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Maxis is BACK!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kztNWdhRdnw

Source is SimsVIP...

Now that Maxis is back working on SimCity, do you think we'll see them in Sims again? And is Will Wright working with Maxis? And is Maxis connected with EA still, instead of merged into it?

Comments

  • ArlettaArletta Posts: 8,444 Member
    edited March 2012
    No.

    No.

    It's still EA.

    ETA: A simguru told us not long ago that EA rename their teams all the time. The members of said team don't change, just the...brand name, I guess. So last week Maxis could very well have been called Donald Duck Productions and still be the same ppl now that they're Maxis this week.
  • samsonkflaisamsonkflai Posts: 883 New Member
    edited March 2012
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kztNWdhRdnw

    Source is SimsVIP...

    Now that Maxis is back working on SimCity, do you think we'll see them in Sims again? And is Will Wright working with Maxis? And is Maxis connected with EA still, instead of merged into it?

    as said above but Will Wright has moved on but Maxis is still existent as a office only basically EA Emryville office was where Maxis was and the same place where spore was made. Officially from what i saw in the trailer Maxis is existent but just working on other projects but as for the Sims it's under Sims Division now which is located in Redwood California where main EA headquarters is
  • Angelllite7Angelllite7 Posts: 9,730 Member
    edited March 2012
    well, showtime feels more maxis-y with the exception of all the simport crap
  • Callum9432Callum9432 Posts: 6,462 Member
    edited March 2012
    Maxis never left. Only their logo did.
  • crimrosecrimrose Posts: 401 New Member
    edited March 2012
    ^This.

    Maxis is EA. EA is Maxis. When it comes to the Sims series, they are and always were one and the same. In fact, Maxis was only ever able to make The Sims because EA backed them financially once they had bought them. Really, without EA, The Sims probably never would have gotten outside Will Wright's programming room.

    Oh, the irony.
  • SimsTiasSimsTias Posts: 1,622 Member
    edited March 2012
    everyone saying that this is worng have wrong! Maxis is back with Simcity, also it seems that Maxis was working with showtime but EA made up Simport and Starlight shores. ( i don't really know but i know they were working with Showtime.)

    also here's the Announce trailer for the new Simcity and there is a big logo named "MAXIS" in the beginning. so lol,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbpa0UgaE24


    why is everyone on the forum try to be smartasses everytime while they have wrong LOL :lol:
    Save the Sims Franchise!
    Owner of Simstias.blogspot.se
  • SimsTiasSimsTias Posts: 1,622 Member
    edited March 2012
    crimrose wrote:
    ^This.

    Maxis is EA. EA is Maxis. When it comes to the Sims series, they are and always were one and the same. In fact, Maxis was only ever able to make The Sims because EA backed them financially once they had bought them. Really, without EA, The Sims probably never would have gotten outside Will Wright's programming room.

    Oh, the irony.

    Sims 3 is all EA's work! that's why The SIms 3 isn't as good as Sims 1,2. and i know that because the whole crew working with TS3 aren't from MAxis, so no. well one thing is right and that is that they are a part of EA but they have always been that,
    Save the Sims Franchise!
    Owner of Simstias.blogspot.se
  • crimrosecrimrose Posts: 401 New Member
    edited March 2012
    ^That is exactly what I said, that they have always been part of EA. Thanks for your confirmation. :lol:

    And saying TS3 isn't as good is REALLY subjective. In many ways I think TS3 is superior. But that's my opinion. I know I'm not alone, and neither are you.

    Sims 3 is the work of the Sims Studio - which retains some of the members of Maxis, but not all. Will Wright left Maxis before the start of TS2, actually. He remained as a creative consultant, but he was not there with them, designing, etc. If you watch the credits on TS2 (I did), you will notice none of the credits are to him (except for the special thanks at the beginning, which was for him being a creative consultant).

    I just feel like this whole thing is kind of like, "this indie band I like has gone totally mainstream, blech, they aren't cool anymore!" :lol:
    Dunno, people here aren't very...erm, "receptive" to change, are they?

