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theplottdump · 1 month

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Any tips for making a legacy, for lack of a better term, weirder? I've worked pretty much every occult possible into the family tree but I feel like I get too focused on just maintaining needs and normal daily family life for them, especially since I prefer to keep everyone more or less happy (i.e. no tragic early deaths). The most exciting things I've really done are turn one sim into a Global Superstar and marry off another one to the Grim Reaper, and sometimes I pause aging for a bit to spend more time on certain plots. Your legacy is obviously pretty wild so I wondered how you go about coming up with ideas like Michael Bublé Christmas Getaways and Charlie's Angels Spy Squads haha

This is a great question!! Let me see if I can dig up a good enough answer for it 😂

And I'll include pictures to break up the massive wall of text.

The reason Gens 1-3 are barely mentioned on here is because in reality there wasn't really anything interesting that happened in them. I wanted to hide away from the stress of a worldwide pandemic and watch my sims garden for a while. No real rules, just something to relax.

Gen 4 was a slight departure since I was getting a little tired of my sims doing the same thing over and over, and I decided to do the opposite and move them to a penthouse in the city as a refreshing change.

And as I started playing with more gameplay mods that added extra moodlets- the chance of hysterical death rose exponentially. My Gen 4 heir died when my Gen 5 heir, Hinoki was just a kid. So I decided to keep him around as a ghost while my Gen 3 heir worked on grinding out the ingredients for Ambrosia and Reed (Gen 4) continued to follow his political aspirations to become the first Ghost President of Simerica.

And this is where we find the nexus point of weird. And here's the biggest (not so secret) secret to it. The beginning of Gen 5 is when I started actually sharing my gameplay.

Not publicly, but with a small group of friends and simmers on a discord, like I've mentioned before here. Suddenly I wasn't just playing for myself, I was very slowly starting to play to make my friends laugh- to see how they reacted whenever I would leave little updates. And I found I really enjoyed that!

I started contriving little scenarios- what if Hinoki slept with her husband's band mate and had a secret child. And then someone would pop in and say she might have to run away for a while to Tartosa to have a baby. This independent toddler trait gives baby Val such a stink face- oh you should put him in a tiny leopard print robe to match. And it became this back and forth of - you know what would be funny?

I was started going off the rule from my friend @anotherplumbob that my first born would be the heir, so i had the fun task of figuring out how to get from point A to point B with Valerian, and what the hell point B even looked like.

We knew he was evil- he killed his dad as a toddler, and was just a full creep through his entire childhood- and so I started asking, what story do I want to tell my friends? I love romcoms, I love spy movies- what would be fun for me?

We're all influenced by our environments, the art, media, and music we consume, and that's all directly reflected into what we decide to put back out into the world.

And through exploring those characters, through playing the game, through my friends throwing the weirdest suggestions at me - what if he made a robot copy of his childhood Nanny? Okay, what mods can I use to reflect that in my gameplay? - What if he 3D printed a baby? - What if the Volcano gave them another baby? (this one is never happening shooby) - The whole thing spiraled out of control 😂

SO TDLR- How can you make your legacy weirder?

Find a community or even a couple trusted friends to bounce ideas off of. The amount of time I've spent conniving and scheming with @doctorsimcraft should honestly be studied. Write for yourself and like the 4 people you care most about. Enthusiasm is infectious. Find some good gameplay mods to add color to your gameplay- More Personality Please is an absolute game changer. Wicked Whims and Lumpinou's RPO are also fantastic additions if that's your style. Hopefully the game throws you some fun curveballs. Adversity and conflict breed interesting story - or something like that. Think about the types of stories that you would be excited to tell- really lean into your favorite tropes and themes. It's not a checklist, it's just like - I really love campy spies, I really love enemies to lovers - what do I do in game to make this happen. Find your story and let drive your gameplay- not the other way around. Or find a good balance and see what happens.

And to be honest I've very much lost that balance and fallen into a total rut of letting the story overtake the gameplay. So whenever I get too overwhelmed by my stupid large ambitions I just sit down and play and see where the game takes me.

I hope I can get back to not posing every single scene out for Gen 7 but I also love making poses, and breaking my game in every way to be able to tell the stories I want to!

It's why I'm so comically slow now. But I guess that just means we get to spend more time getting to know our characters, which I do genuinely enjoy.

