This interview between TURBODRIVER, the creator of the popular mod’s WickedWhims, and Aurélie Petit, a PhD candidate at Concordia University specialized in animation and technology, explores what is at stake behind adult mods’ responsible design.
While the Sims franchise has always portrayed adult intimate relationships (early on referred to as ‘woohoo’ actions), the game’s PEGI rating of 12 limits what is shown beyond sexual innuendo. As a result, players have taken to modding to add more explicit sexual interactions between characters, then contributing to a vibrant ecosystem of content creation. On adult platforms, we can now find a genre of user-generated Sims 4 animation that rely on the existence of these mods; because it is necessary to include these short-animated films within our understanding of digital pornographic animation, it is equally needed to pay attention to who composes the adult modding community. In addition of exploring the journey of TURBODRIVER as he became a professional full-time Sims 4 modder thanks to sharing his WickedWhims mod on Patreon, this interview tackles what kind of challenges exist in life-simulation mod design that involves adult and sexual content, whether as these relate to Electronic Arts’ own restrictions, or where to draw lines as a designer between what should be featured or not within sexual computer imagery.
Part 1: Introduction
Aurélie Petit: As I told you by email, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I think you are very, very popular in the Sims fandom, and maybe even more known to people outside of the online community. I have friends who don’t know about very popular Sims 4 Youtubers, but they know of you and of WickedWhims.
TURBODRIVER: I’m not really sure if that’s true, because I feel like people who show themselves as individuals on Youtube are probably way more recognizable. At least, when you look at promotional materials that show up in the game itself. There are people there. I won’t show up there.
AP: That’s fair! As you prefer to be anonymous, can you please introduce yourself and how do you wish to be referred to?
TD: I keep most of my information private, so I am just the TURBODRIVER person. That’s the name I picked when I started doing this, as I needed one. I didn’t want my personal information to be connected to it because it’s difficult to make adult content. I guess it’s difficult for me to introduce myself because I’m just not going to share that much about what I do in my private life. I mean, some people in the community know me. Like, when I actually get to know people and I can trust them a little. It’s not like I completely hide who I am, but publicly it’s never about me, it’s about just my work.
AP: Yeah, okay. You said that’s the name you chose when you started doing this. What is your background as a modder?
TD: Right, well, I didn’t mod that many games because I started making games early on in 2007 as a hobby, but I didn’t actually make anything good, and I was self-taught. Eventually I got to creating mods for Minecraft. That was pretty much the last thing I did when it came to modding before I got to the Sims. Then, I just made WickedWhims and that was it. I guess, it has been a long journey since 2007 with making games, but when it comes to modding, it’s not like I did that much. For Minecraft, it wasn’t even that I made mods for people, so much as I had a community of maybe 100 users that played together, and I just made stuff for that. That’s how I learned a lot of coding too.
AP: Back then, were you just doing regular mods? Have you done adult-oriented content before?
TD: I never made any adult-oriented content of any kind before WickedWhims. It was all about keeping the community alive, so it was all just things that they can get engaged in and keep playing. You just add things. It’s a lot that the community needs to be able to just build their own spaces, cities, and keep it all going and have trading with each other. And then, there are some fun things that I would do, like adding magic. Just so they can have extra things to do in the game and they don’t get bored as fast. It was just for fun. I liked it. I guess it’s a complicated journey with the games because, again, I started in 2007, and I was still way younger, and I did not know anything. Still, I was a part of the community. That was the thing. Other people were teaching me how to do anything.
AP: Did you ever have formal technical training?
TD: Not in terms of education. I didn’t go to any school for that, and this is all just on my own because I just enjoy doing it.
Part 2: Making WickedWhims
AP: Was WickedWhims your first Sims mod, or did you make anything else before that in the Sims?
TD: Yeah, that was it. That was the first thing that was specific. I wanted specifically to make what I’m doing right now, like that was the plan. I didn’t end up doing it by accident.
AP: When did you publish WickedWhims for the first time?
TD: Most of the Sims community was on Tumblr, so I published it there in June 2016.
AP: Were you a Sims player before?
TD: That’s how it came to be. I was playing the Sims 3 at the time. And that’s kind of where I got the idea because I didn’t like the Sims 4. It was still really early on, so there wasn’t much to it. Most people probably didn’t like it, so nobody was actually making mods for it. I really liked playing the Sims 3, and there were mods for it that had explicit sexual content. I thought that it could work for the Sims 4. That was pretty much the inspiration.
