I really, really don’t want to post about this, but I do feel that the information needs to be out there regarding the current dealings of TSR (The Sims Resource) and EA.  I’ll continue to update this thread as time goes on, hopefully I won’t make too much of a mess when updating).

Anger against TSR has been around for awhile – in fact, there is a whole website titled TSR Must Be Destroyed in which many articles can be found showing details of various TSR members obtaining personal information (login accounts, Paypal) from other members if they happen to disobey TSR rules.  I cannot really comment on all of their past actions, you’ll have to read them yourself and gather your own opinion.  However, a new situation regarding The Sims Resource has surfaced, and this time I’m trying to follow the news…

The Details:

I’ll let Delphy from MTS2 explain it as his words are better than mine anyday.

To sum it up, a member known as buggybooz had their account hacked in which all of their files from MTS2 were deleted.  Luckily, Delphy had a backup and restored them.  When he investigated the IP address, it turned out to be Thomas, one of the co-founders of TSR.

In a recent update, TSR has stated that it was caused by security breach in which they had 3 months ago and it left many accounts vulnerable.  It’s your choice to believe it, but if that was the case, why didn’t they tell their members about this security breach in the first place?

Why People are mad:

Many people are already angry at TSR for a number of reasons…

  • That they leak out private information of their members
  • That they go against EA’s own EULA in which they are a paysite.  Not only that, but the Maxoids break their own EULA by allowing them to continue
  • The “buddy-buddy” relationship between EA and TSR

The Maxiod’s Actions:

In my opinion, I believe it is the Sims Community Manager who is suppose to be civil and try to keep peace in The Sims Community.  However, this is not the case…especially with MaxoidHydra.  Many fans are trying to get the word out on The Sims 2 BBS about TSR’s actions, but the threads do not stay up for long.  They are quickly deleted by the Maxoids.  In fact, there were so many threads, that Hydra had to step in with the following message:

It would seem some of our community members don’t have anything better to do today other than post off topic threads and hijack old discussions that happened earlier in the month. We’ve spent the whole morning trying to keep the boards clean.

Please do not post Off Topic threads or hijack existing threads. Continuing to do this will result in a temp ban.

Eesh. I hate playing the Bad Cop.

Forgive me Hydra, but the last time I checked, TSR stands for The SIMS Resource.  Discussing the website isn’t deemed ‘off-topic’, and shouldn’t involve deleting threads.  No rules were broken…fans are trying to keep it clean and civil.  I mean, if you were going to delete the threads, wouldn’t you have to delete ANY thread which links or talks about fansite, good or bad news?  No, of course not.  I see threads there all the time guiding Simmers to various fan sites of the community.  Leaving those up and just taking down the TSR threads….just feels hypocritical.  Fans have a right to know what TSR is doing.

It seems that instead of trying to help solve this problem, the Maxoids are making it worse.  An easy solution would have been, “We’re currently looking into this situation.  We appreciate your concerns and will take your thoughts into consideration while we speak with TSR about the issue.  In the meantime, please refrain from discussing until we can come up with a conclusion.”  I don’t understand what is so difficult about posting a note similar to that.  The worst thing about it is that they get paid!  I do this stuff for free, and it only took one minute of my time to type out, and it would of settled things down!  It’s not that hard to speak to the community, guys!