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"Happy Haunts lost, I guess you can't please everyone!" Predictable poll results article

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AmavariAmavari Posts: 167 Member
edited December 2019 in The Sims 4 Game Feedback
I don't really see a specific place to put this so here it is, as expected Arts & Crafts won the player poll, which honestly seems practically by design.

Something I learned about reading a news article this morning with a sentence that was almost word for word the quoted portion of the topic title ending it is that the likelihood of occult jobs coming in the near future just tanked.. again... Because when it comes to it the number of people who will vote realism is marginally higher

And I'm not even slightly surprised, honestly I actually want arts and crafts but I voted as well as I was able on the oddly formatted poll for happy haunts and entirely excluded everything else as much as possible because I figured that something like arts and crafts would come along in the future anyway while anything occult has to be practically /begged/ for

And that's just it, happy haunts reportedly came in just after arts & crafts, again as predicted because there is always around a 60/40 split between people in the community on what they want with realism players nearly always winning out simply because there are a few more and they tend to be /much/ louder with their demands.

And it makes me question why they would pair up occult themed possibilities with realism based possibilities at all unless it's just to say "well we did give the occults a chance to get what they wanted but they lost so... oh well, moving on."

A better and much more fair method would be to make a bunch of realism based packs and do a poll for them to let people decide on what out of those they want, then do the same for a bunch of occult themed packs, because as things stand now the occult side of things gets relatively ignored and underdeveloped even in packs built around occults (which again.. look at the realism content, now look at the occult content)

Almost half of the sims players are excluded from getting content and it seems like there is a huge disconnect between them and the dev's over /why/ that is the case, you'll almost never see dozens of occult players in every comment section of every YouTube video or tweet yelling over new realism packs the way others do over occult packs, you'll almost never see more than a few people being flat out /toxic/ the way people were over additions like RoM or mermaids being added or vampires being given some love because "This is s***! /We/ want cars! /We/ want university! Stop all this occult trash!"

It's frustrating that because some players are that venomous and that toxic they get catered to with a great deal of content while because occults tend towards being quieter and waiting to be drip-fed literally anything they rarely /get/ anything as a result

And when they do it's usually tagged on to a realism pack and is underdeveloped like mermaids or just seemingly unfinished like RoM which really could have had things like careers and a couple more skills added in--- like for example most everything advertised in happy haunts, or heck.. even just making it so that occults have some special interactions with other occults like vampires and spellcasters having some sort of special magic duel since both have magic since honestly most people who have one occult based pack probably have them all so having those sorts of interactions would be far from wasted and at least then they could all be shoehorned in /together/

This is probably just me venting my frustration, honestly I'm just kind of done with expecting that occult players will ever be given any kind of deep content of pretty much any kind until probably around the time when the game is running low as far as shelf-life goes, it has been years already and things haven't changed much, and I'm pessimistic about things ever doing so.

I'm not saying there is nothing that I like about the game or its content I love sims 4, I've been working on turning every world on one file into a medieval fantasy of sorts and I love it

I'm just saying that it seems like most of the content a large but undervalued portion of the fanbase would like to see is largely ignored in favor of the rest and it's kind of bs.
Post edited by Amavari on

Comments

  • keekee53keekee53 Posts: 4,328 Member
    edited December 2019
    I will admit, I am not a fan of the occults. The reason why is because my townies end up being all occults. When I play occults, I play them a certain way and I don't want my sims turned into them unless it is part of their story. With ROM, I heard many players had their played sims turned into spell casters. Who asked for that?? Honestly this goes for the normal sims too. Who asked for a million Sulani Sims to be created for all jobs in all worlds??

    When I vote, I have to think about how is EA going to handle this in my game? With happy haunts, it would have been my first choice but I can imagine my other households being overwhelmed with ghost sims. So it became my second choice. Now that danger pack idea that came out when they were voting for laundry would have been more my speed anyways.

    I think if EA would include options to turn off or not saturate my town with occults or any certain sim I would be more inclined to vote to add more. Unfortunately, these things affect my decisions. So to your point, I don't think it is just hate for the occults that affect decisions.
  • VamprisVampris Posts: 1,127 Member
    Disappointed on Happy Haunts not winning, it's laundry day all over again. Here's hoping it's more interesting
    Anyways I'm not trying to spit on the other side, but you're kinda right about the occult side being quieter. I mean I do see people commenting on wanting more occults, but dang I never seen occult people unironically say "Who asked for this?" when popular realistic packs are added.

