Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

This silent treatment is the worst

Comments

  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2020
    Hyaweh wrote: »
    I honestly hope that the surveys weren't only to keep hope for the players but a real use for them in the future. What I hope as well is that it's for Sims 4 and not Sims 5. I still have hope that they are working on it and choosing/ adding what they want would make some time. But for me this survey was really on point and very clever of what we want, lack and need.

    So for me, the gurus are really listening to the community and do their best to bring us what we want in the game. I won't talk about EA politics or money because it's not my expertise, I have no idea how it works. All I know is that there is a gap between us and EA.

    I'm not surprise we have no new for now. I think a new GP will arrive in march or April like every year. But I agree it would be nice and very usefull for them to update us about the survey. What are the results? How they will use it in Sims 4? Can we expect to see some feature arrive in the game?

    When we see how people were so excited after that, I can imagine how it would be for players if they actually add those in the game. It would be a real oxygen bubble and the game would have a longer life.
    I think it’s time to accept Sims 4 is what it is and it will never get better in ways that matter. I just genuinely think they can’t. It’s not unwillingness, they can’t. So I do hope this ‘interest’ in what simmers want from this game (as in franchise) actually is related to a successor. Unfortunately I’m too sceptical/cynical by now to actually believe it but yeah...
    There has been feedback to the feedback. The answer was that the survey was hard to use since "everyone answered yes to everything".
    That, however is hardly strange since well... everything they asked for in the first half (basically all the story telling stuff) should have been in the base game at launch. Memories? More reactions from Sim friends etc? Of course everyone and their grandmother answered yes to that.

    Just swallow the sour grapes and implement the missing base game features already and you don't have to be confused by your own survey...!
    Completely speachless by this, but after quoting it I ran into reactions that word it for me perfectly. I join them.
    NoirStasis wrote: »
    Id rather have silent treatment than them shell out a shallow expansion, game, or stuff pack, when the base game is severely lacking. My hope would be they're trying to fix the core of the game because it looks like they're trying to bring the community together pc/mac and console, hence the gallery being one of the the main bridges that has connected the community; problems with the gallery is effecting people's games; game breaking bugs.

    Though I can't deny I am mad about Maxis monthly, like why call it that when it doesn't happen monthly, that would be the main thing that bothers me.
    Unfortunately they appear to be capable of doing both, don’t they. Who’d care about a silent treatment if the game would be awesome and the packs in depth and enjoyable with replayability value? I used to experience a ‘silent treatment’ back in the Sims 3 days because I didn’t follow all that (and I was active on a forum ran by someone who didn’t care about Sims 3 so news on there was very limited). I never really cared. I preordered whatever pack they announced and played my game. I was perfectly happy.
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    NoirStasis wrote: »
    I hope a lot of people do not buy 5 if they leave 4 this incomplete, even if 5 is a little bit better than 4 at launch Simmers need to remember that it's still EA, they're going to probably release packs with bugs (game breaking bugs at that), and the communication is still going to be bad.

    I'd say The Sims 3 is incomplete too, due to the fact they've left it unstable and buggy for a large portion of its player base before moving onto The Sims 4. The game is unable to hold a standard of 60FPS without stuttering, the bugs, the routing issues, the necessity to install bugs to ensure the game functions as it should, etc. The Sims 2 is absolutely not perfect, but it was left in a far much better state than TS3 was. Most of the issues people run into with it nowadays is from Windows 10 compatibility, which thankfully, I haven't had an issue with.

    But given the state of TS3 in its final version, I feel EA/Maxis had the responsibility to fans who have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on it to make an amazing game with The Sims 4 at the very least and they fell majorly flat in doing so. They rushed it out and put such little thought into this "successor." What's worse is how much they're dragging out this iteration, despite it being the least innovative out of all of the titles.

    I'd much rather see The Sims 5 ASAP, so I could really get an idea if it's time to abandon this sinking ship for good or if Maxis has some magic left in them. I'm ready to pay the full price for it and all its expansions if it's good. As of now, I'm not putting any more money into The Sims 4.

