Community
Uncut interview with Phreakindee of LGR
Jan 31st
I’m about 26 minutes in of this 40 minute interview conducted between RavenRage and Phreakindee (of Lazy Game Reviews). It’s most a bunch of random questions which stem from discussions about Maxis, Duke Nukem (with a great impersonation from LGR), how crammed his room is, and much, much more. Give it a listen if you have the time!
SimCookie – Ask your questions on The Sims 3 Showtime
Jan 30th
On February 2nd, SimCookie will be attending a special event held by EA France to spend some hands-on time with The Sims 3 Showtime. They are currently taking questions, so if you happen to want to know something and you cannot wait, drop by SimCookie and leave your question in their comments. You have until Wednesday to do so!
An Update on The Sims 3 & Little Kids Rock!
Jan 13th
So remember sometime last year EA had special versions of the guitar and other stuff for buying Simpoint bundles? Well portions of the money from each bundle sale went to Little Kids Rock! is a national nonprofit that transforms children’s lives by restoring and revitalizing music education in disadvantaged public schools. Check out this short thank you video by the kids.
Sims Galore Says Goodbye Forever…
Jan 12th
Tears of sadness fill the void caused by EA’s treatment of The Sims Franchise. Today Sims Galore announced that they will shut down on February 1st. Read below for more info.
The End is Approaching as I have officially decided to join Simlish Sims and InfiniteSims and to close the site down. The main reasons are I have been doing this since 2008 and now I have purely lost all my interest in The Sims and I haven’t purchased an EP/SP since Generations. I have no energy to do this and my priorities have shifted to other things and I’m also getting older and there is much better things I should be doing than this.
I will continue to post until Wednesday 1st February 2012. I want to thank you all for visiting over the 3 years I have been doing this and to all the fansites who have help, especially SimCookie. I’m not sure what will happen after 1st, but I’ll probably keep paying the host until the domain expires in October.
Thanks again,
Daniel.
The Sims Team axes their moderators…for doing their jobs
Jan 11th
Ugh…I just don’t understand EA/The Sims Team. I really wish I could go down there and look some of their employees right in the face and tell them they suck at doing their jobs. It’s not all of them – no, mostly the ones in the community department. The folks that are suppose to well…do their job and manage the community.
If you’ve ever been to the official forums, you know for a fact that the CM’s (community managers) are doing a poor, poor job on moderating their forums. Trolls everywhere, porn at random places (even on various Sims 3 pages). It’s disgusting. But no, the CM’s would rather promote their store, or post LOLsims or some other non-sense. Sure, they can do that…but really, they should also pay attention to what’s going on.
So instead, they decide to put moderators in place to help them out. Again, understandable. Of course, when you are a moderator – especially on an EA forum, it means jack squat as you have no control or power. Nope – just a title is all you get. One such moderator – bob007 was simply doing his job…trying to stop the trolls. Apparently EA had enough of the complaining…and got rid of him. No, not the troll(s)…rather, Bob – as a moderator.
I wanted to post this as a run-in to another topic – The Sims 3 Boycott Week. There are a number of reasons why people are angered with EA. Buggy games, poor patch support, overpriced items in The Sims Store, past value of their games, the way the series is heading in terms of gameplay. While there are some on that list that I agree with, for the most part it’s how they are handling their fans and treating us like crap. They got our money, that’s all they care about…They don’t care about bonding with the community. In some regions – like The Sims 3 UK Team, or the Dutch team and other areas, they have an awesome PR team that do a fantastic job with communicating with their fanbase. Here, in the US? Nope. No – instead, they send out take-down notices, axing our YouTube profiles for publishing videos that they themselves leaked and so on. It’s just…depressing.
/end rant.
Union Cove – A Sims 3 World from Carl’s Sims 3 Forum
Jan 3rd
Going to give my friend Carl a plug for an amazing new world that a number of fans over at his forums of Carl’s Sims 3 Guides teamed up and created!
“When a team of explorers discovered Union Cove, they knew it wasn’t an ordinary place. Its beauty and mysteries attracted Sims from all the world, who live in peace and harmony through a set of laws, known as “The Rules”. Considered home by many Sims, Union Cove is fully developed technologically and beyond, offering anything a citizen may need. The spirit of justice and friendship brought by the pioneers made this beautiful land the most attractive place to live in, while it’s mysteries are still unsolved. Can one unveil all there is behind Union Cove?”
Union Cove is a massive and meticulously crafted World for The Sims 3. This project was carried out in secret on our Sims 3 Forum over the course of six to seven months. The team began with Naga, Leto85, and Anushka. It was decided they would expand their team to involve some of the best builders on the forum. Not everyone could come along for the ride, so they chose from among our talented community to recruit others to help.
The team were given a Top Secret rank on the forum, which allowed access to a special board only they could see. Anushka lovingly crafted the world in all its beauty, with Joria, Ausette, Danefaith and Samoht04 helping to create its many lots. Some members were asked for permission to use their lots in a secret world, and thankfully kept quiet while the team developed.
