Also, I get the feeling when he says this that he doesn't care what we think since we post on the forums we are "trash"...
It DOES explain why TS4 simmers aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff no one asked for.
And that debacle where TS4 simmers voted about what content they want for the next pack and got laundry? I think it was all 🐸🐸🐸🐸. I think they were going to put out a laundry pack all along and knew people weren't going to be very excited about it. So they put out a poll to make it look like they care what TS4 simmers want (knowing that they were going to put out a laundry pack no matter what) and OF COURSE laundry won. I actually loved the other themes that TS4 simmers voted on and hoped for, but nope. Nuh-uh. Nada. Zip.
Grant was surprised to see what a success Laundry Stuff was from what I remember him tweeting some time ago.
I'm getting a bit fed up with Forums myself as every thread develops into a 3 versus 4 argument. I wish I could still see what packs or games Simmers had so I could ignore those who have very few or don't play but come here to criticise 4. When that starts such threads should be moved into the 3 Forum to be added to at their leisure.
Grant was surprised to see what a success Laundry Stuff was from what I remember him tweeting some time ago.
I'm getting a bit fed up with Forums myself as every thread develops into a 3 versus 4 argument. I wish I could still see what packs or games Simmers had so I could ignore those who have very few or don't play but come here to criticise 4. When that starts such threads should be moved into the 3 Forum to be added to at their leisure.
Of course he'll say it's a success.
TS4 does need to be criticized because how else will it get better if people just settle for the little it offers? Why should TS4 simmers accept that when previous iterations had so much?
This cheap trend in content is just as much of a concern for those who didn't buy into this iteration as such practice can affect the next. Every time a new TS4 pack comes out with so little content, it just increases worry and distrust concerning what TS5 might be like.
It DOES explain why TS4 simmers aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff no one asked for.
It really doesn't though. It's safe to assume that just about every sentiment echoed about desired content on here is echoed through other mediums as well, including twitter, where he has an official, active account that he posts stuff on sometimes and actively acknowledges sometimes stuff that people are posing to him.
And that's even with the assumption that he never reads the forums and/or disregards them completely, and everyone else on the sims team does the same, which is a lot to assume from one tweet of raw sentiment about internet forums from a guru on their personal twitter account. Heck, we know for a fact SimGuruGraham hosted the Laundry Day Stuff community involvement thing largely on these forums.
The reason people aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff they didn't ask for ("no one" is a stretch) is because 1) there's a massive amount of things to potentially add and each takes a lot of time and 2) as one or more of the gurus has stated at various times, they try new things with each iteration, not just repeat old. That's part of the process.
If you are unsatisfied with what has been delivered so far, I'm not going to argue with you on a matter of opinion and tbh, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with myself. But let's try to keep things down to earth here.
The reason people aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff they didn't ask for ("no one" is a stretch) is because 1) there's a massive amount of things to potentially add and each takes a lot of time and 2) as one or more of the gurus has stated at various times, they try new things with each iteration, not just repeat old. That's part of the process.
That argument doesn't work in light of the fact that previous iterations were jam-packed with new gameplay and content that were new and also took time. If the previous devs were able to produce more, why can't the current devs? And as I have posted before, every time they introduced a new feature, they would pack the EP with a TON of things connected to that feature. This was the way it was from TS1 through TS3. Why should TS4 simmers accept so little????
If you are unsatisfied with what has been delivered so far, I'm not going to argue with you on a matter of opinion and tbh, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with myself. But let's try to keep things down to earth here.
Yes, keep expectations low so the little content that the devs keep putting out for TS4 doesn't look so bad.
He is considering the countless stuff packs for TS4 as part of that equation -- using the number of DLCs as a basis for the game being "good". I guess it's clear why TS4 is the weaker entry.
That should tell you enough. The Sims 3, love it or hate it, just about had World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, and Island Paradise by now. Many of those packs contained multiple themes from the many TS4 packs all in one expansion.
