I was very open minded to Kits, as I dont have a large number of packs, as sometimes the more expensive ones have a lot of stuff I dont want which deters me from buying them. So in principle, I support kits, and would kind of like to see the ability to buy only single furniture items from expansion packs.
That being said, the pricing here is a massive turn off. It costs AUD$8 for a kit with 8 or less items. For AUD$5 I can get a high quality 60 piece collaboration from Felixandre, and they make their items free after a while. Each month Felixandre's $5 patreons get in the ball park of 20-30 items. I'm not singling out Felixandre, and many excellent CC creaters give stuff away for free or a small donation, its just an example of why I think that the kits are not offering good value for money.
So I would ask that the Sims team review the pricing of their kits, especially for non-American simmers. $8 is not a realistic price given how much more competitive items of a similar quality are being priced by CC creaters. I was open to buying the country kitchen kit when I saw the leak, but $8 is too much when I can go download Harrie's country kitchen collection for free.
The Sims asks for so much and gives so little. I really think I might finally be done with Sims. This sucks. $5 for stuff that the community would do better for free? Why? Some clever group of MBAs somewhere has really destroyed this game for me.
@elanorbreton@Pamtastic72
thanks for the answer. I was kind of expecting to be disappointed about the answer but they seem to have the vacuum kit really thought through. With all the information here, I think I might get that one.
Well whatever, I bought them and I'm excited to play with them. Really getting tired of everyone complaining about everything to do with the Sims 4. Don't like it? Don't play it. Don't buy it. Leave the fandom.
As you will have noticed, I merged threads on the same topic into this one so we can contain the conversation a bit more.
And I also had to remove several posts because they were not okay. So, consider this a general reminder to play by the forum rules, specifically
Don't bully or use toxic behavior. It's against the rules and is a one-stop-shop to getting banned from the forums. Your gaming account will also be reviewed. We count on you to keep toxicity out of our community. Personal defamation, harassing, bullying, threatening, offending, or any harmful behavior towards others is not acceptable - ever.
Don't be rude. No matter what your feelings are about other people, EA Forums aren't the place to attack another person. That includes public figures, EA employees, or other forum users.
Don't be a troll, bait or flame. This includes deliberately trying to cause an argument by making sarcastic, off-topic, rude or disruptive posts, and discussions.
That includes pointed comments and personal arguments.
Not everyone has to like Kits. Both those who do and those who don't should be able to say so in a respectful manner without being targeted for it.
I do like the idea of kits coming in to supplement a drought in material and since they're either BB or CAS or gameplay, that whets an appetite for players who only do those things. There are many people who only build or make sims and don't want gameplay. Someone like me who does little gameplay doesn't need dust bunnies.
But I'll have to say, in our last stuff pack (Paranormal), we got 32 CAS items, 39 BB items, and TONS of gameplay with the cute ghosties, new emotion, new job, Guidry, and Bonehilda. For ONLY $10!!
With this we get 20 BB items, 23 CAS, and not as much gameplay although it does sound like it does affect a lot in game if you wish it to with the dust bunnies and fiends, new rewards, buffs, etc. BUT to me this looks like A LOT less and the price? $15
Yup. We're getting fleeced.
But that's to be expected I guess. I like it because I don't have to buy the gameplay or I just could skip the CAS items if I didn't like the theme. BB is a must for me since I don't like getting gallery lots that have missing parts. And $5 is okay for me to spend. It's better than the Sims 3 store which I refused to buy a $10 hot tub. OMG...don't get me started with that.
Am I the only one who doesn't see any content drought?
In 2020 we got a pack in January, June, July, September and November. If you include the new content that came with the free updates then we got even more stuff.
In my opinion the Sims 4 has more than enough DLC to have things to do all year round. And in my opinion if not getting new content for 2-3 months feels like a drought then maybe it could be that the packs are not good enough to keep people busy and interested for a longer period of time?
> @simgirl1010 said: > The kitchen kit comes with two new recipes. > > The tuna casserole and vegetable casserole can be prepared at level 10 of the Cooking Skill. Visually, they look the same; the vegetable casserole is just a vegetarian alternative to the tuna casserole. > > https://simscommunity.info/2021/03/02/the-sims-4-country-kitchen-kit-overview/ > > ETA: Unfortunately the information on the two new recipes is incorrect. These were already available in game.
