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CharKittyBoo
Posts: 569 Member
If I was working at EA I'd be pretty upset with all the negative feedback, too. We're all only human. I think the developers have been trying to take a new approach with TS4 that makes it easier for their marketing. Less like a series that you start from the beginning and keep playing and more like something that you can jump into from anywhere. The community on the forums is primarily simmers that have been playing since the beginning who are able to really compare it to the previous games. Maybe part of it is just everyone is growing up and so we wan't darker themes and more realism, but it is much harder to sell a game to the younger generations when you have that. Yes, it can be an optional EP, but if they're currently trying to sell the game to kids than that's not what they want to make. I know tons of 7-14 year olds that really really want TS4 but their parents won't let them because of woohoo and the "violence." It's not at all that they don't care about the customers that have been here since the beginning, it's just that the company is focused on a different audience at the moment. I'm sure the gurus are doing everything they can to relay our feedback to the developers and those is charge, that's what they can do. EA has a lot of young customers that are just on the brink of entering the community so to go with darker themes, more sexual interactions, vampires, etc. wouldn't exactly be a smart move. I don't know much about how it all really works, but I do know my opinion as a new simmer. I'm not into the dark stuff. I wasn't mad when they updated the woohoo to fireworks and more bed shaking, I was just a little upset because it made it harder for me to play with my younger sister. It seems to me that TS4 is like playing dolls with less imagination required. I'm not aiming to play God. I want a story, and a happy one, too. With that said, I think adding domestic pets would be a good idea because animals appeal to all kinds of people. Hopefully they aren't having problems with the animations/multitasking but maybe they are and they should have enough time to make it great. They do have a smaller team now.
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Comments
One of the great things about The Sims is that it gives you options.
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
I do feel bad for the devs getting all of the negativity thrown at them and I myself am a long term player as I started with the original.
I would like to see more darker themes in The Sims though. I am not asking for anything too dystopian but I don't want pink trees and constant flower beds either
kim
Oh and my animosity is NOT directed at the OP. Just EA/
Abraham Lincoln
Me, 30+ years old , graduated from (german) college, been playing videogames since ~1988/Started playing TS in 1999.
Still: Sims 4 = best game I've ever played.
Abraham Lincoln
What makes it the best game out of the series for you? Genuinely curious; is it a specific mode within the game (such as CAS, build, etc.?)
♡ Team Aja ♡
Hopefully you won't mind if I choose the easy route to answer the question (because I have a feeling, it wouldn't make a difference if I elaborated on this more than it is needed):
It's literally everything, but mainly how the game looks (!) and feels (!) when I play it. The best way to show what I mean is a comparison in videos:
I was used to this:
Then I got this:
btw: I really tried to make it as accurate as possible since I looked for videos where in both cases the game was out for a year with exactly one expansion pack released. So both videos were recorded when the basegame was still relatively new.
Probaby not an answer to your satisfactory, I guess.
I agree that TS4 looks better than TS2 or TS3 even though it has fewer details (like hills etc.). But for me it is the gameplay that matters and I could actually easily play old bad looking games if only they had good gameplay while I just don't care about "games" that only look good because such "games" bore me. (It is the same with movies: I like several very old black-white movies while I won't waste my time on boring new movies just because they look good. Why should I?)
To the OP: call me selfish (you may, I won't be offended because I simply am in this respect), but I have no interest in a game suitable for 7-14 year olds. So if they want to turn it into that, why is it surprising they find themselves surrounded by a disappointed fanbase? One of the problems is, that Sims 4 seems sort of undecided in this respect. It feels like they're catering to kids and adolescents, but at the same time there's the streaking and woohoo in bushes and closets and whirlpools, looking more steamy than in the predecessors that feel more mature to me in general.
In some ways, I do feel bad for the developers in regards to the negativity. It isn't their fault as to what is in the game and what isn't. They are told to put in X, Y and Z and leave out 1, 2 and 3, so in goes X, Y and Z. It isn't like it was their choice to make.
And while yes I do like the visual look of Sims4 ( I happen to like the pink trees and the flowers, it can be a truly gorgeous world ) ... I don't want it all to look like a magical unicorn barfed up rainbow glitter all over a My Little Pony convention. I can understand wanting something darker in the Sims universe, and not just in Sims4.
I wish we could have homes with cracks in the outer bricks, or cracks in the paint. Broken banisters or rails on the outside of a house. I wish we had clutter objects to put in the front yard to display a more run down or lower income look. With Sims4 and its little district neighborhoods, I would love to see a small getto hood, a run-downed lower income, other side of the railroad tracks hood, a struggling middle class hood and so on.
In Sims4 ( or 3 or 2 ), even the poorest sims have such beautiful picturesque homes all ready for the spouse and the 2.5 children and white picket fence.
And no, I don't find it monotone. TS4 is very accurate in reflecting social encounters (due to multi-tasking, well crafted animations, emotions etc.), sims are almost as flexible as real 'human beings' in certain situations. It's almost scary.
I do think that remaking Olympus into TS4 was not the best of ideas. Personally I think they should have stayed with Olympus and released it as a complete game as intended and worked on TS4 separately and who knows, both could have eventually been really successfull?
@Gruffman interesting reply
I have said before that I would like to see a more gritty take on the game in the future so if you want to play out 'rags to riches' you would be able to do so and that method of play is always popular for those who like that extra hardship and playing without cheats.
@HalloMolli I am glad that you enjoy the social side of TS4 as the socialisation was considered a major selling point for the game. Although I like how things work in TS3 I see nothing wrong with the intention of trying to pull it up a level in TS4. A slow dance would be welcome for added sophistication though
I guess, if you hung out with some of the Gurus in private (and without any cameras and microphones near them), some of them would admit that they would absolutely love to create a dark Sims game for an 18+ audience in the future. They're adults.
But that won't happen. It's not their job, and TS4 is the wrong game for that. ^^
Everyone has different ideas I guess. Given the choice I would really like to thrown in a dark side to The Sims as well
But, let's be honest here, I don't think we will do Sims 3 any favour even if I linked a video created today (notice: after TS3 experienced 5 years of patches and improvements). Here is, btw a 'Let's play' I am a huge fan of - hope this does TS3 more justice:
https://youtu.be/qRHGxEEFa0I?t=887
edit:
Went into my game again and made another one. This time they weren't dancing but talking.
edit again (can't stop):
One of the guests is my fully skilled mixologist, who steps behind the bar here to show his skills.
Now I have that moment of watching someone's videos and want to actually control the game!
But good videos though and the music from the first video is one of the best from TS3
That's what the parties are like when you have a PC that can handle TS3. When I started off playing TS3 I complained about things like that. Then I finally had money to build a nice one and I loved the game and I have no more issues like that... If you ask me TS3 sims aren't dead, they move a lot more naturally than TS4 sims... In TS4 everything feels scripted... and forced when it comes to the party situations. Idk.