Give the People What They Want
There's an old adage in the entertainment industry, "Give the people what they want." That means, to keep that audience happy and wanting to see you put on a show, you've got to give them the show they're looking for. It's Halloween time? It's a safe bet to give 'em horror. Folks are going through hard times in real life? Give 'em comedy and fantastical escapism. People say they're bored of historical dramas and want a mindless action movie, give 'em that mindless action movie. Otherwise, you get a bored and dissatisfied audience who eventually will stop spending their money on you and go give it to an entertainer who WILL give them what they're looking for.
Now, why am I talking about this in the context of TS4? Because the games industry is a part of the entertainment industry, and game designers and developers, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, are professional entertainers. In terms of TS4, the show has been...middling at best, overall. The sets and costumes are lovely, but the script and acting are like a high school sophomore's first play being performed by stage-frightened middle school kids. That is all owed to the game running on an engine meant for an MMO life sim experience; a plethora of unsolved bugs, glitches, and AI problems; and a decreasing will to give players the meaty gameplay, quality of life updates, features, and additions they actually want.
Think about it. There are a ton of things, little and big, that players have been asking for since launch, from free babies and paintable ceilings to Create-A-World and more in-depth gameplay options to more occults and a "Generations" pack. These are the core things that players want and care about, because they affect their gameplay experience the most. But, what do we get? Mostly random junk we never wanted or asked for, and when we DO get something we actually wanted, 9 out of 10 times it's bugged out due to a rushed development or stripped down to split it into multiple products or accommodate players who buy packs with themes they don't like for completion or the CAS and build/buy stuff. In short, they're not giving us what we really want. Builders aren't getting what they want, family players aren't getting what they want, occult players aren't getting what they want...and now the audience's eyes are roving over to other theaters, because other entertainers are gearing up to put on shows that look a lot more entertaining than what The Sims Team Players have been doing for the past 6 years. Lots have even left mid-show or are looking more at that exit door than the stage these days and look like they're about to yeet out of there.
So, if The Sims Team Players want to keep their audience's behinds in their seats and bring back the folks who went "for a bathroom break" and never returned, they'll have to give the audience what they want. And, what do we want?
*More fully fleshed-out occults and improvements to ghosts, aliens, plantsims, merfolk (Who thought it would be a good idea to make merfolk without fin ears? Who?), and spellcasters (because, let's be real, that fire spell should be able to burn a sim to death).
*A "Farm Life" pack with animals, giant farm lots, and all that good stuff.
*A "Generations" pack filled with new gameplay and milestones for every lifestage.
*A "Go to School" pack where players can follow their sims to school and do stuff like bug teachers, deal with bullies, act up in the halls between classes.
*A "Sea Life" pack with sailing and house boats, cruise ships, underwater exploration, an underwater residential world or two, a Marine Biology career (which can split into Marine Ecology and Deepsea exploration), and a Mariner career (which can split into the Marine/Navy or Piracy branches).
*A "Supernatural"/"Happy Haunts" pack with paranormal investigators and ghost/vampire/monster hunters, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, and some hype mad science and horror themed stuff in there.
*A "Superheroes" pack with super powers, mad science, mutants, insane gadgets, epic battles, giant robots, and such-the-like.
* Paintable Ceilings.
*Create-A-World, or at least the ability to empty the pre-made worlds with a click of the mouse on the Manage Worlds screen.
*Freed Babies.
*A Fear Emotion.
*For the emotion system to be re-balanced so that it's not so heavily skewed to happiness and productivity anymore.
*For the autonomous water drinking action to finally be removed.
*For sims to wash dishes in the right friggin' sink on a consistent basis.
*For traits to mean something in how our sims behave autonomously.
*For sims to get angry and stay angry at each other when they've had an argument or been wronged.
*For "Dine Out" to finally work properly on a consistent basis.
*For "Get to Work"'s retail system to work properly on a consistent basis.
*Grocery Stores
*A "Hobbies" pack with MORE THAN ONE STINKIN' HOBBY!!
*Non-Checklist community lots that actually work and attract NPC sims.
*For objects that should have an NPC operator (bar tender, masseuse, etc.) to have one in any community lot you put them in.
*For simulation lag to go away and never return.
*For sims to stop dropping actions from their que autonomously.
*For autonomous "Check Toddler" to not pop up when autonomy is OFF!!
*Countless bug fixes.
