Everyone should be worried (Strangerville discussion)

I am not worried at all. I love the pack and the new style. I hope they make more story game packs. I do understand not everyone agrees with me and that is fine.

I hope they find a way to add everything for Sandbox that players feel is important for their game. I also hope they continue to add new story game packs for those that enjoy that style.

I do think they need to add an option in any future game packs that includes a story, the ability to turn the story off.

Most come to forums and are vocal when they are not happy with a product. There are many that are happy with a product and do not bother letting others know.

I hope my text does not sound mean. I really hope everyone gets packs and items they wish for in the future.

@Freygea I too hope they make more game packs, and if they go this route again, that they include some powerful sandbox tools aswell as the story, so we get a deeper gameplay. <3

"Simtown15;c-16976138" wrote:

And it’s not just Strangerville. Look at Get Famous, for example! The world is the same size as Strangerville, which is a gamepack world!

When you look back on the sims 3 base game world of Sunset Valley and how many lots it had, this quickly becomes very depressing. I do suspect this is down to budget cuts.

"Aine;c-16976148" wrote:
@Freygea I too hope they make more game packs, and if they go this route again, that they include some powerful sandbox tools aswell as the story, so we get a deeper gameplay. <3

That would be great. : )

I don't think it's as dramatic as all that. Pet Stuff was an entirely separate kind of issue/complaint. Strangerville isn't an issue of splitting up content, it's just (or on the surface, appears to be) a departure from the standard formula of sandbox tools mixed with RPG elements that The Sims 4 has been following.

I can understand concerns, though my reasons may be different. The main issue I'm seeing is that, quite frankly, the pack is difficult to talk about. Maybe that will change as time goes on, but I think it's kind of a curveball for the sims community, who is generally accustomed to being able to talk about content in great detail once it's all out there (and it usually is displayed in detail when released, if not a little before).

On the surface, it doesn't look like the style of it is much different from Jungle Adventure (maybe a bit more narrative-heavy). But Jungle Adventure, to my knowledge, didn't have spoilers because it didn't have a set narrative. It was a theme park, but without any major secrets. I was not paying attention closely when it was released, so I could be wrong about it, but that is how it comes across to me.

This type of storytelling (with spoilers) is nothing new under the sun, but it's normally in the context of things like movies and TV shows released nationwide, or globally, to a broad audience. Strangerville is a niche pack style within a niche game (The Sims 4) in a niche franchise, in a niche genre of video games. Video games are fairly mainstream entertainment now, but The Sims as a genre seems to be pretty narrow still. It is possible that they are attempting to expand its reach with a pack of this style, but I suppose this is where the concerns of an abandonment of the formula come from.

Anyway, the point of the emphasis on niche within niche within niche is that one of the things that helps along stories with spoilers, normally, is the power of word of mouth from people you know and trust to tell you that it's worth experiencing and paying for, without needing to spoil the details in the process. For example, the TV show Stranger Things (which, incidentally, the pack was partly inspired by I assume) was recommended to me by a member of my family and without that recommendation, it's possible I may never have bothered to give it a look. With that in mind, it's unlikely that someone like myself is going to jump at the pack without hearing from a trusted source that it's worth it. And the problem is, where can these trusted sources be found? Apart from word of mouth, TV shows and movies typically have reviewers to turn to, some of whom have dedicated their entire life's work to critically analyzing the medium and delivering takes that dissect the product succinctly and clearly in a way that puts forth bias upfront and helps people decide whether it's worth paying for.

The sims, as a community, doesn't really have something like this in place. Much of the reviewing culture revolves around something I touched on earlier - talking about all of the details. Whether it's going through all of CAS and build mode, or discussing gameplay, it's usually the go-to strategy for approaching reviewing due in part to the sheer amount of little details to cover in each pack. But that can't properly be done this time around. Some of the objects are apparently only available in buy debug and contain spoilers (who knows how many if you don't own the pack). Some of the outfits seem to be available from the career or something and who knows if those might contain spoilers too.

And then there's the gameplay itself, which is the core of the issue when it comes to spoilers and getting information. Even an overview of the gameplay could end up giving spoilers, depending on how it's all structured.

From the standpoint of marketing and sales, this pack's greatest strength may prove to be its undoing. The secrecy and strangeness is great for building hype, but will it work for those who aren't early adopters? I'm concerned that it's going to be a sort of black hole in the larger conversation about the sims, where the cost for conversing about it is either giving up the possibility of enjoying it as intended by reading spoilers, or paying $20 (or whatever your price tag is adjusted for currency differences in your country).

