From ir14, Denver

1. MORE AWESOME THAN
Ruth A Deller, Sheffield Hallam University UK
r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk @ruthdeller
Resistance and Appropriation in The Sims gaming communities

3. Following last year’s surprise Worst Company In America victory by Electronic Arts,
there was hope that the video game giant would get the message: Stop treating your
customers like human piggy banks, and don’t put out so many incomplete and/or
broken games with the intent of getting your customers to pay extra for what they
should have received in the first place. And yet, here we are again, with EA becoming
the first company to ever win a second Golden Poo from Consumerist readers. After an
astounding number of votes, Consumerist readers once again chose EA over Bank of
America, with the video game company taking nearly 78% of the vote. Like many other
competitors in the WCIA bracket, EA has repeatedly failed at three core requirements
of running a consumer-friendly business: (1) provide a product people want and like,
(2) sell that product at a reasonable price, and (3) support its products. (Morran 2013)

4. We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all
relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making
award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people
worldwide.
(SnrDirector of Corporate Communications John Reseburg in a statement to
Kotaku featured in Schreier 2012)
Here’s the truth: each year EA interacts with more than 350 million gamers;
Origin is breaking records for revenue and users; The Simpsons: Tapped
Out and Real Racing 3 are at the top of the mobile charts; Battlefield
3 and FIFA are stunning achievements with tens of millions of players;
and SimCity is being enjoyed by millions of passionate fans all over the
world. Every day, millions of people across globe play and love our games –
literally, hundreds of millions more than will vote in this contest. So here’s
my response to this poll: We can do better. We will do better. But I am
damn proud of this company, the people around the globe who work at EA,
the games we create and the people that play them. The tallest trees catch
the most wind. At EA we remain proud and unbowed.
(Peter Moore, then CEO, April 2013)

9.  Over 175 million units sold (EA 2013)
 Sims base games supplemented by
expansion packs, stuff packs and online
store.
Largely female audience (see Gee and
Hayes 2010; Flanagan and Nissenbaum
2008)
PC Sims games renowned for user
modding and custom content (CC) (see
Sihvonen 2011; Jenkins 2006).
Sims fans congregate all over the net –
on almost every platform.
Maxis bought by EA in 1997; closes
2004. From 2006 no Maxis logo on Sims
products; reappears 2012.

10. Survey of almost 1500 Sims players in summer 2012.
10.5% currently play TS1; 23% TS2; 86% TS3; 18% TSM;
4% ‘Stories’; 10% mobile/app; 7% console/handheld; 4%
other variants.
82% used some form of user generated content
56% used gameplay mods
22% created their own custom content
1.33% created their own mods
48% used file sharing sites – many more downloaded
than uploaded – averaging 60-70% depending on client.
ModTheSims used by 59%; Nraas 40%; The Sims
Resource 31%
At least a third used sites for free downloads of pay CC or
EA store content

12. The Sims will probably never go back to TS2 or TS1 because
they removed the key ingredient. Passion. The Sims was
created by an awesome guy named Will Wright and after
Sims 2 he left the franchise (I think it was to pursue another
career, but don't quote me on that I'm not sure), and all the
copyrights were left/sold/whatever to EA.
The company was like a chicken with its head cut off and
they lost direction because they had no leader, and without
their leader there was no passion. The new creators have
tried, but have not done The Sims justice. They all may not
have agreed on the same vision, or the company restricted
them on what they could do, but whatever the reason, TS3
lacked the heart and attention to detail the first two games
had. (Erry, modding forum)

15. Cultures of piracy
Diverse range of reasons for
piracy (Lindgren and Linde
2012; Jewitt and Yar 2013):
 Political acts and/or
corporate resistance
 Everyday practice –
convenience/habit
 Innovation
 Unavailability of resources
–through cost or within
particular nations.

16. Piracy is directly related to EA's policies and is not a
purely financial problem…. there has been major shift in
the entertainment market… [in some cases] there is a
push-back from the geek community for pirating these
things BECAUSE the money is going to the talent and the
people that they need to do their job. In exchange for this
solidarity, the developers are obligated to fix bugs as soon
as possible and work with fans to create entertainment
that they enjoy. There is a mutually beneficial
relationship… This is not the case with EA… content is
released with known bugs and rather than having a
development team (which they obviously have the money
for) dedicated to resolving the problems, they release
ANOTHER product. (Andrea, interview)

17. The fact that we (loyal) fans have to buy yet another 5 to
10 expansion packs for Sims 4 to make the game more
"complete" is just complete madness. And i will never
support that in anyway. I will buy the first game, but i
won't buy a single expansion pack! (JB, EA Sims 4 blog)
On one side I think it's unfair to pirate games, but it's
unfair to everyone who has to pay full price for them, not
the company. On the other side I can easily understand
why someone would pirate. By the time I get the next
expansion pack for sims 3 I will have spent over $600 on
it, and that doesn't include money spent on the earlier
versions, and many times it hasn't been worth the price.
So more power to those who pirate for not getting ripped
off. (Aly, interview)

