The Launcher And You: Why You Should Hate It

[J. M. Pescado]

Here are some fun Launcher facts.

1. The Launcher does not APPEAR to do anything intentionally malicious, although what it does through stupidity is bad enough. It is not recommended that you allow it onto the Internets, although it will not harm your computer by running, other than by wasting your bandwidth downloading EAxis spam pages. Of course, it is always possible that it is cunningly doing malicious things anyway, as proven by the fact that it does not appear to do anything malicious. However, at least it doesn't withdraw into its shell and refuse to run until you stop poking it with debuggers. That may simply mean that it is doing something truly evil and nefarious, as evidenced by the fact that it hides it so well, though.

2. The Launcher is a slob. If you thought the TS2 package installer was horrendous, with strewing crappily-named files all over your directory, the TS3 Launcher is worse. Not only does it not name or organize the files in anything approaching a helpful manner (sort by set? Creator? Download time? What are those?), but it jams all of the files into single large files in the "DCCache" folder, and strews additional, completely useless copies of files inside the "DCBackup" folder, which it never uses or cleans up. They aren't named anything useful, so you'll have no idea what the hell they do. You can delete this crap. If you ever attempt to DELETE any content, the Launcher will not, in fact, actually give you your disk space back, instead leaving you with a 50 MB file containing absolutely nothing. SOMETIMES it might let you have your disk space back....but usually not.

3. You can avoid the Launcher when sharing your Puddings! Puddings can be shared simply by copying the .sim straight from SavedSims and plopping it into another SavedSim folder. Do not share puddings using the Launcher!

4. The Launcher is a piece of crap and cannot even process the packages that EAxis generates from the Store and possibly the Exchange properly! You will need this tool to fix the corrupt packages so that the stupid Launcher can install them!

[nekonoai]

Based on last night's tango, I already HAET it. Thank you for telling me why I should HAET it even further.

[SimDebster]

I am at the 'accept the EULA' stage of installing and decided to check in here before I even attempt to click the accept.  My distrust of EA is so immense that I feel like I am about to step off a cliff.  There is something inherently wrong with that.  You are supposed to be all excited when you get a new game.  I will only be using the Launcher when absolutely necessary, other than that, it better stay in its hole.

[Capitaine Marie]

I started the game through the TS3.exe instead of the Launcher, but does that really make a difference?  And if I install items from the TS3 Store thread, will the game phone home to EA at any point?

[wes_h]

IMO, the game works well. The retail version never calls home.
The GameLauncher always calls home. It runs blocked by the firewall, but is useless unconnected. And it requires Flash, which is verboten here.

[Fu]

1. [...] downloading EAxis spam pages.

[...]

4. The Launcher is a piece of crap and cannot even process the packages that EAxis generates [...]

Has it been mentioned here that Maxis doesn't have anything to do with TS3? If so, why do you keep calling them EAxis?

[kiki]

1. [...] downloading EAxis spam pages.

[...]

4. The Launcher is a piece of crap and cannot even process the packages that EAxis generates [...]

Has it been mentioned here that Maxis doesn't have anything to do with TS3? If so, why do you keep calling them EAxis?

AYOD? Don't be retarded. It is referred to as EAxis here on MATY because The Sims was created by Maxis and swallowed up Borg style by EA. Also, EA is the axis of evil. LURK MOAR, window licker.

[Fu]

1. [...] downloading EAxis spam pages.

[...]

4. The Launcher is a piece of crap and cannot even process the packages that EAxis generates [...]

Has it been mentioned here that Maxis doesn't have anything to do with TS3? If so, why do you keep calling them EAxis?

The Sims was created by Maxis and swallowed up Borg style by EA. Also, EA is the axis of evil.

1. Yes, The Sims was created by Maxis, but The Sims 3 is a whole 'nother thing as I'm sure many avid TS1 and 2 players can attest to.

2. You do know that you need two points to clearly define a line (that's what an axis is), so EA being only a singular entity can hardly be "the axis of evil".

[J. M. Pescado]

Has it been mentioned here that Maxis doesn't have anything to do with TS3? If so, why do you keep calling them EAxis?

"Maxis" doesn't have anything to do with TS3 only because Maxis no longer exists as an independent entity. There is no Maxis, there is only Zuul.

