Also, I think a lot of people (myself included) fully expected EA to take the best parts of Sims 2 and the best parts of Sims 3 and combine them to make the best game EVER. I was shocked this didn't happen, and that shock turned to disappointment very quickly.
Now, if they're able to do this for Sims 5 and not try to dumb-down everything so people can run it on calculators, then Sims 5 will be the best game ever made. IF they do it.
What do you consider to be 'bestseller'? Because TS4 is consistently the second bestseller in the UK behind Fifa. Seems EA are doing pretty well actually.
It's currently #2 on Amazon Germany in simulations, only behind another iteration of the farming simulator. On Amazon UK it's sitting comfortably in the Top 100 video games of all platforms and is the #1 in simulation. On Amazon US it's #2 of PC games.
Nope, it's not selling at all. The game is totally dead.
The 3 links you gave just go to the Sims forums, they don't go to any Amazon site; I dont know what proof you are trying to make.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
I don't think The Sims is comparable to Flappy Bird or Candy Crush Saga. Those games aren't really mean to be much more than distraction for a while. They're just supposed to give you something to do besides twiddling your thumbs.
I think the reason Sims 4 isn't a bestseller is it's a step down from Sims 3 and 2. The biggest selling points with this game are the emotions, CAS, and build mode. That's it. And with CASt absent, that's minus a point right there. I've also heard some people say the build mode, in spite of its improvements, is restrictive in other ways. Your mileage may vary on that one, but with restrictions in CAS and build mode, that just leaves the emotions. And who needs to pay money to play with emotions? Humans already have those.
Personally, I find more bad than good with Sims 4. I won't say it's horrible - it's not - but it's got a long way to go.
Because they took out almost everything players loved about past iterations of the series and replaced it with a UI telling you in giant billboard sized letters about how your sim's emotion is changing every half second, but with no real meaningful difference in the way the sims themselves behave. Past sim games have shown way more emotion imo, and that was supposed to be the main selling point of ts4. There is nothing new here and there are no improvements upon greatly loved features from the series because they decided to take them all out. The sims 4 is a hollow shell for DLC that it doesn't seem people are wanting to buy because they made the basegame so far beyond bare bones it's sad. This game looks and plays like I should have spent about 5 dollars on it in the app store so I could play it on my ipad. It does not play like a $70 game designed to run on a pc.
First of all appearing to fail to adhere to their 'player first' policy and releasing the game unfinished-many of us expected better from EA given that promise by the CEO and are very disappointed that this situation was allowed to happen.
The impression sims players aren't as important.-we've all seen the battlefield staff engaging with the community and an open dialogue. So many of us wonder why we are being penalised?
A premium price for an unfinished base-absolutely no discount to those of us who invested early, and no right of return for those of us who bought discs.
Lots more missing than many realised.
Lack of reviews-I found that concerning and believe it was because what I found out after purchase would have been reported. I would've cancelled my preorder.
Move away from sandbox-feeling of claustrophobia playing with endless loading screens and the linear task based play.
Negative advertising-instead of praising ts4 to the heavens they criticised previous beloved games, they kept announcing savage cuts and killed the excitement by refusing to dedicate the proper staff and resources to give us a ts4 everyone could be proud of.
Ill advised comments in interviews-dismissing the customers who were having issues by inferring the issues were their fault 'can't approach with a ts3 mindset' and 'they'll figure it out' I very much believe that attitude caused further hurt-not only hearing it, but from community thinking that was acceptable to do to one another
Fundamental issues with trust not being addressed-the silence after people are so shaken from upset at after 15 years or any less which caused damaged trust just alienates people further. I wish they would hire a representative that could take the time to work on rebuilding trust with the community.
Sacrificing aspects from many popular play styles-failing to realising how important these aspects were to their fan base
Saying it would be a truly stable base game-if you make claims you better make sure it holds water. Judging by the huge bugs even the most ardent supporters of ts4 have suffered I don't believe it was an accurate claim to make.
Favouring social media above their own website-their fans who don't have the time or inclination to follow multiple sim gurus are put at a disadvantage automatically. They seem to forget many of their customers are professionals themselves who can't have things like the sims on show on their social media accounts.
Seeing the perception that the forums aren't taken seriously-and failing to take a few moments for the people in charge to allay those fears by showing their presence.