Aw, I got really excited for this! I love discovering new recipes in the game😊
Glad I came across this thread. I'll have to check all of these out. The Dust kit definitely looks cool, and it'll be nice since I overwork my poor robo- vacuum. It needs a break.
i like the new dust pack but im gunna agree the dust build up is stupid high and im sad supernaturals spells cant clean it i live in a old house in the desert prone to dust and dirt sneaking in if its even remotely windy and i only have to really vacuum weekly (i sweep often however) yet so far the dust pile up is in a matter of hours almost also missed opportunity for brooms, coulda been off the grid cleaning much slower than the vacuums but would of been a nice touch esp for those who want to be eco friendly or just want a well "COUNTRY" vibe i do love the kitchen tho
I was very open minded to Kits, as I dont have a large number of packs, as sometimes the more expensive ones have a lot of stuff I dont want which deters me from buying them. So in principle, I support kits, and would kind of like to see the ability to buy only single furniture items from expansion packs.
That being said, the pricing here is a massive turn off. It costs AUD$8 for a kit with 8 or less items.
So I would ask that the Sims team review the pricing of their kits, especially for non-American simmers.
Since Kits cost Americans half the price of a Stuff pack, it should be the same for everyone. Kits have less than half the content, but are more than half the price for us. Given that we are paying more than Americans for Stuff packs, the price should have been rounded down rather than up, if not just be half the price of a Stuff pack.
I was very open minded to Kits, as I dont have a large number of packs, as sometimes the more expensive ones have a lot of stuff I dont want which deters me from buying them. So in principle, I support kits, and would kind of like to see the ability to buy only single furniture items from expansion packs.
That being said, the pricing here is a massive turn off. It costs AUD$8 for a kit with 8 or less items.
So I would ask that the Sims team review the pricing of their kits, especially for non-American simmers.
Since Kits cost Americans half the price of a Stuff pack, it should be the same for everyone. Kits have less than half the content, but are more than half the price for us. Given that we are paying more than Americans for Stuff packs, the price should have been rounded down rather than up, if not just be half the price of a Stuff pack.
It's definitely not the same price for everyone.
1 USD = 0,83 Euro
Therefore
Kits = 4,14 e
Stuff = 8,28 e
Game = 16,57 e
Expansion =33,15 e
Want to take a wild guess how much they charge euro countries? )
The exact same amount as US! but this time it's Euro so we pay 1-7 dollars extra for every pack !
> @EA_Leeloo said: > Hey folks! > > As you will have noticed, I merged threads on the same topic into this one so we can contain the conversation a bit more. > > And I also had to remove several posts because they were not okay. So, consider this a general reminder to play by the forum rules, specifically > That includes pointed comments and personal arguments. > > Not everyone has to like Kits. Both those who do and those who don't should be able to say so in a respectful manner without being targeted for it. > > So, please keep this in mind going forward. > > Thank you, > Leeloo
I am really new to these forums. Can you please let me know what about my post was not in keeping with the rules so I can make better posts in the future? Because as far as I know I didn't personally attack anyone or say anything rude or toxic etc. I would really appreciate some clarity on this. As far as I know, I posted something I thought was positive and inclusive of everyone. I am not sure if this is the best place to ask about my post so can you let me know about that too? Thank you
I do like the idea that you only buy what you would really use! I'm not so much into the retro clothes, but I do like the kitchen stuff and the vacuum pack, so I only bought these. Those dust bunnies are totally cuuute!
I like the kits I just have one question. Why is it that in every clothing update there is 3-4X as many items for female than male?
I, too, would like to know why their team is almost allergically against making male CAS stuff. We know their team DOES have males, so it's not even like one of those situations where you're just so comfortable with a specific group of people you get a one track mind and forget about others. Male Sims are about 50% of the Sims in the game, either premade or generated by RNG, so they should in reality be getting just as many CAS options as females too. Men's fashion is also pretty robust, so it's not like there's a drought for ideas or anything, especially since a lot of the female fashion looks to be rehashes of stuff they have done repeatedly in the past. I mean, this Throwback kit has 4 women's tops in it, and all 4 of them are mild variations of a crop top. They're not even generating completely unique looks for the women's fashion if you look at that alone, and yet they can't even give men variations on the same kind of top or whatever.