Edited to remove screenshot of Guru personal twitter. ~Rtas
Wowwwww he needs to delete that, that's embarrassing and unprofessional in my opinion. Now I understand @Bagoas77 's position even more lol
That was my reaction too. All forums are trash?... Just wow. Way to blast all the fans of pretty much anything anywhere.
Yeah, it’s quite disheartening, as a fan of the series, to hear a developer say “all forums are trash.” Especially when so many users give feedback here, share CC, share screenshots, etc.
Personal twitter or not, you have the responsibility to watch what you say on the Internet.
I agree. It feels rude and disrespectful to not just the long-term fans who have stood by the franchise since the beginning, but to those who are just beginning their journey with the sims.
The reason people aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff they didn't ask for ("no one" is a stretch) is because 1) there's a massive amount of things to potentially add and each takes a lot of time and 2) as one or more of the gurus has stated at various times, they try new things with each iteration, not just repeat old. That's part of the process.
That argument doesn't work in light of the fact that previous iterations were jam-packed with new gameplay and content that were new and also took time. If the previous devs were able to produce more, why can't the current devs? And as I have posted before, every time they introduced a new feature, they would pack the EP with a TON of things connected to that feature. This was the way it was from TS1 through TS3. Why should TS4 simmers accept so little????
If you are unsatisfied with what has been delivered so far, I'm not going to argue with you on a matter of opinion and tbh, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with myself. But let's try to keep things down to earth here.
Yes, keep expectations low so the little content that the devs keep putting out for TS4 doesn't look so bad.
I think you misunderstand me. I'm not telling anyone how to feel or think about TS4 as a game. I'm just asking that we keep our explanations for things down to earth and jumping down the throat of a single tweet is not that. You're welcome to expect whatever you want, voice whatever you feel and think about the game, provided it doesn't break the rules of the forum of course. I have no power on any of that. I'm just some random guy on here.
The thing I said about why people aren't getting what they want is isn't so much an argument as it is an explanation of how game development works for this game, as explained on multiple occasions by the gurus themselves. In fact, the more iterations this series goes through, the more true it's going to be that there will be things people want that the sims team takes a while to get to, or never gets the chance to get to. Cause with each one they try new stuff that the previous one didn't have and so the overall catalog of "favorite/beloved" content increases with each.
As for why they can't "produce more"? I don't know. I haven't done the comparison and I'm not really interested in getting into a debate about that. Like I said, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with and I've voiced it on plenty of occasions. I don't know what you expect from me.
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
It's still correct for those who shared usage data. Usage also points to Origin's sales figures doesn't it? I also doubt that many of the thousands using Origin bothered to change the settings and they also stayed on the internet to download stuff from the Gallery. I expect most people play with occasional "minimise to desktop" to see what is going on on Twitter, Facebook and their emails. It's the sort of game that you can play that way. That's what I do anyway.
I agree that the team has putout more content than ts3, but for me, the difference is variety. when we got new stuff packs it would have the same objects but different design. for instance, fitness pack where we got the same exercise machines, plus one rock climbing wall, when we could have gotten weights, elliptical bikes, and more etc. I'm not saying one is objectively better than the other, and i enjoy both games even with their faults, but ts3 seemed "fuller" due to the variety of objects, careers, and other gameplay features.
If this is all true, then why did we have all those threads (every month) complaining about droughts of DLC? No communication complaints and many, many, many drought threads.
I honestly think that part of the "drought" feeling has to do with getting basically the same content over and over. Maybe if we had more variety in the game simmers wouldn't complain as much about long release dates because we'd be too busy enjoying what's been released. I've been around for a long time here and there's been way more communication between the gurus and the community in TS4 than TS3. Simmers were less worried about communication because we had more than enough gameplay to keep us occupied until the next release.
