pixeldolly

[pixeldolly]

I do love that post about the TS2 modding community and how everything we built is on the bones of resources and knowledge that was shared with us freely and should be shared freely in return.

But

I also wish as a community that we were a bit more vocal in our support of each other. I love sharing CC/resources/lots etc but it can often feel very lonely. I know there's been a shift in the past couple of years; more people are making separate CC blogs so that they can more easily circulate and appreciate CC, and more people are leaving nice replies and tags, which I'm really glad to see; but for a long time, and sometimes still, you could spend a lot of time and effort on something just to get met with a wall of silence. And so you assume "oh well, I guess people just didn't really like that one, it happens," only to find that, based on numbers, it's quite a popular download. But based on actual feedback, I'd have had no idea!

I know the Venn diagram of Sims 2 players and fanfiction readers is probably an almost perfect circle, so I kind of wish there was a push in the Sims community to leave comments on CC you use like there is to leave comments on fics you enjoyed. IME the culture of credit/attribution in the Sims community can already be... not the greatest, compared to other creative communities... but I think most of us are really nice and supportive, it's just easy to forget to actually say something nice & supportive when we download from other people.

Comparatively speaking I'm really fortunate in this regard. I've been around a while and have gotten to know a lot of other really cool and lovely creators & players who are really vocal in their support. And at the end of the day, it's always healthiest not to make things for the attention or approval of others - I would continue to create CC even if nobody downloaded anything, lol. But it's also human nature to want recognition from our peers, especially if our peers are benefiting from our work.

I'm not great at this either and sometimes I'm just too burnt out to leave an actual comment, but my personal policy is that if I download something, at the very least, I reblog it. Making a sideblog for reblogging CC is really helpful because people can choose to check back on it without needing to follow, since the Sims 2 Tumblr dashboard is often quite slow (mine is @rockethorsefinds btw). Nice comments in the tags can literally make someone's day and an actual reply/comment about what you liked is the best way to guarantee you get more great CC in the future lol!

Talking about this is always hard because there's a fear of sounding whiny or ungrateful, but it's also really hard to see extremely talented CC creators who share their stuff completely for FREE and their notes are a barren wasteland whilst other CC creators (especially for TS4) paywall all their stuff on Patreon and not only get paid money but ALSO much more praise and recognition. Sometimes CC creators in our community are so sleek and professional with their uploads, and release content so regularly, that it's easy to forget they're just unpaid fans like the rest of us, so let's make some noise!! (Especially since you can be certain they receive no small amount of complaints/demands...)

Thank you to all the CC creators who are still making amazing content for The Sims 2! You're literally out here innovating new ways to play the game, creating and refining third-party programs to modify the game and its content, modding in complex new game functions, creating bespoke animations and textures and buildings and meshes - you're the reason we're still playing this game 20 years later and I hope you know every day how much you are appreciated by the community.

[pixeldolly]

A quick-ish guide to the culture of The Sims 2 modding community.

Are you new to The Sims 2 community? Are you coming from more modern games, either in The Sims franchise itself or other contemporary games? Are you excited to start your #brand and become a #simfluencer and post your #earlyaccesscontent to support your #sidehustle?

Have a seat, then! Let's chat.

Hello, friend! My name's Pooklet. I've been playing since 2004 and creating since 2007. I'm by no means an expert in most forms of content creation itself, but I've been around since the heyday of The Sims 2, I've watched how community opinions have shifted (or not) since practically the beginning, and I'm hoping to give you a basic outline of the community culture that you can expect to encounter as a newcomer.

A very brief history of Sims 2 content monetization:

People have been trying to monetize content since there has been content to monetize, all the way back in the days of The Sims 1. We tend to call them "pay creators" and their websites "paysites." Some big names in this arena include The Sims Resource (their free-with-ads model is a relatively recent development, which is why you will find people to this day calling them T$R), PeggySims, Newsea, and many others that you can find on this handy website:

Paysites Must Be Destroyed

Now, if you have a glance at that website, you might be saying to yourself:

"But, that's illegal! I own the copyright to my custom content!"

