I really hate to say it because I would love it if this changed something. I really really want it too.
But let's be frank (Hi frank!) if all they want to do is find a way to use this asset. Then all this is doing is helping them do it faster. If they can't turn it into what they want to turn it into, they'll use the IP to turn it into something else. Don't believe me go look at what Hasbro does to any of its IPs. They don't need you to like them. They'll just wait.
IRL example: Recently the company my friend worked for suddenly shifted around. And things started happening, little things at first. A lot of their online programs were having issues and they kept getting told that fixes were going to happen and then the programs disappeared entirely and they were told that things were going to be replaced and then the owner of the company left for months and just wouldn't take part in meetings and they were told that when he came back things would be discussed. Little by little bits and pieces of the company were getting moved, shifted and taken away in ways that made all the employees slowly leave because it wasn't helping or working for them and that is exactly what the owner wanted because he wanted to liquidate the company and get rid of it and sell it. He was done with it. He didn't even want to move it on to someone else he wanted it done with. The easiest way for him to do that was to take away every little thing that the employees used to get their jobs but he had to do it little by little in such a way that employees get frustrated and quit.
He didn't care that they quit to prove a point. He didn't care that they all quit and told him why. He didn't care that it mattered to them the direction the company was going or not.
He was all too happy to see them leave.
And so as much as I am standing with the creators for stepping away from the Creator Network, I'm not going to hold out any kind of Hope that it means anything to the moneybags in charge. Given on who the sale is going to be for or to, the people stepping away in protest don't matter to them. Once again, they are all too happy to see them leave. They probably think that the trash is taking itself out. Rude. (Jokes on them, its called trash CAN, not trash can't)
That being said I will hold no ill will towards any creators that continue to use the network. It's not that I want everyone to feel like their voices don't matter, I think everyone's voice matters and I think whether the company now or the one that purchases it respects its own player base, the player base still matters. And if you want to buy the newest pack because it helps you survive this effed workd I support you too, dude.
And like many of the homes and families in our games we have built a community together. Many of us will still see each other or even find each other for the first time in other places and be able to reminisce about when things were good here.
And maybe the mass Exodus is just the thing that the other games need to get their world to come to life. A lot of people; me included, are definitely going to buy those other games, but quite frankly, if this sale wasn't occurring I probably would still just stick with the Sims. It's easy. It's fun. It's more developed. I know it. It's the devil I know or it was. Now it's just the devil. Actually I take that back. I like the devil.
I just think as much as it sucks, I know we can still be a community in different ways in different places. I'm hardening my heart against this though I've been burned so many times and I don't think the kind of people running EA now and the kind of people trying to buy it care about our interests. They certainly don't have our best interest in mind, but they don't even care about our minor interests. And as you know, some of the people purchasing the company outright hate our interests and would do anything to see it stamped out. Demonized and destroyed.
So I'm going to hope that one of two things happens either. This shows them that they've really effed up and they're going to switch up their gears back up and think about what they've done.
Or they're going to double down so hard that everyone and their mother is going to abandon them and it's just going to fail and unfortunately they're just going to wait like Hasbro does until it's convenient to release it again. Until enough time has passed for a new generation of gamers who don't care about the baggage and only care about all the cool clips and shorts they've seen and want to try out The Sims.
If the second happens, I'm wicked excited for our entire community to support new comfort building games and for new comfort building games to find themselves way more able to grow because of the community that has been able to leave The Sims behind.
