WolfZe's content?

[Ducio 285]

Hi, 

I was searching for some of WolfZe's content and I saw that he deleted his account! I don't want to pry if there was some issue, but I loved his style of BATing. He did move his work to another site?  

 

[brancra 1,114]

Wolf removed his material and I'm not aware of him putting it up elsewhere. But he has a Patreon.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Sadly this is true how Wolf decided to pack up and leave with immediate effect.

While it is his choice to no longer participate in this community, we did offer how he's free to create a new account should he ever wish to.

[catty-cb 4,392]

7 hours ago, brancra said:

Wolf removed his material and I'm not aware of him putting it up elsewhere. But he has a Patreon.

Its here

https://www.patreon.com/WZBAT

I've got a patreon account to support one of my favourite authors (https://www.patreon.com/lindsayburoker/posts)

[rsc204 21,808]

6 hours ago, catty-cb said:

Its here

https://www.patreon.com/WZBAT

Wow, 4€ a month +VAT to get some models for SC4, that's a big ask and that's the lowest tier. In the history of the game, I've never seen anyone (except EA) try to monetise SC4 like this. I'm struggling to think why anyone would pay that? If you love SC4 support the community sites, not the creators, without Simtropolis, SC4D and the like, there would be no creators or new content. Whereas if as a community we all wanted a monthly fee for our works, players would be looking at some pretty large bills. I also believe selling SC4 content like this, yes "technically" it's a donation, surely falls foul of EA's EULA, because EA own any content made using their tools. I certainly wouldn't like the idea of challenging their legal team should a cease and desist letter arrive in my postbox.

But really the problem I have with paying for mods as a concept, is that it turns any community into haves and have nots. Consider how many fewer players there would be playing SC4, if from the outset you needed to pay each creator a monthly fee? I find it very hard to believe under such circumstances we'd still have an active player base 17 years after SC4 was released. Not to mention, all those sites that hosted the content, paid the bandwidth for downloads and supported discussions and sharing, where is their cut? If someone helps you get something working, that you then charge for, aren't they entitled to a cut of the profits?

Still, if it works out maybe I'll get in on the action, I like money... Coming soon, technical help for SC4 for only 5€/min, I just need to set up the premium rate phone number .

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

44 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I'm struggling to think why anyone would pay that?

Simple answer, we won't.

[rsc204 21,808]

En-mass, I agree that this isn't likely to gain much traction. But there's always one (it looks like one person is paying 3€ if I read the info correctly). Should a small drizzle of people go along with this, it sets a really bad precedent that is ultimately harmful.

[City_Slider 2,716]

Welcome on my Black List Wolf. Some E-Mail are out. Guess his Game is ending soon ;-)

[catty-cb 4,392]

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

 I'm struggling to think why anyone would pay that? If you love SC4 support the community sites

Yes if Simtropolis had a patreon account, I certainly would seriously consider signing up for it, but I wouldn't pay individual modders for their content, much as I really appreciate all their work and the hours they have put in to their models .... and I feel a bit guilty for saying that, but Simtropolis is the one that gets the bills that have to be paid every month.

[Haljackey 17,302]

On 1/27/2021 at 4:42 AM, catty-cb said:

Its here

https://www.patreon.com/WZBAT

I sure hope this doesn't become a thing. There are many frustrations in my head right now but I am going to leave them out of this post for my own sanity.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Glad I have everything he ever posted here. Best BATter that was on this site IMO. He didn't fall into the trap of the Albert Speer school of fascist, idealist architecture many other BATters do. Great body of work considering he was only here for a few years, and had a heart attack during that time. He will be missed.

[vampireprofeta 5]

If Wolf would be able to nightlighted some of his BATs, particularly the Paris Observatory and other Paris bats, of course I will be a membership of his site. But I'd prefer to learn to make BATs by my own.

[serpe 75]

On 1/28/2021 at 10:44 AM, SIM-ple Jack said:

Glad I have everything he ever posted here. Best BATter that was on this site IMO. He didn't fall into the trap of the Albert Speer school of fascist, idealist architecture many other BATters do. Great body of work considering he was only here for a few years, and had a heart attack during that time. He will be missed.

Would you mind sharing? His Patreon page is gone and so is all of his old work.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 hours ago, serpe said:

Would you mind sharing?

Unfortunately we cannot allow this on Simtropolis. <-- Official Administrator Statement.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

5 hours ago, serpe said:

Would you mind sharing? His Patreon page is gone and so is all of his old work.

