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7 years ago
"Deshong04;c-16219982" wrote:"Erpe;c-16219012" wrote:"Deshong04;c-16218976" wrote:"Erpe;c-16218295" wrote:
@Deshong04 We mainly agree. But what I usually have a problem with in all such discussions is:
1. Most simmers stubbornly thinks that EA and Maxis just make the games at random and almost on purpose try to make the games bad. I don’t at all agree with this.
2. In my opinion EA makes the games just to earn money and EA tells Maxis who the target group is, what the budget is and what EA thinks is important to get high sales numbers for as little money as possible. The games aren’t targeted at experienced simmers at all and they are only meant to be played rarely and shortly just like children and young teens usually do. EA focuses on SPs because they are cheap to make and sell best because young simmers more easily can persuade their parents to let them have them.
So no. I don’t have high expectations for TS5 either because TS5 will have the same target group and likely focus even more on SPs than TS4 has done.
1. I think EA just like some other companies know how to work the system to their benefit while taking an advantage of the consumers who choose to buy their product(s) that is not worth the asking price because of its low quality or whatever else ill business practices. But that's the consumers fault for allowing it. And the complaints mean nothing when they still support it because all a company needs is to continue to make a profit and who cares what they want? Just throw them a bone here and there and let them think the company cares. Some of them won't know the difference.
2. Stuff packs are a nice addition because it adds more variety of objects in-game and usually has unique themes as usually is the case also in EP's. The option of having more stuff is not a bad thing. Especially, for those who love to build or interior design but is great for anyone who wants a bigger selection than what the base game and expansion packs offers.
TS4 issues has nothing to do with stuff packs. It has everything to do with labeling a game to intentionally mislead people into thinking that it is a continuous sequel of TS1, TS2 and TS3 that worked so hard to continue that growing, improved and advanced foundation. When in fact, TS4 is more of a reboot that lost its roots as The Sims and in the genre it is supposed to represent as a people/life simulator where a sandbox experience remains adamant in the main PC series.
Stuff packs were introduced in TS2 as a Christmas stuff pack which also had just a little gameplay with Father Christmas. Until then EA hadn’t believed that SPs would sell at all and the first SP was just an experiment. It wasn’t even copy protected like all other expansions because EA thought that it would at most sell a little in the month before Christmas. But to EA’s huge surprise it sold extremely well.
So EA decided to repeat the experiment about Easter and again released a SP as an experiment and without copy protection to see if it would sell at all when it wasn’t even Christmas. It sure did!
So after that SPs were released on a regular basis and from now on always with copy protection!
I never liked the high sales numbers for SPs because I knew that those high sales numbers would mean that EA would focus more on stuff and less on the gameplay that I wanted instead. EA attempted to sell stuff instead through the Sims 3 store. But it only made EA realize that stuff sell better in SPs than it sells when it is sold as single items.
So we see the result for TS4 which was the first big Sims game that mainly concentrate on SPs and to an extent where EA decided to make the EPs smaller and to replace half of the EPs with GPs. Grant’s remarks about the big expansions now out of the way shows that the next EP now is so far out in the future that they don’t even really start working on it yet.
Read his blog on http://hyperbolegames.com/blog/journal-10282017 btw. It shows that the developers play very different games when they only play for fun ;)
"The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack served as the pilot release for this line of products, which were called "booster packs". After the success of the pilot release, EA named the releases "stuff packs" and launched the line with The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff. " -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_2#Stuff_packs
Expansion Packs and Stuff Packs have different teams in both TS3 and TS4 from what I read but because I wasn't much around for TS2 after UNI, I don't know much details since I never participated in the forum or looked up development information.
Anyone who has been around for the majority or entirety would know for a fact if TS2 as well had two separate teams for EP's and SP's. If so then to 'think and say' that SP's takes away from the actual gameplay experience itself is an empty concern. Since neither developments should affect the other team in terms of lacking gameplay and/or content.
TS3 Store seems to have been and continues to be quite popular. It's also great for those who doesn't want a whole set and just a single or a few items so they won't get stuck with other items they don't care about and would still have to pay for. Also, the store provides a few opportunities to buy things on sale, etc. Plus, I really love the whole concept of it all except I wish the quality was more top notch which wasn't always fair when it came to the initial asking price. Other than that, if a real Sims sequel was to surface, if done right, I would be for another Sims online store.
About the blog. This stands out to me.
"Typically an expansion is about one year, but Cats & Dogs requires a fundamental overhaul of our engine to allow for quadripedal movement (among other things) and it's a really long haul. I'm a producer, so I can't do much at the super early stages regarding technology and such."
Confirmation that The Sims 4 game engine lacks the ability to support most new or old gameplay mechanics without having to tamper with it? Which would mean it takes more time just to do one EP because of the extreme limitations. And why is that I wonder? Oh, because TS4 started out as The Sims Olympus. The game has been so altered from its original purpose that they were better off continuing the project, release it anyway as a spin-off and then work on the real Sims sequel.
And while pets are probably one of the most difficult gameplay mechanics to get working, why is every single EP in TS4 take so long to release compared to TS3, TS2 and even TS1?
I remember someone on the development team kept mentioning how everything was too difficult, we can't do that, it's would take too much time, even though some features was once doable in previous iterations.
Edit: Just remembered something. I think TS3 had two different EP teams?
Yes Grant is a producer who just is in charge of the production and coordinates things. So in the beginning it sounds correct that he can’t do much because things just are chaos and experiments about inventing a new technology.
Maxis only has two studios left after EA closed both the Maxis studio in Emeryville (who made Spore and Darkspore) and the Maxis studio in Salt Lake City who made 4 EPs for TS3. So now Maxis only has the studio in Redwood (who makes the PC version of TS4) and the studio in Helsinki (who makes SimCity BuildIt, the console version of TS4 and maybe also most of the work on the Sims Mobile).
But to say that this is the reason why TS4 only gets one EP a year is to turn things around because EA didn’t “lose” the studios in Emeryville and Salt Lake. EA deliberately chose to close those studios because EA didn’t want to release 2 EPs a year anymore! The reason must be that EA didn’t think that it would be a profitable strategy anymore. So EA planned to release GPs as half priced “EPs” instead of one of the full priced EPs and apparently the GPs sell better than EPs because EA has now chosen to release twice as many GPs a year compared to the original strategy which EA used in the beginning.
So no! I don’t accept the idea that EPs are more difficult to make for TS4 than they were for TS2 and TS3 ;) That is in no way the reason why EA chose to close the studio in Salt Lake! EA just don’t want to release more yearly expansions than EA does now because then EA would expect sales numbers to go down too much. There is a limit to how much the average simmer will spend on the game each year!
So EA just gives Maxis more time to make each EA or let Maxis use fewer developers on making the EPs - and probably especially in the first months after each release of an EP.
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