Shouldn't ROM have been an EP? «12...Next Go

Eliharb

Seeing how much they did with Snowy Escape, a fully "fleshed out" EP, shouldn't magic have gotten the same treatment?

Gordy

Yes

I know magic isn't a major gamechanger like weather or fame was, but half the EPs we get are self-contained and magic would add more to the game overall than some of these packs. Magic is a complex system that needs more room to be fleshed out and impressive.

Imagine how much better things would be if they didn't half-butt RoM. We could have had a full Magic Realm and space live/rent there, instead of one lot and a few stalls in an empty world. We could have had the grander, flashier spells of past packs. We could have had dragons, or familiars that didn't suck 🐸🐸🐸🐸.

bella_goth

Yes

Deleted

PlayerSinger2010

Yes

As a occult fan... yes.

Dianesims

No

No, but ROM is lacking compared to Vampires.

nasch_katze

Yes

Would have loved a Makin' Magic 2 to be honest haha, but that's nostalgy talking. Makin' Magic had so many great ideas that I would have loved to see 'Sims 4ed'.

With that said, I think the magic world in RoM had so much potential and... fell flat. You basically only go there to become a wizard and never come back again. There's nothing to do here!

nerdfashion

Yes

They gave us the roadmap that year of one EP, one GP, and one SP. I think Island Living should have been the Game Pack (it kinda feels like one anyways) and that Realm of Magic should have been the EP so it could have been fleshed out more!

TS1299

Yes

YES. Realm Of Magic You can see that the Team Wanted to do More on that Pack. It might be their biggest gamepack yet.

However they are limited by the Game Pack Budget. A new full Occult, Perk System, Spells Dived into Three Categories, A Normal and Magical World, Curses, even Alchemy?! They crammed those in the gamepack. I heard lot of people saying that the spells are forgettable. Some are just cheat. But really, they cannot go too far sadly. They don't have the People who really "engineer" the game for the team as those guys mostly work only on Expansion Packs.

Meanwhile Eco Lifestyle only comes with NAP, the Eco Meter and Fabrication.......

MichelleW

Yes

I was hoping for Hogwarts 🤷‍♀️

TomasGrizzly

No

While I'd love a full-scale EP-size world (~15 lots instead of 5) for RoM, more so if it had the same vibe as Glimmerbrook, I doubt spellcasters alone would be worth an EP. If they added another occult (or more), then maybe - but that would bear the risk of diluting the occults.

SilentKitty

The occult things are usually hidden or a smaller detail on the side if it is an EP. It looks like EP's have to appeal to both those who play strictly normal and occult players so I am not so certain that it would be better with an EP.

If we could have gotten a full frontal occult and not shy about it EP then sure, but so far that doesn't seem to be in the cards. GP's are for occult stuff so I've learned to love them.

APotts

Yes

Even if you mixed ROM & Vampires and counted them as one pack, they still don't come close to Sims 3 Supernatural, so yes we should have gotten a EP, though likely it still would have been lacking, because that's the way things work in Sims 4.

Hopefully, Snowy will feel like a proper EP, but we shall see. At least we seem to have gotten a proper patch.

Onverser

No

I think it works as it is, if they made one occult an EP they'd have to make all of them EPs

haisin

Yes

Yes if it meant that kids would be able cast spells. It is so disapointing that they can't!

auroraael14

No

I choose no. Expansion packs are supposed to appeal to a lot of players and some players don't play with occults. I do, however, think that the pack feels a bit empty compared to vampires. There are no clothing for kids and toddlers and the gameplay doesn't reach all life stages. I wanted more witchy clothing and I don't know but there just seems to be something missing when it comes to the pack.

Atreya33

Yes

I would have preferred a full expansion pack. That way the magic world could have been bigger, with livable lots, children could have gotten magic, perhaps a few more spells and spells which are not just a new version of things we already had... This pack had potential, it could have been so much more. *sigh*

I know occults are not for everyone but after the obvious packs like seasons and pets are done, I think spellcasters (or something supernatural in general) deserve the possibility to be fully developed in an EP.

I can live the RoM pack as it is except for one aspect. I wish children could do magic, or at least be touched by it. For example Spellcasters can easily clean themselves with the scrubberoo spell but they can't care for their toddlers with this spell.

LiELF

Yes

Definitely. There's so much more that could have been done with magic and Sims and mystical beings and effects in the world. So many people were looking forward to having magic back in the game and different players wanted different things. An EP could have accommodated those things.

I'm totally ready for "Realm of Magic Part 2".

