Thou that does not believe…

The conference was for developers. Facebook has a large developer base. Some of the successful developers were at the conference sessions answering questions and giving advice. These successful Facebook developers were singing Facebook’s praises. I wondered if anyone else noticed the problem or conflict of interest in his or her words.

For example, one of the features announced by Facebook was the “like” button outside of Facebook. Users can “like” an article and it shows up in their stream to share with their friends. Sharing is the underlying message – share everything! Of course Facebook wants their users to share items and put them back on Facebook so they can monetize the data and keep more people in Facebook. If a person has enough friends sharing relevant information, the need to leave Facebook and read Twitter (or use another method of reading interesting articles) diminishes.

The more people using Facebook, the higher the odds some of them will use their application. Obviously, Facebook developers want whatever helps bring people in Facebook and spend more time there. What are the odds that a new developer can have the success that the top developers on Facebook has?

Not much…one developer almost slipped up and said so.

Different playing field, different rules…

Facebook has changed a lot since these developers started out. New developers do not have the same advantages and chances to go viral as developers once had. It was pitiful to hear their questions. They wanted access to 400 million users Facebook has and they did not care how they got their access. Spam users? Sure, if it helps their application goes viral. Get user data? Absolutely, and do what is necessary to monetize it, whether the user would like it or not. I could hear the pure desperation and frustration in their voices. Maybe because I heard it before:

I knew that i wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. Like I needed revenues now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…So control your destiny. So that was a big lesson, controlling your business. So by the time we raised money we were profitable.

It was pointed out, by the successful developers, that it was not necessary to be on the top charts to have a successful applications. Many applications did well being in the top 50 or 100 applications. It was also said many applications did well with 100,000 users. At the time of this writing, these are the top 10 applications:

1. Farmville – Zynga
2. Birthday Cards – RockYou!
3. Texas HoldEm Poker – Zynga
4. Café World – Zynga
5. Causes – Causes
6. Mafia Wars – Zynga
7. Treasure Isle – Zynga
8. PetVille – Zynga
9. Happy Aquarium – CrowdStar
10. Mobile – Facebook

Farmville has more than 80 million users. Petville has 21 million users. Facebook’s mobile application has 20 million users. Going to the top 25 applications, number 25 is CountryLife with nine million users. Facebook lists the top 200 applications. As of today, to make the list the application would have about 871,000 users (I rounded up to the nearest thousand). For the applications recommended to me, the one with the lowest number of users was 428,000.

Most applications will never see that many users.

Reality…in the numbers

Facebook obviously wants developers to make applications for users. Is it possible for a new application to have the level of success Zynga or the top 20 people have? Sure, but think about it. Unless their growth stops or plateaus, Zynga has 80M users right now on one application. By the time a new developer makes an application worthy enough to compete, Zynga will have 100M on Facebook alone. They are already expanding outside of Facebook and I would not be surprised if they were developing more applications for Facebook. They said they had 1000 employees. How can a developer compete with that? By the time a new developer is ready to compete, Zynga could easily dominate the top 10 (by dominate I mean only their applications show up). Let’s not forget that Zynga, allegedly, is not playing fair. They are making applications for the iPhone and the same scams are surfacing there by them.

I hope developers look at things realistically. When it comes to development:

• Facebook – Huge user base but the odd of getting on the top of the charts is slim. To succeed, their plan has to focus on getting Zynga off – even if they aren’t developing games.
• Apple – The iPhone/iPad/iPod market has a decent user base (nothing compared to Facebook) but they have a worse hurdle. The developer could invest in developing an application and it is refused. Or worse, Apple changes the rules of the game later on. Something Facebook has done as well.
• Android – A new marketing with a growing number of users but not nearly as much money to be made now. However, that is the case with all new platforms. The first ones that stick it out tend to usually do better but they have to stay on their game as the developers from other platforms port their applications over.

