#all the love to modder community at this point

[iceclew]

Appareantly Thomas is not haunting some of you as much as he is haunting me, or in other words - for those who don't know, let me show you what my skyrim runs looked like 15 years ago 🤣 i was a humble adventurer lizard once, but then I took a tank engine to the knee. 🥹🫡

Also squeezing my heart out for your lovely feedback guys thank yoouuu ❤️🥹

*drops into bed*

this took so much more time than I was expecting it to. ;_; tho it got me through a few difficult days, so it's fine.

a little fancomic for skyrim tales, cause I still am sorta obsessed :D

first I was like, ok, 'let's just try some more comic like stuff' then I was like, 'now I need to make Thomas be a coloured side, just to make him really pop out' And then I was like 'well NOW the rest looks sorta blank.. so. full colour it is...'

//finished full colour//

'....well now all the colours look off.' *table flip*

big smooch to my bestie @mechazushi aka beta reader, aka the-one-brain-cell-keeper!! <3 thank you so much for taking the time to feedback my drafts <3 ૮ ˆﻌˆ ა

[gatheredfates]

Hi everyone and happy weekend! I'm drowning at work, but I wanted to put out a Compendium update—thank you to everyone who submitted! I don't think I missed anyone but, if I did, I'll update accordingly. ✨

As of 08/10, the following communities have been added to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives.

LARGE-SCALE COMMUNITY DISCORDS / SPACES

Final Fantasy XIV Ontario — This server was created to connect gamers in (or near) Ontario, Canada who love playing Final Fantasy XIV. Events include monthly map nights and irl meetups!

COMMUNITY FOCUSED / EVENT SPACES

Dragonhead — An open-world roleplay event for Ishgardians (and their neighbours).

Echelons of Etheirys — A community fostering political and court life roleplay in the world of Final Fantasy XIV, featuring regency-inspired tropes and themes; located on the North American data centre.

Buscarron's Druthers — A weekly roleplay community effort to encourage in-character, open-world engagement in the South Shroud and beyond.

The Bloodsands — Interested in combat RP? We have the place for you!

Lark's — An Ishgardian club for men.

The Regency — A gentleman's club.

Eorzean Museum Network — A network of free, player-run, venues; encouraging, supporting, and growing cultural venues and events anywhere in the FFXIV community.

Azure Moon Lounge — A welcome respite from the elements, the room is always cool and the drinks are plenty. Hosted by @rhela-xiv.

MISC

Compendium of Non-Weapon Held Objects — This is an ever-growing compendium of non-weapon held objects found in FFXIV for modders and gposers to reference. It includes a description of the object, the set/base/variant for adding it in Ktisis/Anamnesis/Brio, as well other technical information. This database is currently maintained by Nhaneh, Ainyan, and Pointyhats.

Have you thought about joining our Tumblr Community? You can find it here!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here or send me an ask with the relevant information!

Is my space suitable for the Compendium? Most of the time, yes! Below the read more is some more information/stipulations. This is all publicly available on the document.

Below are the following things I do not accept on the Compendium:

Personal/Single-Character LFC ads. (Though these get posted to the SEAFLOOR Tumblr Community when I find them!)

Content intended for or can be used for bullying, harassment and OOC gossip. E.g. ‘Secrets’ blogs, receipts, callout posts, etc. This does not include IC tabloid blogs or other ventures used to generate roleplay.

Communities that do not have an RP/writing element (large-scale exempt).

Anything I find personally distasteful or goes against the spirit of this project.

Common-sense rule applies.

I want to put my community on the Compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my Community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community/resource on the Compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it. The same goes for resources; if it's relevant to the game, it'll be useful to someone.

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, contact me asap!

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (8/13/2024) Episode: Making The Pitch

When Luigi put his mind to something it usually wasn’t long before he’d achieved his goal, and his proposal for Noemi’s boss was no exception.

Working late into the night he outlined his idea for a new life sim. He’d played Sims Forever since he was young and had been programming mods to enhance his gameplay almost as long. The popularity of those mods made him confident that he understood what would appeal to other gamers.

Noemi had been right that Luigi’s name being attached to the project would get her bosses attention.

Her supervisor had looked skeptical when she’d dropped a proposal from her fiancée off that morning, but by lunchtime Patricia caught her in the breakroom with quite a different attitude. “I looked into your boy’s plan.” She said, wolfing down a quick sandwich between meetings.

“A respected Sims Forever modder with a couple other claims to fame developing a competitor to the classic game?” She rapped her knuckles on the table for emphasis and pointed. “Get him here ASAP for a meeting with me and Daniel from investment! I’m positive the community will eat this up.”

A couple days later Luigi found himself in the conference room of Rainy Day’s downtown headquarters. He and Noemi worked for different branches of the same parent company, and he’d met her boss a couple times in passing, but the investment guy was new to him.

Used to public performances he was at ease, smiling brightly as he shook hands and settled down across from the other two sims.

“So…” Patrica began “I read your proposal and I’m intrigued. I want to hear more about what you think you can bring to the table to set your game apart from Sims Forever. We’ll want to attract its audience and bring in new players – how do you intend to do that”?

As he’d gotten older Luigi had learned how to use his cheerful nature to his advantage. To that end he didn’t attempt to hide his enthusiasm, letting his excitement shine through and captivating his audience as he launched into an explanation.

"Sims Forever has been my favorite videogame for as long as I can remember. I love it, but I’m also very aware of what it lacks, the things I got into modding to fix. I want to develop a game that has options for more control, and more chaos. One with randomly generated NPCs that didn’t dress themselves in the dark, who have skills and backstories to match their traits and preferences.” 

Luigi paused to take a breath, but before he could continue Daniel held up a hand to stop him. "I've heard enough. Your project writeup outlined this quite nicely. It’s clear you have the passion to execute your vision; and I’ll be counting on Noemi here to manage the team needed to back you up."

Luigi gave Daniel a sincerely thankful smile as they discussed the contractual details, but Patricia didn’t let him escape on a high note.

"Before you go, there is one issue we need to talk about. You got yourself into quite the pickle the other night with that little mouse fiasco. I trust the PR department is helping you clean up that mess?“ She looked at him expectantly as he did his best to suppress a flash of irritation and shame. 

"Of course," he lied "they're all over it.“ In reality, the “damage control” team were all over him to address it publicly, but he’d been stonewalling them. He’d hoped the whole thing would just blow over in time without requiring him to take an active and risky role in repairing his reputation.

