Feeling salty about Journey To Batuu?

"MidnightAura;c-17636087" wrote:

"logion;c-17636056" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17636014" wrote:

"logion;c-17636006" wrote:
I watched the video.

The thing is that even if EA doesn't care, that still does not explain the decisions they took with the sims4, and I think that's what is starting to make people angry. People have asked for certain things for 6 years, hoping that EA and Maxis will listen, and instead we have gotten things that have not been highly requested and people are getting fed up with it.

It's not about the money that went to make Star Wars: Journey to Batuu, it's that money did not go to anything else. I heard the same argument about Spark'd. "Lol, that is a completly different budget" ok? but what did the other budget go to? oh right. Star Wars. "Lol, that is also a different budget" oh ok again, what else did you make? Eco Lifestyle. But that EP is full of bugs! "Oh, that's not our fault."

ok, great, I guess I won't buy anything else then.

The point of the video isn’t just about SW JTB, it’s about how decisions about the game, and it’s marketing are made overall. Spark’d was another attempt to bring new players into the community because EA doesn’t think of The Sims Community in the warm cozy way the name would suggest when they hear “Sims Community” they think pool of buyers. Their only mission is to appeal to the largest pool of buyers possible to recoup the highest possible profits for their shareholders.

As Claire said the Gurus and devs do care what we want, they do try to go to bat for us, but if what they produce isn’t hitting high profit margins if new people are coming in to play the games then they are not going to get money allocated to do the things we’re asking them for, period.

It doesn't feel like that money is going into improving the game though, sadly. Just more, and more shallow packs. Well hopefully this pack will please their shareholders and draw in new players... I wonder how well it will be received by new players though, I suspect they will be able to play through the story in this pack in one or two hours.

Not that EA cares though, they got their money.

I think it’s safe to day that considering we are told “This is too expensive!” And animations and hair styles and swatches are re used all the freaking time, that the profit that the sims is making is not going back into The Sims. Perhaps it’s going into Fifa or Madden but it sure ain’t the Sims 4.

Why would Star Wars fans pay say £70 for a base game and game pack when they can buy a full fledged Star Wars game cheaper? Star Wars fans want to play Star Wars not dress up Star Wars.
EA want to make money off Star Wars, that’s fine but they know people are still salty over their last Star Wars games with loot boxes so rather than make a decent game without loot boxes, they are throwing it to a community who will buy it even if they don’t like it.

Not true. There's an entire cosplay community that goes back to the original trilogy and also gazillions of Star Wars collectors. Many of those people will get wind of this and jump on it just to try it out. Even if they don't stick around, they are sure to drop the $40 or whatever to give it a shot.

Star Wars is legend and very much alive.

"LiELF;c-17636114" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-17636087" wrote:

"logion;c-17636056" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17636014" wrote:

"logion;c-17636006" wrote:
I watched the video.

The thing is that even if EA doesn't care, that still does not explain the decisions they took with the sims4, and I think that's what is starting to make people angry. People have asked for certain things for 6 years, hoping that EA and Maxis will listen, and instead we have gotten things that have not been highly requested and people are getting fed up with it.

It's not about the money that went to make Star Wars: Journey to Batuu, it's that money did not go to anything else. I heard the same argument about Spark'd. "Lol, that is a completly different budget" ok? but what did the other budget go to? oh right. Star Wars. "Lol, that is also a different budget" oh ok again, what else did you make? Eco Lifestyle. But that EP is full of bugs! "Oh, that's not our fault."

ok, great, I guess I won't buy anything else then.

The point of the video isn’t just about SW JTB, it’s about how decisions about the game, and it’s marketing are made overall. Spark’d was another attempt to bring new players into the community because EA doesn’t think of The Sims Community in the warm cozy way the name would suggest when they hear “Sims Community” they think pool of buyers. Their only mission is to appeal to the largest pool of buyers possible to recoup the highest possible profits for their shareholders.

As Claire said the Gurus and devs do care what we want, they do try to go to bat for us, but if what they produce isn’t hitting high profit margins if new people are coming in to play the games then they are not going to get money allocated to do the things we’re asking them for, period.

It doesn't feel like that money is going into improving the game though, sadly. Just more, and more shallow packs. Well hopefully this pack will please their shareholders and draw in new players... I wonder how well it will be received by new players though, I suspect they will be able to play through the story in this pack in one or two hours.

Not that EA cares though, they got their money.

I think it’s safe to day that considering we are told “This is too expensive!” And animations and hair styles and swatches are re used all the freaking time, that the profit that the sims is making is not going back into The Sims. Perhaps it’s going into Fifa or Madden but it sure ain’t the Sims 4.