Alas, no! Due to the wording of the End User License Agreement for The Sims 2, no custom content creator owns their creations for this game (or The Sims 1, or 3, or 4, for that matter, but we're talking about 2 right now). It all belongs to EA at the end of the day, and by installing and playing the game, you have agreed to these terms. Which means you have no individual, protected copyright, and it is perfectly legal for someone to download your paywalled content and then reupload it for free for others to enjoy. And they will!

Furthermore,

You are not making anything alone.

Everything from modding resources, to tutorials, to the mods required to fix disastrous glitches in the game code and make it playable at all, to the third party programs used to make any and all custom content, such as SimPE—all of these have been provided to you for free by other creators, many of whom have a usage policy that asks that people not use their freely-provided tools to make a profit. Although no one can be forced to follow a creator's policy, it is generally considered good manners to not try to make a profit off of someone else's free work. And if you are using these tools to make paywalled content, that's exactly what you're doing.

Pay creators have been ignoring these policies since the beginning of time, and so free creators likewise ignore their policies against sharing their paywalled content. Pay creators have also tried lots of different ways to keep their content exclusive, everything from trying to track leaks with slightly altered files to actively filling their content with malicious code. It has never worked.

Free creators have always found a way around these barriers. In fact, it's taken as something of a challenge to undermine monetization efforts. As you can see from Paysites Must Be Destroyed, there are entire teams of players devoted to reuploading paywalled content for free.

A culture of sharing.

The Sims 2 is something of a time capsule. At 20 years old, it predates a lot of the hyper-capitalist hustle culture that has infested every creative hobby. It is from a time when monetization was an outlier rather than the norm, and a much maligned outlier at that. This attitude has persisted for 20 years. Believe me when I say, you won't be the combo breaker. Especially now, given that The Sims 2 is not the most contemporary in the series and the community has shrunk considerably, down to the people who have either been here for a very long time, or newcomers that understand the community culture.

Also, it's just kind of not a great idea in general to try to make money off of a 20-year-old game with a pretty small community?

Like, I get that The Sims 4 is really saturated with pay creators and it's hard to get a foot in the door. I get that you might look at The Sims 2 and think that the small pond will give you room to be a big fish. It won't. You might get a handful of people willing to pay for your content, but at least one of those people will be resharing it for free.

Paywalls vs. optional donations.

Okay, so hopefully you now understand why people don't like it when you put content behind a paywall. But what about those Ko-fi and Paypal donation links you sometimes see at the bottom of people's downloads? Why is that okay, but a locked Patreon tier isn't? Well, because they're voluntary. No one is obligated to pay for that content to be able to download and use it. It's just a way for someone who does have a little extra cash to basically "tip" a creator whose content they like. You have no way of knowing whether the person who posts those links is actually receiving any donations. And that's kind of the point. Whether or not they receive any donations, they are still sharing their content, because they enjoy the hobby of making and sharing content.

"I can't make a living off of that!"

No, you can't. Because that's not what we do here. That is not part of our community culture for all the above reasons. If you want to make a reliable income off of your hobby, you're going to need to get a different hobby. Try Second Life! That is a community that actively encourages monetization. The Sims 4 allows for "early access" monetization. There's options out there for you, if what you want is to make a profit off of your creations for a game.

"Fine, what about monetized link forwarding services?"

Link forwarding services historically have malicious trackers or viruses embedded. People will also strip those and provide direct links to each other. Or they just won't download your content.

"What if I want to make YouTube videos of someone else's written tutorials and I enable ad revenue on them?"

Personally, I still think that's a dick move. I love video tutorials, I'm a very visual learner myself, and although you might feel entitled to compensation for reciting the steps of someone else's tutorial into a microphone and then editing and uploading the video, you're still monetizing someone else's freely-provided content. I would consider this an 'ask permission' scenario, one in which you tell the person, explicitly, that you will be making ad revenue off their work. If they're fine with that, then you're good! (For the record, I'm not fine with that.)

edit: more of of my thoughts on monetized youtube videos over here.

