EA’s Jeff Brown Speaks Out!: Sex in TSO is impossible!
by Alphaville Herald on 24/03/04 at 12:07 am
Jeff Brown, infamous smack talker, cheetah deleter, midlife crisis poster boy, and EA’s Director of Corporate Communications has circulated a press release to a number of media outlets (including CNN and Tech TV). In it he argues that cybersex in TSO is impossible and that simoleans have no real world financial value (hence cyber-prostitution is impossible). Meanwhile, no doubt feeling embarrassed by flimsy justification for the termination of urizenus — linking to alphavilleherald.com — he has manufactured a new charge of player harassment (a howler if there ever was one given the pernicious nature of real player harassment in game ? see the preceding post — and the fact that the actual termination letter mentions nothing of the sort). All of which leads us to ask: is he really that clue impaired or is this a policy of feigned ignorance designed to minimize EA’s legal liability? His statement follows. Read. Enjoy!
My concern is that the story is predicated on a specious claim
by a pretend journalist. This is creating confusion about The Sims
Online. Professor Ludlow wants people to think that 1) he’s a
journalist; 2) he’s been censored; 3) people are having sex in a
T-rated computer game, and; 4) people are exchanging sex for money.
None of this is true.
First, if Professor Ludlow is a journalist then I’m a railroad tycoon
because I play Monopoly. The Sims Online is a computer game that
allows players to create a fantasy existence in an alternate universe.
Some players start restaurants, some become cowboys, some run
newspapers and radio stations. Most people understand that the job
they do in the computer game is a part of the fantasy.
Second, we received complaints from players about Professor Ludlow.
He has admitted to violating the terms of service by posting cheats
and links to commercial sites outside the game. As a result of these
violations and serious complaints from players who said Ludlow was
harassing them, we terminated his account. Ludlow has told several
reporters (real journalists, not pretend) that he was terminated
because of content in his fantasy newspaper. The truth is that
several people run fantasy newspapers and radio stations in the game.
We don’t monitor the content or filter the language in these outlets.
We don’t investigate player communication unless a complaint is filed.
The fact is this: Professor Ludlow was kicked out of the game for
harassing players and breaking the rules — not for something he wrote
in his fantasy newspaper.
(Ludlow also says the rules were applied selectively and that other
players commit similar offenses without getting kicked out. Here’s my
answer: In The Sims Online, the rules are applied as evenly as the
speed limit is enforced on most highways. Not everyone gets caught
but the ones who do, get tickets.)
On the subject of sex, there is none — it is impossible for game
characters to do anything more intimate than dance fully-clothed or
lie on a bed. Regardless of what players are typing to one another,
their game characters cannot get intimate. I’m not sure Professor
Ludlow understands this. He seems terribly concerned that characters
are having sex — when they’re not. This makes Professor Ludow’s free
speech claim all the more puzzling; is he protecting his First
Amendment right to admonish people who talk about sex?
Professor Ludlow also seems obsessed with prostitution. Two problems
here: no one is having sex and there is nothing of value being
exchanged. In The Sims Online, players earn and spend Simoleans
which, like Monopoly money, have no real world value.
While I’m not interested in participating in an interview, I’ve got a
couple of questions that you might ask Professor Ludlow:
*Has he ever actually seen sex in the game?
*Can he describe any activity by in-game characters that he
considers sexual?
*Game screens always have a button that players can click to
alert us harassment or language that is vulgar or racist. Hasn’t
Ludlow seen that?
*Is he aware that players can activate filters which screen out
dirty words?
*Is he aware that players can block people they don’t like from
entering their space in the game?
Jeff Brown
Vice President,
Corporate Communications
Electronic Arts
650.628.7922
Don Hopkins
Mar 24th, 2004
You can find the answer the question of whether Maxis intended the “Vibromatic” bed interactions to represent having sex, by reading the notes to the translators in the object descriptions, in the following file, at the following offset:
C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims Online\TSOClient\objectdata\objects\objiff.far
Offset 453714:
Notes: Vibromatic refers to the vibration that the bed makes and has a sleazy feel to it since it is a sex bed.
