I hope the last couple of days haven't dampened their passion and creativity.
Not at all! We totally expect that not every little thing we do will have 100% support across the whole community. In fact, we expect that EVERYTHING we do will NOT have 100% support across the community. There are so many different ways to play The Sims and so many aspects to it that there is no way to please everyone at the same time. Which is part of the reason we release such varied content at such a quick pace. Don't like what's being offered today (for free or paid)? Tomorrow is right around the corner with new things to evaluate and choose between.
We love what we do, love this community, and will keep busting our humps everyday for you and this game!
@SimGuruNinja Whenever you do something like this it gets my imagination going as to what could be done in the game in the future. Maybe because when I was young computers were in their infancy and I've seen the tremendous advances since 1980. I may not use the current app.but still salute the maker of it.
PS: One of these days when I win the lottery I will show my Sims 4 house to an architect and say "Build me that." (still in New Year optimistic mode)
I hope the last couple of days haven't dampened their passion and creativity.
Not at all! We totally expect that not every little thing we do will have 100% support across the whole community. In fact, we expect that EVERYTHING we do will NOT have 100% support across the community. There are so many different ways to play The Sims and so many aspects to it that there is no way to please everyone at the same time. Which is part of the reason we release such varied content at such a quick pace. Don't like what's being offered today (for free or paid)? Tomorrow is right around the corner with new things to evaluate and choose between.
We love what we do, love this community, and will keep busting our humps everyday for you and this game!
This whole business has passed my attention completely (I'm just more interested in the WA tomb I'm building at the moment and other new games I got for Christmas; Sims 4 is on the bottom of the shelf right now, plus I wouldn't be interested in livestreams anyway because they're just no my cup of tea). But I think all parties - both critics as fans - should hold this post for an example and a guide.
Backlash has always been part of this franchise as long as I remember (I started playing in 2009) and I never cared whenever I didn't agree with the backlash (no, I didn't really care about burrito babies and no, I didn't mind about sims teleporting into cars and no I didn't miss not seeing my sims inside a store). And I always relied on the fact developers are grown up people with a vision who keep focusing on the game they are busy creating and on the people that do appreciate what they're getting. While keeping an open eye of course for any type of constructive critique and feedback. As a fan I only benefited from that.
I also feel I have the right as a huge fan of one of the versions to give my critique, as long as I make sure I'm civil about it. It's up to the developers if they pick up my feedback or not. As I understand it correctly that has been the main problem here, people getting out of line. Why would that affect the developers though in the creative process? Why would rude people have that amount of power? They shouldn't and I'm glad to read that indeed, no, they don't. People have a right to be disappointed and if they can't behave when expressing that disappointment that's their call. There are several options: you agree with the criticism and the tone, you agree with the criticism but not the tone, you don't agree with the criticism but you understand the tone or you don't agree with the criticism nor the tone. And the creators just keep doing what they're good at: creating.
(I do agree with anyone in this topic by the way that openess and honesty concerning upcoming news is important)
@MidnightAura Maybe the "Patch" is only so that the prices can be put on them and correct the error?
@JoAnne65 WA was my favourite pack in Sims 3. I agree with your post in the main, one has the right to critique. I wonder though, if EA/Maxis employees have that much time to read the very lengthy critiques they got from some (now disappeared) posters in the past. Just ignore the repetition and move to the next post?
I'd rather they spent time in exploring possibilities like First Person view, etc.
You are entitled to your opinion but releasing Alexa integration when the game itself needs TLC feels wrong so I get why people might be frustrated. As for working off the clock maybe I misunderstood when the guru said here at Maxis they are allowed to work on their passions. The statement did not sound like off the clock to me but maybe I am wrong. It sounds like a one off project to me.
On its own, I would interpret it the same way. But regardless of how you interpret that comment, it seems to me that it has already been said (at least for the first person camera and the alexa features) that neither project took away from development resources. I don't see the comment as a reason to disregard that statement, but perhaps the guru who said it could further clarify what he meant.
