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I have no plans to stop modding The Sims 4
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 22:38:10 +0000 UTCAnd neither do many other modders- but they may not feel comfortable saying it out loud. But what I have to say about it may help you understand some reasons others may feel the same.
As I approach 6000 patreon followers (wow!!!!) I don't really want to make a post about this, but as others do so, a pressure builds to say something. I often stand up for other modders and the game's devs, and I think putting something like this out here is another way of doing that. I don't speak for anyone in particular, but I think some of the logic I put forth here can broadly be recognized as "potential reasons others may not back away from the game, either". Keep them in mind if you are curious what anyone's thoughts are as things progress and some people stay quiet.
They are allowed to stay quiet!
For me, I will continue modding the current game, the future game, the current packs, and the future packs. I will continue posting deep dives into how new content works, and I will continue updating (slowly) my custom Save File celebrating the series.
I have no intention of stopping now or in the future, regardless of who owns the company that owns the company that makes the game, for the following reasons:
The buyout of EA will put the company 20,000,000,000 dollars in debt. Yes, being bought will put the company in debt. As a publicly traded company it is owned by its investors. Buying it out and making it go private means those investors lose their control over it, for a payment. The company will be taking on such massive debt that tanking its properties makes no financial sense from EA or anyone in charge of it.
As a result of the above, it is dramatically more likely Maxis, The Sims, or both get sold to another company to fund that debt. This is still a possibility, and honestly, I think it would be very interesting to see, and it would be ideal! Because then the employees get to keep their jobs but someone new is put in control at the top, which could be a boon for the game, and at least would mean the people involved don't get screwed over, in theory.
Even if The Sims or Maxis are not sold and EA continues being in control of The Sims, corporations are made up of thousands of people making decisions. It is extremely unlikely those decisions will be made to tank the brand and destroy its reputation. I believe that any and all claims or fears that the buyout will result in removal of content, adjustments to how longstanding content (such as LGBT representation) works, or even new content that promotes some sort of agenda are pure fearmongering.
Saudi Arabian interests are diversifying away from Oil. Thus far, this diversification of interests has not resulted in change like those people are worried about mentioned above. These purchase are made by the Public Investment Fund, which is basically a national fund for creating investments on behalf of the country. It's so overly complicated and built up of other investment groups and similar compants and shell corporations and sub-companies that it's nearly impossible for a layperson to keep track of- or even know when something is involved at all. This purchase is an especially publicly visible one, but it's not the first of its kind, and there's no absolute precedent that it will lead to changes that would logically be at odds with the entire point of such an investment. Ask yourself: Why would a globally unpopular perspective like that of the Saudi Arabian government buy a media company and then demand their media all be altered to sell worse, rate worse, and be run into the ground? Now google what other media this fund has been involved in purchasing and ask yourself, did you know they bought these things? Did you notice any changes in them? Because the answers are going to be "No".
The sale is not final and may not be finalized. The US government has expressed interest in preventing the sale, for instance.
On the most basic level, I do not believe that abstaining from buying The Sims games will make any tangible impact on whatever it is- imagined or otherwise- that anyone involved in any of this does. The purchase is part of the aforementioned Investment Fund that is estimated to be made up of 941 Billion-with-a-B in assets. I know it's not the most positive outlook on how capitalism and money work, but if every single Sims player right now never bought another thing from the series ever again, nobody involved would notice or care, except the developers and people at Maxis and EA who would simply lose their jobs and accomplish nothing tangible in the process towards defunding whatever it is any given person concerned about all this wishes not to fund. It is not even a drop in the bucket, and it is not even a molecule in said drop. It is functionally irrelevant. EA is a massive company, and The Sims- while very good for them, and a valuable IP- is not a lot of what they do.
EA's specific appeal to this fund is in its sports games, not The Sims. This fund has already purchased investments into sports (real ones) and those sports have not suddenly become scary religiously-controlled hellscapes like the one people are imagining for The Sims. At the end of the day, Maxis and The Sims would most likely simply continue on as normal. Buying a company does not mean taking over everything every aspect of it does and changing it up. Sometimes it just means buying a company and now you sit there and watch it make you money.