  • plopppoplopppo Posts: 5,031 Member
    edited March 2012
    Maxis are accredited as the developer of Showtime:
    http://store.origin.com/store/eaemea/en_GB/html/pbPage.showtime_EN/

    Game Details
    Genre: Simulation
    Publisher: Electronic Arts
    Brand: Sims
    Developer: Maxis


    Now, look at the Showtime Official Katy Perry Behind The Scenes video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnZkCAyczWk

    0:23 - John Buchanan - VP Marketing, Maxis - "We are so excited to be partening with Katy Perry..."

    Followed immediately by Elena Alvarado - Advertising Manager, Maxis.

    Followed by Corey Higgins - VP Marketing, The Sims.


    So, it all seems to be a jumble of EA people. The Sims transferred from Maxis to The Sims Division which was then renamed as The Sims Studio.

    There seems to be conflicting information as to who is claiming developer status over Showtime and the confusion is coming from EA themselves.
  • ConclueConclue Posts: 2,307 Member
    edited March 2012
    Excuse us all here, but let's not forget that before Sims 3 came out Ron Hubble said in an interview that needs were gonna be over with and that you'd just click in a pop up to go pee, or feed yourself. (Similar to "Pay Bills Now" that we have). The Sims community bugged out (and mind you Sims 2 was at it's peak IMO considering a Sims series peaks towards its end because of the maximum number of expansions. Without simulation type gameplay (controling a sim, simulating their life) becomes non-existent and you don't have a simulation game really but more of an RPG / Social game. (World Adventures anyone?) That was Ron's vision. He's now working on Second life.

    While an open world makes a Simmer wanna go balastic there's many reasons why Sims 2 is far superior to Sims 3. Sims 3 is all about EP to EP and a short list of what you can do. In Sims 2 you got an EP and the combination between EP's and the base game gave you nearly limitless strategy/simulation type game play. I think a big part of it was OFB. That may be a big part of what's missing in 3.

    Case in point, EA started taking over more control of "The Sims" during "Sims 2s" in terms of everything from Maxis. I could sit and play Sims 2 for hours upon hours upon hours and then some more hours. Sims 3 gets boring after hours and hours.

    If Maxis is involved in Sims 4 (Which I feel they may not be now since that project Maxis was working on turns out to be SimCity (5) or "SimCity"). I still hope Maxis is more heavily involved in Sims 4 than the EA hired "Sims Studio" team that cleary are a bunch of hired guns with execption of those hardcore Simmers that landed a joh with EA working on the game they love. There's only a few. You can tell which "Guru's" are employees and which ones are fans of the game. The ST chats showed that pretty clearly. ;)
  • FlashygrrlFlashygrrl Posts: 634 Member
    edited March 2012
    LOL it's probably a marketing ploy to put everything under the Maxis name again. People knew they'd gotten a decent game without a whole lot of stupid problems back then and they want to fool people into thinking that again.
  • BettySwolluxBettySwollux Posts: 300 Member
    edited March 2012
    Conclue makes a good point

    I mean the most obvious example I see fellow users refer to is the singer in bands situation, which didn't happen because of the extra work required

    However from a marketing POV, this was done merely to maximize sales because every TS3 product is designed to be able to run on its own first and formost (the base game is the only pre-requisite)

    In the same context you look at the store items, even Lunar Lakes for example, where its perfectly compatible with the base game, however if you did happen to collect every single ep/sp for the game, you'd find you were missing key venues for those eps the obvious one being studio/equest center

    Of course I understand the merits of their approach both in terms of profitability and being practical that users don't have to buy everything to play, but in the same breath I feel the lack of synergy does hold the game back.
  • Halle_MHalle_M Posts: 6,539 Member
    edited March 2012
    Starlight Shores has a "Willard Wright." He's a kleptomaniac. I laughed. Someone was poking fun at poor Will.
  • SimsTiasSimsTias Posts: 1,622 Member
    edited March 2012
    Conclue wrote:
    Excuse us all here, but let's not forget that before Sims 3 came out Ron Hubble said in an interview that needs were gonna be over with and that you'd just click in a pop up to go pee, or feed yourself. (Similar to "Pay Bills Now" that we have). The Sims community bugged out (and mind you Sims 2 was at it's peak IMO considering a Sims series peaks towards its end because of the maximum number of expansions. Without simulation type gameplay (controling a sim, simulating their life) becomes non-existent and you don't have a simulation game really but more of an RPG / Social game. (World Adventures anyone?) That was Ron's vision. He's now working on Second life.

