The very last items to be coloured and textured are the functioning items (like a washing machine). I expect that the ball-pit looked great in concept art and was doing well in development. All the new animations and interactions were done. Then the flat texture was the very last thing to be done, and... uh-oh.
With the speed that modders turned out improvements in less than a week, I can't say I'm surprised we got a re-do. But I do think that it's a sign of them paying attention. The old EA would have been saying to the teams "Just get on with the next pack already!".
They say Cats&Dogs has been worked on for 2-3 years. That's meaning it was worked on in the bad days, which could explain a lot about missing pools. And it's a big one. So just how well it lives up to expectations is going to be a big show of whether they've learned anything. I have big hopes for the pets in general, but I have big question-marks hanging over how well the vet career is going to be handled.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
For the community SP it is still a SP that is being sold globally. Going strictly by votes can create a lopsided offering of content, in which case things would need to be balanced out to fall more in line with the other SP offerings. It's not that they are learning we don't want chairs, because the chairs were among the winning choices, which led to one being cut. That data would suggest that players want more chairs, or a greater variety of chair styles.
They also heavily swayed the voting in a way that could've easily been avoided, simply by making the vote between a bunch of new game concepts and laundry, which was already highly in demand.
Good point. It's like asking Hey, do you want laundry or a wicker chair? Now, what do they think would win?
So, you're basically saying that the Devs made the entire pack already and the votes are rigged? Sure, we can't sit around the table and discuss concepts with them... but just because your choice didn't win doesn't mean it was rigged.
Okay, it might be a little bit. But they're not evil geniuses, y'know.
I don't think that's what @Cinebar is saying. More like, by adding laundry in the mix (a heavily requested feature) against all new concepts, the scales were already tipped in its favor. As soon as people saw laundry in the descriptions, they most likely didn't see anything else. Laundry could have been in any of the description and it probably would have won. I think that's what was being said. The other themes didn't stand a chance.
For the community SP it is still a SP that is being sold globally. Going strictly by votes can create a lopsided offering of content, in which case things would need to be balanced out to fall more in line with the other SP offerings. It's not that they are learning we don't want chairs, because the chairs were among the winning choices, which led to one being cut. That data would suggest that players want more chairs, or a greater variety of chair styles.
They also heavily swayed the voting in a way that could've easily been avoided, simply by making the vote between a bunch of new game concepts and laundry, which was already highly in demand.
Good point. It's like asking Hey, do you want laundry or a wicker chair? Now, what do they think would win?
So, you're basically saying that the Devs made the entire pack already and the votes are rigged? Sure, we can't sit around the table and discuss concepts with them... but just because your choice didn't win doesn't mean it was rigged.
Okay, it might be a little bit. But they're not evil geniuses, y'know.
I don't think that's what @Cinebar is saying. More like, by adding laundry in the mix (a heavily requested feature) against all new concepts, the scales were already tipped in its favor. As soon as people saw laundry in the descriptions, they most likely didn't see anything else. Laundry could have been in any of the description and it probably would have won. I think that's what was being said. The other themes didn't stand a chance.
It's true in a way, as I said. But it ultimately proves that the Devs are learning.
You see, they had multiple ideas down at the start. Me, I've never been keen on the idea of laundry. I can do laundry in real life. I think I chose 'Dangerous'. But so many people had been saying "Laundry" that Eco-living won. Which means that the Gurus are watching what we say HERE.
Look at the list of titles. Laundry is in two of them, and hasn't everybody been calling this the 'Laundry' pack? I think it's a pretty boring name, as compared to 'Eco-Life' (yum!) or 'Stuffy McStuff' - a name which would have said, if nothing else, "This is a pack named by the Internet public."
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
The devs may have wised up, but tbh, I can't say the same to the community. I mean, I have nothing against laundry, it's cool and all. But compared to two other choices (preserved goods and off the grid), laundry had little to no gameplay. I mean, yeah sure this IS an SP, but the two other choices were one click away to a game pack. Laundry was getting a washing machine, and that's about it. Everything just revolves about the washing machine (or the clothing line). You can't even open a laundry shop to run as your own.
If the community was wiser, they would have looked pass their superficial want. Again, nothing against people who voted for laundry, nor do I dislike the laundry stuff in general, in fact, I probably will get the stuff pack (eventually). I'm just saying we can't blame the devs if after 5 days we get bored of this SP.