I don't know if that was helpful or incredibly unhelpful- but it's what I got. Good luck! And above all have fun- in whatever shape that may take. (Hopefully it's a weird one)

xo, Anne

#mailbox #Anonymous

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joylesszeesgaming-blog · 5 years

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Dragon Age: Origins Proportions and Update Mods You Might Need

If your anything like me and started playing the Dragon Age series no more than 3 months ago, you are probably as clueless as I was when it came to mods. Or just the concept that you could customize your game so freely.

Or maybe you weren’t. I don’t know your life.

So, for those who are discovering the DA series 10 years after its creation and need some help with choosing mods, I am here to help.

Sort of like some unwanted superhero. But not Captain Marvel... no one likes her. Not even Marvel.

*cough*comic cancelled how many times?*cough*

Human Proportions

If you ever played the vanilla DA:O game you will know that the female body is, odly proportioned to say the least. Her shoulders look like they could clothes line someone without her moving. I wish that was just a bad joke. Luckily for us coming to the DA party late, a kind soul fixed this problem for us and even made the female body a bit curvier. But not like walrus curves, actual curves.

I apologize if that offended anyone...kind of.

The seductress body has larger upper arms (to mimic an active player), a reduced shoulder span, and a more pronounced arch in the lower back for the appearance of a tushie! My personal favorite.

The sensual body is a bit thicker all around with less of an arch in her lower back and larger bust.

Dwarf Proportions

Much like their female human counterparts, the dwarf female suffer from some form of body mis-proportion (I don’t think that is a word. Whoops.). They have excessively long arms. Excessively. And if you like that look, cool beans. If you don’t, just click on the title “Dwarf Proportions” and it will take you to a mod that fixes that little problem. If you find it a problem. I really don’t know what I can say that won’t offend anyone here so yeah.

Elf Update

For elves there are actually two seperate mods that will fix their odd proportions. The Elf Update and the Elf Proportions .

The Elf Proportions keeps the vanilla look of the elves while fixing the proportions. Pretty basic mod.

The Elf Update changes the elves to look like the elves from DA:2.

I am pretty positive these two will conflict with each other seeing as they are changing the same files, so just choose one please.

Personally, the Elf Update is the one I use, it makes the elves look distinctly elf like, and there are a few Zevran morphs that require it, so keep that in mind if you chose to customize him.

Quanari Update

So, back story time (because I am a female and have absolutely no problem ranting slightly off topic), when I saw Sten I did not know he was a qunari. I started playing DA:O after DA:2, so I was used to the qunari looking like...qunari, I don’t know. Imagine my shock when I searched his fanwiki and he was a qunari!

Not so long story short, this update will make Sten look more like the DA:2 qunari. Now, for those who want to play parallel to the lore of DA while also redesigning the game, there is a mod in Nexus Mods called “A Year With Sten” that will gradually change sten from a redesigned vanilla version of Sten, to a DA:2 qunari. Keep in mind you do need the Qunari Update for “A Year With Sten” to work properly.

4GB Patch

So, this probably should have been the first thing I posted in this...post. But lazy me had already started typing and I did not feel like retyping all of this, or copy and pasting it. Too much work, just too much.

Anwho, the 4GB Patch will increase the memory on your game, which if you decide to heavily mod your game, you’ll need. Trust me.

CharGenMorph Compiler

And last, but most certainly not least. This awesome application allows you to download multiple character creation mods and morphs without them conflicting too much. Essentially, the application will dig through your DA:O override folder for all chargenmorphcfg.xml files and compile it into one. For more info, just read the description on its Nexus page, I am sure I am not doing the description justice, just keep in mind that this is a life saver.

So that is all for this post. Enjoy this Cullen gif (not mine obviously). Because I have thing for templar boys apparently... or not. Alistair was barely a templar boy.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment? Reblog? If there are any broken links please let a girl know. Commenting is great, tell me some of your favorite mods, tell me I am a life saver, or call a huge piece of poop with no life (it’s not like you would be lying anyhow).

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dao #da:o #mods #dao mods #da:o mods #mods you need #or not #proportion fixes #chargenmorph #4gb patch

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bugsieplusone · 7 years

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Between a rock and a hard place

Injured and stuck in a cave is the last place Sabine expected an invite from Kadara’s Outcast leader.

A fic for Sloane week ~ under the cut (phew did I make it? I’ve had little time to do much this week.)