Telling people to come here to give feedback when the community here already feels marginalised-Before asking people to come here there should have been a charm offensive to combat that perception.
Olympus-clearly many of us suspect and they won't talk about it. Lack of transparency causing more irritation.
Lack of family play-even die hard rock stars settle down one day to have kids-young adult lifestyle can't last forever
Claiming new features when they are reworked old features-emotions and multitasking were present in older games. Fabulous if they want to rework for next generation but don't try to say it didn't exist before when we know far better.
Clipping-my I'd give anything for sims stamping their feet over that any day!
This isn't comprehensive-many of you I'm sure have touched on a lot of what I've said (I'm posting quickly so apologies if I've missed things!)
Not a best seller because of excessively decreased content per base game. And EA drifting more and more towards the "Pay for each piece" of content marketing strategy.
Won't ever forget The Sims-1, and all the cool toys our sims had to play with! And all the freebies on the very fun colorful web site.
@sparkfairy1, Great summary of all the things wrong, and it's interesting to note so many of these are not about the game itself but the marketing and the way they approach their community. Their marketing strategy is just so screwed up to me.
The only one I would give them a pass on is the whole thing with Olympus. I can understand that if, as many suspect, was the original basis for Sims 4 and an old model they would prefer to just leave it as the monster locked up in the basement i.e, not want to discuss it and just pretend it's not there. Frankly if I were responsible for the creation of such a piece of crap that never even became the final publicly released product, I would want to distance myself from it too.
It's kind of sad that I have to point out that anything I say is only just my opinion and may be a different one from someone else.
I do like the game, but I accept it has faults as well, so listing all of the ones I've experienced so far that I can.
Because the whole life simulation aspect of it was thrown out the window. Sims games used to have a lot of humor than older fans understood. Now the Sims 4 is stuck with shallow potty humor. The lack of family play and not including all the life stages as promised. Removing the play interactions completely. The UI causes headaches. The lighting is poor and the post processing option makes the game look blurry. The zooming and rotating are hidden. The tips come up every 3 seconds. The notifications pop up as much as internet ads and wall fills up really fast. I spend half my time just clearing those with the trash can.
Basically all modes are effected. Live mode, the linear game play goals take a good chuck of time that your social and general needs begin to suffer. The Sims have been dumbed down lower than the Sims 1 AI level and reason admitted because EA doesn't want the game to play for us. The Sims make horrible parents and would rather be on their computer or on their cell phone taking selfies than take care of the baby or children or teens. Teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders are all same height and don't look that much different from each other. The elders can't woohoo when they want because it kills them. You can't make your Sim laugh too much in fear that it kills them. You can get them too excited or angry or it kills them. Basically emotional deaths stink.
Build mode there is no terrain tool or water tool. You can't change the lot size and you can't add new lots to your world. There are no basements or half levels or half walls. No spiral cases or elevators, but those two things I could see be added later. You can't even edit the world. The number of objects that clog up your inventory grow a lot and the way you have to drag to sell an object can be frustrating. Lack of CAST takes away a lot of freedom when designing furniture, walls, floors, hair, and eyes. Create a Sim, the ability to change the roots and highlights of the hair are no longer there.
With transportation, it is set to teleporting only so buses and carpools no longer come by your house. At least 80% of the NPCs from the previous games were taken away. No more private school for Sims. Kids are killed off when taken away from the social worker.
The culling limit is so low that if you meet someone, the game can automatically delete them at any time. The world is small and there really are not a lot of fun community lots to visit. Most don't even have a place to eat unless you add it.
The mood system is starting to become more of a burden than a fun feature. Sims just act really bipolar and the smallest action or going into a new room can alter their moods dramatically.
There is probably more, but too tired to type it and most of already been mentioned here or on the Game Time thread.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
From what I've gathered by reading post on these forums as well as reading post on other sites, this is why the sims 4 isn't a best seller (or why fans are disappointed with their purchase):
(There are some positive things I find about the Sims 4 but I will stick to what is affecting sales (the negative).)
Little to no advertisement - the sims 4 heavily relied/relies on word of mouth.
Bad PR / bad press - People freely talk about how bad the game is in most of the places the average person would look for information on the game. There also really is no one at Maxis who's doing much of anything to put a positive spin on the situation.
