I personally see the point everyone has here, but this store will not be what they are thinking. There is no possible way that it adds new playability to the game, it is probably just a lot with a WA type cash register that functions like all other cash registers. The other "exclusive" items are probably non-functional decor, which he just admitted by saying they were available in the buy catalog. The question I want to know, is WHY there wasn't some sort of functional pet store added in the game? It completely defeats the purpose by having to leave the game and enter create-a-pet to add a cat or dog to your household. They simply do not care what they produce. As the game producers they should be doing everything in their power to make this game as fun and full as possible bringing in every idea they can, but it is strikingly relevant that they don't put very much thought into what goes into their games. Expansion after expansion there is things that are skipped over and there is absolutely no logical reason as to why they were left out. (I'm not going into detail) To top it off, while months go by with no patches or any news about updates to games that are bugged, and severely unplayable they still seem to come out with a new store set each month.(they have nothing to do with each other, but the team in charge of fixing the bugs is doing something, just not their job) They prey on the long time and short time fans of the sims who are willing to spend their money on the game, and most of which don't realize they are being ripped off. This team needs to crack down and take this game seriously. While people may not realize now that the game is headed downward in terms of actual gameplay, they will in the future understand that the game was exploited for it's popularity and ruined because the developers wouldn't fill each game with new activities. People love to bring Maxis into this, but the reality is when Maxis was in charge things WERE different, even if they are the same people still.
I personally see the point everyone has here, but this store will not be what they are thinking. There is no possible way that it adds new playability to the game, it is probably just a lot with a WA type cash register that functions like all other cash registers. The other "exclusive" items are probably non-functional decor, which he just admitted by saying they were available in the buy catalog. The question I want to know, is WHY there wasn't some sort of functional pet store added in the game? It completely defeats the purpose by having to leave the game and enter create-a-pet to add a cat or dog to your household. They simply do not care what they produce. As the game producers they should be doing everything in their power to make this game as fun and full as possible bringing in every idea they can, but it is strikingly relevant that they don't put very much thought into what goes into their games. Expansion after expansion there is things that are skipped over and there is absolutely no logical reason as to why they were left out. (I'm not going into detail) To top it off, while months go by with no patches or any news about updates to games that are bugged, and severely unplayable they still seem to come out with a new store set each month.(they have nothing to do with each other, but the team in charge of fixing the bugs is doing something, just not their job) They prey on the long time and short time fans of the sims who are willing to spend their money on the game, and most of which don't realize they are being ripped off. This team needs to crack down and take this game seriously. While people may not realize now that the game is headed downward in terms of actual gameplay, they will in the future understand that the game was exploited for it's popularity and ruined because the developers wouldn't fill each game with new activities. People love to bring Maxis into this, but the reality is when Maxis was in charge things WERE different, even if they are the same people still.
The pet store is exactly as you describe it. That's what people are saying.
As for the other bits, well, assuming that you are no longer supporting the game by continuing to buy their expansion packs, then the game's playability or value is no longer your concern.
As for fans not realizing that they are being ripped off, that's simply your opinion. I, for one, don't feel ripped off at all. I quite enjoy the gameplay as it is now, and I am sure that the Dev Team will add more interactions as they add more expansion packs. Whether they will be the kinds of interactions you seem to want remains to be seen.
EA Marketing Department Motto:
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally) I Took The Pledge!
This doesn't explain why some retailers are selling this for $10 extra. For example, GameStop. There's no reference to this being a bundled edition, so what's going on?
So we can't build pet stores if we buy the regular version?
It's not a pet store persay, but more of a pet accessory store. Essentially it's just pets furniture from the catalogue, just with the extra option of buying at the store, like buying candles and birthday cakes at the supermarket despite being in the catalogue. It's more of a social place by the sounds of it, like the museum.
The actual method of the aquisition of the pets themselves has yet to be revealved, but it will not in any way shape or form require the Limited Edition Pet Store.
