#and I don’t see any noise from simblr at all

[marsosims]

Idk if I just missed it but is early access for simblrs not a thing anymore??

[fairefolked]

so @okelli​ said they wanted a more in depth tortilla so ya gorl is here to deliver. here you go. click this link. that's it. that's the tutorial.

ok i'm done trying to be funny. i've chucked this in here under a cut, but please keep in mind, this is not a professional tutorial. i am in no way an artist/professional/the be all and end all/guru/god; this is just my editing process. so you don't need to follow it exactly to the t. you're more than welcome to change any processes and do your own thing. i know there are some more technical and frankly better tutorials out there by other simblrs that go really into details and what have you which are really helpful (and i do encourage everyone to go check them out), but please keep criticisms close to your heart bc i reiterate; i have no fucking clue what i'm doing. but let's get started bc this bitch gon be long.

what you're going to need:

photoshop or some other editing program. i personally use ps cc 2019, however gimp will probably also work

reshade; however whatever version you use is up to you. again, i use 4.6.1.

google is your best friend and mine

a screenshot of your choosing w some slick lighting

a lot of patience

for images where the resolution isn’t clear, click here for full size.

step one:

open up your screenshot in your editing program of choice. i have picked this screenshot for the purpose of the tutorial bc of the spicy lighting. also did i spend an hour building this for the purpose of this tutorial? i cannot confirm or deny these suspicions, but we're usin it ok. for this picture i used @intramoon​‘s alethiology reshade preset bc it’s my fav atm. you can find it here.

step two:

apply your colourgrade. i used the sonder actions by again @intramoon​ bc this tutorial is sponsored by asia. i’m not going to go too in depth here, bc this differs from screenshot to screenshot. i’m only mentioning it bc it’s fairly important to the next step. adding the colourgrade turned my screenshot from what you see above to this.

as you can see, the colours are now slightly more muted and there’s more of a green hue to it. 

step three:

depending on the colour scheme you’re going for with the screenshot, you’re going to want to pick a colour that compliments it. since my screenshot is still quite warm toned, i chose #fff4d8 which is a pale yellow. you’re going to want to take this onto a soft brush (they come with photoshop so if you’re new to using ps, it’s a default, you don’t need to download anything). i’ll include a screenshot of what it looks like. 

before painting anything, what you’re going to want to do is create a NEW layer. you can do this by either pressing shift + ctrl + n or by clicking layer in the menu bar up top, selecting new, and then new layer.

on your new layer, with the colour and brush selected, what you’re going to do is paint over the areas that are already highlited by ea lighting. for example, my screenshot ended up looking like this.

looks pretty messy, but that’s ok bc we’re going to change the blending mode to overlay as seen below. obviously this made the lighting look slightly too intense. dw this is not how we leave it.

i also change the opacity to suit the image. i set my opacity to 50% and this is what it ended up looking like.

i added in an extra step that i only use occasionally for this tutorial, and basically that extra step is going in with a soft WHITE brush and taking it to the areas that look extra glowy - i.e. the typewriter, the pie and the counter handle. this is what mine looked like. this needs to be again done on a new layer, so make sure you ctrl + shift + n or select a new layer in the menu bar.

again changing the layer to overlay, and changing the opacity. this is what my settings looked like. 

again, please refer to the full size image folder, however for those lazy like me; opacity is at 65%

step four:

on your main layer of lighting overlay (if you didn’t add more like i did it should be your only one), you will want to add a layer mask. this can be done by clicking this little button here 

once you’ve done that, it should add a white box on your layer and look like this 

because the colour has lightened some of our shadows, and depending on how deep you want your shadows to be, you’re going to want to click onto the white layer mask and with a soft brush set to the colour black, you’re going to want to draw over the shadowed areas that you want to deepen again.

for reference these are the areas that i went over. and my layer mask now looks like this 

step five: 

creaTE A NEW LAYER!!!!!! this time we’re going in with shadows. pick a dark grey colour (or black, your choice. i prefer dark grey), i used #1c1a18 and paint over the areas where you want to deepen the shadows further again.

this is what mine looked like 

set that to soft light and change your opacity (don’t use overlay this time, it’s too harsh on the picture). 

