EA plans to bring at least 20 new content drops and expansion packs to The Sims franchise in fiscal 2020.
They said this months ago. This isn’t news really.
It was new - yesterdays investment news for the year coming. Yesterdays date.
EA just had a stock holders meeting about 8-10 days ago - so it's all new or renewed maybe .
Could you please stick to the topic though? The topic isn’t “how much future do think Sims 4’s future still has”, that would be a topic for the section Speculation. This topic is about why (or why not) it should stop according to simmers. Not EA or simgurus.
Ultimately It is EA's decision - not the hand ful of simmers in this thread. Everyone has an opinion - and no one in this thread has a right to say rest of us can't weigh in. It's on the forum for every one. I am as much a simmer as you are - whats more i follow what the company has to say - the company has the answers and they are just talking about the games future - so are the stock holders and i don't see where they see it the way of this little thread.
I’m not saying you can’t share your opinions or expectations. But there’s a section and a topic for everything and this is not the topic for what you’re saying (repeatedly I might add). Even when you’re right (I think you are actually, Sims 4 is going to last at least another three years, EA indeed decides that, but they can’t decide how simmers feel about that and thát’s what this topic is about). Everybody can weigh in here, by explaining why they are or are not looking forward to Sims 4’s end. Not if the game will get those years, that’s speculation (and in a few years we’ll know) and not the point here.
Kinda wish they just nail the coffin on this version of the game and just start a new....
Assuming starting anew would even yield good results, that is. It's wishful thinking to asssume that TS5 will be any better when TS4 is still raking in money for EA. As I've pointed out earlier in this thread, there isn't a good reason, at least none I can think of, on why they would change.
Unless they don't make TS5 from a failed project. Then it could end up being a slightly better game.
EDIT: On an unrelated note, I concur with some folks saying that Realm of Magic isn't introducing two worlds. A "world" implies a large region. A place with one "lot" is not that. By the same logic, so is Sylvan Grove. I'm willing to bet that the new "realm" in RoM is just that, but slightly more interactive. It can look like a large region... but once you zoom out, you'll see it for what it really is.
I'm starting to wonder if TS4 really should end. Mind you, it shouldn't end because of what any of us have to say about it, but because the developers seem to be bored with the concept that the series was initially based on, the simulation of life
After I watched the announcement for Realm of Magic yesterday, I started to wonder why Vampires, and now spellcasters, seem to be given so much more fun and detail than the other more 'mundane' aspects of the game.
I'm not an occult player by any stretch of the imagination. Still, ROM piqued my interest more than anything that currently exists on the "muggle" side of things (even the tropical pack, which I highly anticipated, proved to be an astounding disappointment). That tells me that there is something decidedly wrong here.
The many aspects of life: growing up, friendships, romances, familial relationships, etc. are all given cursory treatment in comparison to the occult game packs. Individual aspects of the Sims' personalities and subsequent emotional responses are all but ignored. Meanwhile, the developers have gone all out for Vampires and Wizards?
Why is that?
What if the answer to my question is as simple as it initially seems? That is, what if the developers are having more fun creating the occults? Or, I don't know, perhaps Vampires and Wizardry are narrower concepts which are subsequently less work-intensive than trying to simulate real life?
Either way, if the original concept of the series has grown so dull and no longer presents an interesting challenger for the developers, it may be time to move on to a new series that they would enjoy more.
Of course, I am only speculating. Yet, I feel that my concern is valid. If the developers have more interest in the occults than in the rest of the game, it may be time to draw the curtain on the Sims series rather than watch it die an excruciating and ignominious death -- in this installment or the next.
I spent more time on the original TheSims when it first came out, and on TS4 recently, than I ever did with TS2 and TS3, so I don't have the depth on 2 and 3 that others do, but I do find the character-centered play of TS4 a fascinating and welcome change that keeps me guessing about hidden architecture in Sim personalities, perhaps destinies, tendencies, etc. that I keep encountering regardless of set traits, careers, and skills.
Further, I find the play on TS4 feels more slick, streamlined. I recall getting turned off by how burdensome it felt to have too many details to attend to, too much of the time, and an agonizingly slow process of proceeding through life and relationships, in 2 and 3. I have yet to play Strangerville because I have a bit of an aversion to the idea of a "choose your own adventure" script complete with a boss level, in Simming, but after reading here, about some quirkiness it might add, will have to go check it out more.