    Makes me scratch my head when some say Sims is supposed to be a realistic life simulator so occults aren't allowed when the first game in the franchise had Grim, ghosts, witches, genies, servos, zombies, and some other lesser "occults" before actual realistic packs were added into the franchise (seasons, university, etc).
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  • nerdfashionnerdfashion Posts: 5,947 Member
    I 100% agree with the OP. Occults are certainly very lacking, as well as few and far between. I haven't gotten the chance to buy Get to Work yet, so I can't speak for aliens, but mermaids and Spellcasters feel a lot emptier than Vampires, but even they weren't brought out to their full potential, even for a Game Pack. Realistic players do tend (from what I've seen) to be louder and more persistent with their demands. A lot of them also seem to get pretty upset when an occult-like pack comes.
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  • keekee53keekee53 Posts: 4,328 Member
    I 100% agree with the OP. Occults are certainly very lacking, as well as few and far between. I haven't gotten the chance to buy Get to Work yet, so I can't speak for aliens, but mermaids and Spellcasters feel a lot emptier than Vampires, but even they weren't brought out to their full potential, even for a Game Pack. Realistic players do tend (from what I've seen) to be louder and more persistent with their demands. A lot of them also seem to get pretty upset when an occult-like pack comes.

    This is also a reason why I did not vote for it. It was going to be a stuff pack so there is NO WAY anything was going to be really fleshed out. Arts and Crafts felt better as a stuff pack. ROM was a gamepack and spellcasters were not on the level of Vamps. Mermaids were terrible in my opinion.
  • Renato10Renato10 Posts: 472 Member
    What I find kinda silly is the fact that devs also voted on the poll and they are proud to share it on twitter. Like... really?
  • InuMiroLoverInuMiroLover Posts: 1,184 Member
    edited December 2019
    The thing I find the most interesting, is that when occult anything starts to rear its ugly head, there's like a cacophony of how "there are too many occults!" and how "we have nothing for realistic players!" Right. Because going out with friends isnt realistic, neither is having Winterfest dinners with the family, or going to a restaurant, or owning a retail shop that sells nothing but apples, helping kids with homework or sending them off to college.
    Gardening, painting a picture, reading to a toddler a bedtime story, having a wedding, oh sure nothing about those are realistic and we're never going to get anything realistic again because of the dreaded occults!

    Give me a break! For starters, if anything we have 2 actual occults since those 2 are the most developed of what we have in the lot. Mermaids and Aliens are afterthoughts. Ghosts are just colorful seethrough sims that dont need to eat, and who the heck remembers that plantsims are a thing? Vampires and Spellcasters are the only ones who'd gotten any real love in this iteration. (Though I do like Spellcasters, they do feel weak when compared to Vampires) And yet occult players are told to shut up, be happy with it and dont ask for more. You know a starving dog is really happy too when someone bothers to toss a shred of meat its way.

    But I suppose its hard to share a slice of cake when you're so used to eating the entire thing. I have no doubt there will be more realistic gameplay coming. I mean sheesh we have a pack about freakin' knitting coming. But another occult anything? Who knows! For all we know, this might be it for occults planned until the next Sims iteration. But we all know that there will be future packs with things to do for everyday sims. To say otherwise and believe that the once in a blue moon occult appearance is nothing short of an attack on realistic play is just plain stupid.
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,906 Member
    I think occults deserve a pack of their own so I'm OK with the crafts as a stuff pack. If Maxis could design a pack something between The Sims, Makin' Magic, Sims 2 Apartment Life, Sims 3 Supernatural it would make a great Expansion or Game pack. Take a look and see what we had before............... Needs a whole expansion in my opinion.

    https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims:_Makin'_Magic

    https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_2:_Apartment_Life

    https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_3:_Supernatural
  • izecsonizecson Posts: 2,875 Member
    Arts and craft, hmm as if we dont have any more of these since seasons.
    ihavemultiplegamertags
  • NyteRoseNyteRose Posts: 1,672 Member
    CelSims wrote: »
    The thing that bugs me is that when we DO get occults, the play is watered down garbage to appease the occult haters that buy the pack for pretty objects. It completely ruins my immersion that both my own sims and the npc spellcasters never ever use spells to fill their needs.
    'I'm a Grand Master Wizard, yet i'll go cook a hotdog instead of casting Delicisio". "Uhh I'm dirty, better wonder off home and go take a bath', instead of a quick scruberoo.

