Carl's review of Dream Home Decorator pack is out

Yeah I'm kiiiinda sensing some double standards here. Dude gave a negative review so suddenly people are acting like he's no longer credible just because they disagree. It's the same BS that LGR always went through. Game Changers aren't required to be the uber-positive EA shills that some of them act like they have to be. Carl had an honest opinion of the pack and he gave it. Like he's always done. And just from seeing other game changers' play throughs (even the positive ones) I gotta say, most of what he said was spot on. This pack is a hot *** mess.

I'm, once again, slowly getting off the fence and leaning more towards skipping it.

"MidnightAura;c-17899386" wrote:
Isn’t it sad that a game changer who tells the truth gets accused of being a troll when another who cries tears and screams like a teenage girl is held up as the gold standard?

I suggest a nice in-between. Everyone start watching Plumbella. She's awesome and typically not overly positive or negative.

"83bienchen;c-17898455" wrote:
I liked grimcookie's review better.

He was honest, but it wasn't as over the top as Carl's is. I mean we all knew this pack is weak on Gameplay before, no need to dedicate the whole review to making fun of the shortcomings of the career.

I know we already have sofas and stoves and shelfes, but doing what they did with these is hard work and while it does not justify the price tag of a GP in my eyes, I would still expect a review to mention that the BB is of good quality. These aren't really new gameplay objects but they also aren't just carbon copies of assets we already have in the game, there is more to them than jus ta new sofa that functions exactly the same as sofas in previous packs.

I understand that the Buy Mode assets were technically new , and great in quantity (Build mode was an ABSOLUTE JOKE with a single wallpaper and 3 doors). However, the issue I have (and Plumbella did too, along with several people on the subreddit) is that the style is something that we have gotten ad nauseum to the point where we are numb to this mid-century modern IKEA-esque furniture that they keep spitting out in tons of packs. It's overdone to an absurd degree, so even if the models are new and each piece is unique, it all looks so similar to existing pieces that it's incredibly easy to gloss over the newness of it and go right into being unimpressed by the same stuff we've already got. If this was a new style that the Sims team hadn't given us tons of already, or even if the pack included like 4 different styles instead of just the one, it would feel a lot better, but with a style we've seen time and time again, it's hard to really appreciate it. If we had gotten more styles like Victorian, Art Nouveau, Colonial, or Rococco, I think a lot more people would have overlooked some of the shortcomings of the career since we'd be getting furniture that isn't well represented, but that's not the case.

"Calico45;c-17899169" wrote:
Pointing that out is not "adolescent" just because you do not play that way or do not agree with it.

I suppose I understand not liking negativity, but you went a step further saying a review was neither "helpful" nor "legitimate" and was even "pointless" and "adolescent" just because you did not like it. I simply do not watch the reviews I do not care for. I do not demean them and their creators.

I thought the deliberate choice of placing only dog poop in a build was "adolescent" not Carl himself. Ditto the description of this approach to discussing the pack as pointless. I suppose I should have explained more clearly that the review seemed pointless to me because I am interested in the career, that I didn't particularly find it helpful personally speaking because I didn't learn anything useful about the pack or how it worked. I played the original career extensively in Sims 3 and would really have appreciated a longtime Sims 3 player like Carl pointing out similarities and differences for instance (not that I had any particular expectations going in).

You seem to be deliberately misrepresenting my words by quoting them out of context and ignoring my general point about the review. You are also attributing to me opinions that I never said I hold. I have never judged how anyone else, least of all Carl, plays the game, people are free to play how they like and I certainly have no opinion or negative judgment about it. In a thread about a review, I posted my thoughts on why I did not find this to be a valuable or useful review due to its unbalanced nature and failure to treat the career in an objective way. I enjoy plenty of reviews that have negative or critical elements and still find them useful. For me, Carl's was not; it was just inflammatory. And disagreeing with someone's approach to a subject is not about demeaning them, it's about refuting, intellectually, their argument. His argument was that the pack was worthless because it was easily broken; I don't happen to agree. But I won't repeat all my points again. Peace.

"simfriend1968;c-17899529" wrote:

"Calico45;c-17899169" wrote:
Pointing that out is not "adolescent" just because you do not play that way or do not agree with it.