An interesting perspective: I wonder how many users applications bring to the platform? For example, I just (and I do mean “just”) created a Farmville account. I’m level 3. I could not play without logging in Facebook. I could not play, even though I have an account, without being logged in. I made the mistake of logging out of Facebook (since I was on Farmville.com) and it killed my Farmville game. If I want to play with my friends, I have to make a Facebook account (at this time). They would probably have tripled the amount of users if they were not dependent on Facebook logins. Since it is going by email addresses anyway, and now developers have access to email addresses within Facebook, I wonder if Farmville will become a standalone web game. In addition, the odds are extremely high I am going to kill the Farmville application. The ONLY reason I installed it was because I needed to research the application and I hardly ever use my Facebook account.

There are tons of places for developers to create applications, for example, Twitter. Exciting and challenging times for developers. Every platform has pros and cons but now more than ever, picking the right platform is crucial. So is diversifying if possible and not believing the hype.

1. He/she is new to the internet. He/she does not know…
2. He/she is new to social media/social networking. He/she does not know…
3. He/she is not a geek. He/she does not know…

The excuse comes different ways but the root belief is the same: the person does not have the knowledge. Being new to the internet is a valid excuse because it is new to them. However, why isn’t the person taking the time to learn and not repeat their mistakes (or preventing themselves from making similar mistakes)? We were all new to the internet at one time. As time goes on the “new to the internet” excuse will only apply to kids as children are using the internet at a very young age and taught how to use the internet in school.

That leaves the second two points and I found that the mistakes these people tend to make fall into the categories of:

• Do you have common sense?
• Did you think AT ALL before you did what you did?
• Do you understand the long-term effects of what you do?

And the answer is: No!!! There is no valid excuse for an adult to do that.

Let’s look at an example….

Aimee Mann made the following comment on Twitter. She has, at the time of this writing, over 9,000 followers.

I understand not liking an actor/actress. Or being mad at a company, a boss, a friend, a spouse…displeasure is a part of life. However, there is a trend to make comments about someone as if the person cannot find out things said about them and who said it. What if they find out about it, then what? That is exactly what happened in Aimee’s case. Ice T found out what she said…and responded.

Can you guess what happened next? Yes, that is right. She found out about his response (read from the bottom up).

Aimee’s account is over a year old. The “She is new, she does not know” excuse does not apply to her. The reason this happened: not properly thinking through how Ice T would take her words if he found out about them, or even thinking that he could find out what she said. Another point she did not consider: what if some of her followers are Ice T fans? How would they take her remarks?

With thousands of followers, how can you forget it is a public real-time site? If you look at her Twitter stream, she responds and interacts with people. She knows it is public. Let’s be real and say what really happened. She was ragging and did not expect Ice T to find out what she said. When he did, and responded, she panicked.

Here is a better solution: instead of “ragging on TV stars” how about discussing the issues in the form of constructive criticism? If you train yourself to do this now it will become natural to you, saving you embarrassment in the end. It is a trait that will help you as you with your social interactions because you will begin mastering one of the traits most people using social networks do not have: how to handle yourself in social situations.

Think of the future…

The Library of Congress and Google will be storing tweets online. That means what you say publicly will be around long after you’re dead. The time is coming where people will be more aware, almost instantly, of things said about them.

And will find out you said it.

Let’s look at another example: Let’s say you make a smart remark about someone publicly. Perhaps how they talk, look, etc. They find out what you said, but do not say anything. Six months later, you attend a meet up and that person is there. Guaranteed he/she will remember what you said and still might not say anything to you. If this is a person in a professional setting, it is a strike against you. I have seen people say snarky things, attempting humor, about people in their industry – developers of the apps they use, creators of the software they use, owners of the companies they buy products from.

Stop being lazy…okay, I really mean annoying…

Yesterday I stopped using Sobees as my desktop Twitter application because it was acting sluggish. I went back to TweetDeck, which does not have persistent filters like Sobees does. For the first time in weeks, I was able to see all the stuff I blocked out using Sobees and how filters made my Twitter stream more relevant to what interested me. Here are a couple of examples of common sense “why do you do this” stuff that is really laziness or not thinking about the long-term effects of what the person was saying.

