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1  The Sims 3 / Sims 3 Buzz / It just gets better and better on: October 23, 2008, 09:57:16 am
Just saw this article linked from Lebensim:
The Sims 3 to Have Dynamic Ads
http://www.lebensim.com/
"Electronic Arts, maker of "Sims 3," is working with IGA to provide dynamic in-game ads -- which can be switched in and out of the game via an internet connection -- to the latest version of what has become the world's most-played PC game."

Oh joy. Now they can try to sell me real life things while I try to build a castle. That will go great in my fantasy neighborhoods...oh...maybe I wouldn't be able to make fantasy neighborhoods anyway. Maybe there won't even be a Ren/pirate dress this time because it doesn't fit in with multimedia ads. Come to think of it, I haven't seen anything remotely period, even retro/50s in any of the screenshots yet. Interesting. IGA's tech is considered by some to be a privacy threat. Here is one article on that debate:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11300

and a scarier recent one:
"IGA can measure the exact amount of time that an ad is viewed by a gamer and then report that data back to the advertiser."
http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/21/iga-worldwide-delivering-in-game-ads-to-30-million-users/

They claim 80% of gamers don't mind these ad billboards. Maybe we aren't the same demographic they studied though? Sims players are erm...well...we're sort of control freaks. We are into customizing. We use Insim because it gives us more control over our sims and our game. Major and minute control. Are we going to like product and political ads showing inside our Renaissance neighborhoods, or or ancient Romes? Somehow...I doubt it. And I am pretty certain that like with SecureRom there will not be any opt out. Oh, and this thing phones home a lot. I guess that means you may even have to be connected to the internet at all times you are playing, but maybe someone who has already played a game which uses this stuff can tell us for sure.
Here's IGA's page for advertisers:
http://www.igaworldwide.com/advertisers/ourapproach/radial-network.cfm

So let's see...so far, we know we will have to allow SecureRom (or resort to alternative means which many of their paying customers will not use). We know there will continue to be a tight limit on reinstalls which might be exceeded quickly if you experience problems. We know we will be required to be connected to the internet at least some of the time during normal gameplay so that this adware/spyware can let Eaxis and ANY advertiser that participates know exactly how much time we spend playing and when and how much ad exposure we got. I doubt we can opt out of that either. Your game habits will absolutely be logged as per the quote above. Oh, supposedly not your name, although if you register the game or download anything from their store, they can surely put that together with your "unique ID" pretty easily, can't they? "Unique ID" combined with "no personally identifiable information." Gosh, I've heard that before and it's always BS unless you play on public computers. They will know it's you or a family member/roommate. That's personal. And identifiable. And information in spades. So you pay money, you BUY the game, for the honour of enduring potential hardware issues (SecureRom), potential security and privacy issues (SecureRom and IGA), and are then subjected to paid advertisements, which unlike cable ads are not one way. They track you. IGA's prolific PR will tell you all about it. How much do you want to bet you can't play if you remove the billboards or disable them? How much do you want to bet when you install it, it will NOT warn you about this billboard ad software OR SecureRom? They don't need this advertiser money, by the way. It's true their stocks have dropped recently during the SecureRom controversy, but they are hardly going to lose money on paying customers. They're not giving away a free ad supported version. This is called GREED.

I still really love the Sims 2 and I used to think I would never stop upgrading to the newest Sims product. I guess they don't want people like that anymore. They want a mythical target audience that will buy a product or see a movie or vote for a candidate because a billboard in their game says to, so they get a cut.

I had hopes, I really did, that the class actions suits forming against them over SecureRom would make them rethink their customer relations and business ethics. Better late than never. I thought maybe they'd reverse their position, that they would remove the SecureRom from Sims3 and admit it was a mistake. That maybe we could all kiss and make up. Sure doesn't look that way, does it?

