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UPDATE: New Statement on Modding Rules
Onverser
Posts: 3,364 Member
Hey all,
The Sims 4 Mod Policy has been updated today which clarifies the following point:
Note, The Sims recognizes that creating Mods takes time and resources. To recoup these development costs, Mod developers may:
- Offer an early access incentive for a reasonable amount of time. After a reasonable early access period, all users must be able to access the Mods in full for free regardless of whether they donate.
- Run passive advertisements and requests for donations so long as they are limited to the Mod website or distribution site, and do not appear within the Mod itself.
Early Access will still be allowed after all!
Original Post:
This has been all over the sims community on twitter but I couldn't find a thread for it on the forums so I wanted to make a thread here to discuss it. Yesterday EA made a statement saying that Sims 4 custom content creators/modders would no longer be allowed to use early access for mods.
For reference, previously the rules were that modders could upload their mods to Patreon with 3 weeks of early access to players who pay to subscribe to their accounts. This has been widely used by modders as a way of funding their work, and allowing them to have more time to work on mods which add new content or fix existing content.
For example Carl who runs Carl's Guides has used the money he makes from Patreon early access to allow him to work full time on his mods which adds content such as fixing Dine Out and adding burglars to the game, and he's said this has only been possible because of early access.
Opinions?
For reference, previously the rules were that modders could upload their mods to Patreon with 3 weeks of early access to players who pay to subscribe to their accounts. This has been widely used by modders as a way of funding their work, and allowing them to have more time to work on mods which add new content or fix existing content.
For example Carl who runs Carl's Guides has used the money he makes from Patreon early access to allow him to work full time on his mods which adds content such as fixing Dine Out and adding burglars to the game, and he's said this has only been possible because of early access.
Opinions?
Post edited by Onverser on
2
Comments
Without being able to get any financial support they will only be able to make enough mods that their financial situation allows. Occasional donations is not financially sustainable so they are not going to be able to put as much work into making these mods and cc.
This sounds bad for everyone.
Dramatic much? There are many, many modders who don't perma paywall their mods.
That is not drama. There are many modders who don't perma paywall but do early access who are going to lose their livelihood and have to stop modding. And I am one who will quit buying ea products if I can't have Mcc or UI ext. due to jerks ruining the modders making money.
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> This is not a statement. Why does no one know what a statement is? This is an EA chat rep who has no qualifications to make a “statement” and can not be relied on to give this info. If we listen to chat reps y’all need to start deleting all your mods because when I asked the same question my rep said if we continue using mods we’ll be banned. Guess that’s also a “statement”
yet if look at the post it has been editted by EA_Cade without the removal or changes made to the statement. That seems pretty clear to me right there.
> Everyone in the creator community that wants to get paid for what they make could go to work for TSR or similar websites. A lot of really great creators have never charged for their content. I usually download from them.
they arent paid to work for TSR lol ... its simply a hosting site and gallery
They need to be much more up front with everyone and spell out what is and isn't allowed.
So in my opinion EA was right to get rid of all this madness and I hope they enforce it, as their update on early access seems to not really be interesting to some peeps who think they are above the rules, bc they decided to make something that is supposed to be a hobby into their fulltime job without being employed by EA who owns the whole Sims thing.
early access just caught in the crossfire seems to many people don't make them free or keep them locked in a paywall for too long or make too much money out of it that it's far beyond 'financial support'
lots of people made a lot of money out of the sims over the years with donations/paysites and patreon - no matter how hard they work on them it belongs to EA/Maxis and they can pull the plug at any time.
Just look at something like the whicked whims patreon page they have 9537 patreons lowest amount is $1.50 it then goes up to $6.50 then $13AUD that's a lot of money for 'support'.. MC command mod also has 5000 patreons with the lowest tier being $4.50AUD that's over $20,000 a month.. it's likely the same for other mods that use patreon
if they can't do early access they just have to run ads or find other ways to keep going
the brutal honestly is mods is a hobby not a full time job (and a well paying one for some creators)
I am.
I've always found that its strange the way people have started making modding a whole career for themselves with these paywalls n stuff
cause well remember the times when it was just a little hobby thing you worked on for fun and then shared so others could have fun too
also if people really want to support creators they still can do so via donations
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> As I understand this, modders can still collect donations to recoup their time and expense doing development. So, if you were willing to pay for early access to a mod, are you now willing to donate that same amount to support the development of that same mod?
>
> I am.
Issue is they are still putting up paywalls calling early access fees donations and nobody is getting a straight answer if the old early access is still allowed or not.