Google is your friend – It is an internet standard, search first, then ask. It is common courtesy to your followers to ask their help when you really need it, not when you are too lazy to look it up yourself. When people respond telling you to use a search engine that means they are informing you of your mistake. Listen and do not repeat it. If you think about it a minute, it really shows their mode of thinking, dependency, laziness…they have the tools to find the information but want someone else to do the job for them. I only ask questions when I cannot find the answer myself and that makes more people willing to help me (even strangers) because my reputation is not to take advantage.

Location-based services are great and there are games created within the service to make checking in (giving detailed information about yourself without you realizing it) more fun. Remember, the check-ins go into a government archive (and who knows what networks other entities will archive). When Google released Google Buzz, many people unsubscribed from those that merged their tweets with Buzz because the extra entries from Twitter created too much noise. What would make location-based check-ins any different? It is extra noise especially when many people are doing it. What value do check-ins have to your users? That extra noise limits your growth on the social site.

So many lessons to learn…

Think of social media or social networking as mingling in a party. It is a form of public interaction except it is real-time instant communication, stored some place by potentially anyone, forever. The tools we use change over time to adapt to current trends and innovations. It is your job to adapt with it. Use common sense, think about that you are doing and how your actions affect you six months from now or the people you are interacting with.

Adopting better habits now will really help you in the end. It is getting to the point that everything you say and everything you do online will have some sort of repercussions. Someone will like it or someone will hate it. Employers or potential mates can look back in time to judge maturity levels, the ability to handle responsibility, level of growth professionally, and personally, the ability to make sound business and financial decisions – this all being revealed online.

And it is about time everyone took responsibility for their actions. Stop making excuses.

1. People use Twitter all over the world. I wonder if other countries will have access to the archive? If not, they should start archiving now if this type of data interests them.
2. How will people feel about the government archiving their tweets? I don’t have a problem with it but I don’t put anything online that I wouldn’t mind being put on the front page of the New York Times.
3. People give away more about themselves than they realize. It’s time for adults to grow up and learn how what they say today might come back and haunt them tomorrow.

What are they going to do?

They launched Promoted Tweets on their Twitter search pages!

I know, the excitement is too much to handle! Go get a cup of coffee/tea, take a deep breath and try to control your trembling with joy! You will be seeing ads from companies like Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Star Bucks, Best Buy and Virgin America. Don’t scream with delight if you’re at work. You do not want people looking at you funny.

You do not use Twitter search? Don’t worry, eventually Promoted Tweets will appear within Twitter clients and other Twitter based sites. Yes, that’s right! Eventually, you will see Promoted Tweets in your timeline “in a way that is useful to you”!

Q: Is this what you said we would love and would be awesome?
A: While we are excited about the platform in general, there are several specific aspects of the launch that we are delighted to highlight. Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is not a single “ad” in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn’t already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. Promoted Tweets will also be timely. Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment.

There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.

Right now, the first phase of the advertising is on Twitter search. They will appear at the top of search results, based on keywords used in Twitter searches. If the Promoted Tweet is not successful, it disappears. Eventually, when the ads come to Twitter clients, apps and sites, Twitter will share revenues with the developer.

Will people really like it?

Time will tell. If the Promoted Tweets “really” have value, they might be embraced. If they are like coupons, they might go over well with some people. However, just because I say “I’m going to Best Buy” or “Just had a cup of Starbucks coffee” doesn’t mean I want to see an ad from their company. How someone else responded to a tweet has nothing to do with how I’d respond to it. I’d prefer to pay a small fee per year to keep the ads out of my time-line personally.

Just have to wait and see…while containing our excitement!