The kits look okay I guess... but isn't "Big Possibilities" a bit of a stretch? or are people just better at coming up with new ideas to use this than I am?
Regardless, I won't buy anything from EA until you have fixed more bugs. Sorry.
Hi… I’ve been watching content about the kits for a few days and I’d like to give my honest feedback from what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t bought the kits myself, but I’ve watched the live stream and a lot of game-changer content and reviews on the subject. I’ve also been following the articles and videos from Simstime, The Sims Community, Pixelade etc. reporting on the content. So, keep in mind that this is my opinion based on what I’ve seen and read so far.
Also, my goal here is not to be negative or disrespectful, but rather to contribute to the debate and give my feedback to EA as someone who’s been playing the game for 20 years.
KITS – THE CONCEPT
As a player, I have a very negative opinion so far about the concept of a Kit Pack.
First, because I do not believe we suffer from a ‘content draught’ on The Sims 4. We already have 10 Expansion Packs, 09 Game Packs, and 17 Stuff Packs. That is a total of 36 packs, which gives us an average of 05/packs a year or one pack every couple of months or so. Not to mention the free content we occasionally get in updates. I feel like the amount of content being provided is not the problem, rather the quality of the product vs. the pricing.
Second, because, from what I’ve seen so far, I believe kits will not tackle the main problems the community has been complaining about for years. It is, in my opinion, a bad use of the Sims team’s time. Instead of focusing on important things like improving and differentiating life stages (especially babies and elders), finding ways to add depth to the gameplay, giving us tools to make each sim more unique etc., EA will be drawing resources to gives even more assets than we already have. Even if EA hires an entirely new team for Kit Packs, at the end of the day, that is still a less efficient use of their manpower, since the same resources could be better employed by addressing the issues players have been pointing since day one.
Third, because fractioning the content into a third of a Stuff Pack for half the price is financially unappealing to players. From what I’ve read so far, even the players who bought the Kit Packs have been consistently criticizing the price as being “too high”. I agree that the other DLC types for The Sims 4 are expensive. I, myself, am a completionist for the game and I’ve often resorted to waiting months or years to buy things on sale, especially because they’re even more expensive in my country, after taxes and due to the exchange rate conversion. However, Kits so far have roughly a third of the content you could get from a Stuff Pack while representing half its cost. For their relatively lower asking price, we can also expect them to rarely (if ever) go on sale. If there was an argument to be made in favor of Kit Packs being a cheaper alternative for players who can’t afford the other types of pack, I think said argument loses its power when you consider what you get for said asking price. Kits seem to be shallower by definition, given their smaller price, which leaves them with a proportionally lesser impact or transformative power in your game. If the real concern was to give more options to players who can’t buy all packs due to their prices, and not to ensure a larger profit margin, the simplest answer would perhaps be to have more frequent sales on all DLC types. That way, those players would not miss out on the different aspects and the added depth of the game. But that has not been the case.
Fourth, because I disagree with the argument made during the live stream that the content delivered with the Kit Packs is something EA probably wouldn’t be able to deliver to players otherwise. The assets and gameplay we’ve seen so far have not been as “hyperfocused” as they seem to have been marketed as. They have all been, without exception, content that could’ve been included as a part of a future (or even past) pack. As the community has pointed out on numerous occasions, the assets and features in “Bust the Dust” would fit perfectly within packs like Laundry Day, Parenthood, or Eco Lifestyle, for example. The “Country Kitchen” pack would also be perfect for the long-awaited and requested farming or generations packs. There’s nothing terribly specific about gym clothes, a new kitchen or a dust system and vacuums. Breaking up packs into CAS, Build/Buy and Gameplay doesn’t make your product hyperfocused, it just diminishes its capacity to generate interest. Unless this changes significantly, the Kit Packs will remain to me as a senseless, lower effort alternative to more fleshed-out packs.
