"But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. "
It honestly feels like a spin-off of Into the Future EP Utopia world to me. It doesn't feel that different. Feels like a game made for laptops like the Sims Life Stories series was. I still think if it was supposed to be a completely new game, it shouldn't have been called "the Sims 4". I would have accepted it more as a side game. But that is just my personal opinion about that quote.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
I can't even begin to tell you how many TS3 games I played in that house and with that family.
And I agree with @Scobre . I tried recreating the Goth house and cemetery from TS3. That's when I found out about culling. Hours of play gone down the tubes when I saw that my cemetery was empty with blank headstones.
That is so sad. Tough way to find culling.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
@sparkfairy1 I do know that you and a lot of others mourn the lack of toddlers and that blog (that was linked) did say that they wouldn't be in at launch. As far as the blog really explaining what's in what's out....I'm afraid I just don't see it.
My example.....no cemeteries and, once they were added, culled ghosts. I know it may seem silly to many but haunted cemeteries and houses are as much a part of my game play as toddlers are to others. @SimGuruDaniel was in the forum one night shortly after release and I asked if we could have a cemetery added.....the reply was that it was on his to do list.
In the blog Ms Franklin says "I’ll give you one example that continually jumps out at me as we talk about how to make The Sims 4 feel uniquely personal to you, our players." and then she goes on to talk about CAS. I don't feel I have a lot of options to make TS4 uniquely personal.....maybe with mods.....not the game as it is.
I totally Agree, I also am waiting for Cemeteries, Coffins and such,
Same. I really miss Cemeteries. The Goth house just feels wrong without the family headstones. I blame the culling feature for that.
I do not like the Goth house, Nor the goth family, I kept the house and got rid of the family, I made the goth family Exactly how they looked in Sims 1 , only I added Alexander, which of Course they seemed to have copied, cause in sims 1 there was only Mortimer, Bella, & Cassandra, I added Alexander to My game , then I see that he was added to other games after, odd.
I can't even begin to tell you how many TS3 games I played in that house and with that family.
And I agree with @Scobre . I tried recreating the Goth house and cemetery from TS3. That's when I found out about culling. Hours of play gone down the tubes when I saw that my cemetery was empty with blank headstones.
Sorry I had forgotten to mention that the Goth's I do not like is from Sims 4, I have not seen them in My TS3 yet, only in 1 & 2 I have seen them besides 4.
@sparkfairy1 I do know that you and a lot of others mourn the lack of toddlers and that blog (that was linked) did say that they wouldn't be in at launch. As far as the blog really explaining what's in what's out....I'm afraid I just don't see it.
My example.....no cemeteries and, once they were added, culled ghosts. I know it may seem silly to many but haunted cemeteries and houses are as much a part of my game play as toddlers are to others. @SimGuruDaniel was in the forum one night shortly after release and I asked if we could have a cemetery added.....the reply was that it was on his to do list.
In the blog Ms Franklin says "I’ll give you one example that continually jumps out at me as we talk about how to make The Sims 4 feel uniquely personal to you, our players." and then she goes on to talk about CAS. I don't feel I have a lot of options to make TS4 uniquely personal.....maybe with mods.....not the game as it is.
I totally Agree, I also am waiting for Cemeteries, Coffins and such,
Same. I really miss Cemeteries. The Goth house just feels wrong without the family headstones. I blame the culling feature for that.
I do not like the Goth house, Nor the goth family, I kept the house and got rid of the family, I made the goth family Exactly how they looked in Sims 1 , only I added Alexander, which of Course they seemed to have copied, cause in sims 1 there was only Mortimer, Bella, & Cassandra, I added Alexander to My game , then I see that he was added to other games after, odd.
I can't even begin to tell you how many TS3 games I played in that house and with that family.
And I agree with @Scobre . I tried recreating the Goth house and cemetery from TS3. That's when I found out about culling. Hours of play gone down the tubes when I saw that my cemetery was empty with blank headstones.
Sorry I had forgotten to mention that the Goth's I do not like is from Sims 4, I have not seen them in My TS3 yet, only in 1 & 2 I have seen them besides 4.
Are you new to TS3?
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
"But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. "
It honestly feels like a spin-off of Into the Future EP Utopia world to me. It doesn't feel that different. Feels like a game made for laptops like the Sims Life Stories series was. I still think if it was supposed to be a completely new game, it shouldn't have been called "the Sims 4". I would have accepted it more as a side game.
I for one am glad that I can play it on My Laptop, cause that is the only thing that can be bought around here where I am at, The Store's do not sell desk tops here no more, I have tried to buy them, none.