[Avi]

Upon shut down of my PC as I was having the "no music" problem the launcher updated itself.  Fun.  I'm wondering if the "needs to be updated" problem is hindering other people's games . . .  You wouldn't know it until you shut down your PC completely as there was no indication it needed updating that I saw.  Weird.

Edited:  Meant launcher not EADM

[SimDebster]

Both the Launcher and the EADM are set to run in your system tray.  I stopped mine.

[csquared]

Ugh.  And I was enjoying lurking so much...

2. You do know that you need two points to clearly define a line (that's what an axis is), so EA being only a singular entity can hardly be "the axis of evil".

...when trying to argue a point, try to actually have a valid one, k? An axis can be a lot of different things, go here and learn:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/axis

*Note numbers 8 and 9, and pay attention in history class if you can't do it in english.

[Marhis]

Ugh.  And I was enjoying lurking so much...

HA!

Now you're doomed. 

[tizerist]

If you ever attempt to DELETE any content, the Launcher will not, in fact, actually give you your disk space back, instead leaving you with a 50 MB file containing absolutely nothing. SOMETIMES it might let you have your disk space back....but usually not.

Ouch. Does it do this every time, or is it just one 50mb file?

[Insanity Prelude]

Maybe I'll just wait until there's a Sims 3 Clean Installer before I download the Peasantry Store stuff.

[Malefactor]

AYOD? Don't be retarded. It is referred to as EAxis here on MATY because The Sims was created by Maxis and swallowed up Borg style by EA. Also, EA is the axis of evil. LURK MOAR, window licker.

They called me mad and they said it couldn't be done, but BEHOLD: A being of pure catchphrase. I dub it Homo Fourchanicus.

[kiki]

AYOD? Don't be retarded. It is referred to as EAxis here on MATY because The Sims was created by Maxis and swallowed up Borg style by EA. Also, EA is the axis of evil. LURK MOAR, window licker.

They called me mad and they said it couldn't be done, but BEHOLD: A being of pure catchphrase. I dub it Homo Fourchanicus.

Awww, the little ones trying to cut their teeth are so cute. This is what you chose for your first post here? REALLY? That's a fairly ambitious attempt to step up wouldn't you say? Rather amusing too given that I've never actually set foot on 4-chan and the commentary was wholy MATY. You may find it would be beneficial to read the FAQ and do what was suggested of that other nooblet - to LURK MOAR. If you had actually done so, you'd understand MATY culture and know your audience appropriately.

Also WUT? Are you calling me some kind of FAG?

[Malefactor]

Your culture seems to involve a lot of appropriation of other people's 'culture'. Are you Jimmy Page by any chance?

[kiki]

Your culture seems to involve a lot of appropriation of other people's 'culture'. Are you Jimmy Page by any chance?

Welcome to the internet - we're one big post-modernism melting pot, especially since the rise of memes. Does it surprise you at all that we may possibly have some common ground with other websites despite not having pow-wows with their membership? Again may I direct your attention to the FAQ, where you may actually be at risk of learning something about the forum that you have chosen to (attempt to) frequent. No, by the way I am not Jimmy Page. I am a Kiki.

[lindaetterlee]

How do you setup your computer to not allow The sims to "phone home"? I am using Windows XP Home on one machine.  Windows Vista on other machine. Only firewalls on the computers are the ones that come with windows.  I am using a 2wire gateway to connect to the internet.

[Solowren]

Get Comodo Firewall. Windows firewall sucks.

[Insanity Prelude]

Here's another reason to hate the Launcher: It's slow. It's taking forever to install all this Store stuff from the Peasantry.

[Insanity Prelude]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, there's a multi-installer now? How did I not know this?

* InsanityPrelude dashes off to Google

Edit: Google thinks I'm talking about how to install the game.

[tizerist]

Anyone got a workaround to obtain lots from the exchange, but use 3viewer to install them?
I'm using the method of putting this in the address bar

sims3://download/?assetId=xxxx

but this automatically opens the launcher....

[WandersFar]

... it jams all of the files into single large files in the "DCCache" folder, and strews additional, completely useless copies of files inside the "DCBackup" folder....

What are the full paths of the DCCache and DCBackup folders? I would like to check them to see if I have useless crap strewn about, but I can't seem to locate them in either Documents or Program Files.

Also, what is the full path of the SavedSim folder? I'm not seeing it in My Documents, Electronic Arts, The Sims 3, etc. Is it supposed to be there, or somewhere else?