Why would Star Wars fans pay say £70 for a base game and game pack when they can buy a full fledged Star Wars game cheaper? Star Wars fans want to play Star Wars not dress up Star Wars.
EA want to make money off Star Wars, that’s fine but they know people are still salty over their last Star Wars games with loot boxes so rather than make a decent game without loot boxes, they are throwing it to a community who will buy it even if they don’t like it.

Not true. There's an entire cosplay community that goes back to the original trilogy and also gazillions of Star Wars collectors. Many of those people will get wind of this and jump on it just to try it out. Even if they don't stick around, they are sure to drop the $40 or whatever to give it a shot.

Star Wars is legend and very much alive.

I know it’s alive, as I said my Husband, nephew and even my best friend’s partner are all huge Star Wars fans. They are all gamers and have saw the trailer for the GP but are in the category of “Wouldn't touch with a ten foot barge pole” They are all varying ages.

Do I think it might spark some SW fans interest? Possibly. But not the ones I know of. They play Star Wars games already. This has no appeal to them.

EA has made miscalculations about its games before (Simcity was a disaster). I think it's taken a risk that won't pay off this time. Star Wars and the Sims is an odd pairing. This definitely isn't a very intelligent way to expand the game's reach, but it's something EA was willing to try because of its deal with Disney. That's all. Honestly, I think that this pack is going to have problems with bugs and other things that will make even those who like it upset, because the trailer didn't show much actual gameplay... and EA's employees are still largely working from home, which has made development harder.

$60 on a base game + GP is a lot to ask of some in a pandemic.

Just watch them put the base game for free or heavily discounted before this GP releases.
We can argue as much as we want, but we cannot ignore the fact that this game is property of a company with literally the worst reputation. It is guided by market research and numbers rather than creative instincts and passion of its devs and true player-base.

"SilentKitty;c-17636108" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-17636087" wrote:

"logion;c-17636056" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17636014" wrote:

"logion;c-17636006" wrote:
I watched the video.

The thing is that even if EA doesn't care, that still does not explain the decisions they took with the sims4, and I think that's what is starting to make people angry. People have asked for certain things for 6 years, hoping that EA and Maxis will listen, and instead we have gotten things that have not been highly requested and people are getting fed up with it.

It's not about the money that went to make Star Wars: Journey to Batuu, it's that money did not go to anything else. I heard the same argument about Spark'd. "Lol, that is a completly different budget" ok? but what did the other budget go to? oh right. Star Wars. "Lol, that is also a different budget" oh ok again, what else did you make? Eco Lifestyle. But that EP is full of bugs! "Oh, that's not our fault."

ok, great, I guess I won't buy anything else then.

The point of the video isn’t just about SW JTB, it’s about how decisions about the game, and it’s marketing are made overall. Spark’d was another attempt to bring new players into the community because EA doesn’t think of The Sims Community in the warm cozy way the name would suggest when they hear “Sims Community” they think pool of buyers. Their only mission is to appeal to the largest pool of buyers possible to recoup the highest possible profits for their shareholders.

As Claire said the Gurus and devs do care what we want, they do try to go to bat for us, but if what they produce isn’t hitting high profit margins if new people are coming in to play the games then they are not going to get money allocated to do the things we’re asking them for, period.

It doesn't feel like that money is going into improving the game though, sadly. Just more, and more shallow packs. Well hopefully this pack will please their shareholders and draw in new players... I wonder how well it will be received by new players though, I suspect they will be able to play through the story in this pack in one or two hours.

Not that EA cares though, they got their money.

I think it’s safe to day that considering we are told “This is too expensive!” And animations and hair styles and swatches are re used all the freaking time, that the profit that the sims is making is not going back into The Sims. Perhaps it’s going into Fifa or Madden but it sure ain’t the Sims 4.

Why would Star Wars fans pay say £70 for a base game and game pack when they can buy a full fledged Star Wars game cheaper? Star Wars fans want to play Star Wars not dress up Star Wars.
EA want to make money off Star Wars, that’s fine but they know people are still salty over their last Star Wars games with loot boxes so rather than make a decent game without loot boxes, they are throwing it to a community who will buy it even if they don’t like it.

Hmm... because there are not that many Star Wars games out there that are not into shooting-all-the-things. I played KOTOR a bit and SWTOR. But I have books and stuff for Star Wars. See every movie multiple times in the theater.

My husband told me about another Star Wars game that was coming out, perhaps I would like to play it? I asked if I could play a female character and the answer was no. Then it was not for me.

The Star Wars fandom is large and different players have different “needs” before getting a new game. One of mine is being able to play a female character and if it is a rpg I really like being able to form friendships or romances. Star Wars is a space opera and a love story. I like having some form of relationships in my game. Other Star Wars fans are more into the war-bit.

