It almost sounds more to me (and maybe I'm just being hopeful) like they are talking about things like the gallery, legacy competitions, building challenges, etc as connections online, and not necessarily playing the game itself. People have created so many legacy styles and building challenges that I think they may want to incorporate them directly into options to play your game:
"As we think about The Sims – again, I reference the motivations of why we play the games – inspiration, escape, social interaction, creation, self improvement, competition. Typically what The Sims has done is really focus on fulfilling the motivations and inspiration, escape, creation, self-improvement and not necessarily focus as much as on social interaction and competition.
But a few things are in fact true over the years. One is that the Sims community continues to grow and with the broad of social platforms continue to connect with each other and share what they do – in and around the game they play. And we’ve seen that manifest in The Sims Online which was a more social experience for us. And we’re also seeing that the competition nature of The Sims is also rising and we’re seeing people compare and contrast. Not competition in an original sport sense but how they create and what they create and how they use their imaginations and what they’re able to build inside of these Sims universes."
The way he words it is connecting with each other and sharing what we do, in and around the game WE play. Comparing and contrasting. I mean, seriously, if you're going to bring up Sims Online, they can't possibly be daft enough to think of it as an example of why they should make another online neighborhood game; it was a major failure. As was the online version of Sim City. So I think more than anything, they may be talking about more ways to build up the Sims community connections and keep them engaged in the game through that, and adding the ability to directly have challenges with other players, playing the game with challenge rules in a competition.
But if you wanted to add in ANY sort of online component to actually playing the game, my suggestion would be to add an online city (maybe even called Sim City) that is comprised of lots built by players, but inhabited and visited by Sims in your own game. So instead of only going to the gallery, downloading a new club that was made by someone, say Bella's Bar, and plopping it down in your Oasis Springs, you could instead pull up a directory on your sim's phone of online clubs, choose Bella's Bar, and go and visit it in the online city. So the game would download it temporarily (or give you your own instance of the bar), and then use the same coding it uses to inhabit it with sims that it uses inside your own game, instead of running into players from other games. More like Spore, if anyone ever played that. If you liked it, you could add it to a list of favorites to visit again, and save it to your computer to save time on your next visit. So you would have an endless list of lots to visit and explore, all with the same feel and gameplay of the lots in your own offline game.
Maybe you could have different world environments inside the big city for variety.
But I would say that past that, taking my Sims game I play now and putting it fully online, forget it. Zero interest. For one thing, the only reason I still play is I've been able to mod it to the way I like it. Online, I seriously doubt we would have that ability. I can barely control the way sims around me act and dress; I'm not interested in entering an online world with zero control. And there is no online version that can have social interactions that have any sort of gameplay value. You're basically cutting that aspect of the Sims out and replacing it with an online chat room.
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The whole thing can be knocked out from under it if you know what you are looking for, in this case it is all speculative and nothing was answered, only suggested that they could, so going back to speculative.
Why is everyone taking this clearly inflammatory blog so seriously? if EA releases info on TS5 that it contains MP, then you can worry, but for now there is nothing to be concerned about what might be the case.
Honestly this is the only question I wanna see answered.
I'm not sure the hatred is effective, particularly in this case. Electronic Arts has repeatedly demonstrated that it's going to do what it wants to do. That's kind of true for all of AAA gaming.
So... just be quiet? I'm pretty sure that would be even less effective
People are passionate about the series, I guess. It’s an expensive series, too. After seeing how much it impacted The Sims 4‘s launch and lifespan potential, this is the last thing many people want to see.
Could it just be clickbait sensationalism? Sure. Are fans wrong for disapproving even the idea that it could be true? No.
It's not a matter of being quiet. You can do what you do, I won't insult you for it -- something that is not extended towards myself. All I am saying is that it probably won't matter. Trends are trends, and we're not going to stop them. As a Fake Simmer (TM) and all-around unperson, I say with confidence that what you are into will probably be catered to will appear down the line. It won't be from a AAA studio, but it will be a wonderful experience.
That's not to be Panglossian about the matter. Not everything works out, but I think that fighting against the inevitable is a waste of time.
I haven't insulted you, fwiw. But I lived through the first gaming crash, and I know the industry wants to avoid another one, so consumers making their wishes know, both with their words and with their wallets when the first doesn't work could be a bit more effective than you realize. Or it could spark indie creators with new ideas.
Edit: The only reason why I brought up that I haven't insulted you is because this is the second time you've brought it up to me. Disagreeing with someone is not an insult.
This is not my first rodeo. I know how the internet works, and I'm fine with it. I've never been welcome here, and that isn't important. I only remarked beyond the Rule of Three because you misrepresented what I was saying by implying that I was commanding you to be silent. I have no ability to command anyone to do anything, nor would I wish such power. I simply state that this is a tempest in a teapot.
But I didn't. My words were, exactly, "So... just be quiet? I'm pretty sure that would be even less effective" which is by no means saying you're commanding me to do anything. Just that I think NOT saying anything is even more pointless than at least getting my opinion out there. I have not insulted you nor misrepresented you. I do disagree with you, and I'm happy to discuss where we disagree, but I'm not happy to be told I'm insulting you and twisting your words when I'm not doing either.