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Do they really ‘listen’?

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  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    Cupid wrote: »
    I think certain individuals throw the word "we" around far too much. I don't personally care about babies, policemen, burglars, firemen, or cars (all things you've mentioned.)

    I would like to have burglars and policemen, just for the bit they add in "personality" to the game. But I don't care about babies or cars either. I'm not all the interested in walking around with the baby or bathing it. I can do that with a toddler if I want to.
    There was a progression in the games as far as driveways and cars were concerned, each one trying to address problems with the previous versions, and I think they ended up in a pretty logical place. Garages and driveways feel like a waste of space when I'm building based on a real house, but I'm starting to think of them as decor. In that vein, I suppose it might be nice to at least have decorative cars.
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  • ApparentlyAwesomeApparentlyAwesome Posts: 1,523 Member
    I don't know. I've been of the mind that they (EA and Maxis) half listen to us. They listen to the problem or request of what we want but not necessarily the details and the depth, I feel. That or maybe they listen but just don't address what we say in a better, more efficient way for whatever reason. Then with the minimal communication from them it just makes things even worse.

    I don't think it's as big a problem as some make it out to be that there are tons of people asking for different things. It's pretty easy to pick up on what's most popular and it's also not surprising to me that what's most popular tends to be things that would enhance the game as a life simulator and bring more options to it. Their most played EP's alone according to them are Cats & Dog, City Living, and Seasons. Lots of people have pets or know someone with a pet, not everyone lives in or likes suburban or rural living, and most people experience changing weather. Uni would probably be right up there in there too. Laundry was the number 1 stuff pack.

    The fact that there was even a vote to pick a laundry pack was astounding to me because not only did I expect for people to want to do or have things they do or have in real life in a life simulator game, but laundry is often one of the first things I've noticed asked for. I think the reasoning was that it wouldn't have been in the game if there wasn't a vote and that's a shame. This thing that we have to sacrifice important features to get other important and/or new features annoys me. Why not improvement in general, overall for one of EA's best selling game franchises? I don't get it.

    Some things shouldn't have been a big deal and shouldn't have required an uproar or a vote. It should've simply been implemented. Yes, players do want something new but that shouldn't come at the cost of something popular and well loved, especially if it's something like laundry or a life stage. And I've said this before, but they can find a good balance between giving us fan favorites and giving us something new to The Sims while still sticking with the sandbox life simulator genre, giving us more tools and options to do a variety of things that will help us tell our stories, build our houses, build our worlds, and create our sims.
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  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    .
    I don't know. I've been of the mind that they (EA and Maxis) half listen to us. They listen to the problem or request of what we want but not necessarily the details and the depth, I feel. That or maybe they listen but just don't address what we say in a better, more efficient way for whatever reason. Then with the minimal communication from them it just makes things even worse.

    I don't think it's as big a problem as some make it out to be that there are tons of people asking for different things. It's pretty easy to pick up on what's most popular and it's also not surprising to me that what's most popular tends to be things that would enhance the game as a life simulator and bring more options to it. Their most played EP's alone according to them are Cats & Dog, City Living, and Seasons. Lots of people have pets or know someone with a pet, not everyone lives in or likes suburban or rural living, and most people experience changing weather. Uni would probably be right up there in there too. Laundry was the number 1 stuff pack.

    The fact that there was even a vote to pick a laundry pack was astounding to me because not only did I expect for people to want to do or have things they do or have in real life in a life simulator game, but laundry is often one of the first things I've noticed asked for. I think the reasoning was that it wouldn't have been in the game if there wasn't a vote and that's a shame. This thing that we have to sacrifice important features to get other important and/or new features annoys me. Why not improvement in general, overall for one of EA's best selling game franchises? I don't get it.

    Some things shouldn't have been a big deal and shouldn't have required an uproar or a vote. It should've simply been implemented. Yes, players do want something new but that shouldn't come at the cost of something popular and well loved, especially if it's something like laundry or a life stage. And I've said this before, but they can find a good balance between giving us fan favorites and giving us something new to The Sims while still sticking with the sandbox life simulator genre, giving us more tools and options to do a variety of things that will help us tell our stories, build our houses, build our worlds, and create our sims.
    Well said, I agree. I couldn’t care less about laundry in the game myself for instance, but it’s clearly a broadly requested feature for simmers. ‘We’ simply refers to those that do request something. ‘We’ doesn’t necessarily mean every single one of us.
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  • Jordan061102Jordan061102 Posts: 3,918 Member
    The ''create sims with unique personalities'' is a pure rip off. It's like I put ''Hamburger'' in the menu but in reality it's just the bread with salad.
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  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited April 2019
    Cupid wrote: »
    I think certain individuals throw the word "we" around far too much. I don't personally care about babies, policemen, burglars, firemen, or cars (all things you've mentioned.) To much of the community this probably makes my opinion worthless, but it rather works out in my favor that they aren't listening to what "we" apparently want and need. Or at least it should in theory, but the stuff they've been putting out instead hasn't exactly been to my interests either

