#almost all the cc is from leosims

[shysimblr]

Finally got some inspo and decorated the kitchen for my Christmas house

[beethebonewitch]

Sims 4 Custom Content Build List

This list of custom content is for the most recent video on my YT channel, where I build the most adorable witch cottage in the forest of Henford on Bagley! If there are any items that I missed please let me know and I'll try to find them! For now I will just be linking the creators pages, and listing which items I used from them, and mentioning some sets.

Also! I wanted to note that I have never paid for any of the custom content that I use, so nothing that you'll be looking for will ever be behind a paywall!

Hydra: book decor, broom, stacked skulls, witchy decor, HP monster book of monsters, potions, laundry hamper, barrels and pumpkin decor

Pierisim: All wallpapers and flooring, fireplace, candles, rug, bathroom mirror, towel rack. The sets that were used: Domaine Du Close, Oak House, Winter Garden, and MCM.

Felixandre & Harrie: utensil pot, oil & vinegar bottles, other bottle decor. I believe all of the items used were from the KICHEN set, but the Orjanics collection (and all of their collections) are totally worth checking out!

Mechtasims: paper towel holder, books, toilet. There are so many items from mechtasims that I use in my everyday builds this build really didn't showcase this creators talent. I strongley reccomend that you take a look at their patreon!! The sets that I used for this build were the essential clutter set, ghibli set, and bathroom set.

Myshunosun: bottles, cutting boards (the famous ones that i feel like every cc sims builder uses in every kitchen ever) mushroom basket, floral decor. This creator, like Mechtasims really didnt get to shine in this build as loudly as they usually do in my regualr build xD You have to check them out!

Pyszny: counters/bathroom sink, hanging pot rack

Syboulette: desk, crystal ball, laundry drying rack. This creator has an Oh My Goth set, which is where the desk came from and it has a lot of matching items that I was uable to include in this build. I was looking through their patreon while making this post and found a LOT of adorable new stuff, will definitely be going on a little cc shopping spree when I'm done xD!

Leosims: skull, geode, potion bottles. Now, most of this creators items ARE behind a paywall, every once in a while they release a free set and I always snatch them up because this creator is TALENTED. The link will take you to this specific set download, but I do reccomend checking out their page for any other freebies, or even becoming a patreon!

Soloriya: witchy bottles/ items. All items used in thei build are from the Sabrina Collection!

Channel4sims: beaded curtain

Littledica: thermostat

Linzlu: witchy hanging effigey (link to specific item)

MadameRia: kitchen shelves. I almost just linked the item but I really think that their patreon page is worth checking out!

ONI: artist set. I linked just the set, most of their custom content is placed behind a paywall, and most of the free items are food/gameplay focused.

Faded-springs: shower. Link to specific item but this creator makes amzing retro styled custom content both for build items but CAS items too!

Moriel: herbal paintings. I realized while making this post that this creator has actually put out a part two of this set, which you can download here.

Well there you have it, the complete list. I hope you guys take some time to look through these creators and find some really amazing items! I know I found a lot of new stuff that I plan on downloading just while looking through everyones patreons to make this post!

Check out my video if you haven't already, and let me know if there was anything that I missed!

[mack3030]

Things the Sims 4 Community Can Do About Paywalls...A Post...

[This is going to be a bit long, so you may want to save it and read it when you have time, or just...you know, buckle in.]

I thought I would ring in the new year by talking about something that I feel we as a community need to finally decide on. (It’s been debated since 2017 or so, and it’s now 2021...) I’d like, if possible, to try to suggest some real solutions and choices that we can make that will hopefully create a better and more honest community out of all of us.  Now I would like to start by making some postulates. In geometry, postulates are facts that do not need proven with a mathematical proof. They are assumed to be true. Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers would call these “Self-Evident Truths”. I would like to use these as a bit of a basis for my arguments. 

