The past few days since installing The Sims 2 Seasons EP, then un-installing Seasons and then installing The Sims 2 Pets EP & The Sims 2 Seasons EP, then un-installing both and installing The Sims 2 Pets EP, The Sims 2 Holiday 2006 Stuff, & The Sims 2 Seasons EP, as well as The Sims(TM) Life Stories; answering about 500 help-request PMs & emails, and answering about 150 threads on 4 forums, writing FAQs and tutorials on using Photoshop & MilkShape 3D, and holding my house-mate's hand as she goes along the first stages of making custom content... I wonder if I will ever get to play the games I have installed. LOL The unwritten clause of that contract all custom content creators forget signing is the one that causes all this woeful consumption of time; that delicately worded clause that says you will render technical support to people using or wanting to use your creations. I don't know how EA could have made installing custom content any easier, but I sure wish they gave end-users far better instruction in that worthless little booklet that ships with our installation media. I never lose sight of the fact that once upon a time I didn't know all the things I know now; I can't really remember the details of that former time, but I know it had to exist, because I wasn't born a simmer. This game has a steep learning curve and as much as we all like to bat our eyes and act like it is easy, the easy part is dropping the goodies in the Downloads folder. The truth is for a thing with no moving parts, The Sims 2 is a grotesquely complex thing... it is a miracle it works at all. I am not saying we should stop making custom content, but I think the last person who should be rendering free tech support for The Sims 2 and The Sims(TM) Life Stories should be us modders and custom content creators, we are on the other side of that knowledge gap, sometimes so far on the other side we can't even believe that some people need instructions on the most rudimentary things. We have dozens of help FAQs and fora where the middle range can get help, but the true novice is completely in the dark even on how to locate and usually lacks the experience that is needed to understand our explanations that are based on assumed knowledge. *sigh* There are days when all I want to do is just make some beefed up Sims and have them play house for me, but with something like 6000 files and over a quarter million downloads spread across more than a dozen sites, it looks like I will be one of the last to do what all the fans of my work get to do ... no good deed goes unpunished