Sabine had been surprised to find Kaetus and Sloane as well as half a dozen both at the entrance to the cave when they arrived.

She shook her head. “What are you doing here? Kaetus asked us to deal with this.”

Sloane laughed, a resonant chuckle. “I want to see how you work. Plus rumors were that there was a small army of kett down here. I’ve heard you’re good, Ryder, but not that good.”

Sabine smiled at the backhanded compliment. “Thanks for the vote of confidence-- I guess.”

“Come on then. We’ve picked off a few here, if they don’t know we’re here, they soon will.” Sloane didn’t wait for a reply before her and her small group of Outcasts headed deeper into the cave.

Sabine shrugged at Liam and Vetra and they followed behind.

Pathfinder, a warning.

What is it SAM?

According to preliminary maps, this area is in a geologically unstable region. Arms fire might set of the surrounds.

Well, shit. I don’t think the kett are going to care.

If you turn your sensors on, I can monitor the situation whilst you assist the Outcasts.

Do it SAM. I’ve got some kett to kill.

Sloane’s information had been correct. A small army of maybe twenty-five kett had taken base in deeper part of the cave. However, their handful of eight, five outcasts and the three of them from the Pathfinder team, was more than enough gunpower. Only one injured and a whole lot of dead kett. Sabine had given Sloane the smuggest smile when the last kett fell, yet she remained passive and unimpressed.

The Outcasts began to move some of the more valuable kett provisions and Vetra and Liam scrabbled amongst the belongs to find things for themselves before asking Sabine if she needed anything.

Sabine shook her head. “Take what you can carry, there’s not much room in the nomad.” She watched as Liam took several items of armor and Vetra removed mods from several kett weapons. Both walked back to the cave entrance leaving Sabine behind. She turned to Sloane who was directing Kaetus and another Outcast member.

“Okay take that. Then we can go and bring back some more people to recover the rest of what’s here. Looks some good stuff.”

“Sloane, uh I’m going now.

Sloane nodded. “Okay then so.”

Sabine’s mouth fell open, and she scratched her chin, unsure what reaction she had really wanted from Sloane. Gratitude would have been a good place to start though. “Okay the--”

Pathfinder I am detecting a small tremor in the area can you--

The sound of thunder filled Sabine’s ears. Soil and rock debris flew in plumes around her, fine particles filled her mouth with dust and hit her eyes blinding her from her surrounds. She fell back, her ass hit the ground hard and a sudden sharp pain hit her hand before it reverberated up her arm. She yelped then let out a series of gasping coughs the grit coating her lips as it spluttered from her mouth.

When the dust cleared she looked down at her hand, her pinkie finger was bloody and the skin torn down to the bone. Just looking at it made her flinch. A few feet away she could see Sloane lying prostrate. Sabine’s heart leapt into her mouth, but then she saw her head move and a low groan emanate she made a deep sigh of relief.

Sloane moved to a sitting position as Sabine, walked towards her holding her injured hand against her.

“You okay?” Sabine asked as she looked down at her.

Sloane coughed and licked her lips then glanced up to her. “What the fuck?”

“It’s a rock fall.” It took a moment for Sabine to come out of a dazed state before she saw the bone sticking out form Sloane’s leg. “Shit you okay?” she said as she stared at Sloane’s wound.

Sloane followed Sabine’s glance down to her leg and let out a guffaw. “I guess not.”

Pathfinder your finger appears to be damaged, but not extensively. Also the entrance to the cavern appears to be blocked. I suggest contacting the Pathfinder team in order to find a way out.

“Okay SAM, was just gonna do that,” Sabine said aloud.

Sloane started laughing again then began to cough before staring up to the bewildered Sabine. “That thing in your head now too? I almost forgot.”

Sabine blinked not realising that she had replied to SAM verbally rather than just thinking. She squatted down beside the injured Outcast leader and placed her hand gently on Sloane’s knee. Where her pants were ripped, she could see Sloane’s skin was barely broken, with little blood. However, there was bone pointing through. She’d have to stabilise it and make sure Sloane didn’t go into shock before help arrived.

She pulled her communicator out and tapped on it. “Vetra, Liam, are you okay?”

Static filled the quiet space they occupied before Vetra replied. “Ryder, you’re alright?”

