Carl's review of Dream Home Decorator pack is out

I can also tell you sometimes clients lie, like tell you they love something when they do not. Then fail you. I used a mod to check and yes they liked other things then they asked for and sometimes disliked what they asked for as well. lol Still testing..

I think I gave up when I realized that you don’t actually have to add anything. The client said they liked orange, so I just clicked the swatches that had orange options on the furniture already there…and it was done…and they loved it.

I’m now tempted to go back and change absolutely nothing and just bring the clients back for the reveal. Has someone tried this yet?

I thought Carl's review was unfair and rather trollish actually. Anyone can play a game in order to break it (people have been doing that since the Sims 1), but that approach is not actually informative or useful in showing what the career is really like. I doubt he played seriously enough to find out what the consequences for different choices could be or how the system worked best. You used to get an angry "I can't live in this squalor" message from a client sim if you sold off their essential items in the Sims 3, as Carl did here. Its a shame that they failed to implement a similar safeguard in this pack, but I don't intend to ruin my sims' houses, so how is knowing that you can ruin them helpful in any way?

As for consequences, I had a client Sim who disliked Contemporary Decor, and I accidentally placed a TV in the room I was renovating for her (which I discovered later counted as Contemporary) and she was not happy, so my decorator's reputation as negatively impacted. When I have been playing, I find it is important to have my sim ask her clients the right questions (about decor and colour likes/dislikes) first so as to improve the chances of rolling useful preferences, and it is also a good idea to use the filters in the Buy Mode catalogue so as to avoid inadvertently placing an object from a decor style that a Sim doesn't like. So in my experience, there are challenges and consequences. Back to Carl's review, his merely demonstrating how easy it is to break the game's career doesn't make this criticism of the career legitimate or helpful; it merely seems sort of adolescent and pointless. It's like he made no actual attempt to see how the career actually functions or is supposed to function, since it didn't measure up to how he thought it should function.

"Ellupelluellu;c-17898218" wrote:


It is "popular" now ;)

I miss the neutral reviews too.

You’d have to go to his website if you want neutral because he still makes helpful guides even if he’s not impressed with the pack.

And as a side note, before Carl, LGR made reviews that were side splitting hilarious in with his pros and cons but could be seen as negative because he would tell people if the pack was worth the money instead of telling people they needed it now and it was better then sliced bread.

But ultimately, Carl, LGR, and other reviewers are at least showing gameplay and items so people can decide if the packs what they want.

And yes I did get the pack because I’m a build nut and love having a separated stove top for small builds.

"simfriend1968;c-17898741" wrote:
I thought Carl's review was unfair and rather trollish actually. Anyone can play a game in order to break it (people have been doing that since the Sims 1), but that approach is not actually informative or useful in showing what the career is really like. I doubt he played seriously enough to find out what the consequences for different choices could be or how the system worked best. You used to get an angry "I can't live in this squalor" message from a client sim if you sold off their essential items in the Sims 3, as Carl did here. Its a shame that they failed to implement a similar safeguard in this pack, but I don't intend to ruin my sims' houses, so how is knowing that you can ruin them helpful in any way?

As for consequences, I had a client Sim who disliked Contemporary Decor, and I accidentally placed a TV in the room I was renovating for her (which I discovered later counted as Contemporary) and she was not happy, so my decorator's reputation as negatively impacted. When I have been playing, I find it is important to have my sim ask her clients the right questions (about decor and colour likes/dislikes) first so as to improve the chances of rolling useful preferences, and it is also a good idea to use the filters in the Buy Mode catalogue so as to avoid inadvertently placing an object from a decor style that a Sim doesn't like. So in my experience, there are challenges and consequences. Back to Carl's review, his merely demonstrating how easy it is to break the game's career doesn't make this criticism of the career legitimate or helpful; it merely seems sort of adolescent and pointless. It's like he made no actual attempt to see how the career actually functions or is supposed to function, since it didn't measure up to how he thought it should function.

