"LeGardePourpre;c-17044826" wrote:
"I mean, just think of the stuff we haven't made that we know you want!"
Okay, let me think ...
Vacation/Bon Voyage/Island Paradise
Makin' Magic/Supernatural
University
FreeTime
Showtime
Into The Future
Farm
I guess 5 years may not be enough to do them particularly if we will get a Game Pack for each occult instead of one Expansion Pack.
I think Maxis kind of painted themselves into a corner when it comes to game pack themes. Releasing vampires as a separate game pack set the expectation that future occults (witches, mermaids, werewolves, etc.) will also get their own standalone packs. Given the current development pace, it may take three years or more to get all of the occults simmers have requested. And that’s IF all of the game packs are about occults.
Then there’s also the matter of each vacation spot getting its own dedicated pack à la Jungle Adventure. Many simmers want to see a beach style location with water activities and the like, but others want to see more unexplored places like East Asia, Nordic countries, and the Mediterranean, just to name a few. There’s even a thread here on the forums asking for more “non-American” worlds.
And there are miscellaneous themes that aren’t big enough for expansions like romance, or hobbies, or farming (I personally don’t see it as an expansion).
Throw in expansion packs and stuff packs in between and it becomes obvious that not everyone is going to get what they want in a feasible time frame. Regardless of what the devs tell us or what simmers hope for, the engine has the final say. We’re already 27 packs in and we’ll be at 30 by October. All of that DLC adds weight to an engine that was shaky to begin with and has continuously been cracking under the pressure. It wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually patched in a pack selector advising you not to play with all the packs at once for performance like the dreaded 1.69 patch for the Sims 3.
I think that’s why there was such an outcry with the release of Strangerville. There are so many other themes simmers want to see covered and I think most everyone is aware that there isn’t enough time or “pack spaces” to realistically see them all come to fruition. So when something like Strangerville comes out and “takes” one of these spots, it potentially jeopardizes a theme another group wanted, kinda like the bracket they had recently where a theme “loses” (I think this was a spot on accidental allegory for the state of the game).
With all that said yes, I believe the Sims 4 is more than halfway through its lifecycle. I’d give it 2 1/2 to 3 more years at most, with some sort of announcement about the future of the franchise (Sims 5? Sims online? Sims VR? End of the series as we know it? Idk) coming in late 2021 or early 2022. That would make the game about 8 years old and double the lifespan of previous entries. If it’s not considered “complete” by then, I don’t know if it ever will be.