Union Cove is special. Being a collaborative effort, it achieved a higher quality of design that is unlikely to be achieved by a solo builder. This world saw many tweaks over the course of development, and as a result the World we have before us today is a very much refined product with a reach that will extend far beyond the boundaries of our little forum.
To the entire team, I thank you for letting me share this gift with the Sims community. It’s an honor for this thing I started to grow such that we had enough talented people to pull off something of this size.
Technical Details:
World name: Union Cove
Map size: Huge (2046×2046)
World type: Suburban
Content:
- World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets;
- HighEnd Loft, Fast Lane, Outdoor Living and Town Life;
- No Store content, no Custom content.
Lots:
- Residential lots: 101
- Empty/inhabited lots: 47
- Community lots: 47
(Includes all lot types from Base game, Ambitions, Late Night and Pets)
Number of Habitants: 116 Sims and 25 Pets
Number of Households: 56
Total lot value: §7.438.698Additional info:
- Contains EA-like balanced spawners;
- All brand-new community lots, created from scratch and never seen before;
- Uses residential lots and sims created by forum members, with permissions.
- With provided saved file, it is playable even with just base game. WA trees and objects are heavily used in landscape so world will look significantly different but all the lots and features will still be there.
- World was built on an average PC, 2.4GHz Intel Core2 Duo, 2GB RAM. It should be playable on the average PC.
Sims 3 Real Estate — A Memorial Tribute
Dec 20th
The following announcement is brought to you by Carrie from PsychedelicSiM Designs
The Sims 3 Real Estate website is no longer being maintained. All of Wendy’s (Hillcrest’s) (hillcrest1414′s) creations for TS2 and TS3 have been gathered and placed at the Neighborly Sims forum–HERE (for TS3 creations) and HERE (for TS2 creations). This has been done at Wendy’s request, relayed to us by her husband Tony. Wendy passed away on December 8, 2011, after several months of battling brain cancer.
Though Wendy’s site is no longer operating as a download center, you may visit the Sims 3 Real Estate website, while it’s still in existence (until the end of January 2012), to see a collage and memorial to Wendy’s wonderful creations. After a few minutes, you will be redirected to Neighborly Sims.
SF Magazine Vol 1, Issue 13 – Christmas Edition
Dec 18th
The Christmas Edition of the popular SF Magazine has been released! In this issue it is all about winter and holiday fun featuring:
- Couture en Cage by Aikea-Guinea
- Let It Snow by Superpogimon
- What Lies Beneath - Hosiery by AsiaShaMecca
- Snow Globe – Winter Knits by Allium
- Hypnos by SylentWhysper
- Interviews with: ILikeMusic640, Cecesaun1 of CStyles and DH4S
SOPA/PIPA = The End of ALL Sims Fan/News Sites -Updated-
Dec 18th
Many of you have heard of SOPA (The Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect IP Act) and may or may not know what it is and what will happen if the US Government passes this bill. This bill basically means that the US Government can censor the internet in the same way in which China and Iran does. If a site links to a video as we a Sims fan/news site does, all it would take only one complaint from say EA to end our site. The US Gov would first block the ability to see our site and then most likely shut us down. The big game sites will also be effected as will almost all of YouTube and Social Networks. See a list of companies that support the evil SOPA bill HERE and HERE. EA is one of many companies on the list of SOPA supporters. Right now when they have a video pulled from YouTube or another site, that site will be marked as an Digital Pirate, the same as sites like The Pirate Bay. Here’s a video by Digital Trends that explains what will happen.
Here’s one example of how SOPA will destroy the internet.
Why would it effect us and other sites? It’s not just the ones that upload videos and pics, it would also effect everyone that links to copyrighted materials. Another site reviews a new Sims game and we use their youtube/embed video link, both us and that site will be added to said list if EA flags their video. Read about another example HERE. If you read this and are a US resident, PLEASE contact your local representative and plead with them to not vote for the bill. This is a very serious matter, constitutional rights are at stake. Spread the word!
Sims Nieuws Interviews EA Benelux Community Manager Anita
Dec 10th
Check it out!
AnsjJ2: Could you talk more about Electronic Arts?
Anita: EA is one of the largest publishers and developers of games for the PC, consoles and mobile devices, the latter is now also a gaming platform has become very important. We were founded in 1982 and have more than eight thousand employees. The studios, where the games are made, are found in LA, Vancouver, England, Sweden and Australia.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, we are responsible for local sales, marketing and CRM activities of our games. We make sure the games in the shops and that our customers are aware of the products we release. In addition, we contact our customers to inquire about their experiences, needs and problems.
AnsjJ2: What kind of training do you have to follow your current job?
Anita: It’s actually pretty funny. I always wanted to be a programmer, because my father was, and that I look very against it. But I also wanted to do something with people. So I did a training with business, communication and ICT met. Within this training was important to have a bridge between on the one hand, the technical programmers and on the other hand, customers who do not always have the right knowledge of technical issues but needed an IT solution.
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