TS3 had complaints about performance. TS4 has more complaints about being bored because with every pack release we get a lot of the same stuff, same animations, same sim personalities etc.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
Of course they will not be counted and I personally don't understand why anyone would disable the usage sharing. For me it's the best way to show the producers how I play and what I want.
For the Dev's to read this forum as an only form of knowing what we want would be very time consuming and not nearly as accurate as metrics in the game. I think a lot of people forget that this forum consists of a small group of English speaking simmers but there are plenty other countries where The Sims game is popular.
To each their own and we will all value different things in this game, but the sims in 4 are anything but unique. In fact they're all painfully identical, more so than in Sims 3 where the fact that they looked like each other had everything to do with CAS being hard to handle (it requires some effort to avoid the waxy look; nothing sliders and CC won't take care of though). But once you've created a sim you love, they are far more unique in your game than in Sims 4. Also where looks are concerned, apart from the fact that the emotions override their actions and reactions (personality), they also override their facial features, destroying all uniqueness you managed to give them when they were looking at you with a straight face in CAS. And that's just looks. I really don't care what people think of sims in Sims 3, but calling sims in Sims 4 unique is too far of a stretch. Can't leave this unmentioned because it's actually the worst flaw in this entire game. How much better would this game be if they actually were unique.
As for easy build mode: easy isn't necessarily better. It's great I can throw in a room anywhere I want to, but why would I if I can't decorate it any old way I want to? Filling a room with preset objects that often don't even match is not how I want to spend my afternoon. Building in Sims 3 can be hard, but I happen to like a challenge. That really doesn't put me off.
Quite a few Sims 3 packs aren't in depth, quite a few are. They also came with open venues. Is a club system in depth? That's debatable. Ordering a bunch of sims to start doing the same thing. For me that's as captivating as watching paint dry. Not saying that's objective, if you do like it you do, but it's got nothing to do with depth. Depth lies in the way sims react to each other. Do they remember things, do they treat their fellow sims the way we would if we were in their situation. That for me defines depth. Being able to walk into a restaurant is not more in depth than walking into a tomb and explore it, or walk into a karaoke bar and perform with an audience. Not sure what Sims 4's holiday sytem is, must have missed that one. Sims in 3 can take a few days off and have a holiday in their own world. Go camping, go swimming in the sea, go scuba diving, I can come up with a lot of ways they can spend a holiday. And they can also do it in France, China or Egypt if they want to. Or in the future even.
The very fact Sims 3 is so much more open and added so much different, diverse stuff, makes it way more in depth and adds numerous different things to do. Because it tickles our imagination and there's nothing deeper than that. Joining the forums here broadened my view on this, because I met simmers who were doing things in their games that never even had occurred to me. I don't think Sims 4 offers that, because the gameplay is so scripted and one dimensional. The developers came up with a plan and we play it. And each and every simmer has no choice but playing the very same game.
Interestingly, when I go back to TS3, it's the club system that I miss the most from TS4. As much as I love the open worlds, bringing a group of Sims together there is quite difficult.
@Chazzzy Of course, if Simmers disable usage sharing they are even more unlikely to get their wants or gameplay style to get noticed and influence the game Gurus aren't they?
I've noticed that a lot of Simmers say being connected by Origin in game and online slows their game so they might be the ones on low spec. machines and due to get left behind with the Legacy game.
I think the "droughts'' would feel less dry if we had interesting sims & challenge in the game. The reason why it so so boring is the fact that there's no personalities. No memory, no impactful traits, no attraction system, no dislikes/likes, no favorites, no zodiac, no logical emotions, no consequences, no good reactions, no good relations. TS2 had all that and even after 15 years is still more interesting. But people do not understand that even with University, Beaches & all the rest, the game will stay that boring. They need to fix the game first.
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
It's still correct for those who shared usage data. Usage also points to Origin's sales figures doesn't it? I also doubt that many of the thousands using Origin bothered to change the settings and they also stayed on the internet to download stuff from the Gallery. I expect most people play with occasional "minimise to desktop" to see what is going on on Twitter, Facebook and their emails. It's the sort of game that you can play that way. That's what I do anyway.