“Our vibrating heart bed was so popular with honeymoon motels, we decided to sell them to the public,” says creator Sadie S. Factor. “The vibration engine is Swedish of course, but we have done a lot of testing with a pair of 300 pound dummies to strengthen the springs, reinforce the stitching and ensure smooth motion to the ocean.” Bed comes complete with purple silk sheets and pillow ensemble.
Notes: Motion to the Ocean is an American expression referring to sex.
RB
Mar 24th, 2004
You f’ing moron Jeff. LOL.
“The truth is that several people run fantasy newspapers and radio stations in the game.”
The truth is that none of them plaster EA in such a bad way that they require action. =D
“We don’t monitor the content or filter the language in these outlets.”
Oh you do im sure. No doubt have undercover spys on TSOE too.
“Professor Ludlow was kicked out of the game for
harassing players”
Like all the scammers and griefers that still exist today eh? and abound. Hypocrit
“Regardless of what players are typing to one another, their game characters cannot get intimate.”
You’ve obviously not seen screen shots of how creative people have been. Bugs make things especially fun.
“players earn and spend Simoleans which, like Monopoly money, have no real world value.”
AH-HUH! I knew there was a secret conspiracy by EA to make TSO emit mind altering super duper hypnoclasmictransfunctionmorphbending rays from our computers to make us see things that did not exist.
Simolean selling: Delusional.
Object selling: over active imagination.
People using PayPal to buy stuff with real dollars: Hallucinations.
Real world value of anything TSO related: Just a bad dream.
“While I’m not interested in participating in an interview”
While i don’t want to incriminate myself or the motherland i mean EA HQ.
“*Is he aware that players can activate filters which screen out dirty words?”
And selective politics and senstive words.
Thanks again for the amusement Jeff.
cheers to ya mate.
R.B
Head Comedian,
Playerbase Amusment Department
Electronic Arts
650.628.7922
humdog
Mar 24th, 2004
a person like jeff brown, with a nice corporate title like he has really ought to be more aware of what’s going on relative to the internet. brown says that “players earn and spend Simoleans which, like Monopoly money, have no real world value.” he seems therefore to be unaware that there is, for example, a place on the internet called ebay. on ebay, simoleans definitely have “real world value”. on ebay right now there is a pack of 20 lots of 2.5 million simoleans being offered for $145USD per lot of 2.5 simoleans (item #308502215). more usually, simoleans trade on ebay at around 40-50USD per million for alphaville simoleans. 40-50USD per million simoleans sounds like “real world value” to me. my suggestion to mr. brown relative to “real world value” is that he go to http://www.ebay.com and put the words “alphaville sims” into the search field box. when he sees the results he will no doubt feel like columbus when he crashed into the new world. there is a lively “real world” trade in tso objects and money.
mr brown’s claim that there is no sex on tso
is as absurd as his sideways libel of professor ludlow’s character and intellect is vicious.
my suggestion is that dr ludlow opened a big can of worms when he asked about under-age players posing as prostitutes and madames and that EA fears the legal and image exposure that questions of this sort might create. my suggestion is that some corporate moron at EA panicked,and thought that ludlow was a player who would go quietly into the night if they terminated his account. my suggestion about corporate morons is not entirely without merit:
after all, EA hired mr. brown.
humdog
Mar 24th, 2004
sentence should read “…per lot of 2.5 million simoleans…”
need coffee.
TBT
Mar 24th, 2004
jeff Brown is a perfect example of the total ignoirance that EA has for the game they own and operate, TSO. With a “Vice President of Corporate Communications” that’s as clueless as rthis guy its no wonder the whole place has a mahor communication breakdown.. Hey dude may i ask what your pc knowledge realy is? Cybersex doesn’t exist because animations don’t exist in the game for it? Look up the definition idiot cybersex isn’t enacted thriough computer generated cartoon animations but therough the chat…Simolean sellers don’t exist and tso items hold no value? Well my current paypal account at nearly 6digits begs to differ..