AP: Do you remember what was the name of the explicit sims 3 mods you had?
TD: There was one called Kinky World by Oniki Kay. I believe that’s still continued by someone else. That mod had a lot of problems, but it was a big inspiration for me. It showed me that you can do this and that this makes sense for the game. That’s when I looked at the Sims 4 and I was like, oh, maybe someone made that too, but they didn’t, so then I did it.
AP: Did you ever make any other mods for the Sims?
TD: The first thing I made was just WickedWhims, and I just kept going with that because the community response was so positive. Afterwards, I published plenty of other smaller mods, including a SFW version of WickedWhims called WonderfulWhims.
AP: What kind of software do you use for it?
TD: There’s a lot to say, because there is no modding software for the Sims because Maxis doesn’t release anything like that. Modders just figure it out on their own. So, it’s all custom software for modding the game, all made by the community. The most popular by modders is called just Sims 4 Studio. People download that to be able to build entire mods. But then, there’s a lot of other custom software that is half finished. There’s a lot of half-finished stuff. There’s a completely new web-based software that recently showed up because new tools are still being made even today. The modder community has never been more alive for the Sims 4. When I started, it wasn’t like that at all, there was not a lot of it. But now, it’s just so much. One of the things Maxis shares is documentation for some stuff, some files. There are tools for browsing the documentation, and it’s called Lot51’s Tuning Builder. And then, there’s a lot of more specific in-depth software that you would use for automation, which I had to build. There is a lot of automation, because you have to do a lot: you have to create many files for the game, and it takes hours if you want to do it manually. So, I had to automate it. So, there’s things like S4TK for automating that stuff. I have my Thanks page on my website where I list some of the tools I use. I need to update it a little bit, just a little, but that lists most of the software I use for making mods. Some of that is outdated but I used it in the past, so I kept them up. That’s kind of it.
AP: You also have people on your Thanks page.
TD: Most of them are people who made tools that I use or used. A lot of people would ask me what I use to create. I get emails at least once a month about help with making mods, and I answer them every single time because I’m too lazy to make a tutorial. A part of my answer is to look at the Thanks page on my website. I list the tools I use there. Another thing is that the Thanks page is in the mod as well, there’s a button for credits. I just want people to see who helped me and what they did. I don’t want the creators helping me to think I don’t care about their help because without them, I would not be able to do this.
AP: Why do you think there’s been more and more modders in the community?
TD: Well, there is just a lot of it now because when I started there were maybe like three to five mods that were complicated ones and used scripting code. Today, that’s very common. People see that others create mods, and it just keeps growing. It is just time. With time, more people jumped in.
AP: Apart from knowing about the Kinky World mod in the Sims 3, what motivated you to make WickedWhims?
TD: There’s a lot to it. I mean, the first thing is that I like the idea of adult themes in video games. Another thing is I wanted to make stuff and I wasn’t doing anything at the time. I was seeing modding as such a powerful way to create something and engage people because I was making the Minecraft content. Eventually, I got bored of that and I just closed it down. Well, maybe not bored, but it was just too much. I lost the motivation to want to work on it, and I wanted to make something new. I saw that someone made an explicit Sims mod and it worked, so I knew this could become a thing. At the time, there was nobody that made Sims 4 mods. But there were still people who made Sims 3 mods and they were being paid. I was like, ‘maybe this will work for me as well.’ That was one of the things I had on the back of my mind, even though I didn’t start with it because I didn’t know how to make anything at the time. Why would I be asking people to pay me money when I don’t know what I’m doing? It was something I wanted to try and so, yeah, there was also the potential for making this a source of revenue. But then, I just wanted to make something. I liked what the Sims 3 had, so I wanted to copy that in the Sims 4. I like the process of learning. Modding is a whole new thing that you have to learn with a bunch of proprietary, community-made tools, and resources. So, I had a lot of things to do. It just kept me really, really occupied and that just kind of kept me motivated.
AP: At the time, no one was really using subscription-based platforms for Sims 4 mods?
TD: Yeah, at the time there was nobody because the modding community for the Sims 4 was tiny, at least it felt tiny to me. Nobody took it seriously, nobody asked for money to do this stuff.
AP: Then, how did you get people to know about WickedWhims?