We will just agree to disagree on this one. EA is big on time is money from what I have seen playing the sims and other EA games. They have even released games unfinished because of time is money. Mass Effect Andromeda and the Initial release of Sims 4 are clear examples. It is hard for me to believe these projects have not had some affect on development resources.
Edit : Just read Kate's response. "Does not affect the Development Resources" It is just sad because I still have a hard time believing them because of my experiences with EA. So @Cupid I will give you that. I still feel like the initial response was the truth and the second was community clean up...lol
@MidnightAura Maybe the "Patch" is only so that the prices can be put on them and correct the error?
I’m not sure, the mobile game had a mystery box feature added too (which by the way is fine, Mobile content comes out quicker) but it’s not like there’s nothing happening with it so seems odd to me that it’s not mentioned at all.
@MidnightAura Maybe the "Patch" is only so that the prices can be put on them and correct the error?
@JoAnne65 WA was my favourite pack in Sims 3. I agree with your post in the main, one has the right to critique. I wonder though, if EA/Maxis employees have that much time to read the very lengthy critiques they got from some (now disappeared) posters in the past. Just ignore the repetition and move to the next post?
I'd rather they spent time in exploring possibilities like First Person view, etc.
Of course they don't have the time but as I understand it others keep them posted as to what lives among simmers. Couldn't help giggling when guruNinja showed us JA footage and at one point said, acting all suprised, wait, what do I see in the distance, did we actually walk there a while ago? (or something like that, don't remember the exact words) Of course in no way was he directly referring to anything I ever said but it certainly felt that way lol (I've been complaining about fake backdrops as long as Sims 4 has been out ). He did the same thing apparently when they showed terrain tools for the first time. They clearly know what fans regret and would like to see. If they can give it to us and if they will is a different matter of course. It won't stop me from speaking my mind Sims 2 fans who regretted sacrifices made in Sims 3 were clearly heard as well. I'd never start yelling at devs during live streams though, that's for sure. I have protested on Twitter though when a developer said something about Sims 3 I strongly disagreed with, they simply need to know Always in a polite way though. I don't like to be yelled at myself either.
I now watch the Twitter streams on full screen mode as I could not keep up with the fast moving comments of the "twitterers" (apt name) and some of the game-changers seemed to turn up to meet their fans which made me miss some of the main stream. Lots of the viewers didn't seem to listen to what was said anyway. Just a waste of time viewing them.
I must say I am disappointed with this whole thread. It reminds me of the responses from Maxis in previous infamous threads by the past CM. No offense to you Maxis, but if your customers are upset with you then you have to look at yourselves and ask why. Not make speeches about how inapproraite their feelings were expressed. I have no idea what was said during the stream, nor what is said on twitter, but I have eyes on this forum and I didn't see anyone who was spewing hatred or vitirol. I'm happy EA allows developers to work on pet projects, but the outcry isnh't for pet projects and what developers want to see in the game or even what they like, but what paying customers want. Like more time spent on bugs, packs that are released bug free, more depth in these Sims personalities, not something a niche group of players who have not even a mainstream object yet, use. Outside of cursing I see nothing wrong with paying customers who keep Maxis in business expressing their dislike and( or no matter how negative) dislike of anything produced or released about this series.
I assumed from the original announcements that the Maxis Montly and Garage streams were about TS4, my bad? And interviews with some gamers and others etc. If I was lead to believe that then the original announcement should be revisted to see where it was worded incorrectly, because no where did it say it was about things outside of the pc version now did it? And I and thousands of others rarely read an announcement twice. So, that mistake doesn't fall on the fanbase of paying customers but Maxis for misleading or miswording their orignal announcements of what these streams would be about. And it is hardly vitirol or hatred for pointing that out, and then the face of Maxis blaming customers again. Just like as in the past with saying things like we aren't the vast majoirty.
Well, if we are not then why don't we just take our purses and leave? And let you, Maxis enjoy your spewing blame on your customers for your failures.