my picture now looks like this:

subtle changes make a world of difference.

step six:

FIND A LIGHT RAY!!!! i mentioned in the ask i published that i particularly like using this one i found on google, and i did use it for the purpose of this tutorial as well.

pop her on your picture and change the positioning. positioning can be changed by pressing ctrl + t and either flipping/rotating (which can be done by right clicking on the texture and selecting flip horizontal etc) and dragging the corners. if you’re dragging the corners to make the texture smaller, maKE SURE YOU’RE HOLDING SHIFT DOWN WHEN YOU’RE DRAGGING SO THE DIMENSIONS STAY THE SAME. with the positioning, make sure you’re putting the light areas of your texture where the light source is coming from. it’s really important to have a basic understanding of light and shadows. i flipped mine horizontally and made the texture smaller as well as rotated a little. 

set her to screen and change you’re opacity.

boy i’m sounding like a broken record lmao, but my picture now looks like this.

starting to look kinda nice right? 

step seven:

download this video. open it up in photoshop and make sure you have your timeline window on. if you don’t and don’t know how to change it, up the top, select WINDOW and make sure there is a tick next to timeline which is near the bottom of the drop down. once you’ve done that, click ANYWHERE along the little timeline that has shown up and it gives you a frame for the dust texture. it should look something like this. (the red is bc that little blue and red guy is important)

press ctrl + a on your keyboard to select all and copy that motherfucker. past her on your screenshot, set her to screen and play with her opacity again.

if you’re unhappy and feel like it’s too busy, you can go back and add a layer mask and using that same soft black brush, erase problematic areas the same way we did in step four. mine ended up looking like this.

NOW THIS PART IS OPTIONAL!!!!!

using the colour fill or paint bucket tool, i went in on another new layer with another pale yellow (#e4dcb1) and filled in the whole image. i set that to COLOUR and put it on a clipping mask RIGHT ABOVE the dust texture. you can add a clipping mask by right clicking and selecting set clipping mask. it now only applies to the layer directly below, which is our dust layer. i only did this because the white was too harsh (lol) and i wanted the dust to blend a little better with the surroundings.

finally step eight:

again optional, but if you like the vintage look like i do, select the layer with your screenshot and using the noise v2 action by @intramoon​ (hi again asia) in this set, add some noise. it creates a duplicate layer, which you can then play with the opacity of to set to your desired strength.

once you’ve done that, you’re basically done!!! this is what my screenshot ended up looking like by the very end. 

that concludes our spicy lighting tutorial. i hope you were able to do better than i do on a good day. enjoy!!!!!! if there are any parts that you need clarification on, please feel free to yell at me and i’ll see if i can help lol

[plushpixels]

Hi again :) I was wondering if you have any tips on editing? I’ve been reading your story since the beginning and you have improved greatly!! I just started using photoshop, so still figuring everything out.

Hello-hello :) First of all, thank you for reading my legacy, I feel really grateful, honestly :3 Now to the business.

I’m not sure how useful of tips I can give to someone who’s just starting with PS, cause there’s a lot to look into about it.

• If I were new to PS I’d start with understanding adjustments layers and their effects, cause these guys will be the main thing in every editing. There are a lot of tutorials out there, especialy videos on youtube,  which explain it so much more efficiently than I could possibly do in a tumblr post. If you’re not feeling like getting too deep into this whole topic, look for different .psd and photoshop actions for editing, tthere are a lot out there, they’re also good as a base to understanding the whole thing.

• Then I’d look into Topaz Clean plug-in, this one helps to clean and sharpen your images, I wrote about it and how I use it >here

• Then, it doesn’t really have anything to do with PS, but pay attention to in-game lighting. And I don’t only mean all kinds of No-Blu lighting mods, but actually all the lamps in your sims’ house. I realized the whole power of this instrument not so long ago, and it affects the quality of my screenshots so much, it’s ridiculous. Here’s a link to a very helpful tutorial, which explains this topic in detail. Basically, the better your source screen is, the easier it will be to edit it, so I wouldn’t ignore this step :3

• Avoid too bleached lights as well as too dark/black shadows, unless you’re going for the effect. Both of these will make later editing hurt..