Truth: The Sims 4 has been enough of a cash cow for EA.  If you buy the base game ($40) plus all expansion packs (40 each x 10) + all game packs (20 each x 9) + all stuff packs (10 each x 17) you would come to a total of seven hundred and 90 dollars ($790) plus tax. This is of course, without sales, bundling, etc, which many people DO take advantage of, but STILL. That is a TON of money for EA’s pockets.  EA makes a majority of its money on the fact that the Sims 4 is an “incomplete game”. It “completes” the game further and further by adding more “expansions” to the game to the point that it seems almost useless to buy the base game alone without adding to it. 

Even with sales and other things, it’s easy to spend over $500 dollars on the sims 4 game + expansions. Still a lot of cash for a game that is years old. This is just money that is spent on the game that goes to EA. This does not account for:  * Money spent to buy a new computer because your old one wouldn’t run the sims.  * Money spent supporting CC artists who have donations open or early access.  * Money spent on access to sites that have ads/paywalls/exclusive sims 4 CC such as Leosims, etc. (Which are the problem, frankly)

We should be able to respect the fact that a majority of us paid a hefty amount for this game. It is unfair, and frankly greedy to REQUIRE people to pay MORE just to unlock or gain access to specific user created content. 

I am not talking about a VOLUNTARY support or donation because they like what you offer. I am talking about FORCING people to pay if they want to ever be able to use the CC or mod you offer. 

Now, the typical defense for this is “Well, I’m an artist! I spend time/effort/etc working hard on these meshes, the code, etc to make this content!”  Which leads me to point #2. 

Truth: Mods, CC, and other content for the Sims 4 are useless without the game. Once they are created/uploaded to the game, all copyright to those objects IMMEDIATELY transfers to EA. 

I teach art in a Missouri public school. Our state standards dictate that when art students are in middle school grades, they have to learn about copyright, fair use, and creative commons. While I am not a copyright lawyer, I have had to learn enough about this subject to teach it. So allow me to break down a few facts about copyright: 

First, when ya make it, ya own it. There’s not a process to apply for a copyright. The moment you create something that is 100% your own work, you hold the copyright to it. 

Second, when you make something that is created based off of or USING someone else’s intellectual property as a reference or resource it is a fan creation. In art, we call this “fanart”. It is not 100% your own work. Someone else’s intellectual property is involved. 

Fan creations always have tread a very thin and shadowy line when it comes to different companies and the legality of them. You can easily search google for various articles explaining it, but to summarize it in a short method: 

Most companies do not actively go after those who create fan creations unless they are making profits that could instead be going to the creators of the intellectual property. If the fan creation is discovered to be making profits and/or taking the intellectual property in a direction the creator does not approve of, they have legal options to pursue (court, cease and desist letters, etc). 

Third, Copyright can be transferred from person to person. In most cases this is done through a written document that both parties sign, however there IS an exception to this that EA uses to allow itself to transfer your copyrights to your content to them: 

EA’s agreement with you is non-exclusive, meaning that the moment you hit “agree” on the sims 4 terms and conditions, you have handed over your rights to any CC you create for the game. 

If you want to maintain full creative rights over the mesh/mods/etc you make then, you have to not make that content for the sims 4 and make your own platform to host it on. This is way easier said than done. 

Truth: There have been various examples in the past of CC creators who have stolen meshes, bases, bits/pieces of work, or “inspiration” for CC from other sites/companies, who have been called on it publicly. 

The most recent event concerning this was drama concerning itsbrandysims and their use of meshes from imvu/secondlife (you can see my opinion on the subject HERE), but there have been other documented cases. Leosims, for example, has been listed as an example of someone taking meshes from secondlife creators and reuploading them (when it was told to me, I was shown THIS thread as evidence). Another well known creator was accused by a former sims 4 cc creator (who now makes content from second life), and was called out in THIS post in 2019. 