    It is, but no more patching and some mods (NRaas) manage to make it a smooth and very playable experience. We’ll have to accept at the end of the day EA just doesn’t care enough to deliver a game properly themselves. It’s like Apple implementing errors for older equipment with every new update. When they announced Sims 4 in 2013 I realized any possible interest left in fixing things, for them had gone. Especially when presenting Sims 4’s limitations and shortcomings became a selling point, the excuse to make the game ‘run better’ etc, it became clear to me that fixing Sims 3 would only undermine that strategy. Sims 3 had to remain this clunky, unstable game, just to sell us the sacrifices. Their “you can’t play Sims 3 with all packs so here’s a patch that makes sure that actually becomes impossible” move in 2015 proves this. That was nothing but an “Apple” update.
    NoirStasis wrote: »
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    NoirStasis wrote: »
    I hope a lot of people do not buy 5 if they leave 4 this incomplete, even if 5 is a little bit better than 4 at launch Simmers need to remember that it's still EA, they're going to probably release packs with bugs (game breaking bugs at that), and the communication is still going to be bad.

    I'd say The Sims 3 is incomplete too, due to the fact they've left it unstable and buggy for a large portion of its player base before moving onto The Sims 4. The game is unable to hold a standard of 60FPS without stuttering, the bugs, the routing issues, the necessity to install bugs to ensure the game functions as it should, etc. The Sims 2 is absolutely not perfect, but it was left in a far much better state than TS3 was. Most of the issues people run into with it nowadays is from Windows 10 compatibility, which thankfully, I haven't had an issue with.

    But given the state of TS3 in its final version, I feel EA/Maxis had the responsibility to fans who have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on it to make an amazing game with The Sims 4 at the very least and they fell majorly flat in doing so. They rushed it out and put such little thought into this "successor." What's worse is how much they're dragging out this iteration, despite it being the least innovative out of all of the titles.

    I'd much rather see The Sims 5 ASAP, so I could really get an idea if it's time to abandon this sinking ship for good or if Maxis has some magic left in them. I'm ready to pay the full price for it and all its expansions if it's good. As of now, I'm not putting any more money into The Sims 4.

    I agree with you; unfortunately for the Sims 3 when you play it they have a disclaimer to not have all the packs installed when its suppose to be a life simulator that is suppose handle all the packs that they add to it.

    I wanted to get University, but I need a little more from EA about fixing bugs and how they want to keep the Sims 4 alive and improve on it for a couple of years. Trailer was great, but what made people mad about it is the silence and that they said they didn't have it in the budget to do bunkbeds when they did tiny living, but turn around and have a budget to have multiple celebrities do trailers.
    That ‘disclaimer’ was part of the Sims 4 strategy. When you managed to avoid that patch that came with the disclaimer (like me) there is no problem at all to play the game with all packs (20 of them) ánd Store stuff ánd CC.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • mirta000mirta000 Posts: 2,974 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    What else could it mean?

    Small time Youtuber here that stayed up till 3AM yesterday finishing my day's uploads and renders - if I'm not streaming or let's playing I barely play games. Because I don't have the time.

    I would be more concerned if they look unhappy in their videos honestly. The only time I look unhappy in mine is when the game is having serious issues functioning >_>
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    That ‘disclaimer’ was part of the Sims 4 strategy. When you managed to avoid that patch that came with the disclaimer (like me) there is no problem at all to play the game with all packs (20 of them) ánd Store stuff ánd CC.


    Did the patch actually ruin how well the game runs? Did anyone do a comparison for that?
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    @mirta000 : it runs worse, because you have to load the game through the launcher with this patch now, which eats RAM the game needs desperately, because it is still a 32-bit game. If the game needs more RAM directly from the beginning its performance suffers.
    And if you want to play with all your stuff you have to chose it in the launcher. Sometimes the packs don´t show up in the game when fully loaded, so you have to quit and load again. So they even managed to create a broken patch again... good work...
  • comicsforlifecomicsforlife Posts: 9,585 Member
    steam works fine
    more for sim kids and more drama please
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    What else could it mean?

    Small time Youtuber here that stayed up till 3AM yesterday finishing my day's uploads and renders - if I'm not streaming or let's playing I barely play games. Because I don't have the time.

    I would be more concerned if they look unhappy in their videos honestly. The only time I look unhappy in mine is when the game is having serious issues functioning >_>
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    That ‘disclaimer’ was part of the Sims 4 strategy. When you managed to avoid that patch that came with the disclaimer (like me) there is no problem at all to play the game with all packs (20 of them) ánd Store stuff ánd CC.


