In other words expecting a real scheduled of any kind of pack is no longer possible. If something appeared to come out as some kind of schedule it is apparently just a coincidence as they really have no schedule and just put out packs as they feel like it. In past games each pack was apparently long range planned and with live service there is none of that.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I really hope that's not the case for every single EP. I feel like so far none of the EP's have enough content in them to make up for the long wait times. I really like City Living, but I don't think it should have taken a year to make that EP. It doesn't show in the content produced. I just feel like EA is at the end of its sims franchise. I think that they are not as dedicated to it as they used to be, and because of that a lot of the fans aren't as well. I have put my faith into TS4 and given it the benefit of the doubt, but nothings changed. EA hasn't improved, hasn't really been listening, and I'm tired of it. I have supported them for years, but I just feel so disappointed. I just wish they put as much love and effort into TS4 as they did the previous incarnations.
This is just my own opinion, I'm not speaking for the whole community or anything like that, just for myself personally.
In other words expecting a real scheduled of any kind of pack is no longer possible. If something appeared to come out as some kind of schedule it is apparently just a coincidence as they really have no schedule and just put out packs as they feel like it. In past games each pack was apparently long range planned and with live service there is none of that.
What is live service? Sorry, I haven't been following this game like I once did. (Hi Reg *waves*)
I really hate how they are running this game opposed to the way they did in the past. There just seems like there's no leadership at the top. It's all hit or miss. There's no excitement any more, the game itself is really slow, no matter how many features they add, I just can't play it for any length of time. Anyway, hope they bring back people from past Sims games. Those people knew how to build excitement, how and when to add content....they just knew how to make a game ;-(
In other words expecting a real scheduled of any kind of pack is no longer possible. If something appeared to come out as some kind of schedule it is apparently just a coincidence as they really have no schedule and just put out packs as they feel like it. In past games each pack was apparently long range planned and with live service there is none of that.
What is live service? Sorry, I haven't been following this game like I once did. (Hi Reg *waves*)
I really hate how they are running this game opposed to the way they did in the past. There just seems like there's no leadership at the top. It's all hit or miss. There's no excitement any more, the game itself is really slow, no matter how many features they add, I just can't play it for any length of time. Anyway, hope they bring back people from past Sims games. Those people knew how to build excitement, how and when to add content....they just knew how to make a game ;-(
It's on the 1st page of the thread, and much of the Sims team from Sims 2 is still there.
In other words expecting a real scheduled of any kind of pack is no longer possible. If something appeared to come out as some kind of schedule it is apparently just a coincidence as they really have no schedule and just put out packs as they feel like it. In past games each pack was apparently long range planned and with live service there is none of that.
What is live service? Sorry, I haven't been following this game like I once did. (Hi Reg *waves*)
I really hate how they are running this game opposed to the way they did in the past. There just seems like there's no leadership at the top. It's all hit or miss. There's no excitement any more, the game itself is really slow, no matter how many features they add, I just can't play it for any length of time. Anyway, hope they bring back people from past Sims games. Those people knew how to build excitement, how and when to add content....they just knew how to make a game ;-(
Hey Windweaver - as Gabe said - look at my post on the bottom of the 1 st. page - I copied and pasted what Graham said Live Service is.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Graham explains the Sims 4 is a live service - not like Sims before and why 1 ep or less - a year.
Quote:
Hey everyone, in the course of replying to someone on twitter yesterday, I see my comments have kicked off some lively discussion here on the forums. Twitter isn't a great format for detailed information on complex subjects, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post here and shine some light on what I was chatting about.
To start with - The Sims 4 has always been what we call a live service. I was a bit surprised to see this blow up on the forums today, as I didn't say anything that conflicts with our approach to The Sims 4 since the game launched. Nothing about what I said was intended to indicate we're in the middle of changing the way we operate, or that there's any new process being introduced that'll affect you, the players. What I was conveying is that The Sims 4 is the first game that our studio is handling in this manner. The transition I spoke of involved changing our approach to development and to the ongoing support that we provide when we moved from active development on The Sims 3 to The Sims 4.
So, what does being a live service mean then? All it should really mean to you is that The Sims 4 gets more frequent updates to address issues, as well as ongoing free content additions so that players are interested in checking back in and seeing what's new from time to time. It's an opportunity for us to have a more engaged community that's aware of upcoming plans for the content our studio is creating.