IT’S NO wonder why chesating scaming hacking 2rd party botting etc is so rampant in TSO it’s beacuse of the major comunicztion breakdown, they’re clueless. Heck it tookm them well over a year to impement what they called a fiz for mazers.. Totally disabling an aspect of their game when a couple simple code implimentations was all that was needeed and that could have been left in the game. They DON’T really care, they’re lazy, they’re clueles and totally blind as to what REALLY goes on in their game.
It’s no wonder TSO has been dying since the day they opened the doors
with idiots like this working there…
TBT
Enemy #1
Cheat, Hack, 3rd Party Programs Abuser and Consultant
and according to Jeff Brown I’m a NON-Existant cheater or threat so TSO is my realm to wreak havoc ANY was that I see fit because I really DON’T exist according to him..
MWAHAHA
RB
Mar 24th, 2004
Just for a bit of fun in this thread can we all make our own versions of the below as i have done? =)
Jeff Brown
Vice President,
Corporate Communications
Electronic Arts
650.628.7922
Change Each line except the last 2 to your own made up info. =) TBT you gave it a good try =D
*looks at watch* , Not long til Coco comes. =)
- RB
Cocoanut
Mar 24th, 2004
Here I am, RB! Right behind YOU. You, who seem to think you have some sort of Uri-given right to post on any topic here and I don’t.
“Mid-life crisis poster boy” – where did that come from, Uri? Do you know something we don’t? Or is it just another catchy-sounding phrase you decided to throw in?
For “real” sex content of the kind which Jeff Brown is referring to – as opposed to what goes on in TSO – check out Rose or Sociolotron.
I’m glad Jeff Brown brought up the puzzling position of Uri against cybersex, underage players and the like, when Uri considers the game to be a big free-for-all with no rules whatsoever, and when he is a supposed champion of free speech. I was mulling over that contradiction just yesterday.
My major disagreement with Jeff Brown would be in the contention that Simoleons have no real world value. A glance at e-bay will tell you otherwise. However, I will concede that that is a step removed from prostitution which would involve exchange of actual currency for services – as might happen, for instance, on a pay-per-view web cam site.
coco
urizenus
Mar 24th, 2004
On RB’s cue, Coco comes to the defense of EA: “I’m glad Jeff Brown brought up the puzzling position of Uri against cybersex, underage players and the like, when Uri considers the game to be a big free-for-all with no rules whatsoever, and when he is a supposed champion of free speech. I was mulling over that contradiction just yesterday.”
When did I ever argue against cybersex or even cyberbrothels? The AVH published an article by J, saying that the ESRB rating system was not apt, but another essay in the AVH by The went on about how great cyberbrothels are. The AVH itself has no editorial policy against or for cybersex, cyber-prostitution, etc. It is just an undeniable fact that it exists, it is a big big part of this game, and we are reporting on it. Where is the “contradiction” in that?
Furthermore, it has never been my position that there are no rules in this game. My position has been that the players make the rules and not EA with Coco as its Pontiff.
Cocoanut
Mar 24th, 2004
I’m not RB’s lapdog. He is, however, yours.
coco
JC Soprano
Mar 24th, 2004
EA does this shit all the time. Real Sims Online, my website even. You link to any third party website that EA does not like and that they feel promotes activity in-game deemed undesirable they will ban you. My website offered prostitution on it and I received a letter back in February that as a rtesult if I linked to my website I would be banned. I can’t even say our wbesite address in common chat.
My point being, Uri and ESPECIALLY EA would like you to think he is the first one to shed light on this, but in fact he is not. Press articles date back to December of 2002 with me and others on the issue of sex in the game.
As for simoleans having no real value, I finally started selling off our ‘blood money’ on e-bay.. Let me tell you this, shit is worth money lol. In fact, if I knew Simoleans were worth so much I would have been selling them a long ass time ago.. I just did an interview in fact like less than a month ago on the Sims economy and how it does in fact turn to real life money.