    Did the patch actually ruin how well the game runs? Did anyone do a comparison for that?
    My experience is that when we love doing something, we make time. And yes, not ‘anyone’, Sims 3 players experience the difference.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • KaeChan2089KaeChan2089 Posts: 4,944 Member
    edited March 2020
    Well now with the virus, I feel there is gonna be MORE silence...great.

    EDIT : Though I am not blaming the team for staying home, I want everyone to be safe and healthy, I just mean, I wish they would have announced something or gave us some sort of news before all this.
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    steam works fine

    Cause if you have the Steam version of The Sims 3 you don´t have to update to patch 1.69 like you have if you have purchased it on Origin.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    edited March 2020
    @JoAnne65 i was not aware of that. May i ask how did you avoid the last patch? I have my game in origin. Is it possible for me to downgrade to the 1.67 (i believe this is the one you're talking about...?).
    *i have my game running well with nraas mods but i have been hearing so much about how better it is with the later patch that im ok to try, if posible.
  • comicsforlifecomicsforlife Posts: 9,585 Member
    AlexaKry wrote: »
    steam works fine

    Cause if you have the Steam version of The Sims 3 you don´t have to update to patch 1.69 like you have if you have purchased it on Origin.

    it goes on sell a lot on steam get it there @alexakry
    more for sim kids and more drama please
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    @comicsforlife : thanks for the information, but I still have all my content on disc! Dated, I know! ;)
    But if at some time in the future a new computer wouldn´t get the game installed through the discs I have to purchase it again unfortunately. :o
  • mirta000mirta000 Posts: 2,974 Member
    edited March 2020
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    My experience is that when we love doing something, we make time. And yes, not ‘anyone’, Sims 3 players experience the difference.

    Well I'm a The Sims 3 player, just that I don't remember the life before the patch. I mean it's been like over 6 years :)

    As for the first statement, I feel like that's unfair. Streaming/ let's playing on Youtube should be seen as already "making time" because there are normally other real life responsibilities that people got to attend to, even if Youtube becomes their primary job. If this was said to me, I would feel that it's heavily unfair that you're judged for requiring rest and self care after all your household stuff and regular social media stuff is done, instead of finding time to play more video games.
  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    Scobre wrote: »
    Goldmoldar wrote: »
    Hopefully they will not pull an Sim City 2013 move. :)
    They are trying to with the Sims 5 pushing the online thing with their broken servers.

    :D:D
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2020
    telmarina wrote: »
    @JoAnne65 i was not aware of that. May i ask how did you avoid the last patch? I have my game in origin. Is it possible for me to downgrade to the 1.67 (i believe this is the one you're talking about...?).
    *i have my game running well with nraas mods but i have been hearing so much about how better it is with the later patch that im ok to try, if posible.
    I could avoid it because people here warned me it was coming. I disabled automatic updating. Apparently there is a way to reinstall the game up till patch 1.67 (1.69 is the one you don't want, I have no idea what happened to 1.68 :D ) but you need the disks for that.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    edited March 2020
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    telmarina wrote: »
    @JoAnne65 i was not aware of that. May i ask how did you avoid the last patch? I have my game in origin. Is it possible for me to downgrade to the 1.67 (i believe this is the one you're talking about...?).
    *i have my game running well with nraas mods but i have been hearing so much about how better it is with the later patch that im ok to try, if posible.
    I could avoid it because people here warned me it was coming. I disabled automatic updating. Apparently there is a way to reinstall the game up till patch 1.67 (1.69 is the one you don't want, I have no idea what happened to 1.68 :D ) but you need the disks for that.

    You need the a disk published before September 2012 to re-install the game and avoid patch 1.69. And you can´t install/use content which you´ve bought through Origin, because if you want to install this content Origin forces you into patch 1.69 again.

    Here´s how you do it: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/917460/is-there-a-way-to-reinstall-but-avoid-the-last-update-patch-for-launcher
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2020
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    My experience is that when we love doing something, we make time. And yes, not ‘anyone’, Sims 3 players experience the difference.