The biggest change is for us internally, with the way our studio approaches development. If you look back at The Sims 3, we weren't nearly as responsive to issues, or nimble with shuffling pack resources as we can be with our current approach. For most of its life, The Sims 3 had one expansion team, and one store team - each group fairly siloed in the content it developed. For a period of time a second expansion team in Salt Lake was added, but the flexible schedule we have currently wasn't possible then. Back then we would develop our pack, they would develop their pack, and occasionally we would combine our code & assets together. Patches were relatively infrequent on Sims 3 - if there was a problem in an expansion pack, it wasn't uncommon for it to not be fixed until the update for the following expansion pack. That problem was exacerbated with the addition of the Salt Lake team, where alternating expansion packs between the teams meant it could sometimes take a year for an issue from a pack to be addressed.
Operating as a live service removes a lot of those challenges I described in The Sims 3 for us. We have an expansion team, a game pack team, a stuff pack team, and an engagement team (engagement = the free content in game updates). We all sit together intermingled in the same studio, we develop multiple packs simultaneously between our teams, and our code and assets between those packs are integrated together daily (super important for facilitating simultaneous development of different packs). Some people in the studio even work on a few of those teams at the same time (that's actually one of the major things we've been trying to adjust to and create better development practices for.) We're able to be far more responsive to unexpected issues that crop up... the most recent example being we released Dine Out in early June, released a patch with fixes for Dine Out in mid June, and then included even more fixes for Dine Out in the Kids Room update that came out in late June. The gallery is an important feature to us as well; maintaining those servers so that they're always up and running to support sharing between the community requires ongoing attention.
For a producer like myself, treating the game as a live service can be a huge help. When we're planning a pack, production is like taking oddly shaped puzzle pieces and trying to fill up a box as much as possible without spilling over. In this metaphor, imagine that the box represents our schedule & budget, and we're filling the box with features and the people that will build them. In the past, the size of that "box" had to remain very rigid - as we filled it up, we couldn't easily make it larger if we felt it needed a bit more. With our live service approach, all of those resources are much more flexible in how we use them. If we get surprised by an issue and need to get an update out quickly, or if we feel that an upcoming pack could use a bit more added to it, we can divert resources in sensible ways so that we can release great content as well as being responsive to the live game that you're playing.
On that note, let me also try and dispel some misconceptions... Operating our development with a live service mentality has nothing to do with which types of packs are released or the cadence of their releases. Being a live service also has nothing to do with which themes or features get developed - the selection of content is completely unrelated. Finally, being a live service isn't related to how you acquire content, or how it's delivered to you. Your choice to purchase a digital copy, a retail disc, or a retail bundle isn't impacted by this.
Certainly the biggest change for us compared with past Sims titles is the addition of Game Packs. Stuff Packs evolved to include game play, which means they also draw additional resources when developing them. The engagement team is another brand new thing for us, and they create their own fully realized features to add in free updates. Expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, engagement features, and other outside factors all impact how we allocate internal headcount (who develops what, and when they do it), and where we fit each of those pieces of content in a yearly release schedule. Adding game packs and engagement features to what you've traditionally expected from The Sims has been an ongoing learning experience for us - both in terms of our development process, and in terms of understanding how each of these offerings are valued by players. Relatively speaking, a year and a half is a small sample size to fully see the impact of what are fairly significant changes for us at the studio. We'll continue experimenting, trying new things, and listening to your feedback, which is why some of you will recall me saying in the past to not look for patterns in the content we release.
Hopefully that helps clarify what a live service is to us!
UNquote.
That's a lot of information. No game should get as many patches and updates like ts4 and it's deff. Not the reason why we are getting like an EP per year. They are working on EPs as we speak, nothing was premeditated or organized to have reasonable release dates. To me it just sounds like it's all done last minute and that's why everything takes so long.
Well if the rumor of having a supernatural in a GP is true, then I hope it comes with a new world we can build in.
Supposedly there's a mention of a possible new world in the game code strings. We won't know of course until there's an announcement.
Just like a world? Or a world that will come in some GP. Cause up till now we haven't gotten any worlds except for Newcrest which I won't even get start with
Well if it is some of supernatural GP (which I have no doubt with animations found that specifically mention vampires and an animation for death by sunlight), it will probably be a world in it that's made for the GP.
It hard to believe a GP will be able to please supernatural fans... specially if it's just vampires like should we lose hope for other supernaturals?