• Mind your sharpening tools - sharpness is good, it gives your image polished look, but over-sharpening will kill your every effort.

• Look into overlay textures (google it x) there are light effects, dust effects, noise effects, scratches, shadows, blooms, camera bleaches, vignettes, color gradients - find what you like and go for it, they will no only give your images depth, but may also help you find your own style.

•This will be my last tip, but not least. Go for your own thing, ask this same ask to different simblrs who’s editing you like, see what different answers you’ll get, try all the different stuff and make your own mixture out of it, so people would come to you asking for your unique tips :)

This was it for boring general tips x) If you were referring more to what I personally do for my images, then my routine after taking a screenshot is:

• I crop my image to what I need it to look like;

• I run Topaz Clean actions from the post I linked you to;

• Resize to 1200 px wide for my story posts, and to whatever else for the rest of them;

• Run my own sharpen action which is for the High Pass filter of PS;

• At this point I do the basic editing: I fix the contrast/brightness balance, tune the colors to my liking. (I prefer cooler shades of skin for example, and love when my pictures have a little bit of periwinkle/pinkish tint). I mostly use Curves, Levels, Color Balance, Selective Color, Photofilter adjustment levels here, it really depends of the quality of the source image here.

• Next step is my curse, cause I draw shadows, highlights, hair strands on my images. I tried it once, got addicted and I wish I could not be doing it, but alas. I do it by hand on my tablet, it’s time consuming, I wouldn’t recommend 😝 

• Final part are overlays I mentioned above, sometimes I make light rays, sometimes I draw dust particles, sometimes I do noise; it all depends.

 And that’s about it, I think, I hope it was helpful? :)

[petitesimss]

Get to Know Me Tag

I was tagged by the beautiful @timouke to do this challenge so here we go I guess?!

Rules: Post a pic of your simself with your traits and answer the questions! :)

My Traits: Clumsy, Goofball, and Genius 

(According to other people, I swear I didn't label myself as a genius! xD)

Really quick I would like to go ahead and tag of my FAV simblrs: @mmfinds @stardustsim @blushchat @brindletonsims @mochieo @awsimmer92 @fussysim @simplistic-sims4 @tainoodles and also anyone who wants to do it!

1. What is your full name? Megan :)

2. What is your nickname? Meg (Omg so basic)

3. When is your birthday? October 7th

4. Favorite book series? ‘ARRY POTTER!

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? Uhm not aliens but I think some form of ghosts exist. Not necessarily the scary ones xD

6. Favorite author? John Green

7. Favorite Radio Station? I don’t listen to the radio oof

8. What is your favorite flavor of everything? Chocolate or Strawberry!! Mmmm

9. What word will you often use to describe something great or wonderful? Amazing or just a *gasp* noise

10. What is your current favorite song? Nancy Mulligan by Ed Sheeran

11. Favorite word? oof

12. What was the last song you listened to? Currently listening to Pentatonix’s cover of Hallelujah

13. What TV show do you recommend? I am currently obsessed with Vampire Diaries

14. Favorite movie to watch when you’re upset? Omg this is weird but those classic like 2005 Barbie movies always cheer me up

15. Do you play video games? Not really other than sims ofc :P

16. Biggest Fear? Dark Bathrooms (especially the mirrors, its a long story)

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? My drive to work hard or maybe just my general compassion for everyone