I guess one thing I love about TS4 is the sensation that I am no longer just playing digital dollhouse, but playing with characters that have algorithms a little more complex, that give them depth to discover, personalities that aren't just mine to dictate down to the nth detail. I have seen some Sims who just seemed born under an unlucky star, for romantic success, compared to others, even when they had all the same traits and aspirations. And some Sims have spawned who got deleted when I got too frustrated with them being unwilling or incapable of responding to any of their own bodily needs, ever. Made me wonder if there were a "too stupid to survive" gene or script.
And I do wonder if there isn't something like a very small bit of learning algorithm that deepens a Sim the longer it is played? I also wonder whether each preset Sim (the townies) are identical in each iteration of the game, or whether they have certain things randomized each time I start a new game?
There is a lot of magic and sparkle in trying to find out, that simply wasn't there in previous games. I really like whatever it is they have done that made the game more character-centered because it has brought some of the characters so much to life for me, as if they were characters in a well-written novel instead of just paper dolls.
So, for the fascinating mystery of finding out about them, that they aren't tabula rasa after all, I am really digging TS4 over previous versions.
I can tell you didn’t spend much time playing Sims 3, because I have no idea what you’re talking about when you explain how burdensome it felt to have too many details to attend to, too much of the time, and an agonizingly slow process of proceeding through life and relationships. What kind of details are you referring to? And what slow process? You want to achieve it all in one sim day? I really don’t understand what you mean there.
Also, the sims in Sims 4 are not complex, they simply all have the very same character. I played quite a few and there’s no difference between them. I played an evil sister and a good one. They were like identical twins. There was nothing complex about it, they reacted the very same to the auras surrounding them. I presume you interprete their reactions to the auras as something complex in their character, but it’s not their character and it’s not complex. They are flirty when it says flirty and they get tense when it says tense. The behaviour of the sims in Sims 4 indeed is random. I think you suspect details in the script that simply aren’t there. You’re just doing what I did: go with the flow of your randomly reacting sims that react whatever old way they ‘feel’ like because there’s some waterfall or other aura and turn it into your own fantasy. Like when my vampire was visiting Vlad and for no reason at all she became angry. You can call that a mystery and magic and sparkle and you can even love making some kind of storyline out of that, it’s not very complex though and it’s not very good gameplay wise. It’s quite simple actually, something invisible made her angry and it took talking into a mirror to calm her down. There was no way Vlad or something logical could do anything about it. Talk into a mirror.
So, if you’re wondering if each preset Sim is identical in each iteration of the game, or whether they have certain things randomized each time you start a new game: you’re right, they’re never identical because they are whatever emotion hits them. It’s not them, it’s whatever. When I play Sims 3 I can count on it Beau Merrick and Morrigan Hemlock will be evil (and so will Morrigan’s dragon of a toddler) and Holly Alto will be sweet and friendly, no matter how many times I’ll start a new game. It’s in their code and no aura will make them act otherwise. As characters do, why else have one.
Speaking of the new pack about magic. Again why I'm looking forward to the day TS4 is all patched up and I can play what I have without bugs (wishful thinking, right?) and move on to a new iteraton are things like reusing base game objects (again). I saw some pics over on SimsVip of the trailer shots, and it looks like in one shop that sells brooms there are crystals, too. Well, sigh, don't we already have crystals since 2014 and why would I want to buy them when my Sims have them all over the place already if I want to control emotions. Even my doctor took some (like focus) to work with him so he could focus at work and do a better job. Crystal emitters.
This is what I'm talking about. Instead of a brand new object (at least make it something else) they reuse the crystal mesh from basegame to add to a shop (?) to sell these or just decoration? for this pack for spellcastors to buy. Why, just why, are we going down this road like the festivals (mostly) just reuse stuff already in base game. I just don't understand it gurus. In the past you guys (some of you are still there) made amazing objects for each and every pack. And I rarely saw something just revamped and more bhavs added to them or a different bhav. I just don't understand if TS4 makes so much money (according to financial meetings to share holders) why they don't put that money back into the game and you guys stop reusing base game objects. Sure crystals make sense in a magic pack, but we already have them. Redundancy is the name of the game here. It just disappointments me so much when I know Maxis used to be such a epic game company that I knew would bring out new and exicting gameplay and objects I had never seen or thought about before.
For somene like me, who notices this stuff, and knows your greatness of the past it really disappoints me you guys go down this road more often than not with TS4 and I have to wonder why you do that, when you are capable of so much more than that.
