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Suggestion: EA become more user friendly
Sarah26Cat
Posts: 162 Member
EA, lets just assume you've heard the news already. You no longer are the only fish in the sea, life simulation type games, that is. There are at least two other, currently in progress, games that have been announced publicly. The first release, technically early access, is Life by You in September.
Now, with competition will undoubtedly come new ideas as each company tries to outshine the others, and we Simmers are excited to see what comes out of this. But there is also a thing called loyalty. EA, lets face it. Most of us don't know these other companies too well. Paralives is a tiny company, and Life by You is by another large gamer company, that unless you play a lot of other games, you've probably not heard much of. Now, EA consider this for a minute, would you rather trust your money to a company who has been charging you for smaller and smaller packs, giving you glitches on top of more glitches, or a brand new company you know nothing about. For most players, the new company will win out. BUT... It's not over yet. Listen up EA, you have until September, possibly longer if LBY's Early access proves to be less impressive on first release. You can change things and become a more trustworthy company in the meantime. To start, stop releasing new packs. I know they bring you money, but if you tell your crews to work on improving the game's glitches, and playtesting your own packs first, it will help. Undoubtedly others will suggest more things you could do to improve your image below. I encourage you to read these and try a few. For the first time, we will have a voice with our money on the types of games and gaming companies we want to support. Listen.
Now, with competition will undoubtedly come new ideas as each company tries to outshine the others, and we Simmers are excited to see what comes out of this. But there is also a thing called loyalty. EA, lets face it. Most of us don't know these other companies too well. Paralives is a tiny company, and Life by You is by another large gamer company, that unless you play a lot of other games, you've probably not heard much of. Now, EA consider this for a minute, would you rather trust your money to a company who has been charging you for smaller and smaller packs, giving you glitches on top of more glitches, or a brand new company you know nothing about. For most players, the new company will win out. BUT... It's not over yet. Listen up EA, you have until September, possibly longer if LBY's Early access proves to be less impressive on first release. You can change things and become a more trustworthy company in the meantime. To start, stop releasing new packs. I know they bring you money, but if you tell your crews to work on improving the game's glitches, and playtesting your own packs first, it will help. Undoubtedly others will suggest more things you could do to improve your image below. I encourage you to read these and try a few. For the first time, we will have a voice with our money on the types of games and gaming companies we want to support. Listen.
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Comments
Andyou always had a voice? No one was ever forced to play any of EA games. Even if ts4 was the only life sim I would never touch it if it didn't bring me joy. There are tons of other games out there and tons of other things to do in the world that also brings joy.
There's no way I would play a game "miserably" just because I feel like it's one of a kind.
You always had a voice.
Glitches are always being worked on btw and they are always putting out fixes whenever possible. I'm sure there are days when the team works long hours and are stressed as well. They are only human not machines but it's something many players don't seem to understand.
No game will ever be perfect and ts4 foundation was built a certain way. It wasn't built to be ts3 and it's not going to magically change because another game comes out.
Yes, we are facing three life Sim releases in the (semi) near future. Yay for choices! Except that from where I'm standing, there's not a lot to really differentiate them at this stage, which I admit, is still fairly early. All are promising "real life" simulations in one way or another, which is actually not what I'm personally looking for at all. I don't care about the food, I don't care about the daily grind of jobs, I don't care about cars, and I don't care about domestic tasks. I don't care about real life culture, fashion, trends, or even open world (Specifically in relation to my game.) I'm not looking for representation of every aspect of my life or identity, correcting the wrongs of the world, or a "safe" place to simulate where nothing is ever in any danger of offending me. Essentially, I'm not interested in a game that takes itself too seriously and follows the real banality of life, all the way down to the soul-crushing phone obsessions of humanity.
What I am looking for, is the one who will stand out. The one who is cheeky, funny and dramatic. The one who isn't afraid to parody all of the little things that people have in common, and all of the potential failures that life throws in our way. The one who allows some sarcasm, a lot of wonder, and unpredictable creativity. The one who can think outside the box and offer a well-thought-out AI system and who allows me to flavor my game however I want. The one who embraces the fantastical and alternate eras, the one who declares, "anything is possible". It will be the one who genuinely charms and excites me and brings joy or suspense. And the one who allows me to create my weird and wonderful world the way I prefer it, with the households that I want, the styles that I like, the era that I choose, and the gritty edge that I seek.
I suspect the "winner" will continue to be The Sims. At least, I hope it will continue to be the Sims. I will definitely be paying attention to Project Rene for some sign of Ghosts and Reapers. I'll be looking for that cheeky humor and drama that Sims 2 charmed me with. And I'll certainly be looking for depth of gameplay and behaviors, as well as the return of flexibility to change the world environment to my liking.
It would be an absolute shame if we were offered three simulation games that all only simulated the boring realities of simple, day to day, modern idealistic, utopian life.
But yes, some more QA people added in the very near future would help the level of optimism, I think.
My Families Via PlumTree App
And I was not one of the ones who bought Sims 4, ever. I didn't even play it until it became free to play, and I only bought a few packs during their sales. Yet still Sims 4 is a thing, which proves my point about not having a voice until recently.