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? LAZINESS

19. Cats or dogs? CATS I HAVE THREE

20. Favorite season? Fall because of sweaters and moderately cool weather

21. Are you in a relationship? Oui!

22. Something you miss from your childhood? Barbie Movies

23. Best friend? My boyfriend xD

24. Eye color? Chocolate brown

25. Hair color? Dark brown, black at the roots

26. Who is someone you love? My mother xD

27. Who is someone you trust? My mother

28. Who is someone you think about often? My boyfriend (These answers are so basic oof)

29. Are you currently excited about/for something? IM SEEING THE CRIMES OF GRINDLEWALD TOMORROW

30. Biggest obsession? Cats

31. Favorite TV show as a kid? Probably I-Carly or Hannah Montana

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? My boyfriend

33. Are you superstitious? Unintentionally yes

34. Any unusual phobias? Dark bathrooms xD

35. In front of the camera or behind it? Both

36. Favorite Hobby? Sims eek

37. Last book your read? Idk why but I stopped reading and so I have no idea

38. Last movie you watched? Not all of it but some of Pitch Perfect (I’ve already seen the whole thing don't worry)

39. Play an instrument? My voice and also a bit of the keyboard

40. Favorite Animal? Cat.

41. Top five tumblr blogs you follow? ALL OF THEM DANG IT

42. What superpower do you wish you had? Flight!

43. Where and when do you feel the most at peace? At home, sleeping in my bed

44. What makes you smile? Literally life

45. What sports do you play, if any? I’ve been in dance for 13 years

46. Favorite drink? Coca-Cola

47. Last time you wrote a handwritten note or letter to someone? This week actually!

48. Afraid of heights? DUH

49. Biggest pet peeve? SLOW WALKERS JUST WALK PLEASE

50. Ever been to a concert? Yep and I’ve been in several local ones

51. Vegan or Vegetarian? Heck no 

52. What did you want to be when you were little? A pop star xD

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? Just. Hogwarts. Always.

54. What is something you worry about? If I am actually liked by people

55. Scared of the dark? Only in bathrooms dude

56. Do you like to sing? YES (Soprano 1 - Mezzo)

57. Ever skipped school? Nope, I’m a good bean

58. Favorite place on the planet? Bed.

59. Where would you like to live? New York or Paris

60. Have any pets? 3 cats (Bella, Possum, and Ty) and also a fish whose name I don't remember

61. Early bird or Night owl? NIGHT OWL

62. Sunrises or Sunsets? I’m gonna go with sunsets

63. Do you know how to drive? I should but I don't xD

64. Earbuds or headphones? Earbuds but not the ones you get with an iPhone, those suck!

65. Ever had braces? Three years I think total, and I just had to get a 6 week retainer set to close a small gap that came back :(

66. Favorite genre of music? Pop I guess xD Or musical theater!

67. Who is your hero? My stepdad

68. Do you read comic books? No but my stepdad did xD

69. What makes you the most angry? When people make jokes about things like cancer or diabetes (THEY ARENT FUNNY)

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? Definitely a real book, My eyes don't hurt as much plus they smellll soooo goooodd

71. Favorite Subject? English or Science

72. Any siblings? So this is complicated but I have one half brother, a half-step brother, and a half-step sister

73. The last thing you bought? I bought a journal and some bath salts for my friend’s birthday

74. How tall are you? So I used to be 5′2 but every time I go to the doctor they measure me at like 5′1 and I am confusion

75. Can you cook? Yes but I prefer baking

76. Three things you love? My family, my friends, and food (Omg I typed foot at first EEK)

77. Three things you hate? I LITERALLY DONT HATE ANYTHING IM SORRY

78. Do you have more female friends or male friends? Female oof

79. Sexual orientation? Straight But why did you need to know??

80. Where do you currently live? Louisiana OOOF

81. Last person you texted? My boyfriend, specifically “hehehe yess”

82. Last time you cried? Watching “A Walk to Remember” a few weeks ago

83. Favorite youtuber? All of them, rip

84. Do you like to take selfies? Yes but only because I don't like the pictures other people take of me xD

85. Favorite app? BUZZFEED or maybe netflix

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? I love my mom and we are close but me and my biological dad don't talk

87. Favorite foreign accent? FRENCH OR BRITISH

88. Place you’ve never been to but want to visit? Hawaii or Paris

89. Favorite number? 2 but also literally any even number

90. Can you juggle? Who on here can actually juggle cause I want to be your best friend please (so no)

91. Are you religious? I’m supposed to be catholic but I haven't been to church in a while

92. Is outer space or the deep ocean more interesting? The deep ocean because I want to be a mermaid

93. Do you consider yourself a daredevil? No I am the opposite oof

94. Are you allergic to anything? Cats and dogs, pollen, grass, apparently something in the meningitis vaccine (ITS A LONG STORY)

95. Can you curl your tongue? YOU BET I CAN

96. Can you wiggle your ears? No but I can shake my eyes

97. How often do you admit that you’re wrong about something? I am never wrong, ever.

98. The forest or the beach? The beach cause mermaids

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given to you? Do what you love, don’t work for money.