    Well I'm a The Sims 3 player, just that I don't remember the life before the patch. I mean it's been like over 6 years :)

    As for the first statement, I feel like that's unfair. Streaming/ let's playing on Youtube should be seen as already "making time" because there are normally other real life responsibilities that people got to attend to, even if Youtube becomes their primary job. If this was said to me, I would feel that it's heavily unfair that you're judged for requiring rest and self care after all your household stuff and regular social media stuff is done, instead of finding time to play more video games.
    I've never played with patch 1.69, I just hear it causes a lot of problems I don't have. At first I thought it just meant having to play through the launcher, but now I hear talk of constant crashes when you play with all packs? If you play the game with all packs without any issues the rumours may not be true. The statement (disclaimer even) it's impossible to play Sims 3 with everything installed just really is not true. My game proves it every time I play (for hours and hours) ;)

    As for my first statement, sure, maybe they indeed don't have time to play video games. It would mean being a YouTuber is a busier life than having a regular job? We all have household stuff and regular social media stuff don't we? But apart from that, rumour has it a lot of them do manage to play Sims 2 and/or 3 for fun and other games.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • mirta000mirta000 Posts: 2,974 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I've never played with patch 1.69, I just hear it causes a lot of problems I don't have. At first I thought it just meant having to play through the launcher, but now I hear talk of constant crashes when you play with all packs? If you play the game with all packs without any issues the rumours may not be true. The statement (disclaimer even) it's impossible to play Sims 3 with everything installed just really is not true. My game proves it every time I play (for hours and hours) ;)

    I play with everything installed and quite a bit of the store too. I switch off Into The future, but that's more of a preference from me as I don't want the portal in my worlds unless I'm actively planning to play it. It's not impossible, but just like The Sims 2, I have to do a lot of work to get the game to where I want it to be if I have to reinstall my PC or something. With The Sims 2 it means modifying the files to cheat newer hardware in and to fix the shadows, with The Sims 3 it means using NRAAS Overwatch, Error Trap and downloading the neighbourhood files with fixed routing. My 100 baby challenge is nearing 3rd generation now and whenever I turn on that save I get stuttering for 2-3 minutes until the save file warms up, then I will sometimes get 1-2 errors trapped.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    As for my first statement, sure, maybe they indeed don't have time to play video games. It would mean being a YouTuber is a busier life than having a regular job? We all have household stuff and regular social media stuff don't we? But apart from that, rumour has it a lot of them do manage to play Sims 2 and/or 3 for fun and other games.

    It's more like the job doesn't leave you and if other household people are home, they'll treat you as unemployed. I've spent 4 hours assembling a video yesterday to be told that "this video is lazy", despite having to go to sleep at 4AM to finish that and wake up at human hours to get on with my day. A single 20-30 minute let's play video for me is normally about 3 hours of work, with editing. As in reality I will play for an hour, then edit for an hour, then sort out the thumbnail, description and the likes while rendering. Some of these influencers, instead of doing regular let's play videos will do things like "oh I shoved 2000 sims into a house and this is what happened", or "I left my parents with the sims and this is what happened", one of the most recent ones that I've seen pop up into my recommended is "I left The Sims 4 running for 2 years and this is what happened". And these videos tend to require a lot more time dedicated to them, in order to script them, set up all the preparations in game, record them, edit them, etc. Like the 2 year one, while it's low every day effort, if its true it would mean that you have dedicated a full on PC just to run that game and recorded a little bit every day to see how the game's still doing. I don't know if I believe the title though. 2 years seem excessive.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    Thanks @JoAnne65 and @AlexaKry
    I'll have to keep 1.69 then. I've put my codes through origin a long time ago, have moved home several times and lost all my discs :(
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I've never played with patch 1.69, I just hear it causes a lot of problems I don't have. At first I thought it just meant having to play through the launcher, but now I hear talk of constant crashes when you play with all packs? If you play the game with all packs without any issues the rumours may not be true. The statement (disclaimer even) it's impossible to play Sims 3 with everything installed just really is not true. My game proves it every time I play (for hours and hours) ;)

    I play with everything installed and quite a bit of the store too. I switch off Into The future, but that's more of a preference from me as I don't want the portal in my worlds unless I'm actively planning to play it. It's not impossible, but just like The Sims 2, I have to do a lot of work to get the game to where I want it to be if I have to reinstall my PC or something. With The Sims 2 it means modifying the files to cheat newer hardware in and to fix the shadows, with The Sims 3 it means using NRAAS Overwatch, Error Trap and downloading the neighbourhood files with fixed routing. My 100 baby challenge is nearing 3rd generation now and whenever I turn on that save I get stuttering for 2-3 minutes until the save file warms up, then I will sometimes get 1-2 errors trapped.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    As for my first statement, sure, maybe they indeed don't have time to play video games. It would mean being a YouTuber is a busier life than having a regular job? We all have household stuff and regular social media stuff don't we? But apart from that, rumour has it a lot of them do manage to play Sims 2 and/or 3 for fun and other games.