This is just a fraction of the most popular things that people want in this game right now, both big and small. If they want to keep their audience, especially with other life sim games looking to hit the market in the next couple of years, they'll have to do what any old Vaudeville pro would tell 'em and give the people what they want. Otherwise, they'll be playing to an empty house.
Now, why am I talking about this in the context of TS4? Because the games industry is a part of the entertainment industry, and game designers and developers, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, are professional entertainers. In terms of TS4, the show has been...middling at best, overall. The sets and costumes are lovely, but the script and acting are like a high school sophomore's first play being performed by stage-frightened middle school kids. That is all owed to the game running on an engine meant for an MMO life sim experience; a plethora of unsolved bugs, glitches, and AI problems; and a decreasing will to give players the meaty gameplay, quality of life updates, features, and additions they actually want.
Think about it. There are a ton of things, little and big, that players have been asking for since launch, from free babies and paintable ceilings to Create-A-World and more in-depth gameplay options to more occults and a "Generations" pack. These are the core things that players want and care about, because they affect their gameplay experience the most. But, what do we get? Mostly random junk we never wanted or asked for, and when we DO get something we actually wanted, 9 out of 10 times it's bugged out due to a rushed development or stripped down to split it into multiple products or accommodate players who buy packs with themes they don't like for completion or the CAS and build/buy stuff. In short, they're not giving us what we really want. Builders aren't getting what they want, family players aren't getting what they want, occult players aren't getting what they want...and now the audience's eyes are roving over to other theaters, because other entertainers are gearing up to put on shows that look a lot more entertaining than what The Sims Team Players have been doing for the past 6 years. Lots have even left mid-show or are looking more at that exit door than the stage these days and look like they're about to yeet out of there.
So, if The Sims Team Players want to keep their audience's behinds in their seats and bring back the folks who went "for a bathroom break" and never returned, they'll have to give the audience what they want. And, what do we want?
*More fully fleshed-out occults and improvements to ghosts, aliens, plantsims, merfolk (Who thought it would be a good idea to make merfolk without fin ears? Who?), and spellcasters (because, let's be real, that fire spell should be able to burn a sim to death).
*A "Farm Life" pack with animals, giant farm lots, and all that good stuff.
*A "Generations" pack filled with new gameplay and milestones for every lifestage.
*A "Go to School" pack where players can follow their sims to school and do stuff like bug teachers, deal with bullies, act up in the halls between classes.
*A "Sea Life" pack with sailing and house boats, cruise ships, underwater exploration, an underwater residential world or two, a Marine Biology career (which can split into Marine Ecology and Deepsea exploration), and a Mariner career (which can split into the Marine/Navy or Piracy branches).
*A "Supernatural"/"Happy Haunts" pack with paranormal investigators and ghost/vampire/monster hunters, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, and some hype mad science and horror themed stuff in there.
*A "Superheroes" pack with super powers, mad science, mutants, insane gadgets, epic battles, giant robots, and such-the-like.
* Paintable Ceilings.
*Create-A-World, or at least the ability to empty the pre-made worlds with a click of the mouse on the Manage Worlds screen.
*Freed Babies.
*A Fear Emotion.
*For the emotion system to be re-balanced so that it's not so heavily skewed to happiness and productivity anymore.
*For the autonomous water drinking action to finally be removed.
*For sims to wash dishes in the right friggin' sink on a consistent basis.
*For traits to mean something in how our sims behave autonomously.
*For sims to get angry and stay angry at each other when they've had an argument or been wronged.
*For "Dine Out" to finally work properly on a consistent basis.
*For "Get to Work"'s retail system to work properly on a consistent basis.
*Grocery Stores
*A "Hobbies" pack with MORE THAN ONE STINKIN' HOBBY!!
*Non-Checklist community lots that actually work and attract NPC sims.
*For objects that should have an NPC operator (bar tender, masseuse, etc.) to have one in any community lot you put them in.
*For simulation lag to go away and never return.
*For sims to stop dropping actions from their que autonomously.
*For autonomous "Check Toddler" to not pop up when autonomy is OFF!!
*Countless bug fixes.
This is just a fraction of the most popular things that people want in this game right now, both big and small. If they want to keep their audience, especially with other life sim games looking to hit the market in the next couple of years, they'll have to do what any old Vaudeville pro would tell 'em and give the people what they want. Otherwise, they'll be playing to an empty house.