100. Are you a good liar? I am a TERRIBLE liar

101. Hogwarts house? Gryffindor but my hybrid house is Gryffinpuff soooo...

102. Do you talk to yourself? I used to tbh but now I usually just sing to myself

103. Introvert of Extrovert? Extrovert but I love me time

104. Do you keep a journal/diary? No I just deal with my thoughts

105. Do you believe in second chances? Absolutely

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? Look for identification in it so I can return it to it’s owner

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? Of course!

108 Are you ticklish? VERY

109. Have you ever been on a plane? Yes, I was on one last weekend

110. Any piercings? Only my basic ear piercings

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? Ronald Weasley

112. Any tattoos? No but I wanna get a few small ones later in life

113. Best decision you’ve made in your life so far? Care for others is far more rewarding than wallowing in sadness

114. Do you believe in karma? It depends, really

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? I used to wear glasses but since one of my eyes is near sighted and the other is far sighted they balance each other out enough so that I don’t necessarily need them anymore

116. Do you want children? YES LIKE 3-5

117. Who is the smartest person you know? My stepdad

118. Most embarrassing moment? That time I asked my bestfriend at the time’s sister if I could wear a pad on a water slide (IT WAS MY FIRST PERIOD OKAY?)

119. Ever pulled an all-nighter? I’ve made it to 6 am xD

120. What color are most of your clothes? Yellow or pink :P

121. Do you like adventures? PLANNED adventures, yes

122. Ever been on tv? A few times

123. How old are you? 16

124. Favorite quote? But without the dark, we’d never see the stars

125. Sweet or savory foods? SWEEETTT

OML THIS TOOK FOREVER RIP

[emmelfish]

Probably high time we left the cosy comforts of Brandi’s trailer and followed Daz around a bit, no? I mean, we can’t really reject him from the suitor pile now he’s put two children in her. 

Flashback to Darren’s first masterpiece, entitled ‘Nice Leaffffs in Motion (Plus Witchcraft)’, which sold for a princely sum of who-remembers-what many simoleon.

Proof that Darren paints things other than foliage and Cassandra Goth’s face. YEAH he paints Natasha Una’s face too! She was just sat browsing arts and crafts on his computer all day as per her glazed expression which he’s captured so well here, it wasn’t a ‘paint me like one of your French girls’ type deal. 

True story tho, Tash would legit get nuddy and lie legs akimbo on a sofa for a mere bite of Babybel, no questions asked. In fact that’s likely her default state at home when she’s eating a sandwich.

DIRKY. I actually really love Dirk’s tinkering hobby, it suits him so well. And he’s my first sim ever to fully restore a junk car! I always gave up in the past, hence why every iteration of the Shifting Paradymes in my game had a half-finished piece-o-junk in the driveway despite having two mechanical obsessives in the house. They come out pretty snappy too! 

Because the sim world stands still while you’re on other lots, in Darren’s universe he boinked Brandi and created two nooboos whilst in some kind of time void. So he’s woken up outside his house after art club armed with all this new information, and has invited over Mother of his Bebehs.

Dirk: *Looks out window* Quelle horreur.

Dirk: Right that does it, I’m not letting him have all the fun when he does nothing but paint and stare wistfully at Goth Mansion all day. LILITH get your sweet freckled butt over here.

Athletic alien hybrid townie is judging you, Brandi and Darren. Branden.

Hey here’s a question. WHY is Darren’s wedding ring doing that stupid-ass vertical flip thing? Is it because his dead wife is manipulating it to break his fingers from beyond the grave? Either way it’s irritating ME into an early grave, I’ll tell you that much for free.

Crap on a cracker. I legit thought that was Tybalt for a second, somehow having sentiently borrowed Mercutio’s outfit. Like are those kids already aware of the torch the Simblr community burns for them and have just started clothes-swapping in my game without me having had either of them interact yet?! But no, it was just some boring fitness townie.