Sorry to hear about his page, hope he's alright. It sounded like he was having money problems when he left. Hopefully not health problems. Brings up the question of uploads shared posthumously. If the creator dies, does the work go with them?

As for file sharing, I wouldn't indulge in that anyway. The requests would never end, and I have better things to do. But, you could always learn to BAT and remake his work.

[City_Slider 2,716]

On 27.1.2021 at 5:16 PM, City_Slider said:

Welcome on my Black List Wolf. Some E-Mail are out. Guess his Game is ending soon ;-)

https://www.patreon.com/WZBAT/creators

Done

[Ducio 285]

Hope he's doing OK and that he comes back! I don't know him, but I miss his BATs.

[Propfam 2,288]

11 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Official Administrator Statement.

Also, Official Member Statement. ;)

But really, I hope he's OK. We should have a plan B, though.

[serpe 75]

On 4/29/2021 at 1:18 PM, SIM-ple Jack said:

Sorry to hear about his page, hope he's alright. It sounded like he was having money problems when he left. Hopefully not health problems. Brings up the question of uploads shared posthumously. If the creator dies, does the work go with them?

As for file sharing, I wouldn't indulge in that anyway. The requests would never end, and I have better things to do. But, you could always learn to BAT and remake his work.

Yeah, I subscribed to the highest tier of his Patreon but only had three new downloads available and a few "upcoming" pieces. I even sent him a message asking about his old work and he responded saying it was not available anymore but he would consider direct requests. I asked them if he could send me two or three files directly to me but I got no reply, then he did not post anymore at all. I paid for a couple more months but there was no activity so I pulled back, a day or two later the whole page was gone.

My BATting is not very good and even if I could, his work is not etched in my memory for me to recreate, but thanks for the advise.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

14 minutes ago, serpe said:

... his work is not etched in my memory for me to recreate ...

One thing which can be done and not violate any rules is if peeps who do have his content wanted to post screenshots of them in the game. That way other peeps might possibly be inspired to recreate some of the buildings he shared with the community.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

1 hour ago, serpe said:

Yeah, I subscribed to the highest tier of his Patreon but only had three new downloads available and a few "upcoming" pieces. I even sent him a message asking about his old work and he responded saying it was not available anymore but he would consider direct requests. I asked them if he could send me two or three files directly to me but I got no reply, then he did not post anymore at all. I paid for a couple more months but there was no activity so I pulled back, a day or two later the whole page was gone.

My BATting is not very good and even if I could, his work is not etched in my memory for me to recreate, but thanks for the advise.

 

This does not sound good at all. I know Wz well enough to know he is a fairly square guy who wouldn't scam anyone. Best case scenario is that he wasn't making enough to pay the bills and was forced to close down. I believe he lives in Hamburg. Does anyone have a way to get a hold of him(email, phone#)?

In the meantime...   

 

[catty-cb 4,392]

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

One thing which can be done and not violate any rules is if peeps who do have his content wanted to post screenshots of them in the game.

I noticed in a topic he started back when he joined the site that all the pictures are still available

I"m assuming that applies to all the other pictures he posted in forum posts as a attachment, but I'm guessing the ones in the STEX are gone.

But I know he used to do posts in the "what are you working on" topic and if he used the post attachment option then they should still be available  ???

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

17 hours ago, catty-cb said:

I noticed in a topic he started back when he joined the site that all the pictures are still available

I"m assuming that applies to all the other pictures he posted in forum posts as a attachment, but I'm guessing the ones in the STEX are gone.

But I know he used to do posts in the "what are you working on" topic and if he used the post attachment option then they should still be available  ???

You wont find too many that are willing to wade through 500+ png-laden pages to find a pic in that thread, and since his user name is gone, I don't know if he'd show up in any Google searches. Maybe internet archives, but how many remember to use that feature. I did a little hunting, and he's not been featured in any obituaries in Hamburg in the last 4 months. He has a site that sells books about Medieval clothing, that I guess he wrote. And this, if you want to hear him sing Anglo-German folk tunes-

https://www.wz-orbis.de/

Who knew he's a hippie!

All good indications that he's still with us.

[catty-cb 4,392]

13 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

You wont find too many that are willing to wade through 500+ png-laden pages to find a pic in that thread

It looks like his pictures are still available and his posts come up under user name Guest 760649

The link on the picture goes to "https://www.simtropolis.com/objects/attachments/monthly_2020_08/zoom5.jpg.f3268558c2295633f80edbb15a48f1c1.jpg

[Propfam 2,288]

15 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Medieval clothing

How niche his hobby is. I personally like the 17-19th century, 80s-90s, and also latest designs since I love tech. But each to their own.