I wonder how this is all judged because apparently it’s ranked according to how many players actually use those packs, not just based on sales.
So if I plop down the closet from Get Together, that would mean I now count as “using” the pack, right? Or does it include players who actually play in or travel to Windenburg? Like what are they basing this on is my question. What counts as “using” or “playing” a pack? What if you don’t use any of the objects but you use the CAS items? It sounds confusing.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
Of course they will not be counted and I personally don't understand why anyone would disable the usage sharing. For me it's the best way to show the producers how I play and what I want.
For the Dev's to read this forum as an only form of knowing what we want would be very time consuming and not nearly as accurate as metrics in the game. I think a lot of people forget that this forum consists of a small group of English speaking simmers but there are plenty other countries where The Sims game is popular.
I imagine you can’t share usage data if you disable the internet and I always turn off the Internet option in game. I only turn it back on when I want to download from the gallery. I’ve been doing that because back when I played on a laptop, I felt like with the internet on, the game ran slower. Now I play on a better system but I never bothered to leave it on lol
The thing I said about why people aren't getting what they want is isn't so much an argument as it is an explanation of how game development works for this game, as explained on multiple occasions by the gurus themselves. In fact, the more iterations this series goes through, the more true it's going to be that there will be things people want that the sims team takes a while to get to, or never gets the chance to get to. Cause with each one they try new stuff that the previous one didn't have and so the overall catalog of "favorite/beloved" content increases with each.
As for why they can't "produce more"? I don't know. I haven't done the comparison and I'm not really interested in getting into a debate about that. Like I said, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with and I've voiced it on plenty of occasions. I don't know what you expect from me.
You keep forgetting that previous devs had the same demands and requests from us as this current set of devs have - to get things we had from previous iterations that we loved, while adding new features to keep it fresh. The previous devs weren't able to create everything from previous iterations of course, but they actually got most of it! And the new things they added to the franchise were, as I have said so many times before, introduced in a big way with a ton of content connected to that feature that helped us to love that new feature. It is not so with TS4.
I guess what I expect from you is to want to hope for more from the devs for the money you're paying and not make excuses for the inferior output of TS4. Because if you continue to do that, they will just keep putting out packs that aren't as good as they can be.
I don't really blame the devs though for all this disappointment, because funding ultimately comes from EA and it is clear that they're not getting enough. With better funding, the can hire more people for coding in more gameplay, more animators for more detailed animations (that's why gameplay feels empty when there isn't much animation or is reused for so many actions), more mesh builders for create more useful objects, etc.
Who knows? There are rumors of competition in the air. Maybe that will take EA out of its complacency. If not, I don't owe them my loyalty. My money goes to the best life sim game out there.
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
Actually they know exactly what you are running when you start up the game and are connected to Origin - it records that info - it takes mere seconds - so if something was disabled they will see it in the telemetry before you go offline. You cannot start the game with out that check and that's all it takes. Also when you quit it sees that info as well, well unless you crashed and in that case it records that info as well with date and time. You can even see a copy of that in your own game files and also in your document files. Also your game and computer will record info while you play the game even offline that can be retrieved by the system and placed on a page in your documents - from what packs you are playing to exceptions the computer/game encountered etc. Useful info if you have trouble with the game or your pc that identifies what issues you may be having. But the computer will produce all that info whether or not you are connected to Origin or even on line - it still gathers it and makes a file.
It does not take a person on the other side to put that info out there - their system does all that for them.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
You keep forgetting that previous devs had the same demands and requests from us as this current set of devs have - to get things we had from previous iterations that we loved, while adding new features to keep it fresh. The previous devs weren't able to create everything from previous iterations of course, but they actually got most of it! And the new things they added to the franchise were, as I have said so many times before, introduced in a big way with a ton of content connected to that feature that helped us to love that new feature. It is not so with TS4.