The horrible part of this? Many of these creators are charging people (often at not so great rates as well), for STOLEN content. Content they don’t even own, that they ripped from another place. This should not be accepted by a community that loves a game as much as the Sims 4 community.  Truth: EA has provided a way for people to make money while not hiding content behind paywalls entirely, and the INTENT of this was to OFFSET COSTS.  Almost every post about content locked behind paywalls features this post found on the Sims Forum from 2017. In it, SimGuruDrake, who was the community manager at the time (she has since left the Sims 4 team for another job).  Most of you who have seen this discussion topic before know this post by heart, but I’d like to highlight one important aspect of it: 

One thing that is always important about communication is the intent behind it. The intent for people to be allowed to make patreons and allow early access wasn’t so people could just make money for themselves, the idea was to offset costs to buy programs to make the content. For example, a yearly subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud (which has photoshop, illustrator, etc) costs a couple hundred dollars US a year. If someone was using photoshop to help them create their CC in addition to blender or other free programs, EA/Maxis wanted to allow the creator to not have to pay for making the CC out of pocket.  Can EA/Maxis control what people spend the money they make off of patreon on? No. But it should be noted that the intent of this action was to help people pay for supplies for their hobby more than to make a business out of it. 

Onto the next truth! Truth: There is an image that disputes this post above, however the authenticity of it and timing of it are very disputed. 

This image is often thrown around by people who lock content behind paywalls, but I would like to take a second and try to provide an honest assessment of it.  First of all, I have a bit of a problem with the fact that the original person who “messaged” SimGuruDrake this question has not been identified. This image was not posted on the tumblr of a CC creator who claimed “Hey I reached out to a sims guru and this is the answer I got!” The main pages that have this image are either tweets from CC creators using it to defend their stance on paywalls (ex: here), or tumblrs/tweets “debunking it” (ex: here, here).  I even reverse image searched this image using google, and another platform and could not figure out where this originated from. Of course, I’m not an expert, but...still. 

The fact that the origin of this picture is unknown casts doubt on it. If it were a well known CC maker who is known for being honest, that’s one thing. But the fact that we don’t exactly know where it came from is suspicious. Because frankly, anyone with some decent editing ability could photoshop this. 

Here’s my imperfect edit, but I’m just a self-taught graphics nerd and I am not as dedicated at faking screenshots as some. (And the crap photo quality didn’t help.) Another common issue is that at the supposed “time” that this question was being asked, some state that SimsGuruDrake had already left the Sims 4 team. I will admit, this photo is within the correct timeline, as SimsGuruDrake did not officially depart the sims 4 team until February 2018. (There is a post on the sims forums that has a timestamp that confirms this.) But, if you were in the process of leaving your job within the next month (as a two week/30 day notice is common when leaving a job), would you REALLY be answering questions in DMs on twitter, or be focusing on packing up, and training your successor?  The last thing that really makes me doubt the validity of this picture is the fact that it’s not really easy to message the sims gurus on Twitter. This appears to be twitter from the screenshot (although there are some things that are a little out of place from the current UI): But when I attempt to direct message a sims guru I get this message: 

I even tried seeing if I could reach out via DM to Drake herself, (who now posts under a different twitter) to see if it was possible: 

Could the policies have changed since 2018? Possibly, but I feel that opening up direct messages is just asking for Sims 4 team members to get angry messages, so this could very well be a long running EA policy. I have also reached out to her via a twitter tag (as of 1/2/21), and will update y’all if I get a reply:

Okay, so now that we’ve gone through all of this, let’s talk about the last truth that’s really important:  Truth: Putting content behind paywalls has generally been considered disgusting by many in the sims 4 community, and TAKES AWAY the choice of people to support CC creators they love/appreciate WILLINGLY.  A few notable posts sharing the disgust with this practice can be found: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE). And these are just what I can find from a simple precursory search.

Okay, Brainiac. So what can we do to solve this problem? 

Well, there’s a few methods we can employ, and sadly, it’s going to take a bit of a commitment and concentrated effort from the community. 

Step #1: Make the COMMUNITY the VICTIM instead of EA. 

Now when I say this, I don’t mean we’re actually victims, but mean that instead of constantly saying things like “WHEN YOU DO THIS YOU VIOLATE EA’S TOU!”, thus making EA the “victim” of the crime. We change the dialog to saying “When you lock stuff behind paywalls, you cheat the sims 4 community and disrespect their choice to support you or not.”  Because let’s be honest. Maxis/EA really doesn’t give much of a care about if people aren’t following this rule. You can report people to the team, but as far as most people have seen, it doesn’t get anywhere. But if we make it where the community is the party being “wronged” it is much harder for those who have paywalls to not be scared. Because the community, in the end, has to be with them.  DepthofPixels had a really amazing post about this HERE. 

