Of all the things wrong with the world, this is what upsets you?
Updating branding literally happens all the time. It is a standard business practice. EA/Maxis is - surprise! - a business.
What's the problem? It's not like Marketing - the division that handles branding - would otherwise be creating content. You do realize that it's different people who have that job, right?
No, EA is forever evil! Let's all hate EA!
I mean, sims aside, there is a reason EA is constantly voted one of the worst companies in the world.
While a new main menu and loading screen were not on my wishlist, it’s doesn’t really upset me. I really like new logo display with moving plumbob and background as the game loads. I’m indifferent in regards to the blue loading screen, but I really do prefer the old main menu and icons when compared to the new one.
Of all the things wrong with the world, this is what upsets you?
Updating branding literally happens all the time. It is a standard business practice. EA/Maxis is - surprise! - a business.
What's the problem? It's not like Marketing - the division that handles branding - would otherwise be creating content. You do realize that it's different people who have that job, right?
No, EA is forever evil! Let's all hate EA!
I mean, sims aside, there is a reason EA is constantly voted one of the worst companies in the world.
Actually it has been several years and the vote was not on EA as a company but on Customer service only. The group that ran the poll no longer runs it but that was their only interest was big companies and customer service. If you want to go by polls then employee polls has EA listed as one of the best companies to work for now a days. So I guess it depends on what one is looking for in a company on polls. Both of those polls involves EA though who makes many games and owns many studios around the world - not our Maxis Studio that makes the Sims. So really that poll has nothing to do with the Sims anyway.
EA is first and foremost a publisher - keep that in mind -
Oh and that was also 2011 and 2012 (Sims 3 days, not that it matters and before the present CEO of EA took over) - it apparently has not been given that badge since then for the last 7 years anyway. But it was not about games or anything else but how EA responded back then with helping customers who used to call them. Iff I recall they used to hire people for customer service not even at EA, whose main language was not even English, who never really helped - they (The helper) read a cut and dried preprint to people calling for help instead of actually helping. Since Origin and HQ we actually get real people actually answering relevant questions we ask. In other words actual help. So things changed at EA customer service - and no more worse customer service for EA.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Even though the white loading screen was just fine, I can see why the designers wanted to modernize the look and feel a bit. The white intro had kind of a tired, Windows Aero/Vista look about it (IMO).
My issue is with character diversity in the artwork. Just looking at the four characters at the top of this page as an example, I'm going out on a limb and presuming the character with the camera is supposed to be a male. If that's the case, then the artists may want to get outside the studio a bit more. On the planet where I live, males generally do not wear jeweled bracelets and scarves around their necks. If all four of these characters are supposed to be women, then that is hardly the picture of broad diversity I have come to expect from this game.
Looking at the larger official artwork, the same comment applies: Approximately one character out of nine appears to lean more heavily toward male characteristics. What happened to the overweight guy with the baseball cap? The skinny nerd with the goatee beard? The granny, the pompous middle-age guy in the business suit? Bob Pancakes? Is this what the Sims 4 ethos has morphed into? Millenial women are great, don't get me wrong. But most of those nine characters could be the same person with a different wig and clothes.
Blue or white wallpaper, who cares. We are seeing a more important glimpse inside the mindset of marketing and art departments at The Sims 4, and I'm not understanding its evolution. At all.
I understood what you meant, despite your post's heavy focus on "masculinity", but I do think there is something there.
If you compare it to past official imagery it becomes even more obvious.
Looking at this I see very different people, I can even imagine it in my mind what is their backstory, their personality.
Even this one from The Sims 4, there are wildly different characters there.
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
Well, at least the new branding is more accurate, after all the Sims in The Sims 4 all behave the same
I mean, there's a reason "surprise mechanics" became a meme.
There's a reason people rejoiced when the biggest games of 2018 were solo offline games, with no game-as-a-service in sight.
There's a reason so many read that Anthem piece by Jason Schreier.
If you really want to believe EA is seen as benevolent by anyone on earth, that's up to you.
@Grynn That’s a good point. The focus on gender & the use of the word diversity threw me off on the original comment.
But yeah, EA could have added more personality to their outfits and facial features. It seems like they didn’t spend as much time investing in these characters as some past iterations. From what we can see in the menu art.
Even though the white loading screen was just fine, I can see why the designers wanted to modernize the look and feel a bit. The white intro had kind of a tired, Windows Aero/Vista look about it (IMO).
My issue is with character diversity in the artwork. Just looking at the four characters at the top of this page as an example, I'm going out on a limb and presuming the character with the camera is supposed to be a male. If that's the case, then the artists may want to get outside the studio a bit more. On the planet where I live, males generally do not wear jeweled bracelets and scarves around their necks. If all four of these characters are supposed to be women, then that is hardly the picture of broad diversity I have come to expect from this game.
