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EA responds to angered fans
jesse40
Posts: 381 Member
Hello Simmers,
We’re less than 60 days out from the launch of The Sims™ 4, and I have so much I want to talk about. But let me start with a bit more about the decision we made not to include pools and toddlers in The Sims 4, as we’ve seen some of you have concerns about this.
The fact is, we owe you a clearer explanation for why pools and toddlers will not be in The Sims 4 at launch, so here goes. It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims – a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game. The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways – through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade.
So the bottom line is that when we sat down and looked at everything we wanted to do for this game, all the new tech we wanted to build into it, the fact was that there would be trade-offs, and these would disappoint some of our fans. Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus. Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior. Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim.
But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. You’ll notice the new technology base the first time you play.
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. I mentioned Create A Sim – which, to me, is still one of the single most impactful features of the entire game. Not only is it hilariously entertaining, now you’re building in real personality. In The Sims 4, there are seven unique walk styles that you can choose from to help your Sims express themselves. To make those walk styles come to life, we had to create around 75 distinct animations. And it doesn’t stop there. Every emotion in The Sims 4 comes with a visible reaction or even another special walk style. No more looking at the UI to figure out how your Sims are feeling – just look at their faces, posture, movements. That’s where you’ll see about 320 new emotion-based animations, as well as over 600 reactions to objects.
There’s so much more depth in The Sims 4. For the first time, the Sims act like real people. They can interact with groups, not just one-to-one. A standing Sim can talk with a sitting Sim. They can multi-task (eating, watching TV and talking? Sounds like my typical evening!). You can even put a hat on any hairstyle or pair boots with any pants… well, maybe that’s just me that cares about that.
That’s the thing about The Sims 4, though – you do care about things like that. Because you can now. Emotions touch every single system in our game, and every single experience you have inside it. Multi-tasking completely changes how your Sims go through their day and interact with the world around them. The new Create A Sim and Build Mode tools completely changed the way we think about creating Sims and homes.
But let us show you this instead of just talking about it: The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo will be available later this summer for absolutely everyone to play. We are currently rolling out an early trial experience and invitations are going out very soon to a limited number of fans to help us test it. After that, you’ll all get your hands on it and see firsthand the depth, personality and emotion that are part of your new Sims.
And another thing – we were thrilled that more than 1200 people came through our E3 demo room last month to see The Sims 4 in action, but we want all of you to see it as well. We’ll be releasing over 15 minutes of in-game Live Mode footage (with complete UI) in the next two weeks. We can’t wait to hear what you think.
So from the entire development team here at The Sims Studio, thank you for your feedback and support. Our hearts are being poured into every line of code, every single piece of art, and every single Sim that is created. We’re building a brand new Sims experience with a foundation we can build on and evolve based on your feedback. We think you’re going to love playing with life all over again.
http://simsvip.com/
We’re less than 60 days out from the launch of The Sims™ 4, and I have so much I want to talk about. But let me start with a bit more about the decision we made not to include pools and toddlers in The Sims 4, as we’ve seen some of you have concerns about this.
The fact is, we owe you a clearer explanation for why pools and toddlers will not be in The Sims 4 at launch, so here goes. It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims – a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game. The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways – through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade.
So the bottom line is that when we sat down and looked at everything we wanted to do for this game, all the new tech we wanted to build into it, the fact was that there would be trade-offs, and these would disappoint some of our fans. Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus. Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior. Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim.
But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. You’ll notice the new technology base the first time you play.
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. I mentioned Create A Sim – which, to me, is still one of the single most impactful features of the entire game. Not only is it hilariously entertaining, now you’re building in real personality. In The Sims 4, there are seven unique walk styles that you can choose from to help your Sims express themselves. To make those walk styles come to life, we had to create around 75 distinct animations. And it doesn’t stop there. Every emotion in The Sims 4 comes with a visible reaction or even another special walk style. No more looking at the UI to figure out how your Sims are feeling – just look at their faces, posture, movements. That’s where you’ll see about 320 new emotion-based animations, as well as over 600 reactions to objects.
There’s so much more depth in The Sims 4. For the first time, the Sims act like real people. They can interact with groups, not just one-to-one. A standing Sim can talk with a sitting Sim. They can multi-task (eating, watching TV and talking? Sounds like my typical evening!). You can even put a hat on any hairstyle or pair boots with any pants… well, maybe that’s just me that cares about that.
