I think TS5 needs to take a step back to really have a future. There's been a clear decline in quality with TS4, and people have grown visibly indifferent about it. To stay relevant, I think TS5 will need to take serious inspiration from TS2.
And I think they should stop trying to make The Sims something it isn't - "wacky", "weirder", "hip kool and fresh", "aimed at the teenage audience". That's not what The Sims is about.
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not the same as saying that the engine is crumbling, but simguruDrake outright admitted that the game has many limitations.
UMM what is this? She said The Sims was targeted at teenage girls? Is this why they are transforming the sims into Happyville where nothing bad happens? And she basically confirmed the endless limitations are because of budget. But I thought The Sims was one of the best selling pc game of all time?
Edit: @Erpe I think you'll find this interview interesting. She admits what you've been trying to prove this entire forum, directly from the source. around 25:00
Oh boy... Was waiting for someone to get all hurt about this.
The Sims has ALWAYS been targeted towards teenage girls because that is their biggest demographic. Remember Katy Perry pack?
Doesn't mean you can't enjoy it if them not a teenage girl.
Katy Perry was the one who went to EA to promote herself and her new life movie/documentary, the devs had nothing to do with it. They don't pick the brands, like Diesel or H&M or Ikea. It's what Graham said a few years back when talking about SP's. The higher ups are the ones who make those deals and they have to make the packs.
not the same as saying that the engine is crumbling, but simguruDrake outright admitted that the game has many limitations.
UMM what is this? She said The Sims was targeted at teenage girls? Is this why they are transforming the sims into Happyville where nothing bad happens? And she basically confirmed the endless limitations are because of budget. But I thought The Sims was one of the best selling pc game of all time?
Edit: @Erpe I think you'll find this interview interesting. She admits what you've been trying to prove this entire forum, directly from the source. around 25:00
Yes, she said what should always have been obvious and especially for TS4 which clearly wasn't an attempt to improve TS3 into a better and more advanced game like EA of course would have done if TS4 mainly was targeted at the same simmers who already played TS3. So why wasn't it? The only reason I could imagine was that it was targeted mainly at new simmers. This suits the idea of making TS4 into a simpler game with more autonomous and funny behavior of the sims which is exactly what EA did. The idea was later further developed for toddlers and now soon also for cats and dogs.
So EA must believe that the group of new simmers is the main group of customers. Otherwise EA of course wouldn't have dreamt of abandoning all the TS3 simmers in this way.
That the game is more played by girls than most other games isn't a surprise. But even so I am not sure if the idea of mainly targeting the youngest teen girls was there already for the Sims 1 basegame because it was made as a sidegame to the SimCity game which targeted a much broader group of gamers. But even so it was the young teen girls who especially loved the game and made it into such a huge success. This group of young teen girls now seem to be so dominating as the main group of customers that EA now openly admits to target it much more than the simmers who played the previous game.
So if we go back to the main subject of this thread and look at the following:
TS1 was released in 2000.
TS2 was released in 2004.
TS3 was released in 2009.
TS4 was released in 2014.
Then we see a clear pattern. TS1 only had a lifetime of 4 yrs and obviously because it was the first game and only planned to be a smaller sidegame to the SimCity series. It was made for a very small budget and had very primitive and outdated graphics and all the EPs hadn't been planned and gave many technical problems. But apart from this EA has always released a new basegame after 5 yrs. Why? I think that most likely the reason is that EA then want to target the next generation of young "teen girls" and give them a new basegame that doesn't have so many expansions already that they never will be able to get them all.
So my prediction is of course that TS5 will be released in 2019. TS3 was released in June 2009 and TS4 in September 2014. Both TS2, TS3 and TS4 were announced 15 months before their release and they all had a lifetime of almost precisely 5 yrs. So as I see it TS5 will most likely be announced in the middle of 2018 and released in the second half of 2019.
This is a very likely scenario. By the end of 2020 we probably already know about TS5. Which means only 2 at most EP's left for TS4. Pick wisely Maxis
"Fewer people don't have the 8 am freeze". I literally have 0 issues and my game is smooth as butter, as long as i steer clear of san myshuno, that place is a nightmare. Of course a lot of people have the "8 am bug" because this is their official forum and here's where people come looking for help. Now I might be wrong on this, but I think the better the pc, the less of these kinds of issues. Other bugs don't discriminate against certain pcs more than others ( like that musical chair nonsense). Im really just guessing at this point and I'll be the first to admit it, but I haven't really seen people with gaming pcs being struck too hard by this :shrugs:
recent reddit thread came to the opposite conclusion. It's mostly specific mid to high end range getting hit by this. On the official EA bug report forums the thread so far is 16 pages long and whenever a developer does come out, they ask for a video and a diaxdiag. Just like with The Sims 3 time freeze they believe that it is a multitute of very different things that cause this specific issue.
I did not say that everyone is affected by the way. If you're lucky and you're not affected, good for you! Unfortunately if you're unlucky and you ARE affected, you can't even guarantee that buying specific hardware will fix this, especially with hardware requirements changing with The Sims 4 Cats and Dogs. Curently if you have a laptop with an integrated GPU and are running the game on a 32bit system in 32bit mode for example, you're practically guaranteed not to have any simulation issues, however this will be impossibly once Cats and Dogs are out. Hopefully when everyone is forced onto a 64bit system, the solution might come faster, as more people will be experiencing the issue.
Im not saying it's not happening or that buying better hardware will guarantee no simulation lag, I was just talking about my experience and just a random observation that I said might be completely off.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but it's just that my pc is super overkill for this game, so I'm enjoying the benefits I guess. I really hope they sort it out, I heard the mod actually does wonders for some at least
to me it's earlier then we think, either 2018 or 2019,
the sims 4 is sinking ship and i'm sure they know they made some big mistakes with the forth game, the reception was mixed, theirs backlash from fans and it's not selling as well as the first three, add in the fact that it makes little sense poor money into something that is vary unlikely to bring in a profit, i don't see it having the long shelf life they were hoping for, i just hope the sims 5 is not being rushed in desperation.
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And I think they should stop trying to make The Sims something it isn't - "wacky", "weirder", "hip kool and fresh", "aimed at the teenage audience". That's not what The Sims is about.
(oh, and follow me on my Tumblr)
i5-6600K • 16GB • 2x GTX 1070 • 2x 500GB 850 EVO
Katy Perry was the one who went to EA to promote herself and her new life movie/documentary, the devs had nothing to do with it. They don't pick the brands, like Diesel or H&M or Ikea. It's what Graham said a few years back when talking about SP's. The higher ups are the ones who make those deals and they have to make the packs.
This is a very likely scenario. By the end of 2020 we probably already know about TS5. Which means only 2 at most EP's left for TS4. Pick wisely Maxis
Maybe I'm just lucky, but it's just that my pc is super overkill for this game, so I'm enjoying the benefits I guess. I really hope they sort it out, I heard the mod actually does wonders for some at least
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the sims 4 is sinking ship and i'm sure they know they made some big mistakes with the forth game, the reception was mixed, theirs backlash from fans and it's not selling as well as the first three, add in the fact that it makes little sense poor money into something that is vary unlikely to bring in a profit, i don't see it having the long shelf life they were hoping for, i just hope the sims 5 is not being rushed in desperation.