This has turned to such a hot topic that a documentary crew with hollywood backing will be filming a movie on my group and 4 other groups (non-TSO) later this spring/summer. (Finally got the ok to speak publically about it)
Gotta love EA. Uri, let’s keep lighting a fire under EA’s ass… Maybe they will fart and catch themselves on fire. LOLOLOL
JC Soprano
http://www.thesimmafia.com
Ian
Mar 24th, 2004
Well TBT, you are right, like you said on “the forums” *wink*…you are only a figment of our imagination
urizenus
Mar 24th, 2004
Coco: “I’m not RB’s lapdog”
Well obiously. You are EA’s lapdog.
JC: “Uri and ESPECIALLY EA would like you to think he is the first one to shed light on this, but in fact he is not.”
I’ve never claimed that I broke story of cybersex or cyberprostitution in TSO, and indeed I have posted links on this site to the earlier media stories that broke months before I was even in the game. If you look at the original Evangeline interviews, the cyber-brothel business was just something that came up along the way — the real focus of those interviews was the history of the dispute between the Merrill’s and the Sims Sorority House and ultimately the SSG. I agree, however, that EA wants to paint this as my invention, but yah, all this was in the national press months before I created my first avatar.
TBT
Mar 24th, 2004
FYI I came in and reported the exact same as coco, but I WAS obviously censored by the site and my post deleted bwah!
RB
Mar 24th, 2004
“You, who seem to think you have some sort of Uri-given right to post on any topic here and I don’t. ”
Not at all Coco =)
I just know whenever a controversal, contentious or hot topic comes along you are not far behind. lol. =D
R.B
Chief Smart Guy,
Clue & Logic Department
Electronic Arts
650.628.7922
Cocoanut
Mar 24th, 2004
And are you not there as well, RB? Is there some difference with you posting on threads (usually before I do), and me posting on them?
Uri, if you think I’m EA’s lapdog, you must not read the Stratics board very often.
coco
humdog
Mar 24th, 2004
i do read the stratics board, coco.
i read the stratics board and i am developing a feeling that maybe you work for ea.
often large corporations when they permit the development & introduction of “community” type utilities or applications will often either hire consultants and/or companies that specialize in creating and maintaining/moderating content and moving conversation along certain directions or threads. they do this to extract information from users and also to build product awareness and product knowledge bases for later harvest. there is a whole industry dedicated to the development of the social interaction commodity, and most online consumers never see or hear anything about it.
you consistently try to move conversation in directions that praise the necessity for structure and the virtue of controlled interaction and lessened player autonomy. you bang that drum a lot, with magnificent inflexibility. it’s like one of those call center scripts almost.
Cocoanut
Mar 24th, 2004
Your paranoia never ceases to amaze me.
coco
Scrambled1
Mar 24th, 2004
Woooow… Let me have the mic…
I quote “While I’m not interested in participating in an interview, I’ve got a
couple of questions that you might ask Professor Ludlow:
*Has he ever actually seen sex in the game?
*Can he describe any activity by in-game characters that he
considers sexual?
*Game screens always have a button that players can click to
alert us harassment or language that is vulgar or racist. Hasn’t
Ludlow seen that?
*Is he aware that players can activate filters which screen out
dirty words?
*Is he aware that players can block people they don’t like from
entering their space in the game?” And I end quote…
Mabe he hasnt… But Sadly, I have.
“*Has he ever actually seen sex in the game? ”
I have Yes.
“*Can he describe any activity by in-game characters that he
considers sexual?”
Okay, Here goes! At a house, I saw a man on a toilet relieving his bladder, thats what I thaught, but what disturbed me as i went to use one near by, I saw a woman sim doing the “Vomit” interaction while faceing him… Appearing to be giving Oral Sex… and to top it off… they were cybering outside in plain text.
“*Game screens always have a button that players can click to
alert us harassment or language that is vulgar or racist. Hasn’t
Ludlow seen that?”
I have, But you know what, I keep getting these messages from you and your cronies saying that “we are sorry, but we could not find any evidince of your complaint. Next time please try to inform us as fast as you can” blah blah BULL CRAP! For you and your pals Jeff… I report AS I SEE! so its not my fault your company doesnt give a flying quack about this game!