    Still, I think it's important to realize that we aren't a hive mind and if the developers only ever paid attention to the people that scream the loudest (family players), it'd leave a lot of other people out in the dark.

    I haven't noticed if family players got more than anyone else, other than toddlers and a GP about parenting I don't see they racked up anymore than those who wanted occults, who got two other life forms and a GP. Then deviant players (who may also be family and occult players) haven't seen much other than the one GP about Vampires and a few things an alien or scientist can do to stir up trouble. Come to think about it, I think devs got more added to this game they wanted rather than what any fans wanted. Even those who like to fill aspirations and skills and follow direction haven't gotten hardly any new aspirations to fill (not enough for 5 years' length) or skills to learn, but just reused objects, and skills and aspirations that venture into the same areas we already have. And builders...well, hardly anything at all.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • DuendeDuende Posts: 175 Member
    You'd think in this five year old franchise we'd have burglars, policemen to come after them and even take care of the vampire break ins . But no, I'm just here more perplexed by every Maxis Monthly video update of trivial novelties.
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  • CupidCupid Posts: 3,623 Member
    edited April 2019
    Cinebar wrote: »
    Cupid wrote: »
    I think certain individuals throw the word "we" around far too much. I don't personally care about babies, policemen, burglars, firemen, or cars (all things you've mentioned.) To much of the community this probably makes my opinion worthless, but it rather works out in my favor that they aren't listening to what "we" apparently want and need. Or at least it should in theory, but the stuff they've been putting out instead hasn't exactly been to my interests either

    Still, I think it's important to realize that we aren't a hive mind and if the developers only ever paid attention to the people that scream the loudest (family players), it'd leave a lot of other people out in the dark.

    I haven't noticed if family players got more than anyone else, other than toddlers and a GP about parenting I don't see they racked up anymore than those who wanted occults, who got two other life forms and a GP. Then deviant players (who may also be family and occult players) haven't seen much other than the one GP about Vampires and a few things an alien or scientist can do to stir up trouble. Come to think about it, I think devs got more added to this game they wanted rather than what any fans wanted. Even those who like to fill aspirations and skills and follow direction haven't gotten hardly any new aspirations to fill (not enough for 5 years' length) or skills to learn, but just reused objects, and skills and aspirations that venture into the same areas we already have. And builders...well, hardly anything at all.

    That's pretty much along the lines of what I said; I mentioned that they're the loudest, not that they've been favored. I appreciate that the dev team does not simply pander to the loudest part of the community. That said, it seems like if certain players want "x", and other players want "y" or "z", the devs put out "q" rather than rotating between bits of x, y, and z. It allows a chance for completely new themes to be developed but I imagine it leaves much of the playerbase with a feeling of being ignored.
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  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    edited April 2019
    I think Graham said if we really want something we have to ask for it. Even talking to him casually about bowling I do with my friends, I was shocked when the bowling pack was announced. Honestly you got to just ignore all the haters who have nothing better to do than put people down online and just focus on asking about the game. You'll end up happier and getting the things you want out of the Sims 4. I mean I had to be very vocal about the Sims 4 regarding toddlers and knew I was going to go in surgery with the doctors telling me I was either going to live or die with it, so I knew even if I were unable to experience them myself, knowing that other Simmers would be able to play with them. The Sims community was not very welcoming when I joined and even the first Sims giveaway I joined I got very hostile responses. Had it not been for the kindness of the community managers and the family play thread and Deaderpool for creating MCCC to save my saved Sims from being culled, I would have given up on the Sims 4 on year one of purchasing the game in 2015.

    I think the Gurus, at least the ones who choose to talk to Simmers are pretty approachable. I mean I have had a variety of opinions of the Sims 4, yet they were still kind enough to talk to me even about my silly business questions. I have noticed as long as something is kept civil and short, it is usually met with a response. I struggle myself keeping concise and only after rereading my favorite book Pride and Prejudice did I come across this quote again, "A person who can write a long letter with ease, cannot write ill." Amazing how books and pretty much anything can influence you. Sadly we live in a society that can only understand up to the Twitter word limit.