Step 2: Decide to not support anyone who puts their content behind exclusive paywalls and do not hesitate to spread the word about why you choose not to do so. 

By that, I mean

not paying any patreon accounts that don’t offer either their content 100% for free, or offer early access.

And sharing about why you choose to do that on your social media. Something I might suggest would be to make it a bit personal and share something like:

Instead of spending $15 a month to get exclusive content from Leosims (or any other patreon/paywall creator here) I’m spending that $15 supporting creator x, creator y, and creator z, who don’t put their work behind paywalls! 

Link their patrons, share why you like their content, and why you take the stance to make the community better. Make it a positive thing, praising the people who are doing RIGHT by the community. 

Yes, you may not get their content for a while (although there are some different places (

x

,

x

) to find them *cough*. But in the end, is it worth supporting someone’s content when they’re treating the community badly? 

Step 3: Report creators who actively steal content from IMVU/secondlife to those respective companies, and all others to EA. (Even though nothing may happen.)

Here’s the deal. When people steal from either of those sites, they are infringing on someone’s copyright, as well as Imvu/secondlife’s copyright as well. It’s not okay, and they should be held accountable for it. Here’s the LINK for submitting a ticket to Secondlife. I haven’t been able to find one for IMVU, but maybe someone else will find one. Let those companies know and allow them to handle those specific creators.  As to the other creators, EA may not handle them at the moment. But IF (and this is a wishful thinking “if”) there were suddenly a flood of messages about certain creators...? I think they might have to pay attention to some of those messages. There is an official report form, but it might even be worth tweeting to SleddingGuruFrost, who is the current community manager asking about their stance on paywalls.  And last but not least: 

Step 4: Make sure that those who are doing the right thing and not putting their work behind paywalls feel appreciated. Show them some love via a tumblr ask, or by tagging them on twitter, or by going up a tier on their patreon (or pledging for the first time). Celebrate these heroes who are creating content and not forcing it on us. 

Us asking for people to give us a choice to support them isn’t being greedy, or disrespecting their time. We just want transparency, and respect from those who create content for the game we love so much versus them treating us like we’re just a source of income. I know it might seem a bit hard to do this for some of you, and for some it may seem like I’m preaching to the choir, but we have to decide where we stand on this issue and stop letting those who abuse this system keep doing it. We can make a difference if we decide as a COMMUNITY to work together.

With commitment,  ~Sunny

[pickledtiarax]

Oh wow! You just keep perfection going!!! I really would like to have an entryway like that! Can you tell me where you got all of the things used in the entryway? I do have the mirror(looks like Severinka) and the rest is beautiful!

Thank you so much! And a big thank you to all you cc creators who make the most beautiful items, it is so inspiring. Here is the list:

Mirror definitely Severinka at TSR, for anyone who is curious Set of Mirrors 2 is the collection, I almost used the crystal one for this design

Console @heurrs 

Buddha stature and pouf Leosims, the Buddha was sized up

Wall sconce ShinoKCR TSR Living Baker set, love the matching lamp too!

Baskets Soloriya TSR Kristen set Two Big Baskets

Incense holder @nynaevedesign at TSR, I sized it down

Candlesticks Simcredible TSR Scandifever

Artwork is by @baufive, the frame is separate from the art. 

Orchids @zx-ta

Wallpaper @imminervaa 

If I forgot anything please let me know! 

[mack3030]

So now we’re blocking people who only sub for a month...okay then...