I guess what I expect from you is to want to hope for more from the devs for the money you're paying and not make excuses for the inferior output of TS4. Because if you continue to do that, they will just keep putting out packs that aren't as good as they can be.
I don't really blame the devs though for all this disappointment, because funding ultimately comes from EA and it is clear that they're not getting enough. With better funding, the can hire more people for coding in more gameplay, more animators for more detailed animations (that's why gameplay feels empty when there isn't much animation or is reused for so many actions), more mesh builders for create more useful objects, etc.
Who knows? There are rumors of competition in the air. Maybe that will take EA out of its complacency. If not, I don't owe them my loyalty. My money goes to the best life sim game out there.
*shrug*
There was a period during this game's life where I straight up boycotted it because of how poorly they handled the price increase in Brazil and I believe some other places. (I don't live in Brazil or anywhere the price was affected, it was just the principle of the thing and the timing of it mixed with the BF2 debacle.)
The main thing that got me to come back was deciding that it wasteful to throw away the modded things I'd worked so hard on previously (not literally throw away, but not keep them updated), especially considering how many people were into one of them (the sorcerer mod).
I don't think I'm in a position to be preached at about making excuses for the game on a business level.
I've been pretty understanding of a lot of design choices made by the sims team for this game throughout its history. And the main reason is an ongoing analysis of how they act and how sincere they seem in their goals and decisions. It is impossible to separate them from the marketing and the publisher entirely, but you can tell that they try to separate themselves from it in subtle ways. Whether it's sincere or it's part of some dastardly marketing strategy is up to people to discern for themselves (it's probably a little of both).
But no matter what opinion I have about a company, I'm generally going to go to bat for the people who have limited power and are just trying to do the best they can with what's been afforded to them.
That doesn't mean I support every decision made or buy blindly, no matter what is put out. The video games industry is being dragged down right now, by rampant greed and monetization of everything. I'm not going to expend all of my energy being concerned about the sims 4 hanging on a few more years than normal and allegedly spreading content out more with a DLC model that is, by the standards of the normalization of greed in this industry, incredibly mild. There are far worse issues in the industry for me to be concerned about. If this is one of them, boy is it subtle and difficult to prove.
Just wondering if their usage stats will go out of control if they give us circular stair, elevators and water tools.
There are so many different requests for different things that it must be very difficult to rank them in order. @GrimSuruDoi 's Theam game is an subtle way to ask for a priority vote I suppose but I had to choose between two things that I really wanted several times.
Hey folks, just a heads up, let's try not to post screenshots of a Guru's personal twitter. Regardless of their opinion and whether you agree or not, they are entitled to their privacy.
But it isn’t his private twitter account- it’s his official Guru account in which he publically engages with fans. There is a whole thread dedicated to posting these tweets to keep fans updated. For those that don’t use twitter. This is no different.
I was referring to a screenshot which did show the Guru's personal account, obviously screenshots of the official guru account tweets are fine.
Also, I get the feeling when he says this that he doesn't care what we think since we post on the forums we are "trash"...
It would be wonderful if they would've considered why the forums are trash... they didn't used to be. Is it a reflection of what's being offered? Is the abyss looking back?
What have helped me understand a bit more of the attitude from game developers and their responses are the blog askagamedev, it is a blog from an anonymous developer who talks about game development.
Some interesting things from that blog:
Developers are very limited by time and budget, they have to make do with the resources they have, if there is a feature they want to add within that budget, that often means something else has to be removed. I am sure the developer are very aware of this. You have 200 developers working on different things and are in different stages of completion so they have to choose what to prioritize. And game development takes a long time. I am sure they have streamlined a lot of things now but I would not be surprised if it takes more than a year to make an Expansion Pack.
Game development studios collects usage data from thousands and thousands of players to get the greater picture of what was successful or not. I am not sure how many copies sims4 has sold, I googled it and got "10 million copies in 2018". So when someone says "no one likes this feature in the game" on twitter on the forums, that is the response from one user. And the developer has usage data from 10 million people.
