SIMS 2 ANNUAL PAYSITE BOYCOTT
Who All Sims 2 players who have or plan to have a paysite1 subscription in the near future.

What Boycott2 all paysites during the months of OCTOBER and NOVEMBER every year. These months were chosen because lots of people get subscriptions for Christmas, and those subscriptions should have ended by Oct/Nov.

Why Paysites will charge as much as we're willing to pay. If we don't pay for a span of two months, it may force these sites to lower prices and give more thought to retaining customers. It is a "yearly" boycott because some people may have year-long subscriptions at present that they may not wish to cancel. So it will be every year until we don't need it anymore.

1A paysite is a site that requires money in return for goods. In this case, Sims 2 custom content downloads. (Examples: PeggySims, RoseSims, and all sites listed on the Better Sims Bureau.) Donation content falls under the catagory of pay content.

List of Demands

  • A price rating of inexpensive or average with Better Sims Bureau ($0-5/month or $0-3 packages).
  • Equal quality in free and pay items.
  • Defectiveness warnings on pay items with mesh gaps, lines, or other problems.
  • Refund policies.
Some paysites don't have to change to meet our demands. If you think you can recognize when a paysite is trying to scam you and when it isn't, feel free to just boycott the ones that need improvement. Whether it's more free content (or any free content) or lower prices, if it needs fixing, it needs boycotting. We aren't trying to shut anyone down, just trying to change sloppy business practices.

When Is a Paysite Screwing You?

Donation items and gifts are just pay content with a pretty ribbon on them. For example, PeggySims (my favorite hair site) charges $9.95 a month for downloads yet still requires a 3-month subscription ($22.95) to be able to download past donation gifts. That's a $13 pricetag for less content than just the pay hair area. It's what I call being gouged.

Also, paysites can have severe descrepencies in the quality of pay vs. free goods. Still using PeggySims as an example, here are four of her most recent May '07 hairs:


The free hairs are just slapped together with an ugly, shiny texture while the pay hairs are very detailed.

Other complaints about paysites are the overall lack of refunds, products looking better on the site than in-game, and creators doing a slapdash job in the rush to keep buyers happy. Last, but not least, is the all-consuming legal debate about whether paysites should even be allowed to exist (the Sims 2 tools and user license specifically says that Sims 2 tools cannot be used for commercial purposes). Some people believe that requiring pay for any Sims 2 download is robbery, because you're not supposed to charge for Sims 2 custom content by law. (If you continue down, I'll be testing the sturdiness of that legal leg everyone is standing on.)

History of Boycotting2

A long and glorious American tradition, boycotting goes back to the days of the colonies, when we boycotted British trade goods in 1769. In 1830, we boycotted slave-produced goods. And look how those worked out! We're not British, and we don't have slaves. Win-win.

The term "boycott" was coined in Ireland when the tenants and workers of Captain Charles Boycott said "screw you" because he refused to lower their rent and kicked them off his land. Everyone in the area agreed not to have anything to do with him, and he had no one to harvest his crops until foreigners agreed to do it. In the end, he spent more on personal security to protect his workers (who weren't in danger) than the harvest brought.

Alternatives and Resources

Resources for researching paysites and getting a download fix during the boycott. (For new free goodies, Sims2Community posts the jewels they find so you don't have to search the miles of free sites available.)

Better Sims Bureau
Reviews All Paysites

Mod the Sims 2
Huge Free Download Community

If what I'm doing isn't enough, here are some alternative measures you may take.

Noukie Sims Petition: Petition for EA Games to take legal action against paysites.
Free The Sims: Letter Writing Campaign: Send a letter via snail mail to get EA's attention for Nouk's petition.

Articles

Legal, Ethical, or Bandwagon? A Glance Into the Paysite Debate, by Your Friendly Boycott Webmistress. An overview of the debate and the toll it has taken on the Sims 2 community.

Coming soon. Not a Lawyer Letter, by A Law School Graduate. My husband's best friend answers my legal questions.

Coming soon. Something by a "free" community leader.

This website is not affiliated with EA Games or any of the linked herein.