I disagree with the upset customer argument. Firstly, the ones that are upset are not that many, they just make themselves more visible. There are many more who watched it and said absolutely nothing. I don't have an Alexa so I had no interest in this announcement. Did I yell at the devs "give me what I want! Where are the bug fixes?!"? No, I just closed the stream and got on with it. There is no need for an opinion of any kind, and there is also no need to let any opinion you have be known. Maybe this is an age or culture thing, I'm not sure.
I also disagree with the "what players want" argument. A lot of people want a lot of different things, and even more people don't know what they want. It's just a general statement no more specific than a horoscope reading. Some people love occult life states, some don't want to touch it, who's more right? More examples here: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/953943/things-other-people-want-that-you-dont-care-for
I'm a different bird. I see Maxis as a company. I'm a customer. Period. Not a fan, not a child, not someone who has to accept anything said to customers. Strictly business. If a customer complains, I don't think anyone has the right to tell them how to do that. I'm against censorship. It is one of my pet peeves, when others tell others how to speak. As if they have a moral right to tell others how to word things. Sure, feedback can get nasty and harsh. But if it's that bad then it's on the company to figure out why someone is so frustrated, tired, bewiltered with their work or product they would have such an emotional reaction. And the fault is many here never even visit Twitter, don't know what is said there, or what announcement gets reworded to reflect a change in what the streams would be about. That failure to understand some read the announcements here of what a stream is about and never even look at Twitter for any change in those announcements is on the company and never the customer. If the announcement (original) here was changed we might notice and therefore, no one would be upset the Maxis monthly had bascially been changed to include any thing and everything outside of the TS4 pc version. That wasn't something that should have brought a CM here to blame their customers after they came upset about it. If this gets me a warning or ban so be it, for critiquing the company as a whole. It's their failure to remember we read announcements here, and may never even see an 'update' notice over on twitter (since most are reposted in speculation btw) whic would tell them not to expect anything about the actual game.
ETA: And let me just say this before I leave today, it would be extremely helpful if during these streams they addressed the humongus bug lists in this game...that might ease some stress on those who paid good money for bad products.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Hey guys--As someone who was intimately involved with the creation of The Sims Alexa Skill I wanted to chime in.
Most of you guys know me from GPs and EPs--let me reinforce that the rest of the dev team and myself are still working very hard on new future content for The Sims. Unfortunately we're not allowed to go in more detail as EA is a publicly-traded company (I would look up rules around 'revenue recognition' for starters, but can't go into more specifics than that), so I hope you understand that I have to be a little vague about things. This response has not been vetted by Kate or any of our CMs, so hopefully it feels authentic and (more importantly) I won't get in trouble :P
SimGuru0x00 has been with Maxis since TS3, but his background is actually in natural language processing. So voice-based experiences have been a passion of his for a while. Recently, Amazon made the Alexa Skill developer kit available for third parties like EA to tinker with, and he (along with another engineer) spent time outside of working hacking the initial prototype of The Sims Skill together. At some point, I heard about his little side project and took interest in it, and together we recruited a few other members of the team to help us with it outside of working hours. Once it got to a state that we felt like we could actually release it, we asked The Sims leadership team if they'd be willing to let us give it to the public. After seeing the product in person, they gave us the thumbs up! We reached out to Amazon to see if they wanted to work with us on getting it out there, and found a few friends there to help us get it certified for release. I want to reinforce that at no point in time did Amazon ever sponsor or pay for us. We even bought the Alexa Echo products to develop on with our own money.
