Grant Talks about the Future of TS4

"jackjack_k;c-16199169" wrote:

"@Yoko2112;c-16199135" wrote:
>says we get awesome, free stuff
>mentions pools and toddlers as examples, failing to realize that they are core features for a Sims game

>says they used to do only one expansion per year and a few stuff packs during TS3 times

https://i.imgur.com/hm57sV5.png

>fails to mention ( although divisive ) frequent store sets

>says they avoid crunch ( which is healthy ) but when you look at the half baked content riddled with bugs that they release you wonder if they take 3 spa breaks a week and let their inexperienced interns handle the coding

>says how well packs work combined with each other and conveniently mentions retail as the only feature that heavily makes use of that ( because otherwise the feature would be useless )
>retail is still broken as of this moment
>other similarly combinable features like GT clubs have seen less and less support over the year

Golly gee, I can't wait to see what the future holds.

It’s clear that they’re making sure people realise they weren’t DLC. Press was reporting at launch that EA obmitted stuff just to sell it later.

The store sets were made by external teams, not EA.

They were still from EA but it was the Salt Lake Team who did Store Stuff. Remembers the awesome SimGuruCopeland.

"@catloverplayer;c-16199162" wrote:

"Yoko2112;c-16199135" wrote:
>says we get awesome, free stuff
>mentions pools and toddlers as examples, failing to realize that they are core features for a Sims game

>says they used to do only one expansion per year and a few stuff packs during TS3 times

https://i.imgur.com/hm57sV5.png

>fails to mention ( although divisive ) frequent store sets

>says they avoid crunch ( which is healthy ) but when you look at the half baked content riddled with bugs that they release you wonder if they take 3 spa breaks a week and let their inexperienced interns handle the coding

>says how well packs work combined with each other and conveniently mentions retail as the only feature that heavily makes use of that ( because otherwise the feature would be useless )
>retail is still broken as of this moment
>other similarly combinable features like GT clubs have seen less and less support over the year

Golly gee, I can't wait to see what the future holds.

I think he meant they had one team on EPs in TS3 till the end. In the last year they added a second team.

Nope, the second team was added with Late Night with Redwood,
And a Third was added in 2011 with Salt Lake City who stared with Showtime.

"@catloverplayer;c-16199174" wrote:

"jackjack_k;c-16199169" wrote:

"@Yoko2112;c-16199135" wrote:
>says we get awesome, free stuff
>mentions pools and toddlers as examples, failing to realize that they are core features for a Sims game

>says they used to do only one expansion per year and a few stuff packs during TS3 times

https://i.imgur.com/hm57sV5.png

>fails to mention ( although divisive ) frequent store sets

>says they avoid crunch ( which is healthy ) but when you look at the half baked content riddled with bugs that they release you wonder if they take 3 spa breaks a week and let their inexperienced interns handle the coding

>says how well packs work combined with each other and conveniently mentions retail as the only feature that heavily makes use of that ( because otherwise the feature would be useless )
>retail is still broken as of this moment
>other similarly combinable features like GT clubs have seen less and less support over the year

Golly gee, I can't wait to see what the future holds.

It’s clear that they’re making sure people realise they weren’t DLC. Press was reporting at launch that EA obmitted stuff just to sell it later.

The store sets were made by external teams, not EA.

They were still from EA but it was the Salt Lake Team who did Store Stuff. Remembers the awesome SimGuruCopeland.

That’s right. I knew they weren’t Redwood anyhow.

Grant seems to forget Salt Lake was there during The Sims 3.

1) They do this every year and of course they always say they have awesome stuff.

2) Sims 3 had two EPs per year. I'm sure he means one team made one EP per year and just left out the part where Sims 3 had double the teams.

3) That one of their five teams is assigned to consoles is disappointing to hear.

4) Bragging about toddlers and pools being "free" is starting to get on my nerves. They were "free" with Sims 2 and Sims 3 aswell, and even spared us the ridiculous wait times. Kind of insulting to realize a company wants to be rewarded for releasing content late and wants to be thought of as super generous. No, do it right the first time and stop expecting gratitude for screwing up and then correcting it.

5) The comments about crunch time. I wanna say in advance that I consider crunchtime controversial since yeah, the gaming industry works people hard. Having said that, I cannot help but wonder if this plays into the lack of content.

