Well, the Showcase has been purged; about 3,400 Sims remain. I stopped uploading in August because I didn’t know how the new Exchange was going to work in terms of what was already on the Showcase. The thought of changing 100+ links made me queasy, and then the prospect of re-uploading 100+ Sims was a bit panic-inducing when Maxis announced they were deleting all but the most popular Sims.
I’m happy to say most of my Sims survived. Eighteen of my Sims were deleted and I’ve removed the links to the now defunct download pages. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to re-upload all of the Sims that didn’t make it. I’ve recently read information on the game that indicated it would be possible to upload custom-content without the Sim attached, and if that is going to be possible then I’ll likely re-upload all of the content without the Sim.
I have one request to make of other Showcase users; if you’re planning to upload my Harry Potter skins to the Exchange, please wait a week or two so that I can upload them first. One of the features of the new Exchange is that it marks the original uploader of a piece of custom content, and labels the content as belonging to that person. I plan to upload all of my Harry Potter uniforms to the Exchange, every house in every gender and age group that I’ve made, and I would like for the Exchange to identify me as the creator, since I did make the skins. Once I’ve uploaded all of the uniforms, feel free to upload your own Sims wearing the clothes.
8/14/04
Nothing but male clothes this time around; I may be predisposed to making female clothing, but there's nothing wrong with evening things out every now and again.
New Total:
35 items in Clothing, Male,
17 new.
8/08/04
Finally got around to splitting the Clothing section; may soon need to make another page for female formals.
New Totals:
18 items in Clothing, Male,
2 new.
37 items in Clothing, Female,
6 new.
8/07/04
Long week; had finals for my summer courses and creating took a backseat. Just two new hair files today, tomorrow I'll upload new clothes and split up that section for easier loading.
New Totals:
17 items in Genetics,
2 new.
7/31/04
Lots of clothing this week. I've completed adult sets for the Harry Potter theme; currently, only the Gryffindor-esq outfits have been uploaded to the Showcase, the rest have been sent to TSR. Sometime in the next week I hope to re-upload some of my other Harry Potter-style clothes that have migrated to the Showcase from TSR; not that I mind them being posted, but if they're going to be available there I'd like to have links to them from here.
New Totals:
47 items in Clothing,
21 new.
10 items in Themes,
2 new.
7/24/04
Have hopped on the tutorial making bandwagon; a PSP 8 (though it'll work with version seven)
eyes tutorial involving layers. This week I made lots of teen girl's formals, and I've decided I may have an unhealthy fixation with the color blue. Not many male clothes this time, so I'll be making more of those for the next update; might decide to split Clothing section into Male/Female for easier browsing. Which brings us to:
26 items in Clothing,
11 new.
7/18/04
Links page updated, as well as more clothing, in multiple categories. Found the last of the teen girl's Hogwarts skins on the Showcase, so that along with the newly created teen boy's Gryffindor skin have been added to Themes. Skins for the other houses ought to be up in a week or so at TSR. New totals with updates:
15 items in Clothing,
9 new.
8 items in Themes,
1 new,
1 "newly claimed" on Showcase.
7/15/04
Updates all around, including another of my HP skins on the Themes page. Here's an updated total:
15 items in Genetics
6 items in Make-Up/Facial Hair
6 items in Clothing
6 items in Themes.
7/14/04, later
Found a few of my skins on the Showcase that I didn't upload; have added them to the Themes page, bringing that total up to
5.
07/14/04
Site opening. As of today there are:
14 items in Genetics
2 items in Make-Up/Facial Hair
0 items in Clothing
3 items in Themes.
About
Custom content creators are of many minds concerning the
Sims 2 Showcase. Some use it happily to share their work, some creators don't like it when others share their custom content without giving credit, and most all creators don't like it when someone uploads their custom content and steals credit for it. The Showcase also undermines pay-sites, who use their membership fees to pay the exorbitant bandwidth costs that are inevitable with such large files.
In my own not-so-humble opinion, the Showcase is like an outlet store, where everything's free but some folks shoplift anyway. Everything ends up there eventually, regardless of whether or not the creator likes it. Some content is beautifully done, and some content is not. Searching for specific items is cumbersome, and you can't download a lipstick without also downloading clothes, skin, and hair, and that isn't very convenient for dial-up users or for people who just wanted the lipstick. Assuming, of course, that the lipstick is even visible in the Showcase's preview.
Therefore, since whatever I create will end up there anyway and hosting Sims 2 content is expensive, this site is intended to function as a catalogue for my content. All actual files are hosted on the
Sims 2 Showcase, but here you can find better preview images, links to individual items so you don't have to download a 10 MB sim to get the 50 KB lipstick, and an organized look at what's available.
Remember that in order to download, you must be registered with EA.com.