Arrogance - Some of the devs come off as if they think just because they made the game, we should be grateful we got what we did. Example: bragging about how early the gurus got a game pack out. The game pack wasn't for free, we payed for it (those who bought it) just like we bought the base game which over all is average at best. It was an okay pack, but over all it didn't add anything important to game play. You don't need the pack to go on vacation.
Last Minute Changes - Having to scrap the original concept well into development and make the game from the ground up
False promises - leads to a lack of trust from the community
Bad communication - Rare interactions from gurus that typically result in "I can't talk about it, sorry"
Lack of progress / lack of implementation - We're asked for our thoughts and our suggestion; we provide them, but for the most part no advice is being heeded.
Lack of family play/story play - Many people who enjoy the sims, enjoy telling stories and a lot of those stories revolve around the life of their sims and their decedents. There are a limited amount of family tags, no family tree, and no story progression.
Lack of life stage depth and no toddlers - Other than the occasional angsty interaction from a teen and the poor posture of an elder there isn't really much to differentiate the life of a T,YA,A, or Elder. Babies are portrayed more as objects that sims barely care for and there are no toddlers. We have 6 life stages but it feels more like 2 and a half. (babies(1/2), kids, adults)
Not much to do - watch your sim level a skill, play chess at the park, "view objects", or get "juiced" at one of the 3 bar types.
Controlling game play in what many people consider to be a sandbox game - It's great to have many things to do, it's even better when you can choose how those things are done.
Game breaking Bugs - for those that have them
Dumbed down AI - Sims that need a little too much baby sitting
Hollow emotions - Sims have many things that they are shown to feel, but seldom to they feel anything during big life events such as child birth and death. When they do feel anything it tends to be short lived or over written by nice surroundings.
Lack of color options and hair styles even despite mostly solid build mode and cas
Loading screens - Even if you can see all the objects in your neighbors house or hear their tv, you must go through a load screen to visit them
Broken immersion Not only are there many loading screens, your sims just vanish instead of getting into a car or riding a bike off the screen.
Two steps forward, three steps back - Many people who have played the Sims 1,2,and 3 will compare it to those games because of basic human nature. The sims 4 is lacking a certain charm these games had for many people as well many interactions and content.
If Maxis would just show they are listening to their community, reply without automated messaging, and implement some big changes people actually want, the game could have a turn around. However, as long as these things (and more) exist for the sims 4 - It will always be "just okay" and never a best seller. There are many people who would love nothing more than to buy sims products, they just want to make sure they're paying for quality and not name alone.
This is just what I've gathered from the community though. I'm sure I'm missing more than a few points.
@sparkfairy1, Great summary of all the things wrong, and it's interesting to note so many of these are not about the game itself but the marketing and the way they approach their community. Their marketing strategy is just so screwed up to me.
The only one I would give them a pass on is the whole thing with Olympus. I can understand that if, as many suspect, was the original basis for Sims 4 and an old model they would prefer to just leave it as the monster locked up in the basement i.e, not want to discuss it and just pretend it's not there. Frankly if I were responsible for the creation of such a piece of crap that never even became the final publicly released product, I would want to distance myself from it too.
Thank you I do think they overlook how forgiving this community is. No matter how upset I've been I want to forgive and I want to be excited in the future-so it's a perfect situation for a company. Quite frankly I don't think they deserve it but that's the truth. I suspect I'm not the only one who feels that way.
I would want to too. It's just a huge elephant in the room and speculation isn't helping them, in my opinion.
From what I've gathered by reading post on these forums as well as reading post on other sites, this is why the sims 4 isn't a best seller (or why fans are disappointed with their purchase):
(There are some positive things I find about the Sims 4 but I will stick to what is affecting sales (the negative).)
Little to no advertisement - the sims 4 heavily relied/relies on word of mouth.
Bad PR / bad press - People freely talk about how bad the game is in most of the places the average person would look for information on the game. There also really is no one at Maxis who's doing much of anything to put a positive spin on the situation.
Arrogance - Some of the devs come off as if they think just because they made the game, we should be grateful we got what we did. Example: bragging about how early the gurus got a game pack out. The game pack wasn't for free, we payed for it (those who bought it) just like we bought the base game which over all is average at best. It was an okay pack, but over all it didn't add anything important to game play. You don't need the pack to go on vacation.