No thanks. I've given up hoping. People who pay to get scr**ed often regret it later. I don't plan to be one of them.
2  Simmers' Paradise / General Sims 2 Discussion / What's your take on Securom? on: September 16, 2008, 04:09:54 pm
In the state of California the installation of software, including copyright protection software on people's computers without knowledge and consent is now illegal but they are probably gambling there will be no class action suit like Sony had with a previous copyright protection software issue. I don't know about law in other states and other countries, but EA is based in California. Yes, piracy is a real problem for companies and I do understand that, but as many people have pointed out, the people who pirate have cracks (and because of Securom and Starforce etc. now many people who do not pirate have turned to those as well). I have elected not to use methods to break Securom, but to do that means I can't play any of the games I may buy without knowing they contain Securom. I am lucky that I know how to check for it, but most consumers don't and although EA has a warranty, not all companies do for games. People who BOUGHT the games are spending money on tech support with their computer manufacturer, on new hardware, because they do not at first realize their CD/DVD capability was disabled or destroyed by Securom. In some cases, the person's software tells them a burn was successful and there's actually nothing on the disc, their backup is empty. A lot of people have computers that are used for work/home business as well as gaming. Obviously someone could lose an awful lot if they didn't think to verify the backup. Think of the family photos, the financial records, all the things that people actually bother to back up. Most people do not back up games, if they back up anything. They back up items of value. Even then many software licenses allow you to make a single copy of the software for backup reasons, to protect your investment in the software.
3  The Sims 3 / Sims 3 Buzz / why is everyone so pessimistic about the sims 3? on: September 16, 2008, 12:11:43 am
I said pessimistic not so much because of what Sims3 may be like. We don't really know yet. A lot of the hyped features sound to me like the old features slightly enhanced.

I am pessimistic because I think the company is moving away from the Sims mods fanbase, which is the draw for me. My reason for thinking so? The new EA store is a micropayment system. I think they hope to make that the main or possibly only source of new content, and I suppose I can't blame them for trying, but if it eventually replaces stuff packs, they are going to charge you more per item. It will be much more expensive. You can add it up yourself. Also it means for the first time individual modders who make a single new bed will be directly competing with Maxis and since EA will be charging for each item individually...are they really going to allow primarily free distribution of items much better than they can produce? I don't see them continuing to encourage that when they start making sales per item. I guess they could license pay sites, since pay sites don't provide most of their items for free and they could get a cut of not much, but sites like this one, I think they will begin to thwart. I think if they have the Exchange at all, it will probably be recolors only. If they keep supporting modders, it will hurt their store. How optimistic are we they will under those business conditions?

All that makes me pessimistic, but I am also pessimistic about customer relations as revealed during the Securom controversy. They have been reading the stories about people having to buy new hardware, and they have committed to using it in Sims3 anyway. I am really not that tempted and I think some other people aren't.
4  Simmers' Paradise / General Sims 2 Discussion / Somebody finally gets it. on: September 15, 2008, 11:37:12 pm
For those of you who missed it somehow, this is a link to a "Bill of Rights" for gamers released by Stardock, an independent game publisher and distributor.
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/08/29/stardock-releases-gamer039s-bill-rights-pax

That site also has a lot of other recent news about EA and Spore and the T2 failed acquisition.

I've bought Stardock distributed games before and for what they are, they are very good. They appeal more to the gamer with a limited budget, limited time, or more interested in casual gaming. Stardock's president has the idea that people who pirate games aren't going to buy them no matter what you do, so you should target your games to the broadest audience that is likely to buy, and cultivate customer loyalty by not treating your paying customers with suspicion. Bravo! Finally! His company is surely not making as much money as EA, but they also aren't getting trashed all over Amazon by ex-customers.

