Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
What is the unique selling point of The Sims 4?
Marchviolets
Posts: 42 Member
I realise that there was limited time to showcase The Sims 4. However, given the same amount of time to unveil the previous three games I'm sure the team would have found a way to mention the brand new, awe-inspiring core features that were offered in each of those base game instalments:
Sims 1: The original sandbox dollhouse game. "There is an entire neighbourhood of Sims at your command to live out your wildest dreams or experience your worst nightmares. It is up to you to decide - their fate is in your hands."
Sims 2: The three-dimensional camera. The genetics. We were also treated to ageing, family structures, customisable sims, pregnancies, interactive NPCs, etc.
Sims 3: The open world. The traits system. Create-A-Style.
Whichever instalment happened to be your personal favourite, these base game features were brand new and very exciting for fans at the time.
I'm struggling to find anything new being presented for The Sims 4. In fact, it appears that some old features (dragging walls, blueprints, multitasking) are being recycled and presented as new. I was left with the impression that the trailer was aimed at casual gamers who might not realise how many features the previous games already have.
The stand-out feature for The Sims 4 is the addition of emotions. However, it appears that emotions are related to the sim's environment. We were given an example of a romantic picture creating a romantic atmosphere.
The interaction between sim and environment raised some concerns for me about how much freedom we might realistically have while trying to build and decorate practical sim's homes. Would we find ourselves often selecting the same old objects that EA decides are befitting of certain moods, should we want to advance within the game?
I put those fears to rest with the thought of custom content in combination with Create-A-Style, but Create-A-Style is not currently included in The Sims 4.
In order for me to purchase a brand new base game that is devoid of many of the features we all now take for granted (e.g. weather) I have to be presented with at least one of two things.
Either:
1) A unique selling point that fundamentally changes the game play in an inspiring (not constricting) way (e.g. many people find it uninspiring to play The Sims 1 having played The Sims 2 complete with ageing and three-dimensional space. And despite criticism of The Sims 3, many people find it difficult to play The Sims 2 after experiencing an open world game in The Sims 3).
or
2) A similar game to the previous instalments in the series, but a very finely tuned version showcasing the best of each. This would need to be a game rich with clever detail and creative freedom to make a very similar and stripped down (expansion pack-less) game still feel like a legitimate upgrade (e.g. reasonable but thoughtful new additions - more age groups, height adjustments, curved walls, and the thoughtful inclusion of old features in new combinations- an open world with some OFB features, some basic weather elements, etc.).
The former would appeal to everyone, whilst the latter would reward the dedicated Sims fans who are detail orientated. As the trailer appears to be aimed at the more casual gamer, but lacks a core feature, to me it seems likely that The Sims 4 may fail to adequately embrace either path of game development, neither creating a fresh game for casual gamers, or addressing the dedicated fan's requests.
As an aside:
I am also concerned about the lack of detailed sliders when editing sims.
While the idea of moulding a sim like a piece of clay is a fun gimmick, anyone who has played spore may understand some of the difficulty in using these tools. It can be difficult to manually drag at a 3D object from all angles while spinning to check you haven’t distorted your creature from another angle (e.g. facing you, a creature may look like it has a flat nose, turning the creature to the side may reveal a Pinocchio situation). Sliders serve as a helpful guide as to where the middle and extreme ranges lie, which speeds the 3D modelling process up. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have both options (sliders automatically adjusting as you drag, or an “advanced” tab complete with sliders).
Manually dragging may also mean more rudimentary options (when looking at the number of options for eyes on The Sims 3, I cannot imagine having sixteen finely tuned options available in a click-and-drag game. How are we going to control fine details like nostril definition, scale, rotation, height depth and width by simply clicking on an area and dragging it? I look forwards to finding out.
Sims 1: The original sandbox dollhouse game. "There is an entire neighbourhood of Sims at your command to live out your wildest dreams or experience your worst nightmares. It is up to you to decide - their fate is in your hands."
Sims 2: The three-dimensional camera. The genetics. We were also treated to ageing, family structures, customisable sims, pregnancies, interactive NPCs, etc.
Sims 3: The open world. The traits system. Create-A-Style.
Whichever instalment happened to be your personal favourite, these base game features were brand new and very exciting for fans at the time.
I'm struggling to find anything new being presented for The Sims 4. In fact, it appears that some old features (dragging walls, blueprints, multitasking) are being recycled and presented as new. I was left with the impression that the trailer was aimed at casual gamers who might not realise how many features the previous games already have.
The stand-out feature for The Sims 4 is the addition of emotions. However, it appears that emotions are related to the sim's environment. We were given an example of a romantic picture creating a romantic atmosphere.
The interaction between sim and environment raised some concerns for me about how much freedom we might realistically have while trying to build and decorate practical sim's homes. Would we find ourselves often selecting the same old objects that EA decides are befitting of certain moods, should we want to advance within the game?
I put those fears to rest with the thought of custom content in combination with Create-A-Style, but Create-A-Style is not currently included in The Sims 4.
In order for me to purchase a brand new base game that is devoid of many of the features we all now take for granted (e.g. weather) I have to be presented with at least one of two things.
Either:
1) A unique selling point that fundamentally changes the game play in an inspiring (not constricting) way (e.g. many people find it uninspiring to play The Sims 1 having played The Sims 2 complete with ageing and three-dimensional space. And despite criticism of The Sims 3, many people find it difficult to play The Sims 2 after experiencing an open world game in The Sims 3).
or
2) A similar game to the previous instalments in the series, but a very finely tuned version showcasing the best of each. This would need to be a game rich with clever detail and creative freedom to make a very similar and stripped down (expansion pack-less) game still feel like a legitimate upgrade (e.g. reasonable but thoughtful new additions - more age groups, height adjustments, curved walls, and the thoughtful inclusion of old features in new combinations- an open world with some OFB features, some basic weather elements, etc.).