That’s the thing about The Sims 4, though – you do care about things like that. Because you can now. Emotions touch every single system in our game, and every single experience you have inside it. Multi-tasking completely changes how your Sims go through their day and interact with the world around them. The new Create A Sim and Build Mode tools completely changed the way we think about creating Sims and homes.
But let us show you this instead of just talking about it: The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo will be available later this summer for absolutely everyone to play. We are currently rolling out an early trial experience and invitations are going out very soon to a limited number of fans to help us test it. After that, you’ll all get your hands on it and see firsthand the depth, personality and emotion that are part of your new Sims.
And another thing – we were thrilled that more than 1200 people came through our E3 demo room last month to see The Sims 4 in action, but we want all of you to see it as well. We’ll be releasing over 15 minutes of in-game Live Mode footage (with complete UI) in the next two weeks. We can’t wait to hear what you think.
So from the entire development team here at The Sims Studio, thank you for your feedback and support. Our hearts are being poured into every line of code, every single piece of art, and every single Sim that is created. We’re building a brand new Sims experience with a foundation we can build on and evolve based on your feedback. We think you’re going to love playing with life all over again.
http://simsvip.com/
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Comments
Anyway, EA, I know you don't really care to have lost me, just as I don't care to have lost you. Don't call me and I won't call you, mkay?
This.
I suspect they call out pools and toddlers specifically to redirect attention from EVERYTHING else missing in this game including story progression and flat lots.
yes it is new it was released today or yesterday i think
Most likely. I was born, but not yesterday.
I like this. However the excuse for the pool is ridiculous and as far as toddlers go, if developers would have chosen the game over the money they will get when the game launches, it could have been a great way, more realistic gameplay with this multitasking thing they worked so hard on. Other than that all i hear is EMOTIONS EMOTIONS EMOTIONS.
Also...
What excuse do you have for us concerning story progression EA? A modder was able to fix this for free in TS3 so please do explain how a team of payed developers didn't even lift a finger to make this possible?
OP: Thanks for posting this
Amen! Nice to see PR finally doing their job though.
Seriously, this just seemed like another advertisement for the emotions. "oh, we couldn't have anything in this game because of the emotions, the walking styles are too great for toddlers." It did not help with the situation in the least.
They sound so comfortable there with sacrificing toddlers and pools, which concerns me.
Anyway, atleast they see that we are not happy and it's good that so many people rallied together for them to issue a response.
its on thesims.com
Oh yeah I see that now. They should also sticky these things here as well lol
Tks for the update.
Ooh. I see a cas demo is coming. . .wonder when exactly . . . . .lol I also what the iPhone 5 sims cover for my phone lol.
Ah, the Spin Doctors are definitely beginning to spin. :?
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
also all you haters that are angry about the toddlers and pools, at least they are acknowledging us and giving us an explanation.
Thanks for the demo EA.
ok ea
< munches popcorn and watches the show >
It's certainly not just about toddlers and pools and... WHAT explanation? All that was was blah blah blah EMOTIONS blah blah, we ran out of time to make a full base game because of project Olympus, blah blah BUY THE SIMS4! Read between the lines....
It's so ridiculous that I have to laugh even when I'm outraged. It's the first time I've seen developers complain to their customers that making a game was just so hard and please buy it anyway. A whole new tactic!
This wasn't an explanation, it was an excuse. They spend one paragraph talking about what some simmers are mad about and then go on and on about all the stuff they've already gone on and on about. As if that makes up for any of it.
"We couldn't give you toddlers and pools . . . but we bring you walk styles and emotions and automatic foundations! Isn't that enough?!"
They really don't seem to understand how upset people are. Toddlers are no big thing, right? It's cool, because hey, seven different walk styles!
Yeah, stuff the funny walks. I'd rather have had toddlers and/or pools.
Seriously, I feel like this is a very unfunny joke.
I know right?
This too^^
And especially this!!!^^
I totally agree and what I don't get is, if this new game engine is so amazing why wouldn't it have toddlers and pools. I mean, it's amazing! You would build this wonderful new engine with out the basics that have been in the game all along. Then they keep pushing those stupid emotions. Sims have always had emotions!! You would think that with them pushing that so hard that toddlers would be a part of that wonderful emotion system you are bragging about. " The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways – through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade." This is from Rachel Franklin, again, wouldn't the whole family aspect be a part of that which would include toddlers. You keep young adults which serve no purpose (at least not until University)but you don't keep toddlers :shock: