Are there Bachelor/Bachelorette's party?

"graventhe;c-18064134" wrote:

But the talk isn't about cultures here.

It is when you consider what other cultures consider more mature themes. The game is already rated M in some countries and outright banned in others. They are most definitely sensitive to how aspects of the game could raise the rating in even more countries due to cultural differences.

The Sims is no longer a US Franchise, or even just a 'western' franchise. It is a global franchise, and they make design decisions based on cultures around the world, not just in terms of what content to include, which is what you are considering, but also in terms of what that content will do to how the game is rated.

"Stormkeep;c-18064135" wrote:

"graventhe;c-18064134" wrote:

But the talk isn't about cultures here.

It is when you consider what other cultures consider more mature themes. The game is already rated M in some countries and outright banned in others. They are most definitely sensitive to how aspects of the game could raise the rating in even more countries due to cultural differences.

The Sims is no longer a US Franchise, or even just a 'western' franchise. It is a global franchise, and they make design decisions based on cultures around the world, not just in terms of what content to include, which is what you are considering, but also in terms of what that content will do to how the game is rated.

I don't think that's the case. Okay, strippers, I'm sorry, dancers, are too mature, that's understandable. But how having fun is too mature? We had keg parties and juice pong in University, but we can't have one single new activity for a bach party? Or, at least, where is cross-pack compatibility? Karaoke, watching movies, going to a spa, playing bar games, even streaking (which is apparently not too mature) can be fun bachelor/bachelorette party activities, but we can't include them in the planning list. Yes, we can form groups and make sims do this stuff anyway, but I would like my sims to do it autonomously at a party, just like they do activities autonomously on holidays.
So I'm not buying “it's a culture thing” excuse. They just didn't bother.

"Elliandre;c-18064074" wrote:
I'm not sure why you are saying her argument makes no sense. @Babykittyjade has made an argument that makes perfect sense to me. We can't be sure if it's true or not, because they never really gave a reason why the Sims 4 is more mild, but her theory makes total sense. Maybe they are trying harder to expand the market of their games internationally, which means toning down the content so it's more widely acceptable in other cultures. What does it matter how past games were marketed? Maybe they didn't care as much back then if the games actually reflected the culture of the country they were selling the games to? As @Stormkeep pointed out, they are more inclusive than ever before, seeming to make global diversity inclusion part of their goals, which means they are maybe thinking about things like wild drinking parties more carefully and deciding if it's acceptable to everyone.

We also live in a different time now. People are more sensitive and hyper critical of media content. People are looking at video games as something harmful to their teens and kids whereas no one seemed to care what was in our games in the 80's or 90's. I heard a podcast once that said the majority of our 80's kids games would have an M rating today lol. Everywhere in the world there is increasing restrictions on what can be marketed to teens and children. Even Canadians are often calling for a closer look at how foreign games are rated for kids and teens and what's in the games and if they match our own content rules for violence, mature themes etc.

So the suggestion to make wilder parties optional is maybe one way to be more inclusive to everyone, but that doesn't actually work if other countries are becoming more strict and not going to allow American games that have that mature theme content sold under a T rating. Maybe they should just change the rating to Mature and then they wouldn't have to worry about anything. It seems easier to me, but maybe less profitable who knows why they haven't done that. For all we know, they may be gradually pushing the game series towards an E Age 10+ rating and that's why the content and humour is more mild and they nerf a lot of things that trigger complaints. I really hope not, but you never know.

I didn't disagree with her entire post -- in fact I agreed with the second part of it. It was pointing out that not all cultures had bach parties, which doesn't make sense when talking about the game's bach parties. They are not a world-wide thing, but they are in this game.

The game was toned down because the devs of this iteration decided to focus on very young teen girls as their target demographic. I remember one interview discussing this. It was actually fairly insulting as the interviewer interviewee (SGDrake?) admitted they were talking to people who worked with teenage girls more than the girls themselves.

I wouldn't want a Sims game that actually met the M rating in the US. For the countries where it IS M or outright banned, it has to do with parts of the game that absolutely should not be censored. The whole Russia kerfuffle showed that the M rating is due to homosexuality, and the countries which have it banned wouldn't allow it based on modesty reasons and no matter how much you sanitize the game, that won't be changed. This is the one thing I commend the team for. But having dancers at a party? That's not going to change the ratings, but it is smacking of paternalism deciding that teenage girls can't giggle at the absolute silliness of it. Sims 3 is still sold and its ratings haven't changed anywhere nor has there been any type of controversy around its themes.

I can't believe people still think this is about rating, it's not at all, its laziness of EA, the game has LGBT marriage but it's still sold in the middle east where LGBT aspects is banned..

Also it's about giving you the option to have a bachloar party or not, you have the option to do it or not, in sims 3 bachelor parties wasn't forced on you, you had the option to call your friends and plan it or not..

Again..it's having the option..this way everyone is happy.

I don't think Maxis reusing the House Party event from 7 years ago and not giving us a lot of options to customize it or make it feel different has anything to do with culture or the rating.