"What if—"

Look, no one can stop you from trying to monetize your content, or worse, someone else's content. But you will have the exact same arc as every pay creator who came before you: your efforts will be undermined at every turn, your reception in the greater community will be chilly at best, and it will become a battle between you and the folks resharing free reuploads of your content until any fun you initially had making content is gone.

"The steady erosion of every known social safety net beneath the crippling weight of end-stage, line-goes-up capitalism and the yawning abyss of poverty over which I am dangling has imbued me with such anxiety that I cannot engage with a hobby that precludes monetization. I am exhausted. I know no other way."

I get it, friend! I have lived in poverty all my life. I do not begrudge the impulse to find a way to make passive income off of your every waking moment. Increasingly, it seems like that is the only way to survive! Unfortunately, you will not be able to do that with this specific community. We know that we have something special here, having resisted monetization's encroach for so long, which makes us fight all the more viciously to maintain it. You are entitled to try to find ways to supplement your income, just not here. Personally, I consider that a feature, not a bug.

Bonus Round: Remember, That's Not Just Yours!

I said it earlier, but I want to reiterate: you are not making any TS2 CC alone. You are making it with tools, resources, knowledge and code that people have provided on the condition that they not be used for pay content.

To use myself as an example, "my" hair textures are a blend of resources provided by other creators. Namely, Nouk's original hair texture was edited by Vintage D, which I then further edited over the years, using parts by the creators Ephemera and Helga. It would be extremely shit of me to say "well, I think that the time that I put into my edit is worth money, so I'm charging for it" when the edits that I made would not exist without the work of those people. And it continues on down the line with edits that other people have made of my texture blends and color actions, and the content they make with them.

(If you see someone charging for these, btw, lemme know. I'd love to have a talk with them.)

In closing,

The knowledge base, the resources, the coding required to make any and all working content for The Sims 2 has been compiled for 20 years. Please understand, I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's creativity when I say: you cannot bring anything wholly "new" to TS2 CC-making, something that uses no one else's resources or programs, something you can point to and say "no one helped me with that. I did it all on my own. It is my property." Nor should you aspire to! The fun of The Sims 2 community is to share and share alike, to credit each other for our contributions, to hype each other up and iterate on shared works and resources. We've been doing it for 20 years, and hopefully we'll be doing it for many more! Wanting to be a #simfluencer is utterly antithetical to the community culture. No one is influencing anyone else. You need to leave that shit at the door if you want to be invited in.

TL;DR:

Don't show up to the commie circle-jerk trying to charge for handjobs. We're already giving them to each other for free, and nothing about your wrist technique is special enough to justify the cost.

[pixeldolly]

Hello, may i ask what eyes do you use for your Pleasantview save? The green there is AMAZING and fits the aesthetic so well! :D

Hi! They are Leh's default eyes, to go with Leh's skins which I'm using. :D

[pixeldolly]

Hello, there's an issue I've been having with Saline's custom werewolf overlay. When my Sim is in a wolf form, their default replacement for werewolf eyes isn't being displayed (I think the base-game eyes are the ones being displayed). How did you make so you have custom eyes with Saline's werewolf skin?

Saline's werewolf overlay doesn't come with eyes (you need a separate eyes-only default for that) so I just made some personal edits of the overlays themselves which do include custom werewolf eyes.