Kudos, a Positech game available over at Stardock or on the Kudos site is sort of a simplified version of the Sims, by the way. It has nowhere near the complexity, but it's very satisfying on that sort of casual game level. I bought it from Stardock to reward them for their bill of gamer rights and don't regret it. It came with no copyright protection, you don't need to be online to play it, and it doesn't even phone home for free the updates unless you want it to. I don't normally play casual games, but the whole experience with both companies is so refreshing compared to what I am used to getting from game companies, I think I will try their other games, too. Kudos is very easily moddable, intentionally. It may be too simple for some of you, though. If you start feeling withdrawals and temptation over one of the newer Sims2 expansions or packs, it might ease your cravings a little bit until sanity returns.

http://www.stardock.com
http://www.positech.co.uk/kudos/index_variant_video.html
Both of those companies give modders :love4:

I will always love the Sims, but I am not going to knowingly buy anything with Securom on it because my Dell computer came with at least 3 programs it blacklists. Oooh, I must be a pirate because I paid an arm and a leg for an XPS system and don't want to wreck my hardware. Dell customers should be aware that if you have anything preinstalled on your system called Nero, Roxio, or Amapi, or you have an IDE CD/DVD device or even a digital camera or printer which came with your system, you may be at risk of permanent, irreparable hardware damage from Securom. Some users have had DVD drives replaced by Dell but Dell knows about the Securom problem, and it's no guarantee you will be able to get a replacement if even after ridding yourself of Securom(with difficult) your DVDs still do not work or you can't back up your professional work or school work to disks. One Dell customer said she got a replacement because she had inadvertantly bought software which contained Securom as part of a bundle with her computer. Would she have gotten one otherwise? It's hard to know. It's not Dell's fault or the customer's when a customer is subjected to a stealth program/possible rootkit. Forgive me if I doubt Sony's word after their previous history.

Sony's belief is you don't have the right to use Process Explorer to see what's running on your own computer because that apparently somehow violates their involuntary terms of service that you aren't allowed to try to figure out how their software works. Chances are, you never agreed to any terms of service with them and their software invisibly invaded your computer, which is actually illegal in some other places where current EA games are sold. I am not sure where they get their righteousness. If I caught a guy disabling my TV in my living room because I "might potentially" be planning to steal from a friend of his, and then he told me I had no right to check his pockets, he might be legally correct depending on where it took place because he is a person and accorded certain legal rights, but using Process Explorer on your own system for the intended uses is no crime anywhere that I know about. It's basically a troubleshooting tool. Here's what it does. Ask yourself if Sony has the right to forbid you to use it, and if there is any justifiable reason a person running it should be considered a likely pirate.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

EA, dump the Securom or you will not only lose my purchases of any Sims2 software which has it, but also my purchase of the entire Sims3 line, which I absolutely would have collected. Not that you apparently care there are thousands like me. SafeDisk made games tricky to install but it didn't cost me more hassles than one reboot into safe mode. And Sony? I've been boycotting them for years now. This hubris and mistreatment is nothing new for them.

End of :rant:
5  Simmers' Paradise / General Sims 2 Help / Does anyone know the Create-a-Sim face blend key? on: September 15, 2008, 07:46:29 pm
I've just recently started playing again, and in the old days I used to know a key you could use in Create-a-Sim that saved me a lot of time and made interesting faces. What I used to do was pick a face with unusual and strong features, like the elven face for the pointed ears, and there was some key or combo I could hold down and click on one of the other default default faces, let's say the Asian face, and it would blend the face you had chosen slightly toward the second face. I swear I'm not making this up, it worked great. I think it took maybe 5-7 clicks to go from face A to face b, so it was actually pretty easy to make sims with elf ears and interesting ethnicity if you don't need the ears to be super pointy. It saved me a lot of time with sliders and let me do things it was difficult or impossible to do otherwise, even in Body Shop. It also helped create good breeding pairs because of more subtlely blended features than you can get with the sliders.

Problem is, I have forgotten what key or keys I need to hold down, and this trick was always pretty obscure I gather because none of the online tutorials seem to mention it. I don't suppose anyone knows the key/s and whether it still works with Pets? I think I originally got it from a Maxis tutorial on the EA site that is no longer there.
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