VentusMatt

Yes

I'm gonna say yes... maybe

If it had been an EP then I would of liked different kinds of magic users. We have spellcasters which is like Sabrina but then I would of liked stuff to a make voodoo practitioner, maybe covens, the return of zombies, the magician career from ts3 or the fortune teller career.

ChadSims2

No

As someone who does not want witches in my game at all I'd rather expansions remain a theme that can fit in everyone or almost everyone game instead of going to a smaller portion of the community. Excluding a huge part of the community seems to be what game packs are for that's where supernaturals, Strangerville and Journeying to Batuu belong ok Batuu never belonged but point remains.

Calico45

Yes

I am going to tentatively say yes for two reasons: 1) an EP is supposed to touch all worlds in a way and magic can do that, and it has absolutely nothing to do with necessitating appeal or realism (just is not a requirement for an EP, your style or not) and 2) I think they had an EP idea that was shaved into a GP.

ROM is most definitely lacking when it compares the Vampires, which I think 4 has the best vampires on all other iterations of the Sims, and I suspect the reason why is they put so much effort into a magical world to make casters unique. However, it was a GP and had a human residential world, too. We ended up with a magical world that looked pretty with a cool concept, but not much we could do with it. Plus a life state with no completely unique effects of magic, no good ways of making unique casters outside of non impactful cosmetics, and no extraneous way for non casters to participate in magic.

The idea was too big and rather than focusing on the life state and what you can do with it, like they did with vampires, they shaved down the life state and the magical world to keep them both. Again, cool concept, but ultimately frivolous in comparison to the gameplay that could have and should have been the focus of a GP.

In summary, if they could not bear to ditch the EP idea then they should have just committed rather than forcing a GP.

ArcherDK

No

Occults are not the most important part of the game and do not appeal to that many people to be expansion packs. If ALL occults were bundled together then yes that would be an expansion pack. Otherwise no, I think it is perfect the way it is. And as a side note - Vampires are WAY better than ROM.

GrumpyGlowfish

Yes

Since I love witches, Realm of Magic is my favourite GP, but at the same time the one I criticise the most, mainly because of how much more cool stuff it could have had that we're probably never going to get now, at least not in TS4. So yeah, I definitely think it could have worked as an EP.

Here are some features I think RoM would have had, if it had been an EP:
- More spells that do more different (and more awesome) things. Most of the spells and potions we have now are basically shortcuts for things we could already do in the game before, and not very creative.
- Magic for children. Seriously, if animations were too expensive or whatever, they could at least have added a new function to the base game chemistry table to let children practise some alchemy, if nothing else.
- More interactions with familiars. Ironically, familiars are the only magical touch children can have in their lives, yet they're completely useless to them because children can't actively practise magic, and the only two familiars that you can do more with (cats and dogs) can't be bound to children.
- Bigger world(s). Both Glimmerbrook and the Magic Realm could have benefitted from more space, maybe even a few residential lots in the latter. Because as others have said, the Magic Realm is pretty, but empty, you go there once to be turned into a witch and get some optional supplies from the market place, and that's all you'll ever need to visit it for.
- Compatibility with other packs. As it is now, you can't clean up pet hair with Scruberoo (the most annoying pet mess to clean up by hand), there's no spell to affect the weather, and if children had magic, players with Parenthood could have the parents praise or scold them for the way they're using it.

Also, I disagree with the notion that EPs have to appeal to a majority of the player base (although even in that case, I know only very few simmers who aren't at least a little bit interested in the supernatural aspect of the game). It's first and foremost the magnitude of the introduced content that makes the difference between an EP and a GP, so EPs should introduce features that affect the game and/or the sim world as a whole. Magic can do just that if you let it, making RoM more suitable EP material than City Living and all the other EPs that focus on only one new world will ever be.

Camkat

No

Occults in EP's are watered down. (Mermaids and Aliens anyone?) I think being in a game pack, the occults get fleshed out a lot more and get the attention that they deserve. That said though, spell casters weren't as well done as vampires (IMO) but that's probably just a matter of preference. There's a few more things I wish they would have done with ROM, but that could have been included into the GP.

Kimmer

No

It's okay the way it is.

Sharonia

No

No. I think it should of been a game pack but still better than it is. The magic realm is such a disappointment and the spells are boring.

izecson

No

Vampire on its own gamepack is fleshed out, so I don't think this one needed to be in its own EP, but I agree with @Sharonia there should be more variety of interesting spell, such as glamour from school of illusion