She looked at her hand then down to Sloane’s leg again. “Yeah I’m okay, but Sloane’s leg appears to be broken. Anybody else injured?”

“No. But it looks like you’re both trapped behind a wall of rock, we’re gonna have to dig you out. Kaetus wants to speak with Sloane. None of their comm device can get through to her.”

“I’m gonna dig up what I can in the way of medigel if it hasn’t made its way out yet.” She held out the comm to Sloane. “You okay to talk?”

Sloane nodded.

“Gonna go find some stuff. I’ll be right back. Gonna hand the comm to Sloane, Vetra.”

“Okay, we’ll get you out, Ryder, might take a while-- save your energy-- both of you.”

Sabine headed inwards to the small kett facility. Inside the base was a warren of rooms and stores. She remembered seeing what appeared to be a small medical area in the back. Inside the cupboards was everything she needed. Medigel and a kit with a mediblanket, makeshift splint material and a small handheld monitor that looked to be angaran. She poured medigel over her damaged finger, bound the joint to her index finger with a bandage and winced as she pulled it tight and fastened it securely.

Back near the entrance, Sloane had pulled herself against a nearby rock and was breathing heavy from the exertion of pulling herself. Sabine could hear a faint thud then a sound like a drill coming from the other side of the fallen rock. She said nothing as she knelt down and poured medigel on Sloane’s open wound, put the splint either side of her broken leg and bound and set it in place.

“Okay don’t move it.” Sabine grabbed the medical emergency blanket and made to place it over Sloane.

“I don’t need that,” Sloane said.

Sabine ignored her and draped the blanket over her lower half, whether Sloane wanted to or not she didn’t want her dying of shock and when she didn’t protest any further, Sabine tucked the blanket on either side of her legs.

“Kaetus says a couple of hours at least before they can get through. They’ve got mining equipment on the job already.”

Sabine gave a wry smile. “I can hear. Time for us to get to know each other better then, hey?”

Sloane snorted and bowed her head. “Sure. Got a pillow for my ass though?” She looked to be waiting for Sabine to reply but Sabine sat back quietly and said nothing. “Why did you come to Andromeda? Daddy make you?”

Sabine’s brow rose at the sudden interrogation. “Why did you come?” she said, ignoring the sarcastic tone of Sloane’s enquiry as she made her reply a question.

“I asked first, Pathfinder. I knew your father, he wasn’t an easy man.”

She nodded. “So you did ask first. And no, he wasn’t the easiest of individuals. Dad didn’t make us, if you must know. We wanted to come. Gabriel and I.” She sighed as thoughts drifted to her comatose brother still in the medical facility back on the Nexus. “Gabriel has a natural sense of adventure.”

Sloane spat out more dirt from her mouth. “Nice deflection. But I didn’t ask about your brother.”

Sabine huffed out a laugh. “Gabriel had-- has-- a sense of adventure, but I-- I have sense of curiosity. I’m the kid who doesn’t leave a single rock on the beach unturned.”

“So you looking for something? Plenty of rocks here for you turn over. Beaches kinda suck though. I’m not one for bathing in water that smells like Satan farted in it.” Sloane nodded towards the rock wall and laughed.

Sabine let out an amused laugh. She hadn’t heard Kadara described quite in that way, and it was apt. “Well I’m looking for homes for everyone now. The habitats we’ve found really haven’t been any good.”

“But, before you were Pathfinder? What do you think you’d find under the rocks in Andromeda?”

Sabine bit her lip and shrugged. “I dunno. You found anything of note?”

Sloane shifted her weight. “Ha. Nope. And whatever the fuck I was looking for it doesn’t matter now. I didn’t fucking find it here in the Andromeda galaxy that’s for sure. Maybe I’m still looking.”

She tilted her head a one-sided smirk came to Sabine’s face. “Now who’s deflecting?”

Sloane laughed and coughed again. Sabine made to go to her but Sloane waved her down before she could get to her feet. “Give me some of that water, Ryder.”

“I really shouldn’t. You could have more serious--”

Just give it to me, just gonna rinse my mouth out -- don’t worry, I’m not the kind to swallow,” she said and winked at her and laughed as Sabine passed her the small flask hanging from her hip.

Sabine felt a heat rise to her cheeks at the innuendo and gave a quiet laugh before looking away.

Sloane took a swig and spat out the contents before taking another and swallowing it.