Jobs is once again pitting Apple’s complete product design mastery against the rest of the industry, except this time he thinks he will prevail. Whether it is his repeated moves to keep Adobe’s Flash off the iPhone or his growing rift with Google over Android, Jobs is making the iPhone and iPad a relatively closed system that Apple can control. All apps need to be approved by Apple, the ads shown on the apps will also start to go through Apple, and no matter how hard Adobe tries to open up the iPhone to its Flash developers Apple will keep blocking all its efforts.

You can do anything that you wanna do…

Let me be clear…it’s Apple’s system and they can make it closed if they want to. This approach did not work with Microsoft, so I would think they would have the same outcome if they become too big. However, Jobs is in a unique position. He is leading a company and might not be around to clean up the mess if it does not work long-term.

The odd and perplexing thing about this: most people prefer diversity. For example, most people would prefer to have multiple ways to earn income. How many people have multiple cars? Multiple gaming platforms? Do you eat and drink the same thing everyday? Using this thought trend, why would developers want to invest in only one platform when the “real” money (as in being bought out) comes with having multiple platform applications? True, you will have applications like Tweetie being purchased by Twitter but what are the odds of a company purchasing something like We Rule unless friends can play across multiple mobile phones? Can they be purchased? Sure they can, but they’d be more valuable if they created cross-platform games. Currently developers are flocking to the iPhone because their applications sell the best.

That is why I think this has more to do with Android than Adobe per se. Android phones are eating away at iPhone’s market share. As the phones get better, the more threat competing phones become. Flash is coming to Android phones, giving developers more options to create apps and a more web like experience for Android users. Perhaps Adobe is getting slammed by Apple because Apple’s competition is embracing Flash. Adobe does not make the bulk of their revenue from Flash development.

On the flip side, Apple’s biggest selling product is the iPhone. It could potentially hurt Apple long-term that Adobe makes products that aid developers in making applications for multiple platforms. Right now most of the applications on the iPhone are iPhone (iPad or iTouch) only unless. This will keep many people on Apple’s technology because they have become attached to the applications. The minute the door opens for easy cross-platform development, Apple’s market share drops.

Steve Jobs shut the door.

In the end…

Going against the grain of human nature is not wise. Hopefully their target audience will remain faithful to give Apple the foundation it needs to survive. Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. Rarely do companies stay at the top for long. AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, even Google has competition as far as traffic (Facebook). Developers do not embrace programming for Macs and that trend might continue with Apple’s mobile devices. In the beginning there weren’t alternatives for developers. Now there are. It is understandable why Apple is doing this: they are appealing to their target audience, who does not mind lagging technology. Think about how long it took for copy/paste to make it to the iPhone. The recently released iPad does not have a camera, but the competition coming out shortly does. Companies should only concern themselves with creating quality products for their target audience. Apple is doing exactly that.

Unfortunately, while Apple is locking down their devices the competition is opening theirs up. If their competition combine forces, they are strong enough to block Apple from being able to keep their market share.

Inconsistency = Not Good

I find a headline that sounds interesting. I go to the web site. The site name is ISeeYou (I just made that up) all as one word. However, go to the bottom of the page, next to the copyright date, it says I See You. I look on the RSS feed, it says I See You. Another example, another imaginary web site with the name widgetri in lower case letters. On the footer, it says Widgetri. Which one is the correct one? Who knows? I tend to use whatever is on the footer or the RSS feed. If that’s the wrong one, I do not want to hear about it.

Why is this important? One of the goals of brand identity is for large numbers of people to have the same image of a company. Same name, same logo, same impression. Since today is Apple Day, let’s use Apple as an example. They use the bitten apple as their logo, their name is Apple, and they are known for quality hardware. It is widely felt that without Apple’s brand, the company would not survive. That their loyal users are not loyal to the products, they are loyal to the Apple brand. This seems to be true. The tablet hasn’t been formally announced yet people are waiting in anticipation and are begging their spouses to allow them to buy one. One cannot have loyalty to a product they have never seen, never used and hasn’t been released.

