Can the “nerfing” or “re-tuning” or “toning down” of key pack features please be brought to a halt? It feels very bait and switch when people pay for certain features in a pack based on trailers, blog posts, livestreams etc advertising that feature and then due to albeit some very loud and persistent complaints from a very vocal minority that feature is basically removed. Some examples are:
Vampire Residential Break Ins: there are all sorts of toggles in game to prevent this for players who don’t want it from door locks to garlic, but a small group of players who only bought the pack for CAS & Build/Buy assets raised a stink and now this key pack feature is all but non-existent. In all the time since shortly after the pack released I have had 2 residential visits from a vampire. I bought this pack because I thought vampires would by the behavior advertised bring an element of the unexpected but no. They barely exist. Like so many other things in this game nothing really happens with them unless it’s forced to happen.
Townie Reactions To Global Superstars: The whole point of achieving this level of fame is to be mobbed by adoring fans and paparazzi alike. To have to strategize how you’re going to go for your morning jog, or cup of coffee unbothered and unrecognized. But I am not the only person who has noticed that recently you garner not much more notice in public than the average sim. Again you gave tools in game for players who didn’t want this to avoid it. There’s the celebrity disguise and the ability to bow out of fame altogether in the settings menu. But again a small but loud group voiced dissatisfaction with a key pack feature and now it’s all but gone for those of us who bought a pack about fame and wanted to experience all of the trials and tribulations of being famous.
Weather Related Deaths: Again a feature that promised to add a level of challenge and surprise that was almost entirely removed because a vocal few didn’t want again to be bothered to use the toggle you provided them in game to exempt their sims from being affected by the weather leaving those of us who bought Seasons, because again this feature promised to bring spontaneity and a modicum of challenge, out in the the cold.
Murphy Bed Deaths: The theme continues, players had the ability to toggle this off by simply upgrading the bed in game, or by purchasing a different bed. Now that the much requested bunk beds are available as a space saving option in tiny homes, can we deviants have the option to crush our sims like cockroaches in their PJs again?
Alien Abductions: There is the satellite dish in game for those who want avoid this, there is the ability to cancel out of the abduction in your queue and the ability to reset sim to bring them back. I have had Get To Work since October 2015 when I first purchased the TS4 base game. In all those years I have had 4 alien abductions despite openly courting them by entering the scientist career, using the computer in BB that’s designed to attract them, going to alien night at the bar. Again all due to the complaints of a vocal few.
It’s frustrating. I generally buy packs on release day at full price with a full understanding of what they will bring to my game. You guys do an excellent job in my opinion of giving players ample opportunity to educate themselves as to what packs will do in game. You also do a great job of providing players ways to mitigate features in game. If not through a toggle in the settings then through gameplay objects. So I wish instead of responding to complaints about features by basically tuning them down to just shy of eliminating them, you would instead point out gently but firmly the options players have within the game to exercise control over those features. When these features are removed/toned way down the gameplay for the packs feels hollow and the entire game follows suit, and I can’t help but feel I should be owed a refund of at least part of my purchase price. I and so many love The Sims because it famously offers the quirky and the unexpected in addition to allowing players to have a digital dollhouse so to speak. But lately it seems to be more plodding, predictable dollhouse and far far less humorous, wacky, fun. I guess I am just hoping you will find your way back to the roots of the game, and also consider restoring these features of the above mentioned packs to their former glory.
p.s.
Most of us who bought Realm Of Magic would actually LOVE to see the occasional spell caster zipping about our neighborhood on a flying broom/mop, and casting the odd spell or two about the town. If you bought a magic pack, you should expect to see magic about on occasion.
EA Staff (Retired)