    Instead of watering down my gameplay, in a game pack which is supposed to provide content I am interested in, provide a toggle off button for the selfish people demanding other peoples play be rubbish.

    Or don't cater to it at all and make them use mods. I've seen realism players tell others to use mods to make their occults do things. Maybe if you buy an occult pack and don't want the gameplay, YOU should be the one using mods.

    I don't completely understand the divide anyway. My vamps and spellcasters mostly go to work, socialize and have families just like the regular sims. They won't be knitting though.

    Exactly. If you don't like the occult style/gameplay, don't play it but don't tell others how to play their game.

    It can't rain all the time- Eric Draven, The Crow
  • friendlysimmersfriendlysimmers Posts: 7,542 Member
    me the way i see this is a win win situation as they are trying to fit in the sims game what players went but try to stay positive even if something lost the poll do not mean they will put the ideas of said content aside they might bring it back or add it in future content, so in a way its a win win situation.
    If you went the sims5 to remain offline feel free to sign this petition http://chng.it/gtfHPhHK please note that it is also to keep the gallery



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  • OneAdorkableGirlOneAdorkableGirl Posts: 2,379 Member
    edited December 2019
    I voted for Happy Haunts just because I felt like.. this may be the only time that theme will come around. I really wanted that Haunted Lot Trait.. because the "cursed lot trait" is well.. .. we'll just say it could use some updates of its own.. because the only thing that happens is my Sim is mad because it got (I didn't know that getting stuck by a needle was a bad word :/) randomly. I was hoping that would make the value of a house go down because it was "haunted", just think - a vampire wouldn't care and could live there. :)

    Also.. if they made the trait where spoopy music played every once in awhile, and chains rattled, and ghosts came out "to play". That would be really fun and something I could see using for Trick or Treating, or even for HarvestFest. :)

    I was also worried that this was the one chance that Ghosts might finally be updated...

    Hopefully it means that since it was second place.. that they'll consider working on it for maybe a game-pack because I would love all of that stuff to be included and that could definitely fit in a Game-pack than in a stuff pack. *fingers crossed*

    Aside from that. I loved all the themes and it was really hard to decide, but the only one that I was like, "We have enough of that in game" was the healthy stuff. Which.. I still loved a lot of it and would like to see some of that stuff added, but.. felt like we have enough gym equipment and ways to workout.. they could save that for another time and bring out some fresh new stuff for now..

    Though.. I love Arts and Crafts.. I'm worried that this will mean that they won't add more hobbies later on. I would have much rather Arts and Crafts been a Gamepack instead of a Stuff Pack... and that's really the only thing I'm most disappointed about. :(

    FreeTime was my favorite Sims 2 expansion pack..I really hope this isn't the only hobby they will do.. because I think Knitting was like my fourth choice.. on that list. :( Though I do hope this means that we can knit new toys for toddlers and kids (I know there will be new toys), but how many and if they'll have some new interactions.. is my real question.. because... they're lacking content...
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited December 2019
    Vampris wrote: »
    Disappointed on Happy Haunts not winning, it's laundry day all over again. Here's hoping it's more interesting
    Anyways I'm not trying to spit on the other side, but you're kinda right about the occult side being quieter. I mean I do see people commenting on wanting more occults, but dang I never seen occult people unironically say "Who asked for this?" when popular realistic packs are added.

    Makes me scratch my head when some say Sims is supposed to be a realistic life simulator so occults aren't allowed when the first game in the franchise had Grim, ghosts, witches, genies, servos, zombies, and some other lesser "occults" before actual realistic packs were added into the franchise (seasons, university, etc).
    Indeed, says who? It’s supposed to be a life simulator. Nowhere does it say or claim it’s a realistic life simulator. Some love to simulate the lives of occults.
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    I think the bigger issue is how slow content came out for TS4. At this time with TS3, we had pretty much the completed game with all of its expansion packs, and it felt like a much beefier game. It was also far more exciting and engaging to know you had a brand new expansion pack every 6 months. Because we wait so long between packs, we get far more disappointed when we finally hear of a new expansion, but it’s not the theme we would prefer.

