Wow, just ... wow.
First I have a confession.
I totally did not get the concept of why anyone, ever, would want to watch someone else play sims. This seriously confused the hell out of me. I could not have thought of anything more pointless, boring or such a complete waste of time if you had paid me to do it.
But (you knew there was a but in here) because I really do try to not outright judge things I have never experienced first hand (yes, I fail at that sometimes. I admit it. I am human and sometimes, OMGASP! wrong.) when I saw holleyb76's announcement of an upcoming (actually in progress) livestream I thought "What the hell, at least then I will know", and off I went to see what was going on.
I learned two things, The first, I have gotten way more reclusive than I thought I had. No, seriously, I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have. Watching the chat scrolling by on the side I actually had a moment of terror when I thought about joining in. Cold, sweaty palms and everything. This is a bad thing. Sure, I seem fine here, I know here, this is familiar. Kind of like I know for absolute certain I could go stand in front of a room full of strangers and give a presentation. Depending on the topic I could even do it cold with minimal to no prep. Yet when faced with having to directly interact with those same people ... just thinking about it is making breathing difficult.
If anyone else who was there tonight noticed I was really quiet, now you know why. Bear with me in future okay?
The second, and far more relevant to the topic at hand here, it was actually interesting. I can't say it was fun, probably in large part due to the issues mentioned in my first point, but it was interesting. I was surprised and I think I will be stopping by to watch another livestream next time one pops up on my f-list and I can make it.
So, after that eye opener and still a little shaken I did something really stupid. Dumb. Completely disregarding any semblance of intelligence I like to think I have. I went to read this weeks simsecrets ...
... Then I read the comments.
I know! I know! I said I was no longer going to read the comments because of the ability to feel my IQ actively dropping. I read them anyway. I more or less glazed over a certain topic that was dredged up from the depths in which it should have remained because I still had enough sense to know that was not going to go anywhere pretty. I did read a fair amount on the whole "sharing issue" which only seems to have made the prospect of interacting with people more terrifying (I am still trying to work out why) and then I stumbled into the discussion on posting other's work to tumblr (or anywhere really) with attribution.
And I momentarily fell into a dark abyss of anger and mistrust which almost had me pulling everything from all of my various accounts at different places (including deleting LJ), going around to various internet archives and submitting requests to have my content purged and falling off the internet for good.
Bit of an extreme reaction, yes? Yes.
Let me present you with a scenario: You are a design student at a modestly attended community college that just happens to have a reputation for churning out industry leaders in advertising and design. You are a single mother in a city you have only been living in since a few weeks before you started school and have been busting your ass for what seems like ever. Haven't had more than 2 hours sleep in a 24 hour period in over 6 months and your child, who has just turned 4, doesn't want to play with you anymore like other children her age do. No. Instead she sits down to talk with you about triadic schemes, bezier curves and the newest Pantone catalog.
You have been tasked (90% of your grade depends on it) with conceiving, proposing and producing a comprehensive advertising campaign, the pinnacle of which is to be a 30 second commercial suitable for airing on prime time television meeting all major network standards. I want to make this perfectly clear, this was not a group project. Talent may be brought in to appear in the ad slice, but everything else has to be done by you. Alone. You have, from start to finished campaign, 14 days to complete the assignment and have all of it uploaded to the FTP server for marking.
You succeed spectacularly, one of the best in the class, in fact, one of the best the school has ever seen. You pat yourself on the back and carry on. Good job, you have a future AND a very valuable item to include in your portfolio.
Then, on a random weekend, one of the school alumni who now works for THE advertising agency in the area stops by. Not an unusual occurrence, the school offers lifetime upgrading. They shoot the shit with the instructors for a bit, maybe arrange to take a refresher class and casually say "So, got any promising new prospects?" And the instructors, proud of their students, show them the work of the current best-of-the-best.