In the Ask A Guru thread it was stated that an EP takes about 10 months to make, so yes, one a year. I can find the direct link, but I'm not inclined to do so.
In the Ask A Guru thread it was stated that an EP takes about 10 months to make, so yes, one a year. I can find the direct link, but I'm not inclined to do so.
The thing is that they should have been working on this while we still had ts3 but they were to busy with their failed online game...
Well if the rumor of having a supernatural in a GP is true, then I hope it comes with a new world we can build in.
Supposedly there's a mention of a possible new world in the game code strings. We won't know of course until there's an announcement.
True we don't know for sure, but leaks on new world tend to be true. I'm not talking about the fake ones that people do or false speculation though because I pay little to no attention to those.
They'd have better luck hiring veteran players full of ideas and inspiration at this rate for those expansion packs, or at least stuff packs with a coherent theme. I'd be all for designing a decent stuff pack.
Haven't we had enough of supernaturals already? How about something new?
Really? and which ones are those, since there is 0 in there at all already, when we finally do get them added, then others would be able to make that comment, but since 0 are in there, you really can not say that. I for one have been waiting from day 1 for Vamps, and Supernaturals, I can not wait for them to finally be added.
P.S. forgot to say that the Costumes for witches & pixies do not count, since that is all they are just costumes, not the chars themselves.
And not even supernaturals , just think abut the fake bears we got... in a GP. Even the sims 1 beat the sims 4 in that, we had a real bear
They'd have better luck hiring veteran players full of ideas and inspiration at this rate for those expansion packs, or at least stuff packs with a coherent theme. I'd be all for designing a decent stuff pack.
The whole community has given the developers good ideas. We have made countless threads about stuff we want and some of those things repeat themselves, the team is just not listening and not really working out of interest for their buyers. I mean they hear SOMETIMES , but not really.
Or maybe they do listen, they hear everything we suggest, but not every idea is good?
Just because people suggest it, doesn't mean they have to implement it.
Look at all the people who use photorealistic skins with nipples on females, and mods that remove the censor grid. Yes, they're popular, and yes, there's demand for it, but it doesn't fit the game's aesthetic at all, so it's not something Maxis is likely to implement, no matter how much support there is for it.
Graham explains the Sims 4 is a live service - not like Sims before and why 1 ep or less - a year.
Quote:
Hey everyone, in the course of replying to someone on twitter yesterday, I see my comments have kicked off some lively discussion here on the forums. Twitter isn't a great format for detailed information on complex subjects, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post here and shine some light on what I was chatting about.
To start with - The Sims 4 has always been what we call a live service. I was a bit surprised to see this blow up on the forums today, as I didn't say anything that conflicts with our approach to The Sims 4 since the game launched. Nothing about what I said was intended to indicate we're in the middle of changing the way we operate, or that there's any new process being introduced that'll affect you, the players. What I was conveying is that The Sims 4 is the first game that our studio is handling in this manner. The transition I spoke of involved changing our approach to development and to the ongoing support that we provide when we moved from active development on The Sims 3 to The Sims 4.
So, what does being a live service mean then? All it should really mean to you is that The Sims 4 gets more frequent updates to address issues, as well as ongoing free content additions so that players are interested in checking back in and seeing what's new from time to time. It's an opportunity for us to have a more engaged community that's aware of upcoming plans for the content our studio is creating.
The biggest change is for us internally, with the way our studio approaches development. If you look back at The Sims 3, we weren't nearly as responsive to issues, or nimble with shuffling pack resources as we can be with our current approach. For most of its life, The Sims 3 had one expansion team, and one store team - each group fairly siloed in the content it developed. For a period of time a second expansion team in Salt Lake was added, but the flexible schedule we have currently wasn't possible then. Back then we would develop our pack, they would develop their pack, and occasionally we would combine our code & assets together. Patches were relatively infrequent on Sims 3 - if there was a problem in an expansion pack, it wasn't uncommon for it to not be fixed until the update for the following expansion pack. That problem was exacerbated with the addition of the Salt Lake team, where alternating expansion packs between the teams meant it could sometimes take a year for an issue from a pack to be addressed.