18. I hate seeing posts on Tumblr (and I see them a lot
when new EPs come out) with people begging for
someone to give them their CD key or let them
download the game from their Origin accounts. It's so
incredibly entitled. I unfollow anyone who makes or
reblogs those posts immediately. If you're going to
pirate, you can do the work involved yourself. I don't
know why it bothers me so much but it really does.
People who just pirate without making a big to-do
about it, I don't really care. Games provide many hours
of entertainment for me and I don't mind paying for
that. (Enchanted, interview)

20. Sims 3 Store is For Rich Suckers: They can take our
blogs, but they can never take our freedom! Silly EA
took down my blog, but not my downloads. It's just
a matter of reposting the links. Bear with me folks!
(anonymous content sharing Tumblr)
19 year old who should really quit reddit and
reinstall their games. i sometimes buy gifts for
followers because i'm a nice lady. mostly i try to
post stuff from the store that is free elsewhere
(Cerry, Reddit)

21. I just do not think the prices the Store charges for their
content is worth it… I think they're very sneaky to put all
their prices up in "SimPoints", so you don't really realise
how much you're paying… And then the fact that so many
of the things they put up are buggy and have to be fixed by
the community anyway. I'm not paying for the pleasure of
being ripped off. I think everyone should do it [pirate store
content]. I actually get angry when I hear about people
paying $40 for a store world that they won't play, just so
they can get the "premium" objects (which are always
either buggy or not that great anyway)… I think this goes
well beyond running a business and is skirting very close to
an actual scam. It's a really nice little racket they have going
and I dearly wish people would stop supporting it.
(Enchanted, interview)

22. Players will have until the 14th
June to spend their remaining
SimCash. Neither Refunds nor
transfers will be provided. They
have your money, tough titty.
Moral of the story, never have a
‘truck’ currency account of any
size unless you have something
you wish to buy now. On the
same day of the
announcement, EA had the
brassneck to proffer new store
content over at EA’s Sims Social
site, without bothering to
mention the closedown at all on
site! (gossip blog)

23. Modding cultures
Modders have a range of
motivations (Postigo 2010;
Sihvonen 2009; Laukkanen 2005)
 Fixing ‘broken’ gameplay
 Adding elements to
‘incomplete’ games
 Personal play-styles
 Creative expression
 Co-operative practice
 Fan-pleasing
 Skill building
 Professional development

25. Are you aware that [Modder] has had to provide overrides to fix
problems with the routing paint in every world EA has produced?
Somehow EA's world design team never seems to have learned
that those holes cause stuck sims that lead to massive lag. Our
best world creators, on the other hand, understand how to test
for and avoid that type of problem... if these worlds actually had
been playtested for any amount of time, these things would be
caught and fixed. (Skarf, modding forum)
I like the Sims games just like the next guy, but EA had bitten off
more than it can chew. Sims 3 is glitchy and half of the contents
either don't work properly or not at all, not to mention the
expansions and stuff packs are so expensive! I would like to see
EA fix Sims 3 before venturing off to the next generation of Sims.
As Andy stated, make a game, not a cash cow! (DK, EA Sims 4
blog)

26. [Modder], without a doubt is my favorite. He has saved my
games. I would totally have his sim babies (Survey respondent
1104)
I only use [name] mods to make the game playable, no other
CC or mods installed. I do find [name’s] mods to be of
extremely high quality and when I initially discovered
[modder], the reaction was "oh, so the game CAN do all of
those things I thought it would be good if it did“ (1249)
I'm strictly against using any CAS/object cc, but I don't think
I'd enjoy my game half as much without [name’s] mods. It's
the only cc I'd ever put in my game, just because [name] is so
reliable, updates the mods quickly, and makes so many great
modifications to the gameplay. (1680)

28. Now what comes to the sims and CC. I agree with
the people who said it's whats keeping the game
alive and expanding it's life-cycle beyond what EA
expects/wants and even though EA does praise the
community, I don't think they want to see CC. What
they want is all CC to be store items. That would be
their dream. Would EA make user made CC hard to
add to the game? It would be in their best interest
not to, but at the same time I'm sure part of them
want to have CC be only the stuff they make so I
doubt the mod or CC community will be getting a
helping hand from EA to how to add mods and CC to
the game. (Annie, modding forum)

29. I can't see EA being that ignorant of the fact they have a
symbiotic relationship with modders whether they like it or not…
I think we all kind of know the modding community has served as
free labor for EA in terms of debugging and play testing the half-
finished crap they release… I think it's an unspoken agreement
that the modding community will happily go ahead and correct
EA's mistakes in order to provide a playable game for everyone,
as long as they also receive the ability to customize their game
any way they like and share those creations with the simming
community. EA would be remiss to default on that unspoken
agreement, because I don't think they're magically going to stop
pushing their own creators with release deadlines and other such
chaos-inducing business tactics (For the record, I don't tend to
think the shoddy games are so much the fault of the
programmers who work on these things as much as I think it's the
fault of the upper business management pushing them so much
they cannot do their jobs properly). (Gloworm, modding forum)

