It's my understanding fun things in Stuff packs are rejects by EP an GP teams. They had/have no intention of adding things that wind up in stuff packs. So, though I agree with the premise of the thread and yes, some things would have fit better in EPs or GPs already released, SimGuruGraham is actually doing the community a favor by picking objects and things players want but have no chance of getting otherwise.
Never look a gift horse in the mouth, you will find trojans.
True stuff like bowling and hot tubs cant be expected to be brought out in expansions when the expansions are coming out with highlyrequested objects like the talking toilet and hookah. I'm still waiting on a stuff pack to bring in the pool table as we should never expect such a reject item in a expansion.
You caught me off guard with that. I haven't seen single person, let alone knowing how ironically they actually despise it over for corners that were made in CL, that wanted a talking toilet in TS4.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of stuff packs in general, because I can't think of a single one so far that couldn't have been combined with a bigger pack, or even with another stuff pack. I mean... Laundry should have been a base game feature. And I realise a patio and a backyard are not the same thing, but two separate packs, really? And then there's Romantic Garden as well, yet another stuff pack about things to put outside your house... That's basically what the OP said about a pack for right hand gloves and another for left hand gloves. It seems so silly, but it's already real.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of stuff packs in general, because I can't think of a single one so far that couldn't have been combined with a bigger pack, or even with another stuff pack. I mean... Laundry should have been a base game feature. And I realise a patio and a backyard are not the same thing, but two separate packs, really? And then there's Romantic Garden as well, yet another stuff pack about things to put outside your house... That's basically what the OP said about a pack for right hand gloves and another for left hand gloves. It seems so silly, but it's already real.
And clearly inspired by the way micro-purchases in mobile games work
The problem just is that all those SPs are so extremely cheap for EA to make and that everybody just buy them in spite of how little content that have. So therefore EA most likely is considering to replace even more of the bigger packs with SPs and also to reduce the gameplay even more in the bigger packs.
It's not a waste at all. It's a call to the devs to give us more content for our money in those Expansion Packs they charge two thirds of the price of an average modern AAA game for, and also a catalyst for a broader discussion about how DLC additions for The Sims 4 have been handled so far. Any piece of writing that spurs people to express their thoughts and opinions on a subject and inspires a lively debate is anything but a waste. ^_^
It's not a waste at all. It's a call to the devs to give us more content for our money in those Expansion Packs they charge two thirds of the price of an average modern AAA game for, and also a catalyst for a broader discussion about how DLC additions for The Sims 4 have been handled so far. Any piece of writing that spurs people to express their thoughts and opinions on a subject and inspires a lively debate is anything but a waste. ^_^
I agree that this is sure something we want! But the idea that EA ever would allow the developers to do it is alas an idea that I can only see as naive and unrealistic. The devs don’t decide the budget for each pack and nor do they decide the main content in the packs without negotiations with EA’s top managers and marketing experts! So when the devs has got EA’s decision about which main idea each pack must be focused on for the use in EA’s advertisings and a low budget to make the pack then the result will usually just continue to be as it has been all the time for the Sims 4 packs.
But you can of course continue to ignore the real world and instead just focus on your own dreams like most simmers usually always do - and then continue to become disappointed again, again and again
It's not a waste at all. It's a call to the devs to give us more content for our money in those Expansion Packs they charge two thirds of the price of an average modern AAA game for, and also a catalyst for a broader discussion about how DLC additions for The Sims 4 have been handled so far. Any piece of writing that spurs people to express their thoughts and opinions on a subject and inspires a lively debate is anything but a waste. ^_^
I agree that this is sure something we want! But the idea that EA ever would allow the developers to do it is alas an idea that I can only see as naive and unrealistic. The devs don’t decide the budget for each pack and nor do they decide the main content in the packs without negotiations with EA’s top managers and marketing experts! So when the devs has got EA’s decision about which main idea each pack must be focused on for the use in EA’s advertisings and a low budget to make the pack then the result will usually just continue to be as it has been all the time for the Sims 4 packs.
But you can of course continue to ignore the real world and instead just focus on your own dreams like most simmers usually always do - and then continue to become disappointed again, again and again
Just because they've decided to go with a nickle-and-dime, borderline MMO cash shop strategy for DLC releases, however, doesn't mean that we shouldn't voice our dissatisfaction with that decision. After all, people calling bull on Battlefront II's loot boxes and the bad press that ensued caused Disney to put pressure on EA to shut down the game's microtransactions for revision, as well as inspiring several lawmakers in the U.S. to start rallying for banning the sale and marketing of games with those sort of randomized loot box-driven, cash-grab progression systems to minors. It's a rare instance of a huge uproar from gamers making an impact on the suits at the top, sure, but if you never open your mouth to complain, there's no chance to make even the most infinitesimal difference.
