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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 12:24 PM
Default WCIF legal digital downloads TS2 Expansion packs? Did they just disappear?
I have been looking around the internet for some months now. I prefer to obtain copies digitally (and legally) since the CDs are no longer in print, CDs can get scratched, and because using digital editions uses up significantly less electrical power. I have searched older threads about this and I end up with dead links. I have searched other legal vendors ie. Amazon, GamersGate, etc. and I have found absolutely nothing. I have even tried searching for them on Steam and ...sigh.... EA's Origin. I am surprised that the world's best selling PC game is not even available on EA's flagship bloatware. I am getting frustrated. It seems to me that they have completely vanished without a trace,

...which brings me to this eerie conclusion... ....Is EA deliberately making people forget these games ever existed?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 12:57 PM
I'd imagine that you aren't allowed to sell Sims 2 new at all anymore. Origin has stopped selling the digital downloads, so noone else can either. A digital download is impossible to sell secondhand, so your only chance to get stuff is really to buy used CDs off Ebay or similar.

At least EA can't repossess your CDs. I'm afraid that someday they will take away access to previously purchased digital Sims 2 stuff.
just a girl
#3 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 1:04 PM
Oh... You're right, they disappered. And I haven't bought apartments expansion pack yet... Why would they do that I wonder.
Quote:
I'm afraid that someday they will take away access to previously purchased digital Sims 2 stuff.

Since they didn't give installation files, people won't be able to reinstall their games in this case. Sad.
Test Subject
#4 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 1:46 PM
if they're no long available to buy, then I don't see anything wrong with "downloading them from friends over the internet" use a crack and never scratch a CD again. if you do own them digitally on origin but they are no longer available to download from the store then it's not pirating if you download them from a torrent site.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 2:56 PM
If you have a download EP/SP from EA then you still can get it again but it is very hard to find, just send in a support ticket to EA and they should give you a link to all downloads you got from them.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Née whiterider
retired moderator
#6 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 3:28 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
At least EA can't repossess your CDs.
You're right, but only just. Most games nowadays do allow the company to repossess your CDs if they want to - that's in the EULA. The Sims 2 EULA doesn't contain that provision, but it does say that...
"The term of your License shall commence on the date that you install ... the Software, and shall end on ... EA's termination of this License." - i.e., EA can terminate your license to play TS2 at any time.
And "Promptly upon termination, you must cease all use of the Software and destroy all copies of the Software in your possession or control." - i.e., when EA terminate the license, you must uninstall the game and destroy the CDs.
And the best bit is that we all explicitly agreed to this. My opinion is that this kind of practise is a far better argument in favour of piracy than anything based on abandonware.

What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 3:57 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
At least EA can't repossess your CDs. I'm afraid that someday they will take away access to previously purchased digital Sims 2 stuff.


It would not surprise me at all if they did take away access to previously purchased digital downloads. Other companies have remotely removed digital content - Kindle famously did this with some George Orwell books, which made for some amusing headlines. And I'm not sure if there's a limit to how many times you can install the digital downloads, but it wouldn't surprise me.

And then there's the Facebook games they shut down, with Sim City Social making it less than a year. Not the greatest advertisement for the always-online business model they wrre pushing with Sim City!
Mad Poster
#8 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 8:16 PM
The big reason, of course was the fact that they want everyone to buy S3, and more importantly S4 in the future. Plus the fact that none of the original development staff for S2 are around to help fix any bugs-their 'support' for the game has long been gone. We're on our own, and if EA does dare to 'repossess' my CD/DVD's, they're going to have to take them out of my cold dead hands!

Just because of a little used but well-known legal saying: "Possession is 9/10ths of the law." Doubt that any court would ever rule otherwise.
Top Secret Researcher
#9 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 8:47 PM
EA can get my copy of the game - over my dead body! We paid for the game, and now they just take it back. "Hey, we're here to take away the game that once held the title of 'Best Selling PC Game in the World'. Oh, you love the game so much and don't want to give it up? Well, too bad. You clicked on "I Agree" when installing, right? Yep, guess you should've actually read the EULA - haha!"

The big shame is that GOG.com doesn't have any Sims titles in their catalog. GOG is pretty much the best option for customers who want legally DRM-free games. GOG understands what consumers want - EA doesn't. I don't care if The Sims 61 is the best game in the history of the universe - someday I want to revisit the past. It's called nostalgia! I got a few games off GOG (including RollerCoaster Tycoon Deluxe) and they were fantastic! They installed flawlessly and performed brilliantly, and I have no fear of my computer dying on me because I can simply back the installer up and play on another computer without having to pay another cent for a game I already paid for. Cutting off technical support for The Sims 2 is bad enough, but forcing customers to resort to piracy whenever they want to just play the freaking game?