Lil wastes no time in Operation Beat The Olds In The Romance Stakes.

Dirk: *pretty much throws Lil on desk*

Lilith: Tinker with me like you would this computer, Dirk!

Darren: Oh hey Dirk hey Lilith, stay in school kids, juice boxes in the fridge if you want them –

Dirk: GO AWAY DAD stop embarrassing me; if there are any juice boxes it’s because I BOUGHT THEM all you buy is PAINT and BEER

After a glasses boop Brandi realizes she’s never kissed a man in specs before, but it’s okay to mess up, because it’s just their second ever kiss. SECOND EVER KISS. And these crazy sims have two kids on the way. What a world.

Witnessing that smoochy display surgically parts Dirk from his mojo and merges Lilith and his father together in his thoughts to create a headache of heartfarty bewilderment.

Lilith: Dude, that’s nothing. Both my parents are schtupping The Help. Sometimes all three of them go at it.

Dirk: Not making me feel any better.

And we have our first makeout memory! So if my recall serves me correctly, it went woohoo, classic dance in underwear, giant greeting smooch, glasses boop, makeout. Yes, they really have done all this in an interesting order.

Fun fact? STILL NO CONVERSATION YET!

Do all the happy kiss noises count as conversation? I’m not sure they do.

Dirk: *staring intensifies*

Oh what? I never realized Lil and Dirk weren’t in love before this! Well bless their little hearts. Also I’m not sure if that was EAxis way of implying they’re wrong for each other as they often do for not-in-love couples buuuuuut these two were at least crushing, so bollocks to that I’m guessing? Who knows if they’ll stay together. 

Apparently Jules O’Mackey is perfect for Dirk, but she’s also perfect for her ex Jacob Martin, who Sandra Roth is also perfect for. How did I ever play without the buyable crystal ball. I’d have never known who to pair!

Brandi, probably as horrified as I am AT THE STUPID EFFING VERTICAL WEDDING RING. Seriously, anyone know a fix for this absolutely irritating as shit glitch?

How about that first conversation then? Get ta know ya bettah huh? Brandi you sell yourself short, you’re just all round great – maybe semi-neglectful of your kids considering you want so many. OH HAI TARA KAT! I forgot you were here!

Tara: Yes, I’ve been upstairs dancing awkwardly to the stereo for three days while Natasha Una was on the computer. Now I need to pee.

Well great, just swing right past those two lovebirds and –

Oh.

Darren: 🎵 Ah! Sweet mystery of life At last I've found thee 

Tara: This is adorable and everything, and I’d love to paint you both right now, but I gotta tinkle.

Brandi: Oh Darren Dreamer, you TOO choose to have significant life moments in the bathroom! We are made for one another!

Tara: Yeah but seriously –

Brandi: YOU sir are the bestest. I cannot wait for the birth of our genetically beautiful babies which will bring me that much closer to my LTW of six married children.

Brandi: MY TURN! 🎵 Baybeheheh, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey, ooh, the more I get o’ you the stranger it feels, yeaheh, (yay)...

Tara I’d go use the bushes if I were you.

Dirk: Oh Lil we are so perfect together aren’t we, you have no need to ever break up with me for anything.

Lilith: Why are you getting all insecure and weird again.

Dirk: You don’t need to go off and explore your sexuality when we go to college do you, I’m the perfect boyfriend! Experience my mastery of the backrub.

Lilith: Dirk that’s stupid, literally every sim is born with that exact same skill. See?

Dirk: Yeah but I’m best at it! Oh I love you! Let’s play red hands.

Lilith: *gasps for air* Yeah!

Dirk: WHY DO YOU SLAP SO HARD YOU MONSTER

Lilith: I grew up with Angela. If you didn’t slap hard first you got roundhouse kicked in the face.

There she is! Darren finally got Natasha Una the hell away from his computer by talking to her about her second favorite subject, paint. Lovely lovely paint. It’s not grilled cheese, but it’ll do for making her stand up for three seconds before she went straight back to her browsing.

That’s all I have for Daz and Dirk’s round (with bonus Bran, Tash and Kat). Might change things up a bit with a Caliente session next, who knows? WHO KNOWS?! I don’t even know.