In general, if AAA game companies continue to push the monetization of their releases to the utmost limits while putting out middling to terrible, unfinished games at full price, then they're just going to cause a repeat of the crash of '83. That mess was also caused, in part, by too many poor quality games being tossed into the market for a quick buck, with the disastrously rushed E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and the dismal Atari 2600 port of Pacman often cited as the tipping points for the industry. Sounds scarily familiar, doesn't it? When making money starts coming before making a quality product, customers start to notice and, yes, they'll say something. They'll complain in letters or on public forums, they'll vote with their wallets and either not buy those products at all or only buy them at a deep discount, they'll warn their friends and family members about what a rip-off those products are. Whether positive change to avert another crash or just improve the quality of this one game is possible or not, we should still speak up. That way, should the bubble burst and shirts be lost, they at least have some way of knowing just about where things started to go sideways, if nothing else.
But, that's just the opinion of an unrealistic dreamer...
It's not a waste at all. It's a call to the devs to give us more content for our money in those Expansion Packs they charge two thirds of the price of an average modern AAA game for, and also a catalyst for a broader discussion about how DLC additions for The Sims 4 have been handled so far. Any piece of writing that spurs people to express their thoughts and opinions on a subject and inspires a lively debate is anything but a waste. ^_^
I agree that this is sure something we want! But the idea that EA ever would allow the developers to do it is alas an idea that I can only see as naive and unrealistic. The devs don’t decide the budget for each pack and nor do they decide the main content in the packs without negotiations with EA’s top managers and marketing experts! So when the devs has got EA’s decision about which main idea each pack must be focused on for the use in EA’s advertisings and a low budget to make the pack then the result will usually just continue to be as it has been all the time for the Sims 4 packs.
But you can of course continue to ignore the real world and instead just focus on your own dreams like most simmers usually always do - and then continue to become disappointed again, again and again
Just because they've decided to go with a nickle-and-dime, borderline MMO cash shop strategy for DLC releases, however, doesn't mean that we shouldn't voice our dissatisfaction with that decision. After all, people calling bull on Battlefront II's loot boxes and the bad press that ensued caused Disney to put pressure on EA to shut down the game's microtransactions for revision, as well as inspiring several lawmakers in the U.S. to start rallying for banning the sale and marketing of games with those sort of randomized loot box-driven, cash-grab progression systems to minors. It's a rare instance of a huge uproar from gamers making an impact on the suits at the top, sure, but if you never open your mouth to complain, there's no chance to make even the most infinitesimal difference.
In general, if AAA game companies continue to push the monetization of their releases to the utmost limits while putting out middling to terrible, unfinished games at full price, then they're just going to cause a repeat of the crash of '83. That mess was also caused, in part, by too many poor quality games being tossed into the market for a quick buck, with the disastrously rushed E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and the dismal Atari 2600 port of Pacman often cited as the tipping points for the industry. Sounds scarily familiar, doesn't it? When making money starts coming before making a quality product, customers start to notice and, yes, they'll say something. They'll complain in letters or on public forums, they'll vote with their wallets and either not buy those products at all or only buy them at a deep discount, they'll warn their friends and family members about what a rip-off those products are. Whether positive change to avert another crash or just improve the quality of this one game is possible or not, we should still speak up. That way, should the bubble burst and shirts be lost, they at least have some way of knowing just about where things started to go sideways, if nothing else.
But, that's just the opinion of an unrealistic dreamer...
We agree that it sometimes help to tell a big game company why sales numbers for their game went down or became very disappointing. We saw this for TS4 too when the sales numbers became so low that EA in desperation had to use a lot of money on making toddlers anyway and then even had to release those toddlers for free too even though toddlers hadn’t been planned at all for TS4.
But what you are attempting here is very different because all the SPs and GPs have had very big sales numbers and for the GPs even so high that EA decided to make two GPs each year instead of only one yearly GP like in the beginning. But SPs and GPs have sold way too well (and especially since the release of the free toddlers) for EA to put more content in the packs or to prioritize EPs higher ever again. When packs are sold mainly as digital downloads only smaller packs still sell much better than bigger and more expensive packs do.