Okay, now I feel a teeny bit better -- if the stuff is available in Buy Mode, the Pet Store basically just serves as a place for Sims and their pets to meet other Sims and their pets, it sounds like...and I'd rather build a Pet Park for that sort of thing.
As for pet acquisition, I'd expect it to work similar to Sims 2; either in Create-A-Sim, or through adoption where you're given a choice of pets. Wonder if there'll be an Animal Control Officer to round up stray animals and to take back pets that are mistreated by their owners, just like the Social Worker takes away kids that are neglected?
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
Why do people have to question business antics of such a large corporation? It seems like a waste of a post, really. It's simple, if you want the extra content that the Limited Edition has to offer(not just the Pet Store-- there is more to come, this is just what we KNOW OF at the moment) then pre-order, if you really could care less about the extra goodies and just want animals added to your game, then get the regular addition.
It makes perfect sense why they are doing this. Most people wait to buy EPs to read reviews and watch the price go down-- this way will get many people to pre-order and in essence, pay more. It's just business, don't ask questions just to wonder what EA's "evil scheme" is...
Why do people have to question business antics of such a large corporation? It seems like a waste of a post, really. It's simple, if you want the extra content that the Limited Edition has to offer(not just the Pet Store-- there is more to come, this is just what we KNOW OF at the moment) then pre-order, if you really could care less about the extra goodies and just want animals added to your game, then get the regular addition.
It makes perfect sense why they are doing this. Most people wait to buy EPs to read reviews and watch the price go down-- this way will get many people to pre-order and in essence, pay more. It's just business, don't ask questions just to wonder what EA's "evil scheme" is...
:roll:
-SimChick
DITTO! EXACTLY! THANK YOU, SimChick!
I would much rather EA run in the green so they can continue to make us our lovely sim games. I don't find this marketing plan to be a shock at all. I found it quite interesting how they gave away so many free copies of OLS recently with Generations. Seems to me that the demand wasn't exactly what they had hoped. Certainly, having a good estimate as to how many CD copies of the game they are going to need for release day, is a great way to maintain operating costs. They get us to help them buy throwing us a bone or two.
Perhaps its merely a coincidence with the OLS, but makes sense to me. Especially for a company that is planning to go completely digital.
What is the official date it's released for the PC>
Also how long after u pre ordered they game will u get? the day it's released?
Hi Jessie, we haven't announced the official release date for Pets yet, so please look for that in the future.
As far as preordering, the wait time entirely depends who you order from and the shipping method you select. Many retailers offer overnight shipping or in-store pickup so that you can have the game the same day it comes out.
I live in Holland and the Limited Edition is only available for me in digital form. I find that unfair.
As I collect The Sims boxes from the very beginning of the franches I would like to have at least the option to either buy the digital version OR the box version. I've read that EA is going digital, but give at least all the players over the world the same option to choose, and not only America.
I'm really looking ofward to this game and I hope to get the Limited Edition in box form in my country as well.
Thank you for clarifying! This answered all of my questions, except one and a half:
I live in Australia, and I have a Mac. I went to the Origin Website, but it said "PC game". Is it another dual game (PC/Mac?)? And if I order it off the Origin website, will it arrive to me in Australia on-time? Or will I have to wait several weeks to get it?
Thank you,
Islaymca
The bizarre thing about this is that the Sims games seem to be a franchise with a really long tail, in terms of sales. This tactic will net a rush of sales for the limited edition, but probably also create far more interest in buying second hand in the long run, posing a mild threat (but not, I suppose, a huge one?) to that long tail effect.
The benefit of this plan is murky. It seems to generate more ill-will toward EA (like they need THAT) from Sims consumers, create a serious appetite to only buy this title second hand rather than new, and net… …what… …a decent number more preorders?
But aren’t the drawn out sales one of the advantages of this franchise?
What’s the benefit for EA here?
Increased hostility from their already fatigued customers?
A stronger sense that The Sims team is all clumsy marketing and faux-engagement, however otherwise talented?
More... ...confusion?
