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Offline players are not just the loud majority, we are the core

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  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    edited May 2021
    lisamwitt wrote: »
    Simburian wrote: »
    Offline players might think they are the core but if they don't allow Maxis to see what they are doing in their games via Options how are they going to get over what they are actually doing in the game?

    If Maxis cannot see how the players are using the game why should they take any notice of you?

    While we do play offline most of the time, we do have to occasionally login and go online. Otherwise we can't update, buy and download, or use the gallery. And as long as the checkbox to allow data collection is enabled, they will receive what they are looking for at that time. Per their own statement, what they are mostly looking at is whether you own the game, whether buying and downloading is working properly, and whether there are any small errors that can be addressed at that time. They aren't just monitoring your gameplay in general.

    Judging from what most offline players write about the Origin, EA and Maxis and why they play offline, I doubt if any or at the most some of them tick that box.
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Simburian wrote: »
    Offline players might think they are the core but if they don't allow Maxis to see what they are doing in their games via Options how are they going to get over what they are actually doing in the game?

    If Maxis cannot see how the players are using the game why should they take any notice of you?

    How Orwellian. Big Brother is watching enough, don't need it in my gaming. I do believe the 'off line' in the thread theme relates to playing solo with whatever connection level vs 'online' playing with everybody else who happens to be doing TS5 at the time.
  • SimSpockSimSpock Posts: 273 Member
    edited May 2021
    I suspect (but don't know) that EA has a good idea of how important the offline single player group is to the current core. I don't think they care; I think that they're hoping to generate a new core with TS5 that will more than offset those that they lose (of which I will be one).
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    Simburian wrote: »
    Offline players might think they are the core but if they don't allow Maxis to see what they are doing in their games via Options how are they going to get over what they are actually doing in the game?

    If Maxis cannot see how the players are using the game why should they take any notice of you?

    How Orwellian. Big Brother is watching enough, don't need it in my gaming. I do believe the 'off line' in the thread theme relates to playing solo with whatever connection level vs 'online' playing with everybody else who happens to be doing TS5 at the time.

    This is an Orwellian game and we are "Big Brother" o:)B)
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    On the rare occasions I play TS4 my internet cable is unplugged. Little brother can be defiant in his old age.
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    On the rare occasions I play TS4 my internet cable is unplugged. Little brother can be defiant in his old age.

    Literally unplugged? Or you just turn off a router? I'm imagining waaay back when we had dial up and you could pull the cable out of the wall. Lol.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Literally unplugged from the modem. If I want to do normal internet stuff like check email, do research, or attend class cable is plugged back in. Like now.
  • lisamwittlisamwitt Posts: 5,079 Member
    edited May 2021
    Literally unplugged from the modem. If I want to do normal internet stuff like check email, do research, or attend class cable is plugged back in. Like now.

    My husband works from home and I have three kids here doing schoolwork, so just going offline on my own laptop is all I can do. But even if I wanted to shut it off in the whole house, I'd just turn the modem or our routers off. Seems unnecessary to actually unplug it, but I guess whatever works for you.
    I do believe the 'off line' in the thread theme relates to playing solo with whatever connection level vs 'online' playing with everybody else who happens to be doing TS5 at the time.

    ^That. That's the main issue. Online games simply are not the same as solely offline, solo ones. They just aren't. Certain things have to be sacrificed to play online and we all saw how that went when they tried it. People have cited Minecraft. My kids love Minecraft, but it's totally different in the way it looks and is played. And I don't know how many times they've complained about someone ruining a server because of griefing or just being horrible. And on a few occasions a world disappeared and they simply lost everything. Not fun.
    Gallery ID: LadyGray01
  • drakharisdrakharis Posts: 1,478 Member
    edited May 2021
    Some of us have been here for many years. Some of us have been here over 20 years. We know what other Simmers want. I know what other Simmers want. In all my years I have never seen much support for online features aside from community level uploads/ downloads which can be shared. Anyone use Simport in TS3? I didn't and never known anyone else who has either. Who was hyped for Olympus? No one that I remember. Who remembers the collapse of the community after TS4's controversial release? Everyone.