Operating as a live service removes a lot of those challenges I described in The Sims 3 for us. We have an expansion team, a game pack team, a stuff pack team, and an engagement team (engagement = the free content in game updates). We all sit together intermingled in the same studio, we develop multiple packs simultaneously between our teams, and our code and assets between those packs are integrated together daily (super important for facilitating simultaneous development of different packs). Some people in the studio even work on a few of those teams at the same time (that's actually one of the major things we've been trying to adjust to and create better development practices for.) We're able to be far more responsive to unexpected issues that crop up... the most recent example being we released Dine Out in early June, released a patch with fixes for Dine Out in mid June, and then included even more fixes for Dine Out in the Kids Room update that came out in late June. The gallery is an important feature to us as well; maintaining those servers so that they're always up and running to support sharing between the community requires ongoing attention.
For a producer like myself, treating the game as a live service can be a huge help. When we're planning a pack, production is like taking oddly shaped puzzle pieces and trying to fill up a box as much as possible without spilling over. In this metaphor, imagine that the box represents our schedule & budget, and we're filling the box with features and the people that will build them. In the past, the size of that "box" had to remain very rigid - as we filled it up, we couldn't easily make it larger if we felt it needed a bit more. With our live service approach, all of those resources are much more flexible in how we use them. If we get surprised by an issue and need to get an update out quickly, or if we feel that an upcoming pack could use a bit more added to it, we can divert resources in sensible ways so that we can release great content as well as being responsive to the live game that you're playing.
On that note, let me also try and dispel some misconceptions... Operating our development with a live service mentality has nothing to do with which types of packs are released or the cadence of their releases. Being a live service also has nothing to do with which themes or features get developed - the selection of content is completely unrelated. Finally, being a live service isn't related to how you acquire content, or how it's delivered to you. Your choice to purchase a digital copy, a retail disc, or a retail bundle isn't impacted by this.
Certainly the biggest change for us compared with past Sims titles is the addition of Game Packs. Stuff Packs evolved to include game play, which means they also draw additional resources when developing them. The engagement team is another brand new thing for us, and they create their own fully realized features to add in free updates. Expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, engagement features, and other outside factors all impact how we allocate internal headcount (who develops what, and when they do it), and where we fit each of those pieces of content in a yearly release schedule. Adding game packs and engagement features to what you've traditionally expected from The Sims has been an ongoing learning experience for us - both in terms of our development process, and in terms of understanding how each of these offerings are valued by players. Relatively speaking, a year and a half is a small sample size to fully see the impact of what are fairly significant changes for us at the studio. We'll continue experimenting, trying new things, and listening to your feedback, which is why some of you will recall me saying in the past to not look for patterns in the content we release.
Hopefully that helps clarify what a live service is to us!
UNquote.
That's a lot of information. No game should get as many patches and updates like ts4 and it's deff. Not the reason why we are getting like an EP per year. They are working on EPs as we speak, nothing was premeditated or organized to have reasonable release dates. To me it just sounds like it's all done last minute and that's why everything takes so long.
A lot of newer games gets monthly patches like TS4 does, live service is just becoming the norm and shouldn't be considered a fault.
Game development does take a lot of organization as well, especially with a large studio like The Sims. It's not that things are unorganized for the reason why EPs take so long, the time it takes to develop an EP hasn't really changed between 3 and 4, it's really just that 3 had 2 EP teams which allowed them to pump one out every 5-6 months, but TS4 has only 1 team, so for us it'll be twice the time between expansions. But they are experimenting this time around with new gamepacks and new teams, and even though 2 years might seem like a lot to a regular player, it's not much in developing a game.
Well if the rumor of having a supernatural in a GP is true, then I hope it comes with a new world we can build in.
Supposedly there's a mention of a possible new world in the game code strings. We won't know of course until there's an announcement.
Just like a world? Or a world that will come in some GP. Cause up till now we haven't gotten any worlds except for Newcrest which I won't even get start with
Well if it is some of supernatural GP (which I have no doubt with animations found that specifically mention vampires and an animation for death by sunlight), it will probably be a world in it that's made for the GP.
It hard to believe a GP will be able to please supernatural fans... specially if it's just vampires like should we lose hope for other supernaturals?
Who knows? While vampires will probably be the main focus of the pack, I doubt it'll be the only supernatural. The walking animations and some voice files they found match zombie behavior. Maybe that 🐸🐸🐸🐸 costume found in the game files before GTW was announced will be put to use for actual gypsies. Like I said, who knows?
Ts4 keeps getting stuff changed like it's different from the base but still broken. Fix the bugs before redoing stuff here and there. GTA 5 is still the same as when it was released. Ts4 is a fishy game something is up with it.