[pixeldistractions]

Thank you @treason-and-plot for the tag! 💖

Here’s a fun thing: YOU’VE BEEN TAGGED! Let’s talk about your story! Here’s what you do: 1. how many stories are you writing? 2. What’s your favorite story/favorite post you’ve written? 3. Who do you personally ship in your story? 4: Who do you think has had the most character development in your story (bonus: why) 5. Tag 3 story simblrs that you’ve been reading!

1. How many stories? Only counting my current sim stories from the TS4 era because otherwise we’d be here all day! My current blog is Postcards from Sierra Nova. It's one blog, but several storylines, so how many stories is that? I don't even know. I have 217 sims, but only about 25% of them have ever had anything like a real story, however big or small. The others are just background fodder, gameplay families, and side characters. 

2. Favorite? The seventh chapter of Drown, so #7.1 through #7.7. As a whole, Stephanie and Justin’s story got kind of messy and there were a lot of detours both in drafting and in what I finally posted (it ended up about three times longer than I intended it, lol!). But when I first started drafting this, years and years ago, chapter #7 was what I had in mind. It was the perfect nugget at the core of the whole story. One of my favorite moments, I think, was in #7.2: "first date at the end of the world," with Stephanie and Justin on that desolate beach and seeing the streaks across the sky and she says, "They're not stars." Yikes, it still gives me a little shudder to read! If I ever do a book version of that story, it'll revolve around chapter seven. (I'll just set the rest on fire and start over, lol! J/k, but kind of not... )

I was also quite proud of Susie & Reid's story "skills testing, parts 1-4", from the 2091 timeline. Re-reading that one still makes me tear up a little. I’m such a puddle of mush.  

3. Shipping? I think I'm not hip enough to understand shipping, lol! Is it the same thing as having a favorite couple? Or is it a couple you want to be together who are currently not? My favorite couple is always changing (and is usually whatever couple I’m currently writing about, I am that fickle!), but above all the other noise, I still can’t get enough of Stephanie and Justin. 😍  

I also still adore Susie and Reid, and Dallas and Lucy, of course. 

4. Most character development? Either Jeremiah or Keri. The others have probably had more screen time in the stories, but their personalities and desires were pretty simple for me to understand. Keri and Jeremiah, for different reasons, had a lot more behind-the-scenes freewriting and exploration. 

With Jeremiah, it was because he is very different than any character I’ve tried to write before. And I was trying to do something with him that I hadn’t tried to do before in a story. I knew that I wanted him to be subtle from the start, but I also wanted you to be able to look back and see all of the red flags. 

Keri was difficult because she has a lot of very complex relationships in her life, and she’s made a lot of very weighty decisions that I needed to understand fully before I could write for her. 

5. tagging: @tinwhistletoo, @shannonsimsfan, @sullivanrandomness

[ameranthe]

A lengthy treatise on DLC and the Sims. Or something.

So now that the bowling stuff pack has been released for The Sims 4 and the topic of game DLC comes up once again in the Simblr community, I feel like I want to sit down and write a post that outlines how the DLC market and the larger gaming market in general has changed how The Sims has been created, marketed and sold over the years. So hold on, this will probably get pretty long.

Lets climb into our wayback machine and head to the year 2000, when The Sims was originally released for PC. The Sim City franchise had been around for quite some time, debuting in 1989, which was cool because you could run a whole city, but Will Wright had this crazy idea about making a game where you could build houses and control mini people. What most people don’t know is that this game was rejected by Maxis once, before being picked up for distribution by EA. So yes, Maxis developed it, but the much-hated EA has been a part of the franchise since the very beginning.

Now, in 2000, we had the internet, for you young people out there. But, there was absolutely no way to download large files in any kind of timely fashion. One song could take hours to download, and a cool show from Japan could take days. Also, at this time DLC was not really a thing. You bought a disc, and that was it. Expansion packs also had to be physically bought, and due to limitations and costs, it just wasn’t worth it to make smaller DLC rather than just putting everything into one big expansion pack. Yes, custom content and mods did exist for TS1, but were still limited by download speeds and bandwidth costs.

