Simply playing video games off the shelf isn’t enough for some techno-tinkerers; they need to make the game better. Or, in the case of The Sims, make the characters naked.
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at those who spend their time creating downloadable, unauthorized skins for The Sims and other video games, boosting their ratings north of PG-13. And those enjoying this hobby aren’t 13-year-old boys with mixing Photoshop and hormones. There’s the 56-year-old grandmother in Denmark, the 53-year-old retired telecommunications engineer and the 30-year-old New York artist.
Electronics Arts, which owns and produces The Sims, is fine with additions from fans.
“We don’t host naked Sims on our own site, and we try not to link to that stuff. But we also try not to pass moral judgments upon our users,” says Caryl Shaw, manager of online services for Maxis, the EA unit that produces the Sims games. “I mean, they make some pretty cool stuff.”
Via Obscure Store
