Kate answers:-

February 2008:

Furniture

This whole issue has become a pain in the backside to be honest - I received more than 2000 complaints about lack of Sims 1 updates in the last quarter of 2007 compared with just 8 positive responses for the 6 updates that were posted during that time. 3 of those comments were from a member of staff so in that respect I'm not overly pleased with the Sims 1 community, I feel its very poor repayment for the years of free updates you've had from me, in that respect the extent to which I feel a lot of you deserve more updates is extremely limited!

Currently I am attempting to finish off some projects which were already started in previous years but never finished. These you will get as and when I can find time but ONLY IF the level of complaints and griping stays at a reasonable level. What I personally consider to be a reasonable level is NONE. 

Why should I have to put up with people whining because they feel they are entitled to yet more free updates? Would you spend 60 hours a week of your free time working your butt off for a bunch of people who too often give you crap and then mostly can't be bothered to say thank you when they get what they want for FREE? Would you do that repeatedly over the course of years AND to PAY for the priviledge of giving those people your hard work? No I didn't think so.

One of the most irritating gripes that seems to come up time and time again, is from people who are sulkily complain that not everyone plays The Sims 2. I know this, I am not a moron, I run this website so I do monitor the site's traffic on a daily basis. I am perfectly well aware of how many people visit us for Sims 1 content, but with limited time and limited patience am I going to spend my precious free time making something for 65,000 people who complain, or am I going to make something for 300,000 people who will quietly download it without giving me a hard time when a full 5 seconds has elapsed between now and my last update? Aside from our special anniversary and Christmas events, Sims 1 players got more updates out of me last year than I made for Sims 2. I appreciate that there aren't many creators still making Sims 1 updates, but I don't see really why that is a justification for so many of you to beat up the few of us who are making new things? Its retarded and ultimately you are shooting yourselves in your collective feet because the more you give us hell the less likely we are to make anything at all. Its not rocket science now is it?

Obviously this is not addressed those of you who have made an effort to either keep your whinging to yourselves, or more magnaimously have decided to leave positive feedback - you are the sole and only reason why I have decided to finish up my started projects. Although I have around 40 projects which are at various stages of completion, most have been abandoned due to reasons of practicality, so those will never see the light of day - if you want more information on what is coming up in the future then please see the Furniture section news page as the set progress and expected release date will be given for all resurrected 'in-progress' projects. I will also be taking a break from April onwards to work on our anniversary update so there isn't likely to be any updates during that time regardless and no matter what happens it is deeply unlikely that there will be any updates at all after this year with Sims 3 being expected in early 2009.

Completely new sets can be requested by donors, as per our general donor policy, however I'm setting the minimum contribution at £150 to reflect the time each additional set requires. This doesn't have to be contributed by a single donor, at soon as that total has been reached by multiple contributors all requesting new Sims 1 material I'll make a new set, but the decision about the type and style of the set will be up to me. If you do decide to contribute the whole £150 or more yourself then you will get to suggest a broad style and type category, but the finer details will remain my decision and as with all donor requests the set will be published on the site for anyone to download since we do not make exclusive downloads.

To be 100% clear IF the level of complaints escallates to such a level again then I will cut back on my planned projects or cease altogether.

Clothing & Heads:

Our resident Sims 1 Skinner Selina is currently having some time off - I can't comment on her plans for the future so you'll just have to leave her a message if you want further information on her intended updates. I think its extremely unlikely that I'll be making any updates for the section myself although possibly there might be some special event items later in the year if everyone leaves me alone long enough that I can find the time to set up an anniversary event for Sims 1.

Walls & Floors:

I don't imagine anyone cares but the Wall & Floor section for Sims 1 is officially closed for new items. I added a 1000 new items late last year which included conversions of a lot of our most popular Sims 2 walls & floors. As far as I'm concerned there's masses of choice there at nearly 5000 items so if you can't find what you want either go look for it somewhere else or stop being so picky.