The Sims 2 was released in 2004, a mere four years later, and yet a lot of things had changed very quickly. Technology was rapidly expanding, and things that could never, ever have been done on a year 2000 machine were possible. That means the game was richer and fuller than the original, and sims were way more customizable. DLC as a marketed product was still in its infancy during the TS2 years, and while some games were starting to get a lot of paid extras, there was backlash from the gaming community, who felt that everything should be included in the product as shipped. The Sims 2 kept to the same release type as TS1, meaning instead of smaller DLC scattered throughout, each expansion pack contained a large amount of content, and was priced accordingly. This also meant that some expansion packs were thematically all over the place, such as Apartment life, which included apartments and witches. Maybe witches prefer apartments?

This is also when the big controversies over paid custom content created by fans became a huge issue. EA included language in the terms of service agreement which allowed fans to charge money in order to recoup bandwidth costs, but stipulated that the content itself was still owned by EA. EA also chose to stay out of the massive conflicts brewing in the fan community over mod creators generating profits and charging large sums for fan made content. It is worth noting that in the larger gaming community, it is extremely rare for anyone to charge for mods for other games. 

In 2009, The Sims 3 was released. For some this caused cheering, for others it was more of a wet fart noise. Reactions were mixed, is what I’m getting at. It was pretty ambitious in the customization department, using the CAST system, which used quite a bit of CPU power to accomplish. Now, digital download sales were starting to really catch up with physical copy sales, and download times were much less painful. EA also started to run into the PC game maker’s dillema; they can develop for high end computers, pushing the graphic capabilities to the max, and creating gameplay that is smooth and buttery on high end of computers, or they can make a game that looks good and runs well for the majority of customers. Given the popularity of the game among non-hardcore gamers, they clearly went with route two, though at high graphic settings the game could still be quite beautiful.

EA also ran into a second problem with TS3. DLC sales were exploding in other games, where players could opt to pay only for the content they actually wanted, while still relying on expansion packs for larger content upgrades. Think of this in terms of modern MMOs, you can buy a pretty mount for your character to ride around on, but a huge new continent and quest line will be reserved for expansion packs. Obviously, they wanted to try this out with one of their most profitable games, The Sims. Unfortunately for them, many Simmers were not impressed with either the quality or the price of those DLC offerings. They were largely ignored or shared via piracy. 

EA also continued to offer large expansion packs, which could cram disparately themed items into one expansion pack. A lot of simmers wanted more flexibility in choosing the things they wanted in their games. For example, a lot of people loved the idea of cities, but didn’t want the vampires that came lumped in with it.

The Sims 4 arrived on the scene in 2014, and it was instantly either loved or vehemently hated. It returned, in style anyway, to the cartoonish graphics of The Sims 2, and were clearly designed to get the most out of mid-range PCs. They also abandoned the CPU intensive CAST system introduced in The Sims 3. EA also started to push smaller DLC packs in a big way, which has stirred up controversy in the Sims community.

On the one hand, the DLCs created for TS4 are largely viewed as an improvement over the overpriced DLC from TS3. These Game Packs and Stuff Packs include new gameplay and, in the case of Vampires, a new lifestate, things that have previously been solely available in expansion packs. They do allow gamers more freedom in selecting the content they want in their individual games, and allow EPs to focus more tightly on one theme. For some gamers, this pick-and-choose format is preferable to the content dump style EPs of the past.

On the other hand, expansion packs containing the largest amount of new content are slower in being released, which is making some simmers a bit more impatient for new content. The expansion packs are also not any cheaper, despite the fact that content is being spread out over smaller DLC releases. And unlike many other gamers, many simmers are completionists, meaning that they are spending more money on DLC than they were previously spending on expansion packs only.

It is also worth noting that the controversy over paid custom content has died down in the era of The Sims 4, largely because the community in general will not pay for content. 

I personally do not see the DLC system changing much for the release of The Sims 5 (whenever that happens.) Love it or hate it, DLC is a prominent and very profitable part game development. EA is also notorious for loving their DLC, so I can’t imagine that they would ever willingly stop selling it.

What are your thoughts on the matter? 

(Please refrain from turning this into a hate-fest over games you dislike.)