“You lied about swallowing,” Sabine said.

Sloane shook her head. “It’s Kadara, Pathfinder. Everyone lies here. The difference between here and the Nexus-- is you at least know that no one here speaks the truth. Anyway, I don’t make it a habit of lying. I don’t need to.”

Sabine nodded. “Well the lying part I get, but Reye--“

Sloane held her hand up. “Ugh don’t mention him. My Outcasts are going to hunt that bastard down and show him a thing or two.”

“What are you going to do? I mean--”

“It doesn’t matter, hopefully he’s been stabbed in the back somewhere and I don’t have to deal with his deception anymore. I’m gonna rip him to shreds otherwise, or a bullet. One or the other will suffice.” Sloane sniffed and pursed her lips she stared up the rock wall and away from Sabine’s gaze. “I came to Andromeda because of Jien. I would have followed her to the ends of the earth. I wasn’t an opportunist like Reyes.”

Sabine felt a chill run up her spine and dust fell from the rocks above as she could hear the drilling noise become louder. Obviously Sloane had a different idea of what an opportunist was, certainly wasn’t her current role one of opportunity? “You made it, though, we’re here at the ends of the earth.”

A sad smile washed across Sloane’s face and her features softened. “But Jien isn’t.”

She tapped her lips. Sabine knew little of Sloane before the Initiative left, even less of Jien even though her father was a good friend. She wanted to know more about it all, there were stories of what happened on the Nexus during the uprising-- she’d heard one side, but not the other. She wanted to know more of Sloane, if for any reason it meant an alliance and goodwill towards the Initiatives new outpost. “You were close?”

Sloane shifted uneasily again and swallowed. “As close as anyone with initial involvement with the Initiative, your father included.” Sloane tilted her head at Sabine as though gaging her reaction. “You’ve got his eyes, you know. They’re as blue as the waters here.”

“But without the sulphurous fart smell behind it right?” she said and chuckled.

A wide grin surfaced on Sloane’s otherwise unrevealing face. “I’m not that close to your ass right now, I wouldn’t know.”

Sabine crossed her arms and put a mock indignant look on her face, it felt like a cover for an increasing nervousness and she hoped a light hearted response might ease the sudden tension she felt at what in any other situation would come across as flirtatious. “I’ll have you know, my farts have a wholesome healthy smell of someone with a good diet and who gets plenty of exercise and fresh air.”

Sloane started to chortle and hold her stomach. “One night eating Kaetus special bean dish made especially for humans would be the ultimate test of that-- let me tell ya.”

Sabine felt her shoulders relax and she started laughing along with her. “You inviting me to dinner?” she asked.

Their laughter echoed around the cave only drowned out by the sudden sound of machinery on the other side of the fallen rock

Sloane’s laughter subsided and they both turned their heads towards the wall where the noise came from, expecting a breakthrough; however, the sound retreated again and when Sabine turned back, Sloane was staring straight at her, the soft look that appeared on her face when talking about Jien had returned.

“When next you come back to Kadara-- I don’t trust the Initiative, but Jien trusted Alec, and I feel I have to give you at least some semblance of a chance. Yeah, come to dinner.”

Sabine’s mouth fell open then shut again. It was meant to be a joke, but here she was asking her to share a meal. Sloane’s invite came across more as an command than a request and Sabine knew she couldn’t refuse, any more than she could refuse to pay Sloane’s ‘protection’ for the Initiative outpost. However, there had been a fleeting moment of vulnerability behind Sloane’s eyes. You could ignore her heterochromia for the most part, but this was different. Sabine could take it as her current injured state and nothing more, but that moment, it made her heart pound and she felt like a startled deer in headlights of an oncoming truck.

A crashing noise of rock and dust came from the rock face that had fallen, the mining machinery had broken through in just under forty minutes. Kaetus was first through, blindly looking for Sloane before the dust had even settled.

Sabine stood as Vetra and Liam came through behind him.

Kaetus and another Outcast member pulled Sloane to her feet.

“Hey, be careful, her leg is broken,” Sabine said.

Kaetus waved his hand at her. “We know what we’re doing, Ryder. You can go.”

Sabine shook her head. “Well thanks for everything, Kaetus,” she said with a sarcastic tone to her voice.

“Stop. Hang on.” Sloane made them stop in front of Sabine. “You’re making this a habit, saving me that is.”