    And their model of withholding expansion themes so they could piecemeal it feature by feature in game and stuff packs is just a nuisance at best.

    As far as the survey itself goes, I think Arts & Crafts could add some fun depth. I’m certainly glad the tech stuff pack didn’t win, as that’d just make the gurus think that the community wants content that lacks depth and is all visual. IMHO, the fans want prefer things such as complexity, chores, responsibilities, etc.
    Sims 4 was released in September 2014, which means the game is 5 years and 3 months old now. When Sims 3 was 5 years and 3 months old, September 2014, Sims 4 was released. Which means: everything Sims 3 has to offer, was delivered before that. Sims 3 was done with at this very moment. And Sims 1 and 2 even long before that.

    As for the OP, this describes exactly why I hate this voting system. Because it will always cater a majority and ugh, majorities... I mean, it would be great if majorities always had better taste or better opinion or better knowledge. Thing is, they don’t. They’re just with more people.
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  • auroraael14auroraael14 Posts: 988 Member
    I don't usually play occults and I really like realism in my game but I don't mind the random alien/witch/vampire as long as it doesn't affect my gameplay. With that said, I voted arts and crafts because what I really want is more hobbies and things for all life stages to enjoy. My second pick was happy haunts because it sounded better than the other packs and it was something we haven't had. I know how it feels to have packs come out that don't benefit your gameplay. I'm always happy when people finally get the pack they want even if it doesn't benefit my play style and like occult players, I wish they made more family/generational expansion/game packs as well. I feel like in the sims 3 they put a little bit of everything into the expansions so everyone got something that they liked.
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  • ChampandGirlieChampandGirlie Posts: 2,482 Member
    As more of a realism player who did not vote for knitting or laundry and who does not always play families (sometimes, sure), I can say that it's almost at the point where they could just split the upcoming packs between the two sectors according to the degree of interest. I don't like bashing of the realistic playstyle though just because someone wants supernatural content.

    There are a lot of ways to play realistically and not all of them are boring. Reality can be unexpected. I understand that there's a large chunk of players wanting supernatural content and a large chunk who don't as well as those who mix the two. This means that some content does need to be for the more realistic players to keep them engaged as well.

    IL seemed like a pretty thin pack with a nice world to me, partly probably because the mermaid play which was a chunk of the pack, is something that doesn't really interest me and I'm unlikely to play with. Someone else on another thread pointed out that most of the content this year has had some kind of supernatural aspect.

    I understand the complaint about it being too watered down. That's true of the realism too when they make really silly gameplay that is very childish. Their goal is to sell to as many people as possible so they try to appeal to both camps.

    I've said this before but I'm totally supportive of supernatural content for those players even though it mostly doesn't interest me. Complaining about the release of any realistic or primarily realistic content though feels kind of unfair. I mean, there are ghosts floating around Britechester. You can major in villainy. There is stuff there for those who want to go in a more supernatural direction.

    Victorian and art nouveau decor and fashions do not have to be supernatural, so I completely understand why someone might want those and not to play with supernatural stuff. Sure, it'd be better to have a toggle with the degree of intensity for supernatural content.

    I get being frustrated but ROM was released just a few months ago. It's not like they are avoiding supernatural themes. I don't get insulting other playstyles or saying that other players should suffer just because you want more occult play. It's annoying to me when I like a pack or content that gets bashed because it isn't supernatural content or when others complain about options being added for realistic players.
    Champ and Girlie are dogs.
  • AmavariAmavari Posts: 167 Member
    edited December 2019
    @ChampandGirlie I'm not sure who is bashing realism players or content here? A number of people flat out said we wanted arts & crafts and in general don't have an issue with either realism players or content

    But I'll also say that I rarely see occult players bashing anyone the way a portion of realism players bash us whenever content comes out that they don't necessarily want or agree with.

    And yeah, both sides have something of a legitimate right to complain about watered down content but when it comes to it my argument would stand by simply saying look at occult content, now look at realism content.