“*Is he aware that players can activate filters which screen out
dirty words?”
Yes, I have, but For your information Jeff… It really doesnt help when you here miss backdoor saying “I want u to kum all over my puzzy” (sorry for that any children in here!)
“*Is he aware that players can block people they don’t like from
entering their space in the game?”
Oh my, Since when did we have that feature?… That musta been left out there Jeff.. I never knew were had Bubbles around us!? Im sorry, But I really havent heard about that!
Oh yeah, Jeff.. I would like you to look at this, and everyone else…
cybersex:
Noun
Sexual activity or arousal through communication by computer.
Definition provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright information here.
Pay attention to that part there that says COMMUNICATION
communication:
Noun
1. The act of communicating; transmission. 2. a. The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. b. Interpersonal rapport. 3. communications(used with a sing. or pl. verb) a. The art and technique of using words effectively to impart information or ideas. b. The field of study concerned with the transmission of information by various means, such as print or broadcasting. c. Any of various professions involved with the transmission of information, such as advertising, broadcasting, or journalism. 4. Something communicated; a message
Definition provided by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Other important copyright information here.
The exchange of THAUGHTS or MESSAGES
Something communicated; a MESSAGE
Please.. Tell me what you dont get about this Jeff?
Scrambled1
TSOE Forum Mod, Bot User, X-Player, Your worst Nightmare
Non-Existant at Nowhere
666-000-0911
nick
Mar 25th, 2004
u guys take the game to serious. get a life
Banshee
Mar 25th, 2004
Oh this is rich, isn’t it?
No sex in the game? Oh come on! Yes there are no *GRAPHICAL* depictions of sex, but there is cybersex a plenty, and some of it for sale. And yes there are love beds designed with that purpose, as Don points out. And let’s not forget about the love tubs, either. Just because it isn’t graphical sex a la sociolotron doesn’t mean it isn’t sex, it is simply cybersex, and yes it happens in the game quite a bit and yes the love beds and love tubs provided by maxis and the hot kissing interaction certainly do not *discourage* it. Mr. Brown is dead wrong here.
It’s also laughable to state that simoleons have no real value. Huh? People are making 100k a year selling them outside of your game, Mr. Brown. That sounds like value to me!
It’s funny because I think that there really isn’t anything illegal or prostitutionlike really about paying someone monety for cybersex, because cybersex isn’t sex under the prostitution laws, so Mr. Brown should have simply said something like that, which covers EA’s ass legally. But that doesn’t sound so nice, because it does admit that something like cybersexprostitution is happening in the game, and he just doesn’t want to go there.
In any case, I honestly doubt whether EA gives a darn about this game any longer. Sure, they care about “The Sims” brand name, and to the extent they think anything negative about this game would negatively impact the next installment of the offline Sims (which is where they make their own real world simoleans, let’s remember), they will fight it … but only for that reason. After TS2 comes along, this game is going to go the way of Earth and Beyond. Does anyone really seriously think otherwise?
B
yes?
Mar 25th, 2004
i agree with nick…if you write more than a paragraph of a response of this article, get a life lol
because atleast 10 people’s responses are saying the same thing
Nick O' Teen
Mar 25th, 2004
…I’d put something but I dont know where to start O.O
Scrambled1
Mar 25th, 2004
Well bud I gotta life.. im not the one sitting in my computer saying “get a life.” when YOUR sitting there doing the SAME thing!
I typed that because I can and I felt like it
Look.. X-Player… meaning I quit
Dont worry, I have a life, you should check up on yours tho, its in need of a review…
Scrambled1
Mar 25th, 2004
Oh yeah, if you look at that, and take out the questions that I copied and pasted into my comment, and take away the Def’s that I copied and pasted from the sites… then you would have a few sentences
Isabella
Mar 25th, 2004
u guys take the game to serious. get a life
Posted by nick at March 25, 2004 07:59 AM