80, 20, 5. 80% of players will never engage with anything beyond the game itself. 20% will actually bother to go online and read something about the game, and a mere 5% will be engaged so much as to actually bother to post and communicate with other players. So forum posters, twitter messages, youtube comments are only 5% of the people who buy and play the game and they will have to take this into consideration.
So if a user for example says "No one liked this game pack" to a developer and the developer has sales numbers that says that it sold better than their other Game Packs, usage data that they played it more than other packs and feedback from their team that the development went very well the developer will probably not be sure how to handle this feedback from the user.
If you play the game developer career in the sims4 there is actually something similar happening where a bunch of vocal users want a feature changed for a new release and you can choose to change it, or look at the sales predictions.
Comments
It DOES explain why TS4 simmers aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff no one asked for.
And that debacle where TS4 simmers voted about what content they want for the next pack and got laundry? I think it was all 🐸🐸🐸🐸. I think they were going to put out a laundry pack all along and knew people weren't going to be very excited about it. So they put out a poll to make it look like they care what TS4 simmers want (knowing that they were going to put out a laundry pack no matter what) and OF COURSE laundry won. I actually loved the other themes that TS4 simmers voted on and hoped for, but nope. Nuh-uh. Nada. Zip.
I'm getting a bit fed up with Forums myself as every thread develops into a 3 versus 4 argument. I wish I could still see what packs or games Simmers had so I could ignore those who have very few or don't play but come here to criticise 4. When that starts such threads should be moved into the 3 Forum to be added to at their leisure.
Of course he'll say it's a success.
TS4 does need to be criticized because how else will it get better if people just settle for the little it offers? Why should TS4 simmers accept that when previous iterations had so much?
This cheap trend in content is just as much of a concern for those who didn't buy into this iteration as such practice can affect the next. Every time a new TS4 pack comes out with so little content, it just increases worry and distrust concerning what TS5 might be like.
And that's even with the assumption that he never reads the forums and/or disregards them completely, and everyone else on the sims team does the same, which is a lot to assume from one tweet of raw sentiment about internet forums from a guru on their personal twitter account. Heck, we know for a fact SimGuruGraham hosted the Laundry Day Stuff community involvement thing largely on these forums.
The reason people aren't getting what they've been requesting for so long and getting stuff they didn't ask for ("no one" is a stretch) is because 1) there's a massive amount of things to potentially add and each takes a lot of time and 2) as one or more of the gurus has stated at various times, they try new things with each iteration, not just repeat old. That's part of the process.
If you are unsatisfied with what has been delivered so far, I'm not going to argue with you on a matter of opinion and tbh, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with myself. But let's try to keep things down to earth here.
That argument doesn't work in light of the fact that previous iterations were jam-packed with new gameplay and content that were new and also took time. If the previous devs were able to produce more, why can't the current devs? And as I have posted before, every time they introduced a new feature, they would pack the EP with a TON of things connected to that feature. This was the way it was from TS1 through TS3. Why should TS4 simmers accept so little????
Yes, keep expectations low so the little content that the devs keep putting out for TS4 doesn't look so bad.
I agree. It feels rude and disrespectful to not just the long-term fans who have stood by the franchise since the beginning, but to those who are just beginning their journey with the sims.
The thing I said about why people aren't getting what they want is isn't so much an argument as it is an explanation of how game development works for this game, as explained on multiple occasions by the gurus themselves. In fact, the more iterations this series goes through, the more true it's going to be that there will be things people want that the sims team takes a while to get to, or never gets the chance to get to. Cause with each one they try new stuff that the previous one didn't have and so the overall catalog of "favorite/beloved" content increases with each.
As for why they can't "produce more"? I don't know. I haven't done the comparison and I'm not really interested in getting into a debate about that. Like I said, there's plenty I've been unsatisfied with and I've voiced it on plenty of occasions. I don't know what you expect from me.