I think they threw laundry in with Eco pack so people would pick that. Yeah you get laundry, but what good are solar panels to stick on the roof to save a bit off bills? Who cares? I want more things they can do. Still waiting for a casino.
For the community SP it is still a SP that is being sold globally. Going strictly by votes can create a lopsided offering of content, in which case things would need to be balanced out to fall more in line with the other SP offerings. It's not that they are learning we don't want chairs, because the chairs were among the winning choices, which led to one being cut. That data would suggest that players want more chairs, or a greater variety of chair styles.
They also heavily swayed the voting in a way that could've easily been avoided, simply by making the vote between a bunch of new game concepts and laundry, which was already highly in demand.
Good point. It's like asking Hey, do you want laundry or a wicker chair? Now, what do they think would win?
So, you're basically saying that the Devs made the entire pack already and the votes are rigged? Sure, we can't sit around the table and discuss concepts with them... but just because your choice didn't win doesn't mean it was rigged.
Okay, it might be a little bit. But they're not evil geniuses, y'know.
I don't think that's what @Cinebar is saying. More like, by adding laundry in the mix (a heavily requested feature) against all new concepts, the scales were already tipped in its favor. As soon as people saw laundry in the descriptions, they most likely didn't see anything else. Laundry could have been in any of the description and it probably would have won. I think that's what was being said. The other themes didn't stand a chance.
Yes, that's what I meant. Thank you. I know when I saw laundry my focus became about getting laundry into that pack. lol
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
For the community SP it is still a SP that is being sold globally. Going strictly by votes can create a lopsided offering of content, in which case things would need to be balanced out to fall more in line with the other SP offerings. It's not that they are learning we don't want chairs, because the chairs were among the winning choices, which led to one being cut. That data would suggest that players want more chairs, or a greater variety of chair styles.
They also heavily swayed the voting in a way that could've easily been avoided, simply by making the vote between a bunch of new game concepts and laundry, which was already highly in demand.
There are a lot of things in demand. Just because Laundry was one of them, a lot of people also wanted Wedding content etc.
People don't realise that if Laundry had been as big as everyone claimed it was, we would have had that by now, without needing to vote on it.
Player statistics probably tell them how often content is used in previous games. Most of the packs we've had so far are probably based around what's used in previous games the most, that the EP or GP team haven't already claimed.
I don't think it was unfair for Laundry to be in the vote. Because if it had to be included, then EA clearly didn't feel confident around it.
EA aren't going to do a vote like this, with an obvious winner already picked. They wouldn't have gone to the trouble, they would have just made it.
Imagine if Laundry was a huge seller, but somehow it didn't win because they didn't expect another item to be so popular.
It would be transparent for them to make a Laundry Stuff Pack anyway.
So my assumption is, people like Laundry, but didn't always use it in 3. Hence why most of the things we voted on were kind of unexpected from what we would have predicted to have votes on.
For the community SP it is still a SP that is being sold globally. Going strictly by votes can create a lopsided offering of content, in which case things would need to be balanced out to fall more in line with the other SP offerings. It's not that they are learning we don't want chairs, because the chairs were among the winning choices, which led to one being cut. That data would suggest that players want more chairs, or a greater variety of chair styles.
They also heavily swayed the voting in a way that could've easily been avoided, simply by making the vote between a bunch of new game concepts and laundry, which was already highly in demand.
There are a lot of things in demand. Just because Laundry was one of them, a lot of people also wanted Wedding content etc.
People don't realise that if Laundry had been as big as everyone claimed it was, we would have had that by now, without needing to vote on it.
Player statistics probably tell them how often content is used in previous games. Most of the packs we've had so far are probably based around what's used in previous games the most, that the EP or GP team haven't already claimed.
I don't think it was unfair for Laundry to be in the vote. Because if it had to be included, then EA clearly didn't feel confident around it.
EA aren't going to do a vote like this, with an obvious winner already picked. They wouldn't have gone to the trouble, they would have just made it.
Imagine if Laundry was a huge seller, but somehow it didn't win because they didn't expect another item to be so popular.
It would be transparent for them to make a Laundry Stuff Pack anyway.