So I want to make y’all aware of a post made by Pandorasims4cc on her patreon in November of last year, because I feel this meltdown is honestly worth examining.  Now before we go any further, I would like to make a few things clear:  1) REGARDLESS of how this creator acts, NOBODY deserves death threats, personal attacks/hate, or other nonsense. If you treat this creator this way, you are worse than they are. Point. Blank. Period.  2) This creator says they give away lots of stuff for “free”, and I will give them credit, unlike a lot of creators they are more “generous” with their free stuff than a lot of them are. Many creators claim they give stuff out for free, but in the end it’s less than 10 sets or poses or items, while the rest is locked behind a paywall. This creator DOES give out quite a few sets for free. But this does not excuse the paywalling, and the behavior in this post. 

3) I’m also in no way saying that creating CC for the sims 4 isn’t hard and creators don’t deserve to get paid, but the way they go about getting paid by treating the community like cash cows needs to stop. 

Okay, with that said, let’s take a look at this. Basically, she’s saying that if ANYONE joins her patreon only for a month and unsubs early, she will instantly be BLOCKING them on patreon. Because apparently if you can only afford to pay for one month of her patreon, you are instantly a thief and (in her own words)...a “pathetic little pawn”.

So, if I sub to her for a month just because I like her content, and unsub a few days early because I’m a teacher and my mind is so full of student concerns, COVID-19 plans, and all of the other adult things and I KNOW I’m gonna forget to unsub on the last day of the month, I am AUTOMATICALLY blocked from her patreon and labeled a thief, even though I didn’t steal from her.

 (And by the way, there’s plenty of people that can attest that many times when you get blocked from one paywall creator’s patreon, others start to block you too...almost as if they talk to each other and share your personal information like your patreon name and email.....odd.)  Now there are some who will say “Oh, well that’s just because people ruin it by stealing her content.” But to that I say... “If she didn’t have her content paywalled in the first place...this wouldn’t be as much of a problem to begin with.”  Plus, if she’s already so generous she’s willing to give out packs for free, why doesn’t she just...you know, do early access and then release her content? It literally makes no sense. She can cut down on piracy, and have people enjoy her work while getting paid for it. Problem solved. No need for a tantrum. She even said in her post she “never said i will keep the poses locked”, okay then, do it the right way and do early access. Let people have a date that they know they can get your content for free. Make it abundantly clear instead of making your patreon look very much like a paywall.  You see, this is a common problem. For example, I’ve seen a lot of people in the pirate chats that I lurk mention certain creators (winner9 comes to mind) who are very unclear and wishy-washy when it comes to if they are truly 100% following the early access guidelines or not. I’ve seen things like “Oh they say they’re early access but it’s been 2 months and they still haven’t released that set” or “they gave this set out to their patrons around christmas and never released it”.  I hate to say it, but with many pirates, if you are not clear and transparent about your early access policy and when things are released, it’s less work for some of them to just assume you’re not following EA’s terms and just steal. My pals over at Dollhouse Mafia try to check, but again, when people make it difficult to tell it can be a little hard and mistakes do get made. 

And last, as to the “owning your work” comment, which I find quite hilarious. No, pirates don’t think they own your work. But they also don’t think you own your work either. Because if you’re using sims 4 assets of any kind for your CC, regardless of what you make (poses, builds, etc) or you make your content FOR the sims 4, it’s not your content anymore. It’s a derivative work. It requires EA’s game and assets to work, thus falling under their guidelines.  If you want to maintain 100% control over your own copyright, then don’t make stuff for the sims 4. Make your own 3D model of a human and make poses for it and sell it elsewhere online under your own copyright. But once you make it for this game, the terms EA set forth apply. 

So m’dear, if you want my advice....just do early access. If you’re willing to be that generous, just make it easier on yourself and make it absolutely clear where you stand. Then the people who still steal from you really are nasty, because they’re stealing something that’s going to be free. 

(P.S ---- Personally I’d lower the price of your request tier because for 45 American dollars I could get access to breezemotor’s highest tier, and leosims’ highest tier. That’s a ton more content than ONE set of poses if I were interested in paying for paywalls... Also you know, not every country can afford $45 due to conversion rates.  --EXCHANGE RATES AS OF 2/19/21-- $45 in American dollars equals:

57 Canadian dollars  245 Brazilian reais    2,179 Philippine pesos 657 South African rands  911 Mexican pesos 3,319 Russian roubles )