[pixeldolly]

making (slightly rude) assumptions about you based on your favorite Pleasantview sim

redoing this to make it more coherent

(for either one of these four: You've been here for a while, huh? A lot of time's passed since the first Sims game came out. You're a little uncertain about the future of the Sims, however. You're either the most outspoken critic or someone who purchased every pack and hypes up every little thing that EA does)

Mortimer: You're a traditional Sims player who goes along with the scripted events and probably repeat the same storylines anytime you play a new save file

Bella: You're obsessed with the sims lore and got upset when people were making clean versions of Pleasantview that had Bella inside of Pleasantview as a townie. You probably also got pissed when Bella was with her family in the Sims 4 and when they remade her

Cassandra: You're either a sapphic Cassandra truther or you have the most basic taste in pairings ever. Your second generation of sims being pretty is also very important to you

Alexander: You either wanted to feel special for not choosing one of the three more popular Goths or you looked way deeper into the lore than the average fan and know about random tidbits that most people don't bother to look for. You're probably also not a big fan of the Sims 4

---

(for either one of these three: You have an unbridled hatred for the Sims 4 and how they did the three of them dirty, both in appearance and in their altered lore that they doubled down on after the remake)

Don: You love chaos and drama, and although you like him you would never go for a man like him in real life. If you're a Don/Cassandra shipper, you CANNOT fix him. Don is destined for chaos/drama and you have to embrace that

Dina: Please start writing fanfics on AO3 because it is WAY too hard to find a fanfic of Dina that doesn't portray her as the literal devil. I'm going to assume that you're also a feminist who likes girlboss characters

Nina: No, you can't say that she's a "hopeless romantic" just because she's shy and then turn around and antagonize Dina/Brandi in spite of them having more nice points than Nina

---

(for either Brandi/Dustin: You have a good level of media literacy for being able to read between the lines of what the game explicitly tell you vs what's implied in the game. Congrats. Cherish that skill)

Brandi: You love a good rags-to-riches storyline and you get super pissed when people suggest that Brandi is anything less than morally pure. You also like giving her a job and making her get her life together with a very specific sim that you probably ship her with. I don't have to name them since it's a different one for each person, but you never put her with anyone else

Dustin: You feel misunderstood and you get blamed for things that you didn't do, and probably have a hard time expressing yourself. 50% chance that you have some sort of minor trauma that isn't taken seriously because it's not severe enough. You're also the type who'd sooner burn the world to save someone you love than to save the world by sacrificing someone you love.

Beau: I'm a little confused over why you'd pick him, but I get it. There's a lot of different choices you can take his character, and the game's lore is more lenient on him so you don't feel as bad about going off script. One man's blank paper is another man's canvas

Unborn Baby Broke: All of the choices and you choose the fetus? Are you sure? They're not even green or anything, get outta here

---

Darren: Even though his whole thing is "making a living off of art," you probably don't actually do that and probably give him an actual job while marrying him to either Cassandra or Brandi (these are the two most common choices I've seen). Also you get mad when people call him an incel for having a one-sided crush on Cassandra

Dirk: The "opposite attract" pairings of Lilith/Dirk and Angela/Dustin are really important to you and you hate it when people swap their love interests around. There's a chance you're also bisexual

---

Daniel: You're that one very specific person on the subreddit who made Mary-Sue live in a trash infested house and view Mary-Sue as the one who's abusing Daniel, and you probably avoid engaging with the fandom because you have the most unpopular opinion of all time

Mary-Sue: You hate Daniel Pleasant, and there's also a chance that you probably dislike men in general. You have no plans to have children and root for the businesspeople in Hallmark movies

Angela: You're the golden child on the brink of being burnt out, and I'm really sorry that the fandom treats her like the devil. You also either ship Angela/Dustin or you view Angela as a closeted lesbian

Lilith: You have a bad relationship with at least one of your parents and a sibling that you probably hate. Either had or are currently going through an alternative phase. I'm going to also assume that you might also be bisexual

---

Kaylynn: Something tells me that Challengers was very important to you. You probably don't like Don or Daniel that much, but play with them anyway because you like drama

Gordon: haha funny thief man. You hate the rich and your favorite families are either the Brokes or the Caliente sisters

Any of the Burbs: You're a family gameplay type of person, aren't you? Either that or you think Jennifer deserves way better and break them up the minute that you can so you can set John up with some other family sim and start...family gameplay...