So my assumption is, people like Laundry, but didn't always use it in 3. Hence why most of the things we voted on were kind of unexpected from what we would have predicted to have votes on.
Well not necessarily. Yeah, wedding stuff is popular but laundry probably more so simply because so many people say this is a life simulator and in life, unless you're a nudist, everyday involves clothing and henceforth laundry where as no one goes to weddings everyday. We may not do laundry everyday but we accumulate dirty clothes that eventually need to be washed. It's something majority of us do every single day. I would even consider that something that as something that should've been in the base games even though I hate it and dreaded using in in TS3. Much like in real life, I love that feeling and smell of clean, freshly dried clothes but I hate doing laundry.
But even if laundry is popular we probably wouldn't have had it by now. There were many popular things we didn't have from the get go or when we thought we would have this time around. Toddlers, pools, cars, police officers, burglars, buildable apartments... Seasons and Pets are the two of the most popular packs and we're just now, well... soon anyway, getting cats and dogs. Sometimes popular stuff, like certain EPs, takes a while. In the case of The Sims 4 though some popular stuff takes longer, that is if it ever does comes around.
I don't like laundry in this game. When they gave it to us in Sims 3 I tried it for one generation and that confirmed that nope, no fun for me. The thing is, I never had a feeling I missed out on something great and incomparable because of this laundry thing, because they never made me feel other content was sacrificed because of it. Ambitions came with laundry, I don't use it, no big deal. Had there been a competition Sims 4 style, laundry or a tomb like adventure in Twinbrook, I'd have been highly frustrated to this very day. I don't like this voting for content to begin with and the fact they're indeed clearly manipulating it makes it even worse. If a significant chunk of the fanbase calls out for laundry, implement laundry. But don't add this totally silly feeling one simmer's voice is more important than the other. Just because a majority won't immediately recognize great content as great content, doesn't mean it can't turn out to be great content after all. As for me, almost everything will beat laundry.
I think the problem here still is that the game is targeted at 13 yrs old teen girls and not at all at us adult simmers because:
1. Adults likely don't want laundry in the game because they usually play the game just to get away from the trivial things they usually do in their real lives - such as laundry. Therefore they likely don't want laundry in their game too.
2. 13 yrs old girls likely like laundry in the game because it is their mom who still do the laundry in their real life. So adding laundry to the game likely make them feel that they now do adult things too - like their mom
I think the problem here still is that the game is targeted at 13 yrs old teen girls and not at all at us adult simmers because:
1. Adults likely don't want laundry in the game because they usually play the game just to get away from the trivial things they usually do in their real lives - such as laundry. Therefore they likely don't want laundry in their game too.
2. 13 yrs old girls likely like laundry in the game because it is their mom who still do the laundry in their real life. So adding laundry to the game likely make them feel that they now do adult things too - like their mom
I'm an adult that has spent years doing my own laundry, I still enjoy having it in the game. I think it's just a case of different playstyles.
I think the problem here still is that the game is targeted at 13 yrs old teen girls and not at all at us adult simmers because:
1. Adults likely don't want laundry in the game because they usually play the game just to get away from the trivial things they usually do in their real lives - such as laundry. Therefore they likely don't want laundry in their game too.
2. 13 yrs old girls likely like laundry in the game because it is their mom who still do the laundry in their real life. So adding laundry to the game likely make them feel that they now do adult things too - like their mom
I'm an adult that has spent years doing my own laundry, I still enjoy having it in the game. I think it's just a case of different playstyles.
I wouldn't mind having it in the game either. But I sure wouldn't pay for it to be there
But yes I admit that it would depend on its purpose because if there were interesting quests that I could let my sims play through by doing laundry then it likely could be as good as many other things. But watching my sims doing laundry on their own initiative while I had told them to do something else because of TS4's multitasking would annoy me a lot and just make me consider to quit this game for good. TS4 is alas way too targeted at 13 yrs old girls for me to play it at all because I need interesting challenges - and not just about my sims ignoring me and doing something else instead of the things that I told them to do.
Don't really agree with the chair thing - because well they told us even before we voted that if a lot of chairs or lights or whatever won they'd cut some of them to include more varied content.