I suppose I understand not liking negativity, but you went a step further saying a review was neither "helpful" nor "legitimate" and was even "pointless" and "adolescent" just because you did not like it. I simply do not watch the reviews I do not care for. I do not demean them and their creators.

I thought the deliberate choice of placing only dog poop in a build was "adolescent" not Carl himself. Ditto the description of this approach to discussing the pack as pointless. I suppose I should have explained more clearly that the review seemed pointless to me because I am interested in the career, that I didn't particularly find it helpful personally speaking because I didn't learn anything useful about the pack or how it worked. I played the original career extensively in Sims 3 and would really have appreciated a longtime Sims 3 player like Carl pointing out similarities and differences for instance (not that I had any particular expectations going in).

You seem to be deliberately misrepresenting my words by quoting them out of context and ignoring my general point about the review. You are also attributing to me opinions that I never said I hold. I have never judged how anyone else, least of all Carl, plays the game, people are free to play how they like and I certainly have no opinion or negative judgment about it. In a thread about a review, I posted my thoughts on why I did not find this to be a valuable or useful review due to its unbalanced nature and failure to treat the career in an objective way. I enjoy plenty of reviews that have negative or critical elements and still find them useful. For me, Carl's was not; it was just inflammatory. And disagreeing with someone's approach to a subject is not about demeaning them, it's about refuting, intellectually, their argument. His argument was that the pack was worthless because it was easily broken; I don't happen to agree. But I won't repeat all my points again. Peace.

I think you may be missing the point of Carl's review. His review made it abundantly clear that the rules the career followed were incredibly nebulous and rudimentary, to the point where you could overhaul their living room when tasked with a kitchen renovation and still succeed so long as you hit their likes. That's enough to tell you that this career is a hollow sham with a bare minimum of parameters in place and not enough to really make it a rich, developed interior designer career like it should be to feel fulfilling. I'm not sure what else you're expecting from this kind of career review - if the career is fundamentally broken, seeing more of it isn't going to make it any better. Even branching out from Carl, I just saw someone post today on Reddit that they got a kitchen renovation request in which the customer hated cooking and loved video editing, which is critically flawed when you're tasked with upgrading their cooking room. So Carl's review of the career was on point in showing just how poorly constructed this career was.

"texxx78;c-17898224" wrote:

"Ellupelluellu;c-17898218" wrote:

"ashcrash19;c-17898207" wrote:
Is it just me or has he become more and more negative? I remember when Carl's Guides were neutral or positive. The last year or so it seemed he's always upset.

It is "popular" now ;)

I miss the neutral reviews too.

I always want honest reviews.

And I never said I did not. :) Does neutral mean "not honest" these days? Person has to either love the back or totally hate it to be "honest"?

I mean Carl used to have neutral reviews, positive or not, THOSE I loved. They were good reviews, I did not want to know does he like the pack or not, I have already made my own opinion. What I needed to know what was in the pack. Good or bad, without going nuts about it.

AGAIN, to ME, and I as any others here , have the right to tell how I feel. To me (only to me, again, not to everyone or "us") , it feels more like now he is trying to get the pack to look as bad as he can, in purpose. Again, only how I feel. I might be wrong. :)


And the same goes with those who in their reveal hype the pack to heavens, no matter what is in it, not watching those either. :)

The furniture is hideous in this pack. Nothing left to say...

The poop was just to prove a point - that decorating the room doesn't actually matter, even if you show off the poop; the only thing that seems to matter is getting a colour in Likes and Dislikes, then putting it on your walls.

"Ellupelluellu;c-17899559" wrote:

"texxx78;c-17898224" wrote:

"Ellupelluellu;c-17898218" wrote:

"ashcrash19;c-17898207" wrote:
Is it just me or has he become more and more negative? I remember when Carl's Guides were neutral or positive. The last year or so it seemed he's always upset.

It is "popular" now ;)

I miss the neutral reviews too.

I always want honest reviews.

And I never said I did not. :) Does neutral mean "not honest" these days? Person has to either love the back or totally hate it to be "honest"?

I mean Carl used to have neutral reviews, positive or not, THOSE I loved. They were good reviews, I did not want to know does he like the pack or not, I have already made my own opinion. What I needed to know what was in the pack. Good or bad, without going nuts about it.