Looking at the larger official artwork, the same comment applies: Approximately one character out of nine appears to lean more heavily toward male characteristics. What happened to the overweight guy with the baseball cap? The skinny nerd with the goatee beard? The granny, the pompous middle-age guy in the business suit? Bob Pancakes? Is this what the Sims 4 ethos has morphed into? Millenial women are great, don't get me wrong. But most of those nine characters could be the same person with a different wig and clothes.
Blue or white wallpaper, who cares. We are seeing a more important glimpse inside the mindset of marketing and art departments at The Sims 4, and I'm not understanding its evolution. At all.
I understood what you meant, despite your post's heavy focus on "masculinity", but I do think there is something there.
If you compare it to past official imagery it becomes even more obvious.
Looking at this I see very different people, I can even imagine it in my mind what is their backstory, their personality.
Even this one from The Sims 4, there are wildly different characters there.
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
Well, at least the new branding is more accurate, after all the Sims in The Sims 4 all behave the same
They are all skinny, we need some "more to love" sims like Gladys and Amber!
I mean, there's a reason "surprise mechanics" became a meme.
There's a reason people rejoiced when the biggest games of 2018 were solo offline games, with no game-as-a-service in sight.
There's a reason so many read that Anthem piece by Jason Schreier.
If you really want to believe EA is seen as benevolent by anyone on earth, that's up to you.
I just went and read that Anthem article you mentioned. It was very interested and explained a lot of what is going on in game development now. It also made me curious as to the metacritic scores for the Sims games.
For the base games on PC, the scores were:
The Sims - 92
The Sims 2 - 90
The Sims 3 - 86
The Sims 4 - 70
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
You explained this perfectly @Grynn. Something bothered me about the new main photo as well and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There is diversity there in that they have both males and females represented but yet they all feel the same... They do all seem too "bright and shiny" like they all have the same personality.
Have you all seen this mod by thekixg yet? Now you can choose out of 43 colors from 7 different palettes, making your loading screen the way you want it. I really thank him for his hard work!
Even though the white loading screen was just fine, I can see why the designers wanted to modernize the look and feel a bit. The white intro had kind of a tired, Windows Aero/Vista look about it (IMO).
My issue is with character diversity in the artwork. Just looking at the four characters at the top of this page as an example, I'm going out on a limb and presuming the character with the camera is supposed to be a male. If that's the case, then the artists may want to get outside the studio a bit more. On the planet where I live, males generally do not wear jeweled bracelets and scarves around their necks. If all four of these characters are supposed to be women, then that is hardly the picture of broad diversity I have come to expect from this game.
Looking at the larger official artwork, the same comment applies: Approximately one character out of nine appears to lean more heavily toward male characteristics. What happened to the overweight guy with the baseball cap? The skinny nerd with the goatee beard? The granny, the pompous middle-age guy in the business suit? Bob Pancakes? Is this what the Sims 4 ethos has morphed into? Millenial women are great, don't get me wrong. But most of those nine characters could be the same person with a different wig and clothes.
Blue or white wallpaper, who cares. We are seeing a more important glimpse inside the mindset of marketing and art departments at The Sims 4, and I'm not understanding its evolution. At all.
I understood what you meant, despite your post's heavy focus on "masculinity", but I do think there is something there.
If you compare it to past official imagery it becomes even more obvious.
Looking at this I see very different people, I can even imagine it in my mind what is their backstory, their personality.
Even this one from The Sims 4, there are wildly different characters there.
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
Well, at least the new branding is more accurate, after all the Sims in The Sims 4 all behave the same
Thankfully we can change the renders. Although I wish we still had the very first render to choose from, but no they removed it for some reason!
Why in god's name are they waiting till the August patch to change the color??? They should do an emergency patch for the people that are suffering from headaches etc. from this god awful menu...
I rather like the new boxes and look of the S4 game when it's first opened (the one with all the Sims in it), but I do enjoy something different fron the same-old, even if it's just a new colour scheme. In fact, I get way too excited about new colours, especially bright colours. (I'm easily amused.) Fortunately, I don't have any visual issues with the new loading screen - I'm fine with that - but I'm glad they're modifying it for people who are sensitive to it.
Was it necessary? Probably not a bad move, considering that the game is five years old and obviously intends to continue for at least another couple of years. You don't want it looking dated, especially when you're constantly updating the game with new content.
Even though the white loading screen was just fine, I can see why the designers wanted to modernize the look and feel a bit. The white intro had kind of a tired, Windows Aero/Vista look about it (IMO).