So in the end, I did not buy that other Star Wars game. But I checked it out and considered it. We are not a homogenous group :)

Bam! I think you just described the target demo for this pack.

"Pamtastic72;c-17635986" wrote:

"KaeChan2089;c-17635975" wrote:

"Gordy;c-17635974" wrote:
Can someone give me the tl;dr? I'm sure this lady is cool, but I'd rather not spend 17 minutes watching a video that may or may not just summarize what we already know/suspect.

Same, I was not going to sit through 17 minutes of her defending EA.
Also with a dang title like that turned tail quickly.

Then you’re complaining simply for the sake of complaining because it’s not a defense of EA, it an inside baseball if you will, peek behind the scenes of how this theme may have come to be from someone who actually worked in a video game company for awhile. She never once says EA made the right call here, she explains why they made this call, based on the potential for huge profits with two huge franchises merging in this pack.

I think what people are having issues with is that she just accepts that the way EA behaves as "just the way it is because of late stage capitalism", rather than calling out on how it is hurting the long term for short term profit, rooting for change back to fans first, and how designing for stock holders will ultimately lead to less of a loyal fan base who buys every EP/GP/SP on release day. Before EA bought Maxis, they made so much money from listening to fans that they needed EA's resources to keep up.

If EA has to sacrifice it's best selling PC game to pay back Disney, then maybe EA shouldn't be managing the sims. Every fan based idea/pack have in general sold better than those the community didn't ask for.

Since they botched the release of Sims 4, they lost millions of dollars for poor execution, and now us players must sit through Star Wars for them to make money back.

Sounds to me like EA cannot properly handle the franchise, as they lost more money than they know by lowering quality and community interaction.

Maybe someday they will either sell or a better competitor comes along and takes the majority of it's fan base. Then tell me how much money they'll be making by the potential of possibly attaining new players to pay their shareholders versus a buy every pack day 1 loyal fan.

I understand EA's decision, that it may be financially viable for them to release things that are unpopular. They will still make money even if people hate it.
BUT......... at a certain point, a bad reputation and continually making unpopular decisions can heavily tarnish a brand. I feel that the Sims brand will be tarnished by this pack. It's reputation throughout it's 6 years has not been good, and this lowers it further.
With a reputation that is not good, people will be more likely to be critical of any other games released under the Sims umbrella, including the Sims 5, or any spinoffs.
And let's not forget how many series EA has destroyed because of bad decisions.
I won't be buying this pack, and if this is the route they're going, I won't be buying any packs from Maxis in the future.

"MLadyAzzera;c-17636160" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17635986" wrote:

"KaeChan2089;c-17635975" wrote:

"Gordy;c-17635974" wrote:
Can someone give me the tl;dr? I'm sure this lady is cool, but I'd rather not spend 17 minutes watching a video that may or may not just summarize what we already know/suspect.

Same, I was not going to sit through 17 minutes of her defending EA.
Also with a dang title like that turned tail quickly.

Then you’re complaining simply for the sake of complaining because it’s not a defense of EA, it an inside baseball if you will, peek behind the scenes of how this theme may have come to be from someone who actually worked in a video game company for awhile. She never once says EA made the right call here, she explains why they made this call, based on the potential for huge profits with two huge franchises merging in this pack.

I think what people are having issues with is that she just accepts that the way EA behaves as "just the way it is because of late stage capitalism", rather than calling out on how it is hurting the long term for short term profit, rooting for change back to fans first, and how designing for stock holders will ultimately lead to less of a loyal fan base who buys every EP/GP/SP on release day. Before EA bought Maxis, they made so much money from listening to fans that they needed EA's resources to keep up.

If EA has to sacrifice it's best selling PC game to pay back Disney, then maybe EA shouldn't be managing the sims. Every fan based idea/pack have in general sold better than those the community didn't ask for.

Since they botched the release of Sims 4, they lost millions of dollars for poor execution, and now us players must sit through Star Wars for them to make money back.

Sounds to me like EA cannot properly handle the franchise, as they lost more money than they know by lowering quality and community interaction.

Maybe someday they will either sell or a better competitor comes along and takes the majority of it's fan base. Then tell me how much money they'll be making by the potential of possibly attaining new players to pay their shareholders versus a buy every pack day 1 loyal fan.

EA didn’t just pull this idea out of their back...door. They ran demographic data, and probably focus groups and other analytics to be sure they have a good chance to make profits off this pack theme. If they thought they were making a sacrifice they wouldn’t be doing it. Something in their pre-pack concept analysis tells them there is good money to be made here, new eyes to bring into the game.