The passion that The Sims community has is awesome (and terrifying), but it's what makes working on it so rewarding. I know Simmers always want new TS4 content (which is once again, what our dev efforts are focused on), so whenever we do things that aren't directly related to that we expect backlash. In fact, the Lin-Z speaker was something that I proposed to help give TS4 players something fun in conjunction with the Alexa announcement. Unfortunately, due to scheduling (both technical and holiday), we weren't able to get a patch line set up for January, so the closest TS4 patch we could release it in was the December patch. It was originally not slated to release in December, but I figured it's better giving stuff sooner rather than later. I apologize if it felt like we released nothing free in January, and also for the bugs that happened because of the earlier-than-planned release. Big, well-deserved props to our engineers who worked quickly on a hotfix right before Christmas.
I try to read the forums / twitter when I can, but there isn't always time given our schedules and priorities as a dev team so I'm sorry about the delay in this response. We're still very excited to release this Skill next week and have people play with it, especially the trivia section as it's got some cool nuggets of information. I've got to get back to work now, but will pop into this thread to read up throughout the day. I think Kate's currently distracted with the Guru Garage livestream, so she hasn't had time to look this over. Cross your fingers that she doesn't yell at me.
P.S. I saw a lot of people saying how Alexa devices are too expensive to purchase--I totally hear you! There's a free Alexa app on iOS and Android that you can use to play with this Alexa Skill as well In fact, I tested a lot on it at home since I didn't have an Alexa in my house.
I now watch the Twitter streams on full screen mode as I could not keep up with the fast moving comments of the "twitterers" (apt name) and some of the game-changers seemed to turn up to meet their fans which made me miss some of the main stream. Lots of the viewers didn't seem to listen to what was said anyway. Just a waste of time viewing them.
@SimGuruEmory - Thanks for that response. This totally clarifies a ton of concerns I think; Especially that this didn't take away from other features/content we'll be seeing in the future... I feel like that is the main reason people are upset. I assumed it was paid by Amazon but learning that it was just a passion project has put it in a better light for me personally. I'm actually kind of excited now to experiment with it!
When the Alexa skill was announced I thought, "Maybe that's why they added Lin-Z!" So that totally makes sense, even if it wasn't simultaneous!
I think you all do an amazing job. Thank you for being awesome and excellent creators for a game that so many of us cherish (maybe a bit too much... of which I'm guilty lol)
@SimGuruEmory Thanks for posting, the insight is interesting. I had a feeling that the Lin-Z had a connection to this!
I'd just like to say that I think it's awesome that you guys are able to work on side projects that are encouraged by the company. I had said in another thread that it's kind of like having another modding community who have the option of actually polishing and officially releasing their material. I love the first person camera feature and, since I got a new Android phone recently, I plan to check out the Sims Skill once I have it all settled.
Having this kind of support for such a large, diverse group of developers with a variety of skills probably opens up a lot of creative opportunities for the game that may not have existed otherwise, so I'm glad this is becoming a Thing and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with in the future.
Not here to complain or bash... I'm biting my tongue. But the 5 year old me who snuck onto my moms bulky old computer to play the original sims game and stuck with the series this long is crying.
I have a couple of Kindle Fires with the Alexa app that I've never turned on or wanted to, but this has made we want to try out the new The Sims Alexa Skill. I love a lot of the old music from previous iterations and I always enjoyed playing the trivia game that was included while waiting for TS2 to install.
I think it's a fun little feature, and I'm glad so many of the developers, etc., are so passionate about their job that they're willing to do side projects on their own time. Thank you!
@SimGuruKate I didn't know you still check the forums every now and then. A lot of us here thought you abandoned or forgot about the forum and moved on to twitter. This is the first time in more than a year that I see something from you Gurus on this Forum. There was the occasional Moderator telling us to keep topics Sims related or to be respectful to each other, but that is all I noticed.
Am I in the wrong categories to notice you, or is a SimGuru posting something here some rare "once every two years" thing?
“Remember that you can do anything you want to do. Don't let anyone say, 'You're not smart enough... it's too hard... it's a dumb idea... ” Meg Whitman, Former CEO of HPE
Haha, some of the posts on here almost seem to make Amazon Alexa out as some sort of sorcery, or a crutch, etc. They were on sale this past season, so a few of my relatives took advantage of it. The fam don't seem to be any different to me because of this, but time will tell, I guess. I have heard that they can spy on you, but hopefully that was a malfunction and not a feature. They are a thing, tho, I do believe, so it seems natural to make something to go along with it. There's an app for everything these days, doncha know.