AGAIN, to ME, and I as any others here , have the right to tell how I feel. To me (only to me, again, not to everyone or "us") , it feels more like now he is trying to get the pack to look as bad as he can, in purpose. Again, only how I feel. I might be wrong. :)


And the same goes with those who in their reveal hype the pack to heavens, no matter what is in it, not watching those either. :)

I didn't said you don't want honest reviews. I said i prefer always honesty. For good and bad. I don't want neutral, i want the truth. If the truth is neutral then that's what it is...

But you did said that being negative is popular now. And i think that's not truth. I think that whoever says a negative remark is publicly "punished". Just compare lilsimsie popularity and Carl's popularity.

Yesterday Plumbella announced that she's not making more reviews because she can't handle the anxiety of people accusing her of being overly negative or positive. Clearly, because she's leaving now, it must have been for being negative about this pack.

Being negative is not taking game changers anywhere, to any glory, to popularity. They need to be brave to do that.

And honestly, Carl, a guy that has deepen into all features of sims 3 to make really in depth guides, starts playing this career and what is he going to think? That it's in depht? You're asked to do a kitchen reno, you do a gym instead, and that's ok? Because the couches are beautiful? Carl has different standards...

But i don't have the pack. So i would love if someone could tell me if Carl is making that up, on purpose, to make the pack look bad...

"TheGreatGorlon;c-17899538" wrote:

I think you may be missing the point of Carl's review. His review made it abundantly clear that the rules the career followed were incredibly nebulous and rudimentary, to the point where you could overhaul their living room when tasked with a kitchen renovation and still succeed so long as you hit their likes. That's enough to tell you that this career is a hollow sham with a bare minimum of parameters in place and not enough to really make it a rich, developed interior designer career like it should be to feel fulfilling. I'm not sure what else you're expecting from this kind of career review - if the career is fundamentally broken, seeing more of it isn't going to make it any better. Even branching out from Carl, I just saw someone post today on Reddit that they got a kitchen renovation request in which the customer hated cooking and loved video editing, which is critically flawed when you're tasked with upgrading their cooking room. So Carl's review of the career was on point in showing just how poorly constructed this career was.

I didn't miss Carl's point; I just disagreed with it, as I already said. At that point I had not played the career yet but I had watched some other excellent reviews from Plumbella and English Simmer. I did not find Carl's as helpful as theirs (which were far from adulatory), that's all. In the past, I played the Sims 3 Ambitions career quite a lot, and now that I have had the opportunity to play with this career I see it as essentially the same career with just a fresh coat of paint. The Sims 3 career had some annoying glitches and bugs leading to some weird randomness (like required objects not being checked off sometimes even though you placed them in a renovation, just to name one). I think this version of the career has tried to fix these; but probably they went too far in the other direction (I don't know for sure, as I have only had a few gigs so far) as they simplified it. In my experience, though, the career is not (in my opinion) nebulous and rudimentary, or fundamentally broken (leaving aside some of the bugs that some gamechangers and players -- not me -- have experienced), or not any more than the Sims 3 version.

My sim failed at a gig because the client didn't like Contemporary Decor and I had accidentally placed a TV (which I didn't know counted as Contemporary) so there did appear to be consequences for your choices, as there were in Sims 3, if you didn't pay enough attention to traits; I also had fun succeeding at gigs and having sims clap at my carefully chosen objects. I enjoy the new animations and the before/after reveal trailer too. Prior to this pack, I already liked decorating and redecorating my played sims houses, so for me it is just a new, interesting way to do more of that, have my sims now make money at it, and have them go out and engage more with the townie sims that I usually ignore. The Sims 3 career essentially worked that way as well, at least as I remember it. Based on my experience of now having played both sims 3 and sim 4 versions of this career, it's not that different, and that just confirms me in my view that Carl's opinion of this pack (as someone else said above) was not neutral, but seemed intended to make the pack look bad on purpose. Probably he was genuinely frustrated, I don't know, since apparently his expectations were completely different than mine, but the result was that I didn't find his review particularly enlightening, that's all.

Maybe Carl's sims liked the poop because brown was their fav color? His review was fun but when I played the career myself I really liked it and there were no bugs. Bad coding perhaps because the likes were for only one family member but still I was under budget and got rid of so much superfluous furniture I came home rich!