A quick, one-time injection of cash doesn't seem worth the trouble of programming this venue and content then offering it only temporarily. It just seems to raise that perpetual question: Why this? Why not invest that time fixing the enduring bugs instead of programming this for TEMPORARY release, thereby actually consolidating the player-to-franchise relationship for once, rather than undermining it?
This sort of content makes sense for EA as a registration reward... ...but preorder only? ***?
<rhetoricalquestion> What on Earth am I missing here? </rhetoricalquestion>
*patiently awaits Mojang's hostile takeover of The Sims franchise. I'll wait decades, if necessary. I'm young.*
Thank you for clearing things up. I do have a question. Will the Limited Edition be available on the Steam Store when it comes out?
Hi NinjaNicole. I don't have anything to share about Steam at this time, you'll have to continue checking their service for the time being to see if they'll be offering the Pets Limited Edition. I certainly hope we get it on there!
As far as I can tell, the only difference between buying it on release and waiting for it, is I'm sure you've all noticed all the "is this ep worth buying?" all over the forums every time a new one is released. Instead of waiting for other people to say if they should get the expansion pack or not, they're pressuring people to buy it right away.
"aah! Well you COULD wait for the review. But what if you like it and now you can't have the shop? May as well buy it NOW!"
It takes out EA's risk factor that the game won't review favorably and boosts immediate sales.
I still don't agree with it, though it's not as big a deal as we originally thought. Still sneaky, though.
I have a statement, I for one may or msy not buy this EP, unless the Limited Edition is available to everyone including us Aussies, cos I went to EB Games today, and they told me that there is no Limited Edition in their store, and when it comes in, October, so us Aussies will miss out then?!
A quick, one-time injection of cash doesn't seem worth the trouble of programming this venue and content then offering it only temporarily. It just seems to raise that perpetual question: Why this?
Because there isn't much programming involved. Consider the alternative: EA could make such a building and sell it in the Store. How many simpoints should it cost?
The Pet Store is only just a new building added to the game. So in reality it doesn't involve any programming at all.
Why not invest that time fixing the enduring bugs instead of programming this for TEMPORARY release, thereby actually consolidating the player-to-franchise relationship for once, rather than undermining it?
For the following reasons:
1. EA doesn't get payed for releasing patches.
2. To postpone a game for only a couple of months having a lot of programmers testing and fixing bugs will still cost EA something like millions. But the game won't really sell better and people won't be willing to pay a higher price for the game just because the game has fewer glitches.
3. It would cost EA a lot of programming hours just to identify which problems they should fix and which bugs that are only caused by bad CC or by insufficient video cards or by bugs in video drivers. To "solve" this problem EA could change the game so it didn't allow CC. But people would hate that even more than they hate the glitches.
3. It would cost EA a lot of programming hours just to identify which problems they should fix and which bugs that are only caused by bad CC or by insufficient video cards or by bugs in video drivers. To "solve" this problem EA could change the game so it didn't allow CC. But people would hate that even more than they hate the glitches.
I'm not talking about mysterious bugs. I'm talking about long-term bugs that are understood pretty clearly by higher level users - but not necessarily easily solved except by core or scripting mods: The lag-causing accumulation of hundreds of car objects around town, the inability to use WA dig sites that are not placed on lots, the on-going instabilities that occur from the sloppily implemented WA travel, the broken Well-Rested moodlet that doesn't calculate a Sim's mood properly and eventually makes them constantly miserable unless you restart the game.
These are not mysteries. Nor are they results of bad CC, or widely varying systems. They are just bad work unfixed by a company that recognises, arrogantly, that we've signed away our right to quality in the EULA. Well, fine, we have. That doesn't make it good business practice, though, and it makes all the marketing hype ring horribly, horribly hollow.
2. To postpone a game for only a couple of months having a lot of programmers testing and fixing bugs will still cost EA something like millions. But the game won't really sell better and people won't be willing to pay a higher price for the game just because the game has fewer glitches.