Last Minute Changes - Having to scrap the original concept well into development and make the game from the ground up
False promises - leads to a lack of trust from the community
Bad communication - Rare interactions from gurus that typically result in "I can't talk about it, sorry"
Lack of progress / lack of implementation - We're asked for our thoughts and our suggestion; we provide them, but for the most part no advice is being heeded.
Lack of family play/story play - Many people who enjoy the sims, enjoy telling stories and a lot of those stories revolve around the life of their sims and their decedents. There are a limited amount of family tags, no family tree, and no story progression.
Lack of life stage depth and no toddlers - Other than the occasional angsty interaction from a teen and the poor posture of an elder there isn't really much to differentiate the life of a T,YA,A, or Elder. Babies are portrayed more as objects that sims barely care for and there are no toddlers. We have 6 life stages but it feels more like 2 and a half. (babies(1/2), kids, adults)
Not much to do - watch your sim level a skill, play chess at the park, "view objects", or get "juiced" at one of the 3 bar types.
Controlling game play in what many people consider to be a sandbox game - It's great to have many things to do, it's even better when you can choose how those things are done.
Game breaking Bugs - for those that have them
Dumbed down AI - Sims that need a little too much baby sitting
Hollow emotions - Sims have many things that they are shown to feel, but seldom to they feel anything during big life events such as child birth and death. When they do feel anything it tends to be short lived or over written by nice surroundings.
Lack of color options and hair styles even despite mostly solid build mode and cas
Loading screens - Even if you can see all the objects in your neighbors house or hear their tv, you must go through a load screen to visit them
Broken immersion Not only are there many loading screens, your sims just vanish instead of getting into a car or riding a bike off the screen.
Two steps forward, three steps back - Many people who have played the Sims 1,2,and 3 will compare it to those games because of basic human nature. The sims 4 is lacking a certain charm these games had for many people as well many interactions and content.
If Maxis would just show they are listening to their community, reply without automated messaging, and implement some big changes people actually want, the game could have a turn around. However, as long as these things (and more) exist for the sims 4 - It will always be "just okay" and never a best seller. There are many people who would love nothing more than to buy sims products, they just want to make sure they're paying for quality and not name alone.
This is just what I've gathered from the community though. I'm sure I'm missing more than a few points.
Ill advised comments in interviews-dismissing the customers who were having issues by inferring the issues were their fault 'can't approach with a ts3 mindset' and 'they'll figure it out' I very much believe that attitude caused further hurt-not only hearing it, but from community thinking that was acceptable to do to one another
That line made me think of how the sims community on Tumblr was before TS4 finally released. It was chaos! The community there was pretty much split in three - those who were excited for Sims 4, those who weren't, and those who wanted everybody to shut up already! A lot of fans were needlessly vicious to one another, fighting over who was right and who was wrong. Trying to calm anyone down only got them more riled up. You were either thrilled for Sims 4 and ready to leave the previous games behind (I remember a lot of bragging from those who'd already uninstalled Sims 2 or 3), or you had no plans to buy it and yelled about how everyone would be paying for half of a game. There was no in between. It was basically any and everyone looking to start a fight.
-Their target audience now is a group that didn't care for the series until it switched to an RPG, thus eliminating a large amount of their previous, loyal customers.
-Money hungry thieves run EA.
-(Ties in with my first point) They took away so much from the game that so many types of players are excluded. Bye builders. Bye story tellers, legacy players, and just plain ol' family players. Bye sim creators (yes, the new pull CAS is interesting but that's all CAS has going for it. Presets, lack of clothes/ugly clothes in general, disappointing traits, etc.).
I think it's because people who played it didn't like it compared to past games.
I just finished playing it for the "48 hours". Many things that I liked about previous versions were not done (like the open neighborhoods from TS3 and the ability to customize your clothing, building materials and furniture with "Create a Style" rather than having to go back to having to download so much or mod it yourself also from TS3.) The building was just as frustrating as TS3 (as opposed to what we had fairly early in TS2). And they added the "emotions" that seemed boring to me (as well as frustrating because sometimes it seemed like they would get an emotion fairly easily, but the next time you wanted the same emotion, it was like pulling teeth.)