Graham explains the Sims 4 is a live service - not like Sims before and why 1 ep or less - a year.
Quote:
Hey everyone, in the course of replying to someone on twitter yesterday, I see my comments have kicked off some lively discussion here on the forums. Twitter isn't a great format for detailed information on complex subjects, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post here and shine some light on what I was chatting about.
To start with - The Sims 4 has always been what we call a live service. I was a bit surprised to see this blow up on the forums today, as I didn't say anything that conflicts with our approach to The Sims 4 since the game launched. Nothing about what I said was intended to indicate we're in the middle of changing the way we operate, or that there's any new process being introduced that'll affect you, the players. What I was conveying is that The Sims 4 is the first game that our studio is handling in this manner. The transition I spoke of involved changing our approach to development and to the ongoing support that we provide when we moved from active development on The Sims 3 to The Sims 4.
So, what does being a live service mean then? All it should really mean to you is that The Sims 4 gets more frequent updates to address issues, as well as ongoing free content additions so that players are interested in checking back in and seeing what's new from time to time. It's an opportunity for us to have a more engaged community that's aware of upcoming plans for the content our studio is creating.
The biggest change is for us internally, with the way our studio approaches development. If you look back at The Sims 3, we weren't nearly as responsive to issues, or nimble with shuffling pack resources as we can be with our current approach. For most of its life, The Sims 3 had one expansion team, and one store team - each group fairly siloed in the content it developed. For a period of time a second expansion team in Salt Lake was added, but the flexible schedule we have currently wasn't possible then. Back then we would develop our pack, they would develop their pack, and occasionally we would combine our code & assets together. Patches were relatively infrequent on Sims 3 - if there was a problem in an expansion pack, it wasn't uncommon for it to not be fixed until the update for the following expansion pack. That problem was exacerbated with the addition of the Salt Lake team, where alternating expansion packs between the teams meant it could sometimes take a year for an issue from a pack to be addressed.
Operating as a live service removes a lot of those challenges I described in The Sims 3 for us. We have an expansion team, a game pack team, a stuff pack team, and an engagement team (engagement = the free content in game updates). We all sit together intermingled in the same studio, we develop multiple packs simultaneously between our teams, and our code and assets between those packs are integrated together daily (super important for facilitating simultaneous development of different packs). Some people in the studio even work on a few of those teams at the same time (that's actually one of the major things we've been trying to adjust to and create better development practices for.) We're able to be far more responsive to unexpected issues that crop up... the most recent example being we released Dine Out in early June, released a patch with fixes for Dine Out in mid June, and then included even more fixes for Dine Out in the Kids Room update that came out in late June. The gallery is an important feature to us as well; maintaining those servers so that they're always up and running to support sharing between the community requires ongoing attention.
For a producer like myself, treating the game as a live service can be a huge help. When we're planning a pack, production is like taking oddly shaped puzzle pieces and trying to fill up a box as much as possible without spilling over. In this metaphor, imagine that the box represents our schedule & budget, and we're filling the box with features and the people that will build them. In the past, the size of that "box" had to remain very rigid - as we filled it up, we couldn't easily make it larger if we felt it needed a bit more. With our live service approach, all of those resources are much more flexible in how we use them. If we get surprised by an issue and need to get an update out quickly, or if we feel that an upcoming pack could use a bit more added to it, we can divert resources in sensible ways so that we can release great content as well as being responsive to the live game that you're playing.
On that note, let me also try and dispel some misconceptions... Operating our development with a live service mentality has nothing to do with which types of packs are released or the cadence of their releases. Being a live service also has nothing to do with which themes or features get developed - the selection of content is completely unrelated. Finally, being a live service isn't related to how you acquire content, or how it's delivered to you. Your choice to purchase a digital copy, a retail disc, or a retail bundle isn't impacted by this.
Certainly the biggest change for us compared with past Sims titles is the addition of Game Packs. Stuff Packs evolved to include game play, which means they also draw additional resources when developing them. The engagement team is another brand new thing for us, and they create their own fully realized features to add in free updates. Expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, engagement features, and other outside factors all impact how we allocate internal headcount (who develops what, and when they do it), and where we fit each of those pieces of content in a yearly release schedule. Adding game packs and engagement features to what you've traditionally expected from The Sims has been an ongoing learning experience for us - both in terms of our development process, and in terms of understanding how each of these offerings are valued by players. Relatively speaking, a year and a half is a small sample size to fully see the impact of what are fairly significant changes for us at the studio. We'll continue experimenting, trying new things, and listening to your feedback, which is why some of you will recall me saying in the past to not look for patterns in the content we release.