 As he and Noemi walked out to grab lunch, Luigi’s excitement at his win was dampened by worrying about what he was going to say to the team’s publicist later that evening. It looked like he was going to need to cooperate with them after all.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[starres-stuff]

Yesterday I watched something that had been part of my XIV life for three years fall apart. There was a mixed well of emotions that bubbled and boiled inside of me the good, the bad and the downright ugly. It was hard to watch this as the people inside of this place were there when Covid hit, many prayed for me when I was hospitalized last year and almost lost my life. It wasn't always the best, it wasn't always the nicest but it was a huge part of my life something I didn't actually consider until I watched it all fall apart.

Change comes and change goes. Memories are ghosts that haunt the mind. In the end it was people who brought it there not because they were tired, not because they were burnt out but because they were malicious and cruel.

One thing that stuns me is how easy it is to forget there are people on the other side of the screen. No you can't see them, you can't drive on by for a visit most of the time but these are real people. They are people who touch your life with their stories ic and ooc. They are people who are there when your life goes to hell and who are there to celebrate with you when things go great. They are as real as that person you can reach out and touch. To those of us who are empaths and energy workers we even learn that the spirit can transcend the physical form and far away is only as far as you make it.

We laugh with these internet friends, we cry with them. We stay up all night even though we have a busy morning to make sure they are okay. We think about them when a song comes on the radio or when we think of two of ocs and their ship. We love these people in many different ways and many different seasons.

But yet.. so many treat these internet friends like they aren't important, like they are disposal, like it is okay to toss them aside or okay to hurt them because "they aren't real" the thing is they have a heart beat just like you and somewhere they are sitting in the dark wondering what they did wrong.

The XIV community can be hell to navigate and I don't just mean the RPers, the Modders or even the Raiders. I mean the whole thing. Every day I see someone calling out someone else or someone pulling screenshots out of their ass to use in some narrative they concocted.

Stop..

For five minutes just stop look at the people who have touched your life in game. Those people who send you messages every day to see how you are feeling or compliment you on your latest gpose. Those people who eagerly wait to rp with you again or want to hear about your stories for your ocs. See those people? Their avatars on your screens or in your pictures. Those are real people sitting in a chair somewhere in the world wanting to make friends and be accepted so life feels just a little bit better.

It's okay to love them you know, or admit that you need them in your life. What's not okay is treating them like garbage to the point that they have been treated so poorly they quit the game all together and never plan to return.

Betrayal is not okay. Weaponizing something someone tells you in confidence is not okay. I don't care if it is offline or online. It is not okay to use people's life stories to hurt others especially when you called them friend for so long.

Today I am sad. I don't like change. I don't like when the friend that has been there for years suddenly leaves my life to start another path and I certainly hate lack of closure for it leaves a hole to fester inside the mind and the heart that is never filled no matter how hard you try. Today that place I knew for so long is in shambles. People have left, I have left.

Please just be a little kinder to those internet people around you. It doesn't matter how far apart we are when we look out the window we see the same sun, the same moon and the same stars. We are all people in the same place. Distance means nothing but hope does. These are real lives and real people. Be a little softer, a little kinder and a little gentler.

[wellthebardsdead]

Aaaaaaaaand had more Karen’s in my inbox since I’ve been posting more elder scrolls content instead of Overwatch.

I’m not including screenshots as I’m fairly certain they’re minors and they’re using their actual accounts.

But, I don’t care. Literally I could not give a fuck.

I love Overwatch. I love it a lot but I love the elder scrolls series more. And modders for skyrim are working harder than blizzard or Bethesda ever could.

I’ll post Overwatch content occasionally from now on but if you don’t like my skyrim/elder scrolls content feel free to move on or unfollow. I’m not catering to people anymore.

Believe me, once the story mode/pve in Overwatch is released I will be ALL over that.

But skyrims mod community is working with so much passion to the point they’ve only improved on a world I already adore so much. (Bitchop not included)

I’ll post more Overwatch content soon, but right now it’s leaving me uninspired and high and dry ~Bambi

[dynamite124]

Hey I hope you love random inbox things!

I just wanted to thank you for all the hard work you're putting into Taliesin! I recently got my wife into modding and playing skyrim, and she's absolutely over the moon about him. (I mentioned a possible romance in the works and she's chomping at the bit lol)

I also wanted to ask your insight, if you're willing of course: I'm not new to modding in general, but I am pretty green when it comes to making mods, and I've had an idea for a skyrim follower of my own making floating around in my head (and hardly the time or energy to start it orz)

What was the hardest part for you when you began creating a follower mod? And what's your favorite part about modding?

Aww I love hearing couples share a Skyrim experience! Its just as sweet as someone introducing Taliesin to their mom, I love hearing this! <3

I've had some experience with coding thank to RPG Maker. I've made some games but never finished them because they became more of a visual novel. ;__;

The Creation Kit handles very similarly to the RPG Maker, and thankfully there are tutorials to help beginners.

I think the hardest part is the coding! I had to reach out to more experienced modders for help, especially since a lot of Followers come with "Must Haves"

Summon Spell

Horse

Tracking System

Approval System

and other bells and whistles to make things unique for that follower.

Honestly, Keep things simple! sometimes figuring things out will get frustrating to the point that you loose your motivation to finishing something. I got lucky by having other modders reach out to help me with some of these things. But the community of modders has been very supporting! If you have questions, they can help to work out the codes to make what want to happen to happen!

[simmie-stories]

Frequently Used Custom Content

I caved and got eyelashes, makeup, and cc clothes at some point, and wanted to give appropriate credit as I use them throughout.

Decided to just expand it to all my frequently used cc (even though they are probably already very well known in this community, and very few people will see this 😂).