[IL. 1,043]

On 1/27/2021 at 3:34 PM, catty-cb said:

Yes if Simtropolis had a patreon account, I certainly would seriously consider signing up for it, but I wouldn't pay individual modders for their content, much as I really appreciate all their work and the hours they have put in to their models .... and I feel a bit guilty for saying that, but Simtropolis is the one that gets the bills that have to be paid every month.

I agree if you're doing something you love for a game you enjoy you shouldn't charge others, especially since you are also getting the content of other modders for free

There's tons of other places where you can make money with the models you already make or freelance

 

On 1/27/2021 at 6:44 AM, rsc204 said:

Wow, 4€ a month +VAT to get some models for SC4, that's a big ask and that's the lowest tier. In the history of the game, I've never seen anyone (except EA) try to monetise SC4 like this. I'm struggling to think why anyone would pay that? If you love SC4 support the community sites, not the creators, without Simtropolis, SC4D and the like, there would be no creators or new content. Whereas if as a community we all wanted a monthly fee for our works, players would be looking at some pretty large bills. I also believe selling SC4 content like this, yes "technically" it's a donation, surely falls foul of EA's EULA, because EA own any content made using their tools. I certainly wouldn't like the idea of challenging their legal team should a cease and desist letter arrive in my postbox.

But really the problem I have with paying for mods as a concept, is that it turns any community into haves and have nots. Consider how many fewer players there would be playing SC4, if from the outset you needed to pay each creator a monthly fee? I find it very hard to believe under such circumstances we'd still have an active player base 17 years after SC4 was released. Not to mention, all those sites that hosted the content, paid the bandwidth for downloads and supported discussions and sharing, where is their cut? If someone helps you get something working, that you then charge for, aren't they entitled to a cut of the profits?

Still, if it works out maybe I'll get in on the action, I like money... Coming soon, technical help for SC4 for only 5€/min, I just need to set up the premium rate phone number .

File sharing on the side would just happen, a player or two buys the asset once and then it's shared among the rest of players for free, the whole concept can't survive, also piracy.. and he can't force buyers to not share what they pay for since he isn't really selling (as you said foul of EA's EULA), just accepting "donations"

Cities skylines gets it.. they know that their game will surely be pirated and downloaded for free, so they make sure to keep a living community of modders and constant updates and addons on steam, that way if you really want to enjoy the game you MUST pay, other wise you won't have access to the awesome stuff that the community offer.

Other games make their game playable only online to fix this problem, or make the online gameplay very fun, that way even if one were to download the game illegally they still won't enjoy all what the game offers and end up buying it in the end if they really love the game. Also another reason why many mobile games make with IAP more money than pc games, more difficult to get stuff illegally 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

16 hours ago, IL. said:

I agree if you're doing something you love for a game you enjoy you shouldn't charge others, especially since you are also getting the content of other modders for free

There's tons of other places where you can make money with the models you already make or freelance

 

I think WZ was a bit of a dreamer, who hoped to make a living on his enthusiasms. Unfortunately, life doesn't work like that, as many an artist, actor, singer, author etc. has discovered. In the real world, you have to do a lot of unsavory things to get success.

Fortunately, I'm a realist. If my back is against the wall, I'll go rob a bank.

[Wiimeiser 444]

So from what I'm hearing, either WolfZe passed away, or his Patreon was shut down, possibly by EA. Does anyone know for sure what happened?

 

And what about archival? So much stuff has been lost because no one's bothered to archive it... I have a folder with several of Wolf's lots, and if it comes to making an archive, I could easily contribute. Though his stuff was paid right before it vanished, so that may add some extra wrinkles...

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Unfortunately in this case WolfZe's content was removed at his request. This means that we are now unable to host his stuff here, as its written somewhere in the T&Cs that any request from a modder to remove content will be acted upon. The stuff wasn't lost in a site update mishap, WolfZe deleted his stuff before he left.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Just to clarify...

There is no such written term in site policy, however we felt given the threat of legal action Wolf made if we didn't comply with his request, to have his files taken down was the path of least resistance. Simtropolis is a community which is greater than any one individual. So while we wish this never happened for Wolf's unfortunate decision, it could've been worse if we'd not complied with his demands. We also did try to negotiate at the time, but he was adamant in wanting his account and content removed.

Alas, very sadly that is what had to occur. Of course, Wolf would be free to re-join Simtropolis again if ever he wanted. That though is his own choice.

And on that note, we feel this topic has run its course and best now be closed.

Topic Locked   

-CB & Cori