TD: I posted it on Tumblr, but nobody would see it on Tumblr because why would they find that? At the time, even if Tumblr was still okay with explicit imagery, I knew I needed to find a community of adult mods to get noticed. The next day, I posted on the LoversLab forum. That’s where I got all the attention.
AP: That’s a cool name.
TD: I mean, sure the name is okay. Well, I mean, did you see I launched a website recently? It’s called WickedCC.
AP: I didn’t!
TD: Yeah, because the problem with the forum is that a lot of these adult content creation forums just allow kind of anything, like really anything you want and that’s problematic because you end up getting associated with difficult fetishes. So, I was like, I don’t want to always be associated with that. I don’t like the forum because of that. There’s a lot of problems because of it. I need an alternative and that’s why I made a website to feature Sims 4 adult content creators. I am still working on it.
AP: I just found it. I think it’s amazing!
TD: It’s still pretty fresh. It started this year.
AP: Do you know how many creators are featured on it?
TD: There are currently 32 creators, although some of them just make translations for mods of the other creators. I have to individually ask creators to join, and it’s a bit difficult. I mean, a lot of creators can, or sometimes, create things that, let’s say, are not necessarily sex positive. I guess it’s the simplest way to say so. I have to talk to them, and I want to have a clean website for people to visit and not worry about finding something bad that shouldn’t be there. You can just download, and you’re done, it’s all free, no ads, no anything.
AP: So, you are asking people individually, but do you have any rules about the content?
TD: The rules are not publicly disclosed, that’s not a thing. Yeah, but there are rules behind the scenes, just to remind them what to do. But the thing is that I wouldn’t feature someone who is already known for making controversial things.
AP: When did you say you created this website?
TD: It launched in January 2024.
AP: Okay, that’s so cool. I love that you are taking this initiative to do something positive for the community and create safer content.
TD: I mean, I wish I didn’t have to. This is so much extra work and it’s already super problematic to handle, but I want to keep it going. Hopefully, it doesn’t end up costing me too much either.
AP: Is it expensive?
TD: Yeah, you’re having a lot of people go in and download content. Everybody clicking to download costs money, but hopefully, it never is too much where I can’t pay for it. I don’t want there to be ads because I bet those would be awful for any porn-related website. Those are bad. But those creators on the website, a lot of them also have their own platform. They would usually have a Patreon. I want them to link that stuff, but it doesn’t have to be included if they don’t want to.
AP: Are they paid to be on the website? Or do they have to pay something?
TD: No. This is accessibility. That’s the core of it. If they want to be featured, this is what I link. Now, that’s where I tell people to go if they want to be noticed. It’s free and they don’t need to pay anything to be there. It’s just a platform. They don’t have to make WickedWhims related things, though. Any adult content can be on there, like clothing, objects, stuff like that. And body too.
AP: Which is very important.
TD: It’s still lacking. It’s going to take a long time to populate it.
AP: How big do you estimate the active adult content creator’s community in the Sims is?
TD: Well, if you go to my website, the mod website, on the download page I link most of those that I know. There could be like 50. There are animators. There are people who make clothing exclusively. There are people who make specific objects. Usually, the people who make objects animate as well, because they want to create new environments that they can put animations in. Yeah, and then there’s a lot of other animation creators that just make gameplay mods too, like interactive things. And then, there’s creators who make body models. There’s some that just do language changes and text replacement, like they want to add vulgarity. I don’t like that, I keep that to the minimum, but there’s some people that want it. Technically, that person is a creator as well. They’re putting effort into that. There’s a lot. I mean, it grew a lot.
AP: So, on your WickedCC website, you only feature people who make Sims 4 adult content for the players to use, but not animated media made using WickedWhims for example?
TD: No, it’s not the goal. There’s nothing like that on this website.
AP: Okay that’s super interesting. You really have this network of people helping make the WickedWhims what it is.
TD: Oh, yeah, this is super important. I’m pretty sure that if they disappeared, the player base would go down by a lot, because I can only do so much myself. They have to be there; I have to work with them. I have to cooperate with them a lot.
AP: I guess it also gives you access to a wider variety of sexualities and desires.
TD: I wish it was even more varied. I wish there were more people creating more varied content, because most of it is just basic heterosexual animations and that’s it. I guess it is still the biggest audience.
AP: What do you think is maybe still lacking in WickedWhims?