Some people genuinely play that way, though, and, quite frankly, I love knowing the limits and quirks of detailed systems-- All the more important if I am supposed to be hyped for something that will not live up to it. I was not particularly interested in the career from the first reveal and if I did play through it, I would just do whatever I felt like. Considering some people kill their sims for fun, I don't see what is so unrealistic about players ruining their homes just because you would not play that way.

He mentioned BB focused players would probably not play this way and could get more out of it, by the way. A lot of stuff I am seeing about the career now that the pack is out points to the gig assessment system being rather poor. Perhaps that allows for creativity, but there is not a lot of nuance to play with and I think that is an important takeaway when you decide if it is worth the money. (Even more so since the price increased in some places apparently.) How is that adolescent?

Well, I guess the idea of the career is to get as much feedback from the household as possible. I don’t plan on going into hidden objects and bringing out dog poop.... lol. And it will be fun to try different combinations out on gigs. I do wish we had received a world with it though....however because of the bugs I may wait and see if they fix it the bugs in the pack soon, before buying it. I’m still upset my babies aren’t the right col9r and dine out is so buggy.

"Calico45;c-17898760" wrote:
He mentioned BB focused players would probably not play this way and could get more out of it, by the way. A lot of stuff I am seeing about the career now that the pack is out points to the gig assessment system being rather poor. Perhaps that allows for creativity, but there is not a lot of nuance to play with and I think that is an important takeaway when you decide if it is worth the money. (Even more so since the price increased in some places apparently.) How is that adolescent?

Deliberately putting dog poop in a Sim's room after deleting all the furniture is not adolescent? Sure seems that way to me. Look, I don't need reviews to be positive, just informative. Plenty of gamechangers have mixed feelings about this pack and have pointed out the problems with it, including Plumbella and the English Simmer (who has never been that thrilled with the pack from the announcement), but they played through the career, pointed out how it worked, what the problems were and what they liked. Iron Seagull is another one who has offered honest opinions and assessments of the current bugs. English Simmer was pointing out today that the upper level gigs had some bugs, such as trying to add a new level to a house for instance, because of problems with placing walls and doors. That was useful information. She also said what she liked and what she thought worked.

Even LGR, while he could be negatively hilarious (such as when he so amusingly set his Katy Perry's Sweet Treats house afire at the end of a Sims 3 review) genuinely tried to be balanced and to look at the good and the bad. I remember in his Island Living review, where he was quite blunt in critiquing the lack of content and the emptiness of the pack, contained a few nice moments where he praised the beauty of the world, waxed nostalgic about his own time living on an island, praised the off-the-grid system, as imperfectly implemented as it was then, and so on. (Sigh, I miss him). Carl was just completely negative, barely admitting that there was anything good about the career or pack at all, when, in contrast, in my one day of a game play I see lots of similarities with the Ambition career, and even some improvements on it. That blanket negativity (along with the silly business about the dog poop) is what seems trollish to me.

If it wasn't so buggy, it would be a good STUFF PACK. But a Game Pack? NO EFFING WAY!

It's insanity they're charging $20 for 1/8 of the Ambitions EP with 2 or 3 new animations.

On top of that, levels 9 and 10 (when you have to add a new floor) are buggy AF. I've seen countless of videos by GameChangers and all of them encountered game-breaking issues.

"@Naus;c-17898850" wrote:
If it wasn't so buggy, it would be a good STUFF PACK. But a Game Pack? NO EFFING WAY!

It's insanity they're charging $20 for 1/8 of the Ambitions EP with 2 or 3 new animations.

On top of that, levels 9 and 10 (when you have to add a new floor) are buggy AF. I've seen countless of videos by GameChangers and all of them encountered game-breaking issues.

Same. I actually liked the content itself since I was a builder. I have no problem in a pack like this because I loved the theme. However because of the Bugs, I have to wait for a patch before getting it.

Copying my coment in another thread:

Imo it doesn't matter what's the game changer approach as long as it clearly shows that sims are not even acknowlodging what kind of room they are asked to renovate, or if the objects make sense or not.

Carl's review is what we call in my job a proof by absurd. He tried to use the absurd to prove that you basically can do anything as long as the right color (and maybe furniture style) is used. Because it was absurd, the game should have refuted it. But it didn't...