    It's more like the job doesn't leave you and if other household people are home, they'll treat you as unemployed. I've spent 4 hours assembling a video yesterday to be told that "this video is lazy", despite having to go to sleep at 4AM to finish that and wake up at human hours to get on with my day. A single 20-30 minute let's play video for me is normally about 3 hours of work, with editing. As in reality I will play for an hour, then edit for an hour, then sort out the thumbnail, description and the likes while rendering. Some of these influencers, instead of doing regular let's play videos will do things like "oh I shoved 2000 sims into a house and this is what happened", or "I left my parents with the sims and this is what happened", one of the most recent ones that I've seen pop up into my recommended is "I left The Sims 4 running for 2 years and this is what happened". And these videos tend to require a lot more time dedicated to them, in order to script them, set up all the preparations in game, record them, edit them, etc. Like the 2 year one, while it's low every day effort, if its true it would mean that you have dedicated a full on PC just to run that game and recorded a little bit every day to see how the game's still doing. I don't know if I believe the title though. 2 years seem excessive.
    I wouldn't call installing two NRaas mods a lot of work? I did that in 2014, that's 6 years ago. And I play in EA worlds just fine. Only IP needed adjusting that indeed took a bit of time. Other than that I always clean the cache files (5 of them) after playing. It's necessary, it's not a lot of work though.

    I must confess I sometimes wonder if this game hasn't become a bit too much YouTubing and collecting likes and followers. On Twitter I see people apologizing for not uploading material, I see people being seriously unhappy they don't have many subscribers, you are being told you are 'lazy' (that's just rude when people say that), people seem to be building houses for other simmers (and likes) nowadays rather than for their sims. Maybe it's time people start focusing on playing the game again instead of all that. Because what you describe for me has got nothing to do with The Sims, it only has to do with running a YouTube channel and keeping people entertained. Which is great but afaic not what a game should be about. Sharing content used to be a result of playing and enjoying, now it seems to be the goal, the whole purpose of playing this game.

    There was a time that I shared my Sims story on a forum. That was a lot of fun, because people would react to everything I came up with, it was ego-stroking, it was interactive, it challenged me to tell stories I never told before. One thing suffered though: me enjoying my game. I longed for the first year I had played Sims 3, all by myself without even writing something down. After a few years I've stopped sharing my story because of this. I still write their (picture)stories, it's an aspect I highly enjoy, but I'm not bothered anymore by the stressful question "what shall I come up with next that will keep my readers entertained". The only thing that interests me nowadays is: am I entertained.

    I do understand playing the game will suffer when you do all that what you describe. I wonder however if you would if the game would be more fun to play. I think you'd play more, as would the people who apparently depend on YouTubers so much, that they call you lazy when in their view you don't 'deliver'.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I've never played with patch 1.69, I just hear it causes a lot of problems I don't have. At first I thought it just meant having to play through the launcher, but now I hear talk of constant crashes when you play with all packs? If you play the game with all packs without any issues the rumours may not be true. The statement (disclaimer even) it's impossible to play Sims 3 with everything installed just really is not true. My game proves it every time I play (for hours and hours) ;)

    I play with everything installed and quite a bit of the store too. I switch off Into The future, but that's more of a preference from me as I don't want the portal in my worlds unless I'm actively planning to play it. It's not impossible, but just like The Sims 2, I have to do a lot of work to get the game to where I want it to be if I have to reinstall my PC or something. With The Sims 2 it means modifying the files to cheat newer hardware in and to fix the shadows, with The Sims 3 it means using NRAAS Overwatch, Error Trap and downloading the neighbourhood files with fixed routing. My 100 baby challenge is nearing 3rd generation now and whenever I turn on that save I get stuttering for 2-3 minutes until the save file warms up, then I will sometimes get 1-2 errors trapped.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    As for my first statement, sure, maybe they indeed don't have time to play video games. It would mean being a YouTuber is a busier life than having a regular job? We all have household stuff and regular social media stuff don't we? But apart from that, rumour has it a lot of them do manage to play Sims 2 and/or 3 for fun and other games.