    The thing is there could be a way around to please both camps. An option for either playing online or offline. That should be no problem but it is.

    Lets say a TS5 was released with both features. Traditional offline and a new online option. That is two camps. Would both be treated as equals? What if one got more content ahead of the other? Bug fixes? A new community war?

    It cannot work like that. The Sims has always been offline and that is what worked the most. Do I want to go to work for the day and come back to find that someone has killed off all my Sims or messed up one of my builds? Do I want to come back to have messages from other Simmers in a language that I cannot even understand?

    Do you want your teenage daughter to get messages off strangers on the internet?

    Look at the launch of TS4. It was appalling. The lack of features? Reliance on patches just for base game content? A lot should have been learnt from that awful start. 'Why do the devs not listen?' was something repeated time and time again.

    Well listen to this. We, the majority do not and I repeat not want the game to have a forced or dominating online feature. We want to play. offline. Look around the internet and prove to me that everyone wants to play online all of a sudden. Can you prove that? Of course you cannot as these forums are the biggest part of the community with much more loyal players than those casual players on Twitter.

    Some of the longest playing Simmers have grown 20 years older than when we started. Some of us have jobs with money and some of us will be choosing weather it would be right to spend money on yet another let down.

    Do not take us for granted. If TS5 has a forced online feature or where online dominates offline then watch what happens. 2014 will be a walk in the park compared to the disappointment the next time round.

    Ea just has the attitude of "I do what I want". It's that mentality that kills the games they acquire and gives the company the reputation of "where games go to die". By ignoring the fan base and ignoring what the fan base says what they want. They shouldn't want a game to lose members of the fan base. When we leave it'll be darn near impossible to bring us back.

    It's not any of the devs or The Sims team's fault I honestly believe. I blame it on EA the corporation that cares less about the fan base and more about the money. There is nothing wrong with ever wanting to make money. However, EA is greed oriented rather than caring about what we simmers actually want. By providing us with amazing gameplay where we didn't even know several hours had passed.

    Online games might be fine for Plants and Zombies or Batman or GTA but for this community, I have to agree I haven't seen too many people demanding an online game for the sims. If they are so bent on online games stick to mobile games and all the pay to play items in a so-called free game.

    I do feel that playing online should be an option for Sims 5. I would prefer it that way. I don't mind playing with any of you.

    Playtesting - not just tabletop games and card games any more. Really that should have been playtested in Beta and not [img]just with accounting and marketing but actual players. https://i.imgur.com/t48COW6.jpg[/img]
  • ncisGibbs02ncisGibbs02 Posts: 2,018 Member
    I just don’t know anymore.

    Is there enough interest in playing Sims online?
    Would you be able to select who you play with, the level of changes they can make in your town or what you can change in someone else’s.

    Or would it be a town everyone accesses and plays and you send a Sim there? Like a visit or short stay? So own worlds are separate.


    Now alternating between Sims 2,3 and 4! 😊☕️🌞
  • SuperCoolRachaelSuperCoolRachael Posts: 392 Member
    I wish I could give this post a medal.

    I don't think EA will be foolish enough to make TS5 a solely online game. However, I think OP hit the nail on the head by bringing up the possibility of the game's online factor receiving the lion's share of the effort on the dev team's part. I mean, they might not even have a choice, if it's what their bosses are demanding.

    On the one hand, I'm mad at EA for the way they've been handling things. On the other, I still can't help but feel excited for TS5 regardless. If I were a Sim from TS3, Excitable and Easily Impressed would be two of my traits, for sure.
  • MeestorMarkMeestorMark Posts: 865 Member
    I want a TS5 only because I think TS4 dropped the ball so bad.

    I miss the basically unlimited creativity of design that was base game TS3, and how sharing with that community actually felt like sharing and community.

    I hope they can revive and improve that with TS5, but I have more confidence it will be the Paralives folks that deliver.