    Plantsims: temporary
    Lightning powers that require active effort to get: temporary
    Realm of Magic: just there, they could have done so much with it that they didn't do
    Vampires: get flack for existing and have nothing to do
    Spellcasters: get flack for existing and have nothing to do
    Aliens: afterthought and have nothing to do
    Mermaids: don't even have a complete transformation animation they just.. *poof-tail* in the water and have nothing to do

    Realism
    Wanted active jobs: got active jobs
    Wanted university: got university
    Wanted seasons: got seasons
    Wanted baby stuff: got baby stuff
    Wanted laundry stuff: got laundry stuff
    Wanted pet stuff: got pet stuff
    Wanted to be famous: got get famous
    Wanted an island paradise: got island living
    Wanted stay at home jobs and part time jobs: got freelance jobs and part time jobs
    Wanted to own stores and clubs and gyms: get to own stores and clubs and gyms
    Wanted spa stuff: got spa stuff
    Wanted city living: got city living
    Wanted movie theater stuff: got home theater stuff
    Wanted blahblahblah: got blahblahblah

    Now I won't say that realism players get everything they want or that they have nothing to complain about, their packs have their own issues and they haven't gotten cars (yet.)

    I will agree with the point that it was kind of.. odd.. decision-wise to have a bunch of random sims suddenly become spellcasters, I myself prefer making my own and my main spellcasters besides the inheritance household (Eragon, Arya, Elva, etc.) are a low-key pair that live in a small medieval styled house in Glimmerbrook where they grow their own food and live almost entirely off the grid like I imagine actual medieval spellcasters /would/ do...

    But I will say they also have significantly more effort put in to their stuff than anything occult has, I don't see us getting active occult jobs or even just regular occult jobs or a medieval fantasy world to balance out get to work or university or the plethora of other stuff that has been added in

    I loved strangerville even though it's not even occult or to my general taste, and you know what's pretty universal in the videos about it? Realism players bashing it unmercifully because it's so "out there" and "has no place in /their/ life simulator"

    I'm not condemning the entire realism playerbase, just the ones that trash anything that isn't what they want

    And the main point of this topic is very simply that when it comes to it there should be changes to the way things are handled when it comes to content because as things stand now about 40% of the fanbase, almost half of it, is constantly overlooked.

    Something that is easily fixable by simply not pairing up occult options in polls with realism options when it means that occults have no chance at winning most of the time

    Split the polls, it's that simple, one for realism and one for occults. Or better yet >.> just make all the packs one by one in order of popularity and don't make people choose what gets left out at all.
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    edited December 2019
    Gosh theres so much truth in this thread 😓 I don't know where to start. That's why I went crazy for happy haunts. My poor occults have nothing to do except be doctors and lawyers but I never once complained. I just work it out because I love sims. Now i know they said they "might" bring themes from happy haunts back in the future but this poll seemed really unfair. I agree that all they had to do was spilt it so we're not left just eating dust.

    And gosh I really want that haunted house lot trait......
    I would be head over heels if they ever make a "paranormal" pack. Because we desperately need everything happy haunts offered. Just one career or ouija board does not cover what us occult players need. And I'm still mad they practically removed vampire break ins
    I use to have fun trying to ward them out and now I haven't had even one since they "toned it down" nor have I been abducted. 😭😭😭😭
    Okay. I got that out. I'm done.
    🤧
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • ChampandGirlieChampandGirlie Posts: 2,482 Member
    Amavari wrote: »
    @ChampandGirlie I'm not sure who is bashing realism players or content here? A number of people flat out said we wanted arts & crafts and in general don't have an issue with either realism players or content

    But I'll also say that I rarely see occult players bashing anyone the way a portion of realism players bash us whenever content comes out that they don't necessarily want or agree with.

    And yeah, both sides have something of a legitimate right to complain about watered down content but when it comes to it my argument would stand by simply saying look at occult content, now look at realism content.