"Let's look at stuff packs ranked by how many people used them in the first year they were released"
Laundry day came first and you might be surprised that My First Pet Stuff came 4th.
But there’s an option to disable usage sharing data in settings. And you can also disable the internet. So for those players who have them both disabled, they are not included in this ranking correct? So that would mean the ranking is inaccurate and there is no way to track how often those players played those packs?
It's still correct for those who shared usage data. Usage also points to Origin's sales figures doesn't it? I also doubt that many of the thousands using Origin bothered to change the settings and they also stayed on the internet to download stuff from the Gallery. I expect most people play with occasional "minimise to desktop" to see what is going on on Twitter, Facebook and their emails. It's the sort of game that you can play that way. That's what I do anyway.
I honestly think that part of the "drought" feeling has to do with getting basically the same content over and over. Maybe if we had more variety in the game simmers wouldn't complain as much about long release dates because we'd be too busy enjoying what's been released. I've been around for a long time here and there's been way more communication between the gurus and the community in TS4 than TS3. Simmers were less worried about communication because we had more than enough gameplay to keep us occupied until the next release.
TS3 had complaints about performance. TS4 has more complaints about being bored because with every pack release we get a lot of the same stuff, same animations, same sim personalities etc.
Of course they will not be counted and I personally don't understand why anyone would disable the usage sharing. For me it's the best way to show the producers how I play and what I want.
For the Dev's to read this forum as an only form of knowing what we want would be very time consuming and not nearly as accurate as metrics in the game. I think a lot of people forget that this forum consists of a small group of English speaking simmers but there are plenty other countries where The Sims game is popular.
Interestingly, when I go back to TS3, it's the club system that I miss the most from TS4. As much as I love the open worlds, bringing a group of Sims together there is quite difficult.
I've noticed that a lot of Simmers say being connected by Origin in game and online slows their game so they might be the ones on low spec. machines and due to get left behind with the Legacy game.
I wonder how this is all judged because apparently it’s ranked according to how many players actually use those packs, not just based on sales.
So if I plop down the closet from Get Together, that would mean I now count as “using” the pack, right? Or does it include players who actually play in or travel to Windenburg? Like what are they basing this on is my question. What counts as “using” or “playing” a pack? What if you don’t use any of the objects but you use the CAS items? It sounds confusing.
I imagine you can’t share usage data if you disable the internet and I always turn off the Internet option in game. I only turn it back on when I want to download from the gallery. I’ve been doing that because back when I played on a laptop, I felt like with the internet on, the game ran slower. Now I play on a better system but I never bothered to leave it on lol
You keep forgetting that previous devs had the same demands and requests from us as this current set of devs have - to get things we had from previous iterations that we loved, while adding new features to keep it fresh. The previous devs weren't able to create everything from previous iterations of course, but they actually got most of it! And the new things they added to the franchise were, as I have said so many times before, introduced in a big way with a ton of content connected to that feature that helped us to love that new feature. It is not so with TS4.
I guess what I expect from you is to want to hope for more from the devs for the money you're paying and not make excuses for the inferior output of TS4. Because if you continue to do that, they will just keep putting out packs that aren't as good as they can be.
I don't really blame the devs though for all this disappointment, because funding ultimately comes from EA and it is clear that they're not getting enough. With better funding, the can hire more people for coding in more gameplay, more animators for more detailed animations (that's why gameplay feels empty when there isn't much animation or is reused for so many actions), more mesh builders for create more useful objects, etc.
Who knows? There are rumors of competition in the air. Maybe that will take EA out of its complacency. If not, I don't owe them my loyalty. My money goes to the best life sim game out there.