Sabine crossed her arms and nodded. “For all that’s had happened on Kadara, I’m not one to keep receipts, but maybe I’ll keep this one.”

Sloane smiled and bit her lip “You’re learning fast. You even sound a little bit like Alec. Maybe you’ll fit into Kadara after all.” She reached out with a grimy hand and touched Sabine’s face. Her thumb slid over her top lip leaving a trace of dust.

Sabine let out an inaudible gasp at the intimate touch, her heart rate increased and a flutter hit her belly. “I ah-- I ah--”

“Farewell, Pathfinder. See you when you return.”

With that, Sloane was gone and Sabine stood dumbfounded.

Vetra placed her hand on Sabine’s shoulder. “C’mon, Ryder, let’s get back to the Tempest. Get Lexi to give you a once over. Jaal has apparently cooked something for us, if you’re up for a home cooked angaran meal after all this.”

Sabine stared up at the turian a dazed look in her eyes. “Sure, as long as it’s not beans okay?”

Vetra’s brow knitted in confusion. “What?”

Sabine shook her head. “I’ll tell you later, Vetra, remind me next time we come back to Kadara.”

#sloane kelly #sloaneweek #sabine ryder #sloane x ryder #mass effect andromeda #I've had no time to do anything else #so I wrote this #its been swimming in my head for a while #so read it #or not #hurt comfort #I guess #exploring possible relationships

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eludiumofficial · 7 years

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Rant #1: The brutal self-slaughter of my former favorite company and why I think comparing Electronic Arts to Bethesda Softworks is ignorant and irrational

Before I get started I’d like to make clear that my opinions presented here are subject to change, dependent on current events and my future beliefs. This post does in no way intend to manipulate the reader’s view on the situation or try and showcase my conviction as being the factual one regarding the topic, it only presents my personal reaction towards the statement featured in the title and should be treated as such.

I dislike rants. I dislike rambling in general, I find it to be a huge time-waster with little to no sense of rewarding. This is probably the first such post that I ever write, and I can’t say I’m quite pleased with my decision, but the subject at hand really provoked me. I feel that writing down my view on it, saving it someplace where I can see it later on in life (and remind myself of my past ways of thinking, as well as the reasoning behind them) is the best course of action. Regarding the second half of the title: I completely understand this is not a big deal, but making Electronic Arts look like the bad guy is something that I’ve seen mentioned for over a decade now in the gaming field, very few times being also backed up by solid arguments. I’m here to present it from my perspective.

Electronic Arts... a name as big in the industry as it is infamous. At least by common standards. Standards that (presumably) mostly come from reading the dumb, uninformed YouTube comment. Hell, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the vast majority of “experts” that comment defamatory remarks at EA's address have never touched any of the company's games. But how could they, right?! You need to pay, what, one hundred dollars for the Deluxe/Premium/Ultimate edition, which is in truth the actual content that assembles the main game... right?

Maybe.

This old company that the average customer loves to bash in ignorance is the same one who grants you complete access to full editions of over 75 of their titles, for €4 a month. It’s the same company who puts their game on sale for €10 one year after its release.. be lucky if you manage to score a €30 deal with other companies’ games in such a short time after launch (and in a sale). Not to mention, they actually have a working DRM *cough* Ubisoft *cough* and customer support.. *cough* Valve *cough*.

But enough about that. I'm not here to lick EA's boots, just pointing out how pathetic it looks to me when people keep complaining about this company 24/7 when there are much bigger culprits in the industry.

Culprits.. like Bethesda. Yeah. Something the old me would never believe he'd write. I wasn't just a fan of Bethesda Softworks. I loved Bethesda. I would read all the lore of their universes for hours on end, at school, at home, even before going to sleep. Hell, I didn't think The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vanilla was a bad game at all to begin with, but when I discovered modding and found out that the Creation Kit, the godly tool that unlocked such a vast world (inside an already huge world), was brought to us by the developers, I went crazy for this team.

The introduction of paid mods.

Not only was it a global letdown when Valve + Bethesda announced paid mods on Steam back in 2015, it was unfortunately only the beginning of something much darker for BethSoft. Now, to be fair with you, I was willing to give them a second chance as customer after that absolute mess, more or less because I saw the partnership with Valve (a company that I stopped respecting since at least 4 years ago, for reasons that are now obvious worldwide) and I couldn't help but assume that they had the upper hand on here. It was downright difficult for a die-hard fan of Bethesda Studios to just drop all respect for them and accuse them at the fullest (or at least mostly) for the wrongdoing. Nonetheless they lost a big sense of meaning at that time, to me and many other fans as well.