Fifth, because of the different roles I, as a customer, expect EA and the very creative CC creators of our community to assume. I’ve read people argue favorably towards the Kit Packs by saying that people will pay USD 5,00 to CC creators on Patreon and get more or less the same amount of assets that they would on a kit. Others say you usually get more for your money. However, what I’ve been pondering since recent partnerships EA has been making with CC and mod creators and the first leaks about the Kit Packs is: do we expect the Sims team to play the same role to us, as costumers, as the CC community does? Is that what we want, an endless amount of extra content with an EA brand stapled on? What I want from EA is that they provide the players with things that only they can provide; that they look at issues from a sharper, more technical, and more creative point of view than your casual CC/mod creator; that they strive to make sure we get the most of our gaming experience. I want the Sims team to look at the game from a developer's perspective, searching where they can improve and expand current gameplay features. When they look at CAS or Build mode, is not that I don’t want the pretty assets (which I love), but I want them to think of things like tool functionality because that is what will have the biggest impact on all players. I expect them to look at the franchise with the eyes of the past, present, and future games. They have to look beyond because they are the ones with the resources to give us more and to make playing this game a worthwhile experience.
I want the Sims team to learn a lesson from the creators in our community while keeping their unique position in mind to give us that which only they can offer. I want them to offer game-changing content with mod-level depth, and well-made CC-level assets, without the risk of breaking your game. That doesn’t mean replacing those creators, giving us everything to cover every single possible (hyper-focused) niche of player. I don’t expect them to give us smaller packs to compete with CC creators or modders on their Patreons. If that is EA’s goal, they will fail, because the CC creators are vastly more diverse than the Sims team and they outnumber them. They also work out of passion and love for the game: their end goal is not getting higher profits. They need to pay attention to what the community as a whole wants and likes, to ensure we have a good universal playing experience while holding the products they do offer to a higher parameter of quality. I want them to listen to the community and the creators, make partnerships, but don’t lose sight of the fact that they, as developers, can offer us more, because they have the resources of a multi-million dollar franchise a simple modder or CC creator wouldn’t dream of having.
And, last of all, because, judging by the job listings we’ve seen so far for The Sims 5, we might be heading towards a future that includes microtransactions in the game. This is something that I do not want to see EA pursue, as it would make me lose all interest in the game. The Kit Packs look like a testing ground for ideas that could have a very negative impact in our community, increasing the inequality between the players’ experiences. and it honestly gives me just bad vibes. It reminds me of when we had The Sims 3 Store, where our money was worth very little, and it just reads as an overall bad idea.
The more frequent criticism of The Sims 4 I see is that the franchise needs more depth in order to be engaging. What drives players away is opening your game and feeling every sim has the same personality on a different frame or that the game doesn’t surprise you or challenge you. It’s not a “content draught”, it’s a depth of content draught. However, the strategy that seems to be adopted here directly contradicts it. The idea of releasing shallower content very often, instead of fewer, deeper, more interesting content less often, signals to me, as a customer, that EA hasn’t been paying attention to our main complaints.
I’ve been playing The Sims for about 20 years. I’ve played every game in the franchise since I was a child and I plan to keep playing for years. So, my goal here is to provide constructive criticism of the game, not to attack anyone. Please, I respectfully ask you not to tag me in replies if you’ll say that I can “just not buy the content” because that is beside the point. I am an adult and I am aware that I have the option to not buy the Kit Packs or not buy them at full price. I have never been keen on spreading negativity within the community and that is not my intention. As customers, we have every right to an opinion, and I believe honest, constructive feedback is good for the team and for the game as a whole. Thanks.
Comments
That being said, the pricing here is a massive turn off. It costs AUD$8 for a kit with 8 or less items. For AUD$5 I can get a high quality 60 piece collaboration from Felixandre, and they make their items free after a while. Each month Felixandre's $5 patreons get in the ball park of 20-30 items. I'm not singling out Felixandre, and many excellent CC creaters give stuff away for free or a small donation, its just an example of why I think that the kits are not offering good value for money.