And even though I played for less than 48 hours, the durn thing should have let me have extra time to make up for all the times it crashed to desktop. In the last 2 hours of play time, I got to play the same 8 hours of Sim time 3 times (and would have been 4 times as it crashed 5 minutes before my time was up. I just didn't feel like playing "groundhog day" one more time.) That just seems to be too unstable. I'm used to the Sims games crashing (or getting error codes) when there are loads of updates/EPs, but in the base game???? (In fact, I had less crashing when I was beta testing TS2 EPs for EA! At least during a beta test you know that you're going to get crashing because it's not fully set up yet.)
They've gone backwards in so many areas with TS4, and the "new things" are not all that interesting. Plus an unstable platform? I'm going back to TS3, thank you very much!
-Their target audience now is a group that didn't care for the series until it switched to an RPG, thus eliminating a large amount of their previous, loyal customers.
-Money hungry thieves run EA.
-(Ties in with my first point) They took away so much from the game that so many types of players are excluded. Bye builders. Bye story tellers, legacy players, and just plain ol' family players. Bye sim creators (yes, the new pull CAS is interesting but that's all CAS has going for it. Presets, lack of clothes/ugly clothes in general, disappointing traits, etc.).
@SimChic I do not see the Sims 4 as a RPG. Please explain.
because as I do not play different kinds of games, except, Civilization, SimCity, Pirates I do not consider them RPG
Now as far as a RPG, I did do one, In fact it was my all time favorite game.
that is Siberia, I loved that game, but it had a ending. I did play Siberia 2 and it also had a ending. that to me is a RPG.
It is a story you progress through until you get to the end.
I do not see any of the Sims as that. I have played 26 Generations in Sims3 and am now still carrying the same family recreated in Sims 4 and am now on my 4th generation.
Please if you could explain how Sims 4 is a RpG, I would appreciate it.
The Sims 4 still sold well. The only reason why is because of a loyal fanbase and the name this game carries. The people who didn't buy the game despite their love for the framchise are the ones who did research and thought about their decision. That's apparantly a bigger group than I thought. It hurts to say the Sims 4 doesn't deserve to be a bestseller but that's the truth. EA deserves this.
@Evalen -- The Sims, to my knowledge, is not an actual RPG, but rather has elements of one. As an RPG player myself, I still see the sims as simulation more than RPG.
What people seem to be getting at is the achievement-based play and goals to be accomplished, and this is what makes it an RPG.
Anyone else is free to correct me or add additional input.
Oh, and I left out the User Interface frustrations. The camera controls using the mouse isn't too bad but at times it really was frustrating. It got a little easier with more play time, but especially trying to see down into a bathroom with the walls up (so that I could figure out why I couldn't place things) was useless. The camera just doesn't pan in that way. Swing around or go back/forth, yes; look at the floor, no.
And you have to go to too many places to do things. If you want to go up a floor, you have to go to the upper Right side. But then you have to go back down to the lower Left side to do the action that you had to see the upper floor to do. And to check to see if it was having the desired effect, you have to go to the lower Right side, then flip back to looking at the lower Left side to see if they're still doing what you told them to do (or decided to reorder the queue.)
The flow for the UI was much better for TS3. Everything was fairly close together (as opposed to being in opposite corners.) Some things in TS3 were in the upper Right corner, but for the most part you could ignore those if you chose. Monitoring one area was much easier.
4.
-Their target audience now is a group that didn't care for the series until it switched to an RPG, thus eliminating a large amount of their previous, loyal customers.
-Money hungry thieves run EA.
-(Ties in with my first point) They took away so much from the game that so many types of players are excluded. Bye builders. Bye story tellers, legacy players, and just plain ol' family players. Bye sim creators (yes, the new pull CAS is interesting but that's all CAS has going for it. Presets, lack of clothes/ugly clothes in general, disappointing traits, etc.).
@SimChic I do not see the Sims 4 as a RPG. Please explain.
because as I do not play different kinds of games, except, Civilization, SimCity, Pirates I do not consider them RPG
Now as far as a RPG, I did do one, In fact it was my all time favorite game.
that is Siberia, I loved that game, but it had a ending. I did play Siberia 2 and it also had a ending. that to me is a RPG.
It is a story you progress through until you get to the end.
I do not see any of the Sims as that. I have played 26 Generations in Sims3 and am now still carrying the same family recreated in Sims 4 and am now on my 4th generation.
Please if you could explain how Sims 4 is a RpG, I would appreciate it.