Hopefully that helps clarify what a live service is to us!
UNquote.
That's a lot of information. No game should get as many patches and updates like ts4 and it's deff. Not the reason why we are getting like an EP per year. They are working on EPs as we speak, nothing was premeditated or organized to have reasonable release dates. To me it just sounds like it's all done last minute and that's why everything takes so long.
A lot of newer games gets monthly patches like TS4 does, live service is just becoming the norm and shouldn't be considered a fault.
Game development does take a lot of organization as well, especially with a large studio like The Sims. It's not that things are unorganized for the reason why EPs take so long, the time it takes to develop an EP hasn't really changed between 3 and 4, it's really just that 3 had 2 EP teams which allowed them to pump one out every 5-6 months, but TS4 has only 1 team, so for us it'll be twice the time between expansions. But they are experimenting this time around with new gamepacks and new teams, and even though 2 years might seem like a lot to a regular player, it's not much in developing a game.
Keep in mind Graham wrote that - not me - all I did was copy and paste. Also Sims 3 did not have 2 teams until the 4th year it was out and it still managed to give us two a year. The last year had 3 eps. But Graham made the point Sims 4 is a who new way of doing the Sims which he stated was the live service - so it is very much why one ep a year - if we are lucky as I heard one other Guru state - "or longer" during one of the game play sessions.
They basically said all the ways we previously had The Sims game all changed with Sims 4 and live service. We apparently are supposed to forget all about Sims 1, 2, and 3 period. At least that is what I took from this and other things the devs are saying lately. I hope I took it wrongly this time though.
Also better get used to constant patches 1-2 a month every month that is the way live service works. Nvidias is doing it as well, as is Steam now. Every other week I have each of those and Origin as well as Maxis updating and patching something. Nvidia has had a new patch a week for the last 5 or so weeks - everywhere will be doing it like that soon as every ones seems to be going to live service just about. EA has regular patching also of my EA games, as is Bethesna for Fall out 4 - places are going patch nuts - I swear.
Post edited by Writin_Reg on
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
They'd have better luck hiring veteran players full of ideas and inspiration at this rate for those expansion packs, or at least stuff packs with a coherent theme. I'd be all for designing a decent stuff pack.
EA requirements and credentials to work there is more important than how well one knows the games now a days. None of my degrees would ever get me in to EA - believe me.
A lot of newer games gets monthly patches like TS4 does, live service is just becoming the norm and shouldn't be considered a fault.
Game development does take a lot of organization as well, especially with a large studio like The Sims. It's not that things are unorganized for the reason why EPs take so long, the time it takes to develop an EP hasn't really changed between 3 and 4, it's really just that 3 had 2 EP teams which allowed them to pump one out every 5-6 months, but TS4 has only 1 team, so for us it'll be twice the time between expansions. But they are experimenting this time around with new gamepacks and new teams, and even though 2 years might seem like a lot to a regular player, it's not much in developing a game.
From the sound of it, the addition of game packs and the evolution of stuff packs has affected the cadence of expansion packs. And I'm not convinced this is a bad thing. I was not here for sims 3 or prior, admittedly, but in my view, every GP has done a really good job of offsetting the complaints centering around EPs and SPs.
In a little over two years, we've gotten 3 EPs, 3 GPs, and 9 SPs. Plus some non-pack additions, like the Nanny, Gardener, and Swimming Pools. So we're getting quite a bit of stuff added over time. It's just more segmented.
I would like to point out, also, that for all the bad rap SPs get (and I do believe some of that bad rap is justified), they do have one advantage, which is that they can (and in many ways, have) served as a nice way of squeaking in bits and pieces of themes and features that would otherwise be difficult to put in a larger pack, without it feeling out of place. Thus avoiding a situation where some of those little features and themes might otherwise be delayed while waiting for a larger pack where the theme fits.
It is release game and patch as you go, it not necessarily a bad thing depending on how bad the bug is.
