No, you shouldn't. Thats why everyone's games are bloated, instead of being able to just use and share the same custom content across the board, everyone has to make their own so as not to step on anyone's toes. Do you know how many different black eyeliners I had that looked exactly the same? At least six. I'm pretty sure all that the people did was copy someone else's alpha and recreate it in bodyshop because they didn't want to have to deal with credit and asking permission.

Get over it already. If someone is that hellbent on recognition, just stick your username somewhere in the filename or tag the texture somewhere or something. There is one creator, who shall remain nameless, who really pushes all my buttons. He makes fairly decent hair meshes, then if anyone dares to recolour them he throws a little bitch fit and pulls the mesh from his site. He tries to rationalize it by saying that his meshes are free for everyone to use, but no one can use his textures or his alphas, ever. So what? If I want the same hair in blue, I have to make a new alpha totally from scratch? That is just stupid. He's even had temper tantrums seeing his hair modified in screenshots, where someone altered it for use in their own game.

What a whiny little bitch.

I agree, plagarism is bad. In fact, it is one of the things that I hate the most, being something of a writer. However, being paranoid to the point of anal retentiveness is not going to stop people from stealing your work and posting it on the exchange as their own. It has happened to me, and it has happened to several talented creators that I know. Honestly, there is no way to prevent that except not to post it at all.

Hence why I refer to the exchange as a garbage dump in my rant.

Try this then:

Compatability Chart

I didn't mention anything about pay sites, because that kind of thing is becomming more and more common with popular games. MMORPG players pay for gold and items on Ebay, and it's a pretty lucrative industry, or so I'm told. Microsoft started up that Xbox marketplace, where you can pay real money for game items too. I guess that's just the way the industry is headed.

But can you say that any of this stuff is really "copyright"? Maybe they made the mesh and/or the textures, but EA/Maxis owns the game and the engine and everything else. EA could concievably add a clause in their EU agreement saying that charging for custom content is not allowed, and then sue everyone who didn't take their pay sites down. (Not that they would, they'll just follow the trend )

Hey look! Something useful!

It more or less explains all that craptastic irrational attraction stuff.

All real credit goes to Amberdiceless for being awesome enough to make the original chart. It was just insanely hard to read, so I made a pretty one.

Not too long ago, I was talking to a friend of mine who works at Gamespot. The subject of The Sims 2 came up, and he got a funny look on his face and asked me if everyone in The Sims community was insane. It seems that Gamespot posted a couple mods on one of their pages relating to The Sims 2, which is pretty par for the course on that site. Like they do for every other game, they gave full credit to the creators, included linkbacks and all that jazz. Then, nearly a year after the files went up, my friend recieved not one, but two irate emails from the creators of these files demanding to know why they were not asked explicit permission to have their files reposted and/or linked to. This, he told me, is not normal modder behaviour, most of the time modders are thrilled to even get a mention on Gamespot.

I thought about it for a moment, and had to admit that this is a pretty common reaction in this community. People are insanely posessive of their stuff. In most modding communities, as long as a file includes a readme with the original creator's name and contact info, everything is kosher. Not so for the sims. Instead, every tiny mesh or recolour that is created comes with all kinds of disclaimers. I can deal with the standard "Don't upload my mesh or I'll kill you, link back to me" stuff. But then you get the "Don't recolour my mesh unless you have explicit permission, and then you can only post your recolours on site xyz, if I don't like it I'll ask you to remove it, and OMGZ NO EXCHANGE OR I'LL THROW A TEMPER TANTRUM!"

Lets get real for a moment, shall we? Okay, yes, you just spent a very long time creating your very special mesh. Horray! Lets upload it. Now, as far as I am concerned, you have set it free in the vast ocean of public domain. People are going to use it, modify it, recolour it, turn it inside out, and spit it back out. You will most likely see it floating around with someone else's name attached, and yes, no matter how you scream and pout, it will end up in the garbage dump of the exchange at sometime or other. It's no better for people who recolour or retexture, you put it out there and people will use your alphas, frankenstein bits of your texture into other things, recolour, invert, and turn it upside down, often with no credit back to you whatsoever. That's what happens.

So what can you do about it? Nothing, really. Making people ask your permission to recolour it or insisting that no one else can touch it EVER, EVER! is not going to fix the problem. People will ignore it entirely and still do it. At least when you ask nicely that people link back for your mesh, most of the time you'll still get credit, if that is what you're after. Mostly, I see this kind of behaviour in novice modders, but every once in awhile I come across an experienced modder who still has some weird complex about his/her work. "This is purple! I don't like purple! Take it down!" or "I didn't give you explicit permission to recolour my mesh, so take it down right away!" Okay, but this is my texture. I made it. I'm not offering the mesh for download, so why are you demanding that I remove my creation from where I choose to post it?