I'm deeply skeptical of the bolded portion of that text. I got both my base game and my Generations gifted to me by friends who returned to TS2 (I wasn't a simmer beforehand). I certainly think long and hard before buying TS3 titles simply because they lack the technical polish I would expect in almost any other software purchase (stress on the almost). And they continue to lack that polish long after release, if not forever, barring third party intervention where that's even possible.
Look how well games that take bugs fixes seriously sell: Starcraft II. Minecraft.
Perhaps the secret is to have "craft" in the name: "We care about the craft of game production."
It makes me, and I am far from alone, slightly ill-feeling that I can speak frankly like this, and the Sims team will not engage with anything except a hostile cautionary dismissal along the lines of: "It is a shame you feel this way. We appreciate your feedback. You can submit your concerns into our black hole of a support centre."
Yes I can. Yes I have before. On several issues. Most notably the WA travel bug acknowledged one month after the EP's release and fixed only a year later after a concerted campaign and endless thread bumping... ...across one entire year. For a whole year you kept an effectively useless product on the market! What is the point of selling WA if every few times you travel it tears your family tree up! That's fairly game-breaking.
Half the time the community understands the cause of an error fairly well. We know that the way Sims are moved between home worlds and WA locations is a messy affair, in technical terms (it's still buggy, it clones Sims sometimes). We know exactly what is wrong with the Late Night "Well Rested" moodlet bug. Apparently EA's support crew knows less about how TS3 functions than third party operators.
Far greater shame than my "feeling this way" is the shame the company earns itself. I don't want, or need, to feel this way. TS3 is, in bulk, an awesome game that should do EA proud, but instead drags their name through the mud for lack of care.
As far as the bright, bold, "positive" marketing goes: The emperor has no clothes on, guys!
In regards to the preorder from Origin itself, I did order the limited edition from origin, and they billed my credit card immediately. A few days passed then the money mysteriously appeared back on my card. Now this card is not a standard card its a vanilla mastercard which is a gift card. I did not intend to hold onto it forever, however the billing seems to insinuate that it will take the money back off the card at the shipping of the item(digital download). Is there a way for me to have another card billed closer to the date of release or am i stuck holding this card and wondering for 4 months?????
I'm talking about mysterious bugs. I'm talking about long-term bugs that are understood pretty clearly by higher level users - but not necessarily easily solved except by core or scripting mods: The lag-causing accumulation of hundreds of car objects around town, the inability to use WA dig sites that are not placed on lots, the on-going instabilities that occur from the sloppily implemented WA travel, the broken Well-Rested moodlet that doesn't calculate a Sim's mood properly and eventually makes them constantly miserable unless you restart the game.
These are not mysteries. Nor are they results of bad CC, or widely varying systems. They are just bad work unfixed by a company that recognises, arrogantly, that we've signed away our right to quality in the EULA.
I agree that EA ought to fix those things. But EA has two reasons not to do it:
1. If EA should make such a patch then EA would also have to consider which other bugs they should fix. This would require a lot of work (and money to pay all the programmers for doing the work). But people still wouldn't be satisfied even if EA fixed those things.
2. People - who are very aware of those bugs - already know how to fix them with mods. Those people will therefore still buy new EPs even if EA doesn't fix such bugs.
2. To postpone a game for only a couple of months having a lot of programmers testing and fixing bugs will still cost EA something like millions. But the game won't really sell better and people won't be willing to pay a higher price for the game just because the game has fewer glitches.
I'm deeply skeptical of the bolded portion of that text. I got both my base game and my Generations gifted to me by friends who returned to TS2 (I wasn't a simmer beforehand).
Those friends would probably have returned to the Sims 2 anyway. People don't usually return to the Sims 2 because of bugs. They usually do it because they don't like not to be able to control every family in the whole neighborhood. The Sims 3 just isn't the best Sims version for control freaks
Look how well games that take bugs fixes seriously sell: Starcraft II. Minecraft.
Those games still don't sell as well as the Sims games.
I know that other game companies have chosen to go on improving on their old games through patches even years after the release. But most of those companies have gone out of business while EA just have become more and more dominant among the surviving game companies.
Apparently EA's support crew knows less about how TS3 functions than third party operators.