Something says they will have new people buying this pack who hadn’t played Sims before and in order to do that they will also have to buy the base game and that’s a fat sack of loot on the table. Now there’s still no guarantee they will succeed but businesses don’t generally take blind risks they try to mitigate as much as they can. If they’re doing this it’s because their feelers tell them there is a trove of new simmers to be had, and maybe some old ones to be brought back by something fresh and untried before. Claire is right, this is how companies work, think, strategize, and make decisions. These forums, and Twitter combined are but a speck of the current audience and don’t make a drop in the ocean for potential new players.

"Pamtastic72;c-17636144" wrote:

"SilentKitty;c-17636108" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-17636087" wrote:

"logion;c-17636056" wrote:

"Pamtastic72;c-17636014" wrote:

"logion;c-17636006" wrote:
I watched the video.

The thing is that even if EA doesn't care, that still does not explain the decisions they took with the sims4, and I think that's what is starting to make people angry. People have asked for certain things for 6 years, hoping that EA and Maxis will listen, and instead we have gotten things that have not been highly requested and people are getting fed up with it.

It's not about the money that went to make Star Wars: Journey to Batuu, it's that money did not go to anything else. I heard the same argument about Spark'd. "Lol, that is a completly different budget" ok? but what did the other budget go to? oh right. Star Wars. "Lol, that is also a different budget" oh ok again, what else did you make? Eco Lifestyle. But that EP is full of bugs! "Oh, that's not our fault."

ok, great, I guess I won't buy anything else then.

The point of the video isn’t just about SW JTB, it’s about how decisions about the game, and it’s marketing are made overall. Spark’d was another attempt to bring new players into the community because EA doesn’t think of The Sims Community in the warm cozy way the name would suggest when they hear “Sims Community” they think pool of buyers. Their only mission is to appeal to the largest pool of buyers possible to recoup the highest possible profits for their shareholders.

As Claire said the Gurus and devs do care what we want, they do try to go to bat for us, but if what they produce isn’t hitting high profit margins if new people are coming in to play the games then they are not going to get money allocated to do the things we’re asking them for, period.

It doesn't feel like that money is going into improving the game though, sadly. Just more, and more shallow packs. Well hopefully this pack will please their shareholders and draw in new players... I wonder how well it will be received by new players though, I suspect they will be able to play through the story in this pack in one or two hours.

Not that EA cares though, they got their money.

I think it’s safe to day that considering we are told “This is too expensive!” And animations and hair styles and swatches are re used all the freaking time, that the profit that the sims is making is not going back into The Sims. Perhaps it’s going into Fifa or Madden but it sure ain’t the Sims 4.

Why would Star Wars fans pay say £70 for a base game and game pack when they can buy a full fledged Star Wars game cheaper? Star Wars fans want to play Star Wars not dress up Star Wars.
EA want to make money off Star Wars, that’s fine but they know people are still salty over their last Star Wars games with loot boxes so rather than make a decent game without loot boxes, they are throwing it to a community who will buy it even if they don’t like it.

Hmm... because there are not that many Star Wars games out there that are not into shooting-all-the-things. I played KOTOR a bit and SWTOR. But I have books and stuff for Star Wars. See every movie multiple times in the theater.

My husband told me about another Star Wars game that was coming out, perhaps I would like to play it? I asked if I could play a female character and the answer was no. Then it was not for me.

The Star Wars fandom is large and different players have different “needs” before getting a new game. One of mine is being able to play a female character and if it is a rpg I really like being able to form friendships or romances. Star Wars is a space opera and a love story. I like having some form of relationships in my game. Other Star Wars fans are more into the war-bit.

So in the end, I did not buy that other Star Wars game. But I checked it out and considered it. We are not a homogenous group :)

Bam! I think you just described the target demo for this pack.

Yeah, I think it could be so.

Much cheaper to do a Game Pack for Sims 4 and see if the new players maybe would like to stick around than developing a new entire rpg with male and a female char, voice actors and relationships.

Informative video. I couldn't watch the end since my internet gave up but her first point about EA not caring? True. People who have been playing sims since 2006 aren't really their market. It's people who haven't played at all. That's how they grow their market base. They went about it in a horrid way and I don't think it's right; I think a company should ALWAYS care about their current consumers as well as trying to find new ones. But part of the problem is also the community that buys anything and everything they make.

Devs do what they can, and I feel badly they get so much hate. It must be exhausting to work for EA when they want to fix what they hear about in the community but EA just says "actually...no, don't do that"

ETA/TLDR: she's right that this is how companies work but everyone should still be upset and express that because they have a right to. Companies should be better, capitalism sucks.