And then, a little more than a month later, your project is playing in a premium time slot during the Stanley cup play-offs. And the director is calling you into his office because he has heard from other students that, "Hey, that new ad looks JUST like the one so-and-so did!" and you are warned that you are on probation and if there is any further evidence of you "ripping off" the work of "real professionals" you will be expelled and subject to prosecution.
You would think you would be angry, wouldn't you?
You're not. There is a momentary flash of some emotion you can't even begin to describe and then just numb. Numb to the point of not being aware of a single thing that happens over the next week. Fortunately, if you are lucky, your instructors upon hearing what happened step up and say "No, she did it first, if anything was stolen from anyone it was from her." And somewhere in there you seem to remember the director apologizing for wrongly accusing you ... moments before he warns you to just let it go because the ad in question was produced by THE firm of the industry and it would not be good for your future if you, an unknown, made them look anything less than completely professional ... and original.
Eventually anger does set in along with a deep and lingering sense of betrayal, but you move on, work out that more than anything else the lifestyle of this industry is not for you and especially not for your child and off you go to try your hand at being an artist with some interesting and valuable experience under your belt and all is good, but you are a lot more careful about who and what gets access to your work.
Until the day a fellow artist approaches you and says "Hey? When did you start selling your work on products on ebay and why didn't you tell me?"
At that point your confidence in people is irreparably shot to hell and you will NEVER trust another person with your work ever again. You also learn that while the DMCA sounds really good and wonderful and like it is really helpful, in reality it may be easier to build a sugar cube castle to the moon; an endeavor which you would easily have time to complete before seeing any result from going through the process of trying to stop the unauthorized use of your work, never mind getting compensation.
Arguably, sim-images can not really be called "your work". Yes, they are yours, you made up the sim and created the setting and angled the camera just so and most simmers have a style that is uniquely their own and says "I took this picture!", but the basic fact remains that the game, the base from which you started for that picture, belongs to EA. I am not suggesting that there is isn't just as much creativity and feeling and, yes, even originality put into many sim images as would go into original art or photography. It is fan art. Plain and simple. But, just as if you went and drew a picture of the characters from your favourite work of fiction in another medium, that image is yours in the respect that you created based on an idea owned by someone else, and I am betting if you did go draw a piece of fan art, shared it and then found someone else was claiming they drew it, you would be pretty pissed.
I do realize, in the case in question on simsecret, the images are not claimed by the person posting them and they have given attribution to the creator, however for those of us who have been burned in the ways I just described for you, it is really hard to make that distinction. It is a knee jerk reaction.
What, for most I have talked to and certainly for me, would offset this reaction? Ask. A simple "Hey, I would like to share your pic here, is that okay?" The answer, for most, is usually a resounding "YES!". You might even find that the creator has already set up a way to make sharing much easier for you, as in the case of tumblr (and what seems to have been at the heart of the issue) a simple mouse click to reblog the image and another to follow the creator's blog. Two good things for the price of one! You get to share AND have found someone else to follow gaining access to everything else they will share in future.
Even a quick note, "I shared your pic here, just wanted to let you know." Immediately takes us (me) out of the vulnerable mindset and into "*Squeee!* Someone else likes my shit!" We don't make these things, usually, just to stare at them. We want others to see them. Art, in any form is best when viewed.
Yes, I know there are those who will say "But all art should be free! Creation is a gift!" Creation is a gift, absolutely, but then so is the ability to landscape. There is an art to selecting plants, maintaining them and even mowing lawns. Some people, for whatever reason, are not capable of creating "art" just as some, no matter how they try, will only ever kill their grass instead of having the rich, lush lawn they desire. You are of course free to create art and freely share it if you wish, just as I am free to mow my neighbours lawn as a gesture of kindness; however I do not tell you that you can not make a living as a landscaper, don't tell me I can't make a living as an artist.
One more thing before I get off my soapbox. I am not at all implying that the simmer called into question in that one particular secret was in any way acting maliciously. In fact I believe it was exactly the opposite. I am just explaining the hows and offering an example of the why some would feel the way the secret maker does since I noticed a few comments who could not understand why sharing would ever be an issue for anyone.