Don't confuse EA's support crew with EA's development team!
Support people usually have very low wages (in all companies) because they usually don't have any real education. Most of them are just hired because they need the money and support people for games are hired because they are used to play many games and install them. They can therefore help customers who are not used to install such games and who have problems. Of course they can also ask colleagues for help with problems they can't answer themselves. But usually they just rely on their own personal experience. Support people don't know most of EA's games. So therefore they can't answer problems about game play or in-game problems.
On the other hand EA's development team know the game inside out. But they don't usually give customer support. They are educated game developers, programmers and graphic designers and they have much higher wages than the support people. They are also able to develop patches. But usually EA doesn't want them to do this kind of work for already released games unless it is absolutely necessary. Apparently EA's managers don't think that it pays to let those people develop patches instead of new games unless the released game doesn't work at all.
Far greater shame than my "feeling this way" is the shame the company earns itself. I don't want, or need, to feel this way. TS3 is, in bulk, an awesome game that should do EA proud, but instead drags their name through the mud for lack of care.
EA still doesn't care as long as people still buy the game
Well, coming from a corporate and communications background myself, I tend to think EA and The Sims 3 team should care a great deal about the damage they do to their brands and the relationship they foster with their customers.
They clearly DO care about the latter, they just manage it extremely poorly. As with this Limited Edition fiasco.
Well, coming from a corporate and communications background myself, I tend to think EA and The Sims 3 team should care a great deal about the damage they do to their brands and the relationship they foster with their customers.
There are huge differences between businesses. Some products are made by many companies and if people don't like the company they just buy a similar product from a different company.
But Sims games are not such a product because you can't buy similar games from other companies. If you like Sims games then you have to buy them from EA whether you like EA or not.
EA of course know that. So they don't care as much about such things as companies who make other kinds of products.
They clearly DO care about the latter, they just manage it extremely poorly. As with this Limited Edition fiasco.
I don't see why you think that the Limited Edition is a fiasco?
To put extra stuff into a limited edition to make more people pre-order is a cheap way of doing this. EA only has to ask one of their graphic designers to make a few things and immediately they have a "limited edition" which will cause more people to pre-order and this way make more people buy the game before EA has to reduce the price for the EP. EA doesn't have to sell many more packages before this give them profit
Comments
The pet store is exactly as you describe it. That's what people are saying.
As for the other bits, well, assuming that you are no longer supporting the game by continuing to buy their expansion packs, then the game's playability or value is no longer your concern.
As for fans not realizing that they are being ripped off, that's simply your opinion. I, for one, don't feel ripped off at all. I quite enjoy the gameplay as it is now, and I am sure that the Dev Team will add more interactions as they add more expansion packs. Whether they will be the kinds of interactions you seem to want remains to be seen.
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally)
I Took The Pledge!
I went to GameStop & pre-ordered mine from there...it's still listed as $39.99 :
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/the-sims-3-pets/91318
Okay, now I feel a teeny bit better -- if the stuff is available in Buy Mode, the Pet Store basically just serves as a place for Sims and their pets to meet other Sims and their pets, it sounds like...and I'd rather build a Pet Park for that sort of thing.
As for pet acquisition, I'd expect it to work similar to Sims 2; either in Create-A-Sim, or through adoption where you're given a choice of pets. Wonder if there'll be an Animal Control Officer to round up stray animals and to take back pets that are mistreated by their owners, just like the Social Worker takes away kids that are neglected?
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
DITTO! EXACTLY! THANK YOU, SimChick!
I would much rather EA run in the green so they can continue to make us our lovely sim games. I don't find this marketing plan to be a shock at all. I found it quite interesting how they gave away so many free copies of OLS recently with Generations. Seems to me that the demand wasn't exactly what they had hoped. Certainly, having a good estimate as to how many CD copies of the game they are going to need for release day, is a great way to maintain operating costs. They get us to help them buy throwing us a bone or two.
Perhaps its merely a coincidence with the OLS, but makes sense to me. Especially for a company that is planning to go completely digital.