The former would appeal to everyone, whilst the latter would reward the dedicated Sims fans who are detail orientated. As the trailer appears to be aimed at the more casual gamer, but lacks a core feature, to me it seems likely that The Sims 4 may fail to adequately embrace either path of game development, neither creating a fresh game for casual gamers, or addressing the dedicated fan's requests.
As an aside:
I am also concerned about the lack of detailed sliders when editing sims.
While the idea of moulding a sim like a piece of clay is a fun gimmick, anyone who has played spore may understand some of the difficulty in using these tools. It can be difficult to manually drag at a 3D object from all angles while spinning to check you haven’t distorted your creature from another angle (e.g. facing you, a creature may look like it has a flat nose, turning the creature to the side may reveal a Pinocchio situation). Sliders serve as a helpful guide as to where the middle and extreme ranges lie, which speeds the 3D modelling process up. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have both options (sliders automatically adjusting as you drag, or an “advanced” tab complete with sliders).
Manually dragging may also mean more rudimentary options (when looking at the number of options for eyes on The Sims 3, I cannot imagine having sixteen finely tuned options available in a click-and-drag game. How are we going to control fine details like nostril definition, scale, rotation, height depth and width by simply clicking on an area and dragging it? I look forwards to finding out.
0
Comments
complete forum tutorial
Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
And the focus seems to be inorder for them to be 'alive' they must have 'emotions' and be able to do things humans do without even thinking about it. Like while raising a cup to your mouth you can, in the process, answer someone before you take a sip..multitasking.
I do believe the 'alive' concept is the unique selling point and everything else we see in the mags, screen shots, renders, and demos are to intice the FB player or the mobile gamer to come over and buy this game..since it looks so much like those games.
I don't know what the main selling point of this new game will be, but I am HOPING it'll be "The Best of All Previous Sims Games PLUS MORE!"
No rabbitholes would also be a great tagline
Sims 3 was a major step backwards with the gameplay and I want the fun and detailed gameplay to be restored. Even that would be a big enough selling point for me!
I just really want them to take all the best features of all the Sims games and put them together with a few new surprises too.
my Sims 4 story blog: http://www.starwingsims.com/
Join SimsWriters.com to promote or enjoy fan-generated content (stories, videos, music, etc) celebrating The Sims.
for staters the emotion system and being able to indirectly manipulate other sims emotions, and based on the violin bit I'm going to guess traits will come back and factor into that as well
multitasking
the create a sim improvements
build mode improvments
the fact that now decorative objects can actually influence sims.
also one of the things LGR pointed out from the press release is the long term effects of what your sims do and how it affects the world, though we havn't seen anything about that yet and the press release wasn't specific, though I'm really curious about it
Multitasking- Awesome!
New Build Buy mode- is more then recycled and yet still got the same things in a little different way.
Animations- ... yeah, all I can say is cool and new.
Emotions- is tied to more then their environment. . . More!
Dare we ask for more info or are you not allowed to be more specific?
But your post sounds hopeful nonetheless.
4
Of Course
...Only kidding...
Haha! It's the TRUTH!!!!
Not the same thing buddy. The Sims 3 did not express emotions only robotic awkward movements.
I wouldn't buy Sims 4 just because they improved the emotions. That to me is not even Top 10 on my list. Sims 3 has emotions, too, it just isn't quite as refined. If they give me better emotions but take away CASt, it won't be worth buying to me. I'm glad EA is at least still discussing whether to include CASt or not.
My sentiments exactly. I couldn't care less about "emotions" and "multitasking" (whatever that is). Not selling points for me and my game play style at all.
EA needs to come up with something truly awesome like a supercharged innovative game engine that would support a large neighborhood with Open For Business type community lots and venues instead of rabbit holes, awesome graphics (not Disney cartoons), weather, pets, a good CASt for clothing and décor design (not sliders to lengthen noses)and so on.
We'll see. So far... no sale.
Agreed. This is largely the point of my post. The unique selling point should be strong enough that the new base game can hold its own as a fresh, interesting gaming experience despite lacking the many sprawling features the previous game has built up - store content, custom content and (pricey) expansion pack content (or perhaps EA know that fans will buy and play new Sims games out of devotion and curiosity no matter what the actual quality of the content is).
However if we are also losing basic things like CASt, weather and finely detailed graphics/textures, then a potentially simplistic, upgraded moodlets system and spore-like CAS doesn't inspire me when past base games have offered new content on the scale of genetics or an open world, both of which were extremely popular ideas that fans had yearned after for a long time. These were obvious and strong changes to make (fans made it clear that they wanted their Sims 2 sims to be able to visit other sim's houses, their Sims 1 sims to have children that grew up, etc.)
I hope that as more details come to light, perhaps we'll find that instead of one dazzling new concept for The Sims 4 it's simply a more complex game that has taken the best features from The Sims 1, 2 and 3, and combined them for a new and rewarding gaming experience. The fact that they would consider leaving out CASt doesn't reassure me that this is what they are doing, though.
There are? I read that there wouldn't be any, I'm hoping to be wrong! I couldn't spot any sliders in the gamescom live gameplay.
This is my dream scenario.
We've got a new CAS, new build/buy, proper emotions, more personality, more "alive" Sims, multi-tasking and a brand new, purpose built engine... now I can't speak for anyone else, but that, for me, is certainly enough smaller unique selling points. And that's only from what we know of the game so far, there is a lot more for us to find out.
The emotions aspect sounds intriguing but I'm still worried EA isn't nearly gonna make this as complex and interesting as they're making it sound. In any case time will tell but this is the first sims game I can honestly say I'm not excited over.