Makeup, Overlays, Lashes

@miikocc eyelashes and much more

@crypticsim Anastasia

@emmibouquet Velvety Smooth

@kumikya Jelly Makeup

@twisted-cat makeup, eyelashes, jewelry, hair here

@nolan-sims hairs and clothes

Jewelry and Clothes

@glitterberrysims jewelry

@theroyalsims royal clothes and poses

Gameplay Mods

Mods that just make the experience so much better:

@sp-creates Fairies vs Witches, Unicorns, Expanded Mermaids, etc

Adeepindigo Simulated Endings, Golden Years, Pre-Teen, Dynamic Teen Life, Family Connections, Education Overhaul

@chippedcupanddustybooks Ghastly Ghosts, Happy Haunts, Regional Tweaks, Storytelling Toolkit

KiaraSims4 Royal Family Mod

@littlemssam many, many things to make life better

@roburkyplaysthesims Meaningful Stories

@twistedmexi Better Build Buy, Smarter Pie Menu

Lumpinou Mood Pack and Milestones mods

@missy-hissy many mods (pretty much the whole list)

@pandasamacc Childbirth mod and cc

@zerbu Spawn Refresh, All Worlds are Residential, Venue Changes, Changes to Existing Venues

@simrealist SNBank

Weerbesu UI Cheats, Party Anywhere, Longer Parties More Guests More Columns in CAS

MCCC

Poses

Andrew Pose Player

Teleport Any Sim

@katverse Poses

@ratboysims Poses

RoyalSims (listed above)

@hellosimsulani Poses

@akuiyumi Poses

@helgatisha Poses

@atashi77 Poses

@dearkims Selfie Overrides

@samssims Poses

Build Buy

@awingedllama here

@charlypancakes here

@felixandresims here

@harrie-cc here

@imfromsixam here

@maxsus here

@myshunosun here

@peacemaker-ic here

@pierisim here

@mlyssimblr I love the Pufferhead set

@ravasheencc here

@syboubou here

@surely-sims here

@thecluttercat here

Lighting

Sunblind

Map Replacements

Dershayan

20th Century Plumbob

Thank you to all of these wonderful creators, modders, and artists.

Disney Legacy Main

[wookofwallst]

Is Cyberpunk 2077 the greatest comeback in gaming?

With Cyberpunk coming off of one of the worst launches in recent history. Now, on the precipice of its bright and shiny 2.0 update, it has people asking... Is Cyberpunk the greatest comeback in gaming history? Let's take a look at it!

The game on launch in 2020 was riddled with game breaking bugs, terrible computer AI, it didn't even work on Playstation 4 and Xbox ones leading to mass refunds on the respective platforms, vehicles felt floaty as you were driving down the road and even if you were going 100mph it still only felt like you were going 20mph.

There were hundreds of exploits, free money glitches, armor glitches, and in my own personal experience, I had a level 1 revolver that did fifteen thousand damage. The "net running" felt like a waste of time, and it felt extremely underutilized, especially when considered the game constantly reminds you of net running and the power it actually has.

I don't think anyone in their right mind would have ever said that this game (when running properly) looks bad. The game looks incredible, and the writing and voice acting are incredible it was everything else that was the problem.

Since launch, there's been a litany of updates to the game play. From bug fixes to the great community support of modders and adding in apparel from the Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. That show, in my opinion, single handedly changed the public perception of the game with its introspective writing and absolutely stunning visual design. Your heart gets smashed into atoms by the end of the series. It gave consumers of the game the idea of what this game COULD have been.

Now, with the free "Update 2.0" along with the subsequent release of the paid for Phantom Liberty expansion, has CD Projekt Red done enough to actually warrant more money from the consumers? In my opinion, no.

The huge disappointment of its release, the fact they had to provide refunds, the fact it was taken off of the Playstation store and Xbox stores has to mean something. Some sort of recompense must be made.

It's been reported that some of the updates they made were ripped directly off of Nexus Mods without modders permission. It's also been said that this might be the only expansion we get. I understand they have worked on the game. I understand that they've added in a bunch. But I don't think that deserves the high praise of "Greatest Gaming Comeback." That will for the time being belong to No Mans Sky.

If we look at other games that have launched in a broken or terrible state, they release free expansions, provide free gameplay updates, (looking at you No Mans Sky) or in some cases, just completely abandon the project altogether. (Looking at you, Anthem).

All of the updates, including the upcoming expansion, should have been IN the game at launch. Yes, we should thank them for sticking with the game. But it really has been years at this point, and just now is when we are finally getting our hands on new content and a game play overhaul once again, something that should've been done in the first six months to a year this should be free. But I guess getting Idris Albas voice and likeness has a pretty hefty cost to it.

Will you be playing Phantom Liberty at its launch? Are you excited for Update 2.0? Are you willing to pay for this expansion? Are you skipping it to play something else? Let me know!

I stream every weekday, 8pm-12am EST. I'd love to see you there! The link is below!

[hatboyproject]

Opening Dialogue With NAVA: Hopes For the Future

Last night, I sent a carefully considered e-mail to an outreach group that deals with professional voice actors and AI voice technology. In this e-mail, I outlined some points about myself, my use case, fanwork creators, broad intentions behind our non-commercial use of the technology, and a little about the modding communities I'm familiar with. My intent is to open something of a longer conversation between fanwork creators and professional voice actors on the basis of better mutual understanding. Of course, it's impossible for one person to adequately represent everyone, but with my body of relevant work and knowledge of the scene, it was generally agreed upon amongst our community that I ought to be the face of this discussion. It is one that needs to be had, especially as attitudes involving this technology are evolving. In some cases, escalating.

I included a link to my video that I made back in February, as well as a PDF detailing some more in-depth versions of points I originally outlined in the first point of contact. In an ideal world, I'd love to come to some kind of understanding and work together to create an official solution of some sort. There are a number of things that occur as potential avenues, but none of them are possible without degrees of mutual effort - a big ask, to help out a group of artists without financial resources. However, modders already do what we do for free. On our side, I can't say I anticipate a lack of people who'd be willing to serve as a voluntary panel screening project briefs or something similar - but this is only an idea meant as a point for thought. Realistically, I am hoping simply for more VAs to be aware of our perspectives as fanwork creators, and not to see us as unilaterally threatening. I am hoping the value of what we create can be considered, if not accepted. Realistically, I am hoping for VAs who are confronted with individual projects using this technology to be judicious with regards to asking them to be removed. To be clear, I believe a VA has the right to ask for a project to be removed; I simply am hoping for the weight of such a request to be known, and the only way that is possible is by having someone listen to us. This morning, I received an acknowledgement of my message and that it would be read through and presented to the group. So, things are in motion, now. Naturally, I'm bricking it; I have now presented myself, my achievements, my work, my ethos, and my video to a group of people I greatly respect, and who are likely naturally inclined somewhat against me. I really do feel like "Who am I to be putting this across to these people? I'm just some weirdo artist from Canada living in the UK with her cat. I'm not famous or important." But I can't let myself think that way. If I give in to my natural tendency to minimise myself with this, no one will make this case for me, and I believe projects like my own deserve to exist. I've had other fanwork creators contact me with their own use cases for this technology and they're all like mine. Earnest, hopeful, done out of love, and I want this to be known about. I also detailed the time the community tried to club together and hire a SAG-AFTRA affiliated actor, and couldn't even get to the stage of discussing a contract to find out what they'd need to pay. The process simply isn't cut out for people who don't work in that industry, and that's fine and fair enough, but it does put an obstacle in the way we as fanartists can't realistically pass. PS though, unions are great and I support them - it's only that as a budgetless fanwork creator, it's something people in my situation aren't able to navigate.

