"SimsILikeSims;c-16409685" wrote:
"JoAnne65;c-16409092" wrote:
@Writin_Reg Every new Sims game tries to reinvent the series and there’s nothing wrong with that. On the contrary as far as I’m concerned. That’s not the topic here though. No toddlers were back to the roots by the way, so apparently you had a hard time accepting the new direction for a long time as well (I remember it was a gamebreaker for you even). This topic is not about directions though. It’s about the way they are charging us. And I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with making people aware what they’re doing.
I think they are charging us piecemeal because they have learned from the mobile/social networking games industry, that people are more willing to pay a little bit, say $1 for one piece of content, even if it costs more to purchase things separately than purchasing 20 pieces of content together for $10. Sims 3 EPs had more in them, but they were subsidized by the Sims 3 store, where individual pieces of content, or smaller sets of content COULD be purchased. Then there were the worlds that were sold individually, along with special features designed for those worlds. Sims 3 store worlds or venue sets are quite comparable to Sims 4 game packs. Once again, you don't have to buy them if you can live without the content.
EA *could* try monetizing the series by charging a premium content subscription fee, but unlike many mobile/social networking games they haven't done so. I agree that making DLC FOR DLC is a bad plan, so I am waiting for My First Pets to go on sale, or for one of my credit cards to be completely paid off, whichever comes first. But they haven't sunk to the low another online game company (that begins with L and ends with d) has, in charging $200 US dollars for one single piece of DLC content in their online game (and people actually BUY it as a status symbol). THAT is why I don't want to see the Sims series become a MMORPG, along with the loss of game cheats (I <3 motherlode), advertising invasion potential, and unplayability of the entire game as soon as it is no longer supported by the game company.
It’s a persistent one apparently but even if I have to repeat it a million times I will: the problem is not the fact that features are offered in bits and pieces, that indeed is not new. The problem is
that is all there is to it this time. There is a total lack of substantial gameplay being offered. That’s where the fact it’s all bits and pieces is starting to matter.
"fullspiral;c-16409593" wrote:
"Writin_Reg;c-16409030" wrote:
"thevogel;c-16408995" wrote:
"MidnightAura;c-16408893" wrote:
I agree with @JoAnne65. No matter what the sims 3 did or didn't do (and still does) why it okay for the Sims 4 to do the same thing just using a different horse? It shouldn't be. What happened with My First Pet was a disgrace. I Know many don't agree and thats okay but this will just be the start.
That situation is not comparable to the Sims 3,2,1 or anything in the history. We have never had a product that relies on another to make it worth it. We have never had guru's saying before "We don't recommend you buy x unless you have y, but if you want it we can't stop you buying it" (lets be honest, they don't care. They have covered their backsides by making it crystal clear you need an expansion to be able to fully use every item in MFP. It's all over the trailer and as I've said straight from the horses mouths.
That is a first for this game. That cannot be denied or argued because its never happened before. Dlc for dlc is a new low for this iteration only and one I predict will happen again.
THIS!!!!! As if re-colors and re-meshes weren't enough of a blatant rip off of their own product...but DLC for DLC and hoping no one notices??? Yeah, that is scummy and low.
That is why everyone should be concerned. It will happen again, and it will get worse. No amount of DLC is going to fix what is wrong with EA's business practices and the game itself. We need a reboot.
Sims 4 actually was considered a reboot. It is no secret they informed us well before Sims 4 ever came out - we just choose not to see the message. It was their new vision - a remake of the Sims from the beginning with a new focus as if Sims 1-2- and 3 did not exist. They Maxis said it - and not every one paid attention. Most of us figured it would eventually get back on track even though the whole design of the game itself - and their engine made it clear it was a new sims series with little to do with it's former first 3 games. Maxis never tried to hide it - they told us before it came out - even let us pre-try the game before we bought it.
Remember Rachels blog - two plus months before the game came out. A Guru even called Sims 4 a Parallel Universe and it's version of the Sims. But people by and large just ignored all that.
I came to terms with it but not until we got Toddlers - they made enough difference to me that I could finally play the game. I just know better now than expecting a Sims 1-2-or 3 - and realize this is not those Sims games. I can still play those if I like and also play this parallel Universe. LOL.
4 years of bickering over the direction of this game has not changed it - its very design alone makes change improbable.
I disagree. What they SAID was that the sims was going back to it's roots. Which to me, meant more complex sims like 1 and 2. And it was dumping the sims of 3 that meant less than the open world they lived in.
Every sims series is a new take on the series. 2 took off from 1. 3 took a different direction than 2, and 4 was trying something else. The problem with 4 is the same thing that was the problem in 3. The moodlet system. The whim system. It's ruined the sims as we once knew it.
Without the ‘moodlets ruined the franchise’ part (I like them in 3 myself and I’d be fine with them in 4 if they weren’t so random and - like in 3 - would follow the choices of the player instead of repeating themselves endlessly even when you said no to them time after time), exactly. That is how people understood this back to basic thing and in no way could anyone know it was all hot air, the back to the roots statement. That it basically meant: yeah, we kicked out toddlers cause Sims 1 didn’t have them either and you guys were ok with that back then, remember?