Games aren't like operating systems, which get outdated and vulnerable to viruses and malware, and eventually you'll need to disconnect it from the Internet and stop using it as your main computer (though nobody said you couldn't keep it for nostalgic reasons). Games, on the other hand, aren't like operating systems - you don't put the entire life of your computer in the hands of them, and many are filled with bugs and glitches - but they're something everyone can (and may want to) use at any point in time. Take a look at LGR for example. He enjoys going back and taking a look at games from the 80s, 90s, and the early 2000s, as well as modern games. A lot of gamers would kill to get into his collection and play their favourites from the past. The Sims 2 is no doubt a game that many players would love to play 30 or even 40 years into the future. But, if the only way to fulfill that want is to download a torrent, then EA is to blame for that. It's like prohibition, only with bits and bytes instead of rum and bottles.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#10 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 9:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Nysha
You're right, but only just. Most games nowadays do allow the company to repossess your CDs if they want to - that's in the EULA. The Sims 2 EULA doesn't contain that provision, but it does say that...
"The term of your License shall commence on the date that you install ... the Software, and shall end on ... EA's termination of this License." - i.e., EA can terminate your license to play TS2 at any time.
And "Promptly upon termination, you must cease all use of the Software and destroy all copies of the Software in your possession or control." - i.e., when EA terminate the license, you must uninstall the game and destroy the CDs.
And the best bit is that we all explicitly agreed to this. My opinion is that this kind of practise is a far better argument in favour of piracy than anything based on abandonware.


Ohmygosh, seriously? Well like a pp said-over my dead body! EP's alone are about $50 over here and I have every EP and SP. I've never added it up, but that's a lot of money sunk into a game and I'm keeping it.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#11 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 9:45 PM
Which is the reason I don't download games like Sims from sites like Origin. If I can't keep it forever (EA won't ever get back my game CDs for any reasons whatsoever), then it's not interesting. If the game or the game file isn't mine once I've bought it, and if I can't use the game for whatever reason if the game company does an EA thingy with a digital copy, then they can forget about my money. If I buy something, I want to own it and be able to use it for as long as I want to use it. Anything that has to go through a site on the internet to work is risky business.

As for CD copies, you can check out sites like Amazon. The prizes might be a bit weird, and make sure you get all the parts, but you might have some luck. Also, some game stores that deals with used games might still have them. At least there you can check whether they've got all the parts, such as the game codes on the back of the user manual.

Better not to wait too long to buy it when a new EA game comes out. I actually bought the 4 latest TS2 games several months before I could even play them (my old laptop started struggling once I installed FT, and collapsed completely a couple or so years later).
Mad Poster
#12 Old 6th Feb 2014 at 10:27 PM
Other options are half.com or ebay.

Within six months, I managed to get three EPs and all the SPs off one of these sites or Amazon for good prices. It's quite do-able, and probably in less time for most, since I had some fund shortages during that period and had to hold off for a while before buying new EPs or SPs..(Though I confess that getting BV, FT, AL AND all the SPs in that period of time does entail a lot of catching up somewhat quickly!)

The blunders EA continues to make with Sims 1 and 2 have caused many people who formerly bought the games new to consider other options to obtain or protect their disks. Nice job, EA. At least if you let GOG or Steam handle the games, you might get SOMETHING out of it.

And the sad part is that this didn't have to be this way. EA could have followed other companies' leads and done this more intelligently: embraced the past while tantalizing us with the present and future. I've often cited the NIntendo site as an example of this. I hope Sims 4 is worth the gamble. I really do. Because if it fails, EA may have a nasty mess on their hands.

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Forum Resident
#13 Old 7th Feb 2014 at 2:36 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Nysha
You're right, but only just. Most games nowadays do allow the company to repossess your CDs if they want to - that's in the EULA. The Sims 2 EULA doesn't contain that provision, but it does say that...
"The term of your License shall commence on the date that you install ... the Software, and shall end on ... EA's termination of this License." - i.e., EA can terminate your license to play TS2 at any time.
And "Promptly upon termination, you must cease all use of the Software and destroy all copies of the Software in your possession or control." - i.e., when EA terminate the license, you must uninstall the game and destroy the CDs.
And the best bit is that we all explicitly agreed to this. My opinion is that this kind of practise is a far better argument in favour of piracy than anything based on abandonware.