[silvereestars]

My Interests!

Here’s a list of all the fandoms I’m in/was into! (WARNING: Very long post ahead! If you want to see what fandoms I’m w/o the reading, just look at the tags!)

EDIT: NEVERMIND, THE TAG LIMIT FOILED ME /GEN /LH I am SO sorry, but the last few fandoms got cut out from the tag list! You’ll have to scroll down to the bottom to see them-

Crowned: These fandoms are VERY near and dear to my heart- and I’m ALWAYS willing to talk about them!

The Legend of Zelda: This is the fandom that introduced me to the internet back in 2019 (I’m a late bloomer, I know- XDDD), and kickstarted me making theories and analyses!

Friday Night Funkin: Hate it or love it, you can’t deny there are some amazing individuals out there! And for you modders out there, this game is actually heavily moddable- and one mod in particular was what caused FNF to blow up in the first place! This is actually the fandom I’m hyper fixating on right now-

Favorites: While they aren’t as important to me as the “crowned” ones, they still managed to hold my attention for a month or so- and that’s something to admire, considering how hyper my brain is!

Animator Vs Animation: This is the fandom that introduced me to Tumblr and AO3 back in the late summer of 2021- don’t worry, @ann-aha, you’re not alone! XDDD

Oh, and I can’t talk about “AvA” without mentioning the rest of the stick figure community! Shout out to Henry Stickmin, Rock Hard Gladiators/Hyun’s Dojo, Hyun, and Gildedguy! :D

Genshin Impact: Contrary to popular opinion, this game isn’t just for “nerds” or people who can afford to splurge thousands of dollars- I managed to complete the current (back then!) storyline as a free-to-player! While I’m not in the fandom anymore, at least give this one a chance?

Undertale: Ah yes, the funny skeleton man fandom /j /lh But seriously, this fandom isn’t all “Sans Fangirls”- just search up animations and artwork! Or, better yet- search up a full play through of the game (I recommend this order for newcomers- Neutral, Pacifist, Genocide) and let the story and gameplay do the talking! ^^

Just Shapes and Beats: Exactly what it says on the tin. Pro tip- once you’ve seen the full story mode, go check out KofiKrumble!

Minecraft: Of course I’d be into this fandom at some point, everyone will! I’m not into DreamSMP (please don’t kill me I’m just not interested in stuff like server-wide wars), but I AM fond of Hermitcraft and Empires!

Normal: I don’t really think about these fandoms too often, but they deserve a mention! 

Harry Potter

Voltron: Legendary Defender

My Hero Academia

The Owl House (hey, while this fandom isn’t one of my favorites, you bet I watched the finale and cried the whole time!)

Doki Doki Literature Club (somewhat- in my master post, I mentioned I hate horror, so I avoid gameplay and stick to tvtropes/summaries- sorry- ^^;)

Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts

Pokémon

How To Train Your Dragon

Marvel (The Avengers!)

Mario

Splatoon

Kirby

Subnautica

Trollhunters (and the rest of the Tales of Arcadia! I LOVED that series- except for Rise of The Titans. We don’t talk about Rise of The Titans. /gen /lh)

Carmen Sandiego

Amphibia

“The Big Three”: These were the fandoms I was into as a little kid, and inspired me to start making fan fiction & headcanons!

Kung Fu Panda: Oh my god, I loved this series- and a 4th movie’s coming in 2024!

Big Hero Six: This is the OG- the first fandom I EVER got into! :D

Wakfu: Yugo accidentally inspired an OC (no info- yet! Not unless I learn how to draw!), so it’d be a crime to not include this fandom!

Well, I think that’s all- for now! If you want to learn about favorite characters, theories, head canons and the like- just ask! :D

[astronautbeans]

oh i LOVE this

i’ve been thinking so much about minecraft horror mods, it really has so much potential beyond new tall mob with big teeth and a loud scream

lowkey i think minecraft indeed has a huge potential for existential (and also eldritch) dread. all of minecraft’s story is within worldbuilding. we see an abandoned monument in the ocean and we’re left to wonder, who built it? we see cities in the end with mobs that don’t have the capability to make them and we’re left to ask, who lived and thrived here?

minecraft horror’s strongest points have to be in subtlety and something distant. maybe a build up that only leaves you with more questions than answers, never with the full knowledge of what is actually happening. it’s weird, it’s random, it’s just the game, or is it?

i really love your idea for a mod like this bro i’m no modder at all (tho i probably should get into it at some point maybe idk) but we as a community should totally do something like this

I was recently exposed to the rabbit hole that is Minecraft horror mods and it honestly really disappointed me. So much so that I thought up my own horror mod in response with some key distinctions to make it feel actually scary:

Be as subtle as possible to the point that the player can't tell whether a mod or a weird glitch is causing the effects. Not only is it scarier to take advantage of the existing horror within vanilla but doing this would really mess with veteran players who know the game in-and-out.

Rely on ambient psychological horror. No jumpscares, no threats, no escalation, not even anything flatly disadvantageous. The mod would just weaponize the player's paranoia against themselves.

Be really nefarious as to take full advantage of the insane adjustability that Minecraft has with all its internal options, gamerules and mechanics as well as use the player's acquaintance of the game against them. It should be a horror idea that could only work within Minecraft.

So here's the idea I got from all of this (mind you, I have no idea if a mod like this already exists):

Every in-game day there's a 5% chance (3% if you slept with a bed) for an event to occur from this mod. This chance is fixed and never changes. When an event occurs, its chosen randomly from a very exhaustive list of different events and (depending on what type of event it is) will either occur once or persist until the next event. The likelihood of every event is identical. So this system for pulling them is entirely static and random. Additionally, the chance is rolled again whenever an event occurs. Meaning there's an incredibly low chance for you to experience two or more events in the same day.

So what do these events do? Well, they're designed to mess with the player in the most subtle ways possible. Often specifically targeting their memory, understanding of game mechanics and overall familiarity with Minecraft. The intended effect is to give the player a creeping sense of powerlessness in a sandbox game that they are otherwise completely in control over. Some possible events could be:

Hearing a sound effect in the distance from a source that isn't real.

Having an item currently in a chest/furnace change its amount or position.