    So if that is my advice is to:
    1) approach Gurus yourself
    2) be civil
    3) keep request or question concise and elaborate only when asked by the Guru
    4) ignore negative responses from other Simmers
    5) sometimes ignore the hive mind of "what we want" or "what we don't want" and request what you personally want from the game, but if it works out for your benefit, use those stats to support your requests and show the Gurus the evidence you gathered up of those statistics
    ex. poll on forums or Twitter

    So yes there are many features that I feel like are missing in the Sims and by now my hopes of those ever happening have narrowed down to nil being that Sims 4 is on its fifth year and that is when other Sims games stopped being developed. The biggest problem is that the Sims community being so diverse as it is, CAS creators and people who play happy Sims are catered for, but for everyone else like me who plays differently, there is a vast amount of gameplay and build options missing from the game. Do I think those things will happen like I did back in 2015? Nope. Have I lost hope? Yep. Am I ready for the Sims 5? Yep. I have seen so many Gurus leave the Sims 4 by now since it started being developed and it makes me sad I admit. It is like I just don't have the energy to fight for the Sims 4 anymore. I'm tired and ready to move on like some of the Gurus have. I am hopeful for the future of the franchise especially since there have been so many technological advances since 2015 like the Stadia that is being developed that could eliminate computer spec barriers of development for games. Everything is going digital and if that technology succeeds, it could be a huge game changer for all games.
    Post edited by Scobre on
    “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    LiELF wrote: »
    munroele wrote: »
    It sure doesn't seem like they're listening to the occult players, does it? Jungle Adventures and Strangerville don't count because they don't include a new permanent life state. Witches. Werewolves, Fairies. Elves. Something. They say they hear us but... do they? As others in this thread have said, realism players have gotten darn near everything major they've asked for. When can we get something?

    I'm getting desperate. As much as I adore Vampires and Aliens, I play with them constantly and now I'm bored.
    Can we jsut have a new occult to keep us busy and shut us up for a little longer?
    The only major expansion left for realism people I see constant demand for is something Island or University. Can we just have something different, PLEASE? I'm begging at this point.

    I'll chime in on this as well. Playable Occults are a rare thing in Sims 4 and it feels like the devs think throwing anything "supernatural" at us is the same thing. It isn't.

    Don't get me wrong, I do love Jungle Adventures, and I'm enjoying StrangerVille. But the life states that we've grown used to being able to play in past games for the longer term have been reduced to buff states in Sims 4. Just look at what happened to Plant Sims. They last - what -three hours? And you can't even change their hair!

    If StrangerVille came with playable Zombies or Zombie-Plant-Sims, and Jungle Adventures gave us fully playable permanent skeletons, we could say that yes, they are paying attention to Occult players. But they aren't doing that. What's going to happen with content down the line? FX Mermaids? Werewolves who shapeshift for ten seconds? I fear that Witches might be the only fully playable Occult we'll get because they'll be too busy working on something like farm fields so we can watch crops grow. No offense to those who want that, but it just sounds tedious and extremely boring to me.

    Aside from Aliens, (which had abductions nerfed right away due to complaining), the first two entire years of Sims 4 were dedicated to the painfully mundane. Even ghosts are only half developed, behave like normal Sims and still have needs, not to mention the inability to scare another Sim because Fear doesn't even exist. The Vampire pack was like life blood pumped into the game when it came out. (Haha :p ) But here it's been over two more years of waiting for a decent playable Occult. Can we please get another one? Pretty please with plasma on top?
    I know StrangerVille seems loosely based on Stranger Things, so it would have been cool if Sims could have had supernatural abilities added to that pack like the characters in the show have like with Eleven. I think the temp life states that they did with Plant Sims and in the Sims 3 zombies being an event were very weak. If I want occults, I want them to be real occults that Simmers can choose how long they want the Sims to be an occult for rather than the game choosing it for us. For the Sims originally being a Godlike game, the Sims 4 has strayed a lot away from the original design that the game takes away the Godlike controls away from the player and plays itself. I mean I remember playing the original as a kid and if I left my computer running to go to the bathroom, I would come back to a house fire. Now I could leave the game running while making food, going to the bathroom, and working a full 8 hour shift and Sims would still be ok with nothing bad happening to them. There is something really flawed with that design. If I wanted a happy game like that, I would play the mobile versions of the Sims and even with those, there are more random events than the PC counterpart has.
    “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
  • Remy_GenevaRemy_Geneva Posts: 142 Member
    The ''create sims with unique personalities'' is a pure rip off. It's like I put ''Hamburger'' in the menu but in reality it's just the bread with salad.

