Hi Sims team! Thanks for this opportunity. We think about you a lot! I just started playing Sims when the pandemic started and honestly its been wonderful. Since I had no experience with versions before Sims 4, I have no sense of missing out on things that people complain about missing from previous games. I take Sims4 on its own terms. I have bought almost all the packs, and play a lot. I follow the community and learn from other players and creators. Its important to state that I think the level of enjoyment and involvement that I have is only possible because of the large community of modders. Although I spend some time building, I am in it for the game play and aim for it to be as realistic as possible. I think in essence if you look at areas where you should grow and improve, the most important ones are in gameplay and improving its depth. If you want to see the path forward, loo at the mods that most serious players use to make the game playable. For thinking adults, the game is not playable in its Vanilla version for any length of time - it is simply too shallow and repetitive. So serious committed players mod it up, and all you have to do is look at the what the most serious and popular modders are producing for game play: story progression, increased depth of emotion, traits, memories, interactions, careers, adult themes, and more difficulty across the board, etc. The gameplay in its vanilla state seems so dumbed down, and aiming for the developmental level of young teens. I do not want tons of more "stuff" in build buy, I want better gameplay with more depth.Its the structure of the game itself that need attention (and all the bugs, and lag) - not cranking out more stuff. Carl of Carl's Sims guides has produced an excellent video recently with some advice for you that I think speaks for a lot of serious players, and is really nuanced and insightful- please check it out.
The ability to tell stories in the SIms that represent the diversity of identities is crucial ! Kudos for the steps you have taken- please continue, and let us know how you will address the issue of pronouns in the game, and representing various disabilities. Please seriously re-evaluate how you are representing various life stages, and create updates that allow for more nuance or sub categories - ie young teen and older teen, older middle age, young senior and old old, and create more specific activities, interactions and traits for these. In particular the life stage of elders is shallow and truly ageist. No one wants to play with this age group because you have made them into a shallow, pointless cartoon with no interest. It represents an embarrassing level of ageism, that seems to be escaping people because your players skew younger. You do better with representation when you are listening and learning from the community. What you do in this area truly matters in people's lives.
Also please pay attention to the clamoring that tells you to test better prior to release. Most of us would truly rather wait, and have a better product. It really works against you to push a bad product out the door. I financially support modders who are fixing the game for work you should have done- so I am having to pay twice. I am not happy about that. I will not buy any of your kits because they are a clear cash grab that do nothing to address the real things that are lacking in the game.
Kits aside, it seems more effort is being made to respond to players and be more transparent- that does matter, and is appreciated.
EA Staff (Retired)