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Quality over quantity?

I have been seeing a lot of comments saying the packs have more quality because of less quantity compared to the previous versions of The Sims. But is that really true? I went to Metacritic to see it for myself. I compared the EPs with similar themes.

The Sims 2 Open for Business:78 / User Score: 8.6
The Sims 3 Ambitions: 74 / User Score: 7.2
The Sims 4 Get to Work: 73 / User Score: 5.9

The Sims 2 Nightlife: 76 / User Score: 6.7
The Sims 3 Late Night: 74 / User Score: 6.4
The Sims 4 Get Together: 72 / User Score: 7.3

Well. I could continue but you can already see where this is going, I've also seen an interesting review on Sims 2 Nighlife saying:
"A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag." Considering it's content is the equivalent of The Sims 4 Get Together, Bowling Night, Vampires AND Dine Out made me think if I'm spending my money wisely, what do you guys think about this?

Comments

  • DeservedCriticismDeservedCriticism Posts: 2,251 Member
    I'm more distracted by how surprising those user reviews are for Nightlife and Late Night.

    Nightlife, iirc, was the pack that introduced cars to the Sims, the first one to make Sims 2 neighborhoods endless (keep adding downtown zones to expand it), I think it added or expanded turn-ons and attractions, and it was basically just a revolutionary pack for adding on a downtown area.

    Late Night is admittedly a little less polished if you get REALLY critical of it (was light on the content-side), but it got carried hard by how much people loved Bridgeport and regularly gets named as a favorite. Surprising to see it ranked low just because of how many people praised it initially.

    Also surprised this one isn't way lower, but it doesn't have many reviews to begin with to the point that one sarcastic/weird/whatever it is 10 at the top actually sways the score up a lot.
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  • DragonCat159DragonCat159 Posts: 1,896 Member
    All I see it's little quality and less quantity at the same time. Exception for stuff packs: quatity > quality.
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  • HalloMolliHalloMolli Posts: 2,720 Member
    edited August 2017
    I dunno, it's Metacritic after all. Frankly, I am not the biggest fan of TS3 Generations and Showtime (in retrospective both are glorified gamepacks at best), however they don't deserve such a low user-Rating, LoL --> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-3-generations/user-reviews

    Anyway: It's nice to see that actually many People appreciate the great value an ep like Get Together provides by introducing a feature I'd call a game-changer for almost every playstyle (besides builders) and which has by far the best replayability of all packs. It's cost-efficient, future-proven, Comes with the best sandbox-tool one could wish for, has a catalog fully packed with over 300 build and buy-mode objects and adds the most beautiful town/city in TS history to your game.

    Thus Get Together is my personal 10/10 pack of all time. Followed by TS3 University and TS3 Seasons.

    Get to Work was a solid entry, I guess, City Living, on the other Hand, was okay, nothing Special, Kind of neglectable.
    "[...] and everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end."


  • kremesch73kremesch73 Posts: 10,474 Member
    edited August 2017
    I think the only reason GT got such a high rating was because it was desperately needed. Not to mention there are far more people online than there were in the previous games to voice their opinions.

    All in all though:
    "A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag."

    One could say the exact same thing about GT.
    Post edited by kremesch73 on
    Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
  • king_of_simcity7king_of_simcity7 Posts: 25,102 Member
    It depends on what players class as quality but when you look at how nearly every single EP in TS3 added a new world which was open and after EP2 was customisable then that would add to the EP's quality. I never felt that any TS3 EP was that bad, even the more lighter ones such as Generations which was as light as TS2's Pets or TS1's Livin Large EP.

    I am not sure what they do with TS4 but it seems to be a focus on more scaled down Game Packs and less of big EPs. Reactions seem to be very mixed so any quality against quantity is impossible to determine
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  • Bear31Bear31 Posts: 3,412 Member
    edited August 2017
    Personally I think it all subjective (objective? Its morning and I only have had one cup of coffee.....lol). In my eyes I love all the stuff, game, and expansion packs as they stand. I play it all. I think that its good quality and if quantity suffers? So be it. They are really taking their time with Sims 4 and I am loving it. Thing you have to realize is that.....#1, no game is perfect and will have every little thing the player's heart desires and #2, not everything that we come up with or that we may think is a given.....example, getting cars for Get Together.......is doable given the system they built Sims 4 on. So in retrospect, I feel as though with the resources that they have they are doing a great job!
  • Sigzy05Sigzy05 Posts: 19,406 Member
    edited August 2017
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

    Ahahaha
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  • DragonCat159DragonCat159 Posts: 1,896 Member
    edited August 2017
    Come to think, we get less quantity when it comes to what the content packs has to offer (not those things coming a year itself) and at the same time having less quality (it's enough obvious, since many find almost every one a shallow/mediocore).