ETA: Simsvip has more info than found here today, and it's 24 hours after the trailer dropped. Again this is the official forums. Sigh.
The new world, is five lots and a hidden lot which can only be edited with a cheat. Only five lots to live in. I'm sorry but with each pack my dissapointment grows. Maybe I had more in mind to live there in a new world. We all enjoy new worlds, who wouldn't, but the limits on lots is so old it starts to taste like old shoe leather. Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't.
Speaking of the new pack about magic. Again why I'm looking forward to the day TS4 is all patched up and I can play what I have without bugs (wishful thinking, right?) and move on to a new iteraton are things like reusing base game objects (again). I saw some pics over on SimsVip of the trailer shots, and it looks like in one shop that sells brooms there are crystals, too. Well, sigh, don't we already have crystals since 2014 and why would I want to buy them when my Sims have them all over the place already if I want to control emotions. Even my doctor took some (like focus) to work with him so he could focus at work and do a better job. Crystal emitters.
This is what I'm talking about. Instead of a brand new object (at least make it something else) they reuse the crystal mesh from basegame to add to a shop (?) to sell these or just decoration? for this pack for spellcastors to buy. Why, just why, are we going down this road like the festivals (mostly) just reuse stuff already in base game. I just don't understand it gurus. In the past you guys (some of you are still there) made amazing objects for each and every pack. And I rarely saw something just revamped and more bhavs added to them or a different bhav. I just don't understand if TS4 makes so much money (according to financial meetings to share holders) why they don't put that money back into the game and you guys stop reusing base game objects. Sure crystals make sense in a magic pack, but we already have them. Redundancy is the name of the game here. It just disappointments me so much when I know Maxis used to be such a epic game company that I knew would bring out new and exicting gameplay and objects I had never seen or thought about before.
For somene like me, who notices this stuff, and knows your greatness of the past it really disappoints me you guys go down this road more often than not with TS4 and I have to wonder why you do that, when you are capable of so much more than that.
ETA: Simsvip has more info than found here today, and it's 24 hours after the trailer dropped. Again this is the official forums. Sigh.
The new world, is five lots and a hidden lot which can only be edited with a cheat. Only five lots to live in. I'm sorry but with each pack my dissapointment grows. Maybe I had more in mind to live there in a new world. We all enjoy new worlds, who wouldn't, but the limits on lots is so old it starts to taste like old shoe leather. Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't.
Quote - Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't. Unquote.
Well it sort of does in a gp - and it sort of does when the Guru's stated as such yesterday
There will be 2 new worlds. World 1 is Glimmerbrook, where you will be able to live and move your Sims in. World 2 is The Magic Realm. You are not able to officially move into this world, but there is nothing stopping you from putting a bed on the lot. ;D
11:18 AM · Aug 20, 2019·Twitter Web App
Sorry, no matter how big a lot is, it does not equal world. If a lot equals a world now, then no need to have any livable lots in a world we can all just wait on the next pack with one big lot in it can't we? I think my idea of world and theirs have finally fell off the track. A lot is now a world...ok...I won't pay $20 or $40 for a pack that tells me a lot is now a world, and by saying so that makes it two worlds...no that makes it one teeny world and one big, hidden lot.
Post edited by Cinebar on
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Speaking of the new pack about magic. Again why I'm looking forward to the day TS4 is all patched up and I can play what I have without bugs (wishful thinking, right?) and move on to a new iteraton are things like reusing base game objects (again). I saw some pics over on SimsVip of the trailer shots, and it looks like in one shop that sells brooms there are crystals, too. Well, sigh, don't we already have crystals since 2014 and why would I want to buy them when my Sims have them all over the place already if I want to control emotions. Even my doctor took some (like focus) to work with him so he could focus at work and do a better job. Crystal emitters.
This is what I'm talking about. Instead of a brand new object (at least make it something else) they reuse the crystal mesh from basegame to add to a shop (?) to sell these or just decoration? for this pack for spellcastors to buy. Why, just why, are we going down this road like the festivals (mostly) just reuse stuff already in base game. I just don't understand it gurus. In the past you guys (some of you are still there) made amazing objects for each and every pack. And I rarely saw something just revamped and more bhavs added to them or a different bhav. I just don't understand if TS4 makes so much money (according to financial meetings to share holders) why they don't put that money back into the game and you guys stop reusing base game objects. Sure crystals make sense in a magic pack, but we already have them. Redundancy is the name of the game here. It just disappointments me so much when I know Maxis used to be such a epic game company that I knew would bring out new and exicting gameplay and objects I had never seen or thought about before.