Sure no problem @Evalen
I consider TS4 more of an RPG for things such as the achievements. In fact, when I played the trial I was confused why I had gotten an achievement for not speaking to anyone for 24 hours (side note, I'm pretty sure that was a bug because I'm almost certain I had my sim speak to others that day). Also, I was looking through build mode and I saw that I had to unlock some stuff. Now yes, unlocking has occurred in TS3 but not until EPs. If this happens flat out in the base game that kinda sets the tone of what kind of game it is. It just feels linear. I sort of disagree with your definition of RPG though. I don't think a game necessarily needs an ending to be classified as an RPG.
@Evalen -- The Sims, to my knowledge, is not an actual RPG, but rather has elements of one. As an RPG player myself, I still see the sims as simulation more than RPG.
What people seem to be getting at is the achievement-based play and goals to be accomplished, and this is what makes it an RPG.
Anyone else is free to correct me or add additional input.
I get what you are saying, you see I do not see that because I do not do Job or careers, goals and achievements. I just play and do as I please, don't send my kids to school, don't send my sims to, work, job or what ever, when I have a party, I just have a party like in Sims 3, invite everyone and have fun. Funny thing I did not know there was a goal or achievement for a party until I heard someone say that.
You do not have to do those things to play. I wonder what would happen if you had a job and did not do those things. Like if your career was, sorry I forgot what the careers are as I don't use them, but take any of them, what would happen if your sims just went to work and did not do those things.
Now I do know that in Sims 3 if you had a job and you wanted to advance you had to do those things like in sims 4, like have so many friends. So what now is the difference.
There's not really any encouragement for the game, because it's only a half-finished game.
Aside from not being done, it's not your typical sims game anymore. There are a lot of goals now, the game is linear as opposed to being sandbox and it's a game that looks like it came from 2004 rather than 2014, saying this because they're talking about how "times have changed". If times have changed then make your game proper, or just have the direction your "vision" is going to well thought out.
The game including its marketing is just a jumbled up mess, I don't think they even know what they want. Their sales are reflecting their own actions.
Comments
The 3 links you gave just go to the Sims forums, they don't go to any Amazon site; I dont know what proof you are trying to make.
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
I think the reason Sims 4 isn't a bestseller is it's a step down from Sims 3 and 2. The biggest selling points with this game are the emotions, CAS, and build mode. That's it. And with CASt absent, that's minus a point right there. I've also heard some people say the build mode, in spite of its improvements, is restrictive in other ways. Your mileage may vary on that one, but with restrictions in CAS and build mode, that just leaves the emotions. And who needs to pay money to play with emotions? Humans already have those.
Personally, I find more bad than good with Sims 4. I won't say it's horrible - it's not - but it's got a long way to go.
about the same gave it 1-2 stars as gave it 4-5 stars; so about 1/2 who bought it regret it
and THIS review pretty much speaks for itself...
My thirteen year-old says this game is AWESOME!
I bought this game for my thirteen year old my daughter this past Christmas. She said she would definitely give it 5 stars...
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
First of all appearing to fail to adhere to their 'player first' policy and releasing the game unfinished-many of us expected better from EA given that promise by the CEO and are very disappointed that this situation was allowed to happen.
The impression sims players aren't as important.-we've all seen the battlefield staff engaging with the community and an open dialogue. So many of us wonder why we are being penalised?
A premium price for an unfinished base-absolutely no discount to those of us who invested early, and no right of return for those of us who bought discs.
Lots more missing than many realised.
Lack of reviews-I found that concerning and believe it was because what I found out after purchase would have been reported. I would've cancelled my preorder.
Move away from sandbox-feeling of claustrophobia playing with endless loading screens and the linear task based play.
Negative advertising-instead of praising ts4 to the heavens they criticised previous beloved games, they kept announcing savage cuts and killed the excitement by refusing to dedicate the proper staff and resources to give us a ts4 everyone could be proud of.
Ill advised comments in interviews-dismissing the customers who were having issues by inferring the issues were their fault 'can't approach with a ts3 mindset' and 'they'll figure it out' I very much believe that attitude caused further hurt-not only hearing it, but from community thinking that was acceptable to do to one another
Fundamental issues with trust not being addressed-the silence after people are so shaken from upset at after 15 years or any less which caused damaged trust just alienates people further. I wish they would hire a representative that could take the time to work on rebuilding trust with the community.