In closing, let me just say that I am not speaking as someone who doesn't know what she is talking about. I've had things I've made stolen and posted on the exchange as someone else's work. I've seen my textures and alphas used by other people without credit back to me. I've seen some of my stuff mutated into something I think is horribly ugly. People use my stuff on custom sims and forget to credit me. None of this is the end of the world.

Write up a nice readme file, stick it in your rar, and hope for the best. And stop whining.

*Disclaimer: This rant may not be reposted without explicit written permission by me in triplicate, and can't be posted on sites that I don't like. It can't be reposted on days starting with the letters T or W because I don't like those letters. It can only be posted on blue, purple or green backgrounds because those are colours that I like. AND OMGZ NO EXCHANGE!

This rant isn't directed at MATY or anyone at MATY specifically. I just chose to post it here because I didn't want to have to deal with people who can't post an intelligent response.

You can put them there, or any other blogging site. You can also put them on (eek) the official site. Or, if you are feeling brave, you can get yourself some free webspace somewhere (like geocities) and make your own stories website. Really, you are only limited to how much work you want to do.

That would probably be the one. Gee, I feel dumb now

Thanks brynne ^_^

Someone mentioned a cheat that makes objects invisible when viewed through windows. What is this cheat? I seem to have somehow got it stuck in the on position in my game, I cant see anything through windows or from a higher floor.

Any help?

I usually name a neigborhood something thematic, then name the streets something to do with that theme.

So if I had a neighborhood called "montmartre" then I could do street names based on parisian landmarks, artists that lived in that district, popular things during that time frame, etc. I think it adds for a wider variety of streetnames, while retaining a certain continuity.

As did the crammy penis thread a few weeks back, as I recall. Everytime someone says "penis" around here, everyone comes running. It's okay, on insiminator, the magic word seems to be "boobies".

I guess that just goes to show, we're a bunch of freaks and pervs, the lot of us. Except Avie, who maybe chose the wrong forum

I got that earlier today on MTS2 and haven't got a chance to play with it yet. From the screenshots, it looks fab though. I'm really loving all this Sims stuff you've been doing for Sims2. If only Maxis had thought of it

^_^

How did you find that one out, Blue? Do we even want to know?

Crammy's penis gets so much attention these days...

Apparently I am blind. Blind! Oh no! I can't see! Everything is dark!
Oh, false alarm. Found the lightswitch.

I don't know I could have missed those six little characters up there. My appologies.

What about credit to Max? Didn't he mesh the thing?

Paladin makes all kinds of wonderful, sim torturing devices. This makes me happy ^_^

I use targa's elevators alot myself. The maxis elevators are a pain in the butt, I'd never build with them. I prefer having stairs in houses though, I just wish that if the stairs are blocked, the sim in question would wait with patiently with his action still in que, then go when the stairs were clear.

Apparently, Maxis thinks the retarded stomping followed by dropping everything out of their que is more reasonable.

I know what you mean. In one of my houses, the bed is on the third floor, and my romance sim has to ask his partners to join him three times before they finally make it up the stairs. Otherwise they see him on the stairs and stomp around like idiots then go make a sandwich or something.

I don't think teen woohoo qualifies you as a pedophile. Now if you wanted child woohoo, we'd beat you with a stick and shave off your eyebrows.

I think this is a good idea. I hate it when a teen ages to an adult and seemingly loses all interest in his/her former girlfriend/boyfriend.

Maybe if Ken had a penis, Barbie wouldnt have dumped him. Mattell actually retired poor Ken, I guess he finally decided to come out of the closet. Please, we already knew, he wore pink suits with ruffles.

For you lazy gits who can't do your own sexy sims search, here you go.
Behold! The cocks of Crammyboy!

The first time I heard that song was at Anime Expo last year, someone had made an AMV (anime music video) of that song set to clips from Chobits. It remains my favourite AMV to this day.

It is a *ehem* "self pleasure" mirror, euphemistically speaking. These are completely new animations, according to the creator. I've certainly never seen these animations in game before >.>

Unfortunately yes, as it requires you to be over 18. Your MTS2 username works for this site, no need to register. Make sure you have the adult content box checked in your control panel though.

Okay, well, no. Not really. I don't think anyone is suprised by this. The very first object with custom animations has been made and (wait for it) it is a sex object. I guess the internet really is for porn.

For anyone interested, here is a link. You must be over 18 to see it.

Yeah, I hear people rave about simlish songs and sims music all the time, but honestly, I can't stand it. I use all custom music in my game.