TD: In terms of animations, there’s definitely a lot. I don’t know about gameplay features. I get individuals suggesting things to me all the time and I can’t even keep up with that. I write a lot of ideas down, and the main problem for me personally is that I need to understand what they actually want. What do they actually like about these ideas? I always ask them: what is it that you actually like about this fantasy or kink you’re talking to me about? Because I want to know, I want to feel like I understand, so I can provide you with an experience. And I can’t know it all. I can approximate some of these things, and hopefully what I provide is enough. And for animations, it’s just more sexualities. Thankfully, there’s a lot more gay creators, male gay creators that know what to make for the male gay audience. That audience is huge and I’m glad there are these animators now providing it because someone who purely makes heterosexual animations doesn’t always get it. People can usually tell. And at the same time, any animations for women lesbians, that’s lacking. It appears to me as just a way smaller audience, but I wish there was more. But I can’t control it. I don’t know, how would I? I can’t really bring a person into this. They just have to stumble upon it and make something.
AP: What has been the biggest evolution in the mod since its creation?
TD: I don’t actually know how to answer this one. There are so many small improvements over the years I’ve been doing this for uh, what is it? Over seven years now – about to be 8 in a month. There’s a lot that evolved in terms of quality, in terms of what’s possible for creators, because all of these people, all these other creators I talk to. We figure out what could be done to improve the environment for everyone, so they can do better animations or better mods that integrate better with everyone. The mod has evolved in these tiny ways throughout the years, but I can’t say there’s one thing that happened that was a breakthrough.
AP: When you work on the visual aspect of WickedWhims, are you inspired by animated pornography or by live-action porn?
TD: I guess, in terms of animation I don’t know because I don’t animate myself. I observe the community of animators, and much of them have shifted to using Blender now. I’m impressed by what they make, but there isn’t much to get out of it for me as I am a creator of storytelling tools. In terms of regular porn, the interesting thing is that so much of it is now kinks, if not all of it is now just a bunch of different fetishes. But it’s not just porn. There’s usually something, some kind of background, some kind of theme to it, or some kind of backstory introduced in it, and that’s actually something that influences what I do. These ideas have to come from somewhere and somebody has to like them. There’s a reason this kind of pornography is produced, and that is something I definitely notice.
AP: Yeah, you don’t consider yourself an animator because you’re not ever animating.
TD: Yeah, I don’t. I don’t make animations. I had to learn animating to teach it to other animators, like how to get to do the animations for WickedWhims, and that was it. They just figured out the rest themselves.
AP: Do you ask animators to make animations for WickedWhims?
TD: I don’t ask anyone. That’s another thing. I made a few animations myself at the beginning because I had to as there was nothing. I had to learn animation; otherwise, how can I help other animators start? Because I had to talk to them. And then animators just did it. They just started doing it on their own. I didn’t have to ask anybody. They just showed up and started making animations. I guess they saw the potential in it. I do ask animators to help me with specific projects though, for example to populate the Strip Club business with dancing animations.
Part 3: Being a Content Creator
AP: I often interact with adult content creators who are not performers. Something that always struck me is that they are part of the sex work ecosystem, and still deal with concerns such as anonymity, social stigma, and relational labor. A question I like to ask is, do you yourself identify as a sex or porn worker?
TD: I thought about this question a lot because it’s so philosophical. Like, do I count in this definition? And I was asking other people, ‘did they see me like that?’ I think that most people would say no, as it just doesn’t instinctually make sense. But I am providing a product that is related to sex, but because I’m not actually performing anything, it’s difficult to say that. I don’t think anybody would think I’m a sex worker, but technically you can say I am. It’s like a yes and no answer. Most of the time, I don’t do anything that looks like sex work. I just sit here, code, and talk to other people who make stuff for me so I can incorporate it in the mod. And then, I provide that service for others that can do anything they want with it. I guess the user is just playing the game. It’s a tool for a game. I’ve seen people who stream with the mod and reproduce the things they do in the game. I guess that counts as sex work, and the mod is a tool that enhances it for them. Yeah, I don’t know, I just provide a tool, so technically I’m related to sex work in that way. I guess there’s many levels of it and I’m just somewhere lower. And then, there’s the perspective of stigma. I don’t have that. I don’t actually notice that in the community. Even the ‘safe for everyone’ communities are still okay with WickedWhims. It just became accepted throughout the years. That’s probably just me, though. This is a really specific situation where although I make sexual content, I’m not seen as difficult within the Sims community.