    It's more like the job doesn't leave you and if other household people are home, they'll treat you as unemployed. I've spent 4 hours assembling a video yesterday to be told that "this video is lazy", despite having to go to sleep at 4AM to finish that and wake up at human hours to get on with my day. A single 20-30 minute let's play video for me is normally about 3 hours of work, with editing. As in reality I will play for an hour, then edit for an hour, then sort out the thumbnail, description and the likes while rendering. Some of these influencers, instead of doing regular let's play videos will do things like "oh I shoved 2000 sims into a house and this is what happened", or "I left my parents with the sims and this is what happened", one of the most recent ones that I've seen pop up into my recommended is "I left The Sims 4 running for 2 years and this is what happened". And these videos tend to require a lot more time dedicated to them, in order to script them, set up all the preparations in game, record them, edit them, etc. Like the 2 year one, while it's low every day effort, if its true it would mean that you have dedicated a full on PC just to run that game and recorded a little bit every day to see how the game's still doing. I don't know if I believe the title though. 2 years seem excessive.
    I wouldn't call installing two NRaas mods a lot of work? I did that in 2014, that's 6 years ago. And I play in EA worlds just fine. Only IP needed adjusting that indeed took a bit of time. Other than that I always clean the cache files (5 of them) after playing. It's necessary, it's not a lot of work though.

    I must confess I sometimes wonder if this game hasn't become a bit too much YouTubing and collecting likes and followers. On Twitter I see people apologizing for not uploading material, I see people being seriously unhappy they don't have many subscribers, you are being told you are 'lazy' (that's just rude when people say that), people seem to be building houses for other simmers (and likes) nowadays rather than for their sims. Maybe it's time people start focusing on playing the game again instead of all that. Because what you describe for me has got nothing to do with The Sims, it only has to do with running a YouTube channel and keeping people entertained. Which is great but afaic not what a game should be about. Sharing content used to be a result of playing and enjoying, now it seems to be the goal, the whole purpose of playing this game.

    There was a time that I shared my Sims story on a forum. That was a lot of fun, because people would react to everything I came up with, it was ego-stroking, it was interactive, it challenged me to tell stories I never told before. One thing suffered though: me enjoying my game. I longed for the first year I had played Sims 3, all by myself without even writing something down. After a few years I've stopped sharing my story because of this. I still write their (picture)stories, it's an aspect I highly enjoy, but I'm not bothered anymore by the stressful question "what shall I come up with next that will keep my readers entertained". The only thing that interests me nowadays is: am I entertained.

    I do understand playing the game will suffer when you do all that what you describe. I wonder however if you would if the game would be more fun to play. I think you'd play more, as would the people who apparently depend on YouTubers so much, that they call you lazy when in their view you don't 'deliver'.

    A lot of the issues that you've brought up have been fostered and encouraged by EA/Maxis reps. There's an old video out there with two females from the Sims team (I didn't care enough to learn their names) talking about how the game's focus is the community and sharing. They mentioned very little about the actual gameplay, they just kept plugging the gallery and that they had to 'educate' the community better.

    This is all part and parcel of the push to move the game from a single-player experience to a multi-player, shared experience. The fact that making videos about the game can be parlayed into a full-time career is a bonus. EA gets 24/7 marketing at cut-rate prices and the idea is injected into the existing community, as well as new players, that the game is about social media and mass consumption of content from people who are basically making up things that aren't actually happening within the game. As well, there are those who crank out twenty to thirty-minute videos of them doing nothing but building homes which they make available on the gallery.

    I'm not knocking it, exactly. People need to make their coin and some of those creators are quite talented. However, when EA/Maxis focus on that kind of 'gameplay' exclusive to anything else, it's really doing the series a disservice. TPTB have forgotten the roots of the game and what made it the mega-success that it is today.