So I would ask that the Sims team review the pricing of their kits, especially for non-American simmers. $8 is not a realistic price given how much more competitive items of a similar quality are being priced by CC creaters. I was open to buying the country kitchen kit when I saw the leak, but $8 is too much when I can go download Harrie's country kitchen collection for free.
thanks for the answer. I was kind of expecting to be disappointed about the answer but they seem to have the vacuum kit really thought through. With all the information here, I think I might get that one.
Bought all three and really enjoying them. These kits are a great addition for my gameplay.
These dust bunnies are so funny and cute. Sorry little fellow, but eventually you'll have to go.
As you will have noticed, I merged threads on the same topic into this one so we can contain the conversation a bit more.
And I also had to remove several posts because they were not okay. So, consider this a general reminder to play by the forum rules, specifically That includes pointed comments and personal arguments.
Not everyone has to like Kits. Both those who do and those who don't should be able to say so in a respectful manner without being targeted for it.
So, please keep this in mind going forward.
Thank you,
Leeloo
But I'll have to say, in our last stuff pack (Paranormal), we got 32 CAS items, 39 BB items, and TONS of gameplay with the cute ghosties, new emotion, new job, Guidry, and Bonehilda. For ONLY $10!!
With this we get 20 BB items, 23 CAS, and not as much gameplay although it does sound like it does affect a lot in game if you wish it to with the dust bunnies and fiends, new rewards, buffs, etc. BUT to me this looks like A LOT less and the price? $15
Yup. We're getting fleeced.
But that's to be expected I guess. I like it because I don't have to buy the gameplay or I just could skip the CAS items if I didn't like the theme. BB is a must for me since I don't like getting gallery lots that have missing parts. And $5 is okay for me to spend. It's better than the Sims 3 store which I refused to buy a $10 hot tub. OMG...don't get me started with that.
In 2020 we got a pack in January, June, July, September and November. If you include the new content that came with the free updates then we got even more stuff.
In my opinion the Sims 4 has more than enough DLC to have things to do all year round. And in my opinion if not getting new content for 2-3 months feels like a drought then maybe it could be that the packs are not good enough to keep people busy and interested for a longer period of time?
I'm glad they have plain swatches aswell, I wasn't originally planning on buying this, but I had to 😂
> The kitchen kit comes with two new recipes.
>
> The tuna casserole and vegetable casserole can be prepared at level 10 of the Cooking Skill. Visually, they look the same; the vegetable casserole is just a vegetarian alternative to the tuna casserole.
>
> https://simscommunity.info/2021/03/02/the-sims-4-country-kitchen-kit-overview/
>
> ETA: Unfortunately the information on the two new recipes is incorrect. These were already available in game.
Aw, I got really excited for this! I love discovering new recipes in the game😊
Origin ID: BadArkane
i live in a old house in the desert prone to dust and dirt sneaking in if its even remotely windy and i only have to really vacuum weekly (i sweep often however) yet so far the dust pile up is in a matter of hours almost
also missed opportunity for brooms, coulda been off the grid cleaning much slower than the vacuums but would of been a nice touch
esp for those who want to be eco friendly or just want a well "COUNTRY" vibe
i do love the kitchen tho
Since Kits cost Americans half the price of a Stuff pack, it should be the same for everyone. Kits have less than half the content, but are more than half the price for us. Given that we are paying more than Americans for Stuff packs, the price should have been rounded down rather than up, if not just be half the price of a Stuff pack.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCaj9o4hycNSPy8U1Ip0OCFA/videos
It's definitely not the same price for everyone.
1 USD = 0,83 Euro
Therefore
Kits = 4,14 e
Stuff = 8,28 e
Game = 16,57 e
Expansion =33,15 e
Want to take a wild guess how much they charge euro countries?
The exact same amount as US! but this time it's Euro so we pay 1-7 dollars extra for every pack
It's even worse for UK, Canada & Australia
> Hey folks!
>
> As you will have noticed, I merged threads on the same topic into this one so we can contain the conversation a bit more.
>
> And I also had to remove several posts because they were not okay. So, consider this a general reminder to play by the forum rules, specifically
> That includes pointed comments and personal arguments.