For those unfamiliar, "crunch time" is a period leading up to a title's release or a pack's release in which the team is expected to work extra hard. In the case of an EP I'd imagine it'd be 1-3 months and what it typically means is that the team works such long hours that some workers might sleep at the office because it's inconvenient to bother wasting time traveling home. Anyone who's ever seen a tour of a studio and thought it looked nice and had tons of stuff....? Yeah, there's a reason for that, and it's crunch time. Crunch time is such a common practice that it's a part of the training to get used to it.

I cannot blame them for wanting to do away with it, but I do have to question if it's part of the list of causes for lack of content. I'd be curious to hear how much crunch time Sims 3 had, because he actually makes it sound like it skipped it too. As he said, they only made 1 EP a year and I presume he means his team. If Sims 3 skipped crunch time too, then yeah, just another reason this game needs a second team.

Yeah, he seems to have forgotten that Sims 3 had AT LEAST two expansion packs per year. With fewer teams around, the players can definitely feel the reduction in content.

If we take stuff packs to be analogous to premium store sets, we have 1 EP and around 2 GPs per year. The EPs aren't as big as S3 EPs, and the GPs are bigger than TS3 stuff packs. We also have the free stuff patched in, and while they were done well, it's also true that most should've been in the base game to begin with.

I guess after that whole Simcity launch disaster, they're making up for the time they lost when they scrapped Sims 4's online aspect.

"@DeservedCriticism;c-16199204" wrote:
1) They do this every year and of course they always say they have awesome stuff.

2) Sims 3 had two EPs per year. I'm sure he means one team made one EP per year and just left out the part where Sims 3 had double the teams.

3) That one of their five teams is assigned to consoles is disappointing to hear.

4) Bragging about toddlers and pools being "free" is starting to get on my nerves. They were "free" with Sims 2 and Sims 3 aswell, and even spared us the ridiculous wait times. Kind of insulting to realize a company wants to be rewarded for releasing content late and wants to be thought of as super generous. No, do it right the first time and stop expecting gratitude for screwing up and then correcting it.

5) The comments about crunch time. I wanna say in advance that I consider crunchtime controversial since yeah, the gaming industry works people hard. Having said that, I cannot help but wonder if this plays into the lack of content.

For those unfamiliar, "crunch time" is a period leading up to a title's release or a pack's release in which the team is expected to work extra hard. In the case of an EP I'd imagine it'd be 1-3 months and what it typically means is that the team works such long hours that some workers might sleep at the office because it's inconvenient to bother wasting time traveling home. Anyone who's ever seen a tour of a studio and thought it looked nice and had tons of stuff....? Yeah, there's a reason for that, and it's crunch time. Crunch time is such a common practice that it's a part of the training to get used to it.

I cannot blame them for wanting to do away with it, but I do have to question if it's part of the list of causes for lack of content. I'd be curious to hear how much crunch time Sims 3 had, because he actually makes it sound like it skipped it too. As he said, they only made 1 EP a year and I presume he means his team. If Sims 3 skipped crunch time too, then yeah, just another reason this game needs a second team.

I think the biggest issue here is that EA don’t seem to be giving them the budget.

And they DESPERATELY need to make the Free Team a QA team.

We don’t need free content, we need the paid content to WORK.

Most of the packs are good, but the base game, Get To Work, Dine Out and C&D need a HUGE overlooking because they’re giving Island Paradise a run for it’s money.

GRANTED, they shipped stable, unlike IP.
But they broke literally as soon as the next patch, which for Cats & Dogs was a few days after launch.

Which tells me these packs were held together like sticky tape, rather than actually finished.

We have been talking about stuff for next year for ages already because we want it to be super good. There's crazy long cycles. Next year I want people to be like: 'Wow, I can't believe you're doing all this stuff'. Next year we'll be four years old and still here.

Cool.

I found interesting that he said Pets is the biggest request...I would have thought Seasons was right up there too. Maybe they'll patch it in if he doesn't think it's a biggie.

Maybe we're not getting Seasons.

"simgirl1010;c-16199268" wrote:
Maybe we're not getting Seasons.

Could you imagine the uproar?!