Sacrificing aspects from many popular play styles-failing to realising how important these aspects were to their fan base
Saying it would be a truly stable base game-if you make claims you better make sure it holds water. Judging by the huge bugs even the most ardent supporters of ts4 have suffered I don't believe it was an accurate claim to make.
Favouring social media above their own website-their fans who don't have the time or inclination to follow multiple sim gurus are put at a disadvantage automatically. They seem to forget many of their customers are professionals themselves who can't have things like the sims on show on their social media accounts.
Seeing the perception that the forums aren't taken seriously-and failing to take a few moments for the people in charge to allay those fears by showing their presence.
Telling people to come here to give feedback when the community here already feels marginalised-Before asking people to come here there should have been a charm offensive to combat that perception.
Olympus-clearly many of us suspect and they won't talk about it. Lack of transparency causing more irritation.
Lack of family play-even die hard rock stars settle down one day to have kids-young adult lifestyle can't last forever
Claiming new features when they are reworked old features-emotions and multitasking were present in older games. Fabulous if they want to rework for next generation but don't try to say it didn't exist before when we know far better.
Clipping-my I'd give anything for sims stamping their feet over that any day!
This isn't comprehensive-many of you I'm sure have touched on a lot of what I've said (I'm posting quickly so apologies if I've missed things!)
https://twitter.com/sparkfairy1
Won't ever forget The Sims-1, and all the cool toys our sims had to play with! And all the freebies on the very fun colorful web site.
The only one I would give them a pass on is the whole thing with Olympus. I can understand that if, as many suspect, was the original basis for Sims 4 and an old model they would prefer to just leave it as the monster locked up in the basement i.e, not want to discuss it and just pretend it's not there. Frankly if I were responsible for the creation of such a piece of crap that never even became the final publicly released product, I would want to distance myself from it too.
Because the whole life simulation aspect of it was thrown out the window. Sims games used to have a lot of humor than older fans understood. Now the Sims 4 is stuck with shallow potty humor. The lack of family play and not including all the life stages as promised. Removing the play interactions completely. The UI causes headaches. The lighting is poor and the post processing option makes the game look blurry. The zooming and rotating are hidden. The tips come up every 3 seconds. The notifications pop up as much as internet ads and wall fills up really fast. I spend half my time just clearing those with the trash can.
Basically all modes are effected. Live mode, the linear game play goals take a good chuck of time that your social and general needs begin to suffer. The Sims have been dumbed down lower than the Sims 1 AI level and reason admitted because EA doesn't want the game to play for us. The Sims make horrible parents and would rather be on their computer or on their cell phone taking selfies than take care of the baby or children or teens. Teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders are all same height and don't look that much different from each other. The elders can't woohoo when they want because it kills them. You can't make your Sim laugh too much in fear that it kills them. You can get them too excited or angry or it kills them. Basically emotional deaths stink.
Build mode there is no terrain tool or water tool. You can't change the lot size and you can't add new lots to your world. There are no basements or half levels or half walls. No spiral cases or elevators, but those two things I could see be added later. You can't even edit the world. The number of objects that clog up your inventory grow a lot and the way you have to drag to sell an object can be frustrating. Lack of CAST takes away a lot of freedom when designing furniture, walls, floors, hair, and eyes. Create a Sim, the ability to change the roots and highlights of the hair are no longer there.
With transportation, it is set to teleporting only so buses and carpools no longer come by your house. At least 80% of the NPCs from the previous games were taken away. No more private school for Sims. Kids are killed off when taken away from the social worker.
The culling limit is so low that if you meet someone, the game can automatically delete them at any time. The world is small and there really are not a lot of fun community lots to visit. Most don't even have a place to eat unless you add it.
The mood system is starting to become more of a burden than a fun feature. Sims just act really bipolar and the smallest action or going into a new room can alter their moods dramatically.
There is probably more, but too tired to type it and most of already been mentioned here or on the Game Time thread.
Everything here!
Thank you
I would want to too. It's just a huge elephant in the room and speculation isn't helping them, in my opinion.
https://twitter.com/sparkfairy1
Amen.
-Money hungry thieves run EA.
-(Ties in with my first point) They took away so much from the game that so many types of players are excluded. Bye builders. Bye story tellers, legacy players, and just plain ol' family players. Bye sim creators (yes, the new pull CAS is interesting but that's all CAS has going for it. Presets, lack of clothes/ugly clothes in general, disappointing traits, etc.).
