Haha - now I *know* EA use SimPE!

[Inge]

They had to take down their Ford Fusion cos it was overriding their Ford Focus.  That means they forgot to enter new GUIDs.   If they were using their usual internal tools that would be automatic, not a conscious process like we have to use with SimPE.

[Emma]

They have been using creator stuff for years-look how they stole your lockable doors Inge! Oh yeah, but it was 'theirs' in the first place due to you using their objects to make them, so they weren't stealing at all.

[dizzy]

It could be that it's more convenient for certain things like cloning.

[Sigmund]

They have been using creator stuff for years-look how they stole your lockable doors Inge! Oh yeah, but it was 'theirs' in the first place due to you using their objects to make them, so they weren't stealing at all.

Agreed. Does anyone else remember a site called C&C something or other back in the Sims 1 days? Quite a few things in the Sims 2 base game bear an unmistakable resemblance to their hacked objects. It seems that EA makes a habit out of copying custom content.

[Inge]

Actually I once stated on the BBS that EA were welcome to use any objects or ideas of mine freely if they wished, because including stuff with the game was the best way to make it available to as many players as possible.  If they took me up on that, it's not stealing.

Actually they implemented the locking quite differently from the way I designed mine anyway, so I don't think they did copy me - might have been flattering if they had

[Faizah]

This isn't really 'new' - Maxis claiming custom content as their own, at least. (As for using third party tools ... well, you'd think they'd have the 'real' tools.) I read somewhere that a bunch of the clothes in Livin' Large were pretty much swiped from other people. (Whether those other people had a say in it or not, I don't know...) But there were hardly any credits attached, none that I could see.

I remember the C&C site, they were awesome. I went on a bit of a binge there, when I got Unleashed. They had so much cool stuff. (Heh. The 'interesting toilet' still cracks me up. "An object totally designed to meet Bob Newbie's taste! Our most sincere apologies!") C&C Enterprises.

[Zazazu]

Frequenting the big CC sites is really the best way to see what their fanbase wants. Surveys are only answered by people who frequent the official site...which really is a small percentage of their fanbase. Remember Simslice's rejuvenator (probably the least weird thing they had)? When I first saw the Energizer, that's what I thought of.

[veilchen]

I remember the C&C site too. It was a favorite of mine for TS1. EA copies a lot of fan created content. Sadly, they can't even get the copying business straight. Their download manager was partially ripped off the clean-installer, and still they managed to make an inferior tool.

Aside from that, I like your locking doors better than theirs, Inge.

[Inge]

Thank you Veilchen

[Gwill]

They have been using creator stuff for years-look how they stole your lockable doors Inge!

Not just the doors, the whole OFB thing was Inge's.

[nil]

I remember the C&C site too. It was a favorite of mine for TS1. EA copies a lot of fan created content. Sadly, they can't even get the copying business straight. Their download manager was partially ripped off the clean-installer, and still they managed to make an inferior tool...

You know, if they did it better, their dirty linen can be discovered easier due to curiosity.

That's true, it's reasonable to check out fansites to see the majority of the fanbase wants, so they can ensure their products will be quite likely to get sold.


Believe it or not, newer Maxis team copied and altered codes by the older team for new "features".

[dizzy]

Believe it or not, newer Maxis team copied and altered codes by the older team for new "features".

I kind of prefer the term "kludged", but yeah that's not hard to believe.

[Dragon Slave]

They have been using creator stuff for years-look how they stole your lockable doors Inge! Oh yeah, but it was 'theirs' in the first place due to you using their objects to make them, so they weren't stealing at all. 

Inge made it possible first, but it doesn't mean they took it from her.  It's not that hard of an idea to conceive...espeacially when considering home businesses.  Would it really be practicle to have customers wandering all over the sims house?  But how else would they restrict their access without lockable doors?  It's the most sensible way to solve the problem... and the easiest to think of.  I mean, that's how it works in real life, right?

Not saying there's no way they were ever inspired by Inge, but you can't say they stole the idea when the idea isn't that hard to think of in the first place.  It's entirley possible they came up with it own their own. 

 

[Inge]

I don't think EA spend enough time on community sites to have any idea what we're making, let alone copy it or be inspired by it.  If they did spend more time seeing what we say and do, they might not be so bad at customer relations.

[notveryawesome]

I dunno. I've seen some build items that look exactly like some of Windkeeper's creations, especially her windows (and I don't mean her Maxis-match ones). Then again, I think EA had hired her at some point, so perhaps she gave her own creations over to them.

[Marvin Kosh]

t's not that hard of an idea to conceive...espeacially when considering home businesses.  Would it really be practicle to have customers wandering all over the sims house?  But how else would they restrict their access without lockable doors?  It's the most sensible way to solve the problem... and the easiest to think of.  I mean, that's how it works in real life, right?

Even with lockable doors, customers still wander out of any door they please in order to leave the lot., rather than using only unlocked doors.  It doesn't matter since they won't interact with anything on their way out, but it's pretty ugly.  I can't imagine they spent a whole lot of time on this feature.