Yep, between a rock and a hard place.....but with some terrain tools, perhaps one can make a bit of a cozy hollow, get a roof over your head, bring your Cat or Dog, put down a few pouf chairs, add your LinZ to play some Sims Tunes, look around the place in First Person View (Now with less nodding!), and call it a Home.
Because, yeah, no matter what is released, paid, free, or some combination, I can assure you, along with death and taxes, someone, somewhere, in the Sims Fanbase, will be offended, in some way or another. Even when bug fixes come out, there will be out and out wails of, "Another PATCH??!! My mods, my cc, augh, whoa is me...."
When we were BT (Before Toddlers) it was them. Then, it was Pets. Then, Seasons. Every release that was non-them, was met with desperate cries. Now--it is University......or another Occult. And if and when that comes in some form, it will be something else.
I think one must be a bit savage to work on a game where life itself is the gameplay. That is about the biggest premise that a game could tackle: "Say, there, The Sims Player/Developer, what is The Sims about, anyway?" "Um, eh, not too much, I guess. Just....life."
Even though I wanted most of the content I've mentioned quite frantically, I picture myself working at a Maxis desk (probably a standing desk, with no need for a treadmill because we have a gym) and suddenly thinking, "Oh. Dear. Llama. The enormity of this task. The players....the players....they want so much. No. No, I can't think about that. I'm just going to work on this piece, and make it the best that I can."
And then, they do. I admit there have been times when I have expressed strong criticism of the game on this forum. But I have tried to be quite civil. Over all, my wish has been for less "stuff" and more animations and interactive gameplay. I see that happening. It takes more time, though, just as your pyramid illustrates.
So I'd like to thank the devs and support staff for their efforts. I also appreciate them taking the time to interact with us on this forum, and to express the fact that they love the game, and love working on it. I greatly appreciate the base game content that has been shared for no extra cost. The surprises that came this past year were quite fun. I have enjoyed The Sims 4 a great deal, warts and all. It is when I pay special attention to the things I like, and push the warts to a back burner, that I enjoy it the most. That is a gift I give myself.
I wonder when Next Week we'll be getting the sims on Alexa. Hope it's as early as Tuesday. I think Monday is ruled out because their going to announce it the day before it releases.
@SimGuruKate I didn't know you still check the forums every now and then. A lot of us here thought you abandoned or forgot about the forum and moved on to twitter. This is the first time in more than a year that I see something from you Gurus on this Forum. There was the occasional Moderator telling us to keep topics Sims related or to be respectful to each other, but that is all I noticed.
Am I in the wrong categories to notice you, or is a SimGuru posting something here some rare "once every two years" thing?
They post on these forums often.
Twitter can be easier, because it's mobile-friendly; posting on the forums from a mobile device (especially a phone) can be clunky, but there are so many Twitter clients out there for mobile devices (as an iOS user I'm partial to Tweetbot from Tapbots *shameless plug*) that if you're commuting via train or carpool it's easy to post a quick Tweet from wherever, depending how nimble your fingers/thumbs. But I'm sure many of the Gurus are still lurking about even if they can't reply (for example, they can't comment about future content that hasn't been officially announced). And as Community Manager, hanging out on the forums/Twitter/Facebook and other social media comes with the job. I've seen quite a few Guru posts in the last couple of years.
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@SimGuruKate I didn't know you still check the forums every now and then. A lot of us here thought you abandoned or forgot about the forum and moved on to twitter. This is the first time in more than a year that I see something from you Gurus on this Forum. There was the occasional Moderator telling us to keep topics Sims related or to be respectful to each other, but that is all I noticed.
Am I in the wrong categories to notice you, or is a SimGuru posting something here some rare "once every two years" thing?