I do however agree that they seem to be listening and/or improving on their offerings. I am having so much fun with this game now. Ever since CL. But even more since parenthood. The fact that grandparents now automatically care about their grandchildren's birthdays, that my sims will sit and think about their family members (and it's odd sometimes, because they seem to think about them more during pregnancies, especially the mother), can really raise their kids and become better parents simply for doing so, that there are toddlers and a beautiful city to live in all makes me happy. The city even makes me enjoy things like Granite Falls a lot more cause now I feel they have a good reason to go to the woods and chill after working hard on their careers in the city. I can finally do so many things, work out in front of the TV, play basketball, go to the spa, dine out in the beautiful city or somewhere by the beach, have my toddlers play together in the ball pit or have playdates in the park, enjoy many active careers, or be a vampire from time to time. It makes me happy I'm 100% excited about pets and everything else that is coming. Maybe for some it's too late, but for myself, I am happy they're giving us more content we actually want. And I'm a happy simmer
Honestly, I think we need more ceiling lights and lights in general. I love using ceiling lights. but hate how big they are. When I try to take a picture, the light... just looks massive and makes it look so odd in the picture. That's probably just something that I feel... and I'm just a weirdo lol. But - for some reason - it just bothers the plums out of me.
Honestly, I think we need more ceiling lights and lights in general. I love using ceiling lights. but hate how big they are. When I try to take a picture, the light... just looks massive and makes it look so odd in the picture. That's probably just something that I feel... and I'm just a weirdo lol. But - for some reason - it just bothers the plums out of me.
Lighting is important but how often do we look up at the ceiling in The Sims? Mostly we look down through the ceiling like the Gods we know we are, and half of the ceiling lights can't be seen at all. I say half the time. Wall lights and floor lights are different.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
Honestly, I think we need more ceiling lights and lights in general. I love using ceiling lights. but hate how big they are. When I try to take a picture, the light... just looks massive and makes it look so odd in the picture. That's probably just something that I feel... and I'm just a weirdo lol. But - for some reason - it just bothers the plums out of me.
Lighting is important but how often do we look up at the ceiling in The Sims? Mostly we look down through the ceiling like the Gods we know we are, and half of the ceiling lights can't be seen at all. I say half the time. Wall lights and floor lights are different.
You can see the ceiling lights from any angle unless you are zoomed in too far.
Honestly, I think we need more ceiling lights and lights in general. I love using ceiling lights. but hate how big they are. When I try to take a picture, the light... just looks massive and makes it look so odd in the picture. That's probably just something that I feel... and I'm just a weirdo lol. But - for some reason - it just bothers the plums out of me.
Lighting is important but how often do we look up at the ceiling in The Sims? Mostly we look down through the ceiling like the Gods we know we are, and half of the ceiling lights can't be seen at all. I say half the time. Wall lights and floor lights are different.
I explained why I'd like more ceiling lights. Because the ones we have are fairly big and it messes up my screenshots. So, if you like taking screenshots, you're more than likely going to notice them more often than other players that are looking down. And I don't play that way. (Looking down), I actually like to have my camera set where I can see my Sims facial expressions and interactions with other Sims.
I'm afraid I have to disagree; I don't think the devs have learned, I just think it's changes of management and/or policies which, I'd imagine, happens on a fairly frequent basis.
There are still soooooo many things wrong and broken with the base game, and of course the issues with CL and GTW have not even been looked at, let alone fixed. For developers to learn, it's a case of going back and fixing your bugs; not simply discard them and continue with new projects with the very real probability of introducing new (and similar) bugs (lessons not learned). Happens each time a new pack is brought out...
Sorry to put a dampener on things, but until and unless I hear some very real and positive indications that the game will be overhauled and fixes put in place, I have little encouragement that things will be right for Sims 4.
One thing EA has got to keep on remembering - the player comes first. This could apply more in the games industry than in any other industry. Banks are all in competition with each other for similar services. EA makes The Sims. It is not really in competition with anybody else for The Sims... well, until Cities Skylines came along from an Indie game company. But if you want to play a Sims game, you have to buy it from EA.
But for those old enough to remember, I cite "Rise of the Robots." It was a fighting game that had AWESOME graphics and made a few claims to an AI that learned from its mistakes. What it failed to do was take into consideration the idea that players would want to play as more than one character. And this all happened because Mirage spent all their time on the graphics. Graphics sure look awesome in screenshots and box art.