Also how long after u pre ordered they game will u get? the day it's released?
Hi Jessie, we haven't announced the official release date for Pets yet, so please look for that in the future.
As far as preordering, the wait time entirely depends who you order from and the shipping method you select. Many retailers offer overnight shipping or in-store pickup so that you can have the game the same day it comes out.
As I collect The Sims boxes from the very beginning of the franches I would like to have at least the option to either buy the digital version OR the box version. I've read that EA is going digital, but give at least all the players over the world the same option to choose, and not only America.
I'm really looking ofward to this game and I hope to get the Limited Edition in box form in my country as well.
I live in Australia, and I have a Mac. I went to the Origin Website, but it said "PC game". Is it another dual game (PC/Mac?)? And if I order it off the Origin website, will it arrive to me in Australia on-time? Or will I have to wait several weeks to get it?
Thank you,
Islaymca
The benefit of this plan is murky. It seems to generate more ill-will toward EA (like they need THAT) from Sims consumers, create a serious appetite to only buy this title second hand rather than new, and net… …what… …a decent number more preorders?
But aren’t the drawn out sales one of the advantages of this franchise?
What’s the benefit for EA here?
Increased hostility from their already fatigued customers?
A stronger sense that The Sims team is all clumsy marketing and faux-engagement, however otherwise talented?
More... ...confusion?
A quick, one-time injection of cash doesn't seem worth the trouble of programming this venue and content then offering it only temporarily. It just seems to raise that perpetual question: Why this? Why not invest that time fixing the enduring bugs instead of programming this for TEMPORARY release, thereby actually consolidating the player-to-franchise relationship for once, rather than undermining it?
This sort of content makes sense for EA as a registration reward... ...but preorder only? ***?
<rhetoricalquestion> What on Earth am I missing here? </rhetoricalquestion>
*patiently awaits Mojang's hostile takeover of The Sims franchise. I'll wait decades, if necessary. I'm young.*
Hi NinjaNicole. I don't have anything to share about Steam at this time, you'll have to continue checking their service for the time being to see if they'll be offering the Pets Limited Edition. I certainly hope we get it on there!
"aah! Well you COULD wait for the review. But what if you like it and now you can't have the shop? May as well buy it NOW!"
It takes out EA's risk factor that the game won't review favorably and boosts immediate sales.
I still don't agree with it, though it's not as big a deal as we originally thought. Still sneaky, though.
The Pet Store is only just a new building added to the game. So in reality it doesn't involve any programming at all. For the following reasons:
1. EA doesn't get payed for releasing patches.
2. To postpone a game for only a couple of months having a lot of programmers testing and fixing bugs will still cost EA something like millions. But the game won't really sell better and people won't be willing to pay a higher price for the game just because the game has fewer glitches.
3. It would cost EA a lot of programming hours just to identify which problems they should fix and which bugs that are only caused by bad CC or by insufficient video cards or by bugs in video drivers. To "solve" this problem EA could change the game so it didn't allow CC. But people would hate that even more than they hate the glitches.
I'm not talking about mysterious bugs. I'm talking about long-term bugs that are understood pretty clearly by higher level users - but not necessarily easily solved except by core or scripting mods: The lag-causing accumulation of hundreds of car objects around town, the inability to use WA dig sites that are not placed on lots, the on-going instabilities that occur from the sloppily implemented WA travel, the broken Well-Rested moodlet that doesn't calculate a Sim's mood properly and eventually makes them constantly miserable unless you restart the game.
These are not mysteries. Nor are they results of bad CC, or widely varying systems. They are just bad work unfixed by a company that recognises, arrogantly, that we've signed away our right to quality in the EULA. Well, fine, we have. That doesn't make it good business practice, though, and it makes all the marketing hype ring horribly, horribly hollow.
I'm deeply skeptical of the bolded portion of that text. I got both my base game and my Generations gifted to me by friends who returned to TS2 (I wasn't a simmer beforehand). I certainly think long and hard before buying TS3 titles simply because they lack the technical polish I would expect in almost any other software purchase (stress on the almost). And they continue to lack that polish long after release, if not forever, barring third party intervention where that's even possible.