My issue is with character diversity in the artwork. Just looking at the four characters at the top of this page as an example, I'm going out on a limb and presuming the character with the camera is supposed to be a male. If that's the case, then the artists may want to get outside the studio a bit more. On the planet where I live, males generally do not wear jeweled bracelets and scarves around their necks. If all four of these characters are supposed to be women, then that is hardly the picture of broad diversity I have come to expect from this game.
Looking at the larger official artwork, the same comment applies: Approximately one character out of nine appears to lean more heavily toward male characteristics. What happened to the overweight guy with the baseball cap? The skinny nerd with the goatee beard? The granny, the pompous middle-age guy in the business suit? Bob Pancakes? Is this what the Sims 4 ethos has morphed into? Millenial women are great, don't get me wrong. But most of those nine characters could be the same person with a different wig and clothes.
Blue or white wallpaper, who cares. We are seeing a more important glimpse inside the mindset of marketing and art departments at The Sims 4, and I'm not understanding its evolution. At all.
I understood what you meant, despite your post's heavy focus on "masculinity", but I do think there is something there.
If you compare it to past official imagery it becomes even more obvious.
Looking at this I see very different people, I can even imagine it in my mind what is their backstory, their personality.
Even this one from The Sims 4, there are wildly different characters there.
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
Well, at least the new branding is more accurate, after all the Sims in The Sims 4 all behave the same
They are all skinny, we need some "more to love" sims like Gladys and Amber!
Comments
I mean, sims aside, there is a reason EA is constantly voted one of the worst companies in the world.
Actually it has been several years and the vote was not on EA as a company but on Customer service only. The group that ran the poll no longer runs it but that was their only interest was big companies and customer service. If you want to go by polls then employee polls has EA listed as one of the best companies to work for now a days. So I guess it depends on what one is looking for in a company on polls. Both of those polls involves EA though who makes many games and owns many studios around the world - not our Maxis Studio that makes the Sims. So really that poll has nothing to do with the Sims anyway.
EA is first and foremost a publisher - keep that in mind -
http://customerservicezone.com/db/Voted_Worst_And_Best_For_Customer_Service/
Oh and that was also 2011 and 2012 (Sims 3 days, not that it matters and before the present CEO of EA took over) - it apparently has not been given that badge since then for the last 7 years anyway. But it was not about games or anything else but how EA responded back then with helping customers who used to call them. Iff I recall they used to hire people for customer service not even at EA, whose main language was not even English, who never really helped - they (The helper) read a cut and dried preprint to people calling for help instead of actually helping. Since Origin and HQ we actually get real people actually answering relevant questions we ask. In other words actual help. So things changed at EA customer service - and no more worse customer service for EA.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I understood what you meant, despite your post's heavy focus on "masculinity", but I do think there is something there.
If you compare it to past official imagery it becomes even more obvious.
Looking at this I see very different people, I can even imagine it in my mind what is their backstory, their personality.
Even this one from The Sims 4, there are wildly different characters there.
But this one from the new main menu? I feel no difference, sure there is one Sim there who seems to be a chef, but that's a profession not a personality, they all feel so "samey", they all got that "living in a perfect world" instagram diva vibe.
Well, at least the new branding is more accurate, after all the Sims in The Sims 4 all behave the same
There's a reason people rejoiced when the biggest games of 2018 were solo offline games, with no game-as-a-service in sight.
There's a reason so many read that Anthem piece by Jason Schreier.
If you really want to believe EA is seen as benevolent by anyone on earth, that's up to you.
But yeah, EA could have added more personality to their outfits and facial features. It seems like they didn’t spend as much time investing in these characters as some past iterations. From what we can see in the menu art.
They are all skinny, we need some "more to love" sims like Gladys and Amber!
Please, do not give them ideas like this!
(I removed the image in the quote to protect the innocent.
I just went and read that Anthem article you mentioned. It was very interested and explained a lot of what is going on in game development now. It also made me curious as to the metacritic scores for the Sims games.
For the base games on PC, the scores were:
The Sims - 92
The Sims 2 - 90
The Sims 3 - 86
The Sims 4 - 70
You explained this perfectly @Grynn. Something bothered me about the new main photo as well and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. There is diversity there in that they have both males and females represented but yet they all feel the same... They do all seem too "bright and shiny" like they all have the same personality.
Thankfully we can change the renders. Although I wish we still had the very first render to choose from, but no they removed it for some reason!
Was it necessary? Probably not a bad move, considering that the game is five years old and obviously intends to continue for at least another couple of years. You don't want it looking dated, especially when you're constantly updating the game with new content.
This new menu doesn't represent at all ''life''.