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Dear Sims 4 gurus, dev team, and marketing team
MorinGlory23
Posts: 64 Member
First, I just want to thank you guys for the 5 years you have dedicated to the Sims 4 franchise. Some of you have even worked on the Sims 2, my favorite 😊, and the Sims 3, also a goody. The strives you guys have made in the life simulation game is amazing and must be appreciated. Still to date, there is no other game that can touch or replace the sims. And that is thanks to your hard work. Both from the current team and those who have worked on the sims in the past. As a player, I can say I truly love the sims, in fact its want helped me figure out what I want to do with and strive for in my life, to become a game developer. And I truly must say thank you. A million Thank Yous. Whenever in stressed from college, life, or work, I know I can turn to the sims and forget for a bit. No other game has done that for me, and mind you I have been playing the sims since I was 7 (I'm 22 now). The Sims even helped me cope with the reality of losing my mother and grandfathers within months of each other. I can't tell you how often I would make a mother sim and end up crying when she would, autonomously, hug or play with her children.
That's why I'm so invested in the sims, why I try to support the game when I can, from buying all the Sims 2 content (well mostly my dad since I was still a kid and couldn't work) to buying items from the Sims 3 store to just recently buying Island Living once I had saved twice the amount. But, despite all the praise and my loyalty to the franchise, I must say I'm worried for the future of the game. I dread the day when the series is brought to an end, meaning newer generations might not get to experience the game the way millions of us players, old and new, have. Which is why I beg you to read this message before it is buried in the forums.
The Sims 4 is severely lacking in many of the core components that made the previous versions stand up and out from each other. The base game feels very unfinished, which is understandable with a time crunch and deadlines to meet. However, that doesnt mean, 5 years in, that you still can't go back and improve on it. Yes, patching the game does help, but do more than that. When and wherever possible, go back and relook at the base game, see what is missing, lacking, or was left unfinished. As people who clearly have a passion and love for the game, see this as a challenge to do better. If its within budget go for it! If its possible to do, go for it! Show us why you guys spent years learning how to build and work the Sims, not just what the higher ups tell you to do. Same goes with EPs, GPs, and SPs. Each new pack made for the Sims 4 is made with only the base, seasons, and sometimes pets involved. But that has shown to hurt previous packs or makes integration among pack difficult. Prime examples: The conservationist and political careers are only made to work with base and their respective packs involved. This is understandable, not everyone has every DLC so new DLC has to be compatible with the base and what they do have. But for players who do have most if not all DLC, cross pack gameplay should be considered. Like making the conversationalist career playable in Brindleton Bay if you have pets or starting a protest in Del Sol Valley to gain supporters. These are things that can be done with patches, again if its possible then try to do it, if not you can say "we tried but it didnt work THIS TIME. Doesnt mean it wont work later". Also, patching and fixing bugs from older DLC should not be abandoned once newer packs come out. Leaving bugs to be fixed by mods is messy business practices. Prime Example is GTW and Dine Out: both are still broken years after their initial release with barely any patches that fix major and core problems. Seeing things as challenging should push you guys to try and overcome them. Atleast that's what I try to do when pursuing what I want to see or make happen. Only once all possible options within my abilities are used up is when I throw in the towel, but I still come back later to try a new way. That's how it should be when working on the sims or any game. The sims has no competition right now, but that doesn't mean there isn't someone out there who is watching and learning with the drive to make something better. It can be seen in the recent surge of Indie titles remaking popular games: Citiskylines for Simcity, Planet Coaster or Coaster Tycoon, and multiple Zoo Tycoon replacements. Its only a matter of time before the Sims has it's own competition. So why not make things interesting and push the boundaries of the game?
I'm sorry for the long post, I just wanted to say me piece. At the end of the day, I love the sims and enjoy being counted as a simmer. That why i care so much about the future of the game and want the best for it and its creators and its players.
That's why I'm so invested in the sims, why I try to support the game when I can, from buying all the Sims 2 content (well mostly my dad since I was still a kid and couldn't work) to buying items from the Sims 3 store to just recently buying Island Living once I had saved twice the amount. But, despite all the praise and my loyalty to the franchise, I must say I'm worried for the future of the game. I dread the day when the series is brought to an end, meaning newer generations might not get to experience the game the way millions of us players, old and new, have. Which is why I beg you to read this message before it is buried in the forums.
The Sims 4 is severely lacking in many of the core components that made the previous versions stand up and out from each other. The base game feels very unfinished, which is understandable with a time crunch and deadlines to meet. However, that doesnt mean, 5 years in, that you still can't go back and improve on it. Yes, patching the game does help, but do more than that. When and wherever possible, go back and relook at the base game, see what is missing, lacking, or was left unfinished. As people who clearly have a passion and love for the game, see this as a challenge to do better. If its within budget go for it! If its possible to do, go for it! Show us why you guys spent years learning how to build and work the Sims, not just what the higher ups tell you to do. Same goes with EPs, GPs, and SPs. Each new pack made for the Sims 4 is made with only the base, seasons, and sometimes pets involved. But that has shown to hurt previous packs or makes integration among pack difficult. Prime examples: The conservationist and political careers are only made to work with base and their respective packs involved. This is understandable, not everyone has every DLC so new DLC has to be compatible with the base and what they do have. But for players who do have most if not all DLC, cross pack gameplay should be considered. Like making the conversationalist career playable in Brindleton Bay if you have pets or starting a protest in Del Sol Valley to gain supporters. These are things that can be done with patches, again if its possible then try to do it, if not you can say "we tried but it didnt work THIS TIME. Doesnt mean it wont work later". Also, patching and fixing bugs from older DLC should not be abandoned once newer packs come out. Leaving bugs to be fixed by mods is messy business practices. Prime Example is GTW and Dine Out: both are still broken years after their initial release with barely any patches that fix major and core problems. Seeing things as challenging should push you guys to try and overcome them. Atleast that's what I try to do when pursuing what I want to see or make happen. Only once all possible options within my abilities are used up is when I throw in the towel, but I still come back later to try a new way. That's how it should be when working on the sims or any game. The sims has no competition right now, but that doesn't mean there isn't someone out there who is watching and learning with the drive to make something better. It can be seen in the recent surge of Indie titles remaking popular games: Citiskylines for Simcity, Planet Coaster or Coaster Tycoon, and multiple Zoo Tycoon replacements. Its only a matter of time before the Sims has it's own competition. So why not make things interesting and push the boundaries of the game?