I totally did not get the concept of why anyone, ever, would want to watch someone else play sims. This seriously confused the hell out of me. I could not have thought of anything more pointless, boring or such a complete waste of time if you had paid me to do it.
But (you knew there was a but in here) because I really do try to not outright judge things I have never experienced first hand (yes, I fail at that sometimes. I admit it. I am human and sometimes, OMGASP! wrong.) when I saw holleyb76's announcement of an upcoming (actually in progress) livestream I thought "What the hell, at least then I will know", and off I went to see what was going on.
I learned two things, The first, I have gotten way more reclusive than I thought I had. No, seriously, I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have. Watching the chat scrolling by on the side I actually had a moment of terror when I thought about joining in. Cold, sweaty palms and everything. This is a bad thing. Sure, I seem fine here, I know here, this is familiar. Kind of like I know for absolute certain I could go stand in front of a room full of strangers and give a presentation. Depending on the topic I could even do it cold with minimal to no prep. Yet when faced with having to directly interact with those same people ... just thinking about it is making breathing difficult.
If anyone else who was there tonight noticed I was really quiet, now you know why. Bear with me in future okay?
The second, and far more relevant to the topic at hand here, it was actually interesting. I can't say it was fun, probably in large part due to the issues mentioned in my first point, but it was interesting. I was surprised and I think I will be stopping by to watch another livestream next time one pops up on my f-list and I can make it.
So, after that eye opener and still a little shaken I did something really stupid. Dumb. Completely disregarding any semblance of intelligence I like to think I have. I went to read this weeks simsecrets ...
... Then I read the comments.
I know! I know! I said I was no longer going to read the comments because of the ability to feel my IQ actively dropping. I read them anyway. I more or less glazed over a certain topic that was dredged up from the depths in which it should have remained because I still had enough sense to know that was not going to go anywhere pretty. I did read a fair amount on the whole "sharing issue" which only seems to have made the prospect of interacting with people more terrifying (I am still trying to work out why) and then I stumbled into the discussion on posting other's work to tumblr (or anywhere really) with attribution.
And I momentarily fell into a dark abyss of anger and mistrust which almost had me pulling everything from all of my various accounts at different places (including deleting LJ), going around to various internet archives and submitting requests to have my content purged and falling off the internet for good.
Bit of an extreme reaction, yes? Yes.
Let me present you with a scenario: You are a design student at a modestly attended community college that just happens to have a reputation for churning out industry leaders in advertising and design. You are a single mother in a city you have only been living in since a few weeks before you started school and have been busting your ass for what seems like ever. Haven't had more than 2 hours sleep in a 24 hour period in over 6 months and your child, who has just turned 4, doesn't want to play with you anymore like other children her age do. No. Instead she sits down to talk with you about triadic schemes, bezier curves and the newest Pantone catalog.
You have been tasked (90% of your grade depends on it) with conceiving, proposing and producing a comprehensive advertising campaign, the pinnacle of which is to be a 30 second commercial suitable for airing on prime time television meeting all major network standards. I want to make this perfectly clear, this was not a group project. Talent may be brought in to appear in the ad slice, but everything else has to be done by you. Alone. You have, from start to finished campaign, 14 days to complete the assignment and have all of it uploaded to the FTP server for marking.
You succeed spectacularly, one of the best in the class, in fact, one of the best the school has ever seen. You pat yourself on the back and carry on. Good job, you have a future AND a very valuable item to include in your portfolio.
Then, on a random weekend, one of the school alumni who now works for THE advertising agency in the area stops by. Not an unusual occurrence, the school offers lifetime upgrading. They shoot the shit with the instructors for a bit, maybe arrange to take a refresher class and casually say "So, got any promising new prospects?" And the instructors, proud of their students, show them the work of the current best-of-the-best.
And then, a little more than a month later, your project is playing in a premium time slot during the Stanley cup play-offs. And the director is calling you into his office because he has heard from other students that, "Hey, that new ad looks JUST like the one so-and-so did!" and you are warned that you are on probation and if there is any further evidence of you "ripping off" the work of "real professionals" you will be expelled and subject to prosecution.