    Good analogy, this is exactly the issue.

    Some of us want the meat that is missing from this game, whilst other would rather have fries and sauces. Nothing wrong with extras, but they have no business advertising something that is not there.
  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    The ''create sims with unique personalities'' is a pure rip off. It's like I put ''Hamburger'' in the menu but in reality it's just the bread with salad.

    Good analogy, this is exactly the issue.

    Some of us want the meat that is missing from this game, whilst other would rather have fries and sauces. Nothing wrong with extras, but they have no business advertising something that is not there.

    Agreed as I see no reason for me to say Sims 4 is the best when I know it can do better.
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
  • LiELFLiELF Posts: 6,439 Member
    Scobre wrote: »
    LiELF wrote: »
    munroele wrote: »
    It sure doesn't seem like they're listening to the occult players, does it? Jungle Adventures and Strangerville don't count because they don't include a new permanent life state. Witches. Werewolves, Fairies. Elves. Something. They say they hear us but... do they? As others in this thread have said, realism players have gotten darn near everything major they've asked for. When can we get something?

    I'm getting desperate. As much as I adore Vampires and Aliens, I play with them constantly and now I'm bored.
    Can we jsut have a new occult to keep us busy and shut us up for a little longer?
    The only major expansion left for realism people I see constant demand for is something Island or University. Can we just have something different, PLEASE? I'm begging at this point.

    I'll chime in on this as well. Playable Occults are a rare thing in Sims 4 and it feels like the devs think throwing anything "supernatural" at us is the same thing. It isn't.

    Don't get me wrong, I do love Jungle Adventures, and I'm enjoying StrangerVille. But the life states that we've grown used to being able to play in past games for the longer term have been reduced to buff states in Sims 4. Just look at what happened to Plant Sims. They last - what -three hours? And you can't even change their hair!

    If StrangerVille came with playable Zombies or Zombie-Plant-Sims, and Jungle Adventures gave us fully playable permanent skeletons, we could say that yes, they are paying attention to Occult players. But they aren't doing that. What's going to happen with content down the line? FX Mermaids? Werewolves who shapeshift for ten seconds? I fear that Witches might be the only fully playable Occult we'll get because they'll be too busy working on something like farm fields so we can watch crops grow. No offense to those who want that, but it just sounds tedious and extremely boring to me.

    Aside from Aliens, (which had abductions nerfed right away due to complaining), the first two entire years of Sims 4 were dedicated to the painfully mundane. Even ghosts are only half developed, behave like normal Sims and still have needs, not to mention the inability to scare another Sim because Fear doesn't even exist. The Vampire pack was like life blood pumped into the game when it came out. (Haha :p ) But here it's been over two more years of waiting for a decent playable Occult. Can we please get another one? Pretty please with plasma on top?

    I know StrangerVille seems loosely based on Stranger Things, so it would have been cool if Sims could have had supernatural abilities added to that pack like the characters in the show have like with Eleven. I think the temp life states that they did with Plant Sims and in the Sims 3 zombies being an event were very weak. If I want occults, I want them to be real occults that Simmers can choose how long they want the Sims to be an occult for rather than the game choosing it for us. For the Sims originally being a Godlike game, the Sims 4 has strayed a lot away from the original design that the game takes away the Godlike controls away from the player and plays itself. I mean I remember playing the original as a kid and if I left my computer running to go to the bathroom, I would come back to a house fire. Now I could leave the game running while making food, going to the bathroom, and working a full 8 hour shift and Sims would still be ok with nothing bad happening to them. There is something really flawed with that design. If I wanted a happy game like that, I would play the mobile versions of the Sims and even with those, there are more random events than the PC counterpart has.

    Yes, exactly. The entire challenge aspect has been taken out of the game and it defeats the purpose of it being a "game" at all. The original Sims design was intended to have the Sims fail or die if the player did not stay on top of their needs and obstacles. Even as far as just keeping a Sim happy, the player had to make sure they were pleasing the Sim's wants and aspirations. There were consequences to the choices you made, like making a married Sim cheat would result in a huge relationship hit, not only with the partner, but with any children as well.