For somene like me, who notices this stuff, and knows your greatness of the past it really disappoints me you guys go down this road more often than not with TS4 and I have to wonder why you do that, when you are capable of so much more than that.
ETA: Simsvip has more info than found here today, and it's 24 hours after the trailer dropped. Again this is the official forums. Sigh.
The new world, is five lots and a hidden lot which can only be edited with a cheat. Only five lots to live in. I'm sorry but with each pack my dissapointment grows. Maybe I had more in mind to live there in a new world. We all enjoy new worlds, who wouldn't, but the limits on lots is so old it starts to taste like old shoe leather. Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't.
Speaking of the new pack about magic. Again why I'm looking forward to the day TS4 is all patched up and I can play what I have without bugs (wishful thinking, right?) and move on to a new iteraton are things like reusing base game objects (again). I saw some pics over on SimsVip of the trailer shots, and it looks like in one shop that sells brooms there are crystals, too. Well, sigh, don't we already have crystals since 2014 and why would I want to buy them when my Sims have them all over the place already if I want to control emotions. Even my doctor took some (like focus) to work with him so he could focus at work and do a better job. Crystal emitters.
This is what I'm talking about. Instead of a brand new object (at least make it something else) they reuse the crystal mesh from basegame to add to a shop (?) to sell these or just decoration? for this pack for spellcastors to buy. Why, just why, are we going down this road like the festivals (mostly) just reuse stuff already in base game. I just don't understand it gurus. In the past you guys (some of you are still there) made amazing objects for each and every pack. And I rarely saw something just revamped and more bhavs added to them or a different bhav. I just don't understand if TS4 makes so much money (according to financial meetings to share holders) why they don't put that money back into the game and you guys stop reusing base game objects. Sure crystals make sense in a magic pack, but we already have them. Redundancy is the name of the game here. It just disappointments me so much when I know Maxis used to be such a epic game company that I knew would bring out new and exicting gameplay and objects I had never seen or thought about before.
For somene like me, who notices this stuff, and knows your greatness of the past it really disappoints me you guys go down this road more often than not with TS4 and I have to wonder why you do that, when you are capable of so much more than that.
ETA: Simsvip has more info than found here today, and it's 24 hours after the trailer dropped. Again this is the official forums. Sigh.
The new world, is five lots and a hidden lot which can only be edited with a cheat. Only five lots to live in. I'm sorry but with each pack my dissapointment grows. Maybe I had more in mind to live there in a new world. We all enjoy new worlds, who wouldn't, but the limits on lots is so old it starts to taste like old shoe leather. Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't.
Quote - Sigh, and sorry one unedited lot does not equal 'two worlds'. It just doesn't. Unquote.
Well it sort of does in a gp - and it sort of does when the Guru's stated as such yesterday
There will be 2 new worlds. World 1 is Glimmerbrook, where you will be able to live and move your Sims in. World 2 is The Magic Realm. You are not able to officially move into this world, but there is nothing stopping you from putting a bed on the lot. ;D
11:18 AM · Aug 20, 2019·Twitter Web App
Sorry, no matter how big a lot is, it does not equal world. If a lot equals a world now, then no need to have any livable lots in a world we can all just wait on the next pack with one big lot in it can't we? I think my idea of world and theirs have finally fell off the track. A lot is now a world...ok...I won't pay $20 or $40 for a pack that tells me a lot is now a world, and by saying so that makes it two worlds...no that makes it one teeny world and one big, hidden lot.
I agree. A single lot is not a world. If it’s being considered as acceptable, then I hope people are ready for the next dlc with one lot or two in the new world.
Del sol valley most fans will agree is poor because of its available lots. It has five three lots I think? Same number of lots in the new pack. People didn’t want to accept DSV was a world with so few lots but now a world with one lot is considered a good world?
The alien world only has one lot and it’s considered a world. I don’t think the entire map of the magic realm is inside of the lot. I don’t really see much of a difference between it and the alien world except there being more to do in the magic realm.
I agree worlds are way too small and getting even smaller as new ones are added, but the magic realm is the equivalent to the base game hidden lots so I don’t really see the problem with it not having several lots.
