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Town Hall Survey Becomes GTW Politics Mod
nanashi-sims
Posts: 4,140 Member
Are the developers of this game sleeping? 
http://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/130510778822/the-sims-4-politics-mod-pack
Yes, there is a demand for the features you have surveyed. Please make TS4 better in an official capacity and don't leave it to mods. No offence against mods--I live and swear by them. But for those waiting for EA to make an official release of this, I think EA needs to not leave the future of TS4 gameplay to mods.
This mod looks amazing BTW... but it sucks that this isn't an EA announcement--especially since this was detailed in their first EP survey. Or maybe they should just hire Zerbu and have that simmer release EPs that players actually want.
http://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/130510778822/the-sims-4-politics-mod-pack
Yes, there is a demand for the features you have surveyed. Please make TS4 better in an official capacity and don't leave it to mods. No offence against mods--I live and swear by them. But for those waiting for EA to make an official release of this, I think EA needs to not leave the future of TS4 gameplay to mods.
This mod looks amazing BTW... but it sucks that this isn't an EA announcement--especially since this was detailed in their first EP survey. Or maybe they should just hire Zerbu and have that simmer release EPs that players actually want.
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And the fact that Maxis hasn't announced a particular thing is coming before a modder feels like making it says nothing about either that's meaningful. All it says is that that modder felt like making that, and that Maxis wasn't already developing it a year ago.
How many mods has EA then gone back and made? Mods fixed TS3--EA didn't. Don't you think it was because there was already a solution available that EA didn't feel the need to focus time and costs on that? Or do you really think they just didn't care and had there not been a mod, players would not be able to play their games? I don't really buy it. And I don't see EA coming out with a Town Hall game--especially if this one is fun. And I agree, mods are limited. Which is why EA should be pushing out official releases based on their surveys. Was Get Together part of any survey?
We have no way to know whether this mod or some other completely unrelated factor would prevent a related EP or GP from being released - you and I are not privy to, for example, survey results. It could be just as easily and validly speculated - and that's all you can do,,speculate - that a mod like this, if it was popular, would be further demonstration on top of survey results that a pack would be a likely financial success.
They can only push out new content so fast and no faster. And I don't see why it's not okay to put out content they haven't surveyed about, either, if other things justify it. Surveys are one among many tools. They aren't elections.
Surveys provide one form of access among others to player opinion, which in turn is one input among others to decision making. That might be decision making about what to develop, it might be about what to do when, it might be testing out a new formulation of how to release something ... but it's just a tool. It's not a contract with the people surveyed.
Outdoor Retreat, Get To Work and Spa Day were all made based of Survey results.
We have plenty of information that shows alot of Get Together was already in the works before the game was released, which is why it's not in a Survey.
World Adventures was worked on before the base game was released and same with Nightlife.
EA usually works on an EP while developing the base game. I think they held off releasing Get Together due to Get To Work based on feedback of the base game, but it would heavily explain why we didn't get a new world for so long.
Insta: https://instagram.com/jkarajs?igshid=oef2ymrand3g
Awesome @Cinderellimouse for making the podium for Zerbu's mod.
I agree that Zerbu's doing cool stuff. I just don't see how it follows that this new type of modding will impact the company's development decisions or how it reflects on development decisions already made.
They're offering different content, not more. And they're doing it using tools made available in the game so that we can exercise our own creativity by leveraging already released content.
That paragraph is about MC Command Center.
It's pretty amazing how powerful a toolset is available for modders. The support in the Modding forums from staff has been impressive too. I think those things combined could mean we end up seeing quite a lot of interesting things from the modding community this round. I just don't see why it gets seen as a negative reflection on Maxis is all. Does that happen in other gaming communities with creative modding scenes? It's not something I hear about from my kids, who play heavily creatively modded RPGs.
No problem.
> SnatchedPlumbob wrote: »
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> Lately I've found myself feeling more anticipated for what modders can come up with than what EA can throw together. A politics mods might not float everyones boat, but I'm a little curious about it.
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> It's pretty amazing how powerful a toolset is available for modders. The support in the Modding forums from staff has been impressive too. I think those things combined could mean we end up seeing quite a lot of interesting things from the modding community this round. I just don't see why it gets seen as a negative reflection on Maxis is all. Does that happen in other gaming communities with creative modding scenes? It's not something I hear about from my kids, who play heavily creatively modded RPGs.
That's actually really interesting way to think about it. Other games don't get nearly as much hate as EA when it comes to having people mod the games. I guess this might be because the mods for the most part tend to fix and add things that EA/Maxis SHOULD add in the game but do not.
Either way I adore the modding community of the sims franchise big time.
Thanks for that info about Spa Day. However Outdoor Retreat was part of the Day 1 DLC announced before the game was even available. Maybe they expanded on it, but the features in Outdoor Retreat were already described as ready to go, so whatever the survey results were--they wouldn't have kept Outdoor Retreat from being released.
@Mightydan - outside of testing gameplay features, I don't play TS4, so even if they released 100 EPs a year--it wouldn't make me happy. I'd be happy if they gave more depth to the core game and held off on EPs until then. I just think it's pretty sad that EA builds up hype with its surveys and then at the end of the day, it's the modders who actually deliver survey features--not Maxis. That being said, jackjack pointed out that Spa day was part of the initial survey, so two additions were based off a survey.
Well, we'll see if Maxis ever makes a school GP (which they surveyed after get to school was released) or a town hall EP. I don't think they will. But it would be nice if they stepped up their game and did.
Outdoor Retreat appeared in a survey from March, 2014 so a long time before release in fact.
Zerbu is a very talented man, but his mods are simply a patchwork of content that is already there. Trying to discredit EA and praise him seems a bit.. well, unfair.
His back to school mod played exactly like get to work complete with checklists and goals. The novelty wears off after a while.
Yes, I think that had there been no mods, EA still wouldn't have fixed any of the issues (unless there was a terrible outcry). There were some VERY simple fixes that EA could have made that modders couldn't, such as the pathfinding for Island Paradise. I heard that the programmer who last worked on IP forgot to hit a button that set the routeable terrain. All EA had to do was go back, load up IP on their workstation, and hit that button to make the issues with IP go away. Did they? All the lag, freezing, and such was caused by this one error and they could have fixed it easily but didn't. This is EA we're talking about.
^ This.
I am no kid and I play very heavily modded games on my PC and this is the only gaming community I see where mods are viewed negatively. This mod shows why I like developers that provide mod support. Modders can add whole areas to the game, provided the developers provide the tools and expose enough of the game to allow modders to do their stuff.
Developers are to be applauded for adding this option to the game. Mods not only enrich the amount of content for players, but provide a viable playstyle for those that like to mod games.
Further, modding can be a route into the game industry for some.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Indeed, and why I want my sandbox back. (It worked great Zerbu since I played it until it was mind numbing, but not a genre I ever wanted in The Sims).