    While an open world makes a Simmer wanna go balastic there's many reasons why Sims 2 is far superior to Sims 3. Sims 3 is all about EP to EP and a short list of what you can do. In Sims 2 you got an EP and the combination between EP's and the base game gave you nearly limitless strategy/simulation type game play. I think a big part of it was OFB. That may be a big part of what's missing in 3.

    Case in point, EA started taking over more control of "The Sims" during "Sims 2s" in terms of everything from Maxis. I could sit and play Sims 2 for hours upon hours upon hours and then some more hours. Sims 3 gets boring after hours and hours.

    If Maxis is involved in Sims 4 (Which I feel they may not be now since that project Maxis was working on turns out to be SimCity (5) or "SimCity"). I still hope Maxis is more heavily involved in Sims 4 than the EA hired "Sims Studio" team that cleary are a bunch of hired guns with execption of those hardcore Simmers that landed a joh with EA working on the game they love. There's only a few. You can tell which "Guru's" are employees and which ones are fans of the game. The ST chats showed that pretty clearly. ;)

    ^ This!
    Save the Sims Franchise!
    Owner of Simstias.blogspot.se
  • PsychYourMind08PsychYourMind08 Posts: 3,464 Member
    edited March 2012
    Conclue wrote:
    While an open world makes a Simmer wanna go balastic there's many reasons why Sims 2 is far superior to Sims 3. Sims 3 is all about EP to EP and a short list of what you can do. In Sims 2 you got an EP and the combination between EP's and the base game gave you nearly limitless strategy/simulation type game play. I think a big part of it was OFB. That may be a big part of what's missing in 3.

    This is something that definately contributes to the lack of "sims" feel to TS3, that *I* personally feel, that I could never really sum up.

    In TS1 and 2, it seems the EPs were a lot more melted together and worked together to make a full gaming experience. Things were more generic but had their own flair, making them blend well while still having some sort of personality.
    Hard to really explain, but it more apparent with gameplay.

    With Sims 3, EPs are much more separate. Ambitions careers are single-sim opportunities, as are adventures. Late Night and Showtime features seem like they would mesh together in perfect harmony, but no one put fourth the time to execute it and make it happen. Singers can perform at large venues, but bands are stuck in cruddy subways and bars. Eps are just not cooperative or in sync with one another it feels. This has a lot to do with the opportunity system, I think.

    It's a bit like an orchestra. My parents always told me: "you know it's good if you can't pick out the single instruments - they all work togehter to create a work of art"
    Same type of concept.

    ETA: Maxis or not, SC looks raw.
  • lovingredslovingreds Posts: 1,920 New Member
    edited March 2012
    One could dream...sigh*
  • charliejongcharliejong Posts: 907 New Member
    edited March 2012
    I'm sorry but I tried playing Sims 2 the other day and I lasted 5 minutes (hyperbole - I really played for about an hour or so) before I was bored to tears. :) I love The Sims 3! I can customize everything and my Sim isn't trapped in his tiny lot.
  • NathanNowellNathanNowell Posts: 933 Member
    edited March 2012
    I'm sorry but I tried playing Sims 2 the other day and I lasted 5 minutes (hyperbole - I really played for about an hour or so) before I was bored to tears. :) I love The Sims 3! I can customize everything and my Sim isn't trapped in his tiny lot.
    lol sims 2 is soo fun... well if u have a few expansion packs. theres college, weather, and a bunch of cool stuff.. i really like how in sims 2 the day doesnt go by too fast. u can go to a night club and 9:00pm , leave the club at 5:00am and when ur home it's still 9:00pm.
  • NathanNowellNathanNowell Posts: 933 Member
    edited March 2012
    Conclue wrote:
    While an open world makes a Simmer wanna go balastic there's many reasons why Sims 2 is far superior to Sims 3. Sims 3 is all about EP to EP and a short list of what you can do. In Sims 2 you got an EP and the combination between EP's and the base game gave you nearly limitless strategy/simulation type game play. I think a big part of it was OFB. That may be a big part of what's missing in 3.