    I remember playing Sims 2 and I had a household with a couple with a teen daughter and the husband was at a club when I was playing a different household and my played Sim tried to seduce the husband, which resulted in just one kiss before he left the lot. When I switched back to that household, the wife didn't know what he did but somehow the daughter had found out - I think one of her friends was at the club at the time - and her relationship with him took a huge dive. They had previously been very close, but no matter what I did, she continued to resent him so much that she would go and cry with his picture in her thought bubble. She never told her mom, but I know that Sims could definitely do that, because they could "gossip", which meant spreading information and memories about another Sim (a brilliant design, by the way). But the relationship was never the same and I really had to work to keep it in the positive. It was still that way when the teen went off to college.

    So this is the kind of thing I want to see in our current Sims games. Consequences. Sims 4 doesn't have any of that, and in fact, the default emotional state is "Happy" when it should be "Fine". Sims shouldn't get buffs just for decorations, they shouldn't get buffs just for having their needs filled, they shouldn't get buffs for eating a good meal (unless they are a Foodie or Glutton). These things keep the Sims in a "winning" state that completely robs the player of the challenges of actually doing things to make our Sims happy. And since the whims don't work right and have no individuality to the Sims because they are all generic, they don't even matter. Aspirations are easy and there is no failure or meltdown if a Sim doesn't complete one. There is no Fear or Fear system. The general Environment need was removed in place of decoration buffs, which was a poor decision. The game doesn't acknowledge bad behavior (except maybe in Parenthood) so Sims can do whatever they want, even pick a fight, and they'll hug it out and walk away smiling. There are no memories, so even when something bad does happen, it's soon forgotten. Most Traits don't even dictate specific Sim behaviors because Emotions override everything resulting in cookie cutter AI. The entirety of the Sim personalities are superficial and shallow, and it shows.

    I know that the developers want to try new trendy things on a grand scale, I know that EA wants to be innovative with the newest model in a game series, but at this point I'm just going to say....please don't. It's one thing to experiment with the packs and DLC add-ons and themes, that's fine, that makes more sense, but when it comes to the base game, AI and complicated workings of Sim personalities, they should never have strayed from an enjoyable formula. Will Wright did a lot of research and play testing to fine tune the original Sims to be an outstanding and truly engaging game, and trends were not part of it. Once EA took over, the game started to stray more and more away from its roots, and now here we are with something overly simplified that looks pretty, but is best used for story screenshots because in its core essence, the game doesn't even simulate properly.

    I still like Sims 4 and play it...sometimes. But more often than not I end up in CAS making more Sims that I wish would behave the way I made them, or I'm redesigning all of my maps with awesome builds from the Gallery. I get the urge to play all the time. The problem is, once I go into the game, it starts to feel like a burden or a bore, and that's weird because there is a lot of really cool content - in theory. I've certainly had some good game sessions, but it's uncommon and that's very frustrating. I really hope that they take these next three years of development and make them matter by putting the work into making this game worth its life span.
    #Team Occult
  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    LiELF wrote: »

    Yes, exactly. The entire challenge aspect has been taken out of the game and it defeats the purpose of it being a "game" at all. The original Sims design was intended to have the Sims fail or die if the player did not stay on top of their needs and obstacles. Even as far as just keeping a Sim happy, the player had to make sure they were pleasing the Sim's wants and aspirations. There were consequences to the choices you made, like making a married Sim cheat would result in a huge relationship hit, not only with the partner, but with any children as well.

    I remember playing Sims 2 and I had a household with a couple with a teen daughter and the husband was at a club when I was playing a different household and my played Sim tried to seduce the husband, which resulted in just one kiss before he left the lot. When I switched back to that household, the wife didn't know what he did but somehow the daughter had found out - I think one of her friends was at the club at the time - and her relationship with him took a huge dive. They had previously been very close, but no matter what I did, she continued to resent him so much that she would go and cry with his picture in her thought bubble. She never told her mom, but I know that Sims could definitely do that, because they could "gossip", which meant spreading information and memories about another Sim (a brilliant design, by the way). But the relationship was never the same and I really had to work to keep it in the positive. It was still that way when the teen went off to college.

