Permanent Paywall is now a thing of the past! Unfortunately, Early Access for Creators is suffering the damages…
ARTICLE UPDATE #2: Early Access is no more.
EA Help and Contact Support have confirmed the new EA Policy on The Sims Mods. Players have reached out to EA to ask valid questions in regards to the very confusing and awfully worded Policy.
EA Help replied with a confirmation: Modders and Creators are no longer allowed to release their content through “Early Access”.
Another screenshot comes from falsetochild:
This marketing scheme and pull is absolutely irresponsible and damaging towards the entire Mods and CC Community. Who have literally made The Sims 4 to what it is today.
NEW ARTICLE UPDATE: It seems like Early Access for Creators is no longer allowed. Creators will have to immediately provide free access to Custom Content. It looks like there are no exceptions to this situation.
EA has published a new Page on EA Help with a new set of Policies, Rules and Guidelines for creating and publishing Mods and CC for The Sims 4.
An article that includes new, and more strict rules for Publishing and Promoting personal Mods and CC for the game. See what they have to say about the new Rules:
EA POLICY ON THE SIMS MODS
We know that, for many of you, Mods are an important part of your game experience. For that reason, we support a framework in The Sims 4 that makes it easier for you to install and use Mods.
The Sims team doesn’t pre-screen, endorse or specifically support any particular Mod. You should use Mods with caution and understand there may be risk.
We have a long tradition of supporting creativity in our community. We do not object to Mod developers continuing to share their amazing content, subject to the following:
- Do not promote your Mods in a way that suggests they are endorsed by or affiliated with The Sims, Maxis, or Electronic Arts. This means you cannot use any game logos or trademarks, including versions of the plumbob, or key art designs to promote your Mods. You may state that your Mods are for The Sims 4 and/or for a specific game expansion pack.
- Mods must be non-commercial and distributed free-of-charge. Mods cannot be sold, licensed, or rented for a fee, nor can Mods contain features that would support monetary transactions of any type. However, Maxis recognizes that creating Mods takes time and resources. Accordingly, Mod developers may recoup their development costs via passive advertisements and donations as long as:
- Passive advertisements and requests for donations must be limited to the Mod website or distribution site, and not appear within the Mod itself.
- All users must be able to access the Mods in full for free regardless of whether they donate.
We reserve the right to address any inappropriate Mods, including Mods that infringe the intellectual property or privacy rights of others, contain obscene, objectionable, or harmful content, jeopardize the integrity of The Sims 4 gameplay, or otherwise violate the EA User Agreement.
There are some valid concerns listed here which would prevent perma-paywalling. A practice done by few community members where said creators never make their content available to the public, but rather lock their CC / Mods permanently behind a paywall. This caused some major issues in the community – one of them which was doxxing.
If you are a Creator who is publishing through Patreon, it’s getting obvious that you will **no longer** be able to provide Early Access to your creators.
Passive advertisements and requests for donations must be limited to the Mod website or distribution site, and not appear within the Mod itself.
All users must be able to access the Mods in full for free regardless of whether they donate.
Previously it was thought that there would be no repercussions for Early Access. However, it was explained by some community members that there’s a big exception in the bottom part, which says that Creators *must* provide their Mods for free. Whether people support them on Patreon (or other platforms) or not.
In the case of the simming community, this is most likely referred to Patreon. Which is a popular platform for CC Creators and Modders to publish their content and earn revenue.
The new policy also suggests that players no longer can use official Assets for The Sims 4 to promote their content. From The Sims 4 Logo and Renders to even the official Plumbob.
If you plan to publish your Mod, the options of using The Sims 4’s official brand material is no longer an option. You have to make an asset on your own, or else you might be reported by others as suggested by the new “How to Report Mods” section.
It seems that the question that bothered many within the community regarding Permanent Paywall is now answered. Unfortunately, EA has added repercussions for Custom Content Creators and Modders who have been following the rules for years. Leaving the huge part of the community wondering what the future of their own creations is.
Questions regarding The Sims 4’s stability and performance remain as well.
The Sims Team has released a game breaking update for the game. An update that contains huge issues including:
There are so many Bugs and Glitches that The Community is still reporting on the Huge Issues they’re experiencing in the game.
EA’s own platform EA AHQ is also prepopulated with demands, questions and frustration over a video game that’s losing all of its main functionality.
There’s also a huge surge in Broken Mods and CC, with many Creators working tirelessly to still update their Mods. On top of that all – EA releases this new Policy just a few days ago.
In case you didn’t know – the Modding Community at this very point are Fixing The Sims 4.
As a player, I am happy to see Permanent Paywall being a thing of the past. But as a Graphic Designer, I feel sorry that Creators have to update all of their assets.