    Plantsims: temporary
    Lightning powers that require active effort to get: temporary
    Realm of Magic: just there, they could have done so much with it that they didn't do
    Vampires: get flack for existing and have nothing to do
    Spellcasters: get flack for existing and have nothing to do
    Aliens: afterthought and have nothing to do
    Mermaids: don't even have a complete transformation animation they just.. *poof-tail* in the water and have nothing to do

    Realism
    Wanted active jobs: got active jobs
    Wanted university: got university
    Wanted seasons: got seasons
    Wanted baby stuff: got baby stuff
    Wanted laundry stuff: got laundry stuff
    Wanted pet stuff: got pet stuff
    Wanted to be famous: got get famous
    Wanted an island paradise: got island living
    Wanted stay at home jobs and part time jobs: got freelance jobs and part time jobs
    Wanted to own stores and clubs and gyms: get to own stores and clubs and gyms
    Wanted spa stuff: got spa stuff
    Wanted city living: got city living
    Wanted movie theater stuff: got home theater stuff
    Wanted blahblahblah: got blahblahblah

    Now I won't say that realism players get everything they want or that they have nothing to complain about, their packs have their own issues and they haven't gotten cars (yet.)

    I will agree with the point that it was kind of.. odd.. decision-wise to have a bunch of random sims suddenly become spellcasters, I myself prefer making my own and my main spellcasters besides the inheritance household (Eragon, Arya, Elva, etc.) are a low-key pair that live in a small medieval styled house in Glimmerbrook where they grow their own food and live almost entirely off the grid like I imagine actual medieval spellcasters /would/ do...

    But I will say they also have significantly more effort put in to their stuff than anything occult has, I don't see us getting active occult jobs or even just regular occult jobs or a medieval fantasy world to balance out get to work or university or the plethora of other stuff that has been added in

    I loved strangerville even though it's not even occult or to my general taste, and you know what's pretty universal in the videos about it? Realism players bashing it unmercifully because it's so "out there" and "has no place in /their/ life simulator"

    I'm not condemning the entire realism playerbase, just the ones that trash anything that isn't what they want

    And the main point of this topic is very simply that when it comes to it there should be changes to the way things are handled when it comes to content because as things stand now about 40% of the fanbase, almost half of it, is constantly overlooked.

    Something that is easily fixable by simply not pairing up occult options in polls with realism options when it means that occults have no chance at winning most of the time

    Split the polls, it's that simple, one for realism and one for occults. Or better yet >.> just make all the packs one by one in order of popularity and don't make people choose what gets left out at all.

    I'm not a fan of bashing on either side. I wasn't part of the forums whenever the university lobby happened because I took an extended break. I'm not defending the bashing of supernatural players but supernatural play is very much part of the series. Sometimes it gets released in dedicated GPs, sometimes as part of a larger EP. It sounds like that content does best in dedicated GPs but it certainly does get released.

    Just because a pack also adds to realism, that doesn't mean that it doesn't add to supernatural play either.

    Seasons made it so you can add permanent autumn or winter as well as "dark and stormy nights" with an extra world where that happens a lot. Pets come with a color wheel so that you can add black cats or fantastical looking pets, not exactly realistic. Active jobs came with aliens, you couldn't get the GTW jobs without the aliens whether you wanted them or not. IL came with mermaids even if they weren't as developed as some players would want. Spa Day allows you to teleport, not exactly realism. The movie pack includes several horror films to set the scene for a haunted night. City living has several apartments that are permanently haunted.

    I'm just saying that content for players wanting that playstyle has been released throughout the series. I am not saying that they should stop making more, just that there is a balance of also including content for players who don't play that way. As it is, the laundry, toddler stuff and focus on young kids doesn't appeal that much to me other than adding a bit more while the sims I play do have young kids.

    I'd like to see more in the game including more styles of things to do, some of which would add more to the way that I play. I also liked Strangerville though I liked that I could nearly entirely look at it realistically (except the final stage part) and that at the end, I could keep the world as a different realistic setting. I think it was a quirky hit.

    As it is, if a non-supernatural player buys content in a supernatural pack, they are actually subsidizing supernatural play for those who do. I completely understand the complaints that the content has been watered down and I'm not someone who wanted that. I am someone who only picked up those packs when I knew that there are ways to avoid triggering supernaturalism in a save.

    Supernaturalism seems to usually be more noticed in its own dedicated packs. That's great and there's definitely a market for those. At the same time, there is also clearly a market for other types of play as well that should not be ignored. That's all I'm saying.
    Champ and Girlie are dogs.
  • Sk8rblazeSk8rblaze Posts: 7,570 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Vampris wrote: »
    Disappointed on Happy Haunts not winning, it's laundry day all over again. Here's hoping it's more interesting
    Anyways I'm not trying to spit on the other side, but you're kinda right about the occult side being quieter. I mean I do see people commenting on wanting more occults, but dang I never seen occult people unironically say "Who asked for this?" when popular realistic packs are added.