AP: It feels like we need to come up with a new word or a new definition to include non-performing adult content creators.
TD: I talk to other creators that make sexually explicit content and I remember joking with them about how do you even explain to somebody what you do? The joke is that you just tell people that you do porn. Like that’s ultimately what it ends up being. I wouldn’t tell that to someone, but that was the joke.
AP: How do you navigate this anonymity? Would you ever want to go public?
TD: I mean, right now I don’t care about that. I don’t need people to know me as a person. Why does it matter, right? Another thing is that I don’t need my person to be now and forever associated with making WickedWhims. Okay, it’s not a bad thing, but that would be the thing that would probably stick with me forever. I can probably reveal it at some point in the future when I have maybe something else going on. I don’t know, in like 20 years I might have a completely different job doing something else. And I might reveal it just because, why not? But today I don’t need it.
AP: Okay, but so at the moment, making WickedWhims is your full-time job.
TD: Yeah, it has been for years. It has been pretty much since I started. It just somehow happened.
AP: Could you see yourself doing something else? Working on another game?
TD: I don’t know, because the main conversation is, ‘oh, another Sims game is going to come out, are you going to do that?’ It’s like, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll see when it comes out. It could be that I will do it because that’s like the thing I know how to do, and I’ll just do that forever. Maybe I’ll get bored. I had my ups and downs. It’s so easy to get burnt out, especially at this point, because I have to just make better and better things, and it gets harder and harder. Early on, it was great, I could do whatever and I didn’t know anything. And then, there’s also all these other upcoming simulation games. But who knows, maybe they will be more popular, and I could jump into them. We don’t know right now.
AP: As a modder, do you feel like your livelihood depends on a game you cannot control?
TD: At this point, I can just stop doing this and be fine. I’ve been successful enough that I can just jump to doing something else and it probably will be okay, and that’s kind of what I’m maybe hoping to happen. Eventually, maybe something will happen where I can’t continue and I’ll just start another project, like a game. I’ll try to make games again like how I did when I started, because who knows what I will be able to do. Another thing is that maybe, you know, monetizing WickedWhims will become so difficult that I just won’t be able to do it.
AP: Yeah. Opposed to other popular Sims 4 content creators, you’re not endorsed by EA. Have you ever interacted with the company? Or with the team?
TD: Well, I’m not surprised I’m not endorsed, because it would be kind of a disaster for them. I mean, them publicly endorsing or collaborating with me would be so questionable. I can imagine news sites reporting on something like that: ‘Maxis is collaborating with an adult content creator.’ After all, there are most likely a lot of teenagers playing this and they don’t need parents seeing that kind of information. I don’t expect them to ever do anything with me. Why would they? I don’t need them to ever do anything with me. I’m fine on my own because they don’t stop me, and they don’t cause me trouble. But yeah, I talked to them, I talked to some of their employees, and there was technically a collaboration because Maxis worked with CurseForge, a platform for mods. And early on, I’ve been specifically invited to participate in that. I showed up in some of the Sims promotional materials, but not with WickedWhims obviously.
AP: So, they’re not pretending you don’t exist just because you’re associated with adult content.
TD: Oh yeah, not even ‘not pretending,’ they publicly mentioned me in the past. The funniest thing happened: they were showing one of the new packs on their official live stream, and they said that there would be no new woohoo locations in the pack. In response, One of the Sims gurus (the Sims developers) was like, ‘that’s fine, WickedWhims will add it.’ That’s so bizarre to mention that mod on their own official live stream.
AP: Now, you have to do it.
TD: Oh, that’s fine. I don’t want them to be in trouble for that kind of thing. I’m sure they’re not supposed to say things like that. They don’t mention that many mod creators in general. Yeah, they partner with some of them, but that’s kind of it.
AP: Maybe the WickedWhims kit will come out.
TD: I mean, they’re doing something right now. I don’t know what it is, though.
AP: Right, they just announced a woohoo romance pack [The Sims 4 Lovestruck Expansion Pack]. How do you feel about it?
TD: It’s great. It’s really good because that’s going to help me a lot. Whatever they’re going to do, I can just use that and jump off it. And it’s most likely something that the community wants. They just don’t ask for that kind of thing, but they most likely want it.
AP: Do you think this new pack will fill a gap in adult interactions in the game?