They post on these forums often.
Twitter can be easier, because it's mobile-friendly; posting on the forums from a mobile device (especially a phone) can be clunky, but there are so many Twitter clients out there for mobile devices (as an iOS user I'm partial to Tweetbot from Tapbots *shameless plug*) that if you're commuting via train or carpool it's easy to post a quick Tweet from wherever, depending how nimble your fingers/thumbs. But I'm sure many of the Gurus are still lurking about even if they can't reply (for example, they can't comment about future content that hasn't been officially announced). And as Community Manager, hanging out on the forums/Twitter/Facebook and other social media comes with the job. I've seen quite a few Guru posts in the last couple of years.
With the forums I bookmark each forum on my phone and I add them to a folder I called The Sims so I don't have any issue. I just open up my sims folder and for example click on General and I'm at the forums.
Comments
@SimGuruNinja Whenever you do something like this it gets my imagination going as to what could be done in the game in the future. Maybe because when I was young computers were in their infancy and I've seen the tremendous advances since 1980. I may not use the current app.but still salute the maker of it.
PS: One of these days when I win the lottery I will show my Sims 4 house to an architect and say "Build me that." (still in New Year optimistic mode)
Backlash has always been part of this franchise as long as I remember (I started playing in 2009) and I never cared whenever I didn't agree with the backlash (no, I didn't really care about burrito babies and no, I didn't mind about sims teleporting into cars and no I didn't miss not seeing my sims inside a store). And I always relied on the fact developers are grown up people with a vision who keep focusing on the game they are busy creating and on the people that do appreciate what they're getting. While keeping an open eye of course for any type of constructive critique and feedback. As a fan I only benefited from that.
I also feel I have the right as a huge fan of one of the versions to give my critique, as long as I make sure I'm civil about it. It's up to the developers if they pick up my feedback or not. As I understand it correctly that has been the main problem here, people getting out of line. Why would that affect the developers though in the creative process? Why would rude people have that amount of power? They shouldn't and I'm glad to read that indeed, no, they don't. People have a right to be disappointed and if they can't behave when expressing that disappointment that's their call. There are several options: you agree with the criticism and the tone, you agree with the criticism but not the tone, you don't agree with the criticism but you understand the tone or you don't agree with the criticism nor the tone. And the creators just keep doing what they're good at: creating.
(I do agree with anyone in this topic by the way that openess and honesty concerning upcoming news is important)
@JoAnne65 WA was my favourite pack in Sims 3. I agree with your post in the main, one has the right to critique. I wonder though, if EA/Maxis employees have that much time to read the very lengthy critiques they got from some (now disappeared) posters in the past. Just ignore the repetition and move to the next post?
I'd rather they spent time in exploring possibilities like First Person view, etc.
We will just agree to disagree on this one. EA is big on time is money from what I have seen playing the sims and other EA games. They have even released games unfinished because of time is money. Mass Effect Andromeda and the Initial release of Sims 4 are clear examples. It is hard for me to believe these projects have not had some affect on development resources.
Edit : Just read Kate's response. "Does not affect the Development Resources" It is just sad because I still have a hard time believing them because of my experiences with EA. So @Cupid I will give you that. I still feel like the initial response was the truth and the second was community clean up...lol
I’m not sure, the mobile game had a mystery box feature added too (which by the way is fine, Mobile content comes out quicker) but it’s not like there’s nothing happening with it so seems odd to me that it’s not mentioned at all.
I tend to think SGNinja reads more comments than most Gurus so he might possibly have been referring to your comment.