Any of the Oldies: I have a hard time believing that you exist, but at least they work well as free nannies for the Pleasants if you decide to make Daniel and Mary Sue have another kid for some reason. Maybe you just like elders? Idk

Any of the townies: Your entire interpretation of them is 100% headcanons/gameplay experiences because they really don't actually have that much going for them. I'm not sure what else to say. You are a different breed of person

[pixeldolly]

Sims 2 Databases Database

(Alright it's an index, I just had to)

Made it for myself, I might as well share. If there's something I've missed please let me know.

CC:

Sims 2 Object Default Database.

Sims 2 Default Database [CAS].

Sims 2 Hair Database.

Sims 2 CC: Afro Hairstyles.

Shoes Database.

Sims 2 EA Store Items 2016.

Stories to Sims 2 Conversion Database. [DW Backup].

Sims 2 Functional Finds [Sorted by function].

Resource list: Clutter and decorative items [massive index at GoS].

SkyBox/Horizons/Skylines Database.

TS1 to TS2 Conversion/Recreation Database.

TS3 to TS2 Conversion Database [DW Backup].

Sims 4t2 CAS Conversion Archive [EA].

Custom Clothing Conversion Database [Custom - ts4 only?].

Sims 4t2 Build/Buy Conversion Database [EA].

4t2 CC Database Build & Buy [Custom].

The Sims spin-off games to the PC TS2 [&3+4].

TSM-to-TS2 Conversion Database [DW Backup].

Grunge Masterlist Project 2025, by @pixeldolly.

CC Archives:

Sims Cave.

Sims Graveyard.

Liquid Sims - Community Archives.

Sim Archive Project, at The Internet Archive.

The Booty, at PSMBD.

Sims 2 Packrat, on Tumblr [Watch out for the recent SFS Hacking problem].

Ekrubynaffit (@ekrubynaffit a.k.a bestbuild4sims) has re-uploaded a lot of archives of defunct creators. Albums with DL on her pinterest. Mainly build and buy mode, thanks a lot!

Resources:

CEP-Extras List, Huge Lunatic @ Sims 2 Artists.

Several Lists of Maxis Resources for Modding, under Notes. Pick'n'Mix Mods, own website.

Sims 2 Painting Sizes Database.

The Sims 2 Tutorials Database.

Sims 2 GUID Database Revival (Yes I'm shamelessly promoting it).

Update: added EA ts2 store items, Painting sizes db, Tutorials db. Update 2: GUID db Revival. Update 3: believe it or not, there's more - Shoes db, Sims 2. Functional Finds [sorted by function] by @sims2functionalfinds. Update 4: Resource list: Clutter and decorative items, at @gardenofshadowssims. Update 5: added archives section. Update 6: added @ekrubynaffit's Pinterest Archive. Update 7: Fixed TSM link, added Stories db, Afro Hairstyles db by @letomills, SkyBox/Horizons/Skylines Database by @simmergetic, Grunge Masterlist Project 2025 by @pixeldolly, and DW backup links (Everything that's exclusively on Tumblr/LJ should be backed somewhere else).

[pixeldolly]

Local jock tries to bully the nerd, but the nerd fights back.

This potentially sounds like the beginnings of an enemies-to-lovers story, but they genuinely dislike each other and have zero chemistry.

Alas.

[pixeldolly]

I think we can all follow this conversation. 🤣

[pixeldolly]

Mortimer has wisely vacated the premises.

[pixeldolly]

Since the version of Pleasantview I'm playing has Bella alive and well (but not married to Mortimer anymore, so they broke up at some point?), I got her to come over and reconnect with her family. Everyone seemed pretty happy to see her...

...well, almost everyone.

[pixeldolly]

Alexander: "Today I met someone new. It was awful."

[pixeldolly]

Mortimer living his best retirement life...or so he tells himself.

[pixeldolly]

[pixeldolly]

[pixeldolly]

It wasn't Dina they were fighting over (although I'm sure Mortimer wouldn't like to find out about her and Don) but rather Mort trying to defend his daughter's honour.

Unfortunately for him, Don is about 30 years younger...

[pixeldolly]

[pixeldolly]

The aftermath of the failed wedding