TD: I mean, the Sims 4 is way more forward than previous games. It might seem like it’s not, but it is way more forward. I mean, I was just thinking about that today: the Sims 4 has beaches, and they added specifically the ability to make nudist beaches. It isn’t directly sex related, but it’s so much more open. This is not something they’ve done before. They haven’t reduced the amount of woohoo or anything like that. They’re doing the same thing, maybe more, and maybe they’ll do even more with this new pack.
AP: How do you feel about sex in the Sims 4?
TD: It’s pretty much the same than in the Sims 3. Maybe they’re a little bit more risqué. I don’t know, I don’t think it changed or actually decreased.
AP: What about your own mod, how do you trace lines into sex content you decide to include or not?
TD: I can say simply that I do want to fit the game’s theme. Sure, things get explicit, but for example in the wording I use, I’m not vulgar, I keep things tame. I want to fit the game humor, and the game aesthetic and looks. I spend money specifically just to get things visually to look like the game and imitate it as much as possible. I want it to be seamless, and that’s how I decide what’s supposed to be in there. But I guess the content itself doesn’t matter; it could be anything as long as I make it fit roughly.
AP: Do you have any ethical lines?
TD: Oh, yeah, I mean, that’s a huge topic, what is actually supposed to be included and whatnot. This is a conversation I have all the time with people because I constantly would have someone email me asking me, ‘why is this in the game,’ or ‘why did you add that?’ or ‘what do you think about this,’ ‘why do you have an option for this?’ And it is a matter of listening to what people have to say and I think I have that figured out. Not just because I’m listening to people but personally, my preferences are not that extreme. I’m not interested in what people would call really weird stuff, and that’s very beneficial. Because I keep things simple. And the general message is just the sex positivity. If someone finds an animation that’s a little bit too rough, that’s already a problem because I’m going to hear about that. Someone’s going to be talking to me about how an animator is doing things that are a little bit too weird or too brutal. I personally don’t like that. So, I limit that. I guess I keep things simple for me because it fits what I prefer. But then, there’s a lot of other subjects that require me to actually observe what the community has to say. I really don’t know how to answer that, because there’s just so many individual things that I have to consider, and respond to, and adjust.
AP: So, for example, when you say, ‘an animation is doing something that is a bit too rough,’ is there a community of animators who do things you really don’t endorse? Do you ever interact with them?
TD: Oh, of course there’s so much of that. There are horrible, horrific things out there that I hope are just kept in these tiny specific communities, and nobody actually finds them or learns about them unless they search for them. I can’t stop it. Ultimately, nobody can stop it. Even if it’s fictional, that’s awful. You could try reporting it, but nothing is going to change.
AP: Is it people who make very offensive animation and use WickedWhims? Do you think it is your responsibility to moderate them?
TD: Yeah. Not only that, but they will also go as far as modifying WickedWhims to allow things that I don’t. And I don’t know if it’s not my responsibility. If you point out that there’s things I can do to minimize it, why wouldn’t I help with it as best as I can? An example is the website I made, WickedCC. It minimizes the chances you’re going to see something bad. It’s one of the ways to help that. It’s not a small community anymore. The numbers of people playing with WickedWhims are so big that I just can’t even believe it.
AP: How big?
TD: The numbers are so huge that I can’t believe they’re actually real. It doesn’t make sense to me. I was investigating that recently. One of the things I do with the mod is that when you turn the game on, it checks if you have the newest version and if you don’t, it tells you that. It does that once per day, and so the people who load in the game have to connect to my server to see if the version’s number is correct. So, I can see how many people connect per day and I have around 300,000 daily players. This is beyond normal, this is insane. I don’t even understand why that number is so large, because this is more than most games.
AP: As I told you, I think you’re very popular even among players who are not connected to the community. People hear about the mod from other players.
TD: I guess, that’s the only thing because I don’t do a lot to promote myself. I’m just kind of here and it slowly, steadily grows. The only thing that I recently did was the sex toy thing, the Lovense integration. That was the only time I partnered with another brand, and that they promoted me. A lot of people were asking Lovense to add support for WickedWhims, and so they approached me a year ago. It took me that long to actually do something with them. They wanted me to make in-game animations that connect with their toys.
AP: Wait, that’s so cool! When was this?
TD: It happened in February this year. That’s when I released it. They approached me in December 2022 actually, and at the time I just didn’t see the appeal at all. I did not want to do it, but they were such a big brand. It ended up seeming like a good idea to do something with them.