BTW if anyone else likes WA I found this website helpful.
http://walkthruwa.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-10T11:45:00-08:00&max-results=1
I'm a different bird. I see Maxis as a company. I'm a customer. Period. Not a fan, not a child, not someone who has to accept anything said to customers. Strictly business. If a customer complains, I don't think anyone has the right to tell them how to do that. I'm against censorship. It is one of my pet peeves, when others tell others how to speak. As if they have a moral right to tell others how to word things. Sure, feedback can get nasty and harsh. But if it's that bad then it's on the company to figure out why someone is so frustrated, tired, bewiltered with their work or product they would have such an emotional reaction. And the fault is many here never even visit Twitter, don't know what is said there, or what announcement gets reworded to reflect a change in what the streams would be about. That failure to understand some read the announcements here of what a stream is about and never even look at Twitter for any change in those announcements is on the company and never the customer. If the announcement (original) here was changed we might notice and therefore, no one would be upset the Maxis monthly had bascially been changed to include any thing and everything outside of the TS4 pc version. That wasn't something that should have brought a CM here to blame their customers after they came upset about it. If this gets me a warning or ban so be it, for critiquing the company as a whole. It's their failure to remember we read announcements here, and may never even see an 'update' notice over on twitter (since most are reposted in speculation btw) whic would tell them not to expect anything about the actual game.
ETA: And let me just say this before I leave today, it would be extremely helpful if during these streams they addressed the humongus bug lists in this game...that might ease some stress on those who paid good money for bad products.
Most of you guys know me from GPs and EPs--let me reinforce that the rest of the dev team and myself are still working very hard on new future content for The Sims. Unfortunately we're not allowed to go in more detail as EA is a publicly-traded company (I would look up rules around 'revenue recognition' for starters, but can't go into more specifics than that), so I hope you understand that I have to be a little vague about things. This response has not been vetted by Kate or any of our CMs, so hopefully it feels authentic and (more importantly) I won't get in trouble :P
SimGuru0x00 has been with Maxis since TS3, but his background is actually in natural language processing. So voice-based experiences have been a passion of his for a while. Recently, Amazon made the Alexa Skill developer kit available for third parties like EA to tinker with, and he (along with another engineer) spent time outside of working hacking the initial prototype of The Sims Skill together. At some point, I heard about his little side project and took interest in it, and together we recruited a few other members of the team to help us with it outside of working hours. Once it got to a state that we felt like we could actually release it, we asked The Sims leadership team if they'd be willing to let us give it to the public. After seeing the product in person, they gave us the thumbs up! We reached out to Amazon to see if they wanted to work with us on getting it out there, and found a few friends there to help us get it certified for release. I want to reinforce that at no point in time did Amazon ever sponsor or pay for us. We even bought the Alexa Echo products to develop on with our own money.
The passion that The Sims community has is awesome (and terrifying), but it's what makes working on it so rewarding. I know Simmers always want new TS4 content (which is once again, what our dev efforts are focused on), so whenever we do things that aren't directly related to that we expect backlash. In fact, the Lin-Z speaker was something that I proposed to help give TS4 players something fun in conjunction with the Alexa announcement. Unfortunately, due to scheduling (both technical and holiday), we weren't able to get a patch line set up for January, so the closest TS4 patch we could release it in was the December patch. It was originally not slated to release in December, but I figured it's better giving stuff sooner rather than later. I apologize if it felt like we released nothing free in January, and also for the bugs that happened because of the earlier-than-planned release. Big, well-deserved props to our engineers who worked quickly on a hotfix right before Christmas.
I try to read the forums / twitter when I can, but there isn't always time given our schedules and priorities as a dev team so I'm sorry about the delay in this response. We're still very excited to release this Skill next week and have people play with it, especially the trivia section as it's got some cool nuggets of information. I've got to get back to work now, but will pop into this thread to read up throughout the day. I think Kate's currently distracted with the Guru Garage livestream, so she hasn't had time to look this over. Cross your fingers that she doesn't yell at me.
P.S. I saw a lot of people saying how Alexa devices are too expensive to purchase--I totally hear you! There's a free Alexa app on iOS and Android that you can use to play with this Alexa Skill as well
When the Alexa skill was announced I thought, "Maybe that's why they added Lin-Z!" So that totally makes sense, even if it wasn't simultaneous!