One other big difference

Many of the large companies that are not consistent started prior to the internet, meaning print media prevailed. Wal-Mart Inc. is the company name and at one time their logos reflected the hyphen. When the internet became popular, Wal-Mart had a problem. People would go to walmart.com instead of wal-mart.com and there was inconsistency with the branding. They refreshed their logo to Walmart. They are consistent in using Walmart when referring to their brand and Wal-Mart when referring to their corporate name.

You are not one of the big guys

Big companies have already established their brand. Nike can get away with doing NIKE and everyone knows it’s Nike and the swoosh image. Best Buy can have a logo in caps and everyone knows it is Best Buy. There is only one Nike and only one Best Buy. These companies started their brands when print media was the only option. Today, millions of people have blogs and companies want people to share their experiences with products and services on their blogs and social media profiles. Unless a site has spent the money to globally lock down their brand, odds are there is (or will be) another site or company with the same name. Owning the domain name is not enough protection against that. Widgetri could have a highly popular blog at widgetri.wordpress.com when someone else owns widgetri.com. What will set them apart? What they offer and their brands.

Keep it simple

Pick how you want your company name displayed and stick with it. If you use lower case, be consistent. If you make the name all one word, keep it that way. Just because you see other sites being inconsistent does not mean their decision is a smart one. This is the age of sharing online and social networking. When it comes to your brand, especially to avoid legal issues, be consistent not only with your marketing efforts but consistently making quality products your customers expect from you.

Or not. You’re probably not meant to have brand loyalty like Apple anyway.

I can’t go into specifics about anything but obviously, there are some things that need clarification. For the stupid.

Hello, my name is Tyme White….

I don’t date around, don’t have casual sex, don’t really publicly link to my offline friends on social sites, and I don’t cheat. I have high morals and I think honesty, loyalty, etc. are important. I am not obsessed with sex or having a man in my life.

I’m not the chick a guy will meet at the club and get sex from. I’m not the chick that expects to have her way paid for all the time. I’m not the chick that dates multiple guys. I’m not the chick that is clingy and wants to spend all her time with a guy.

However, if I do enter into a relationship, I will do my best to make the guy happy. Not getting overly serious too quickly, but I will appreciate he is in my life and try not to take him for granted. Hopefully we will learn, share things and grow together.

I’m not the chick that, if a guy comes to me about something, will say whatever words necessary to get him to shut up, and will betray him later on by lying and doing whatever I want to do. I don’t like hurting people I care about. It’s like hurting myself…I feel bad when I accidentally hurt someone.

Let me introduce myself again. My name is Tyme White…

If you thought I was dating someone, you were wrong. If you thought I was attracted to someone, you were wrong. If you came up with these ideas because of something said on Twitter, you’re seriously a dumb ass. If you thought these things, came to conclusions without asking me – fuck you and thanks for knowing me so well. If you came to an ever stupider conclusion (that I can’t say) and especially didn’t ask me – go to hell, fuck you, and karma’s a bitch.

If I were dating someone, I would focus on that one guy because um…that’s what I do. If the guy isn’t good enough to just date him why date him in the first place? And since when have my relationships EVER started out that way? They ALWAYS start out from a CLOSE FRIENDSHIP that developed OVER TIME because…

…wait for it…

I’m not the woman that has casual sex, dates around, etc.

Obviously I need to clarify some more…

If I ask a guy if he wants to hang out with me while I’m on a short trip…does that sound like we’re dating? I mean seriously, that would be a complete diss. To make the plans for the trip, completely exclude him, then – after I’ve been there a couple of days – invite him for a day or two. WTF? What it does sound like is a friend who was going through a tough time that could use a distraction for a day or two. That doesn’t mean he’d be sleeping in my bed. Why?

Aaah…you remember??????

That’s not how I roll.

When I am in a relationship, do I broadcast it, especially in the beginning? No…why….

Oh yeah, I don’t link to offline people on my social profiles and I’ve been there, done that. Especially in the beginning, I’d want it to be just about us. Not me, him and the world watching coming up with stupid ass conclusions I’d have to explain.