    Like for example City Living vs Late Night vs Apartment Life. Devs might as well consider it being a stuff pack along with a base game patch that introduces it's introduced world or as downloadable word. Apartments are basically just reskin houses&neighborhood. It's so poor that I cant see it as ''expansion pack" despite the given category for it.

    However when it comes to how many content packs we get a year, TS4 wins over with {{quantiy>quality}} (I think many can agree that TS4 has poor quality).
    Post edited by DragonCat159 on
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  • Bear31Bear31 Posts: 3,412 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Bear31 wrote: »
    Personally I think it all subjective (objective? Its morning and I only have had one cup of coffee.....lol). In my eyes I love all the stuff, game, and expansion packs as they stand. I play it all. I think that its good quality and if quantity suffers? So be it. They are really taking their time with Sims 4 and I am loving it. Thing you have to realize is that.....#1, no game is perfect and will have every little thing the player's heart desires and #2, not everything that we come up with or that we may think is a given.....example, getting cars for Get Together.......is doable given the system they built Sims 4 on. So in retrospect, I feel as though with the resources that they have they are doing a great job!
    Subjective ;) Here you go:

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    :blush:

    OMG!! You are the best!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ *drinks happily*
  • CupidCupid Posts: 3,623 Member
    I've also seen an interesting review on Sims 2 Nighlife saying:
    "A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag." Considering it's content is the equivalent of The Sims 4 Get Together, Bowling Night, Vampires AND Dine Out made me think if I'm spending my money wisely, what do you guys think about this?

    Well, if this is the case then yes, you are indeed wasting your money :D
    I can't say I fully agree (especially not that ts2 vampires = ts4 vampires) but that's irrelevant because it isn't my money being spent on what I deem to be the exact same thing.
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  • KarallyneKarallyne Posts: 362 Member
    kremesch73 wrote: »
    "A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag."

    One could say the exact same thing about GT.

    someone could (and plenty probably have) say the exact same thing about every base game and every expansion in the series.. not seeing what this adds to what was said
  • FaybelFaybel Posts: 53 Member
    I think a lot of TS4 packs are really lacking in quantity for the price tag. That's not to say I'd want to see a quality drop for the sake of extra content, but I do believe the price tag warrants more content of the same quality.
  • kremesch73kremesch73 Posts: 10,474 Member
    edited August 2017
    Karallyne wrote: »
    kremesch73 wrote: »
    "A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag."

    One could say the exact same thing about GT.

    someone could (and plenty probably have) say the exact same thing about every base game and every expansion in the series.. not seeing what this adds to what was said

    Sorry. Let me clarify: I was inadvertently pointing out that quality over quantity is a myth.

    Do I feel I should have everything under the sun in a pack? No.

    Do I feel lesser items = quality? Again. No.

    I do not feel S4 offers quality. That's just my opinion. Having less items and more packs has not led me to believe otherwise when the proof is in the pudding.
    Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
  • xitneverendssxitneverendss Posts: 1,772 Member
    edited August 2017
    Deleted because apparently this post was worthy of namecalling.
    Post edited by xitneverendss on
  • FloppyFishFloppyFish Posts: 3,881 Member
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

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    Edit: Thanks forum for plumming out the most ridiculous things.

    eh not really, the statement is not backed up by anything
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  • kremesch73kremesch73 Posts: 10,474 Member
    edited August 2017
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

    *snip*

    Edit: Thanks forum for plumming out the most ridiculous things.

    It would be even nicer if we could filter out juvenile gifs.
    Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
  • TriplisTriplis Posts: 3,048 Member
    edited August 2017
    Well for one thing, keep in mind that a statement like what you quoted:
    A solid expansion, although I really wouldn't call it a must-have because it's a little light on content for its price tag.
    Is most likely the person's perception and not based on any kind of comparative metric, other than their impression of what "light on content" means. Usually people say that kind of thing based on a feeling, especially with a game like the sims, where it can be difficult to wrap your head around all of the little details and possible permutations unless you play a pack for months (in the case of an EP) or at least for a week or so in the case of SPs.