I think you all do an amazing job. Thank you for being awesome and excellent creators for a game that so many of us cherish (maybe a bit too much... of which I'm guilty lol)
I'd just like to say that I think it's awesome that you guys are able to work on side projects that are encouraged by the company. I had said in another thread that it's kind of like having another modding community who have the option of actually polishing and officially releasing their material. I love the first person camera feature and, since I got a new Android phone recently, I plan to check out the Sims Skill once I have it all settled.
Having this kind of support for such a large, diverse group of developers with a variety of skills probably opens up a lot of creative opportunities for the game that may not have existed otherwise, so I'm glad this is becoming a Thing and I look forward to seeing what you all come up with in the future.
I think it's a fun little feature, and I'm glad so many of the developers, etc., are so passionate about their job that they're willing to do side projects on their own time. Thank you!
They post on these forums often.
“Remember that you can do anything you want to do. Don't let anyone say, 'You're not smart enough... it's too hard... it's a dumb idea... ” Meg Whitman, Former CEO of HPE
@SimGuruEmory, @SimGuru0x00
Yep, between a rock and a hard place.....but with some terrain tools, perhaps one can make a bit of a cozy hollow, get a roof over your head, bring your Cat or Dog, put down a few pouf chairs, add your LinZ to play some Sims Tunes, look around the place in First Person View (Now with less nodding!), and call it a Home.
Because, yeah, no matter what is released, paid, free, or some combination, I can assure you, along with death and taxes, someone, somewhere, in the Sims Fanbase, will be offended, in some way or another. Even when bug fixes come out, there will be out and out wails of, "Another PATCH??!! My mods, my cc, augh, whoa is me...."
When we were BT (Before Toddlers) it was them. Then, it was Pets. Then, Seasons. Every release that was non-them, was met with desperate cries. Now--it is University......or another Occult. And if and when that comes in some form, it will be something else.
I think one must be a bit savage to work on a game where life itself is the gameplay. That is about the biggest premise that a game could tackle: "Say, there, The Sims Player/Developer, what is The Sims about, anyway?" "Um, eh, not too much, I guess. Just....life."
Even though I wanted most of the content I've mentioned quite frantically, I picture myself working at a Maxis desk (probably a standing desk, with no need for a treadmill because we have a gym) and suddenly thinking, "Oh. Dear. Llama. The enormity of this task. The players....the players....they want so much. No. No, I can't think about that. I'm just going to work on this piece, and make it the best that I can."
And then, they do. I admit there have been times when I have expressed strong criticism of the game on this forum. But I have tried to be quite civil. Over all, my wish has been for less "stuff" and more animations and interactive gameplay. I see that happening. It takes more time, though, just as your pyramid illustrates.
So I'd like to thank the devs and support staff for their efforts. I also appreciate them taking the time to interact with us on this forum, and to express the fact that they love the game, and love working on it. I greatly appreciate the base game content that has been shared for no extra cost. The surprises that came this past year were quite fun. I have enjoyed The Sims 4 a great deal, warts and all. It is when I pay special attention to the things I like, and push the warts to a back burner, that I enjoy it the most. That is a gift I give myself.
Happy Simming!
Twitter can be easier, because it's mobile-friendly; posting on the forums from a mobile device (especially a phone) can be clunky, but there are so many Twitter clients out there for mobile devices (as an iOS user I'm partial to Tweetbot from Tapbots *shameless plug*) that if you're commuting via train or carpool it's easy to post a quick Tweet from wherever, depending how nimble your fingers/thumbs. But I'm sure many of the Gurus are still lurking about even if they can't reply (for example, they can't comment about future content that hasn't been officially announced). And as Community Manager, hanging out on the forums/Twitter/Facebook and other social media comes with the job. I've seen quite a few Guru posts in the last couple of years.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
With the forums I bookmark each forum on my phone and I add them to a folder I called The Sims so I don't have any issue. I just open up my sims folder and for example click on General and I'm at the forums.