    This is something that definately contributes to the lack of "sims" feel to TS3, that *I* personally feel, that I could never really sum up.

    In TS1 and 2, it seems the EPs were a lot more melted together and worked together to make a full gaming experience. Things were more generic but had their own flair, making them blend well while still having some sort of personality.
    Hard to really explain, but it more apparent with gameplay.

    With Sims 3, EPs are much more separate. Ambitions careers are single-sim opportunities, as are adventures. Late Night and Showtime features seem like they would mesh together in perfect harmony, but no one put fourth the time to execute it and make it happen. Singers can perform at large venues, but bands are stuck in cruddy subways and bars. Eps are just not cooperative or in sync with one another it feels. This has a lot to do with the opportunity system, I think.

    It's a bit like an orchestra. My parents always told me: "you know it's good if you can't pick out the single instruments - they all work togehter to create a work of art"
    Same type of concept.

    ETA: Maxis or not, SC looks raw.

    I get what you're saying. Showtime could've worked great with Late Night, and World Adventures could've combined with Pets - you go to France and see poodles and wild horses, you go to China and see Siamese cats and stuff, you go to Egypt and see those Egyptian black cats and you see snakes wondering around the river.. It could've been awesome! Also, Generations ruined our hopes of having a college EP. We can already graduate and go to boarding school, so EA probably did that instead of making a whole entire University remake :/
  • lvla12ylvla12y Posts: 727 New Member
    edited March 2012
    I get what you're saying. Showtime could've worked great with Late Night, and World Adventures could've combined with Pets - you go to France and see poodles and wild horses, you go to China and see Siamese cats and stuff, you go to Egypt and see those Egyptian black cats and you see snakes wondering around the river.. It could've been awesome!

    I know right?!?! It just COULD'VE been sooo much more! and awesome
  • Glic2003Glic2003 Posts: 2,933 Member
    edited March 2012
    ...
    In TS1 and 2, it seems the EPs were a lot more melted together and worked together to make a full gaming experience. Things were more generic but had their own flair, making them blend well while still having some sort of personality.
    Hard to really explain, but it more apparent with gameplay.

    With Sims 3, EPs are much more separate. Ambitions careers are single-sim opportunities, as are adventures. Late Night and Showtime features seem like they would mesh together in perfect harmony, but no one put fourth the time to execute it and make it happen. Singers can perform at large venues, but bands are stuck in cruddy subways and bars. Eps are just not cooperative or in sync with one another it feels. ...


    Yeah, that's what's bothering me most about the EPs. Everything feels tacked on instead of meshed together. Bands not being able to have singers was one of the most glaring examples of that.

    As for the Maxis brand, well, EA can put whatever brand they own on whatever product they own. Case in point: they recently slapped the Bioware name onto their new Command and Conquer game, even though Bioware has never had anything to do with that series.

    I'm sure they noticed all the whining in the forums about how TS3 "isn't as good because it isn't made by Maxis" and decided that putting the Maxis name out there again would reassure naive players. ;)
    simsig_willwright.gif



    "We've been attributing the state of The Sims 4 to greed but I think it's time to give sheer incompetence another look."
    -Honeywell
  • oldjoe1993oldjoe1993 Posts: 23 New Member
    edited March 2012
    In my opinion, The Sims 3 development archetype is a poor emulation of the Maxis design archetype, which has slowly been eroded further by EA's similarly poor marketing strategies. The reason I'm seeing that most people enjoy The Sims 3 now is because of the augmented tool set within the game, not the strictly linearised game-play introduced in the expansion products which I'd argue are directly the result of "safe-marketing".

    I'm glad that Maxis has been truly resurrected for the SimCity reboot, but the company clearly has had no proper (true-to-form) hand in The Sims 3 series, particularly in terms of reproducing those founding principles that the original Maxis team (led by Will) worked upon. If there's any evidence of this, there is none more clearer than the current lack of dialogue between the community and the developers anymore which is something that Maxis seemed to achieve down to a surprising tee when they were at the top. They knew how and why to listen.