    Makes me scratch my head when some say Sims is supposed to be a realistic life simulator so occults aren't allowed when the first game in the franchise had Grim, ghosts, witches, genies, servos, zombies, and some other lesser "occults" before actual realistic packs were added into the franchise (seasons, university, etc).
    Indeed, says who? It’s supposed to be a life simulator. Nowhere does it say or claim it’s a realistic life simulator. Some love to simulate the lives of occults.
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    I think the bigger issue is how slow content came out for TS4. At this time with TS3, we had pretty much the completed game with all of its expansion packs, and it felt like a much beefier game. It was also far more exciting and engaging to know you had a brand new expansion pack every 6 months. Because we wait so long between packs, we get far more disappointed when we finally hear of a new expansion, but it’s not the theme we would prefer.

    And their model of withholding expansion themes so they could piecemeal it feature by feature in game and stuff packs is just a nuisance at best.

    As far as the survey itself goes, I think Arts & Crafts could add some fun depth. I’m certainly glad the tech stuff pack didn’t win, as that’d just make the gurus think that the community wants content that lacks depth and is all visual. IMHO, the fans want prefer things such as complexity, chores, responsibilities, etc.
    Sims 4 was released in September 2014, which means the game is 5 years and 3 months old now. When Sims 3 was 5 years and 3 months old, September 2014, Sims 4 was released. Which means: everything Sims 3 has to offer, was delivered before that. Sims 3 was done with at this very moment. And Sims 1 and 2 even long before that.

    As for the OP, this describes exactly why I hate this voting system. Because it will always cater a majority and ugh, majorities... I mean, it would be great if majorities always had better taste or better opinion or better knowledge. Thing is, they don’t. They’re just with more people.

    To me, it suggests the DLC model of TS4 is a clear failure. It's a convoluted, inconsistent mess. Don't get me wrong, the Sims 3 store was no better, but The Sims 4 decided to roll with 3 forms of DLC, all of which lack a consistent release schedule, and often leave one craving much more than provided. The other iterations (sans The Sims 1, if I recall correctly) would provide a new expansion every 6 months, and for the most part, they would introduce a clear theme and cover it very well.

    The amount of content we had by now with The Sims 3 and the amount of content we had in the base game upon launch compared to The Sims 4 is staggering; it's almost unbelievable how much the series has declined in quality.

    I don't mind the polls so much, but they highlight the problem of The Sims 4's DLC in many ways. All of those concepts really sound more suited for a game pack, rather than a stuff pack, and it's clear the fans are voting based on features rather than purely stuff & clutter, which is what stuff packs are supposed to be.
  • AmavariAmavari Posts: 167 Member
    edited December 2019
    @ChampandGirlie

    And clearly you aren't being ignored either considering realism players have as much content as they do, literally no one is complaining about realistic gameplay so I don't get where that argument is coming from

    >.> And once again no one is bashing anyone.. But if you're trying to say that occult players and realism players are anywhere near being even as far as content you're playing a different game than most, there is zero balance as things stand now, none, nada, zilch.

    Even in occult dedicated packs they are still designed for the most part to be something that a casual sims player will never see because if people do they tend to freak out over it.

    And as for the rest if you or anyone wants to say "well occults are getting content." Yeah, sure, we are getting content~ and it's basically the equivalent of sitting on the floor next to people feasting in comfortable chairs waiting for some scraps to be dropped from the table we don't get to sit at~

    I almost skipped university honestly, the only reason I ended up getting it was because there are robes that look good enough to be a replacement for the wizard robes we never got and a really nice door I can use for my castle builds.