I agree that packs should be fully functional when released. The last couple of EPs seem to have had some major issues that seemed in dire need of more quality control. QA should not be skimped, especially this late in the game's life when the load of many, many packs weighs on the system. QA should increase not decrease for this kind of game. That's my two cents. Plus, it starts to echo the disastrous ending of Sims 3 where the game was just abandoned in a faulty state with some major issues. That wouldn't be wise to repeat, especially now that competition is ramping up. It could destroy player trust, which nowadays seems to be rather fragile to begin with.
Regarding pack themes and content, I somewhat disagree with you there. Since you brough up Occults specifically, and I am an avid Occult player, I have to say that I'm glad they weren't all stuffed into one EP where they no doubt would have been watered down and simplified. (Like the Mermaids and the Aliens, which are considered "lesser" Occults in comparison.) I absolutely love the Vampires, Werewolves and Spellcasters and I love the Game Pack model of DLC.
I've noticed over the years that many old school players kind of expect every iteration of EPs to repeat their exact content item for item and I don't think this is a realistic or fair expectation. First, each base game has certain features built into it that might affect the needs of a pack theme. Second, that leaves little room for anything new and exciting that could make more sense to include. It also disallows flexibility of pack themes which kind of gimps creativity.
But, I also think that if they want to change up the themes, then they should be thoroughly thought/planned out as well as intuitive to the game's needs. For example, in Sims 4's early years, Outdoor Retreat was one of the first packs to release, which actually just confused me. With all of the content that was needed for core gameplay (personality depth, toddlers, reactions, interactions, distinguishing characteristics of Sims, etc.), camping and vacationing was certainly not something I would have thought to prioritize. And Luxury Party was the first Stuff Pack, which just left me questioning who was deciding these things. And if you look at our latest patch and EP, you realize that it took almost nine years to get some depth of compatibility between Sims. And almost as long for Likes and Dislikes, a Scared emotion, and many other staples of common sense gameplay for a simulation game. Why weren't these things at the top of the list? So many features could have been expanded upon with each EP instead of being a one and done rush to shoehorn into the late stages of the game. This, to me, has been one of the main problems with Sims 4 - the content priorities.
Anyway, I've rambled on enough, but I have hopes that after all this time with Sims 4, EA and the devs will be able to look back and see what might have been done differently (hindsight is 20/20, right?), have much more insight into their own player base, and will go forward full of wisdom, experience, and new ideas for a bigger, better Sims 5.
I'm actaully looking forward to see what Life By You brings;I'm hoping that I'll be able to download some really great custom content for LBY.
IIRC, Sims 2 and 3 put out EPs on a very regular schedule. TS4 is hit or miss. As well, the EPs are not nearly as meaty as they were for prior games. Each EP requires at least a game pack and several kits in order to feel somewhat complete. Pick a lane for each EP, stay in it, and flesh it out as best as you possibly can. Don't hold anything back in hopes of selling it in a later pack.
As an added bonus: if the company is so dead set on selling kits, up the ante. Release world kits instead of the rote offerings of clothes and endless tchotchkes.
I am embarrassed to say when it comes to the sims I am amongst the foolish who continue to fill my game with packs that only help for a short term fix of new stuff. It quickly gets old and/or frustrating when I realize this is still just a giant pig of a game, only now it has more colors of lipstick.
When a patch comes out, I feel lucky if they haven't broken, removed or changed the things I enjoyed about the game with stuff I never wanted or requested, but patches tend to be a mixed bag. For instance I cannot stand the horrible skin tones that make sims look like giant hotdog colored freaks. Wish I could return to the old skin tones, but I play on console now so no cc or mods.
Thing I still love about the game, the ability to create sims who occasionally make me smile with there silliness.
I can have fun with the game in very small doses.
The things I don't like:
The Bugs of course
The fact that even with all the changes, all sims are exactly the same at the core except for maybe werewolves who would be great if they were not so over the top making it impossible to enjoy them.
That everything cool that gets added to the game quickly become either annoying or boring because it is so over the top. Things that could have been so fun to discover if they were rare, or hidden to stumble across, are ruined because they happen all the friggin time.
Why must the game constantly create new and unfortunate looking random NPC sims everytime my Sim goes out anywhere? Why not use one of the 100 plus that are stuck in.my library? I kept them only because they were slightly less gross than the normal randoms why can't the game let them be my bartenders, housekeepers and roommates? If MCCC can do it why can't the Sims team figure it out? If it is because some simmers like those ugly NPCs give the rest of us a switch to stop them. Not all of us can or want to use mods.
I am the one of the most foolish of the foolish, because I bought Sims 4 and most of the packs twice, once for PC and again for my series X, so I know that I am part of the problem, but I can say that after Sims 4 I am done. I don't plan on buying Sims 5, because I have no doubt in my mind I will be disappointed, so I really hope that one of these new challengers are better at the Sims, because I like this type of game, but I need a lot more for my money.