It's a warning that gameplay trumps graphics, even to this day. First, make the game work. THEN make it look good.
Fast-forward to Sims 3. Hold your horses because I'm about to say something contraversial - Sims 3 wasn't perfect. On the whole it had lots of good things. Unfortunately the Sims 3 Store had good things too. In fact, that's where the best things were. I really don't feel like going into depth but the lowest number of Simpoints you can get is 1000 for £6, the points become better value as you buy bigger packs, and the price of the Deliciously Indulgent Bakery pack is 15 items for 1,900 Simpoints. For those who don't do maths, I promise you that this price is thinly veiled extortion.
Even so, move forward some more to our buggiest Sims 4 expansion - Get To Work. It's pretty obvious which career got the most time by comparing the number of bugs. To this day, EA hasn't troubled itself in fixing the Detective career, most likely because there's no money in it. For shame, EA. For shame...
However, I've seen some up-turns lately. The claim that Sims 4 has no specific end in sight. For those of you howling for Sims 5, just how happy will you feel if having paid about 500 bucks for a half-completed game, then being expected to start all over again? Sims 4 has a simple, cartoony style that means it will age well.
Toddlers. Players aren't happy with a half-finished game. And they're less happy when they have to pay to finish it.
Vampires. We have the best vampires ever. True, they came in a single gamepack. But because they came single, unlike Get To Work, full focus went into one lifestate, rather than five in an EP.
Will they continue to improve? Only Cats&Dogs will know for certain.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
I think that EA's top has forgotten how extremely well TS1 sold in spite of its poor graphics and that EA still has much more focus on its sports games than on its Sims games. Therefore EA now focuses on good graphics and stuff instead of good gameplay and it has somehow worked until now because I am in no doubt that the sales numbers still are quite high.
But the warning signs are easy to see in many places. I visit EA's Sims forum in other countries too and especially in Denmark and Germany. The forums are almost completely dead because nobody seem to really be interested in discussing the game anymore. And in the Danish Sims forum almost everybody currently seem to have switched back to the Sims Medieval instead even though that is a very old game now. So if EA still just focuses on almost only looks, nice graphics, funny autonomous behavior and SPs then I don't think that the high sales numbers will go on to be that high much longer.
For me personally it doesn't matter though because I am not really a PC gamer anymore and the Sims games weren't ever targeted at me anyway. But I still loved especially TS2 for a couple of years even though the Sims Freeplay now is the only Sims game that I still play just a little. Even so I feel that I now have to cut down on the time I still use in this forum even though it is quite hard to do after discussing the Sims games every day in about 13 yrs (and also in the Sims forums for several other countries).
However, I've seen some up-turns lately. The claim that Sims 4 has no specific end in sight. For those of you howling for Sims 5, just how happy will you feel if having paid about 500 bucks for a half-completed game, then being expected to start all over again? Sims 4 has a simple, cartoony style that means it will age well.
Toddlers. Players aren't happy with a half-finished game. And they're less happy when they have to pay to finish it.
Vampires. We have the best vampires ever. True, they came in a single gamepack. But because they came single, unlike Get To Work, full focus went into one lifestate, rather than five in an EP.
Will they continue to improve? Only Cats&Dogs will know for certain.
The game’s ‘completeness’ is rather subjective. Not everything we want will be added into the game. At the rate they release content, and with how small each pack tends to be, I would honestly speculate that a lot of things we want won’t find their way into the game by the time it eventually comes to a conclusion.
The art style is pretty, but don’t expect it to massively change the longevity of the game. The biggest factor that warrants a new game is how the current one performs with all DLC. There is all kinds of internal analysis that determines how much ‘stuff’ they can pile on top without the whole thing collapsing. The whole ‘no end in sight’ doesn’t lend itself to believing we’ll have this game for anymore than 2-3 more years. Did we necessarily see the literal ‘end’ of Sims 3 coming before the announcement of Sims 4? I don’t think so, we knew there would be a follow up similarly to how there’s probably going to be an eventual sequel to Sims 4, but there was no ‘end in sight’ so to speak. I don’t think that would necessarily be any different with this game, where they are even tighter lipped about everything that’s being developed.
However, I've seen some up-turns lately. The claim that Sims 4 has no specific end in sight. For those of you howling for Sims 5, just how happy will you feel if having paid about 500 bucks for a half-completed game, then being expected to start all over again? Sims 4 has a simple, cartoony style that means it will age well.
