EA can’t litigate to prevent some other developer from entering the life sim genre. That is illegal in the United States. Plenty of games have designs inspired by The Sims without any lawsuits so they have no basis to file one against a developer solely because they are making a game that could compete with Sims. As greedy and gross as EA is, they have lawyers that aren’t stupid enough to set EA up for that failure. If some game plagiarizes Sims (which would be using EA’s property from Sims, not creating something similar) then they would have a case to sue. Look at how many fortnite clones exist and that should give people a good idea about what can and cannot be litigated when it comes to video games.
what the paralives team is accomplishing seems amazing so far, and is also nice how the main developer is very open to feedback. however i think the game still has a long way to go until finished and the hardest part to develop is going to be the gameplay and the AI. ts4 is a great example of a fine looking game with the artificial intelligence of a vacuum cleaner.
people can be very hard towards things they don't like, the game is already getting a lot of attention and ppl is getting very high expectations so i hope the paralives team grows a thick skin, unlike ts4 devs. also, i really doubt they will get sued by ea unless they blatantly copy sims content or names. there's a thin line between inspiration and plagiarism.
even if paralives gets to be an amazing game i won't stop supporting the sims franchise unless ts5 ends up being a major disappointment. i'm indeed way harder on the sims team because it's a classic franchise that deserves more respect than the one devs are giving it, i know programming and coding is hard however the higher the position the more skills are necessary, and i really dislike the attitude devs have towards us when we voice our feedback. hopefully the upcoming competition in the life simulation field will be enough motivation for ea to invest more on the sims franchise, please don't let it have the same fate as simcity. i hope ts5 gets a better team, a professional and ambitious one that is willing to learn and improve.
As for Paralives, it seems to be inspired by the Sims 3 setup from what I've heard so far; single household gameplay with rabbit holes in the town... so I don't think I'll be joining in, even with the news that they have an improved Parafolk design. That's okay though, there are people who are excited and I hope the game gets a lot of support, even if it's not for me. I'll still keep watching in case development changes
@LiELF but you will be able to make bunk beds, have above ground pools (when has the Sims ever had above ground pools), more diverse sims- like the business about Seb taking off his shoes, in a lot of cultures (Asian countries, and some middle-eastern countrieS) they take off their shoes when they come home, you will be able to strech stuff-like you can have a 3 person bed, or you can turn a desk lamp into a floor lamp, trees and curtiains will actually move, you can write on stockings, or on tombstones, Seasons and Pets (only 3 confirmed for the base game: Dogs, cats and Horses), you will be able to build a house on a slope, you will be able to have paras of different heights, walk-out basements,etc
While that's all great and no doubt there are many people excited for it all, none of that means anything to me. I honestly don't even understand the hype or rage about pools and bunk beds. I hardly ever use pools, and bunk beds are just beds. The shoe removal, while a cute touch, isn't a deal maker. I could take it or leave it. Standard objects are just objects. I don't build, so I'm happy with any cool structure that someone else makes as long as I can put outside files into my game. Cultural differences are great, but I usually just play in a fantasy world, not realistic, so again, it doesn't mean much to me beyond having options, which is always a welcome thing.
The things that are important to my personal play style are character appearance (including art style) and creation, the ability to colonize the world with my own characters, occult, fantastical, or any other kind of "non-realistic" options, interesting gameplay locations I can take my characters to visit, like bars, night clubs, ruins, parks, pool halls, haunted locations, or general adventure areas, and good interactive gameplay. Some of these are imperative for my simulation game. Others I could sacrifice if there was good compensation elsewhere to make it worth it to me. So that's why I am still keeping one eye on the development of Paralives because you never know what they'll end up doing.
But as of now, Paralives seems like it will be more of a realistic dollhouse game, and that's fine, that's just not what I'm interested in. But I think it's a good thing that it's going in that direction because Sims 4 strayed far away from it (even though The Sims series was never truly "realistic" to begin with). I prefer simulated adventures and fantastical themes, which I think is something the Sims 4 is generally good at and I hope it will carry on into Sims 5. Maybe the player base needs a good realistic life simulator that is separate from The Sims so those players can have their gameplay without it being muddled with weird stuff. But I love that weird stuff, lol.
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people can be very hard towards things they don't like, the game is already getting a lot of attention and ppl is getting very high expectations so i hope the paralives team grows a thick skin, unlike ts4 devs. also, i really doubt they will get sued by ea unless they blatantly copy sims content or names. there's a thin line between inspiration and plagiarism.
even if paralives gets to be an amazing game i won't stop supporting the sims franchise unless ts5 ends up being a major disappointment. i'm indeed way harder on the sims team because it's a classic franchise that deserves more respect than the one devs are giving it, i know programming and coding is hard however the higher the position the more skills are necessary, and i really dislike the attitude devs have towards us when we voice our feedback. hopefully the upcoming competition in the life simulation field will be enough motivation for ea to invest more on the sims franchise, please don't let it have the same fate as simcity. i hope ts5 gets a better team, a professional and ambitious one that is willing to learn and improve.
me to