As much as I’ve been traveling what kind of relationship would that be? Where I purposely leave him out? Just pick up and go. Without a second thought to the guy. There are so many things here that are totally against my personality it’s laughable.

Except I am pissed off royally.

Do you know what it is like to have to explain everything?

You know I had to have a script written to periodically replace commenter information (email, IP) because I have stupid asses in my life that like to hack into shit? If I say a guy has a nice chest, nice legs, sexy name that somehow translates to some sort of higher level relationship. Yes, I can’t give compliments anymore without it getting twisted. Do you know what it is like to be worried your friends, who might not even be that close to you and heaven help them if they are, might say the “wrong” thing, drawing too much attention to them publicly because I have stupid asses in my life that don’t talk to ME about situations yet jump to stupid ass conclusions?

And let’s not forget praying that this time I’m being told the truth, the person will keep their word and is being straight with me.

That’s sad. It’s not normal. It’s definitely not healthy.

Seriously, get it together…

In life you will encounter toxic people. The type of person that knows they have faults, don’t resolve them, but are quick to point out faults in others. Willing to tear someone else apart to escape their own miserable life…they are too weak to fix. People who will drive wedges in good friendships because of their own insecurities. There are all types of toxic people with different sets of “symptoms”. In the end, they do not bring “good” into your life.

I try very had to bring “good” into the lives of those that are close to me. I try very hard to be loyal, honest, and dependable. For the most part, when my friends need me they know I will be there. Not only do we have fun with one another but we have a strong foundation. When the foundation begins to crumble and the “good” turns into bad (I’m dependable, loyal and honest – they aren’t. Not that I’m perfect but when I see something not working (or something outsides the boundaries I feel comfortable with), if I can’t resolve it, I’ll boucne), there is only one thing that can happen: the friendship, relationship, etc. crumbles.

If you keep toxic people in your life you become toxic yourself. If you’re one of those that want to be successful in life, your ability to achieve that success is directly dependent on you’re ability to remove toxic or “bad” situations out of your path. There are many paths to success but few ways to maintain it…the ability to make the right decisions the majority of the time over a long period of time.

It has gotten to the point where I don’t say anything about what is going on in my personal life anymore to anyone (but my crew) because of this. Stupid shit. This is why my Facebook profile is empty, MySpace is unused, comments are usually closed on my site and in a minute Twitter will go dark too. It’s not worth it. This is foreign to me because, at one time, I talked about personal things and my words touched people in different ways (didn’t really have toxic people in my life then). I miss that and I’ve become disinterested in many things because the thought of the drama turns me off.

The good news is…

Through World of Warcraft I’m meeting some really cool people and if I can force myself not to be dismal and trust a little bit, I think I can make some really cool friends. Of course, to not drag them into this craziness, I need to get rid of the toxic elements in my life once in for all. I went through crazy bullshit when I was trying to recuperate and I honestly wasn’t strong enough to recuperate and fight stupid shit at the same time. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of pain…some of it I still haven’t gotten over.

But I’m 100% healthy now and I’m done putting up with bullshit.

I’m not going to be the doormat. Not anymore.

And I’m tired of fixing shit that shouldn’t be broken in the first place.

To be triple clear….

This isn’t towards a guy I like that had things wrong (seriously, no guy on my mind at all – none). This is about people thinking weird shit that goes against my everything I believe in. That’s why I never wanted to be a celebrity – they go through this all the time. I’m focused on other things right now. A relationship isn’t a priority for me.

Basically…I want my life back. And I’m grabbing it.

I was doing so good not cursing too…and I know this isn’t going to make sense to many of you but I thought writing this rant would help me cool off. It didn’t.

What caught me at first was the brightness of her room. It’s pink on steroids. I, personally, couldn’t stand looking at that every day but I also realized how that color would not do well where I live. In the summer it would be fine but during fall and winter it wouldn’t look bright. It would have a dingy look to it (if one opened their windows). Artificial light would be needed to ensure the walls did not look dingy.

