Guiding principles
- Opt-in only
- You pay a low monthly fee and earn equivalent tokens each month worth what you pay
- You can redeem these tokens for the packs you want
- Some tiny, occasional Sims Delivery Express type of CAS or Build/Buy objects to encourage subscriptions
Example
You pay $5 each month and earn 5 tokens each month. Packs
on paper cost:
EP: 40 tokens
GP: 20 tokens
SP: 10 tokens
Kits: 5 tokens
You earn these tokens from being a subscriber and can redeem them to buy packs, whichever ones you want. You are never forced to buy anything. But perhaps to reward you from giving EA a consistent subscription revenue stream, you can buy these back for less than their paper cost (i.e. on sale). Think buying an EP on release for 35 tokens instead of 40 dollars. You also happen to get a few new objects that month. You can only get those objects from being a subscriber in that month i.e. no retroactive obtainment of special objects.
Target Customers
- Customers who buy most or all packs and would appreciate discounts
- Customers who wouldn't mind a small fee because they are engaged with the Sims community and would appreciate regular accrual of credits with which to redeem packs
Thoughts? Personally, the only way I'm accepting a subscription model is if it offers me discounts and choice in redeeming which packs I want.
Comments
Yeah. Subscriber-exclusive items would certainly boost the number of subscriptions but also p*** off the fanbase.
Why should the player who just discovered Sims because they just turned the appropriate age be forbidden from having an item just because they weren't playing the game a month ago?
Also means that a player doesn't feel pressured to keep a subscription up they can't afford and they aren't actively playing the game at the moment due to real life issues.
My suggestions:
Tokens are fine, but of the packs you can only buy kits with tokens (larger packs are enough work that they should be bought with real money outside of things earned from a subscription.
Items start off being the free monthly item(s) - number/type dependent on sub type. The next month (or maybe a few months later), you can buy them with tokens. After a year or so, they can be bought with real money as a say "2022 Subscriber Items Kit" with the price being appropriate. Any price difference can be argued to be the early access fee like what should happen with CC.
I agree with all of this except only being able to redeem tokens for kits. Because for me, the tokens ARE real money since they're just like a virtual currency akin to SimPoints. I would want to buy EPs and GPs because I like gameplay in general over CAS and Build/Buy. If I can only redeem for kits and have to pay even more money to buy packs separately, I would never subscribe to such a model.
That sounds extremely nice and fair, so I'm pretty sure we won't get anything similar to that. This is EA we're talking about
It'll most likely be like playstation plus where you're paying a monthly subscription just to have access to online multiplayer mode. Then there will probably be lots of overpriced microtransactions for a small amount of content like they have in Sims Mobile right now.
I've been an MMORPG player for a long time and have witnessed the decline in quality across multiple online games so far. If Sims 5 is going to be multiplayer and subscription-based, I have no hope for it. I don't trust EA to make something amazing like Stardew Valley. Greedy companies ruin their games.
It would be nice if Maxis/EA actually proved me wrong, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
They are just example numbers. It's just a thought experiment. If this were a thing, it would be fine-tuned to make sense.
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
So, I hope this is not the direction they go with the franchise.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Because the tokens are from the subscription service.
The GP's and EP's deserve money to be spent for that purpose only.
EA deserves to know which packs are worth it to players. With tokens the token system complicates things: are they buying them because they want the pack or because they have nothing else they want to spend tokens on.
The kits are basically exactly the type of stuff I would expect to see in the token system. Mostly clothes and build items with the occasional item that adds gameplay.
It would also mean that anything else they put in wouldn't be bought with tokens most likely: because EA's just going to release and GP or EP that will take my tokens so I'll hold off and buy them with those.
I wouldn't want it this way.
Subscription is fine for multiplayer online games, because you need to connect to a server to play, but not for single player games like The Sims.
I play Sims 3, and I'm happy that I have it on physical discs and the super patch and all my saves, mods, CC and downloads on backup drives. The game and my sims are important to me, and I don't want to be dependent on companies and servers I have no control over when I have to re-install the game on this or on a new computer.
The only reason which could push me to subscribe would be the warranty of new content twice a month and new worlds like TS3 Store did.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General Discussion+ $5 Stuff Pack (or $0 on sale)
+ $15 Game Pack (or $10 on sale)
+ $35 Expansion Pack (or $15 on sale)
And $5 x 12 months = $60, it wouldn't be enough.
2015 : 8 packs, $160
2016 : 7 packs, $110
2017 : 6 packs, $110
2018 : 5 packs, $120
2019 : 5 packs, $130
2020 : 5 packs, $120
2021 : 12 packs, $115
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General DiscussionRepose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
So, after so much time or on certain renewal dates, you need to be able to pick packs to own for good.
And of course, optional. I don't like subs or deferred payments which end up costing more. However, I understand debt as a societal tool. I just don't like it's use for something as frivolous as entertainment, personally.
But this 20yr franchise is made up of an entirely different demographic. The Sims community is just as unique as the genre it ushered in. drastic/slight change is not usually handled well.
All-access Content vs Tokens for Packs
Entertaining Gameplay vs Easy Objectives, Stale Interactions, Boring Environment, No Story Progression
Excellent Performance vs Err codes, Bugs, Glitches
Then maybe a Sims 5 monthly sub is possible or could even be successful.
i apoligize to say this but @simmerorigin but you need to realise not everyone can afford or went as a player to pay such a fee you also need no matter how diffrent opinions are learn to respect opinions of others thats what forums are made for so that players can post there opinion on the subject and as a player i am againts that idea 1000%
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I still think the game should have both single player mode and online mode as usual.
Best option is to do it the Square enix way when it comes to the subscription model but to make it easy to pay to play which is what SE lacks atm.
DLC's will work the same as usual, they will work for both MMO mode and single player mode once you buy it.
There, I fixed all the typos.
Edit: I should of said online mode and offline mode, but whatever. >.>
In your opinion it's not a terrible idea. But in friendlysimmers' mind it is a terrible idea. Neither of you are wrong.
Just because this is a hypothetical discussion of what EA should do, doesn't mean that players can't come in and state that nothing would make a subscription service for the game something they would want - regardless of if it's optional or not.
And let's not kid ourselves, EA are greedy. They will make it so that people are highly incentivized and rewarded for doing an optional subscription.