So your nativity and unrealistic dreaming (along with most other simmers) aren’t about the game companies not caring if sales numbers go down or become disappointing - but instead just about dreaming about EA using more money on each pack for TS4 because you say so in this forum (which seems to be visited by much less than 1% of the simmers) in a situation where EA isn’t motivated at all by low or disappointing sales numbers. EA won’t ever do that!
Nice list. I was a bit confused when I first read it. Some things I'd like to add:
1) Earrings only for one ear, at least provide earring options for one or both ears.
2) Any talking object, no just no for future packs.
3) Casinos, honestly I rather see arcades and carnivals that all ages can enjoy and honestly don't want it to have its own individual pack.
4) Monochrome focused clothing
5) Terrain tool
6) Pond tool
7) Base game NPCs, police and burglars and firefighters shouldn't be confined in a pack.
8) Cars I don't want in its own pack, I rather have base game and then have it expanded with another theme like vacation.
9) Each weather type having its own pack.
10) Fame pack, if there is going to be a celebrity system at least combine it with something else.
11) Build mode pack, honestly tools for build mode just shouldn't be in a SP but in patches.
12) Any eating or drinking stuff pack, been there done that with cool kitchen.
13) Active career SP, I'm ok with GTW being the last pack to have those, I prefer work from home job system that City Living had.
14) Selfie/social media pack, there are enough interactions.
15) Modern style SP, whole game has been focused on that.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't mind getting rid of stuff packs in general, because I can't think of a single one so far that couldn't have been combined with a bigger pack, or even with another stuff pack. I mean... Laundry should have been a base game feature. And I realise a patio and a backyard are not the same thing, but two separate packs, really? And then there's Romantic Garden as well, yet another stuff pack about things to put outside your house... That's basically what the OP said about a pack for right hand gloves and another for left hand gloves. It seems so silly, but it's already real.
Anything they make could be considered being in a bigger pack.
Stuff packs are quick hits between the wait for game packs and expansion packs.
Laundry was voted into being. If an uproar had occurred at being offered laundry in a stuff pack we probably would have had it added to Parenthood. Instead we voted it into a stuff pack.
And we do have farts. Slob sims fart a lot, plus any sim will fart with Outdoor Retreat's frank and beans and parenthood added player controled farting.
It annoys me to no end that a mobile game has so much more content than a AAA PC game. It's mind boggling.
TS4 is AAA?
Playing onIntel Core i7-5960X 16 core CPU - 32 GB DDR4 Ram - GTX 980 Ti
I don't get people who are 🐸🐸🐸🐸 off about laundry. It was largely voted on by the community even if it's a mundane boring chore. I honestly think all stuff packs should be voted on by the community since all they do is add random and really small features we had in the past: Hot tub SP, wishing well SP, Butler SP, Bowling SP, Popcorn SP, Ice cream SP for a total of 60$???? Do these count as an EP's worth of content in your opinion?
Therefore, I do absolutely agree with this post, making a list of things that could very easily be sold off as stuff packs I'd rather the community voted on all SPs and that way we can get things in the order everyone wants tbh since there's little room to innovate with the sims without leaving off things we've had in previous games. And most importantly, holding off things NOBODY wants.
Playing onIntel Core i7-5960X 16 core CPU - 32 GB DDR4 Ram - GTX 980 Ti
I don't get people who are plum off about laundry. It was largely voted on by the community even if it's a mundane boring chore. I honestly think all stuff packs should be voted on by the community since all they do is add random and really small features we had in the past: Hot tub SP, wishing well SP, Butler SP, Bowling SP, Popcorn SP, Ice cream SP for a total of 60$???? Do these count as an EP's worth of content in your opinion?
I actually dislike this a lot. It's very greedy of EA. Content once bundled in full, fleshed out expansion packs are now gated behind tiny $10 packs, which add up to exceed far more than the price of the expansion in the past, yet come with fluff and other content which does not warrant the price.
It's quite sad, honestly. Not to be utterly pessimistic, but this kind of thing really shows how The Sims, as a franchise, has degraded over time with EA's typical greed. When The Sims was mentioned in the past, it was this unique, special thing because of how the developers went above and beyond to make the game as it was. Now, it's a case of, "did you really spend $10 to watch digital people perform a laundry animation?"
Comments
Yes, I'm aware, History Major. However, it's a common misconception and was not meant to be serious, it was a joke.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
The problem just is that all those SPs are so extremely cheap for EA to make and that everybody just buy them in spite of how little content that have. So therefore EA most likely is considering to replace even more of the bigger packs with SPs and also to reduce the gameplay even more in the bigger packs.