Lets see what a citizens' common law grand jury says when EA tries to tell people they can't use something they paid for.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 7th Feb 2014 at 3:36 AM
EA could try to make the players uninstall and destroy the discs, but it would be impossible to enforce. Look how many players have separate gaming and internet computers. Look how many bought used and never registered. Quite honestly, they'd be stupid to try and it would cost them a great deal to try to make it happen, and there'd still be thousands of us whom they don't know and have no way of finding out we have them. All we'd do is say "Oh, I'm so sad," stop visiting the forums, and there's no way to find out if we really complied or not.

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Test Subject
#15 Old 7th Feb 2014 at 6:15 AM
Where I live there is ALWAYS a lot of Sims 2 sets at the thrift. The first game I ever played was from a secondhand store. It saddens me that EA is trying erase the Sims 2 and try to squeeze the Sims 3 in that title. I'm not blind EA, I see what you are doing.

It sucks that they don't realize (no they know, they just don't care) how big the fanbase is for the Sims 2 alone. Why try to erase it completely from the canon when its the best?
Lab Assistant
#16 Old 7th Feb 2014 at 8:12 PM Last edited by sonyablue : 7th Feb 2014 at 8:22 PM.
RANT MOODLET ON

I am strongly against software piracy and I exhort everyone to pay for their game. I understand why theft happens but it hurts the actual grunts in the trenches who make the games because they hire less and less of them the more the game gets ripped off.

But only pay once. You as purchasers of a product have the right and privilege to protect your investment with backups, transfer of data from PC to PC, anything that is reasonable within the understanding of Fair Use.

The idea that a fictional entity called EA can assert broad ranging, illegal claims within its EULA over you as a natural human being, endowed by natural rights as enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, or any equivalent document in Europe (sadly lacking) is shameful.

EA is not a natural person, it is a fictional entity, and likewise its fictional rights over an actual human's free expression and our usage of software legitimately purchased are completely theoretical at best, most likely fictional, and only enforced by a despotic, systematically corrupt, corporatist regime.

In other words, don't worry about or waste time over criminal rackets, from the politicians to the media just say no to the thieves.
just a girl
#17 Old 7th Feb 2014 at 8:37 PM
Once the conversation turned to this, does anyone know a way to download the game from the Origin and save it to disk, then to install from the disc? I'm not a pirate or something. Purchased game can be downloaded from Origin today, but what if they really restrict this possibility in the future...
Forum Resident
#18 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 1:47 AM
Obviously we protest and refuse to buy their stuff. The consumer has a voice they need to unite and use it. But protests will not work if we keep giving them money. Refuse to buy anything more they make until they meet demands. We should have our own rights to protect our investments. You do not see a car dealership coming to take back your car because they want you to buy the next model. But if we allow this here more companies will get ideas. Soon maybe it will be so with your car as well.
Mad Poster
#19 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 11:17 AM
Quote: Originally posted by LaurellKH
Obviously we protest and refuse to buy their stuff.

My problem is more that EA refuse to sell it! The only thing I would like to buy from EA at present is Open For Business. But now they refuse to sell it, even as a digital download. So basically there are two ways I could get it. I could buy a second-hand disc or even a retail copy from a retailer who hasn't managed to sell it yet. Or... I could try to get a pirated copy. Now that would undoubtedly infringe EA's rights, but it wouldn't actually cost them any money. If I get a pirated copy, EA get nothing, but if I legally buy a copy from someone else, EA still gets nothing! The seller has paid EA for the licence long ago, and selling it on to me brings the company no additional revenue. The only way EA can benefit financially is if they sell me a copy, but that is precisely what they refuse to do! I'm not going to buy The Sims 4 instead; that would just break my computer if it could run it at all! And I'm certainly not going to buy some ghastly shoot-em-up instead! The only thing for which EA own the rights, that I'd like to buy right now is OFB. So why won't they take my money?

I have never understood why software houses are so unwilling to sell older versions of their products, and therefore exclude from their customer base everyone who has an older computer. If they don't want to provide support, they could sell it "as is" at a discounted price. Not selling it at all means no revenue at all.

(Don't worry - I won't really get a pirate copy - I'm not like that! But it would make no difference financially to EA if I did.)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#20 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 12:45 PM Last edited by Hellken : 8th Feb 2014 at 12:56 PM.
Wow. After reading the responses in this thread, I guess my suspicions are true. The CDs are no longer being printed. The legal digital versions have been removed everywhere. The official website has been deleted. Sims 2 is almost abandonware. R.I.P. Sims 2 2004 - 2013.