    I don't see that changing in the future. It's really too bad how this all ended up.
    I3Ml5Om.jpg
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2020
    Cynna wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I've never played with patch 1.69, I just hear it causes a lot of problems I don't have. At first I thought it just meant having to play through the launcher, but now I hear talk of constant crashes when you play with all packs? If you play the game with all packs without any issues the rumours may not be true. The statement (disclaimer even) it's impossible to play Sims 3 with everything installed just really is not true. My game proves it every time I play (for hours and hours) ;)

    I play with everything installed and quite a bit of the store too. I switch off Into The future, but that's more of a preference from me as I don't want the portal in my worlds unless I'm actively planning to play it. It's not impossible, but just like The Sims 2, I have to do a lot of work to get the game to where I want it to be if I have to reinstall my PC or something. With The Sims 2 it means modifying the files to cheat newer hardware in and to fix the shadows, with The Sims 3 it means using NRAAS Overwatch, Error Trap and downloading the neighbourhood files with fixed routing. My 100 baby challenge is nearing 3rd generation now and whenever I turn on that save I get stuttering for 2-3 minutes until the save file warms up, then I will sometimes get 1-2 errors trapped.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    As for my first statement, sure, maybe they indeed don't have time to play video games. It would mean being a YouTuber is a busier life than having a regular job? We all have household stuff and regular social media stuff don't we? But apart from that, rumour has it a lot of them do manage to play Sims 2 and/or 3 for fun and other games.

    It's more like the job doesn't leave you and if other household people are home, they'll treat you as unemployed. I've spent 4 hours assembling a video yesterday to be told that "this video is lazy", despite having to go to sleep at 4AM to finish that and wake up at human hours to get on with my day. A single 20-30 minute let's play video for me is normally about 3 hours of work, with editing. As in reality I will play for an hour, then edit for an hour, then sort out the thumbnail, description and the likes while rendering. Some of these influencers, instead of doing regular let's play videos will do things like "oh I shoved 2000 sims into a house and this is what happened", or "I left my parents with the sims and this is what happened", one of the most recent ones that I've seen pop up into my recommended is "I left The Sims 4 running for 2 years and this is what happened". And these videos tend to require a lot more time dedicated to them, in order to script them, set up all the preparations in game, record them, edit them, etc. Like the 2 year one, while it's low every day effort, if its true it would mean that you have dedicated a full on PC just to run that game and recorded a little bit every day to see how the game's still doing. I don't know if I believe the title though. 2 years seem excessive.
    I wouldn't call installing two NRaas mods a lot of work? I did that in 2014, that's 6 years ago. And I play in EA worlds just fine. Only IP needed adjusting that indeed took a bit of time. Other than that I always clean the cache files (5 of them) after playing. It's necessary, it's not a lot of work though.

    I must confess I sometimes wonder if this game hasn't become a bit too much YouTubing and collecting likes and followers. On Twitter I see people apologizing for not uploading material, I see people being seriously unhappy they don't have many subscribers, you are being told you are 'lazy' (that's just rude when people say that), people seem to be building houses for other simmers (and likes) nowadays rather than for their sims. Maybe it's time people start focusing on playing the game again instead of all that. Because what you describe for me has got nothing to do with The Sims, it only has to do with running a YouTube channel and keeping people entertained. Which is great but afaic not what a game should be about. Sharing content used to be a result of playing and enjoying, now it seems to be the goal, the whole purpose of playing this game.

    There was a time that I shared my Sims story on a forum. That was a lot of fun, because people would react to everything I came up with, it was ego-stroking, it was interactive, it challenged me to tell stories I never told before. One thing suffered though: me enjoying my game. I longed for the first year I had played Sims 3, all by myself without even writing something down. After a few years I've stopped sharing my story because of this. I still write their (picture)stories, it's an aspect I highly enjoy, but I'm not bothered anymore by the stressful question "what shall I come up with next that will keep my readers entertained". The only thing that interests me nowadays is: am I entertained.

    I do understand playing the game will suffer when you do all that what you describe. I wonder however if you would if the game would be more fun to play. I think you'd play more, as would the people who apparently depend on YouTubers so much, that they call you lazy when in their view you don't 'deliver'.

    A lot of the issues that you've brought up have been fostered and encouraged by EA/Maxis reps. There's an old video out there with two females from the Sims team (I didn't care enough to learn their names) talking about how the game's focus is the community and sharing. They mentioned very little about the actual gameplay, they just kept plugging the gallery and that they had to 'educate' the community better.

    This is all part and parcel of the push to move the game from a single-player experience to a multi-player, shared experience. The fact that making videos about the game can be parlayed into a full-time career is a bonus. EA gets 24/7 marketing at cut-rate prices and the idea is injected into the existing community, as well as new players, that the game is about social media and mass consumption of content from people who are basically making up things that aren't actually happening within the game. As well, there are those who crank out twenty to thirty-minute videos of them doing nothing but building homes which they make available on the gallery.