It's not a waste at all. It's a call to the devs to give us more content for our money in those Expansion Packs they charge two thirds of the price of an average modern AAA game for, and also a catalyst for a broader discussion about how DLC additions for The Sims 4 have been handled so far. Any piece of writing that spurs people to express their thoughts and opinions on a subject and inspires a lively debate is anything but a waste. ^_^
But you can of course continue to ignore the real world and instead just focus on your own dreams like most simmers usually always do - and then continue to become disappointed again, again and again
In general, if AAA game companies continue to push the monetization of their releases to the utmost limits while putting out middling to terrible, unfinished games at full price, then they're just going to cause a repeat of the crash of '83. That mess was also caused, in part, by too many poor quality games being tossed into the market for a quick buck, with the disastrously rushed E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and the dismal Atari 2600 port of Pacman often cited as the tipping points for the industry. Sounds scarily familiar, doesn't it? When making money starts coming before making a quality product, customers start to notice and, yes, they'll say something. They'll complain in letters or on public forums, they'll vote with their wallets and either not buy those products at all or only buy them at a deep discount, they'll warn their friends and family members about what a rip-off those products are. Whether positive change to avert another crash or just improve the quality of this one game is possible or not, we should still speak up. That way, should the bubble burst and shirts be lost, they at least have some way of knowing just about where things started to go sideways, if nothing else.
But, that's just the opinion of an unrealistic dreamer...
But what you are attempting here is very different because all the SPs and GPs have had very big sales numbers and for the GPs even so high that EA decided to make two GPs each year instead of only one yearly GP like in the beginning. But SPs and GPs have sold way too well (and especially since the release of the free toddlers) for EA to put more content in the packs or to prioritize EPs higher ever again. When packs are sold mainly as digital downloads only smaller packs still sell much better than bigger and more expensive packs do.
So your nativity and unrealistic dreaming (along with most other simmers) aren’t about the game companies not caring if sales numbers go down or become disappointing - but instead just about dreaming about EA using more money on each pack for TS4 because you say so in this forum (which seems to be visited by much less than 1% of the simmers) in a situation where EA isn’t motivated at all by low or disappointing sales numbers. EA won’t ever do that!
1) Earrings only for one ear, at least provide earring options for one or both ears.
2) Any talking object, no just no for future packs.
3) Casinos, honestly I rather see arcades and carnivals that all ages can enjoy and honestly don't want it to have its own individual pack.
4) Monochrome focused clothing
5) Terrain tool
6) Pond tool
7) Base game NPCs, police and burglars and firefighters shouldn't be confined in a pack.
8) Cars I don't want in its own pack, I rather have base game and then have it expanded with another theme like vacation.
9) Each weather type having its own pack.
10) Fame pack, if there is going to be a celebrity system at least combine it with something else.
11) Build mode pack, honestly tools for build mode just shouldn't be in a SP but in patches.
12) Any eating or drinking stuff pack, been there done that with cool kitchen.
13) Active career SP, I'm ok with GTW being the last pack to have those, I prefer work from home job system that City Living had.
14) Selfie/social media pack, there are enough interactions.
15) Modern style SP, whole game has been focused on that.
Farts maybe not but string? That would be a good way for EA to tie up some lose ends!
Anything they make could be considered being in a bigger pack.
Stuff packs are quick hits between the wait for game packs and expansion packs.
Laundry was voted into being. If an uproar had occurred at being offered laundry in a stuff pack we probably would have had it added to Parenthood. Instead we voted it into a stuff pack.
Content is content no matter how it is delivered.
TS4 is AAA?
Therefore, I do absolutely agree with this post, making a list of things that could very easily be sold off as stuff packs
I actually dislike this a lot. It's very greedy of EA. Content once bundled in full, fleshed out expansion packs are now gated behind tiny $10 packs, which add up to exceed far more than the price of the expansion in the past, yet come with fluff and other content which does not warrant the price.
It's quite sad, honestly. Not to be utterly pessimistic, but this kind of thing really shows how The Sims, as a franchise, has degraded over time with EA's typical greed. When The Sims was mentioned in the past, it was this unique, special thing because of how the developers went above and beyond to make the game as it was. Now, it's a case of, "did you really spend $10 to watch digital people perform a laundry animation?"
It's just unbelievable at times.
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