[J. M. Pescado]

That is not actually an example of "not spending a lot of time", but actually a deliberate feature designed to specifically allow departing sims not to become trapped, such as if an employee is dismissed while inside the employees-only zone. For rigid, no-exceptions room-based locking, try APO instead.

[Kristalrose]

I dunno. I've seen some build items that look exactly like some of Windkeeper's creations, especially her windows (and I don't mean her Maxis-match ones). Then again, I think EA had hired her at some point, so perhaps she gave her own creations over to them.

I have thought the same thing about Windkeeper as well.  The TSR Kudos clocks came out before Pets did, and one of her clocks is almost identical to the one with Pets.

[notveryawesome]

Yep, and she also made the lucky cat sculpture long before Pets came out.

[Emma]

Apparently, in the new L&P EP that is coming out (God only knows the name of it-Free Time, Hobbies, whatever...), they are going to include a wading pool for toddlers. WTF? Didn't Echo already do that?

[ZephyrZodiac]

They got the swing from Teresa Fernandez, who made a set of swings for Sims 1, and yet they totally ignored the Maxis climbing frame!  Silly EAxis!  And even with all the country stuff introduced in Seasons, they still haven't managed to emulate Teresa's working rocking chairs!   And who do you think they got the penguin from?  Teresa made the penguin, I think, but it was based on the SimsPlus pig.

And talking of C&C and the Interesting toilet - who thought of the idea of sims reading the paper while sitting on the loo?  It certainly wasn't EAxis!  And the C&C one was far more useful.....and it was a more effective toilet, too, sims who'd used it didn't get dirty, and they didn't need to revisit the bathroom for a lot longer!

[nil]

I don't think EA spend enough time on community sites to have any idea what we're making, let alone copy it or be inspired by it.  If they did spend more time seeing what we say and do, they might not be so bad at customer relations.

Lol, I agree with you that EA certainly needn't spend a lot of time on the community sites, as they can fast-categorise the ideas and get some graphical designers to work on the "similar" things or copy the things.

They mostly grab the major ideas rather than the details behind.  From the start, TS2 wasn't made for quality but efficiency according to their markets and their company strategies for stock-and-cashes.

In a world where most people who care about efficiency, finances and stocks for greeds and/or financial "stability", everything else is a less priority.  not until a threat can be seen,  those money-spending efforts to balance the environment back a bit could barely happen more.  That's not surprising for a belief that $ as a means for human to count values on work done or found "treasures", and hence it becomes a driving force.  Then, I guess we might have forgotten something, certain important things or works are too expensive to be included into the financial systems to make it look growing so that in turns we can get the illusion that we're improving our world and ourselves so much by ignoring all the messes we made on the way.  Yeah, we may earn a lot of luxurious things while at the same time making a lot of messes we still can't afford to alter back yet or at least recycle them back for balancing the reality of the whole world we live in.

When I was still a teenager like 15 or 16, I've gathered some toxic compounds for some interesting experiments, but I delayed them until I could figure out how to turn the resultants back to some stable and much less health-and-environment-harmful materials.

The phenomenon that the input has to be larger than the output can be switched to the illusion the output can be larger than the input by means of social functions and social equations, just the same exploitations on other organisms and materials.
Surely, when with other living organisms and inorganic materials, we can "input" less to get more "efforts" (from other organisms and other materials) done.  The same exploitation applies socially to human themselves, and we've got the wealthy highly-exploiting human masters, the highly-exploited human slaves and surely some of both properties with varied degrees when they "define" it as efficiency for the companies.
Still, we barely count the messes we're making for the illusion that we're advancing so we're better off.

[dizzy]

 

* dizzy starts to think that nil is Neil Peart

So much poison in power
The principles get left out
So much mind on the matter
The spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration
Overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean
A diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious --
And some are merely spaced

[lasciel]

oh yeah they definitely hang around the community a bit and keep an eye on things - I can't remember where I saw it but its been pointed out that they used fanseelamb's brokeback mountain sims screenshot in the BV photo album.

the hot springs on BV look a hell of a lot like Holy Simoly's rocky outdoor hot-tub, too...

[nil]

What's the spirit? 
I need no ghost. 

wish I'd be that talented. 

After all, I get Inge's will for her ideas and creations.
I basically share a similar policy like hers.
But, most of my intentions for ideas and suggestions on TS2 custom content productions are mainly for the community rather than also for the company.  In my case, I deliberately care the former more than the latter.  Also, I'm aware EAxis can pick my ideas when they think like, and I've no protection against that BTW act anyway.

* dizzy starts to think that nil is Neil Peart

So much poison in power
The principles get left out
So much mind on the matter
The spirit gets forgotten about
Like a righteous inspiration
Overlooked in haste
Like a teardrop in the ocean
A diamond in the waste
Some world-views are spacious --
And some are merely spaced