    GTA and RDR2 have active multiplayer components. But, they also have very in-depth story mode for folks like me that really want no part of online play with people being annoying (often who only seem to be there to enjoy the act of being annoying) but who want to lose themselves for a time in a GORGEOUS game world and compelling story. EA could do it with TS5 if they took the project seriously. They are sitting on a no-bull multi-billion dollar title if they pull it off. Can't fault them too much for trying. On the other hand, they'll need a massive culture shift in addressing and sorting out bugs in timely fashion. Other studios are doing all of this right, so it's possible, even if such a seismic shift from EA seems unlikely to me.

    But online only? No thank you very much. Not only do I not want that, at all, EA has already demonstrated they can't adequately forecast server demand for their online titles by several orders of magnitude.

    Rachael Franklin also decided the cartoony look for TS4 was protecting everyone from "creepy people who like visual realism in games" but had no apparent problems in early TS4 planning of forcing 13 year olds to have to play in the same MMO worlds with people in their 30s, 40s, or 50s in a game that allows characters to woohoo in a public dumpster.

    She also just KNEW we ALL wanted to play SimCity online, all the time. Uh, nope. And that game doesn't even have any character interaction, let alone pseudo-intimate interactions like kisses and woohoo.

    I have little faith EA will get it right with a TS5, but they certainly can. I have even less faith they'll get an online component right, but they certainly can if they're serious and sensitive. However, the closer Racheal Franklin is to the decision making, my little faith drops off exponentially.
  • Jaline33Jaline33 Posts: 1,167 Member
    KatAnubis wrote: »
    This comment ended up being longer than I thought...sorry... :disappointed:
    Do you want your teenage daughter to get messages off strangers on the internet?

    This may be a stupid question, please forgive me. If there was an online iteration would it still keep it's teen rating? Knowing that their players consist both adult and younger players, would this not be inviting players of all ages to connect in a way that at times may be unsuitable.

    I don't have children but if I did, I would be happy for them to play the Sims game as they are, but would be deeply uncomfortable at the thought of them using an online version with strangers of all ages (especially those that may lie about their age). To be honest, as an adult I'd be just as uncomfortable to play with strangers myself.

    An optional online feature, that is (somehow) age restricted may work. But I do feel that this is not what The Sims is, and to re-marked it in such an extreme way would alienate many loyal players.

    I'm sorry, I don't usually share opinionated posts, or interact with "hot" topics, but this is something I'm quite passionate about. I don't complain, I don't make requests, I like the game as it is, and am happy to put up with some imperfections (not that those who do complain and request are doing anything wrong of course), but this is one thing I feel the need to voice my (hopefully respectful) opinion on.

    I think it depends on how they do it. Minecraft can give us an example of how it can be "online" and "offline" at the same time, *and* protect younger children. It has a 10+ rating (so even younger kids than "T for Teen" can play it.) Yet they have ways of doing online that are still safe. They use "Realms" for instance, that allows players to play with others, including restricting it to only those you know. (It's also subscription based like we've had hints that TS5 might be.) You can also have a private server where only invited people can play with you. But they also have open servers. I haven't used that version so although I've seen it offered, I don't know if they have ways of preventing "people who go after children" from having access to them. But as a parent, I would think that there would be ways of limiting your child's experience online. And Sims could work the same way.

    I would hope that if we did have TS5 as an online game, it would work like Minecraft so that we could choose to play offline (as I prefer) or have multiplayer available for those who enjoy that (which I don't care for but wouldn't want to prevent for those who do like it.) I would hope that they could at least do as well as Minecraft has done.

    The problem, as always with EA executive decisions and actual development: the purse strings are far too tight to do both offline and online effectively (i.e., engaging and immersive for the players). Quality in both modes will be sacrificed - as witnessed by the Sim City 2013 saga. EA will simply not be willing to expend the $$'s necessary to run two different platforms of the game. Period. We will be left with two inferior modes of The Sims game - and both will be poor imitations of the over-arching vision for The Sims . . . only with micro-transactions added to the general grief.
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,584 Member
    I can't see The Sims as Minecraft. :(

  • Jaline33Jaline33 Posts: 1,167 Member
    Rflong7 wrote: »
    I can't see The Sims as Minecraft. :(

    Me, either. :(
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