Actually they know exactly what you are running when you start up the game and are connected to Origin - it records that info - it takes mere seconds - so if something was disabled they will see it in the telemetry before you go offline. You cannot start the game with out that check and that's all it takes. Also when you quit it sees that info as well, well unless you crashed and in that case it records that info as well with date and time. You can even see a copy of that in your own game files and also in your document files. Also your game and computer will record info while you play the game even offline that can be retrieved by the system and placed on a page in your documents - from what packs you are playing to exceptions the computer/game encountered etc. Useful info if you have trouble with the game or your pc that identifies what issues you may be having. But the computer will produce all that info whether or not you are connected to Origin or even on line - it still gathers it and makes a file.
It does not take a person on the other side to put that info out there - their system does all that for them.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
There was a period during this game's life where I straight up boycotted it because of how poorly they handled the price increase in Brazil and I believe some other places. (I don't live in Brazil or anywhere the price was affected, it was just the principle of the thing and the timing of it mixed with the BF2 debacle.)
The main thing that got me to come back was deciding that it wasteful to throw away the modded things I'd worked so hard on previously (not literally throw away, but not keep them updated), especially considering how many people were into one of them (the sorcerer mod).
I don't think I'm in a position to be preached at about making excuses for the game on a business level.
I've been pretty understanding of a lot of design choices made by the sims team for this game throughout its history. And the main reason is an ongoing analysis of how they act and how sincere they seem in their goals and decisions. It is impossible to separate them from the marketing and the publisher entirely, but you can tell that they try to separate themselves from it in subtle ways. Whether it's sincere or it's part of some dastardly marketing strategy is up to people to discern for themselves (it's probably a little of both).
But no matter what opinion I have about a company, I'm generally going to go to bat for the people who have limited power and are just trying to do the best they can with what's been afforded to them.
That doesn't mean I support every decision made or buy blindly, no matter what is put out. The video games industry is being dragged down right now, by rampant greed and monetization of everything. I'm not going to expend all of my energy being concerned about the sims 4 hanging on a few more years than normal and allegedly spreading content out more with a DLC model that is, by the standards of the normalization of greed in this industry, incredibly mild. There are far worse issues in the industry for me to be concerned about. If this is one of them, boy is it subtle and difficult to prove.
There are so many different requests for different things that it must be very difficult to rank them in order. @GrimSuruDoi 's Theam game is an subtle way to ask for a priority vote I suppose but I had to choose between two things that I really wanted several times.
I was referring to a screenshot which did show the Guru's personal account, obviously screenshots of the official guru account tweets are fine.
It would be wonderful if they would've considered why the forums are trash... they didn't used to be. Is it a reflection of what's being offered? Is the abyss looking back?
Some interesting things from that blog:
Developers are very limited by time and budget, they have to make do with the resources they have, if there is a feature they want to add within that budget, that often means something else has to be removed. I am sure the developer are very aware of this. You have 200 developers working on different things and are in different stages of completion so they have to choose what to prioritize. And game development takes a long time. I am sure they have streamlined a lot of things now but I would not be surprised if it takes more than a year to make an Expansion Pack.
Game development studios collects usage data from thousands and thousands of players to get the greater picture of what was successful or not. I am not sure how many copies sims4 has sold, I googled it and got "10 million copies in 2018". So when someone says "no one likes this feature in the game" on twitter on the forums, that is the response from one user. And the developer has usage data from 10 million people.
80, 20, 5. 80% of players will never engage with anything beyond the game itself. 20% will actually bother to go online and read something about the game, and a mere 5% will be engaged so much as to actually bother to post and communicate with other players. So forum posters, twitter messages, youtube comments are only 5% of the people who buy and play the game and they will have to take this into consideration.
So if a user for example says "No one liked this game pack" to a developer and the developer has sales numbers that says that it sold better than their other Game Packs, usage data that they played it more than other packs and feedback from their team that the development went very well the developer will probably not be sure how to handle this feedback from the user.
If you play the game developer career in the sims4 there is actually something similar happening where a bunch of vocal users want a feature changed for a new release and you can choose to change it, or look at the sales predictions.