's revealed that Eric and Kathy were making personal profit, and the entire thing goes down the tubes. Delphy repeatedly offers to buy the site. Walt gets butthurt and shuts down the site for "maintenance". The old URL now leads to nowhere.
Pescado notices and immediately undertakes an effort to transfer all the data onto a new server. InSIM rises from the ashes and returns to business as usual, except there's a shrine to Pes somewhere in there. It's much better accounted in this post by a BNF otherwise called Devilfish. Unfortunately, one of her screenshots is gone, but it existed. She ain't shittin'.
Hairy Paysites and That Tricky EULA
This is the original EULA for The Sims 2 and its two main editing tools, Body Shop and Homecrafter, with important bits highlighted. It's been chopped up a tad since then, but that middle highlighted bit with the inverted "noncommercial" is still there. And that's the important one. It's the one that means that paysites are technically in breach of the EULA. The last highlighted bit may seem irrelevant, but the one thing that major paysites (especially TSR) argue in their favour is that "EA is okay with it!" or similar. Which is specifically discounted in the EULA. And the "pirates", anti-paysite debaters, fire back with the EULA itself. They've been doing this for years. It's similar to what "It's not natural" and "Neither are your pants" are to the gay marriage debate. That's a summary of that.
Dastardly Villains and Disillusioned Miscreants
TSRMBD has better coverage, as I've mentioned.
Essentially, TSR is at war with PSMBD, TSRMBD and, more quietly, MTS2. Oh, and every "pirate" (so called because TSR defines them as people who "steal" their content) on the Net. PSMBD revels in its "pirate" status, to the great lulz of all members.
Multiple sites have sent (null) legal threats to PSMBD, none of which ever followed through, probably because as soon as the threatener talked to an actual lawyer, they got laughed out of the office. Except TSR. They're big. They're angry. They haven't noticed how hard the "pirates" are laughing at them. They seem to believe that MaxoidDrea's "clarification" changed the EULA. It didn't. If it did, EA Legal would post the new one.
Which wouldn't matter because they're breaking copyright law by selling anything with the EA-copyrighted .package file extension! :D (For clarification, it's essentially similar to putting a third-party expansion or stuff pack on the shelves.)
Besides, TSR should have more to worry about than a guy hosting their downloads for free. For instance, other people pissing on them for serious stuff that actually risks breaching the law, like, oh, sharing personal info in a community of over two million or encouraging harassment or hacking/DDoSing other sites or putting trojans in downloads and calling them "watermarks." or exposing minors to adult material in a PG13 setting (TSR has many members well under 13).
Oh, and I should mention that TSR's latest legal threat calls the "pirates" associated with PSMBD "disillusioned miscreants". Good job, Thomas. You got it in one.
That's all I feel like posting for now. That took a loooong time.