I'm atleast going to use the keg object in my Bach parties.

"Felicity;c-18064160" wrote:

"Elliandre;c-18064074" wrote:
I'm not sure why you are saying her argument makes no sense. @Babykittyjade has made an argument that makes perfect sense to me. We can't be sure if it's true or not, because they never really gave a reason why the Sims 4 is more mild, but her theory makes total sense. Maybe they are trying harder to expand the market of their games internationally, which means toning down the content so it's more widely acceptable in other cultures. What does it matter how past games were marketed? Maybe they didn't care as much back then if the games actually reflected the culture of the country they were selling the games to? As @Stormkeep pointed out, they are more inclusive than ever before, seeming to make global diversity inclusion part of their goals, which means they are maybe thinking about things like wild drinking parties more carefully and deciding if it's acceptable to everyone.

We also live in a different time now. People are more sensitive and hyper critical of media content. People are looking at video games as something harmful to their teens and kids whereas no one seemed to care what was in our games in the 80's or 90's. I heard a podcast once that said the majority of our 80's kids games would have an M rating today lol. Everywhere in the world there is increasing restrictions on what can be marketed to teens and children. Even Canadians are often calling for a closer look at how foreign games are rated for kids and teens and what's in the games and if they match our own content rules for violence, mature themes etc.

So the suggestion to make wilder parties optional is maybe one way to be more inclusive to everyone, but that doesn't actually work if other countries are becoming more strict and not going to allow American games that have that mature theme content sold under a T rating. Maybe they should just change the rating to Mature and then they wouldn't have to worry about anything. It seems easier to me, but maybe less profitable who knows why they haven't done that. For all we know, they may be gradually pushing the game series towards an E Age 10+ rating and that's why the content and humour is more mild and they nerf a lot of things that trigger complaints. I really hope not, but you never know.

I didn't disagree with her entire post -- in fact I agreed with the second part of it. It was pointing out that not all cultures had bach parties, which doesn't make sense when talking about the game's bach parties. They are not a world-wide thing, but they are in this game.

The game was toned down because the devs of this iteration decided to focus on very young teen girls as their target demographic. I remember one interview discussing this. It was actually fairly insulting as the interviewer interviewee (SGDrake?) admitted they were talking to people who worked with teenage girls more than the girls themselves.

I wouldn't want a Sims game that actually met the M rating in the US. For the countries where it IS M or outright banned, it has to do with parts of the game that absolutely should not be censored. The whole Russia kerfuffle showed that the M rating is due to homosexuality, and the countries which have it banned wouldn't allow it based on modesty reasons and no matter how much you sanitize the game, that won't be changed. This is the one thing I commend the team for. But having dancers at a party? That's not going to change the ratings, but it is smacking of paternalism deciding that teenage girls can't giggle at the absolute silliness of it. Sims 3 is still sold and its ratings haven't changed anywhere nor has there been any type of controversy around its themes.

Well I think there are multiple aspects at play. I think what I explained about the international culture still stands true. But I ​also do remember
Them saying they wanted this game to be a safe space for young girls . I think whoever the lead manager is wanted the focus to be different then past games. But in doing so it's also much easier for them to be accepted internationally because there is nothing too scandalous,scary or controversial. And thirdly, like someone mentioned people are extremely judgemental and the smallest mistake they think you made goes viral on social media.
I think all those reasons alone are enough for them to keep content toned down and childish. Look at the ghosts we got with the otherwise amazing haunted pack. Apparently anything less than super Mario would have scared the little children lol or broke the safe space. Look how much this game lacks in negativity or where for example, are the mean and evil wedding story socials or options for evil sims? From what I saw everything looks quite cheery?

Do I agree with it? No. I believe in options. Tons of options that give us 1000s of ways to play rather it's scandalous scary or anything else. And I do wish they had a more mature direction. (No.Not graphic stuff) but for the reasons stated above I don't think they have any plans on changing things anytime soon. And with social media getting even worse and screaming to nerf everything or associating innocent things with criminal acts this is the best way to cover their own backs.

The aim seems to be more of a second life approach now. Live your dream life as your dream self in your dream world and bask in real world cultures. I love this game I really do but I just do not like where the aim has gone.
With all that said I do wish they had gave us a wild night if bach parties ?

I honestly wasn’t expecting cake dancers in this day & age (as much as I wanted them), but I was expecting SOMETHING to differentiate all of the “new” events. I’ll probably just plan the ceremony & reception since everything else would just be the same thing over & over, lol.

"Stormkeep;c-18063797" wrote:
That's awesome, @Chicklet453681! I wasn't aware of the details of their job postings, but that puts that one fear to rest.

And I totally agree, modders and CC both carry the game, the whole franchise really. I would have stopped playing with TS1 if not for CC, not to mention mods. The clothes were so ugly, and none of the furniture matched anything.

Sounds like we’ll be getting ‘one stop shopping’ for custom content so creators won’t need to have their own web site or Patreon to get paid for their work and users won’t have to risk getting bad cc or viruses/malware on their computers.