Comments
Assuming starting anew would even yield good results, that is. It's wishful thinking to asssume that TS5 will be any better when TS4 is still raking in money for EA. As I've pointed out earlier in this thread, there isn't a good reason, at least none I can think of, on why they would change.
Unless they don't make TS5 from a failed project. Then it could end up being a slightly better game.
EDIT: On an unrelated note, I concur with some folks saying that Realm of Magic isn't introducing two worlds. A "world" implies a large region. A place with one "lot" is not that. By the same logic, so is Sylvan Grove. I'm willing to bet that the new "realm" in RoM is just that, but slightly more interactive. It can look like a large region... but once you zoom out, you'll see it for what it really is.
After I watched the announcement for Realm of Magic yesterday, I started to wonder why Vampires, and now spellcasters, seem to be given so much more fun and detail than the other more 'mundane' aspects of the game.
I'm not an occult player by any stretch of the imagination. Still, ROM piqued my interest more than anything that currently exists on the "muggle" side of things (even the tropical pack, which I highly anticipated, proved to be an astounding disappointment). That tells me that there is something decidedly wrong here.
The many aspects of life: growing up, friendships, romances, familial relationships, etc. are all given cursory treatment in comparison to the occult game packs. Individual aspects of the Sims' personalities and subsequent emotional responses are all but ignored. Meanwhile, the developers have gone all out for Vampires and Wizards?
Why is that?
What if the answer to my question is as simple as it initially seems? That is, what if the developers are having more fun creating the occults? Or, I don't know, perhaps Vampires and Wizardry are narrower concepts which are subsequently less work-intensive than trying to simulate real life?
Either way, if the original concept of the series has grown so dull and no longer presents an interesting challenger for the developers, it may be time to move on to a new series that they would enjoy more.
Of course, I am only speculating. Yet, I feel that my concern is valid. If the developers have more interest in the occults than in the rest of the game, it may be time to draw the curtain on the Sims series rather than watch it die an excruciating and ignominious death -- in this installment or the next.
::sigh::
Also, the sims in Sims 4 are not complex, they simply all have the very same character. I played quite a few and there’s no difference between them. I played an evil sister and a good one. They were like identical twins. There was nothing complex about it, they reacted the very same to the auras surrounding them. I presume you interprete their reactions to the auras as something complex in their character, but it’s not their character and it’s not complex. They are flirty when it says flirty and they get tense when it says tense. The behaviour of the sims in Sims 4 indeed is random. I think you suspect details in the script that simply aren’t there. You’re just doing what I did: go with the flow of your randomly reacting sims that react whatever old way they ‘feel’ like because there’s some waterfall or other aura and turn it into your own fantasy. Like when my vampire was visiting Vlad and for no reason at all she became angry. You can call that a mystery and magic and sparkle and you can even love making some kind of storyline out of that, it’s not very complex though and it’s not very good gameplay wise. It’s quite simple actually, something invisible made her angry and it took talking into a mirror to calm her down. There was no way Vlad or something logical could do anything about it. Talk into a mirror.
So, if you’re wondering if each preset Sim is identical in each iteration of the game, or whether they have certain things randomized each time you start a new game: you’re right, they’re never identical because they are whatever emotion hits them. It’s not them, it’s whatever. When I play Sims 3 I can count on it Beau Merrick and Morrigan Hemlock will be evil (and so will Morrigan’s dragon of a toddler) and Holly Alto will be sweet and friendly, no matter how many times I’ll start a new game. It’s in their code and no aura will make them act otherwise. As characters do, why else have one.
Sorry, no matter how big a lot is, it does not equal world. If a lot equals a world now, then no need to have any livable lots in a world we can all just wait on the next pack with one big lot in it can't we? I think my idea of world and theirs have finally fell off the track. A lot is now a world...ok...I won't pay $20 or $40 for a pack that tells me a lot is now a world, and by saying so that makes it two worlds...no that makes it one teeny world and one big, hidden lot.
I agree. A single lot is not a world. If it’s being considered as acceptable, then I hope people are ready for the next dlc with one lot or two in the new world.
Del sol valley most fans will agree is poor because of its available lots. It has five three lots I think? Same number of lots in the new pack. People didn’t want to accept DSV was a world with so few lots but now a world with one lot is considered a good world?
I don’t get it.
I agree worlds are way too small and getting even smaller as new ones are added, but the magic realm is the equivalent to the base game hidden lots so I don’t really see the problem with it not having several lots.