    That, I believe, is a primary fault EA has chosen to take on-board, due to their decidedly insular response to media convergence. Many game franchises now no longer want to take advice from the 'overwhelmingly' chaotic and frenetic communities around them; they want to prescribe a remedy which meets an economic mid-ground, because that's what marketing enables a company to do. Marketing is an easy, time-proven way to sell something to a consumer which they did not directly seek to attain. Which is to say: telling people that they are getting exactly what they want, when it is actually the franchiser's economically tilted opinion on what they want. Listening is clearly a more costly option to a company which seeks to stay economically on-top, as opposed to quality driven.

    It may be profitable, but cannibalization of your support base has never been proven to work, EA higher-ups. You're screwing your workers and you're screwing your community base. I'm not saying we (the loud, boisterous, complexly opinionated community) aren't somewhat at fault, but it doesn't escape the cynic in me to think that you have had a hand to play in this, too.
  • n00biityon00biityo Posts: 1,482 Member
    edited March 2012
    What Graham Nardone said about the singers and band thing pretty much summed it up for me why I still think TS2 is the superior of TS3.

    It's a factory and they just pump out what's needed and they make decisions based on time/cost/profit. It's as simple as that. Here's his tweet again: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g531vg

    I think it's weird that it doesn't occur to them that integrating the EPs would spur fans that didn't get previous EPs to go get them after all because it combines greatly with future EPs.

    I think TS2 was made with the thought in mind that simmers or a great majority buy EVERY EP and everything that would enhance their game-play. To me it seems that they were more focused on bringing great content to the game.

    TS3 seems like they are mainly focused on sales and how the product is marketed. Don't get me wrong. I think the 6 months schedule is simply too grueling for the devs to create something that will truly blow our minds.

    Which again just goes to show that they are now just a factory pumping out stuff. Why not delay a release so you can make something truly special?

    TS2 innovations:

    *University; although a bit boring it was never done before and they gave us young adults. The only problem with YA is that they were confined to the Uni hoods but still it opened up plenty of possibilities. There were many ways you could get through college and it came with a lot of fun objects and perks.

    *Open for Business; truly revolutionized sims game-play. There were so many new ways to make money in the game while being your own boss. You could "follow" your sim to work or work from home but it was a sandbox type of game-play. Your sim didn't even have to own a business to enjoy it since you could build all the establishments and have your sim visit them.

    *Seasons; they didn't just give us aesthetic snow, rain and whatnot. The season actually made a difference to your sim. For example increased skill gain during the fall. You could get a suntan in the summer, rake leaves in the fall, build a snow man in the winter and get your tree zapped by lightening during spring. You were also able to choose a climate type by combining the right seasons or opt out completely by choosing to have all 4 seasons set to summer.

    Freetime; added really cool objects to the game and enhanced game-play by how sims practiced their hobbies. It affected all sims and once again wasn't linear RPG style gameplay.

    Apartmentlife; again nothing RPG-like about this. Sims now could rent an apartment instead of buying a house. You could actually see the neighbors coming and going and drop by to their place for a visit. Not to mention you could build all kinds of apartments.

    I'm not even going to touch on Nightlife and Bon Voyage that gave us restaurants and hotels, the ability to build actual beach lots where sims could go swimming etc.

    TS3 innovations:
    *Open neighborhood; no more loading screen but instead of nice open community lots we got rabbitholes. People in other households do age and "progress" but you have no control over this and it introduced some very nasty game-play breakage like babies being spawned, homless sims stuck in limbo, neighbors "moving out of town" without so much as a warning.

    *Create-a-style: is one of the best features of the game. Giving the player infinite choice for customization.

    *Buffs; gives the illusion that sims are more aware and get affected more by their environment and everything they interact with.

    *Traits; this opened up so many possibilities. Sims feel more "unique" and you can build better personalities. Downfall is that many of the traits have "empty" interactions. As in, it does have another name but it isn't really different. An example would be the daredevil that does everything "extreme" but not really.

    *World Adventures; it's new and exciting but gets old pretty quickly. Why? Linear RPG style game-play, tedious questing and many, many bugs. The problem with WA is that unless you are questing or need to collect something from these worlds there is absolutely no use for them. There's nothing fun for your sims to do otherwise.

    Ambitions; this allows you to follow your sims to work as well as working from home. You can't make your own store to sell your stuff or won a community building where you can put your stuff on display, hire people etc. Once again linear RPG like gameplay.