    So this is the kind of thing I want to see in our current Sims games. Consequences. Sims 4 doesn't have any of that, and in fact, the default emotional state is "Happy" when it should be "Fine". Sims shouldn't get buffs just for decorations, they shouldn't get buffs just for having their needs filled, they shouldn't get buffs for eating a good meal (unless they are a Foodie or Glutton). These things keep the Sims in a "winning" state that completely robs the player of the challenges of actually doing things to make our Sims happy. And since the whims don't work right and have no individuality to the Sims because they are all generic, they don't even matter. Aspirations are easy and there is no failure or meltdown if a Sim doesn't complete one. There is no Fear or Fear system. The general Environment need was removed in place of decoration buffs, which was a poor decision. The game doesn't acknowledge bad behavior (except maybe in Parenthood) so Sims can do whatever they want, even pick a fight, and they'll hug it out and walk away smiling. There are no memories, so even when something bad does happen, it's soon forgotten. Most Traits don't even dictate specific Sim behaviors because Emotions override everything resulting in cookie cutter AI. The entirety of the Sim personalities are superficial and shallow, and it shows.

    I know that the developers want to try new trendy things on a grand scale, I know that EA wants to be innovative with the newest model in a game series, but at this point I'm just going to say....please don't. It's one thing to experiment with the packs and DLC add-ons and themes, that's fine, that makes more sense, but when it comes to the base game, AI and complicated workings of Sim personalities, they should never have strayed from an enjoyable formula. Will Wright did a lot of research and play testing to fine tune the original Sims to be an outstanding and truly engaging game, and trends were not part of it. Once EA took over, the game started to stray more and more away from its roots, and now here we are with something overly simplified that looks pretty, but is best used for story screenshots because in its core essence, the game doesn't even simulate properly.

    I still like Sims 4 and play it...sometimes. But more often than not I end up in CAS making more Sims that I wish would behave the way I made them, or I'm redesigning all of my maps with awesome builds from the Gallery. I get the urge to play all the time. The problem is, once I go into the game, it starts to feel like a burden or a bore, and that's weird because there is a lot of really cool content - in theory. I've certainly had some good game sessions, but it's uncommon and that's very frustrating. I really hope that they take these next three years of development and make them matter by putting the work into making this game worth its life span.
    I really loved the reputation the Sims 3 had and that sounds like a really cool story your Sim have. I remember I had one Sim try to cheat on his wife and like the wife was on the other side of the map of the world and she heard through the rumor mill that her husband was cheating on her and she slapped him right then and there. It was beautiful and exactly life has consequences and it has bad things that happen and if that is taken away from the game, it become less about a game of life and more about a game controlling robots that doesn't always function well and has weird path issues of movement. I think the Sims is doing better lately with diversifying music and fashion, but the first few years whatever was considered "trendy", I would never wear or put that in my house in a million years. I agree about the core of the game needing to work well in order to enhance the DLC. It is like baking competition shows I like to watch that has raw cake that didn't cook enough, so the frosting is tried to used to cover it up, but by the time it gets to the judges, it ends up looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and giving the judges food poisoning.

    I would love a fear system and I am sad that the whim system doesn't work like how I want it to, but then again the Sims 2 wants and fears system was such a more balance and complex system I enjoyed. The aspiration system in the Sims 2 was great too because it had aspiration failures that were very amusing to watch. I miss that consequence system that was built into the core of the game. Parenthood is one of my favorite packs and I think how you described it the reason why and the room environment thing does annoy me especially since I loved death by flies as a consequence for leaving dirty dishes. I actually found out not paying bills is a good way to combat the positive room environment effects because not only are Sims less happy but they have to be more creative in filling needs.