30. Firstly, we hate paysites. Are you a paysite owner? Well, we hate
you, too. We do it because it will piss you off. Yes, we are
assholes. Tough. Besides, you're only charging for bandwidth,
right? Isn't it so nice of us to contribute our $100/yr to alleviate
your bandwidth load? No? It pisses you off? Great! And now you
know why we do this. (Anti-paysite repository)

31. This is a NO T$R ZONE.
No, I will not tell you where to find anything on the TSR
website is. There will be no more links to any TSR page.
From now on, anything I might have from The Sims
Resource will be found through the Booty ALONE. I will not
pay for any Sims stuff that does not come from EA itself. I
have never — nor will I ever — purchased a subscribership
to The Sims Resource. If this means I can’t download things
from your site because you use too much TSR pay stuff,
sorry. It’s unfortunate collateral damage. Perhaps you
should think about removing any TSR CC that cannot be
found on the Booty from your lots/sims.
(Story, Tumblr)

32. Paid for custom content is ridiculous… If
you're going to create something for your
game, either share it freely or keep it to
yourself. A creative person should be
thanked for their work, not paid. At least
not if they're making money off someone
else's success. There are many gifted
modders who put much more time in their
project(s) and share freely, consider
[name] or [name], or the many creators
over at [site]. (Lady E, interview)

34. Fantastic. Of course a lot of the content is still rubbish and
I hope there will continue to be a way to filter by quality
(i.e. keep featured artists or whatever they are). I feel like
a war has finally ended… I will refrain from judgement on
TSR unless anything proves to be awry, but it is certainly
good (from where I'm standing) that they have adopted
an ad-supported model. (Gutter, modding forum)
I wouldn't be at all surprised if this paved the way for
some EA/TSR involvement with CC along for TS4…
Apparently this move has been in the planning for a while,
so it could be that EA indicated that while they tend to
turn a blind eye to paysites, they can hardly be seen to be
partnering with one! (Jonesy, modding forum)

35. Basically, they’re taking the excitement/influence of
the loudest enthusiasts and using it as a marketing
tool (Comic artist, EA forum)

37. I don't use CC due to being part of [name] forum and they do
not support CC as it can ruin your game. They do allow Mods
but not in Challenges and so I don't use them. (1326)
No, not all custom content is bad, but how do you know
good content from bad? The only way to know is to stick it
in your game. It's always a gamble... Thus, our stance is, as it
always has been, that 3rd party custom content is bad. We
don't encourage it, and if asked, we don't recommend it.
Taking any other stance is what would be irresponsible. (Hak,
hints and tips forum)
The reason that I don't use it is, because I got some bad CC
and had those deformed sims. It creeped me out pretty bad
so I play without CC. (blacky73, EA forum)

39. I can't stand the people who seem to whine
about every expansion and stuff pack, as if only
their opinion matters and EA has betrayed them
by releasing something that they aren't excited
about. I was hyped for the Katy Perry stuff pack,
and it annoyed me that so many people were
saying it shouldn't be released at all simply
because THEY didn't want it. (1623)
I prefer playing the game as the creators
intended, bugs and everything. (Cris, interview)

40.  EA (as opposed to Maxis/Will Wright)
framed as corporate, profit-oriented,
anti-consumer.
 Range of myths about EA and other
sites appropriated and recirculated
throughout communities.
 Users positioned as superior –
morally, creatively and technically
 Piracy ‘justified’ in different ways but
usually framed as resistance to EA.
 Prominence of ‘UGC should be free’
discourses – partly due to EA TOU
and ownership.
 EA seen as ‘playing favourites’ –
becoming one of those VIPS is seen
as fans being appropriated by EA.
 Resistance to UGC through fear
and/or respect for EA.

41. References
Flanagan, M.and Nissenbaum, H.(2008). Design Heuristics for
Activist Games' in Y B Kafai et al (Eds) Beyond Barbie and Mortal
Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (pp. 265-280).
Cambridge: MIT.
Gee, J.P. and Hayes, E. (2010). Women and Gaming: The Sims and
21st Century Learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New
Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
Jewitt and Yar (2013) ‘Consuming the illegal: Situating piracy in
everyday experience’, Convergence, 19(1) 3-8.
Laukkanen, T (2005), Modding Scenes, University of Tampere.
Lindgren and Linde (2012) 2012) The subpolitics of online piracy: A
Swedish case study , Convergence: 18( 2) 143-164.

42. References
Moore, P (2013), ‘We can do better’, EA News, April
5.
Morran, C (2013), ‘EA Makes Worst Company in
America History,’ Consumerist, April 9.
Postigo, H (2010), ‘Modding to the Big Leagues’, First
Monday, 5 (3).
Schreier, J (2012), ‘Worst Company on America EA
says Haliburton must be relieved…’, Kotaku.
Sihvonen, T. (2011). Players Unleashed! Modding The
Sims and the Culture of Gaming. Amsterdam:
Amsterdam University Press.