Hi guys,
I've been reading through the past few pages here, reading the rules for the fifth time, and I have some questions, concerns and even some discussion starters. The following seems to be getting a lot of attention:
From dictionary.com:
friv·o·lous [friv-uh-luhs]
adjective
1. characterized by lack of seriousness or sense: frivolous conduct.
2. self-indulgently carefree; unconcerned about or lacking any serious purpose.
3. (of a person) given to trifling or undue levity: a frivolous, empty-headed person.
4. of little or no weight, worth, or importance; not worthy of serious notice: a frivolous suggestion.
An example of a frivolous post would be one that says only a couple of words that really don't mean much of anything. Like, "Great update!" or something similar. We just like for posts to have some real content for people who take the time to read them.
Reading this made me start thinking. "Great update!" to me is not frivolous. "LOL" is frivolous and useless. For somebody like myself who wants readers to check out my stories, I also want to hear what my readers think, what their opinions are. I have a couple hundred views on my stories in the little time that I have been here and I love coming and reading what everyone says about it, whether good or bad. "Great update!" could be seen on the same level as "Not happy where the story is going." when speaking about the term of frivolous. Both of them generate the same amount of discussion, yet both can make or break a thread. As a story creator, I want to hear what other members think of my stories, what they liked and didn't, but I believe this rule could actually scare off members from posting in threads for fear that it could be seen at frivolous.
I also have some questions about the no violence/keep it teen rating rule.
I understand this rule for many mods that can be found around the internet. There are gory mods, nude mods, mods that allow your sims to smoke. I also understand why we don't want that kind of stuff on this board. However, I do question why a death of a sim (choice of the player) is frowned down upon. Death is inevitable in The Sims and is just a part of life. I understand it to be unacceptable if you have a gory mod that makes the death a brutal show, but to have a sim die because I wanted it to happen, or for another sim to execute it, that's unacceptable even if it's not shown? I can't even talk about it in my text? I am sure I will get the response about how we need to keep it a teen rating, and I get that, but let's look at teen ratings. Tomb Raider where we shoot anything that moves, James Bond games where we use a sniper and if we die, blood pours down our screen. We could even go into children shows like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z where characters are killed and these shows are for children, not teens.
I have also seen the reply that if it's happens in the game without mods, it's okay, and the game doesn't allow the ability to kill a sim. I would like to remind everyone about testingCheats, a code that came with the game to give the player the ability to kill off their sims. A code the creators of The Sims not only left in the game (they could have removed it if they wanted to, especially since it's been in the game for two generations, maybe three. I haven't played sims 4), but also opened their mouth about it online and in the readme file. It's not something they were trying to keep hush hush. And even without testingCheats, we can still put a wall around the pool to keep the sims from exiting which results in death. It's been in all games, something the creators know about and don't do anything about. We still have the ability to make a wall around the pool without any issues how many years later.
Please understand that I think the mods and admins are doing a superb job at keeping this forum running smoothly, and I hope nobody sees this post of my questions and concerns rude or condescending. That is not my intention, and I am sorry that I can't type emotion. I know why rules are put it place and why we must follow them. I used to run a few forums myself before I got busy with work.
I would love to hear what the staff think and their reasonings.