Replacing a current painting sprite with another one of the same size.

Having a door/trapdoor be activated (i.e. opened if it was closed and closed if it was opened).

Skipping a full day from sleeping rather than just the night.

Having a specific gamerule temporarily change from its default value until the player triggers it (with minor adjustments to make it less apparent. For example still having the player drop their inventory upon death when keepInventory is toggled on but having the items despawn near instantly unless another player was nearby).

Having a tamed/trusting mob despawn (but only if the player had not interacted with them or been near them for a while).

Surviving otherwise fatal damage or dying from otherwise near-fatal damage.

Randomly changing the difficulty or local difficulty (without it being visible in the options or the debug screen).

Randomly changing slime chunks.

Randomly changing the moon phase.

The list goes on.

These are not notable events but that's the point. The intended effect is to confuse the player and make them doubt themselves without ever thinking that a mod is responsible. To make things even more nefarious, you could have this mod be disguised as a typical QoL mod and sneak it into modpacks to really mess with people.

This is the kind of horror that I think suits Minecraft best. Not the loud, overt, in-your-face kind of horror. But the kind that has you slowly begin to doubt yourself and the world around you. No escalation, no climax, no resolution. Just you left alone to consume yourself out of your own paranoia.

[nemirambles]

Fraymakers: Nearly a Year Later

Hello everyone, I just wanna lay some groundwork. I’m an ex-SSF2 modder, SSF2 being Super Smash Flash 2. I used to go under the handle “Foxx”. That’s with two x’s by the way. A lot of my mods are more or less kinda just lost media now. I used to work on SSF2 Delta but left on my own volition due to disagreements with some of the leads. I'm most notably known for making cosmetic related mods for the competitive community. I started messing around with the game when I was maybe 12 or so? I’ve made a lot and I’ve seen a lot in that time and if there are any SSF2 devs or old acquaintances that knew me that’re reading this now, sorry. I was a shitter then but I'm better now and will promise to continue to keep improving myself. When I write this essay, I’m saying this as someone who’s loved modding the game, playing with others and looking back at old community drama somewhat fondly.

When I saw Fraymakers be initially revealed, I was really excited to see a new project from McCleod and for it to be one that seemed to be fully embracing the modding scene that they’ve cultivated over the years. It was finally gonna be this huge breakthrough for this team that had basically been going under appreciated and recognized for all the work they put into SSF2. The Kickstarter showed off 6 characters, assists, training mode hitboxes, stage hazards, some single player content, rollback netcode and a bit more. With the way the trailer was edited, it appeared that most things shown off were either done or close to being completed. There was sparse content sure, but nothing that looked unfinished. No sketched animations, hazards seemed to be working, the UI was functional, the game seemed like it was on a good path.

Two years later, it was released on Steam in early access and I don’t think I’ve ever been any more disappointed playing a game. I know that it’s an early access but when the game can’t even run at 60FPS for some mysterious reason, something is probably wrong. Rollback was shitty, meaning that most people had to just play on delay netcode. Which is kinda shitty in of itself, but the quickplay function just automatically turned rollback on, meaning that you’d be forced to play with it. This basically ensured that quickmatch was more or less dead on arrival. There was a built in online stress test to see if you’d be good for online play and I just wanna say that my relatively new Steam Deck struggled to get a good online stress test score on max quality. For a 2D sprite based game. Training mode was pretty much nothing. There was no hitbox viewer. Several characters had unfinished animations. You couldn’t play time matches. You couldn’t really change any significant match settings. Only one stage had hazards, the hazards in question being two extra platforms under the stage and the UI was abysmal. That last part isn’t like a *real* huge issue I just felt like pointing out how utterly terrible the UI design is here.

This left everyone with 4 characters that’re at varying levels of unfinished or unpolished, 5 stages and a good chunk of assists that sorta feel more like cute gimmicks than anything else. The only other thing was the workshop content but we’ll talk about that later. But that was at launch, of course it was going to be messy. But it’s been 10 months since then! Almost an entire year! Surely it’s gotten better, right?

It Did Not Get Better

Well since then we’ve gotten several quality of life updates, fixes to the input system, some optimization improvements, several finished animations, some online improvements, a new assist and a new character. I might’ve missed a bit here and there but that’s about the sum of it. How did these changes fare? Well they undoubtedly improve the game, for sure. But it’s kinda not enough? I know it’s crazy to say that when we got a new assist and a new character but respectfully, the issue wasn’t the lack of characters as much as it was just the lack of quality surrounding the characters, at least for me. Sure they added like two extra guys but the training mode is still awful, online is still bad (if you can even get a match), some characters are STILL unfinished sprite wise and the game STILL doesn’t have things like time matches. There simply isn't anything to do.

Anything greyed out cannot be selected or toggled.

How about those stage hazards? Well some were shown off in the trailer, seemingly being functional and or finished. Now that the game is out in EA, there's only one stage with hazards. Wanna know what the hazard is? Two extra platforms at the bottom of the stage.

I guess it's now also a good a time as any to mention the absolutely abysmal Kickstarter rewards. Wanna know how much you get for two thousand dollars? You get the game, ONE golden costume, a test build, a DIGITAL artbook, a discord channel, your name in the credits will show that you're angel tier and you'll get some online tags. You also get to play with the devs on their terrible netcode! That might seem like a lot but in reality that's kind of only really three things, the game, a costume and an artbook. Sure you get some fancy stuff by your name in the credits but… y'know I decided to go check this myself to be super sure. Your name doesn't like glow or anything in the credits it just sits in a tier above everything else, which alright, fair enough, but who's gonna be checking that really? Is that really what you want for two thousand?

You could add 5 more characters and people still would pass this by because the general quality of life is still genuinely super shit. Hell, when you change your controller profile in the settings, the controls in the menu don’t even update until after you restart the game. This isn’t even an issue SSF2 had. It doesn’t have controller profiles but it did at least recognize what button did what after having it be set. This might seem harsh but this game is 20 whole ass dollars. You might be ready to say “oh but they’re packaging a game creation tool with this, that’s where part of the money is going as well”. We will get to that just give me a moment. First I wanna ask the question of who this game is even for.

Audience?