Toddlers. Players aren't happy with a half-finished game. And they're less happy when they have to pay to finish it.
Vampires. We have the best vampires ever. True, they came in a single gamepack. But because they came single, unlike Get To Work, full focus went into one lifestate, rather than five in an EP.
Will they continue to improve? Only Cats&Dogs will know for certain.
The game’s ‘completeness’ is rather subjective. Not everything we want will be added into the game. At the rate they release content, and with how small each pack tends to be, I would honestly speculate that a lot of things we want won’t find their way into the game by the time it eventually comes to a conclusion.
The art style is pretty, but don’t expect it to massively change the longevity of the game. The biggest factor that warrants a new game is how the current one performs with all DLC. There is all kinds of internal analysis that determines how much ‘stuff’ they can pile on top without the whole thing collapsing. The whole ‘no end in sight’ doesn’t lend itself to believing we’ll have this game for anymore than 2-3 more years. Did we necessarily see the literal ‘end’ of Sims 3 coming before the announcement of Sims 4? I don’t think so, we knew there would be a follow up similarly to how there’s probably going to be an eventual sequel to Sims 4, but there was no ‘end in sight’ so to speak. I don’t think that would necessarily be any different with this game, where they are even tighter lipped about everything that’s being developed.
The art style being pretty is very subjective as well I can assure you. Besides, I don't quite see why simple and cartoony means it will age well.
I can see in one glance what decade those cartoons belong to.
I am still sure that the main reason for EA to always have released a new Sims game after 5 yrs has been that sales number go down - and that the reason is that new simmers don't automatically buy the new expansions if there are a lot of older (and often discounted) expansions that they can buy instead.
I don't see why this should have changed now? Therefore I will be surprised if TS5 won't be announced at some time in the middle of 2018 and then (as usual) released about 15 months later.
Edit: The other likely reason for sales numbers to go down is IMO that the older the basegame is the more simmers will lose interest and stop buying the expansions. They therefore need a new basegame to get the interest for the game back.
Also new simmers will be less and less likely to become interested in the basegame at all the older the basegame is.
Comments
With the speed that modders turned out improvements in less than a week, I can't say I'm surprised we got a re-do. But I do think that it's a sign of them paying attention. The old EA would have been saying to the teams "Just get on with the next pack already!".
They say Cats&Dogs has been worked on for 2-3 years. That's meaning it was worked on in the bad days, which could explain a lot about missing pools. And it's a big one. So just how well it lives up to expectations is going to be a big show of whether they've learned anything. I have big hopes for the pets in general, but I have big question-marks hanging over how well the vet career is going to be handled.
I don't think that's what @Cinebar is saying. More like, by adding laundry in the mix (a heavily requested feature) against all new concepts, the scales were already tipped in its favor. As soon as people saw laundry in the descriptions, they most likely didn't see anything else. Laundry could have been in any of the description and it probably would have won. I think that's what was being said. The other themes didn't stand a chance.
It's true in a way, as I said. But it ultimately proves that the Devs are learning.
You see, they had multiple ideas down at the start. Me, I've never been keen on the idea of laundry. I can do laundry in real life. I think I chose 'Dangerous'. But so many people had been saying "Laundry" that Eco-living won. Which means that the Gurus are watching what we say HERE.
Look at the list of titles. Laundry is in two of them, and hasn't everybody been calling this the 'Laundry' pack? I think it's a pretty boring name, as compared to 'Eco-Life' (yum!) or 'Stuffy McStuff' - a name which would have said, if nothing else, "This is a pack named by the Internet public."
If the community was wiser, they would have looked pass their superficial want. Again, nothing against people who voted for laundry, nor do I dislike the laundry stuff in general, in fact, I probably will get the stuff pack (eventually). I'm just saying we can't blame the devs if after 5 days we get bored of this SP.
Yes, that's what I meant. Thank you. I know when I saw laundry my focus became about getting laundry into that pack. lol
There are a lot of things in demand. Just because Laundry was one of them, a lot of people also wanted Wedding content etc.
People don't realise that if Laundry had been as big as everyone claimed it was, we would have had that by now, without needing to vote on it.