I just finished playing it for the "48 hours". Many things that I liked about previous versions were not done (like the open neighborhoods from TS3 and the ability to customize your clothing, building materials and furniture with "Create a Style" rather than having to go back to having to download so much or mod it yourself also from TS3.) The building was just as frustrating as TS3 (as opposed to what we had fairly early in TS2). And they added the "emotions" that seemed boring to me (as well as frustrating because sometimes it seemed like they would get an emotion fairly easily, but the next time you wanted the same emotion, it was like pulling teeth.)
And even though I played for less than 48 hours, the durn thing should have let me have extra time to make up for all the times it crashed to desktop. In the last 2 hours of play time, I got to play the same 8 hours of Sim time 3 times (and would have been 4 times as it crashed 5 minutes before my time was up. I just didn't feel like playing "groundhog day" one more time.) That just seems to be too unstable. I'm used to the Sims games crashing (or getting error codes) when there are loads of updates/EPs, but in the base game???? (In fact, I had less crashing when I was beta testing TS2 EPs for EA! At least during a beta test you know that you're going to get crashing because it's not fully set up yet.)
They've gone backwards in so many areas with TS4, and the "new things" are not all that interesting. Plus an unstable platform? I'm going back to TS3, thank you very much!
@SimChic I do not see the Sims 4 as a RPG. Please explain.
because as I do not play different kinds of games, except, Civilization, SimCity, Pirates I do not consider them RPG
Now as far as a RPG, I did do one, In fact it was my all time favorite game.
that is Siberia, I loved that game, but it had a ending. I did play Siberia 2 and it also had a ending. that to me is a RPG.
It is a story you progress through until you get to the end.
I do not see any of the Sims as that. I have played 26 Generations in Sims3 and am now still carrying the same family recreated in Sims 4 and am now on my 4th generation.
Please if you could explain how Sims 4 is a RpG, I would appreciate it.
What people seem to be getting at is the achievement-based play and goals to be accomplished, and this is what makes it an RPG.
Anyone else is free to correct me or add additional input.
And you have to go to too many places to do things. If you want to go up a floor, you have to go to the upper Right side. But then you have to go back down to the lower Left side to do the action that you had to see the upper floor to do. And to check to see if it was having the desired effect, you have to go to the lower Right side, then flip back to looking at the lower Left side to see if they're still doing what you told them to do (or decided to reorder the queue.)
The flow for the UI was much better for TS3. Everything was fairly close together (as opposed to being in opposite corners.) Some things in TS3 were in the upper Right corner, but for the most part you could ignore those if you chose. Monitoring one area was much easier.
4.
I consider TS4 more of an RPG for things such as the achievements. In fact, when I played the trial I was confused why I had gotten an achievement for not speaking to anyone for 24 hours (side note, I'm pretty sure that was a bug because I'm almost certain I had my sim speak to others that day). Also, I was looking through build mode and I saw that I had to unlock some stuff. Now yes, unlocking has occurred in TS3 but not until EPs. If this happens flat out in the base game that kinda sets the tone of what kind of game it is. It just feels linear. I sort of disagree with your definition of RPG though. I don't think a game necessarily needs an ending to be classified as an RPG.
I get what you are saying, you see I do not see that because I do not do Job or careers, goals and achievements. I just play and do as I please, don't send my kids to school, don't send my sims to, work, job or what ever, when I have a party, I just have a party like in Sims 3, invite everyone and have fun. Funny thing I did not know there was a goal or achievement for a party until I heard someone say that.
You do not have to do those things to play. I wonder what would happen if you had a job and did not do those things. Like if your career was, sorry I forgot what the careers are as I don't use them, but take any of them, what would happen if your sims just went to work and did not do those things.
Now I do know that in Sims 3 if you had a job and you wanted to advance you had to do those things like in sims 4, like have so many friends. So what now is the difference.
Aside from not being done, it's not your typical sims game anymore. There are a lot of goals now, the game is linear as opposed to being sandbox and it's a game that looks like it came from 2004 rather than 2014, saying this because they're talking about how "times have changed". If times have changed then make your game proper, or just have the direction your "vision" is going to well thought out.
The game including its marketing is just a jumbled up mess, I don't think they even know what they want. Their sales are reflecting their own actions.
The game is pretty boring itself too.