Really, I’m genuinely asking. Why would you play Fraymakers? For the gameplay? I mean it’s more or less just SSF2 with assists and those assists aren’t really that fun to play with. They just kinda feel like ways to cheese out stocks. There’s utility ones but… you know nobody’s using those when they can combo into an assist that does damage and kill at like 80 in a game where it’s very easy to rack up damage. The music? It’s amazing but nobody’s playing a game purely for that unless it’s some sort of rhythm game. Quality of life? This is some of the worst quality of life in a modern fighter. It’s not easy to get matches, it’s already a Discord fighter, and when you DO get matches it’s gonna be a lot of the same. It’s fun but it’s not really fun enough to wanna keep playing it over all the other fighting games or even platform fighters out at the moment. So that leaves the workshop which is cool and all but there’s that Rivals of Aether sized elephant in the room. Sure, Rivals is 10 dollars more than Fraymakers but,

It has players

The modding support for that game is huge

The game is much more complete than Fraymakers

The online is actually good

Rivals workshop completely and utterly decimates this game. Considering Rivals is an actual finished and polished product, it’s just not that fair of a fight. But that’s just how these things go, sometimes you just can’t compete and I don’t think Fraymakers will be able to. The worst part about this is that Fraymakers COULD’VE had a strong audience for it’s modding scenes but do to choices made on McCleod’s end, that potential community was basically kneecapped before this game even existed. That last bit is really important. I’m about to get into some deeper stuff regarding the SSF2 modding scene and how McLeod’s choices with it undoubtedly led to the poor modding scene for Fraymakers.

This Was A Long Time Coming

The SSF2 community and Fraymakers community might as well be 1-1. Well not 1-1 in the sense that SSF2 players play Fray, they don’t, but most Fraymakers players tend to play SSF2. One thing you ought to know about the SSF2 community is that it’s sort of splintered. Not as much as it used to be, but it used to be broken up quite often. This game more or less was the next thing for a lot of us, SSF2 is a flash game that’s limited by it’s engine, even despite the absolute magic these developers have put into it to push it far beyond any other Flash project. Fraymakers was or will hopefully eventually be the next step for the scene and for a lot of us to move forward. While the competitive community may, the modding community definitely will not.

This is some old stuff but a good few years back, McLeodGaming was quite antagonistic towards the SSF2 modding scene. You’d be banned from the Discord if you posted mods there or showed off hitboxes. If you were shown to have leaked content from the unreleased beta build at the time, you’d be banned from online for months, even if you weren’t distributing it. I don’t have the proof of these things anymore but if you ask certain people who were around in 2017/2018, they could likely corroborate, but being a modder would actually decrease your chances of being hired as a developer if you were.

While the SSF2 dev team was hostile as shit to modding, it was at least somewhat justified. I won’t pretend that I wasn’t pretentious when it came to editing the game and I had a good amount of “it’s just that easy” moments and while I was being snobbish and many competitive players and modders alike were also being snobbish, they weren’t totally unfounded. Like sure we made fun of the balance but that wasn’t entirely unfounded. Let’s not forget 9b Zelda, 3.2 Samus, memory leak Lloyd, reworked Sora, Krystal, the terror that used to be Tails and so much more. There was also the matter of people sharing around leaks of the beta build of the game. But this was a very small minority in actuality.

There was still a very large community for this kind of content that was pretty much rejected rather than embraced. So modders went and made their own community. There began this sort of disconnect between the developers and the modbase. Sort of. Some developers were still very receptive and interested in the modding scene, shoutouts to TSON, but it was still largely rejected when it came to official spaces. Some of the higher ups in the modding community started to almost resent the people in charge of SSF2. Creating rifts that might still be there to this day.

I mention all this not to point fingers at anyone in particular or to say that one side was shitty. I think that both kind of were, but that whatever chance Fraymakers had to gain a large modding scene basically went out the goddamn window when just a few years previously they had done everything in their power to keep modded content away from their game. Because there was this anti-mod authority, all the people creating content in SSF2 just… went away from official avenues. FrayTools might as well just be a shitty version of Adobe Flash/Animate. If anyone was going to know how to use it, it would be the people who had spent years putting Vegeta into SSF2. But literally all those people are gone, off in their own spaces. But even beyond that, there’s another thing to keep in mind which is that Fraymakers is directly competing with SSF2. 

Sibling Rivalry

Fraymakers is very similar to Flash 2. I’d even go out and say that Fraymakers probably runs on some refurbished SSF2 engine or at least borrows elements from it. But Fraymakers lacks a lot of the sauce that SSF2 has while also lacking a ton of content. When you make games that are so similar but one has so much more going on compared to the other, it’ll be hard to make people want to throw 20 bucks into a game like Fraymakers. This is ignoring one huge thing though which is that I wouldn’t call Fraymakers a game based around modding. You cannot change anything about the base game itself. You can only add content. You are not modifying anything, you are tacking on free DLC. As far as I can tell, the files for Fraymakers are impossible to get into and any of the talented people from the old days who could’ve figured out ways to break into it are long gone.

On the flip side, SSF2 is a game that is cracked wide open with tons of resources and complete and total freedom.

It isn’t hard to get your hands on the engine and to just kinda start doing shit. It’s annoying to get the process started and you’ll either need to pirate or buy Adobe Animate but boy, if you can’t do some great shit with the game once that’s all been done. There’s not really any reason for those SSF2 modders to come over with that being the case.

So Now What?

Well, I dunno really. I want Fray to succeed but with the lackluster post launch support and SSF2 being there, I find it hard to believe it’ll find true success. It’s retained some players but it seems to have gained basically none and it’s failed to get even half the attention it got at its early access launch since. But that’s the early access launch. There’s still some hope for it to regain relevance when it truly launches but that’s something the future can only tell. In the meantime, I can't really recommend Fray in a good conscience. Not when SSF2 is there on the table and doing pretty much everything better. It sucks but them's the breaks. Hopefully McCleod can turn it around.

[alltimefail-sims]

More asks in my inbox means more rambling from yours truly!!

Questions and replies below the cut ↓

"A cool person" omg?!?! You're so sweet, I'm bubbly over here! Thank you so much!!

YES I love to hear that for you!! That's great that you could save some of your favorite sims at least; I am attached to my sims too, there are several I would be gutted to lose, so I totally get where you're coming from. They sound like an adorable couple, and I love occults so that alone is a great selling point haha.

I think it's okay to talk about your sims/take pride in them like they're your child lmaoooo. Basically,

I don't have a lot of thoughts on the EA refreshes; I think they're just okay. I end up making all my townies over anyway, so really it doesn't matter what EA decides to do lmao. It might just be a personal preference, but I would like it better if they would just drop one big batch refresh instead of doing these little ones here and there. I didn't love the Goths aside from correcting their skin tone which was absolutely necessary: I felt the same rage with whitewashed Bella and have ranted about it multiple times on this blog lol.