When the "Special Edition" of Skyrim rolled out last fall I genuinely thought that was a bad joke. I went and read its system requirements, up to this day I cannot fathom how some improved shaders and lighting system along with some small improvements to textures require a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 as graphic processor. It's beyond insulting the way this company neglects any kind of optimization processes for their products.

One year later, here we are: Creation Club. What the actual hell, Bethesda? What the actual hell? Here’s the trailer, it should speak more than mere words can:

youtube

The best course of action here is to fight for what we stand for. Don't let Bethesda win this fight. They've lost it once already, but it seems they're coming back with a much, much greedier and more disgusting ploy.

Some more detailed information about this Creation Club mess, as I really do not have the mood to write more about it and ultimately ruin my state of mind:

Creation Club on Fallout Wikia

A very succinct description in video format, by Gopher:

youtube

It’sAGundam goes much less family-friendly into the topic, but his points are very valid:

youtube

An extremely flawed system explained by YongYea:

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I don’t see how it could get worse than this... but I actually have a feeling it still will. At this point, Bethesda Softworks is not just an anti-consumer company, they're inarguably becoming a threat to the industry. They have the power to manipulate other companies' directions, they have the power to manipulate renowned modders into falling for their trap (as proved in the 2015 scandal). But I believe they don't have the power to treat us, customers, like some absolute fools, and to succeed in doing so. I believe we can take the fight to them. For a greedy company like this, where fan service means absolutely nothing today, money speak in totality. Bethesda does not deserve to be given further financial support. Not until they wake up and realize the damage they're creating.

If Bethesda really doesn't want to give up their unethical practices (and so far, it does indeed look like they're going to keep living in a dream), they have to be put down. The company that once held the crown for creating the best sandbox role-playing games, with unlimited modding possibilities, is now digging its own grave. But it won’t lay itself inside.

Nexus mods

Let's face it, Bethesda: you would never be where you are now — up there at the top, laughing in your customers' faces — if it wasn't for your community. So many people still keep playing games that go as far back as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, because of modding. As great as your games might initially be, in a vanilla state very few people would still play a 15 years old game on a regular basis. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still up in the players' charts today thanks to the dedicated modders that spare hundreds of hours from their lives to expand the base game’s content. Not to mention the insane amount of bugs that every of your games has: you never fixed that, Bethesda. It was the community who did it for you. Free of charge.

I began this article by writing about Electronic Arts and never got around talking about its relevance to the topic. That’s simply because I wanted to make clear my thoughts about Bethesda Softworks first. You see, while searching up the community’s reaction to this whole scandal I couldn’t help but notice a couple dozen comments comparing the “new” Bethesda Studios to Electronic Arts. Mostly saying they've become just as bad.

I know, I know.. why do some meaningless comments matter to me? This post should be about Bethesda's fall from glory, not about this. And to be fair I did debate whether to write this in a separate post or not to write it at all. I understand it might not be a big deal, but it does really drive me nuts. I consider the society's uninformed opinions to be just as damaging as Bethesda's recent actions.

Because these uninformed opinions carry on. They influence people. They influence companies' rate of success. Paid mods were taken down in 2015, a few days after their launch, for the fact that the community made its voice heard. All the comments raging at Valve and Bethesda's poor attempt could be translated into a substantial financiar loss for the companies.

With the Electronic Arts case, things are slightly different: we aren't talking about a mass of hateful comments bashing at the team in just a few days' time, we are talking about the worldwide consensus that EA is a "bad" company. This consensus has been spread out in a wide variety of ways, mainly through chats, comments, forums talks etc. and in a very high amount of time (basically since at least ten years ago). It was initially based on the fact (among other things) that you often had to pay for the game's "Premium" edition in order to receive content that was classified by the standard gamer as mandatory for the base game. Later on the consensus was adopted by.. just about a lot of people on the Internet. And that's how it went viral, it basically became a "meme", so to say. Bad things happen in the gaming world, the community instantly associates it with EA. This is not only morally wrong, but it does affect the company as well, for reasons that should be obvious.