You would think you would be angry, wouldn't you?
You're not. There is a momentary flash of some emotion you can't even begin to describe and then just numb. Numb to the point of not being aware of a single thing that happens over the next week. Fortunately, if you are lucky, your instructors upon hearing what happened step up and say "No, she did it first, if anything was stolen from anyone it was from her." And somewhere in there you seem to remember the director apologizing for wrongly accusing you ... moments before he warns you to just let it go because the ad in question was produced by THE firm of the industry and it would not be good for your future if you, an unknown, made them look anything less than completely professional ... and original.
Eventually anger does set in along with a deep and lingering sense of betrayal, but you move on, work out that more than anything else the lifestyle of this industry is not for you and especially not for your child and off you go to try your hand at being an artist with some interesting and valuable experience under your belt and all is good, but you are a lot more careful about who and what gets access to your work.
Until the day a fellow artist approaches you and says "Hey? When did you start selling your work on products on ebay and why didn't you tell me?"
At that point your confidence in people is irreparably shot to hell and you will NEVER trust another person with your work ever again. You also learn that while the DMCA sounds really good and wonderful and like it is really helpful, in reality it may be easier to build a sugar cube castle to the moon; an endeavor which you would easily have time to complete before seeing any result from going through the process of trying to stop the unauthorized use of your work, never mind getting compensation.
Arguably, sim-images can not really be called "your work". Yes, they are yours, you made up the sim and created the setting and angled the camera just so and most simmers have a style that is uniquely their own and says "I took this picture!", but the basic fact remains that the game, the base from which you started for that picture, belongs to EA. I am not suggesting that there is isn't just as much creativity and feeling and, yes, even originality put into many sim images as would go into original art or photography. It is fan art. Plain and simple. But, just as if you went and drew a picture of the characters from your favourite work of fiction in another medium, that image is yours in the respect that you created based on an idea owned by someone else, and I am betting if you did go draw a piece of fan art, shared it and then found someone else was claiming they drew it, you would be pretty pissed.
I do realize, in the case in question on simsecret, the images are not claimed by the person posting them and they have given attribution to the creator, however for those of us who have been burned in the ways I just described for you, it is really hard to make that distinction. It is a knee jerk reaction.
What, for most I have talked to and certainly for me, would offset this reaction? Ask. A simple "Hey, I would like to share your pic here, is that okay?" The answer, for most, is usually a resounding "YES!". You might even find that the creator has already set up a way to make sharing much easier for you, as in the case of tumblr (and what seems to have been at the heart of the issue) a simple mouse click to reblog the image and another to follow the creator's blog. Two good things for the price of one! You get to share AND have found someone else to follow gaining access to everything else they will share in future.
Even a quick note, "I shared your pic here, just wanted to let you know." Immediately takes us (me) out of the vulnerable mindset and into "*Squeee!* Someone else likes my shit!" We don't make these things, usually, just to stare at them. We want others to see them. Art, in any form is best when viewed.
Yes, I know there are those who will say "But all art should be free! Creation is a gift!" Creation is a gift, absolutely, but then so is the ability to landscape. There is an art to selecting plants, maintaining them and even mowing lawns. Some people, for whatever reason, are not capable of creating "art" just as some, no matter how they try, will only ever kill their grass instead of having the rich, lush lawn they desire. You are of course free to create art and freely share it if you wish, just as I am free to mow my neighbours lawn as a gesture of kindness; however I do not tell you that you can not make a living as a landscaper, don't tell me I can't make a living as an artist.
One more thing before I get off my soapbox. I am not at all implying that the simmer called into question in that one particular secret was in any way acting maliciously. In fact I believe it was exactly the opposite. I am just explaining the hows and offering an example of the why some would feel the way the secret maker does since I noticed a few comments who could not understand why sharing would ever be an issue for anyone.