How can the sims team even gauge properly whether it's worth doing a pack like this again if it's so difficult to talk about its features? They can go off of sales figures, but those alone may not yield insight, as there may be a lot of people who choose to pay upfront with the newness of the "mystery" appeal and then go play other games and don't stick around to buy more packs.

I can also say that this affects me as a modder, which is the part of the sims community that I am most distinctively a part of. Do I look through the resources for things that might be interesting to mod or utilize, even if it spoils the story for me, were I to get it and play it? Do I hold off and just try to ignore the pack entirely and avoid various conversations about the game, until I've decided whether I want to try it? And looking at it from the possible perspective of modders in general, what if I'm a modder who can't afford to participate in it? Then the question becomes all the more difficult.

One thing that communities for a TV show have in common is that they are all on the same page, even with regard to spoilers. This pack being optional has the potential to splinter the community in terms of conversations, due to the secrecy surrounding it and the appeal that surrounds going into it with little information about it.

I will remain cautiously neutral about the whole thing, as I don't really feel strongly about any of it. I just thought I'd voice some thoughts that were mulling around during some downtime. :)

@Triplis Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As I've said before, I could even tolerate an rpg element in a pack like this, as long as the quality is high enough. The main issue for me is the low quality, not only with the story, but with the pack in general. The pack leaves a lot to wish for on all points. As much as I can disagree with certain decisions and choices for themes, if the quality and detail is high enough, I'd be up for almost anything, I believe. ;)

While I haven't gotten to the story yet, items wise, I'm pretty disappointed with the pack. That being said, no, I'm not worried at all. In fact, I'd call it a bit of a slippery slope to think that the devs suddenly plan to start doing more story-driven content based off of just one pack and with the Sims' history of featuring primarily sandbox-based content. If anything, you should be worried about the Devs not always listening all the time to us fans.

Everywhere you go, people beg and beg for Witches and University and Grant has stated multiple times that they are aware, but according to a person on the forum, Grant pitched the idea of a story-driven pack like Strangerville and apparently, most were against it. But they did it anyway and so far, the pack's reception seems to be pretty mixed. So I say Witches, University, and whatever else people have been requesting should've come out first, not Strangerville.

I just don't understand why exactly the most heavily requested (which would also mean packs that would sell well) packs aren't being prioritized. Why did Strangerville come out first? Why wasn't the next GP Witches or Werewolves?

Of course, the Devs did listen with Seasons, but still... it just seems strange to me that they did a pack unlike many previous packs as opposed to a pack that they know, especially if done right, that people would enjoy instead of suddenly taking a risk. Points to them for trying, though, although I can't say the same for the items and the way the world was constructed.

And they also say they know about what we want, but then what's preventing them from doing it? At least give a reason, you know?

That definitely makes me concerned, @AHolyToilet. I too have seen how players have been begging here and on Twitter for over a year for Witches and University. I was really thinking that the next game pack would be Witches, and the next expansion University. It bothers me that they said they were aware of what a lot of fans were asking for, but then did this anyway.

It kind of reminds me of the "vote for the stuff pack" thing a while back. There seemed to be quite a bit of interest in some of the other options, but they still went with laundry. I don't mind the laundry pack, it's really nice. And some of the decor and clothing was from the voting. But it bothered me that there was all this voting for features and the vibe of "your opinion matters!" yet they still went with the pack idea that one of the gurus (Graham?) said he really wanted to do. I never understood why they didn't just do the laundry pack he wanted, and then have the "you vote" type of pack.

It kind of gives the impression, perhaps unintended, that even if they listen it doesn't matter because they're going to go with what they want to do. They can't even tell us if the packs we want will ever happen, due to the "can't discuss future content" thing. But it does come across a bit as if we've been led on when they seem to actively solicit our wants, then they do something else.

@Cabelle1863 I remember the laundry pack. I was so upset when I found out that the pack would be laundry- a chore, for goodness sake- and not something more interesting! I still don’t have that pack and it’s been idk-how-many years since its release. Why would I want to pay for an extra chore for my sims?

I am not the hugest fan of this turning into The Sims Medieval either considering this is suppose to be the main series not a spin off of the series. I like the stuff in the game I just don't like the RPG elements like the game just turned into a RPG game.