I may be confused on this one but I believe when a business is publicly traded, deals in the best interests of the investors must be considered/accepted if the alternative is not to their benefit. In this sense, the sale is legally required to happen barring any government intervention (which as I mentioned there is an indication of potential for), and the people at EA don't necessarily want this themselves. There are many possible outcomes of such a buyout and very few are predicated on the idea that everyone involved would simply go "Oh well!" and let the spooky bad things people think might happen actually happen. I do not have faith those things will happen even if someone were to demand they do. There are human beings at every level of these sorts of things (including those involved with any Saudi Arabian interests- who are in fact people, and should not necessarily be considered a scary collective out to damage your favorite stuff and indoctrinate you and other such things) and it's foolish to assume that one bogeyman at the top (Like a vague sense of "a country that has some questionable ideas on how stuff should be") would be in absolute control of every step of everything at the bottom. If things go bad they will go bad and things will end naturally regardless, I do not believe accelerating any such implosion of EA or Maxis serves real purpose. A threat of less sales is not enough of a reason to legally back out of a deal like this- all it will do at best is ensure the death of the company and the things it makes, rather than stop them from possibly being put under a stranglehold later. As such, I think a "wait and see" and "react to things that actually happen and not what we imagine may come" perspective is most reasonable, and the most fair to the people who make the game we love, and do not want to see it harmed either.
I generally believe a lot of this conversation comes from perspectives that may not have enough understanding of what's happening to really speak on it. I think that, in general, none of us really have enough information to go off- myself included, maybe. I think a lot of people are not being fair and are rooting for things to go south, because they are never satisfied by The Sims and want to see it fail- like people who angrily demand a comment from the devs on the situation and then, when they get it, dismiss it as "damage control" because it was made in response to said demand, which happened last week...which I think any reasonable person can see is unfair at best and actively concerning manipulative behavior at worst. I am not saying anyone who is stepping back on supporting the series is doing those sorts of things, but I think the general "player" conversation in the community may not be in the best of intentions or coming from the most informed places.
You may have seen this term used a lot lately: Complying in Advance. I believe that backing away from The Sims out of fear it may be damaged is a form of Complying in Advance. I do not believe stepping away is a form of "pushback", I believe it is in some ways a form of "rolling over", for lack of a better phrasing. I believe continuing to celebrate and enrich the game and its community is critical to keeping the game special and "ours". I do think in some way that ducking out early is in a way treating the game like "All is lost" in advance, and I don't think it's necessarily productive. You can make statements on these issues without tying those statements to immediate action, and still make a difference, I think. I sort of feel like walking away is a form of inaction, because if you're not here to push back, you're not really pushing back. You've simply left the arena. (I do not think anyone stepping away is explicitly wrong to do so, and they are more than welcome to make that choice, though.)
Not me, but some modders and youtubers and streamers make a living in part or in full from The Sims and should absolutely not be asked to put their livelihood on the line over this, or asked to even make a statement on it that risks upsetting people, putting them in a lose/lose situation. I have the privilege of not making a ton of money from modding and thus am not taking a huge risk posting this. Others cannot make that risk, nor do they have the privilege to simply stop making content. It's not fair to put people in these situations over this sort of thing.
Additionally, while others who have made statements about stopping whatever support they have of the Sims have said the same and I don't doubt they mean it, I have to of course conclude that I love The Sims.
The Sims is the absolute most important thing to me aside from real people. I do not know what I would do without it, and I do not know that I would be alive without it, and I will continue to celebrate it in a way that helps others do the same, by making mods and guides. (I have also been recently interested, bad timing aside, in possibly trying to stream! I think it sounds fun and I would like to interact with people more and give it a try. Some long-time patrons may notice I do not really interact in comments, and I would like to be a little more interactive with people.)
Anyone who steps away is free to do so, and anyone who doesn't is also free to do so. With all the available information considered I do not believe stepping away does much more than make a symbolic gesture at best, and could actively make the situation worse at worst. That's my take on it.
This is an incredibly complicated situation with a lot of complicated feelings and worries coming out, but for me, I am choosing not to be especially alarmed until something especially alarming actually happens, and until then, I will continue doing what I do.
Please remember the person and do not harass those who choose the same, thank you.
Comments
PandaSama
-32
Pum_pkin
Ох, знал бы ты как я тебя обожаю и то что ты делаешь! Спасибо за эти слова. Стало как-то... спокойнее?