    I'm not knocking it, exactly. People need to make their coin and some of those creators are quite talented. However, when EA/Maxis focus on that kind of 'gameplay' exclusive to anything else, it's really doing the series a disservice. TPTB have forgotten the roots of the game and what made it the mega-success that it is today.

    I don't see that changing in the future. It's really too bad how this all ended up.
    Thanks for wording it exactly how I feel and see it (for me it’s just a hunch, I’m not really part of the community, a bit of an outsider who happens to love one chapter in the same franchise; your arguments make it more concrete). Everything EA does surrounding this game breaths exactly this, instead of “would our game be fun too if you lived somewhere on a hill in a house without any wifi”. That’s why it bothers me. Not the fact people love doing the whole YouTube thing, if that’s your thing more power to you. But it indeed seems to influence the way they make those games.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • Placebo7Placebo7 Posts: 107 Member


    A lot of the issues that you've brought up have been fostered and encouraged by EA/Maxis reps. There's an old video out there with two females from the Sims team (I didn't care enough to learn their names) talking about how the game's focus is the community and sharing. They mentioned very little about the actual gameplay, they just kept plugging the gallery and that they had to 'educate' the community better.

    This is all part and parcel of the push to move the game from a single-player experience to a multi-player, shared experience. The fact that making videos about the game can be parlayed into a full-time career is a bonus. EA gets 24/7 marketing at cut-rate prices and the idea is injected into the existing community, as well as new players, that the game is about social media and mass consumption of content from people who are basically making up things that aren't actually happening within the game. As well, there are those who crank out twenty to thirty-minute videos of them doing nothing but building homes which they make available on the gallery.

    I'm not knocking it, exactly. People need to make their coin and some of those creators are quite talented. However, when EA/Maxis focus on that kind of 'gameplay' exclusive to anything else, it's really doing the series a disservice. TPTB have forgotten the roots of the game and what made it the mega-success that it is today.

    I don't see that changing in the future. It's really too bad how this all ended up.
    [/quote]

    This was the most depressing--and most accurate--take I've heard. Sigh.
  • mirta000mirta000 Posts: 2,974 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I wouldn't call installing two NRaas mods a lot of work? I did that in 2014, that's 6 years ago. And I play in EA worlds just fine. Only IP needed adjusting that indeed took a bit of time. Other than that I always clean the cache files (5 of them) after playing. It's necessary, it's not a lot of work though.

    downloading and installing rerouting on all the maps that I got alone on The Sims 3 cost me 3 hours :D

    It also doesn't help that you come to expect games to be "plug and play", which kind of means, you install and you go, which does not work for The sims 3 or The Sims 4 and I will forever blame EA for it.
  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    mirta000 wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I wouldn't call installing two NRaas mods a lot of work? I did that in 2014, that's 6 years ago. And I play in EA worlds just fine. Only IP needed adjusting that indeed took a bit of time. Other than that I always clean the cache files (5 of them) after playing. It's necessary, it's not a lot of work though.

    downloading and installing rerouting on all the maps that I got alone on The Sims 3 cost me 3 hours :D

    It also doesn't help that you come to expect games to be "plug and play", which kind of means, you install and you go, which does not work for The sims 3 or The Sims 4 and I will forever blame EA for it.

    I never downloaded all the maps - just the one for Isla Paradiso, as that was the only one where I was getting lag. *Shrug* All the others were fine to me. I didn't even know there were problems with the other maps, lol!

  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    edited March 2020
    Anyway, GOG has their spring sale right now and I just bought the whole XCOM 2 package for a really good price. GOG also put up the entire The Witcher series goodies up for free so I downloaded it. I have to say that I'm a little jealous at all the extra goodies people get when they get those games. It shows the love and pride that CD Projekt Red had for these games. PLUS, did you guys know? CD Projekt Red actually organized a LIVE CONCERT for The Witcher III??? The full concert video is one of the freebies and it's AMAZING! Here's a preview:



    I'm really stunned at how much love CD Projekt Red had put into their games that they would even host an event like this! I wish EAxis would love The Sims like CDPR loves The Witcher series!


  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    It must be doubly difficult to bring out new stuff when all the staff are working from home and some might be suffering from Covid-19 and unable to work. I'm amazed that anybody is complaining but I suppose the virus hasn't really hit the fan in some places yet.

    Keep well everybody. <3
Sign In or Register to comment.
Return to top