AP: Is it still going on?
TB: Yeah, this is still a thing. I’m definitely going to be expanding it because I had no idea it would blow up so much. I thought people wouldn’t care.
AP: How does it work?
TD: The game is as usual. You just connect the toy to the game, and it will do things depending on what’s happening in the game. Well specifically sex, of course.
AP: Is it the first time you made such a collaboration with a brand?
TD: Yeah, because the problem was that a lot of the people ask for collaborations by saying ‘you promote us, and we will promote you.’ If I don’t care about the product, why would I do that? But with Lovense, it just made sense. They understood what WickedWhims was, and it actually benefits the players. This one makes sense. They told me that they reached out because people asked for it.
AP: Did you get paid?
TD: No, no. I just got the affiliate link and some kind of discount for the first month so people could click that. Plenty of people clicked it, so I guess, technically I got paid that way.
AP: Is it the moment that you thought, ‘I made it’?
TD: No, not at all. This is just strange to me. When WickedWhims users first asked me to add support for Lovense, I claimed it couldn’t be done because I didn’t think the technology for it was possible. I explained this story in a different interview, how it came to be and exactly what was the problem with that. Because I tried to do all the fancy things, like using AI. It just did not work, so I had to change plans.
AP: Do you ever use AI in your work?
TD: Oh yeah, because I do a lot of this stuff myself. Most of the time, I try to get other people involved, but sometimes, I just need simple things and I struggle a lot with coming up with ideas for writing. There’s so many of these descriptions in the mod and I don’t know what to write. And so, I ask ChatGPT for ideas on what to write, and it just tells me the kind of wording I can use. It never tells me anything that I can directly use because AI is awful still, but it’s good for ideas. I haven’t found any other AI that’s useful for this, other than building my own and it takes so much time that I gave up.
AP: Do any decisions by EA ever impact you as a content creator? I know that, a few years ago, they were very against modders making money. Is it compatible with your personal workflow?
TD: I don’t think it mattered to anybody, because I’ve never seen people just sell a mod. That’s just not a thing. The only thing I can think of is that people might have had some kind of predatory tactics with selling stuff, and the community did not like that and kept bringing that problem up to EA. I remember observing this being a conversation a long time ago when EA made some statements about modders needing to release mods for free after some reasonable amount of time, but nobody cares overall because this is not enforced. I mean, I’ve never heard of anybody being contacted about making money. There are players who are upset that some creators make something and paywall it on Patreon. People might boycott modders then. Somehow, this has never happened to me, I guess I’m lucky with that. EA said that modders needed to release mods for free two weeks after publication, but that’s not how I make my stuff. I can’t apply this easily; two weeks is just too short. Another thing is, what if I want to make a prototype? What if I don’t think it’s supposed to be released to everyone? But my mod is technically always free. EA never told me anything about that, and even in general, nobody does. I mean, I’ve talked to EA lawyers, and they did not have a problem with me getting money from people for developing stuff. They only have problems with using words that are trademarked or promotional artworks. Like mods that end up looking like packs. They don’t want that.
AP: Did you have a meeting with them?
TD: No, no. They just sent an email that said, ‘don’t do this, change that, and we will verify if you did’ and that’s it.
AP: Was it about the term ‘Woohoo’?
TD: Yeah, exactly, the mod used to be called WickedWoohoo, and they were like ‘your mod is getting too popular and you’re using the word woohoo, this is not okay.’ They thought that people were going to think that the word ‘Woohoo’ is actually sexually explicit and didn’t want me to potentially ruin that word for them. That made sense to me, I have no problem with that, and I changed the name.
AP: For professional modders, you think that subscription-based platforms are the way to go?
TD: Well, it’s convenient. I don’t ask people to support me to get access, but because I need it if I’m to do this. I need to have some money to be able to live. I could have a job, and I’m sure a lot of the creators do and make content on Patreon, but I’m just lucky that because I am based in Europe, making US dollars is very convenient for me. I have it much easier that way too.
AP: When did you first make your Patreon?
TD: About a month after I first posted the mod on the LoversLab forum, I made a Patreon, but I had no real plans what to do with it. I didn’t know how to ask people to support me because at the time, I didn’t feel right to do it. Nobody knew me, I was barely making this mod, and I was still learning, but I made that Patreon, and I linked it. I didn’t ask anybody to join and then people just did even when there was nothing on it. I did not know how to handle that at the time. People suddenly give you money, what do you do? I took a while to figure out how I wanted to handle it, but I guess that was pretty quick. After I started, it took about a month for me to have something going that was stable.