One thing that bothers me: if you age Alexander up he looks horrendous...like unworkable and not even favoring either parent. They definitely still aren't being mindful of what children will look like when you age them up and that is...wild to me. As for the Caliente household, I thought their refresh was an improvement and I totally agree that the refreshes as a whole provide a far more workable base for makeovers than their previous looks did. In fact, I didn't even touch the old Caliente household because I thought they were too far gone lol. It wasn't until the refresh that I decided to add them to my Pleasantview dump! (Sans Katrina because I do not know that woman!) Only complaint about them is I thought they reflected Nina's personality poorly in the makeover - she would never be a villainous valentine!

That is not lame!! Chaos is what keeps the game interesting and no one brings the heat like Nina and Dina!

I don't, I only know the one by MizoreYukii thepancake1. They haven't updated it yet, but keep an eye on their Patreon - they're usually pretty quick to get it back up and running after a patch.

That's so tough, I mod my game to hell and back lmao! Here's a few of my faves that I can think of off the top of my head in no particular order:

UI Cheats Extension

MC Command

Granny's Cookbook by @littlbowbub (I make a lot of families and foodie sims, so having a large variety of foods is important to me!)

Healthcare Redux

Relationship and Pregnancy Overhaul by Lumpinou

Wonderful Whims by Turbodriver

Honorable mention to LittleMsSam for their mods - I have so many of them I couldn't pick just one, but I think they're one of the best modders in this community. I especially love the random small bug fixes such as "Strangerville Scanner Battery Lasts Longer" or "Buy Pet Treats via PC." Those tiny things make a big difference!

I'm a coffee person, I love all types of coffee really but the darker the roast, the more I enjoy it. My favorite kind of coffee would be a hot, dark roast made fresh in the French press with a light amount of creamer - preferably something vanilla or caramel. My favorite bagged coffee right now is LavAzza, but I've been working on a bag of Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce and it's been surprisingly good! (A lot of their bagged blends taste way too bitter, almost burnt to me, so I don't typically go for those despite the big name.) During the holiday season I'll admit that I love a little sweet treat coffee here and there that is really more dessert than drink though lmao.

As for tea, I am trying to like tea more but it's an uphill battle I'm afraid. I love a hot apple and cinnamon tea when I'm sick or when I need to heal my voice though!

[rjmhereunderprotest]

Mass Effect Mod Pet Peeve

I just randomly want to reiterate something that annoys me among the Mass Effect Modding community. It has nothing to do with gameplay tweaks, or adding new cutscenes or changing some incremental shit for the sake of lore or whatever. It has to do with this... STOP REMOVING PEEBEE'S MASK!

I'm serious, this has always bugged me and it still does. I get Andromeda isn't well loved, I have my own complaints, but this one thing fans do pisses me off something fierce.

From a practical standpoint it's very simple, Andromeda's Asari all have the same face. Every single one has the same face. It's super fucking jarring. The only exception is Peebee who not only has a unique shape and structure for her face's model, but she also has the mask, which helps her standout from the overload of Andromeda Asari who quickly begin to bleed into each other as soon as you see at least two next to one another.

If you're going to mod anything, why not mod the Asari's faces so they, you know, don't look like the same butt ugly clone pasted over and over again. And that's not a knock against unconventional concepts of beauty or anything, I'm saying they look bad as character designs, I'm saying they don't look right! You can have a frumpier Asari, but they shouldn't all look like the same level of very garbage puffed up cheeks and oversized noses. At least change their eye sizes or something!

PeeBee is the only one that actually looks well-designed. She's not drop dead gorgeous or supermodel levels of hot, she's cute, adorable, charming. She works! And the mask is part of that, because it gives her what all these other Asari are lacking... dynamic personality! This is important for characters and especially someone like PeeBee because the mask is her entire point.

PeeBee does not act like traditional Asari, she is very far removed from someone like Liara who reveres her people's culture and legacy. PeeBee wants to stand out from that, she doesn't want to be beholden to it, she does not like strings and having to live up to cultural expectations assigned to her by her species is a string she wants to cut. So she wears a black makeup mask to distinguish herself and her individuality. She is saying "I am unique, I cannot be tied down!" PeeBee's entire arc is basically about that, the mask is a symbol of her insecurity and her standoffishness.

PeeBee is introverted, guarded, does not expect to last long among people. She lives in an escape pod because she expects to wear out her welcome and she'd rather make cutting the strings less painful. Therefore, it's better to pretend you're fine with being tossed out on your ass than it is to worry about when it will happen. This is the result of her escaping a toxic relationship that was not going well for her. And on the Tempest, she needs to learn to open up to people, to trust them and to not assume they are waiting to get rid of her. She needs to learn she is not disposable.

The Mask is a symbol of both her assertion of individuality and her introverted protective nature. That she won't let just anyone in to see her true self because she does not want to be hurt again. It is why when she admits, during her romance arc, that she WANTS the strings that it's such a big deal to her. She is finally ready to attach herself to someone, to the crew, to other people, again.

And what do modders think about all this highly important characterization, subtle story-telling, unique design aesthetic and facial recognition codification? "She looks like a Raccoon! Get rid of it and replace it with nothing or a generic Asari facial design."

Congrats to every Modder who does this, you've failed every basic tenant of character design in favor of trying to make her look "prettier" to yourself. You suck, just like everyone who turns the women of Skyrim into plastic Barbie Dolls sucks. No, I'm not gonna sugar coat it for you. If you remove PeeBee's mask through mods, you are sacrificing character for a ridiculous preconception of standard beauty. You have terrible taste and you probably make Serana in Skyrim look like she got Botox injections somehow. Please, never design a game yourself, you're shit at it.

That's it, that's all I feel like screaming about right now. PeeBee is a great character, fuck you for trying to ruin that if you've tried.

[lavendermilkandhoney]

Thank You

To everyone in the Cyberpunk 2077 community

I’d like to take some time to talk about something that will never cease to amaze me and it’s about how much we’ve all done as a community in a few months of love for this game. When I first came here, I remember seeing the beginning of some swaps for romance scenes done with the classic method. We were all going crazy over it, everyone who couldn’t romance the person they wanted in game especially. 

I wondered… if this is possible, what will it look like in 6 months? But I never thought in less than that, we would be where we are now… 

New clothes, hair, nude models, fixes, camera mods and many others were popping at an insane rate! I remember not being able to keep up and I still can’t! Think about where you were those last months thinking : « I’ll never be able to do that! » or « I don’t think it’s possible, but I’ll give it a shot! ».