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Comments
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
This is just my own opinion, I'm not speaking for the whole community or anything like that, just for myself personally.
yeah, like me
What is live service? Sorry, I haven't been following this game like I once did. (Hi Reg *waves*)
I really hate how they are running this game opposed to the way they did in the past. There just seems like there's no leadership at the top. It's all hit or miss. There's no excitement any more, the game itself is really slow, no matter how many features they add, I just can't play it for any length of time. Anyway, hope they bring back people from past Sims games. Those people knew how to build excitement, how and when to add content....they just knew how to make a game ;-(
It's on the 1st page of the thread, and much of the Sims team from Sims 2 is still there.
Hey Windweaver - as Gabe said - look at my post on the bottom of the 1 st. page - I copied and pasted what Graham said Live Service is.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
That's a lot of information. No game should get as many patches and updates like ts4 and it's deff. Not the reason why we are getting like an EP per year. They are working on EPs as we speak, nothing was premeditated or organized to have reasonable release dates. To me it just sounds like it's all done last minute and that's why everything takes so long.
It hard to believe a GP will be able to please supernatural fans... specially if it's just vampires like should we lose hope for other supernaturals?
The thing is that they should have been working on this while we still had ts3 but they were to busy with their failed online game...
True we don't know for sure, but leaks on new world tend to be true. I'm not talking about the fake ones that people do or false speculation though because I pay little to no attention to those.
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Amen to that,
The whole community has given the developers good ideas. We have made countless threads about stuff we want and some of those things repeat themselves, the team is just not listening and not really working out of interest for their buyers. I mean they hear SOMETIMES , but not really.
Just because people suggest it, doesn't mean they have to implement it.
Look at all the people who use photorealistic skins with nipples on females, and mods that remove the censor grid. Yes, they're popular, and yes, there's demand for it, but it doesn't fit the game's aesthetic at all, so it's not something Maxis is likely to implement, no matter how much support there is for it.
A lot of newer games gets monthly patches like TS4 does, live service is just becoming the norm and shouldn't be considered a fault.
Game development does take a lot of organization as well, especially with a large studio like The Sims. It's not that things are unorganized for the reason why EPs take so long, the time it takes to develop an EP hasn't really changed between 3 and 4, it's really just that 3 had 2 EP teams which allowed them to pump one out every 5-6 months, but TS4 has only 1 team, so for us it'll be twice the time between expansions. But they are experimenting this time around with new gamepacks and new teams, and even though 2 years might seem like a lot to a regular player, it's not much in developing a game.
Who knows? While vampires will probably be the main focus of the pack, I doubt it'll be the only supernatural. The walking animations and some voice files they found match zombie behavior. Maybe that 🐸🐸🐸🐸 costume found in the game files before GTW was announced will be put to use for actual gypsies. Like I said, who knows?
Keep in mind Graham wrote that - not me - all I did was copy and paste. Also Sims 3 did not have 2 teams until the 4th year it was out and it still managed to give us two a year. The last year had 3 eps. But Graham made the point Sims 4 is a who new way of doing the Sims which he stated was the live service - so it is very much why one ep a year - if we are lucky as I heard one other Guru state - "or longer" during one of the game play sessions.
They basically said all the ways we previously had The Sims game all changed with Sims 4 and live service. We apparently are supposed to forget all about Sims 1, 2, and 3 period. At least that is what I took from this and other things the devs are saying lately. I hope I took it wrongly this time though.
Also better get used to constant patches 1-2 a month every month that is the way live service works. Nvidias is doing it as well, as is Steam now. Every other week I have each of those and Origin as well as Maxis updating and patching something. Nvidia has had a new patch a week for the last 5 or so weeks - everywhere will be doing it like that soon as every ones seems to be going to live service just about. EA has regular patching also of my EA games, as is Bethesna for Fall out 4 - places are going patch nuts - I swear.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
EA requirements and credentials to work there is more important than how well one knows the games now a days. None of my degrees would ever get me in to EA - believe me.
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"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
In a little over two years, we've gotten 3 EPs, 3 GPs, and 9 SPs. Plus some non-pack additions, like the Nanny, Gardener, and Swimming Pools. So we're getting quite a bit of stuff added over time. It's just more segmented.
I would like to point out, also, that for all the bad rap SPs get (and I do believe some of that bad rap is justified), they do have one advantage, which is that they can (and in many ways, have) served as a nice way of squeaking in bits and pieces of themes and features that would otherwise be difficult to put in a larger pack, without it feeling out of place. Thus avoiding a situation where some of those little features and themes might otherwise be delayed while waiting for a larger pack where the theme fits.