AP: I know it can be hard for content creators who do animation-related adult content on Patreon as policies are often unclear. Is that something you have to navigate?
TD: I think I’m a unique example in this because I had a few times where I would get contacted by Patreon and they would specifically ask me to take things down to not have problems. And I would do it, and that would be it. Ahead of time, they told me what to do and I listened. That’s really that simple. I was being super careful because this is my job. I don’t want to risk it, so I made sure that anything they didn’t like was gone. But recently, no problems. I’m pretty careful about that, and I keep things fairly simple. I don’t do any crazy weird kinks or fetishes that may potentially be problematic or controversial. I just don’t want to do that stuff, yeah, so I don’t have problems. And another thing is that I don’t do commissions, so I only do things I agree with.
AP: Are you in touch with people who make machinima using WickedWhims? Or do you see them as parallel entities?
TD: I wish I knew more people like that because many emails me asking for permission. They’re listening to what these platforms tell them, that you need permission from the creators to make and post videos. I always ask them to send me stuff they make because I want to see it. But they don’t, they just don’t.
AP: Do you ask out of curiosity?
TD: I mean, I don’t actually search for that. Another thing is that I don’t think most of what people post looks good quality wise. The videos that I post are videos for which I have to hire video producers to help me so they can be exactly the way I want. I wish creators would send me their videos. I mean, actually that’s not true. There are some creators that do show things to me, but that’s very rare.
AP: Do you watch WickedWhims commentary on YouTube?
TD: It’s kind of difficult for me to watch. When they play and don’t know something, I feel like I failed in communicating stuff, like as a creator. It’s embarrassing to me, but I do watch it, I think it’s fun.
Part 4: Ethics
AP: Is there anything else you feel like I should have asked you about?
TD: I would usually expect people to ask more about past controversies. I mean, it’s documented out there and it’s not like I hid anything. The issue is with other people creating the bad, horrific things I mentioned before. Like making animations involving children and animals. This kept growing and became so noticeable that I had to do something. And people were making petitions for EA to act on it, and they were associating this bad stuff with me even though I had nothing to do with it.
AP: Yeah, that’s something I work on a lot. Where do you trace lines in the moderation of animation? What does harm mean when there is no body attached to it?
TD: To me, this is a constant problem because any time I add something to WickedWhims that could be considered questionable or controversial, how do I justify its existence, while at the same time not justifying the existence of some awful animations involving children or animals. How do I keep that balance? Because, I can’t just say that it’s fiction and therefore, that it’s okay. This is not an answer because then I enable those annoying and difficult people in these niche communities.
AP: Yeah, when we say that animation is not real, it does not mean that there is no stake in animated media. There are obvious lines, like not having children involved in WickedWhims.
TD: Yes, it’s a pretty basic line to have. But there’s so many things to consider in this. The most common line that I have to figure out is, what’s rape? Like, what counts in an animation as rape? Does it have to be explained by name? Do you have to be able to tell by looking at it? Does it have to be considered role-play, or an actual act? Some people say it doesn’t, some people say they can see it’s assault regardless. That’s kind of the player’s decision as well. I don’t want to deal with this as it’s too problematic, but it is a constant thing because animators make things that are questionable, and people ask me. I end up being the person that has to decide. I have to figure out what’s ok. The Sims don’t even have age, they have age groups. What age is a teen? They look and function like adults. Could it be an older teen, or a younger teen? Ultimately, that’s your decision as a player. I have to figure out an approach to minimize the harm. People complained about teens having sex and them having relationships with young adults, because if someone portrays a teen as much younger, then it’s immediately controversial. Because enough people complained, I removed it. But then, every day for a year and a half, I would get an email telling me how this is a bad decision. So, I brought it back and nobody’s telling me that it’s bad. Most people are actually okay with that. People were saying, ‘teens do have sex, so why would you remove it?’ I don’t want to make definitive statements as I think it’s important for me to have some room to adjust things when necessary.
AP: Well, thank you so much for answering all of my questions! That was very generous of you.
TD: Oh no, no problem. I mean, I found most of them interesting because I do think about these things a lot myself.