Player statistics probably tell them how often content is used in previous games. Most of the packs we've had so far are probably based around what's used in previous games the most, that the EP or GP team haven't already claimed.
I don't think it was unfair for Laundry to be in the vote. Because if it had to be included, then EA clearly didn't feel confident around it.
EA aren't going to do a vote like this, with an obvious winner already picked. They wouldn't have gone to the trouble, they would have just made it.
Imagine if Laundry was a huge seller, but somehow it didn't win because they didn't expect another item to be so popular.
It would be transparent for them to make a Laundry Stuff Pack anyway.
So my assumption is, people like Laundry, but didn't always use it in 3. Hence why most of the things we voted on were kind of unexpected from what we would have predicted to have votes on.
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Well not necessarily. Yeah, wedding stuff is popular but laundry probably more so simply because so many people say this is a life simulator and in life, unless you're a nudist, everyday involves clothing and henceforth laundry where as no one goes to weddings everyday. We may not do laundry everyday but we accumulate dirty clothes that eventually need to be washed. It's something majority of us do every single day. I would even consider that something that as something that should've been in the base games even though I hate it and dreaded using in in TS3. Much like in real life, I love that feeling and smell of clean, freshly dried clothes but I hate doing laundry.
But even if laundry is popular we probably wouldn't have had it by now. There were many popular things we didn't have from the get go or when we thought we would have this time around. Toddlers, pools, cars, police officers, burglars, buildable apartments... Seasons and Pets are the two of the most popular packs and we're just now, well... soon anyway, getting cats and dogs. Sometimes popular stuff, like certain EPs, takes a while. In the case of The Sims 4 though some popular stuff takes longer, that is if it ever does comes around.
1. Adults likely don't want laundry in the game because they usually play the game just to get away from the trivial things they usually do in their real lives - such as laundry. Therefore they likely don't want laundry in their game too.
2. 13 yrs old girls likely like laundry in the game because it is their mom who still do the laundry in their real life. So adding laundry to the game likely make them feel that they now do adult things too - like their mom
I'm an adult that has spent years doing my own laundry, I still enjoy having it in the game. I think it's just a case of different playstyles.
But yes I admit that it would depend on its purpose because if there were interesting quests that I could let my sims play through by doing laundry then it likely could be as good as many other things. But watching my sims doing laundry on their own initiative while I had told them to do something else because of TS4's multitasking would annoy me a lot and just make me consider to quit this game for good. TS4 is alas way too targeted at 13 yrs old girls for me to play it at all because I need interesting challenges - and not just about my sims ignoring me and doing something else instead of the things that I told them to do.
I do however agree that they seem to be listening and/or improving on their offerings. I am having so much fun with this game now. Ever since CL. But even more since parenthood. The fact that grandparents now automatically care about their grandchildren's birthdays, that my sims will sit and think about their family members (and it's odd sometimes, because they seem to think about them more during pregnancies, especially the mother), can really raise their kids and become better parents simply for doing so, that there are toddlers and a beautiful city to live in all makes me happy. The city even makes me enjoy things like Granite Falls a lot more cause now I feel they have a good reason to go to the woods and chill after working hard on their careers in the city. I can finally do so many things, work out in front of the TV, play basketball, go to the spa, dine out in the beautiful city or somewhere by the beach, have my toddlers play together in the ball pit or have playdates in the park, enjoy many active careers, or be a vampire from time to time. It makes me happy
Lighting is important but how often do we look up at the ceiling in The Sims? Mostly we look down through the ceiling like the Gods we know we are, and half of the ceiling lights can't be seen at all. I say half the time. Wall lights and floor lights are different.
You can see the ceiling lights from any angle unless you are zoomed in too far.
I explained why I'd like more ceiling lights. Because the ones we have are fairly big and it messes up my screenshots. So, if you like taking screenshots, you're more than likely going to notice them more often than other players that are looking down. And I don't play that way. (Looking down), I actually like to have my camera set where I can see my Sims facial expressions and interactions with other Sims.
There are still soooooo many things wrong and broken with the base game, and of course the issues with CL and GTW have not even been looked at, let alone fixed. For developers to learn, it's a case of going back and fixing your bugs; not simply discard them and continue with new projects with the very real probability of introducing new (and similar) bugs (lessons not learned). Happens each time a new pack is brought out...
