It's probably the whole "We'll give you exclusive access to the latest sources of information as long as you don't make the company look bad in any way shape or form." I can't even begin image how shady the contracts must be. >_>

Wonder how many times we'll see the words "tactile" and "expressive" in the next few days.

OK, I've tried to just keep my mouth shut on this topic, but she has spent hours and hours and hours over the past year on her site. Why the heck do you think she did it? Just because she was a "fan"?

And she never was much on posting any commentary to begin with, even when she posted new info she never said a whole lot about it herself. she just let everyone else comment. To top it off, most of the time she just posted stuff from elsewhere on the web, even if it was nice to have it all in one place. I always laugh my ass off when someone on the official forum posts about this wonderful new info on SimsVIP - which was taken from a Blog posts right there on the official forum!

Anyway, there is no doubt in my mind that she had a goal to become well known and popular in the Simming community. Getting invited to this event was just a payoff for all of her efforts, IMO. Don't really understand why anyone is actually surprised?

There's the new 'Awesome'.

Most of the people "special" enough to be included in this little mouseketeer club aren't really those who I get my info from anyways. They don't usually represent my style of play, and I don't care for youtube "celebrities". I much prefer those who take an unflinching look at things. If a feature doesn't work well, I like to know about it before hand. I don't need a bunch of "awesomes" to make my mind up.

"Tactile". They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

The only youtuber I like is phreakindee or something? who does those expansion/stuff pack reviews which are fairly spot on and entertaining. He doesn't always agree with EA so I wonder if he was invited.

Hey guys,

I can't help commenting cause as many know, I'm here in Cologne as well.

I want to say that I know exactly how you all feel and that I don't feel like I'm part of the YibSims clan at all. I was invited to the event as pay-off for my work at the AnswerHQ. I personally don't think I earned this anymore than any other simmer but I'm very happy to have been included (and I don't feel bad about that at all). Everyone has his/her place and you are all awesome anyways. Were would we even be without ModTheSims ? What boring life our sims would be doomed to live ? You're as much YibSims as anyone else.

I'm honestly a bit unsure what is expected of us. Some things are very clear, some are very unclear. Today is the first day here so I guess I have to wait and see.

I also admit that I don't know most of the sites that are here (well a lot of them speak languages I don't). I never watch the youtubers, I don't do Facebook. I do Twitter now but that was more to get a better way to let the gurus know of the bugs we see.

I will try to be objective and if this is the only and last event they will ever invite me to, so be it. It's of course hard to not get 'infected' with the enthusiasm some of these young ones have but I'll do my best.

Let me know what I can do that makes you feel represented. I'm all about bugs but I do think it's to early to focus on any of those just yet but I'll be sure to tell them, should I see any in the demos we get to play so I'm still totally unsure what my reports are going to look like.

(and I also think it's a bad idea to call the invited group YibSims, whoever might be included in that term - is it only the ones that were invited to the conference call or also the few builder and myself that were invited much later)

Need to get ready for breakfast and tour of Cologne now but I'll check back in. Promised.

They're thinking of including a memorial to Qxxn or whatever her name was in the game? Besides having never heard of her before her passing, it would honestly offend me. I've had many great friends that were prominent simmers that have passed over the years without much hooplah, and that just seems like a bit of a sellout. Plus, the things I've heard about her . . . no thanks.

I think that EA is just doing its usual gimmicky stuff. I remember in the days of TS2, people would get invited to various studios upon the release of EP's, but they were just called by the name of their site or channel. YibSims sounds utterly stupid in my accent, and I think that pulling a cutesy word out of one's posterior regions and cliquing up the community even more is just horrid. LGR should have gone, I agree, but again, he's not a vapid spit-back-the-mantra guy like the rest of 'em. There's a few people who are honest about how uncomfortable the event looks to be, but a lot of them are either really buying into their crap or faking it until they make it.

From the conference call I gathered that the few people that were called first to announce Sims 4 were the "YibSims" and it only seemed to be people that never have a negative view of EA or the problems in Sims 3.

I tend to agree more with the Lazy Game Reviewer, and he is more honest about the problems and crap that EA puts out now. Since he doesn't kiss ass he wasn't included in their group of "friends" that only kiss their ass.

Where would we be without crinrict's help blog? I must link people to that site 10 times a day.