>
> Not everyone has to like Kits. Both those who do and those who don't should be able to say so in a respectful manner without being targeted for it.
>
> So, please keep this in mind going forward.
>
> Thank you,
> Leeloo
I am really new to these forums. Can you please let me know what about my post was not in keeping with the rules so I can make better posts in the future? Because as far as I know I didn't personally attack anyone or say anything rude or toxic etc. I would really appreciate some clarity on this. As far as I know, I posted something I thought was positive and inclusive of everyone. I am not sure if this is the best place to ask about my post so can you let me know about that too? Thank you
I, too, would like to know why their team is almost allergically against making male CAS stuff. We know their team DOES have males, so it's not even like one of those situations where you're just so comfortable with a specific group of people you get a one track mind and forget about others. Male Sims are about 50% of the Sims in the game, either premade or generated by RNG, so they should in reality be getting just as many CAS options as females too. Men's fashion is also pretty robust, so it's not like there's a drought for ideas or anything, especially since a lot of the female fashion looks to be rehashes of stuff they have done repeatedly in the past. I mean, this Throwback kit has 4 women's tops in it, and all 4 of them are mild variations of a crop top. They're not even generating completely unique looks for the women's fashion if you look at that alone, and yet they can't even give men variations on the same kind of top or whatever.
Regardless, I won't buy anything from EA until you have fixed more bugs. Sorry.
Also, my goal here is not to be negative or disrespectful, but rather to contribute to the debate and give my feedback to EA as someone who’s been playing the game for 20 years.
KITS – THE CONCEPT
As a player, I have a very negative opinion so far about the concept of a Kit Pack.
First, because I do not believe we suffer from a ‘content draught’ on The Sims 4. We already have 10 Expansion Packs, 09 Game Packs, and 17 Stuff Packs. That is a total of 36 packs, which gives us an average of 05/packs a year or one pack every couple of months or so. Not to mention the free content we occasionally get in updates. I feel like the amount of content being provided is not the problem, rather the quality of the product vs. the pricing.
Second, because, from what I’ve seen so far, I believe kits will not tackle the main problems the community has been complaining about for years. It is, in my opinion, a bad use of the Sims team’s time. Instead of focusing on important things like improving and differentiating life stages (especially babies and elders), finding ways to add depth to the gameplay, giving us tools to make each sim more unique etc., EA will be drawing resources to gives even more assets than we already have. Even if EA hires an entirely new team for Kit Packs, at the end of the day, that is still a less efficient use of their manpower, since the same resources could be better employed by addressing the issues players have been pointing since day one.
Third, because fractioning the content into a third of a Stuff Pack for half the price is financially unappealing to players. From what I’ve read so far, even the players who bought the Kit Packs have been consistently criticizing the price as being “too high”. I agree that the other DLC types for The Sims 4 are expensive. I, myself, am a completionist for the game and I’ve often resorted to waiting months or years to buy things on sale, especially because they’re even more expensive in my country, after taxes and due to the exchange rate conversion. However, Kits so far have roughly a third of the content you could get from a Stuff Pack while representing half its cost. For their relatively lower asking price, we can also expect them to rarely (if ever) go on sale. If there was an argument to be made in favor of Kit Packs being a cheaper alternative for players who can’t afford the other types of pack, I think said argument loses its power when you consider what you get for said asking price. Kits seem to be shallower by definition, given their smaller price, which leaves them with a proportionally lesser impact or transformative power in your game. If the real concern was to give more options to players who can’t buy all packs due to their prices, and not to ensure a larger profit margin, the simplest answer would perhaps be to have more frequent sales on all DLC types. That way, those players would not miss out on the different aspects and the added depth of the game. But that has not been the case.