Even if I didn’t have a clue at that time, I stayed and continued to believe that it was only a matter of time. That we could all help heal each others’ heart together, no matter the ship. I’m not only talking about mods, but everything we did here that helps us go through this difficult time together. People we met and those who became close. It’s more than just playing a game, it’s making real connections with fictional characters, but also through them to other people.

Here we have a chance to be who we are inside, free and loved by people who understands. CDPR failed the launch and didn’t keep their promises, but one thing I’m sure of, is that if it didn’t happen, many of us wouldn’t be here, including myself. 

But the worst is over and now, it’s time to heal.

I’d like to give all my gratitude to every fan, artist and modder who made all this possible. I won’t tag anyone, cause really, I thank everybody here. 

- All the writers, visual and audio artists who made the characters and their stories feel real. 

- All the modders who had everyone’s back. 

- All the console players who shared their art, passion and support and don’t give up. 

- All those who digged into the files, the lore and the game in general, who shared their analysis, point of view and made us laugh to death with their posts.

- All those who like and reblog because they like the content or to support the bloggers.

- And of course, all the workers at CDPR who cared or continue to care enough for this project to become one day, what it should have been.

I hope I’m not forgetting anyone, but if I do, share it in the comments ;)

We might have expected a finished product, a ground breaking game, but I know this is just the start of something bigger. In bad times, something stronger and better always comes out in the end. Might sound cliche, but it’s always true.

« Maybe it did take a crisis to get to know yourself; maybe you needed to get whacked hard by life before you understood what you wanted out of it. » - Jodi Picoult

Keep up the awesome work you all do and take good care everyone, of yourself, each other and of your fictional friends ❤️❤️❤️

[murfeelee]

Jim Stephanie Sterling, "the Cassandra of video gaming" has long foretold that this was exactly the nosedive that gaming was going to take. This is in no small part thanks to Bethesda's infamous horse armor DLC, and EA's horrid live-service model. But it's also the fault of gamers--in this case simmers--themselves.

As much as y'all love to scream and holler about TS4 sucking and TS5 looking like a smellier and smellier heap of trash, you still give EA your money for half-a$$ed packs and 🤢 Kits 🤮, and worst of all: you've started charging each other for UGC/CC, paywalling what was supposed to have been free CC shared for the community, and cuing EA into a brand new way to rip us ALL off through Patreon's marketplace of "early access" exploits.

Due to this, TS5 will not be free to PLAY, but rather free to ENTER, as everything but the inevitably unfinished half-baked half-a$$ed basegame will be free, so that EA can MACROtransaction every bloody feature not required for the engine to actually work in the base world. Basically, EA's going with #8 on my Sims Poll #1, which ironically got the most votes out of the three possibilities for TS5 that I foresaw happening:

PC Gamer's recent article pointed directly to the most disheartening part of EA's job posting, as the very first bullet wasn't about developing the TS5 as a GAME, but as a MARKETPLACE--specifically one for paywalled UGC/CC--SIMMERS making paywalled content FOR THEM in an ominously monitored "player purchase journey" and "player spending patterns."

Two of the role's primary responsibilities were listed as "Own Project Rene's in-game marketplace of content and UGC (free and paid)" and also "Own pricing of all content in this free-to-enter game." EA is expecting some "ugc" (user-generated content) to be paid for, meaning they are likely planning to let modders and CC creators sell creations to others and take a cut of profit.

EA saw how much money TS4 simmers are making on Patreon with "early" access CC and Patreon exclusives (BOTH of which y'all are STILL flouting the rules of, as I could point to HUNDREDS of Patreons that have YET to release CC that's been stuck in "early" access for YEARS without being published, but hey, if y'all like being scammed that's on y'all). Simmers sold the soul of The Sims for decorative clutter and generic hairs and jeans, and now the Devil's come to collect--EA 👏 WANTS 👏 THEIR 👏 CUT 👏. They're gonna make SIMMERS their factory workers; no unionization, NOTHING. So while you're churning out custom content, EA will happily make money off of YOU as you make money off of US.

It made me sick to my stomach seeing how many "simmers" were having conniptions when EA (finally) came after (perma)paywalled Patreons, threatening to stop "playing" TS4 just cuz they couldn't monetize CC/UGC. Like...their priorities were clear. It's one thing to be a strictly CC-creator who doesn't play the game (*cough* half of the SimGurus *cough*), and just makes content--mods, CAS, lots, clutter, patterns (I would say worlds, but it's 2023 and EA still hasn't given TS4 a CAW tool 🤡). It's another thing when shysters come into the community for the SOLE reason to MAKE MONEY off of simmers, then gaslight people into thinking they're the victims that "SHOULD" be monetarily compensated for VOLUNTARILY making CC; when they're the ones who ruined the community by holding CC hostage in the first place!

The deleted job listing's reference to an in-game marketplace that includes free and paid content created by other players is an expected leap too. The Sims series has a long history of custom content and a dicey relationship between modders seeking compensation and the game's Terms of Service. That grey area of paid modding lives largely on Patreon right now where EA doesn't have reliable oversight and doesn't get a cut. I can't imagine EA cracking down on modding at large, but there's no doubt [EA] sees the appeal in enticing creators onto an in-game platform where it can impose moderation and fees for the convenience.

When it comes to the release schedules and pricing of UGC/CC, I have hated Patreon's lack of moderation and EA's lack of regulation since Day One. There is no uniformity to the quality or quantity of CC that simmers charge for, or set pricing for the monthly subscription tiers people can set on Patreon--some charge $1, $3, $5 per month (That's $60 per year--what full-fledged AAA game are ANY of y'all out here developing to charge that much money?!), but some of y'all jokers have monthly $10, $20, $50, $100 tiers and I'm like for WHAT?! That's ADOBE prices! And half of y'all pirate Photoshop! I wouldn't pay $1200 per year for REAL furniture and clothes, let alone PIXELS. 🤦 So EA actually does NEED to create an actual moderated and regulated landscape for paywalled UGC/CC, cuz this snowball has LONG since gotten out of hand. But of course it'll probably be a hot mess like everything else EA touches, so they'll probably screw it up and let a djinn out of the bottle they can't put back in.

And WTF is THIS???

MOBILE. 💀

Pack it up, folks!

"player purchase journey"

"OPTIMIZING PLAYER SPENDING PATTERNS"

oh girls, it's worse than we thought. the bar could not GET lower.