The second thing that fascinated me is that she seems genuinely happy…like she is a sweet girl. Then somewhere along the way I realized what “really” fascinated me.

She doesn’t have a website.

Note how many followers she has on YouTube. Can you imagine the interactions she could have if she had her own site? She has a contact email for business related emails so it isn’t as though she hasn’t thought of business opportunities. I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t receive tons of makeup samples. She’s probably interacting with people of all ages. Males will love her because she’s a cutie and women of all ages wear makeup. She even has a healthy following on Twitter.

But what really impresses me is that she handles herself with more maturity than many adults I know. She’s still having fun but she’s taking care of business. Getting good grades in school. Keeping her room clean. Handling her responsibilities. Making a VERY nice name for herself online…her parents should be proud.

Kudos to Blair. I hope she’ll be an inspiration to some to get off your butt and do something fun! Your passion to do something fun will show and, as you can see in Blair’s case, many times can turn into business opportunities.

Except that there were grumblings that the leaked copy had some sort of copy protection on it. If you purchase the download copy of the Sims 3, it DOES have Securom. The discs have “something” but until recently, it was unknown what it was. Dave B. from EA clears the air on what copy protection is on the game discs:

Hi

Thanks for your patience.

Until today I was unable to release the following, as the game had not yet been released. The game will still contain a program designed by Securom, however it will not be an installed DRM as it was in games like Spore and Red Alert 3. The game will perform a disc check every time you launch, so you will be required to insert your game disc before you can launch the game. This, of course, means no file will be installed on your computer.

Again I apologize I was unable to be more clear until now, however as the game had not released this information was not publicly available until now.

Regards

Dave B
EA Games
CSR III

Why they didn’t tell their community this upfront is beyond me. I’m all for protecting digital rights but be honest, especially when there is discord with users due to previous privacy invasion. Let’s be clear here: EA needs Sims 3 to do well. The Sims franchise is their cash cow. EA had a $641 million dollar loss last year. They have the delicate balance of protecting their digital rights and keeping their users happy. If their users are displeased with the deception, it could hinder the growth of Sims 3. Players can happily go back to playing Sims 2…which many prefer anyway. Sims 3 still has to evolve to be as content rich as Sims 2 plus expansion packs.

Shame honesty didn’t enter the picture.

That said, I have a copy of the game and next up will be some tips and tricks to help you play the game.

Mean What You Say. Say What You Mean

If you spend any time with children, you know they have to be taught what they can and cannot do. They have to be taught the difference between right and wrong. However, children do many things that aren’t “wrong”…the parent or guardian simply does not want the child to do it. For example, when a toddler figures out the remote control changes the TV channels most parents will tell the toddler not to touch the remote to ensure the toddler does not break it, but using the remote control is not “wrong”. See my point?

However, when the parent or guardian says, “Don’t touch the remote” the child should not touch the remote. He or she is going to and that is the learning process. The child has to respect the boundaries the parent puts in place until he/she moves out on their own.

The same thing happens in friendships, romantic relationships, and even online interactions except as adults we know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, what will make someone happy or devastate them. There are boundaries we make clear not to cross or there is a price. That price can be very high. However, just like the child will push the boundaries so will people…if you allow them to. If you say “Don’t do something” there has to be a price if the person continues to do it, otherwise you will end up a doormat.

And that’s where my problems began. I became the doormat.

Yeah, I Said Earlier You Do It Too…

Here is a relationship example (and I know how much you guys love relationship stuff). I normally don’t read AskMen.com but I knew I’d find an example of what I’m talking about. This guy (Shawn) has a girlfriend of four years (he calls the relationship “great”). He’s interested in a co-worker who has a long-term boyfriend. He thinks he’s falling in love with the co-worker. Doc Love gives this advice:

What should you do about this whole thing? First of all, stop flirting with Shakira. Then go home and make a list of all the great things you have with Venus and start thinking about the idea of LOYALTY. If you can’t be loyal, guy, then get rid of your girl. You should be getting rid of your girl because you don’t like her anymore or you’re completely bored with her, not because you found somebody who appears to be better. And you can’t even compare them because your girlfriend has four years in with you and this new girl only has a couple of hours in. Duh.