I've never been there before.

crinrict, the link in your signature is unavailable?

Well I wasn't negating the actual attendees at all, anyway, they're gonna do some hard work writing stuff that most of us will enjoy reading. So Crinrict and BeyondSims etc don't feel attacked by my post please. My point was only about EA's decision to coin a special label, being a sort of explicit exclusivity that may well serve to make other fans feel alienated - and may even have a detrimental effect on the attendees themselves and their regard in the community.

Inge, were you invited?

Lol no I've never been invited. I'd not expect to be as I have a tiny site which till recently only had me as a creator. Also I don't cover community news, so I'd just take up a space without being any help to the community. One of my creators, Gurra, does regularly get invited to EA events in Sweden, and he does a Q&A for us after those.

It is just politics!

EA has wrapped up everyone and every site that has a voice louder than most to make sure they have control over positive promotion under their rules and to maintain complete control over what they let the community know. It is a clever and devious marketing ploy. And they named it ‘Yibsims’

Sites like SimsVIP who refused to post the latest magazine picture released just showed they are totally committed to EA and have gone to a lot of work to paint a false representation as a ‘community site’ when they are totally just kissing ass for self-gain. Personally I will not visit the site ever again because anything that is posted will be a twisted over indulgent slant for EA.

Quxxn – my best friend passed away who absolutely loved and breathed the Sims but her time was limited and every spare minute was gameplay – she could have ruled ‘Youtube’ but priorities outweighed the luxury to make ‘Let’s Play’ videos but she would have been dam good at them, she among many others, are just as important for their love of the game so is it really inappropriate to idolize one person over many others.

I have to say that if I posted EA pics on my site and EA themselves asked me to remove them I probably would, cos to me that is just respect for their rights to their photographs and anyway the authorised content will be published soon enough. I'd cringe if they called me a yibsim while they were asking me tho :giggle: (I had to correct my typo "yobsim")

Well I still use most of your mods for TS2 and I don't think you'd take up space at all. If anything you'd be a bigger asset to them in terms of gameplay/bugs etc than any of the others who just post 'news'.

I wonder if Twallan is invited...?

Inge Jones You know, half of all mods and fixes in my game are yours, so that means we at least share the same annoyances (BTW, thanks a lot for the sunbathing fix). I'd rather read your impressions, then some uberexcited You Tuber's, that gushes over store content and loves everything EA does.
I'm glad that crinrict is there, I wish you to have a good time and learn as much as possible!
I don't like this "yibsim" idea at all, they should've called it directly and honestly - a press conference for Sim News Fansites, that's what it is. If they wanted honest feedback they should've invited talented builders (world builders as well), meshers and modders, some seem to be included, maybe by incident? I'd also love to see Lazy Gamers in that camp, because that's pretty much the only You Tuber I tolerate and trust.

tbh I don't think this event is the right time for that type of feedback. This is more an expo and needs to be about positive publicity. The sites that have been invited are probably pretty much the right ones. Usually later on they have creator workshops, which is a room ful of creators actually at computers all day playing and working on the game. They take feedback from those people. This is the type of event a couple of modders might be good for. And they need to do it perhaps a little earlier than they did for TS3, because the negative feedback they received from those creators I think was part of the reason the game was delayed.

I wonder if Pescado was invited. XD

Aside from the concept of calling the fans you use to market your product "best friends"...

To me the word "yibsim" sounds like something sticky, something I would want to wash my hands after touching. Possibly it would stain. I would probably need some kind of solvent to get it off completely.

Crinrict is a most deserving invitee and the builders that have been invited as well. That one guy, I forget his name has been invited when Sims 3 came out and I have several of his builds in my game. Good job to them.

We have depended on Inge and Peter Jones forever for writing a program that allows us to make changes to the Sims games. I have always sing their praises on the forums. Pescado is still magnificent to me, I still crush on him but I don't think he would be invited, even though during Sims 2 the developers would get his advice on codes, I have read those exchanges at MATY. Where would my game and fun be without Twallan, Inge, Ani_, and the fabulous group at SimsAsylum? I shudder to think about it. I want to know when the modders would get any love at these events? I think they are the best ones to have been at Sims Camp. IMHO

And that's exactly why they won't be invited: they make EA look really, really bad.

So, when can we expect to have some reviews from these yibsims people?