"But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. "
It honestly feels like a spin-off of Into the Future EP Utopia world to me. It doesn't feel that different. Feels like a game made for laptops like the Sims Life Stories series was. I still think if it was supposed to be a completely new game, it shouldn't have been called "the Sims 4". I would have accepted it more as a side game.
I for one am glad that I can play it on My Laptop, cause that is the only thing that can be bought around here where I am at, The Store's do not sell desk tops here no more, I have tried to buy them, none.
I just miss when the Sims used to be on multiple platforms. The Sims 2 did so well because it offered versions for both desktop and laptop computers. I hope that with the Sims 5, they make multiple platform versions too. It is like the Sims 3 caters towards the gaming computers and the Sims 4 caters to laptops. I want versions of the Sims that both set of players can enjoy. That stinks desktops aren't sold in your stores. I plan on having my brother help me build a desktop from parts sold online. My biggest fear for the Sims 4 is that several features will have to be sacrificed just for the sake of being able to run on laptops. There was a reason why the Sims Life Stories series could only handle like 3 packs. Each that ran separately. It was because that is what laptops could handle. They aren't meant to run multiple EPs and multiple GPs and SPs. It will start harming laptops after awhile like what happened with the Sims 3 when all the content was released. It makes me worried that development might have to be cut short because of that breaking point of laptop capability. I just fear the Sims 4 wasn't designed well for expansion. Culling and world size will become an issue as the game grows and there will be a breaking point.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
"But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. "
It honestly feels like a spin-off of Into the Future EP Utopia world to me. It doesn't feel that different. Feels like a game made for laptops like the Sims Life Stories series was. I still think if it was supposed to be a completely new game, it shouldn't have been called "the Sims 4". I would have accepted it more as a side game.
I for one am glad that I can play it on My Laptop, cause that is the only thing that can be bought around here where I am at, The Store's do not sell desk tops here no more, I have tried to buy them, none.
I just miss when the Sims used to be on multiple platforms. The Sims 2 did so well because it offered versions for both desktop and laptop computers. I hope that with the Sims 5, they make multiple platform versions too. It is like the Sims 3 caters towards the gaming computers and the Sims 4 caters to laptops. I want versions of the Sims that both set of players can enjoy. That stinks desktops aren't sold in your stores. I plan on having my brother help me build a desktop from parts sold online. My biggest fear for the Sims 4 is that several features will have to be sacrificed just for the sake of being able to run on laptops. There was a reason why the Sims Life Stories series could only handle like 3 packs. Each that ran separately. It was because that is what laptops could handle. They aren't meant to run multiple EPs and multiple GPs and SPs. It will start harming laptops after awhile like what happened with the Sims 3 when all the content was released. It makes me worried that development might have to be cut short because of that breaking point of laptop capability. I just fear the Sims 4 wasn't designed well for expansion. Culling and world size will become an issue as the game grows and there will be a breaking point.
Yup you are probably right bout that, but I can hope that wont be the case.
Hopping in here because it seems like there is a lot of misleading information being presented that I want to squash:
Please link to a source whenever you make any kind of statement. Do not simply state something as being factual without any information to back it up.
The Sims 4 is doing just fine. As many of you have noted from our financial report that The Sims 4 player base grew by nearly two-thirds in the fiscal year <<this is fact, not opinion (and before it gets asked: no I will not be providing any additional information that was not shared in our financial reports.)
Additionally: I am seeing this far too often here and I want to make it clear. Your personal opinions are not fact and should never be stated as such. Do not make statements about what you *think* is going on within studio and try to pass it off as being factual information. Do not make statements of what you *think* myself and the other SimGurus feel about the community or the game --you are not us. The SimGurus are people not a product and should be respected as individuals --this means that slamming the developers and making personal attacks towards them is not and will never be okay. The Sims 4 is a product and you are welcome to provide your opinions on said product whether it is negative or positive. The forums are a place for you to provide feedback / ideas, share your creations, and talk / debate with one another about The Sims 4 and the franchise as a whole --not a place for you to attack / slander / defame the people who work on it.
I'm happy to answer the questions that I can. I'm also changing the title of this thread as it is extremely misleading.
OK, here are some questions. Why are actual sales numbers shared for some EA games but not for TS4?
Is culling (Sims, relationships) going to be fixed?
This falls into future content territory which I can't comment on.
Concerning relationship culling, which you can read about in my For The Love Of Pete Thread, would it be possible for you to ask developers how it makes sense for them to cull my Sims' relationships on rotation with my own darn Sims built by me and played by me between my own households, for performance sake was it? Isn't that what they said. But turn around and add fake relationships to Sims my Sims have never met and make the 'love birds' but cull all my work on my own households. Would you care to ask them how that makes sense?
