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The Sims 3: The Dirty Truth About The Official Exchange!
MaXsiM on 16. June 2009 | 5 Comments | Trolls and Spammers stay out.The old discussion about Pay-Content in The Sims gets a new quality. Because Electronic Arts decided to soak the kids in the official exchange.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s EA’s right and economical duty to earn money with their products. From their point of view i would say “The more the better” – because that’s the world we’re living.
Let me tell you why i have a problem with the exchange: It’s a place where i wouldn’t want my kids to go without assistance…
What’s wrong with “Pay-Sites”?
In the past there have been Sims-Fansites that offered custom-made Pay-Content or so-called Donation-Content for the game. It’s clear that many people didn’t like this kind of fansites. You could read discussions about the Pro’s and Con’s all over the web.
Although i understand the critics and never had such Pay-Content on my own sites, i personally have no problem with Pay-Sites. Simply because nobody in the world forces me to buy stuff there. It’s my decision where i spend my money and nobody has the right to tell me i should not buy Custom-Content when i want to. I’m an adult and simply buy what i want and where i want.
So what’s wrong with the Pay-Content you can purchase in the official exchange/store for “SimPoints”? Woohoo, SimPoints sounds so much better than “Dollar” – and the word “Exchange” gets a complete new meaning.
Fun – Happiness – Real Money!
The official Sims-Exchange is perfect for kids. It’s colorful and everybody is happy. It’s such a cute community, no bad stuff, EA filters/censors the content and there are 13 years old hobby cops everywhere.
Of course you can decide if this is good or bad in your case.
But EA recently started to ask for some extra money and do some more questionable things.
No need to register The Sims 3!
When you start the game, a launcher opens up. You can decide if you start the game or go to the online-exchange. For that you must register your game.
Before you register you should understand:
- You don’t need to register. Even if it looks like a “must”. It’s only an option, your game will run pretty well without registration.
- When you register you receive a Code-Number that’s some kind of extra copy-protection. The key is connected with your EA-Account and cannot be used a second time. Better write it down.
- From now on everything you upload to the exchange it property of Electronic Arts. Not only the not-really-custom-made textures. Even your Pics, Stories, Movies! Everything.
- Setting up the online connection between your game and the Exchange enables EA to read and record your personal preferences and style of game-play. They also can send Ads into your game.
Imagine Google or Facebook would publish an EULA with such nasty items (they often tried in the past and will try again); the community and data protection experts would go ballistic.
Not so with Electronic Arts. Maybe because the game’s sweet little only for kids image. This brings me back to what i have written above: Especially kids should be careful in the Sims-Exchange. Maybe it’s not so nice as it looks.
Parents should be aware that their kids may not see Adam and Eve in EA’s Online-Paradies, but they will probably learn a wrong interpretation of the word creativity and also could lose their sense for money and the relation between value and price. Also think about if it’s good when companies get loads of personal data about your sons and daughters just this. Better teach your children to think twice. You never know.
Support the independent community!
I must cement: If you want to join the official exchange of The Sims 3, please join. If you can live with its semi-creative content, expensive store and evil EULA, i won’t hold you back.
EA is suggesting but not forcing you to register. It’s your decision.
But i recommend to better support the free community! There are still many independent Sims-Fansite and communities that work hard to open the game’s code and provide you with the real custom-made content.
If you want The Sims 3 become so damned cool like The Sims 2 you must support the independent artists. They have given you the tools, the animations, the wonderful meshes, hair, outfits, furnitures and objects, not to forget the beautiful realistic skins. Don’t forget that.
EA just took the achievements of the independent community and put their EULA-Stamp on it. That’s it, the dirty truth about The Sims 3 official exchange.
5 Responses to “The Sims 3: The Dirty Truth About The Official Exchange!”
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First of all, thanks for the heads-up on uploading to the exchange.
My younger brother got this game a few weeks ago, gave it to me, and told me he is just going to keep playing the Sims 2. I was dumbfounded at first because I heard so much about how customizable the game is. Let’s say, I agree with him, this game is a disappointment and does not come with a body shop for easy customization. Modding was the funnest part of the Sims 2 for me, but EA’s greed has taken that away.
I will keep supporting the online modding community, but I can only hope that interest in this new Sims installment will last long enough for some worthwhile modding.
I completely agree about the exchange/store. I was very disappointed to find that there was no hair options on the free exchange, and the store only provided 8 choices! I’m new to the whole Sims community (Sims 3 is my first one). When I would try to download content from the exchange, I found that very little was successful to my game. That’s when I discovered the MOD…and fan sites! Amazing work! I’m a fine arts artist (you know the old fashion time with a paint and a brush) and I enjoy the graphic artist…something I’m still a novice at. I know as an artist, the act of creating is the enjoyment and really the money is just a bonus. I have no problem giving money to those who are obviously in love with visual beauty and function. Thanks to all the artist out there who make my gaming experience that much more pleasurable. P.S. I had no problems figuring out how to MOD Sims 3 (although it took some googling to get the right downloads for a MAC).
It’s great to have old fashion artists reading my blog, because i’m not very good with paint/brush ;)
“Creating is the enjoyment and money is just a bonus” really is my motto, very well said.
It’s cool that you start modding the sims and are a supporter of the scene. I wish i had more time to dive into the Sims 3 world… sadly there’s no hope…
Is there a chance to watch some of your fine arts?
I have to say, you brought up an interesting argument. You said “I’m an adult and simply buy what i want and where i want” and I agree with that sentiment 100%, so if I wanted to get things from the EA shop, I can, and shouldn’t be criticized for it, being that I am over 21, have my own sound judgement, and so on. However, I agree that this is a misleading money trap for younger gamers that are not financially independent.
To this, I simply say, parental monitoring is absolutely crucial. A child without a credit card will need mom and dad’s permission to use one, otherwise they would simply need to go to the right store and buy a points card (to get around the having to ask mom and dad thing). But, even so, I think anything with the potential of online sharing should be carefully paid attention to by parents.
Of course a giant company doesn’t care if they abuse their customer base, they’re interested in profits and company growth, so they won’t tell you ‘don’t buy our crap, go get free versions of it!’ and they will also claim anything brilliant and astonishing as their own product, because that’s just reality. So, watch your kids, help them understand the pros and cons of online content and the credit card money traps, and hopefully they won’t have to realize one day that their entire gaming experience has been ruined by a big corporate movement :)
Hi there. My comment is a bit out of date but reading this topic got me thinking. Is there any way to cancel my registration, does anyone happen to know? I don’t know what came over me in the first place, I do not usually register my games, any of them. To be honest, I feel it’s unpleasant to have a connection to the company when I get nothing out of it anyway. Well, this game keeps disappointing me but I’m too stubborn to cast it aside completely. I’d just like to cancel my registration and keep rooting for the creative community to break this puppy and start coming up with the good stuff ^^.