Hi All,

I've spoken with TSR regarding this matter, and they informed me that they had a security breach about 3 months ago that may have left subscriber accounts vulnerable. If this information is indeed correct, it's possible that a third party could have logged into both buggybooz and Thomas accounts.

It's also entirely possible that other accounts have been compromised, which is why it's strongly advised to change your passwords anywhere where they are the same as at TSR. While the initial evidence indeed pointed to a TSR-owned account on MTS2 being used to initiate this attack, no actual hacking was done on MTS2 itself. The information supplied by TSR is worth thinking about, and indeed, I will be the first to admit that - at the time - I was annoyed about the whole thing and thought that this was a new low.

When this attack happened, my first concern was for how it happened, and then for restoring any damage done to buggys account. I worked with her for hours today in chat, as I mentioned in my first post, and we went through and restored everything. It was only after this was done that I decided to post up up this thread.

At the time, we believed that, given the evidence at hand, this was either a (very stupid) TSR sanctioned move, or one by a TSR staff member with access to the accounts. Given the lack of evidence to point elsewhere, I felt that, as this was a seemingly direct attack on a creator on *my* website, to get as much information out publically as possible. It is, however, with this new information about a possible security exploit, not 100% clear that, indeed, this was TSRs doing. Obviously neither I nor anybody else here knew about the alleged vulnerability, and the information to hand strongly pointed to a direct link.

I am willing to consider the possibily that this was not TSR sanctioned, but this raises other questions, particularly about the timing of the attacks and access to information that I simply don't have answers for right now. The evidence itself, however, remains unchanged. The IP addresses and screenshots are only edited to blur out any other users details and contain the real information as gotten from the MTS2 backend - and the validity of which is not disputed in any way by TSR. Regardless of the evidence at hand, there any many more questions that need addressing, and precious few answers right now.

The issue of the stolen content is still one that I, personally, would like to get cleared up and from comparing the downloads, there is some issue about the source textures, UV mapping and mesh for the Featured Artist to answer. I hope that TSR investigate this as an urgent matter.

For now, though, lets assume that this may not have been, indeed, a TSR sanctioned move - and I think we all agree that this would be a particularly stupid thing to do. I have to wonder as to the motivations and reasoning behind this apparent attack. What would somebody have to gain by deleting only a specific creators uploads, especially since any and all details would eventually come out publically? This entire thing has left a bad taste in my mouth, and while I don't like the idea of paysites, I also don't like the possibility of my being used and looking stupid.

Regards,
Delphy

TSR needs to die, it is by far THE world's worst, greediest, most selfish, disgusting, repulsive, crude and prude paysite.

I can't understand boycotting TSR when at this stage, we know very little. Also, are we to forego our much desired copy of The Sims 3 simply because of EA's proximity with this paysite? My initial sense of justice wanted to say yes, but I fear that would have been me jumping the gun - possibly even trying to appear self-righteous or hopping on the latest hate bandwagon.

Many people on various forums are taking their stand by refusing to purchase a copy of The Sims 3. On a basic level, this is supposed to be a way of putting a flea in EA's ear. Fair enough, we want their input. If there was reason for me to believe that purchasing the game had a DIRECT relationship with any illegal behaviour, then I might have reconsidered. But as far as I can see, if TSR has been underhanded, they will be feeling the heat wether I purchase the game or not
I understand this has more to do with EA's complete inability to respond sensically to the situation. Their silence has been somewhat enraging, but we aren't making this easy for them. Littering the forums with hate and anger is causing them to get out their pointed sticks, pick up any thread surrounding the topic, and promptly pop them into the rubbish sacks on the back of their scooters.

In any case, I applaud the work of the game designers and still consider the creative proporties of this game to be fair reason for forking out my money.
Mocking the hard work that has gone into this game by refusing to buy it seems harsh.
Taking a stand against alleged illegal activities of ANY website, does not.

I have also heard others pick up their pitch-forks and flaming torches against EA simply because of the modding difficulties faced with the Sims 3.
The game isn't out yet. Are we so sure that modders won't find a way? Everyone has thrown out the towel here, and it truely is beyond me. I am fully FOR the amazing modders and creative simmers involved in this debate. But I would like hard evidence that the game is hard-coded or impossible to manipulate before I take such a forceful stand against EA.

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Proof-reading my post, it just dawned on me how little we actually know about the situation. I suppose this is a little silly considering I was the one who posted the thread, but perhaps it is to early to pass complete-and-final-judgement. My first post didn't even give room for the possibility that it may not have been some evil-mastermided-plot. I still feel that is was an inside job, and I still feel the need to avoid TSR until more facts come to light but, seeing as all are supposidly 'innocent until proven guilty', there is reasonable doubt. And if that's enough to hold off the death penalty then it should be enough to hold off my (personal) final judgement on the activities of a website... At least for a little while.

I've read about this, but I don't fully understand. Please forgive me for sounding dumb, and please don't yell at me as I know it's a heated topic, but I'm not really seeing why people want to boycott EA itself and The Sims 3 just because a Sims fansite would do something like this. Don't get me wrong, if they did do this and it wasn't just a security breach or whatever, then it's awful of them, but EA has no control over what a fansite is doing. I don't see how EA and especially Sims 3 are to blame. Again, please don't yell at me, I just don't fully see it.

Ok, this is sort of off topic, but sort of not. I was just on the BBS and Maxoid um, I think it was Hydra locked a thread just like this about what TSR is doing, but in her explanation, she said it was off topic discussion, but also said that the people at the Creator's Camp were told and have made public that EA plans to release custom content tools. Did people from the Creator's Camp say that? I don't remember them making anything like that public. The only think they mentioned was a possible neighborhood creator after the release, but she specifically said custom content tools as if they were for creating objects and things, not just a neighborhood.

...and people wonder why nobody likes TSR.

Umm, okay..I have been playing sims since I was a little girl but..whats TSR? who's buggy? I dont get it