    Generations; could have been so much more. Send your those pesky kids to boarding school, enroll them in after school activities. They did try to bring some life to those age groups that ignored so often. Toddlers, children and elders.

    Pets; we got horses, wild and small animals and pets became more useful and now we can control them. They get extra points for making the dog chase after the burglar for example. More extra points for walking your dog, riding your horse all around town like you would use a car, awesome pet customization and the horse skilling objects.

    Showtime; an enhanced version of Superstar without all the celebrity drama that they incorporated in Late Night instead. I love the level of customization. From the outfits to the stages and the ability to give cues to your sim on what to do on stage. They get extra points for the "dummy crowd".

    When it comes to actual sandbox game-play TS2 is just superior.
  • MckenzieMemberMckenzieMember Posts: 1,231 Member
    edited March 2012
    Conclue wrote:
    Excuse us all here, but let's not forget that before Sims 3 came out Ron Hubble said in an interview that needs were gonna be over with and that you'd just click in a pop up to go pee, or feed yourself. (Similar to "Pay Bills Now" that we have). The Sims community bugged out (and mind you Sims 2 was at it's peak IMO considering a Sims series peaks towards its end because of the maximum number of expansions. Without simulation type gameplay (controling a sim, simulating their life) becomes non-existent and you don't have a simulation game really but more of an RPG / Social game. (World Adventures anyone?) That was Ron's vision. He's now working on Second life.

    While an open world makes a Simmer wanna go balastic there's many reasons why Sims 2 is far superior to Sims 3. Sims 3 is all about EP to EP and a short list of what you can do. In Sims 2 you got an EP and the combination between EP's and the base game gave you nearly limitless strategy/simulation type game play. I think a big part of it was OFB. That may be a big part of what's missing in 3.

    Case in point, EA started taking over more control of "The Sims" during "Sims 2s" in terms of everything from Maxis. I could sit and play Sims 2 for hours upon hours upon hours and then some more hours. Sims 3 gets boring after hours and hours.

    If Maxis is involved in Sims 4 (Which I feel they may not be now since that project Maxis was working on turns out to be SimCity (5) or "SimCity"). I still hope Maxis is more heavily involved in Sims 4 than the EA hired "Sims Studio" team that cleary are a bunch of hired guns with execption of those hardcore Simmers that landed a joh with EA working on the game they love. There's only a few. You can tell which "Guru's" are employees and which ones are fans of the game. The ST chats showed that pretty clearly. ;)

    Agreed ^^
    Crimrose wrote:
    I just feel like this whole thing is kind of like, "this indie band I like has gone totally mainstream, blech, they aren't cool anymore!"
    Dunno, people here aren't very...erm, "receptive" to change, are they?

    Disagree^^
    I don't think it's because people aren't receptive to change more like people don't like paying for unpolished products, half baked patches and being lied to (showtime transfers CC files).
    Therefore I don't think it's a case of "this indie band has gone mainstream and are no longer cool" but more like "this indie band who I've been following for 10 years have replaced all the original band members, have started to change their genre from indie band to an orchestra, have increased the price of their CDs over the years, only release a couple of songs in their rushed/unfinished album then expect me to pay for more songs via their website and the CDs I do buy don't work properly when I'm tyring to play them, plus they sometimes wreak havoc on my computer." :wink:

    And the whole scenario about sims going from a relatively unkown company (Maxis/indie band) to becoming mainstream (EA) happened 10 years ago mate, the original Sims was a massive hit, selling millions of copies worldwide, so it's not like the Sims has only just become mainstream.

    @PsychYourMind08: love that quote from your parents about the orchestra. :)
    @charliejong sims 2: I can see why you find it hard to play Sims 2, I tried going back to it and I struggled, but I think that's because of the outdated graphics and long loading times (Sims 2 and it's EPs are on the fossil of a computer downstairs.) Although I'd rather have loading times than rabbitholes. However the transition from Sims 1 to Sims 2 was amazing I could play the Sims 2 everyday for 4-7 for like a month and not get bored. With Sims 3 I become bored after a week, 2 if I'm lucky.

    ETA: I also agree with everything n00biityo just said.
  • DulceHoneyDulceHoney Posts: 422 Member
    edited March 2012
    n00biityo wrote:
    What Graham Nardone said about the singers and band thing pretty much summed it up for me why I still think TS2 is the superior of TS3.