"So what? Let them suffer, it's not fair having to pay €100 for a game in order to get the full edition." While I agree that most of the DLCs for EA's games are somewhat mandatory (especially if you're planning to play online), one should not forget the points that I made in the initial paragraphs of this post. If money is indeed such a big issue, wait for a sale. Their games' prices drop by a lot even during the first year. At least you have the assurance of quality control. You pay for a game that... you know, actually works, it's not riddled with bugs.

"How does that still relate to Bethesda?" When people compare these two studios they do it just because they're trying to put Bethesda to shame, really. Most of the time they don't even think twice before hitting the "Send" button: "Just stick EA's name in the comment so everyone can understand I'm only trying to make Bethesda look bad. I might have actually never played an Electronic Arts game, I sure as hell have never read any documentation on them, but hey, they're a meme, everyone refers to them as the bad guy so it has to be true." Their comment/message might literally not try and say anything disparaging about EA, they probably just want to put the focus on Bethesda, but the fact that they're using the brand name as a means to make something else look bad is absolutely ignorant. You are comparing every single damaging event in the industry to one company's marketing unpopular opinion, how crazy is that?

Electronic Arts has made its fair share of mistakes in its time (I agree, buying smaller, good companies and later firing their staff is not cool at all; releasing a new edition of Most Wanted is still supposed to be a Most Wanted game, not a Burnout game), but comparing it to a company that tries and monetize a feature that has been globally free since 1980 (Castle Smurfenstein) is downright insulting. If according to the society EA is “bad”, then Bethesda must be the devil itself. Unfortunately people will continue to bash at Electronic Arts without backing up any of the criticism with straight facts and/or proof.

The point of this section is not to make EA seem like the victim and Bethesda like the villain. It merely summarizes that if you’re trying to show your feeling of antipathy towards Bethesda Studios through a comparison with another company, then you should pick a suitable candidate. Don’t just rush at placing Electronic Arts' name in your post because you know that will draw attention and favoritism from fellow poor-informed members. It’s a shame that out of all the gaming companies out there, some with much higher rates of greediness, the community has crowned EA as the “greater evil”.

Times have changed, people. Maybe a few years ago the main problem in the gaming industry was indeed the high pricing and the necessity of purchasing a Premium pack in order to enjoy what the whole game has to offer, but if you think that’s still the main issue nowadays then I am afraid you are living in the past. Welcome to 2017, where we are greeted with microtransactions in singleplayer-exclusive titles, card games over card games with little to no difference between each other (except the company your money for in-game items will go to) and an actual increase in the game’s price during the sale, just so it can be “discounted” to very, very little below the normal price (yeah, I know that happened in 2015, but I trust you catch my drift as to what’s happening in the “new world”). While these things are happening and the industry is falling apart, people are still busy complaining about a company that gives you a full-fledged product for a higher sum of money than the “standard” one. And then offers it to you on sale during the next 12 months.

Bethesda has reached an all-time new low and no other company comes to mind that is as brain-dead, heartless and greedy as them, but if you really have to use a comparison to prove your point, for the love of God step up your game and stop mentioning Electronic Arts. There is Valve out there who keeps milking the same damn three games for years now instead of producing anything original, they have a barely functional DRM, their customer support is safe to be assumed AWOL at this point in time and now they’re releasing a card game to further milk money away from players. Take-Two Interactive literally tried to definitively shut down modding for Grand Theft Auto V. There you have Activision shooting themselves in the foot with the Call of Duty franchise, releasing pretty much the same game year after year, also charging the same amount of money for the Deluxe version as EA would for a game that is actually original.

But Electronic Arts is still “the worst company”. Ok.

To sum this up (because it’s getting late, I want a cup of hot chocolate and to play some good old Dragon Age):

Maybe EA is bad. Maybe it isn’t. But it’s certainly not the culprit of the industry anymore, considering all the petty/greedy attempts of other companies in recent years. To compare it to Bethesda, however, is a whole other story. It’s insulting. Bethesda Softworks is not just greedy, they have become a threat.

Bethesda Studios is the kind of wounded owner who kicks his own faithful dog with a club after it comes and licks its master’s wounds. That kick is painful and performed with a Creation Club.

I ran out of hot chocolate sachets.

#bethesda #paid mods #creation club #electronic arts #greediness #rant #gaming #game industry

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