These are the kind of stupid decisions that alienate their customers and encourage piracy. EA is a poor steward of every franchise they own.

I am NOT suggesting that we must pirate TS2, even if it is close to becoming abandonware. At the same time, I cannot fault people who turn to piracy. If a company closes all possible "avenues" of getting a new copy legally, who can blame the pirates?

Since the Sims 4 will require Origin to start the game, I am beginning to have second thoughts about buying it. After seeing what EA has done to the Sims 2 and the launch of that other Sim franchise , people should stay away from EA until they get a modicum of good business sense.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 2:07 PM Last edited by gummilutt : 8th Feb 2014 at 2:26 PM.
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I don't think piracy is bad by default. It is if it costs the company money, but if it is a product I would never pay for, then how does it cost them money? If anything it has the potential of earning them money, because if I like it I may spread the word and someone may buy it as a result of my recommending it.

Now, I am aware that this forum does not accept piracy, and I'm okay with that. I am merely commenting on the concept in general.
Constant Contestant
retired moderator
#22 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 3:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Hellken
Wow. After reading the responses in this thread, I guess my suspicions are true. The CDs are no longer being printed. The legal digital versions have been removed everywhere. The official website has been deleted. Sims 2 is almost abandonware. R.I.P. Sims 2 2004 - 2013.

These are the kind of stupid decisions that alienate their customers and encourage piracy. EA is a poor steward of every franchise they own.

I am NOT suggesting that we must pirate TS2, even if it is close to becoming abandonware. At the same time, I cannot fault people who turn to piracy. If a company closes all possible "avenues" of getting a new copy legally, who can blame the pirates?

Since the Sims 4 will require Origin to start the game, I am beginning to have second thoughts about buying it. After seeing what EA has done to the Sims 2 and the launch of that other Sim franchise , people should stay away from EA until they get a modicum of good business sense.
If you take a look on sites like Ebay and Amazon you can still find sims2 in disk form. I recently had to replace my M&G disk because the original one stopped working.

Want a specific style of house or community building? Why not take a look at my profile and see what I build and then come ask me to make it!
Mad Poster
#23 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 4:26 PM
Quote: Originally posted by gummilutt
I'm going to stick my neck out and say that I don't think piracy is bad by default. It is if it costs the company money, but if it is a product I would never pay for, then how does it cost them money? If anything it has the potential of earning them money, because if I like it I may spread the word and someone may buy it as a result of my recommending it.

Now, I am aware that this forum does not accept piracy, and I'm okay with that. I am merely commenting on the concept in general.


I'm of the opinion that all piracy isn't bad either. I've pirated the occasional bit of TV and I didn't feel bad about it all all because I'd also brought the DVDs. I just wanted a copy to watch on my tablet too. I could've brought the iTunes version, but that's copy protected so I still would've had to jump through legal hoops to watch it on my Android tablet and if I'd done that, I wouldn't have brought the DVD as well. But the issue here isn't "is piracy wrong" but rather "is piracy illegal"? To which the answer is yes.
Forum Resident
#24 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 4:44 PM
Quote: Originally posted by OptimusPrime98
if you do own them digitally on origin but they are no longer available to download from the store then it's not pirating if you download them from a torrent site.

Er.

1) Taking your torrent suggestion at face value, torrents work by everyone seeding bits of the file. As you download (assuming you're not leeching), you're also sharing the game files with other people, who may or may not own a copy of the game themselves. Distributors tend to attract the smackdowns more so than simple downloaders, but torrents are constructed so that everyone is supposed to be distributors.

2) At least in the US, there's a legal distinction between something you purchased, something you made a backup copy of for personal use, and something acquired through illicit channels. That torrent is not your copy of the game that you were licensed to use, even if the overall end result in this case is the same (you have a backup copy of something you purchased). Further, despite the allowance to make a backup of your media for personal use, the DMCA also says you're not allowed to circumvent DRM protections (e.g. cracked .exes).

See also: the legal brouhaha of Google Books digitizing and releasing out-of-print books which nonetheless were still under copyright protection. As I recall, Google had many legal victories, but nothing was decided along the lines of "if it's not available from the original distributor, copyright is void, everyone download/share whatever they want."

It's definitely "piracy," it's just a particularly rational, understandable form of it.
Alchemist
#25 Old 8th Feb 2014 at 5:58 PM
I bought OFB and University at Media Markt.
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