The Sims 4's new policy surrounding the creation of mods and custom content has stirred anxiety between players and the publisher, and may affect the game negatively in the long run. Along with the release of the new expansion pack for the game, The Sims 4: High School Years, Electronic Arts has updated its modding policy. Although such an update promised to solve the increasing issue of creators disrespecting the previous terms, the new version of it limits modders in a way that seems like it will discourage them from creating entirely.
Given The Sims 4 heavily relies on modders to keep its experience enjoyable, it seems that limiting the creators’ income would be a poor decision. However, the new policy explicitly forbids both permanent and temporary (early access) paywalling, the latter being an unfortunate surprise, given that it had been allowed in the previous terms. According to the official statement, the creator isn’t allowed to profit directly from the mod itself in any way, having to rely exclusively on passive advertisement, and they must release their content regardless of donations.
Although this new policy listed on EA's website will contribute to solving the major problems caused by the previous one, it has also affected the creators who were respecting the previous terms. Given that modding is an incredibly difficult and taxing process, taking away the financial motivation to do it will discourage many from continuing to create. And, given The Sims 4's penchant for buggy updates, this will undoubtedly impact players, forcing them to destroy a culture that relies on these modders to offer community-targeted content and making The Sims 4 become boring and lifeless.
Sims 4 Modders Are What Make The Game Special
While The Sims 4 offers plenty of interesting features, the modding community constantly improves its gameplay and provides customizable, temporary fixes for certain issues that might arise. This made it so that players often rely on modders to improve the game and make it more entertaining. And, with many creators being able to make a steady income by modding The Sims 4, providing new monthly content became more rewarding, for the player and the creator. However, with the new policy, modding has become an unreliable way to make money, something that will certainly discourage creators.
With the modding community and the content they create reducing, the game is bound to become less entertaining, given The Sims 4 is known for disappointing players. Electronic Arts’ new policy certainly offered a great solution for the major problem of creators disrespecting the previous one, and its transparency about this is commendable. However, it may have backfired, underestimating the importance of the modding community to The Sims 4's experience. Without a proper statement from EA regarding these issues, players can only anxiously wonder what will be the future of modding in the game.
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Source: EA