    I don't know about others, but when I bring up the idea (what is to me, a speculative idea) that there is focus on quality over quantity, what I mean is "a shorter list of features, but with more depth to each feature," as opposed to "a longer list of features, but with less depth to each feature." For example, the amount of depth that went into Vampires.

    This is not to say that the Vampires approach is necessarily going to result in "objectively" better content. It just means that it covers less ground, but in more detail on the ground that it does cover. I don't know if this is even true, or if it actually contributes to peoples' perception of the different games if it is true.
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  • xitneverendssxitneverendss Posts: 1,772 Member
    kremesch73 wrote: »
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

    *snip*

    Edit: Thanks forum for plumming out the most ridiculous things.

    It would be even nicer if we could filter out juvenile gifs.

    Really? That's fine if you don't like gifs but no need to imply I'm juvenile because of it, thanks.
  • OilbasedoleanderOilbasedoleander Posts: 2,967 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I feel they are too much focusing on animation based stuff that's nice for a couple of times but then you know it. And the game needs that, but it shouldn't be all, content needs to also hand content that goes deeper than that. And this by the way is a complaint that for me began in the Sims 3 era. I remember them presenting the festival options of Seasons for instance and everyone was like ooooh and aaaah and 'can't wait till my sims can do that', and I was kind of grumpy just thinking 'yeah, but where's the deeper gameplay there'. They've offered Store content from one point that looked delicious but was an absolute bore (the Venice venue, the glass-blower/jewelry making station that allows your sim to make jewelry they can also get in CAS come to mind).

    There needs to be a balance between adding real gameplay and handing a few nice brief fun features. I have a feeling they did that better back in the TS2 days. With Sims 3 they kind of lost that and now all we get is the latter (GT seemed to be an exception but I can't see the fun of gathering together a group of people who will autonomously start to do the same thing on their own; wow, look at that, my sim called her cooking friends and now I have a fridge filled with meals yaay). I do think the last packages however are showing a change in the right direction again (though I haven't played them myself yet). I don't believe this is a quality over quantity thing by the way. They added gameplay in the past that is just as deep as the vampires and it came in an EP. I'm not buying this "yes, we have to offer you this one by one for €20 each to make it better". Packages from the past simply prove that wrong.

    Agreed. The quality isn't in the shallow content/stuff they produce, but the time they take with game play and the sims themselves. Example being toddlers and vampires. These fleshed out life states prove there is quality, however, quantity AND quality of interactive (and decor) items will suffer due to their wonderful excuse of budget restraints.

    Poor TS4 needs better backing for sure.
  • TheHarbinger_51TheHarbinger_51 Posts: 1,702 Member
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

    Sureee. Sims 4 has no quality. Because you say so. Thats not a statement that should be taken seriously.Ever.

    And Im sure, like always,sims 3 has the "quality" lol.
  • ShadowmarkedShadowmarked Posts: 1,054 Member
    I find quantity to be more objective and quality to be more subjective personally.
    I think per pack ts4 has less quantity however when we consider how many packs they have in total I think ts4 wins in quantity.
    On the quality level I have found exactly three things I think are quality for ts4. Tots, vamps and clubs. When I consider how many packs we have I personally do not feel that over all ts4 has given me quality. Then because I'm stingy with money I also don't want to buy packs with a low quantity. So for me ts4 has not made me feel happy quality or quantity wise.
  • PukingautotunePukingautotune Posts: 154 Member
    edited August 2017
    Sims 4 has neither quality or quantity, so that is that

    Sureee. Sims 4 has no quality. Because you say so. Thats not a statement that should be taken seriously.Ever.

    And Im sure, like always,sims 3 has the "quality" lol.

    Nope, sims 2 has the best quality and quantity of the series. Sims 3 is good too but not as good as sims 2. An EP in ts2 actually gave you real gameplay changing content instead of the so called ''gameplay objects'' and set dressing ts4 packs give you. Ts4 EPs don't make playing the game more fun they just give you animations. For example apartement life added so much stuff to normal gameplay like reputation, social classes, real apartments. Nightlife added an attraction system (turn ons/off), fury, tons of new NPCs. You know stuff that actually makes the game deeper and more fun.
    Post edited by Pukingautotune on
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