I'm sorry for the long post, I just wanted to say me piece. At the end of the day, I love the sims and enjoy being counted as a simmer. That why i care so much about the future of the game and want the best for it and its creators and its players.
15
Comments
Gentlemen, from this day forward... you will all refer to me by the name... Betty... myahhahah!
i want so bad to go back to sims 3, but like @Goosey said it was abandoned in pretty much a broken state and a suggestion to disable the packs we spent so much money on. the biggest let down of all. should have known not to expect much from sims 4 after that happened.
some people say yeah, just disable packs and its fine. ok, so then my sims look like god knows what cause i disabled the packs i used to make them so they looked how i want. so why did i even bother creating them in the first place?
why did i even waste my money on the packs? i assumed if you sold it to me you were giving me something i could use, not something to disable.
lesson learned, thats why sims 4 got very little money from me. unless i see old features start to return, this (indefinite?) franchise can go on without me.
However, at this point I would be fine with new content being pushed back in favour of bug fixes and improvements to already existing packs, because for every single one of them (even my favourites), I can think of at least one thing that would make them feel more complete or better as a whole. My biggest disappointment yet was Cats & Dogs, one of the things I was looking forward to the most, but then became one of my least favourite EPs because of how little you can actually do with your pets outside of CAS. It's all show over substance with TS4, and even the show falls flat sometimes because of technical issues.
I would never recommend this game to a friend, at least not in its current state. That's what I keep telling the developers in their surveys, while I myself am pretty much addicted to it, it's just too broken and incomplete right now to be recommended to someone who isn't already used to its flaws. Watching Friday's Maxis Monthly and seeing the redesigns of the pack covers, main menu and loading screen made me think: "Okay, but why are they fixing things that aren't broken instead of those that actually are, and have been for years in some cases?"
Yet hope is not lost - not for me, anyway. Despite still not being anywhere close to perfect, the game definitely is improving. Some features that were thought to be impossible or incompatible with the game's engine not too long ago have since been worked in, others that were missing from packs we expected them in (such as tans in Seasons) were eventually implemented in other ways. The developers' priorities seem off at times, but sometimes they come back and surprise us, and that's why I'm staying optimistic for the future of TS4.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
??? How is The Sims 3 in a broken state? If that were so, there wouldn't be so many people still playing it. Come to the The Sims 3 section of these forums if you need any help with the game. We love and know the game pretty well to be able to help you with it!
Don't let people mislead you. TS3 is a complete game with a lot more fun gameplay and a lot more stable than TS4.
I had more fun in the first month of ts3 than I have had this long, dark eon of festering stagnation that has been ts4.
I still have great memories of the first time I played TS3's base game. I was so amazed that I can go all over the place - with no loading screens!!! I personally didn't see any lag. (My game only started to lag later with the Island Paradise EP, but I read all the articles and I was able to fix it myself. So really no lag there either.) And then when I learned I can edit the worlds the way I want it, my heart completely belonged to this game!
People said that it was empty, but in Sunset Valley, if they go to the block with the grocery, theatre and bookstore, that is pretty much teeming with town life. A lot of sims are along the block going to and from those businesses and socializing with each other. Across the street was the park and that had a lot of people too. The bistro is also pretty busy around lunch time and dinner time.
The whole aliveness was natural too. You didn't see the same people at every lot. You only saw people who would naturally go to those lots because of their traits. And those places were empty too at the right times. If it's late at night, of course those places would be empty. Sims had real careers and schedules, so of course they were sleeping to rest up for the next day.
So this was just for the base game ALONE. I was in total heaven with each EP that came out. At that point, I love it so much that I even bought what wasn't as important such as the stuff packs. And then I moved on to the Sims 3 Store which I love just as much. The way I am, if I really love something because it was so thoughtfully made and wonderful, I tend to get very generous with my money. I actually felt NO PAIN parting with my money for all the stuff packs and Sims 3 Store items I bought (I have about 99% of it, I still want to buy the individual clothing and hairstyles I haven't bought yet).
I have everything of The Sims 2, but I think it would be nice if EA reopened the Sims 2 Store. I totally missed out on that because at that time, I wasn't used to buying stuff on the internet yet.
Well, I'm going on. But yeah, even TS3 base game is awesome. I still play just the base game with no mods once in a while to recapture the wonder I felt when I first played The Sims 3!
Both games (TS3 and TS4) are quite broken with lag-ridden. Though if put the technical issues aside (with the help of mods and proper internal and external setup), and put gameplay comparison, you'll know the clear winner.
Did you buy anything at the Sims 2 Store when it was around? I totally missed it. I don't even think I took a look at it. If you did, was the content good?