zer0_Mods_
patreon
Ok, let's talk about this shit...
🕑 Added 2020-12-21 05:22:04 +0000 UTCThe Sims "Community" again, yep. Because I've been seeing this since I started modding this game. I come from a community where most, if not all, the tools and mods are shared freely and the donations are never forced, this is also because whatever you do with a Bethesda game belongs to Bethesda, and they are actually (and in fact did) entitled to take your work, put it on sale, and give you the 11% regardless of how much time and work you put on it.
EA games can do the same thing, they don't because they're smarter than Bethesda and know how much their sales rely on mods and CCs.
Now, a lot of people who are the pillars of modding in the Sims Community do actually have the same "free share, open source" mindset that you can find in any other gaming community, and I'm talking about the people who do the big things: Sims 4 Studio, S4PE, The Mod Constructor etc, along with a lot of tutorials on how you make CCs. Without them, modding The Sims 4 would simply not exist and it wouldn't be so easy. These people don't lock the stuff behind a paywall. Anyone can go to the Sims 4 Studio Forum, read the tutorials, download the software, ask questions.
Ironically, the people I see putting themselves on a pedestal because they make mods and put "time into it" are the people who I know use The Mod Constructor, a fantastic tool that was studied with the specific idea of allowing anyone to make mods easily without having to mess around too much in the game files. The Mod Constructor allows you to make a series of things, like personality traits, interactions etc, from an accessible UI, and outputs for you both the package and the script to put it in game. While it takes time, it's something any of you could potentially do (modding the sims 4 is easy to begin with, anyway), and in order to show you, I'll be doing some tutorials specifically on The Mod Constructor.
I see more than one of these people feeling entitled to ask for money and put their stuff, made with free tools, behind a paywall, and then also get enraged with "thieves". This is, in my opinion, a scam. I also see people endorsing this behavior and putting these modders on a pedestal even more than they already do. I stopped using the Constructor a while ago because it didn't allow me to do all the things I wanted to, and I also think it's so easy to figure out that never required me to make tutorials for it, but I think you should know what you're actually asked to pay for.
So, next time you're asked to pay for a personality trait made with the Constructor, you can decide if it's instead the case to get the Constructor and make the trait you want in game yourself.
Comments
Zero_
I can look into doing that, I think most tutorials overlook the simple very basic overview of the UI and how it translates in the xmls, though.
MizoreYukii
Could you make a tutorial about events in MC? We have a ton of tutorials on traits, one on careers, and one on aspirations, but no one has done an event tutorial yet (for some strange reason).
Maïa Game
Hello to you, what a wonderful message! In more than 3 years in the field of FR translation of mods, so always looking for things to bring to the community, I have noticed an increase of creators who no longer do advance access, but put their content exclusively on paid access. Paid content never goes to free access. That's not the majority. Then there are great creators who charge reasonable prices and those who decide not to charge. For example, as Zero says, I'm starting in modding, I'm happy with what I do but everything is free, because I consider that I'm not talented enough, and anyway it's not in my state of mind ;-) In this community, there are also unscrupulous people, who take the free content and make them pay by re-uploading it. I recently alerted about this. As you say, people support the people they want ^^
Angel
I was actually ranting about this the other day. As a cc addict I have noticed a BIG increase in perminate paywalls. But what I find interesting is that more and more cc creators are doing all kind of weird strategies like deleting all of their past content on patreon and only leaving the current month cc. So that no one will join and "steal" the stuff then leave. 🤨 One of them went on an outrage that someone "stole" the "stolen goods" and deleted everything 😂 Many others make it where you have to message them to get a link to your email. And this one cc creator, actually two I know of, I had to beg for weeks just to get a link. And only because I already paid. And you'll see people all over the comments just begging for links. And I didn't get the link until I started asking all over her patreon if I'm the only one not getting links. I immediately stopped supporting nor do I support anyone I find doing that. I felt so STUPID like I'm begging this stranger over the internet for a virtual dress or whatever😂😂😂 and people encourage this behavior because I lot of them have hundreds of supporters. ....desperately begging....lol Like I understand and acknowledge that modding or cc making is not easy and I really do appreciate modders for all of the effort but don't be rediculous 😑 Definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth and really takes the fun out of cc shopping because this keeps increasing. There's even many who hide behind early access yet never release. And the funny thing is for the modders or creators who want money desperately they don't really have to resort to all of those shady practices. I see many modder who offer their stuff for free or true early access and still get tons of support. People will support out of appreciation , love of your content or gratitude and they would still earn money. I support several creators including you because of your amazing personality and way of thinking. 💛💛💛💛💛💛 I don't have much myself but if I can afford to I have no problem supporting honest creators or helping someone out if they really need money. The "sims community" is something else 🙄
Maïa Game
Hello Zero and thank you for this post, it's good to see someone who is not afraid to say what they think 💪 I'm learning with your tutorials and with the help of a modder, and myself of course by digging on Constructor 😊 Thank you to all the people who made this possible ! Until a month ago, I didn't think I could do it. Well, I still have things to review 😂
Zero_
the situation with paywalls is out of control... plus Patreon forced the "you must be a Patron to even comment" bullshit on all of us, too.
Maskra
Hear, hear.. and here I am, joining the conversation again this Monday morning without having to pay for it.. I played TS3 for years and since I couldn’t anymore, am playing TS4. I enjoy playing the game because of some fantastic mods made by people like you who make gameplay in TS4 more interesting. Now with switching to TS4 I stepped into the world of paywalls.. like every good entrepreneur knows, people are willing to ‘pay’ you if you offer added value. So do I. However, there are modders out there who you must pay a tier of €3 to get so called early access to things like traits or custom foods and if you want to interact with the modder about mods, you have to pay €5. Ofcourse they will say you don’t have to and the goddamn eggnog is ‘available for the public on the 25th of December”, but aren’t that marketing tactics we despise from companies like EA? I sometimes look how many patrons (including this fool) some of these people have and if they all pay a monthly subscription minus tax I assume, they make double the salary I receive every month working with victims of domestic violence or my husband does being a teacher. ☺️
Zero_
I just don't like the fact that people use things that are made accessible to everyone as a community to act like pricks and scam people, by making them believe they're some divine gift because they mess around with stuff that is open to mess around to everyone. Especially when what you do is not something vital like FOOD, and the times we're going through are already hard for everyone. Putting time into it is a choice, anyone can put time into it. We're either a community or a bunch of pricks. I put time into making tutorials, too, and they're free. Andrew puts time in S4S too, and the people at the forum put time into tutorials. Zerbu puts time into the Constructor. And they give these things to the community to use for free.
You're a gem Zero. I dunno if you hear it enough, but you are. I just adore you and your way of looking at things. Thank you for everything you do. Most people don't get to hear that enough.
Zero_
I'm a huge fan of Pescado, I can't even compare but I do what I can.
Stephanie Anderson
This is giving me strong The Booty vibes and I like it. I try to support a few modders when I can, but they tend to be modders like you where support is appreciated but not expected. MCCC and NPCCC for example.
FiftyMileHighClub
Hear, hear.
Zero_
The constructor outputs a file that is mostly optimized for the game, also the data files often have the "constructor" signature on them. I'll show you inside the tutorials. A lot of people also use a combination of constructor/manual work on the xmls, by making buffs with the Constructor and the rest manually because the constructor files are actually better for the game.
True AI
How can we know if traits are made with the Constructor? Is there a signature in the package that we can differentiate Constructor mods from others?