Remember, guys: Loyalty is numero uno.

That’s the root problem: honesty and loyalty. Most relationships tank because of the loss of those two things. If a person is dishonest or not loyal, trying to forgive and patch up the situation isn’t the solution. It does aide the person to continue being dishonest and disloyal. What Venus doesn’t know is that she should be telling Shawn to go to Shakira when he has a problem, when he needs support, when he needs to talk, etc. At the time of that writing she didn’t know one of the people she trusted and loved the most was stabbing her in the back and consciously screwing her over, creating a painful situation no one should have to endure. One of the main reasons most relationships (of any type) fail: someone is being disloyal and dishonest. Look at the definitions of disloyal and dishonest:

disloyal –adjective
false to one’s obligations or allegiances; not loyal; faithless; treacherous.

dishonest –adjective
1. not honest; disposed to lie, cheat, or steal; not worthy of trust or belief: a dishonest person.
2. proceeding from or exhibiting lack of honesty; fraudulent: a dishonest advertisement.

Why would anyone want a person like that in their life? Most people would advise Venus to dump Shawn because he knows he is being disloyal and dishonest (he calls it being weak). Shawn will not turn strong, honorable, honest and loyal over night and he won’t whip into the complete opposite of who he is for another person either. He has to be that other person PRIOR to the relationship for it to work. The bottom line: When you have someone in your life that you care about and respect, the default action is to avoid hurting the person, not do the things you know will hurt/annoy/irritate/anger/etc. the person. When I mention an example like Shawn and Venus it is very clear Venus should dump Shawn. What about things like:

• Ever had the roommate you told not to touch your clothes and he/she did it anyway?
• Ever had the co-worker who eats your food when you told them not to?
• Ever had the boyfriend/girlfriend where you asked to call if he/she is going to be late and he/she never does yet will call their friends to tell them they are running late?
• Your girl/boyfriend promises to not cheat again yet…she/he does it again?
• Your friend says she/he will be honest with you but tells lies to manipulate you?
• Ever thought you resolved an issue with someone, was even proud of the compromise/sacrifice you made, only to find out the person betrayed you again?

See what I mean? The signs are always there. When a person continues to mistreat you (put their feelings over yours) there is only one option: leave them alone…not pray he or she will change. Trust cannot exist without loyalty and honesty. No type of relationship can exist without trust.

But let’s keep it real: If you allow someone to lie to you, be disloyal to you, hurt you, and mistreat you…there is something wrong with you. I refuse to be that person.

How Do You Stop The Bad Behavior?

For the longest time I would question things trying to make sense of why people did the things they did? What I didn’t want to admit: I misread some people in my life and I hoped they would change. I hoped they respected the things I’d done, the loyalty, trust and honesty I built on my side not to throw it away. I completely wasted my time because I was dealing with disloyal, dishonest and untrustworthy people.

And I accept it. If you have disloyal, dishonest and untrustworthy people in your life, you should accept it too.

People become friends (or greater) because you can trust them. Are couples happy when they can’t put their guard down because they can’t trust their spouse? No. Do you like going to work and your boss watches your every move because he/she doesn’t trust you? No.

Trying to make people fit into roles in which they don’t belong (and in my case they were trying to live up to roles they weren’t ready or possibly meant to have) just makes everyone involved miserable. Now that I see these types of situations like the playground fights we all have as kids, you either let someone walk all over you and become a doormat or you stand up for yourself, no matter how much it hurts.

I have no more questions. I no longer seek answers. I realized my mistake the other day and this weekend, I owned it (took responsibility for it). For those in the past that got away with it, I hope they enjoyed it.

If I can do it, you can do it. Stop being a doormat.

To Wolfe: Thank you.