Hello devs! *waves exuberantly*
First, I just want to say thank you for the efforts you have all put in these past years to appease us, your bloodthirsty community. I know it can't be easy and I don't envy your position. We can be harsh and relentless at times, but we can also be super excited and grateful. I just hope we can always remember to be respectful. You guys are awesome, especially when you continue to find ways to connect and communicate with us. Thank you so much. <3
So on the 411 live stream topic, I'll start by saying I do really like the livestreams. I look forward to anything you want to share, even if it's not big announcements or the things I want to hear about the most. I hope they continue to be a regular thing. I'd like to hear more about the workings of Maxis, similar information that we got in the community vote threads like the hows and whys of creation. I'd like to know more about the mechanics and what it takes to animate and create new game features. I know it's probably kind of hard to do with everyone still working at home, but maybe in the future?
On that note, if the game is continuing on for more years to come, I'd really like an idea of what kind of content we can expect. Will there be more Occults? Do you still encourage ideas from the community? What if you were to choose some specific topics and let us go nuts brainstorming (kind of like the old Toddler thread here on the forums back in the day) to get a chance to get some of those ideas in the game? I know you've all been reaching out more and I know that I, for one, never run out of ideas, lol. But maybe even a quarterly idea thread with a flexible topic that you give us could give everyone inspiration. No guarantees, of course. Or maybe a series of quarterly polls to feel out player interests? Just something to keep everyone engaged. I really loved the community Stuff Pack votes (even though they never turned out the way I wanted them too, haha) but now that you do Kits, maybe you could throw out some polls and voting for those? That would be fun. :)
Now for concerns and what I'd like to see discussed.
My main concern at this time for TS4 is about the "cancel culture" and supposed "sensitivity" issues and how they are preventing the game from blossoming into the greatness of past iterations. I know that, as a company, you don't want bad PR so if someone on Twitter stirs up a fuss about something "triggering" in the game, the response tends to be damage control, assurance of a "safe space" in the game, and instant removal or change. But I think you're not looking at these issues fairly and rationally. We're talking about a 20 year old triple A life simulation game whose roots are in satire and the exploitation of failure of the human condition. At least, that's what the game was originally about. It's no secret that since TS4's release, the core player base has been consistently disappointed with the absence of struggle, failure, consequences and general balance of the dark things in life. This is the meat of what made the previous games so engaging. It was the challenge of life, peppered with the ability to laugh when everything goes wrong. The game was relatable, surprising, engaging and often unpredictable. Sims 4 came right out of the gate in an ultra positive, safe, utopian, false paradise where no real threats exist. It was unconvincing. There was nothing for the player to sink their teeth into, no real obstacles, no force of challenge looming on the horizon to overcome. This is why players got bored so quickly. It wasn't much of a life simulator at all.
I know that some of you are really into Star Wars so I'm going to use The Force and the general SW themes as my analogy. A good life simulator is like The Force. It must always have balance. To have a light side, there must be a dark. To have good, you must have evil. To have triumph, you must have threat of failure. To have heroes like the Jedi (Sims), there must be villains (obstacles and challenges). Without the Dark Side, a Jedi has no purpose. It's the evil and darkness that they confront that gives them that purpose. It's the struggle of fighting and conquering their own inner darkness and getting up after they fall...it's those things that make the audience feel their pain, their despair, and relate to it, and jump up and cheer when the Jedi ascends to victory. It's necessary.
I say this because I know there's been a recent outrage (again) on Twitter about the Hates Children/dazed effect and somehow this translating as a non-consensual act. Listen. I know nobody on the team put this in with that kind of thing in mind. And many, many of us are aware that the dazed emotion does not only equal intoxication. This assumption on that person's complaint belongs to that person alone (and, of course, the small riot of people that they managed to stir up) and I can't even fathom why this was immediately promised to change. The wording, sure, I can completely get on board with that...but the feature? Let me point out that in order for a dazed Sim with the Hates Children trait to be in any position to Try For Baby in the first place requires... what now?....Yes. player consent. So this quick jump to turn this into a controversy without thinking it through was poor judgement on the part of the rabble rouser. And this really bothers me because I have hardly any Alien abduction pregnancies anymore, and worse...my Vampires no longer feed on sleeping Sims, if they can even break into a house. This nerfing over rash, self-inflicted hysteria that holds every. single. action. under a magnifying glass is going to lead to a complete train wreck of this game. What is the next thing the "woke" internet ragers are coming for? Arguing interactions being considered "abusive"?
There comes a time when artists and creators need to stand up for the integrity of their work. The main question should be, "is the player in control of this?" And if the answer is yes, then it stays. If the answer is no, then don't take it away completely or nerf it to oblivion. Change or add a way to give that control back to the player. Every person who plays this game deserves to be able to play the way they choose to, and nobody should be policing what can and cannot be in someone else's world or story. You, as developers, only need to give us the tools to play the way we want. Just because something can be interpreted as something offensive, doesn't mean that it is. There is a huge difference. Those who don't want it happening in their game don't need to direct it. Again, consent is there, it lies with the player. And that is where it belongs.
Please look over this thread on the topic here, I would really appreciate if you guys heard the other side: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/989425/tired-of-being-babysit-by-a-game/p1
Thank you all for your willingness to listen. I'm sorry it's such a long post, I hope it makes sense. There's so much I could have talked about but I chose to try to keep it limited to what's on my mind now. I really hope you decide to do this again with the community.
Peace and good health to you all. :)
EA Staff (Retired)