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I do not work in the finance department so I'm unable to answer this.
This is the kind of answer (in response to a request for an actual figure on the number of TS4 games sold) that further erodes my confidence that EA plans to treat its customers with respect.
It's a tactic called "minimal candor" in which you say something in response to a question which, while not untrue, is not a genuine response to the question. (I do it all the time when I fake sick leave: "Hey boss, I'm calling in sick." I am not really, sick but I didn't say I was sick. I said I was "calling in sick" which, while true, leaves the false impression that I am actually sick.)
I'm sure the SimGuru who said she doesn't work in the finance department does not work in the finance department, but an honest response would have taken one of two forms.
She might have said, "I don't work in the finance department but let me request that information from the finance department and I will get back to you."
I wouldn't expect that answer.
I would expect an honest answer would have been "It's EA's policy not to share such information with the public because we work in a highly competitive market and that information is kept confidential for business reasons."
I can respect that, but that's not what we got.
It reminds me of disrespect for customers displayed in a discussion thread involving two SimGurus concerning the December patch. Asked what change was made to culling in advance of the release of "Get Together." One of the SimGurus said something along the lines of "Oh there's a lot of factors involved, algorithms and stuff, and you wouldn't understand it."
That's pretty insulting. It's like they treat us all like pre-teens, while underestimating the intelligence of most pre-teens. Among people who are interested in an answer to that question are modders and others who would understand the answer very well, algorithms and all.
In that case, the answer given may actually have been false. According to information garnered from the modding community, all they did was raise the population limit from 180 to 210 (probably so the game wouldn't immediately start deleting Sims the moment you loaded Windenburg and all its Sims into your game).
And I can understand why they may not have wanted to answer that question honestly. Once you start down that path of intentionally misleading people, it's hard to start being honest without betraying that previous statements were disingenuous.
It could be legally EA has it set up that only the total sum of their games profits can be shared with the public, but individual numbers from publisher to publisher can't be shared. I think things did change in business policies over the years for EA.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
I do not work in the finance department so I'm unable to answer this.
(...)
That's pretty insulting. It's like they treat us all like pre-teens, while underestimating the intelligence of most pre-teens. Among people who are interested in an answer to that question are modders and others who would understand the answer very well, algorithms and all.
In that case, the answer given may actually have been false. According to information garnered from the modding community, all they did was raise the population limit from 180 to 210 (probably so the game wouldn't immediately start deleting Sims the moment you loaded Windenburg and all its Sims into your game).
And I can understand why they may not have wanted to answer that question honestly. Once you start down that path of intentionally misleading people, it's hard to start being honest without betraying that previous statements were disingenuous.
Modders can ask about it in the modding section if they want more info, there's no need to put complex algorithm explanations in the patch notes to be honest , and the limit wasn't the only thing changed actually, just the most obvious one.
What a surprise ....not! But with the state the game is will they really only release one exp this year....especially not releasing one near Christmas? .....mmm I dunno. But then again ....Ts4 ...
Lol ya know what....it's not even worth commenting on anymore. A closed wallet can hurt more than any long winded post I could write.
You know, they could just as easily announce it after the event. EA is going to be showing off a bunch of new products at their event, and perhaps they don't want the new products overshadowed by the EP, or vice-versa. Plus, if they are releasing the Kids SP at the end of June so it's in the Summer, then they're going to let that go as long as they can so they can maximize profit from it. So, once the next quarter trailer comes out, don't you think that they could maybe, I don't know, announce it then?
But what's probably is going to happen is that people will yell at me, throw old quotes at me, say that TS4 is officially dead and nothing can save it, etc, etc. First Amendment yo! You can say whatever you want to me but I can't talk back, because I will, and anyone making a valid point about TS4, be wrong and/or ignored completely.
Just some random Simmer you probably don't even follow on the gallery! Gallery name's the same as my username! Did I just rhyme there?
It could be legally EA has it set up that only the total sum of their games profits can be shared with the public, but individual numbers from publisher to publisher can't be shared. I think things did change in business policies over the years for EA.
It seems to vary from game to game. This year the fiscal report call actually said how many times Freeplay had been downloaded but only said TS4 had a growth of 2/3......so 2/3 of what original figure? It's like last year. The call said TS4 sales were better than expected. .......but what were the expectations?
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
It could be legally EA has it set up that only the total sum of their games profits can be shared with the public, but individual numbers from publisher to publisher can't be shared. I think things did change in business policies over the years for EA.