Fourth, because I disagree with the argument made during the live stream that the content delivered with the Kit Packs is something EA probably wouldn’t be able to deliver to players otherwise. The assets and gameplay we’ve seen so far have not been as “hyperfocused” as they seem to have been marketed as. They have all been, without exception, content that could’ve been included as a part of a future (or even past) pack. As the community has pointed out on numerous occasions, the assets and features in “Bust the Dust” would fit perfectly within packs like Laundry Day, Parenthood, or Eco Lifestyle, for example. The “Country Kitchen” pack would also be perfect for the long-awaited and requested farming or generations packs. There’s nothing terribly specific about gym clothes, a new kitchen or a dust system and vacuums. Breaking up packs into CAS, Build/Buy and Gameplay doesn’t make your product hyperfocused, it just diminishes its capacity to generate interest. Unless this changes significantly, the Kit Packs will remain to me as a senseless, lower effort alternative to more fleshed-out packs.
Fifth, because of the different roles I, as a customer, expect EA and the very creative CC creators of our community to assume. I’ve read people argue favorably towards the Kit Packs by saying that people will pay USD 5,00 to CC creators on Patreon and get more or less the same amount of assets that they would on a kit. Others say you usually get more for your money. However, what I’ve been pondering since recent partnerships EA has been making with CC and mod creators and the first leaks about the Kit Packs is: do we expect the Sims team to play the same role to us, as costumers, as the CC community does? Is that what we want, an endless amount of extra content with an EA brand stapled on? What I want from EA is that they provide the players with things that only they can provide; that they look at issues from a sharper, more technical, and more creative point of view than your casual CC/mod creator; that they strive to make sure we get the most of our gaming experience. I want the Sims team to look at the game from a developer's perspective, searching where they can improve and expand current gameplay features. When they look at CAS or Build mode, is not that I don’t want the pretty assets (which I love), but I want them to think of things like tool functionality because that is what will have the biggest impact on all players. I expect them to look at the franchise with the eyes of the past, present, and future games. They have to look beyond because they are the ones with the resources to give us more and to make playing this game a worthwhile experience.
I want the Sims team to learn a lesson from the creators in our community while keeping their unique position in mind to give us that which only they can offer. I want them to offer game-changing content with mod-level depth, and well-made CC-level assets, without the risk of breaking your game. That doesn’t mean replacing those creators, giving us everything to cover every single possible (hyper-focused) niche of player. I don’t expect them to give us smaller packs to compete with CC creators or modders on their Patreons. If that is EA’s goal, they will fail, because the CC creators are vastly more diverse than the Sims team and they outnumber them. They also work out of passion and love for the game: their end goal is not getting higher profits. They need to pay attention to what the community as a whole wants and likes, to ensure we have a good universal playing experience while holding the products they do offer to a higher parameter of quality. I want them to listen to the community and the creators, make partnerships, but don’t lose sight of the fact that they, as developers, can offer us more, because they have the resources of a multi-million dollar franchise a simple modder or CC creator wouldn’t dream of having.
And, last of all, because, judging by the job listings we’ve seen so far for The Sims 5, we might be heading towards a future that includes microtransactions in the game. This is something that I do not want to see EA pursue, as it would make me lose all interest in the game. The Kit Packs look like a testing ground for ideas that could have a very negative impact in our community, increasing the inequality between the players’ experiences. and it honestly gives me just bad vibes. It reminds me of when we had The Sims 3 Store, where our money was worth very little, and it just reads as an overall bad idea.
The more frequent criticism of The Sims 4 I see is that the franchise needs more depth in order to be engaging. What drives players away is opening your game and feeling every sim has the same personality on a different frame or that the game doesn’t surprise you or challenge you. It’s not a “content draught”, it’s a depth of content draught. However, the strategy that seems to be adopted here directly contradicts it. The idea of releasing shallower content very often, instead of fewer, deeper, more interesting content less often, signals to me, as a customer, that EA hasn’t been paying attention to our main complaints.
I’ve been playing The Sims for about 20 years. I’ve played every game in the franchise since I was a child and I plan to keep playing for years. So, my goal here is to provide constructive criticism of the game, not to attack anyone. Please, I respectfully ask you not to tag me in replies if you’ll say that I can “just not buy the content” because that is beside the point. I am an adult and I am aware that I have the option to not buy the Kit Packs or not buy them at full price. I have never been keen on spreading negativity within the community and that is not my intention. As customers, we have every right to an opinion, and I believe honest, constructive feedback is good for the team and for the game as a whole. Thanks.