Look how well games that take bugs fixes seriously sell: Starcraft II. Minecraft.
Perhaps the secret is to have "craft" in the name: "We care about the craft of game production."
It makes me, and I am far from alone, slightly ill-feeling that I can speak frankly like this, and the Sims team will not engage with anything except a hostile cautionary dismissal along the lines of: "It is a shame you feel this way. We appreciate your feedback. You can submit your concerns into our black hole of a support centre."
Yes I can. Yes I have before. On several issues. Most notably the WA travel bug acknowledged one month after the EP's release and fixed only a year later after a concerted campaign and endless thread bumping... ...across one entire year. For a whole year you kept an effectively useless product on the market! What is the point of selling WA if every few times you travel it tears your family tree up! That's fairly game-breaking.
Half the time the community understands the cause of an error fairly well. We know that the way Sims are moved between home worlds and WA locations is a messy affair, in technical terms (it's still buggy, it clones Sims sometimes). We know exactly what is wrong with the Late Night "Well Rested" moodlet bug. Apparently EA's support crew knows less about how TS3 functions than third party operators.
Far greater shame than my "feeling this way" is the shame the company earns itself. I don't want, or need, to feel this way. TS3 is, in bulk, an awesome game that should do EA proud, but instead drags their name through the mud for lack of care.
As far as the bright, bold, "positive" marketing goes: The emperor has no clothes on, guys!
1. If EA should make such a patch then EA would also have to consider which other bugs they should fix. This would require a lot of work (and money to pay all the programmers for doing the work). But people still wouldn't be satisfied even if EA fixed those things.
2. People - who are very aware of those bugs - already know how to fix them with mods. Those people will therefore still buy new EPs even if EA doesn't fix such bugs. Those friends would probably have returned to the Sims 2 anyway. People don't usually return to the Sims 2 because of bugs. They usually do it because they don't like not to be able to control every family in the whole neighborhood. The Sims 3 just isn't the best Sims version for control freaks
I know that other game companies have chosen to go on improving on their old games through patches even years after the release. But most of those companies have gone out of business while EA just have become more and more dominant among the surviving game companies. Don't confuse EA's support crew with EA's development team!
Support people usually have very low wages (in all companies) because they usually don't have any real education. Most of them are just hired because they need the money and support people for games are hired because they are used to play many games and install them. They can therefore help customers who are not used to install such games and who have problems. Of course they can also ask colleagues for help with problems they can't answer themselves. But usually they just rely on their own personal experience. Support people don't know most of EA's games. So therefore they can't answer problems about game play or in-game problems.
On the other hand EA's development team know the game inside out. But they don't usually give customer support. They are educated game developers, programmers and graphic designers and they have much higher wages than the support people. They are also able to develop patches. But usually EA doesn't want them to do this kind of work for already released games unless it is absolutely necessary. Apparently EA's managers don't think that it pays to let those people develop patches instead of new games unless the released game doesn't work at all. EA still doesn't care as long as people still buy the game
They clearly DO care about the latter, they just manage it extremely poorly. As with this Limited Edition fiasco.
But Sims games are not such a product because you can't buy similar games from other companies. If you like Sims games then you have to buy them from EA whether you like EA or not.
EA of course know that. So they don't care as much about such things as companies who make other kinds of products. I don't see why you think that the Limited Edition is a fiasco?
To put extra stuff into a limited edition to make more people pre-order is a cheap way of doing this. EA only has to ask one of their graphic designers to make a few things and immediately they have a "limited edition" which will cause more people to pre-order and this way make more people buy the game before EA has to reduce the price for the EP. EA doesn't have to sell many more packages before this give them profit
I live in a rural part of a rural province. There are no Gamestops or EB games or anything like that. We only have a Wal-Mart which sucks.
What is the best way for me to pre-order and what's my time limit to assure I am pre-ordering the Limited Edition?