    I am glad I'm not the only that feels like that after being finished with CAS. It is like once I launch the gameplay now, I get bored and play a different game. Even building which I used to love I end up getting bored with because nothing matches. I hope that whatever time it takes is worthwhile too, but I'm tired of waiting and realising I am having more enjoyment with creating a character and making rooms with Farm Together and Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley than I am with the Sims 4. I mean it is not quite the building detail I would like, but then again I have found that with Zoo Tycoon, Two Point Hospital, Planet Coaster, and City Skylines. I guess it has gotten to the point I could wait for the Sims 4 to get decent if it takes 3 years or whatever or I could play all these other cool games in the meantime that give me what I used to get with the Sims. Sims 2 and 3 are still really fun to play too and nice playing games that I can just chill and challenge my creativity and storytelling a lot more. I guess it is just really hard because what the Indie industry has produced in the past few years has really impressed me a lot and several early access games I have played are out of it by now and doing really well. I guess I have found the competition and creative freedom that I was craving in 2015. I wish it had been with the Sims since it has been such a huge part of my life, but maybe the Sims title and trying to be trendy is eliminating the nostalgia I had for the games back in 2002. I don't even know if the Sims 4 knows what is trendy anymore because a lot of fashion from the 1940s-1990s is actually coming back into style again. It was really cool launching the Sims 2 and so many of the objects and outfits I see as trendy now. I watch HGTV to get inspiration for builds sometimes and neat seeing some off the designs of the Sims 2 in the homes of the 2019 episodes. There are a lot of cool songs with old music vibes that are popular on the radio now too. So it is like old is new now.
    “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
  • SereneMossSereneMoss Posts: 128 Member
    to be honest, if people got everything they wanted we wouldnt be able to play bc it would have such a huge load time our computers would crash or it would be like sim 3 with massive load times, lagging and glitches. they have to pick n choose. im sad about the lack of use with babies, toddlers and children then teens look too much like adults, but if i need to deal ill deal. and im a rl witch so i do wish they would have witches. but they wont. I still think that the sims should have a religion pack, for churches and wedding venues, that expand into holidays too. but they prolly wont. but who knows. i really didnt think they would do a strange vile and they did. not sure why that was done first over a university since sims 3 proved it would be a HUGE money pull. but they didnt. its odd. i guess in time we will see.
  • SereneMossSereneMoss Posts: 128 Member
    oh and almost forgot, when is EA gonna fix the glitch of female sims always wearing their birth hospital gown. LOL
  • drake_mccartydrake_mccarty Posts: 6,114 Member


    So in essence no they don’t listen unless you are a teenage girl who’s not already a regular Sims player. Kind of obvious, with the constant cashing in on trendy things and novelties, but this is clarification nonetheless. Those of us who are considered “core players” are basically expected to just buy whatever, because the studio feels our money is guaranteed.

    This attitude will (and has already) make “core” players jump ship. Losing that “core” market is bad for business.
  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    SereneMoss wrote: »
    to be honest, if people got everything they wanted we wouldnt be able to play bc it would have such a huge load time our computers would crash or it would be like sim 3 with massive load times, lagging and glitches. they have to pick n choose. im sad about the lack of use with babies, toddlers and children then teens look too much like adults, but if i need to deal ill deal. and im a rl witch so i do wish they would have witches. but they wont. I still think that the sims should have a religion pack, for churches and wedding venues, that expand into holidays too. but they prolly wont. but who knows. i really didnt think they would do a strange vile and they did. not sure why that was done first over a university since sims 3 proved it would be a HUGE money pull. but they didnt. its odd. i guess in time we will see.

    I have to disagree on the point about "Our computers would crash or would be like Sims 3 with massive load times, lagging and glitches" I can attest to not having problems with Sims 3 as I had 7 systems running at that time and I never had any crashes unless it was an known problem caused by an bad patch and no lag and again lag caused by developmental problems caused by the developer. Not everyone had the problems you stated as far as glithes goes glitches are not bugs within itself as it is not written into the code as bugs are and glitches can be caused by an number of instances and are hard to bring up on demand. Using less than minimum specs can cause glitches to appear and incompatabilitable parts as well can cause glitches. One of the main problems with Sims 3 for mke is the lack of tweaking and applying patches that broke areas elsewhere and it is not like Sims 4 does not have it's own problems.
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    edited April 2019


    So in essence no they don’t listen unless you are a teenage girl who’s not already a regular Sims player. Kind of obvious, with the constant cashing in on trendy things and novelties, but this is clarification nonetheless. Those of us who are considered “core players” are basically expected to just buy whatever, because the studio feels our money is guaranteed.

    This attitude will (and has already) make “core” players jump ship. Losing that “core” market is bad for business.