Sorry to put a dampener on things, but until and unless I hear some very real and positive indications that the game will be overhauled and fixes put in place, I have little encouragement that things will be right for Sims 4.
My Website: https://sims4.aldavor.net
#keepitfree
But for those old enough to remember, I cite "Rise of the Robots." It was a fighting game that had AWESOME graphics and made a few claims to an AI that learned from its mistakes. What it failed to do was take into consideration the idea that players would want to play as more than one character. And this all happened because Mirage spent all their time on the graphics. Graphics sure look awesome in screenshots and box art.
It's a warning that gameplay trumps graphics, even to this day. First, make the game work. THEN make it look good.
Fast-forward to Sims 3. Hold your horses because I'm about to say something contraversial - Sims 3 wasn't perfect. On the whole it had lots of good things. Unfortunately the Sims 3 Store had good things too. In fact, that's where the best things were. I really don't feel like going into depth but the lowest number of Simpoints you can get is 1000 for £6, the points become better value as you buy bigger packs, and the price of the Deliciously Indulgent Bakery pack is 15 items for 1,900 Simpoints. For those who don't do maths, I promise you that this price is thinly veiled extortion.
Even so, move forward some more to our buggiest Sims 4 expansion - Get To Work. It's pretty obvious which career got the most time by comparing the number of bugs. To this day, EA hasn't troubled itself in fixing the Detective career, most likely because there's no money in it. For shame, EA. For shame...
However, I've seen some up-turns lately. The claim that Sims 4 has no specific end in sight. For those of you howling for Sims 5, just how happy will you feel if having paid about 500 bucks for a half-completed game, then being expected to start all over again? Sims 4 has a simple, cartoony style that means it will age well.
Toddlers. Players aren't happy with a half-finished game. And they're less happy when they have to pay to finish it.
Vampires. We have the best vampires ever. True, they came in a single gamepack. But because they came single, unlike Get To Work, full focus went into one lifestate, rather than five in an EP.
Will they continue to improve? Only Cats&Dogs will know for certain.
But the warning signs are easy to see in many places. I visit EA's Sims forum in other countries too and especially in Denmark and Germany. The forums are almost completely dead because nobody seem to really be interested in discussing the game anymore. And in the Danish Sims forum almost everybody currently seem to have switched back to the Sims Medieval instead even though that is a very old game now. So if EA still just focuses on almost only looks, nice graphics, funny autonomous behavior and SPs then I don't think that the high sales numbers will go on to be that high much longer.
For me personally it doesn't matter though because I am not really a PC gamer anymore and the Sims games weren't ever targeted at me anyway. But I still loved especially TS2 for a couple of years even though the Sims Freeplay now is the only Sims game that I still play just a little. Even so I feel that I now have to cut down on the time I still use in this forum even though it is quite hard to do after discussing the Sims games every day in about 13 yrs (and also in the Sims forums for several other countries).
The game’s ‘completeness’ is rather subjective. Not everything we want will be added into the game. At the rate they release content, and with how small each pack tends to be, I would honestly speculate that a lot of things we want won’t find their way into the game by the time it eventually comes to a conclusion.
The art style is pretty, but don’t expect it to massively change the longevity of the game. The biggest factor that warrants a new game is how the current one performs with all DLC. There is all kinds of internal analysis that determines how much ‘stuff’ they can pile on top without the whole thing collapsing. The whole ‘no end in sight’ doesn’t lend itself to believing we’ll have this game for anymore than 2-3 more years. Did we necessarily see the literal ‘end’ of Sims 3 coming before the announcement of Sims 4? I don’t think so, we knew there would be a follow up similarly to how there’s probably going to be an eventual sequel to Sims 4, but there was no ‘end in sight’ so to speak. I don’t think that would necessarily be any different with this game, where they are even tighter lipped about everything that’s being developed.
I can see in one glance what decade those cartoons belong to.
I don't see why this should have changed now? Therefore I will be surprised if TS5 won't be announced at some time in the middle of 2018 and then (as usual) released about 15 months later.
Edit: The other likely reason for sales numbers to go down is IMO that the older the basegame is the more simmers will lose interest and stop buying the expansions. They therefore need a new basegame to get the interest for the game back.
Also new simmers will be less and less likely to become interested in the basegame at all the older the basegame is.