    But that's it, there are zero occult careers, there is nothing to do in the magic realm from RoM beyond shopping, the world is just kind of there--- it could have easily had a storyline considering that there actually is one for it where the realm could end up being swallowed up by an imbalance of magic but they didn't do that, they could have let you actively work on rising through actual spellcaster ranks and could have given you some nice robes as you did, and maybe an awesome staff when you reached the highest rank

    They could do a lot of things with a lot of things but they don't because the toxic portion of the community that wants a "real life simulator" would complain and demand a toggle. I don't see many occults demanding to have a toggle to get rid of "realistic" things, I know I'd be thrilled to never have to see my medieval themed sims taking random selfies or requiring a computer to /write a book/ again but I deal with it, so frankly beyond the stranger choices like having some sims suddenly become spellcasters I just have to say... >.> deal with it...

    They neutered vampires, aliens and mermaids are just tagged on, plant sims and lightning powers are temporary, spellcasters have nothing to aspire to, occults have no fitting skills (tarot reading and other sorts of fortune telling for example?) except voodoo and when it comes to it the reason seems to be because they undervalue the portion of players that want those things to be at their full glory in favor of people who don't want them at all.

    It would almost be worth having a toggle if I didn't suspect that even if there were one people would complain anyway simply because they have to resort to pushing extra buttons to make their game "normal"
    Post edited by Amavari on
  • ChampandGirlieChampandGirlie Posts: 2,482 Member
    @Amavari

    Respectfully, I disagree with some things that have been said. There was bashing of non-supernatural play in this thread when people said things to the effect of suggesting that all players should be forced to play with supernatural content and should have to mod their games. (Err, I wouldn't buy that game, I'd stop financially supporting it.) I could pick out individual quotes but I won't.

    I repeat that I'm not against the release of supernatural content at all but the pressure from some quarters to complain about any pack that isn't perceived as supernatural enough IS something that I take issue with. Yes, I think it would be better if the developers would tell everyone that they'd make the knitting pack and the happy haunts pack given how many people wanted the latter.

    Sure, in some hypothetical TS5, maybe they should split it out into different but compatible versions of the same game.

    Additionally, toggling supernaturals is also toggling realism if the concepts are opposites. It's the same thing.

    "No one is complaining about realistic gameplay," if this is meant to indicate that no one wants anything in the game that isn't supernatural, it isn't a true statement. There are a lot of different players out there who want different things of whom, supernatural players are one contingent. Implying that supernatural players didn't want seasons or pets and that the content in those packs wasn't for supernatural players is something that definitely cannot be generalized.

    I'm not interested in an extensive debate, I only spoke up in this situation because as I said before, there are players who want supernatural content, there are players who want to mix realism and supernatural content and there are players who do not want to mix supernaturals with other forms of gameplay broadly characterized as realism.

    All realism players are not the same and do not all want the same things. I didn't say that there has been an even release of content but if you count supernatural influences there has been quite a lot of content for that contingent. That does not mean that I'm saying there shouldn't be more, but players who want other forms of gameplay shouldn't be left out or derided for the way that they want to play. If you say that no one was suggesting that, it isn't true.

    Anyway, I hope that supernatural players get what you are wanting and I hope that I do too. Thanks.

    Also, I like the Middle Ages too. The only reason I don't have a medieval save is that I wouldn't be able to get over the modern elements that are inherent in the game like you've mentioned, they would be too immersion-breaking for me.

    Champ and Girlie are dogs.
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    I voted Happy Haunts because I knew it would lose to the knitting and I wanted it to lose by a close margin so that the devs know that we do want it and maybe they will keep working on/with those ideas anyways. (Several devs did mention on twitter that they are going to keep the ideas and keep working on the other packs in the vote, that it was more of a what to work on first kind of thing).

    I'm not upset by the loss though, it was close and this is a STUFF pack. It will hardly have game play elements and be mostly, well, stuff. Likely the only new game play will be knitting. If HH had won, there would have been just one of the suggested elements added (whichever had the most votes like knitting) and I'd kind of like to see this more fleshed out like a game pack and have most, if not all of the suggestions added, that couldn't happen in just a stuff pack.
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • HayleeSimsHayleeSims Posts: 124 Member
    I didn't vote for happy haunts because I felt it was too big to go in a stuff pack. EA doesn't do occults well anyway and I'd rather get more hobbies than a half backed SP. If happy haunts did win and came out I'm positive most people would be complaining about how empty it is.
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    I'm not surprised by this at all. It's like those play TS4 can't think of anything else to do in the game but find more ways to repeat and repeat the base game gameplay of the painting skills over and over and what now? Another easel? Oh, joy.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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