Forum Discussion

iRetr0's avatar
3 years ago

Reporting CC Creators Locking Content Behind a Permanent Paywall

Back in 2017, SimGuruDrake issued a statement regarding the controversy behind paywalled content: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/930045/ea-its-time-you-start-doing-something-about-the-entitled-cc-creators-in-the-sims-community/p3

Good morning folks! So I've been alerted to this thread by the mods and wanted to provide some insight here on two points of discussion: CC/Mods locked behind a paywall and Patreon.
CC/Mods Locked Behind Paywalls - Creators cannot lock content they make using our game behind a paywall. While we do not police this content (there is no way we would create a team simply to monitor this) we do take reports sent to us seriously and action accordingly.
Patreon - We understand that folks who make CC / Mods for others to enjoy are doing it in their free time and may desire to offset costs to create the content by using this service. As long as the content is still made available FOR FREE we do not mind these types of pages. Folks who have a Patreon page are welcome to provide folks with "early access" incentives for their content but it should be made available to the general public within 2-3 weeks of it being given to folks early.

I hope that this provides you with some clarity and please reach out should you have any questions.


Is this still considered a current and valid stance from the SimGurus on the topic? How would the community go about reporting creators that do not follow this guideline? There seems to be a bit of discourse on r/TheSims about the topic and a lot of people claim that the statement is "outdated."

29 Replies

  • The arrangement with EA, which owns the game that enables the CC to run, is that CC is to be free to all after a 'reasonable time'. I can understand creators wanting to recoup some of their investment, but the arrangement is the arrangement. I have seen CC over 2 years old still locked under a paywall. This amounts to running a for profit business using the IP of another entity without their permission.
  • "Diassa;c-18179750" wrote:
    I don't understand paywalling at all. For example, if I want to see what's on Patreon, all mods you have to pay for are locked. How am I supposed to know what I'm paying for? Do people support modders blindly? This is stupid, I suppose...


    I think what ends up happening is people follow the creators on places like Twitter, Instagram etc and the modders/creators tend to share sneak-peeks on there. People see the mod or item in-progress and then go to the Patreon to pledge.
    So it's not entirely blind but if you simply find the person on Patreon, it certainly feels like it when everything's locked. Seems like a daft idea to me, quite honestly.
  • EA_Cade's avatar
    EA_Cade
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    3 years ago
    "AstroWitch;c-18206661" wrote:
    Hi,

    Sorry to bring up that topic, but i was wondering if this case was formalized ? If yes, can we report cc creators putting cc behind permanent paywalls on this page ? : https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/how-to-report-cheat-hack-scam-websites-to-ea/


    The method of reporting content to us for investigation is found on this EA Help page.
  • "MissyHissy;c-18185580" wrote:
    "Diassa;c-18179750" wrote:
    I don't understand paywalling at all. For example, if I want to see what's on Patreon, all mods you have to pay for are locked. How am I supposed to know what I'm paying for? Do people support modders blindly? This is stupid, I suppose...


    I think what ends up happening is people follow the creators on places like Twitter, Instagram etc and the modders/creators tend to share sneak-peeks on there. People see the mod or item in-progress and then go to the Patreon to pledge.
    So it's not entirely blind but if you simply find the person on Patreon, it certainly feels like it when everything's locked. Seems like a daft idea to me, quite honestly.


    Some creators keep their Patreon *and* another site. Their Patreon is always locked to pay only, but their other site has everything for free. I've found that many times when people say "this creator *never* unlocks their stuff."
  • > @EA_Cade said:
    > The method of reporting content to us for investigation is found on this EA Help page.

    this won't help, i tried it like 3 times and all the representatives basically said they couldn't do anything about it. they didn't really understand what i was talking about in regards to the policy, and someone on twitter said they got nowhere speaking with EA chat agents either. i called EA help and spoke to a supervisor and told them about my experience, and told them of 2 creators i know that have content locked behind a paywall for over a year now, and this was at least 2 months ago and nothing has changed.
  • i would like to add that the cc creator thecluttercat has stared locking their cc behind a paywall
  • leucosiax's avatar
    leucosiax
    Seasoned Veteran
    2 years ago
    there are a lot of cc creators with no public release date and items years old hidden from the public on their patron. Show me were and I can report them.
  • "LeucosiaX;c-18339193" wrote:
    there are a lot of cc creators with no public release date and items years old hidden from the public on their patron. Show me were and I can report them.


    Use this page: https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/how-to-report-cheat-hack-scam-websites-to-ea/
  • How do I rapport a website, if they permalocked Sims cc/mods. Some have their own websites, and do not use Patreon, but permalock it on their own websites. I know www.meinkatzcreations.com is permalocking a lot of their content, which did use to be free. And thats just one of the custom content / mod creators I know about.