    I remember saying when 4 came out, that I didn't feel like they were targeting their existing base. A lot of people agreed with the sentiment. From the perspective of gamers, that's disappointing because you've grown attached to the game and you suddenly feel abandoned.
    But, from a purely money making perspective (and EA is a business, and they want to make money), it is actually a good idea to move on. Companies who don't keep up with current trends tend to fall behind financially, and eventually go out of business. So, it makes sense to target the up- and- coming generation of money makers.
    That said, I do wish they'd do more to keep their older, core players happy. I don't think they realize how much money they could make. A lot of people who started playing in the beginning are over 30, so we have more disposable income than their target demographic. I'm 40 and my oldest kid is an adult with his own job. I have more money and time than I've ever had before.
    Even something as simple as a legacy pack- items directly copied over from the previous games, would thrill me. And I definitely think it would be worth their effort to update the older games and sell them on Origin again. I was one of the players who got UC for free automatically when they first released it because I had Sims 2 on Origin, and I'd still pay for it all over again if they updated it. And don't even get me started on Bustin' Out and Urbz. Man, there's a dream.
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  • jupkmnjupkmn Posts: 98 Member
    I don't know, I just want my L and U shaped stairs :x
  • To7mTo7m Posts: 5,467 Member
    They say they do but their actions speak louder and they sing a different tune.

    Sure, *some* stuff they listened too, but mostly I think it’s because we became so loud they had no other choice (toddlers, for instance. I believe they had no intentions of bringing them back, until the outcry for them became too great, they had no choice)

    So, no, I don’t believe they listen. I think they have a plan to follow and that whatever content gets asked for likely is already in that plan, but they seem to be doing their own thing this time round.

    Take Strangerville for example. People are asking for uni, farms, vacation spots, fairgrounds, witches, werewolves, free babies, better elders (I could carry on all day) and what do we get? Basically a level you can complete and never do again. Sorry, but playing the same thing over and over and over just doesn’t cut it for me.

    —T
  • agustdagustd Posts: 946 Member
    They do a very good job at pretending they listen, that's for sure.
  • Jordan061102Jordan061102 Posts: 3,918 Member
    agustd wrote: »
    They do a very good job at pretending they listen, that's for sure.

    Haha, couldn't agree more. :smiley:
    Lu4ERme.gif
  • hevkerhevker Posts: 84 Member
    I feel like they get so much feedback from us but very little of it gets put into the game. I'm figuring because these things are planned so far in advane, they have their plan for the game and our feedback is the last priority. I like what they did with Laundry Day even though its not must interest to myself.

    My main issues with the game is weak story progression, and the sims just lack personality. I hardly modded TS3 but TS4 I have alot of mods installed to give me more challenge and make my sims feel more real. The team could release a pack with a bunch of careers and traits and I know people would be happy but I think in their eyes they don't see it as marketable.

    The lack of occults is driving me crazy too. I love playing occults and enjoy the vampire pack very much. However I started to play this game about 2 years ago and not to have a single addition in terms of occults is very frustrating. All in all TS4 just seems very millenial and focused on those kind of lives and gameplay, which i'm not saying is a bad thing. However we've reached a point where it seems to be overwhelming the game rather a balance of that lifestyle and representing others too.
  • fruitsbasket101fruitsbasket101 Posts: 1,530 Member
    edited April 2019


    So in essence no they don’t listen unless you are a teenage girl who’s not already a regular Sims player. Kind of obvious, with the constant cashing in on trendy things and novelties, but this is clarification nonetheless. Those of us who are considered “core players” are basically expected to just buy whatever, because the studio feels our money is guaranteed.

    This attitude will (and has already) make “core” players jump ship. Losing that “core” market is bad for business.

    I have no words for this tweet. Stuff like this makes me angry and a little sad. I understand they are a business, but when they openly tell their core audience that they pretty much don't matter anymore its heartbreaking. To me that says that they are getting way too comfortable being the only sims game out there and are taking us for granted. It also makes me seriously reconsider buying anything else they put out for the sims in the future. They are in desperate need of some healthy competition.
    Have a super fantastic awesome splendid amazing day! -TheQxxn
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    SereneMoss wrote: »
    to be honest, if people got everything they wanted we wouldnt be able to play bc it would have such a huge load time our computers would crash or it would be like sim 3 with massive load times, lagging and glitches. they have to pick n choose. im sad about the lack of use with babies, toddlers and children then teens look too much like adults, but if i need to deal ill deal. and im a rl witch so i do wish they would have witches. but they wont. I still think that the sims should have a religion pack, for churches and wedding venues, that expand into holidays too. but they prolly wont. but who knows. i really didnt think they would do a strange vile and they did. not sure why that was done first over a university since sims 3 proved it would be a HUGE money pull. but they didnt. its odd. i guess in time we will see.
    • Four minutes when I start, I can live with that to be honest.
    • No lag, never. Freezing in some worlds but that comes down to bad routing, not to “everything people want”. Nobody wants bad routing I can assure you.
    • I’d say Sims 4 has its share of bugs and glitches.
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