It seems to vary from game to game. This year the fiscal report call actually said how many times Freeplay had been downloaded but only said TS4 had a growth of 2/3......so 2/3 of what original figure? It's like last year. The call said TS4 sales were better than expected. .......but what were the expectations?
I have no idea. Better than a flop maybe? Who knows? Yeah I have heard Freeplay praised more than the Sims 4.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
Again, why are people STILL surprised when the sims team makes bad decisions??? I've been saying this game has been slowly going down hill since mid sims 3. This is just a continuation of that downward slope.
@jaxie086 I think the difference is that the sims team are making so many bad decisions at an accelerated rate in The Sims 4 we (the simmers) are asking the team to take off the skis because we are tired of going downhill with wind blowing us in the face. We wanted a rock climb the mountain of progress not a ski trip down "Silent Mountain"....
Comments
Sorry I had forgotten to mention that the Goth's I do not like is from Sims 4, I have not seen them in My TS3 yet, only in 1 & 2 I have seen them besides 4.
Are you new to TS3?
I for one am glad that I can play it on My Laptop, cause that is the only thing that can be bought around here where I am at, The Store's do not sell desk tops here no more, I have tried to buy them, none.
Yup you are probably right bout that, but I can hope that wont be the case.
Concerning relationship culling, which you can read about in my For The Love Of Pete Thread, would it be possible for you to ask developers how it makes sense for them to cull my Sims' relationships on rotation with my own darn Sims built by me and played by me between my own households, for performance sake was it? Isn't that what they said. But turn around and add fake relationships to Sims my Sims have never met and make the 'love birds' but cull all my work on my own households. Would you care to ask them how that makes sense?
This is the kind of answer (in response to a request for an actual figure on the number of TS4 games sold) that further erodes my confidence that EA plans to treat its customers with respect.
It's a tactic called "minimal candor" in which you say something in response to a question which, while not untrue, is not a genuine response to the question. (I do it all the time when I fake sick leave: "Hey boss, I'm calling in sick." I am not really, sick but I didn't say I was sick. I said I was "calling in sick" which, while true, leaves the false impression that I am actually sick.)
I'm sure the SimGuru who said she doesn't work in the finance department does not work in the finance department, but an honest response would have taken one of two forms.
She might have said, "I don't work in the finance department but let me request that information from the finance department and I will get back to you."
I wouldn't expect that answer.
I would expect an honest answer would have been "It's EA's policy not to share such information with the public because we work in a highly competitive market and that information is kept confidential for business reasons."
I can respect that, but that's not what we got.
It reminds me of disrespect for customers displayed in a discussion thread involving two SimGurus concerning the December patch. Asked what change was made to culling in advance of the release of "Get Together." One of the SimGurus said something along the lines of "Oh there's a lot of factors involved, algorithms and stuff, and you wouldn't understand it."
That's pretty insulting. It's like they treat us all like pre-teens, while underestimating the intelligence of most pre-teens. Among people who are interested in an answer to that question are modders and others who would understand the answer very well, algorithms and all.
In that case, the answer given may actually have been false. According to information garnered from the modding community, all they did was raise the population limit from 180 to 210 (probably so the game wouldn't immediately start deleting Sims the moment you loaded Windenburg and all its Sims into your game).
And I can understand why they may not have wanted to answer that question honestly. Once you start down that path of intentionally misleading people, it's hard to start being honest without betraying that previous statements were disingenuous.
Annette Thayer butts heads with the late Eric Lewis on her first day as steward.
Modders can ask about it in the modding section if they want more info, there's no need to put complex algorithm explanations in the patch notes to be honest , and the limit wasn't the only thing changed actually, just the most obvious one.
Lol ya know what....it's not even worth commenting on anymore. A closed wallet can hurt more than any long winded post I could write.
But what's probably is going to happen is that people will yell at me, throw old quotes at me, say that TS4 is officially dead and nothing can save it, etc, etc. First Amendment yo! You can say whatever you want to me but I can't talk back, because I will, and anyone making a valid point about TS4, be wrong and/or ignored completely.
It seems to vary from game to game. This year the fiscal report call actually said how many times Freeplay had been downloaded but only said TS4 had a growth of 2/3......so 2/3 of what original figure? It's like last year. The call said TS4 sales were better than expected. .......but what were the expectations?
I wanna get hooked with you too.
Connect Four is looking better right now. Even Tic Tac Toe!
Cause we don't have lol anymore, but this made me giggle & something I agree with...even guess who & battleship are interesting.
Tic Tac Toe is naughts and crosses, right?
--T