    It's a factory and they just pump out what's needed and they make decisions based on time/cost/profit. It's as simple as that. Here's his tweet again: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/g531vg

    I think it's weird that it doesn't occur to them that integrating the EPs would spur fans that didn't get previous EPs to go get them after all because it combines greatly with future EPs.

    I think TS2 was made with the thought in mind that simmers or a great majority buy EVERY EP and everything that would enhance their game-play. To me it seems that they were more focused on bringing great content to the game.

    TS3 seems like they are mainly focused on sales and how the product is marketed. Don't get me wrong. I think the 6 months schedule is simply too grueling for the devs to create something that will truly blow our minds.

    Which again just goes to show that they are now just a factory pumping out stuff. Why not delay a release so you can make something truly special?

    TS2 innovations:

    *University; although a bit boring it was never done before and they gave us young adults. The only problem with YA is that they were confined to the Uni hoods but still it opened up plenty of possibilities. There were many ways you could get through college and it came with a lot of fun objects and perks.

    *Open for Business; truly revolutionized sims game-play. There were so many new ways to make money in the game while being your own boss. You could "follow" your sim to work or work from home but it was a sandbox type of game-play. Your sim didn't even have to own a business to enjoy it since you could build all the establishments and have your sim visit them.

    *Seasons; they didn't just give us aesthetic snow, rain and whatnot. The season actually made a difference to your sim. For example increased skill gain during the fall. You could get a suntan in the summer, rake leaves in the fall, build a snow man in the winter and get your tree zapped by lightening during spring. You were also able to choose a climate type by combining the right seasons or opt out completely by choosing to have all 4 seasons set to summer.

    Freetime; added really cool objects to the game and enhanced game-play by how sims practiced their hobbies. It affected all sims and once again wasn't linear RPG style gameplay.

    Apartmentlife; again nothing RPG-like about this. Sims now could rent an apartment instead of buying a house. You could actually see the neighbors coming and going and drop by to their place for a visit. Not to mention you could build all kinds of apartments.

    I'm not even going to touch on Nightlife and Bon Voyage that gave us restaurants and hotels, the ability to build actual beach lots where sims could go swimming etc.

    TS3 innovations:
    *Open neighborhood; no more loading screen but instead of nice open community lots we got rabbitholes. People in other households do age and "progress" but you have no control over this and it introduced some very nasty game-play breakage like babies being spawned, homless sims stuck in limbo, neighbors "moving out of town" without so much as a warning.

    *Create-a-style: is one of the best features of the game. Giving the player infinite choice for customization.

    *Buffs; gives the illusion that sims are more aware and get affected more by their environment and everything they interact with.

    *Traits; this opened up so many possibilities. Sims feel more "unique" and you can build better personalities. Downfall is that many of the traits have "empty" interactions. As in, it does have another name but it isn't really different. An example would be the daredevil that does everything "extreme" but not really.

    *World Adventures; it's new and exciting but gets old pretty quickly. Why? Linear RPG style game-play, tedious questing and many, many bugs. The problem with WA is that unless you are questing or need to collect something from these worlds there is absolutely no use for them. There's nothing fun for your sims to do otherwise.

    Ambitions; this allows you to follow your sims to work as well as working from home. You can't make your own store to sell your stuff or won a community building where you can put your stuff on display, hire people etc. Once again linear RPG like gameplay.

    Generations; could have been so much more. Send your those pesky kids to boarding school, enroll them in after school activities. They did try to bring some life to those age groups that ignored so often. Toddlers, children and elders.

    Pets; we got horses, wild and small animals and pets became more useful and now we can control them. They get extra points for making the dog chase after the burglar for example. More extra points for walking your dog, riding your horse all around town like you would use a car, awesome pet customization and the horse skilling objects.

    Showtime; an enhanced version of Superstar without all the celebrity drama that they incorporated in Late Night instead. I love the level of customization. From the outfits to the stages and the ability to give cues to your sim on what to do on stage. They get extra points for the "dummy crowd".

    When it comes to actual sandbox game-play TS2 is just superior.

    Wow I just read that tweet...
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