Long Live User-Created Content!!

A friend of mine passed me on a copy of Sims 2, and I have been playing the hell out of it. Sort of. Actually, I haven't really "played" the game yet. Instead, I have been spending all my time trying to recreate the city and denizens of Townsville (of Powerpuff Girls fame). The Sims 2 supports user created content like little else I've seen. Almost everything is built right in, to make it super easy for Sims fans to re-skin sims to their hearts content. Sims 2 comes with a program called The Body Shop. In this shop, you can select any Sims models you currently have, select a specific body part, and then click a button to export the files to any folder you like. Then with a graphics editor (not included), you can alter the bitmaps, adding tattoos, changing skin color, eye color, adding pimples or scales or what have you. Finally, you go back to where your model is waiting in the body shop and click "refresh". Your Sim has now been updated, and you can now use them, or the parts you have created, in the game. But there's more! So you aren't content to just play with your new creation, you'd like to share it with the world! No problem...just click "package sim" in the body shop, and it packs it up all nice and neat for you and submits it to the Sims Exchange on the Sims 2 web-site. How easy is that? The building tools for creating buildings is also much more robust and easy to use than in the previous Sims, and these are also very simple to send to the Sims Exchange. Sims 2 has taken creating and sharing user created content to a new level of accessibility. Creating new skins is pretty straight-forward, and sharing them is a piece of cake. Everyone loves to share. Just see how many sites online you can find devoted to creating mods, models or skins for different first person shooters. What this does is create a rabid fan base that loves your product because not only do they get a game to play, they also get to unleash their creativity in a medium they love and then share their art with others. Not everyone loves user-created content, but they should... Take Marvel Enterprises. They are suing the creators of City of Heroes because players can create characters that look just like their famous super-heroes and villians. Oh yeah, and they can even have the same names. Furthermore, our friends at Marvel have apparently clamped down on people creating skins of their characters for The Sims and Freedom Force. (Don't tell them I saw a nice looking Spiderman on the Sims Exchange..) Now, if you're anything like me, you are probably asking yourself "How can they be so dumb?" They have a perfect opportunity to promote their licenses, and instead they decide to make their company look like a bunch of assholes. True, they cannot control what players do with their versions of Wolverine or the Hulk. But these characters have been around so long and have such a rich history behind them, that what are the real chances that a player doing something stupid with one of them would actually tarnish the license in the minds of other players? Players creating characters or skins based off Marvel licenses show that there are people out there who are fans enough of the license that they want these characters in their games. Why wouldn't you encourage your fan base, instead of stomp on it? Other companies are smart enough to know a good opportunity when they see one. One of the newest objects for Sims homes on the Sims Exchange is a spiffy looking yellow Alienware PC. "Yay! A new object for my Sims! My, that's a pretty cool looking machine...." Or how about "I, not being a hardcore gamer who reads computer magazines, have never really seen an Alienware PC. But my does that look spiffy." What a great way to advertise! Product placement will soon be everywhere in games, and companies are going to have to pay to have their products show up, digital style. Smart companies will get their products shown off in games for free, making full use of custom created content. Now back to my Mojo Jojo skin.