"Naus;c-16996674" wrote: @LiELF Whereas I present empirical information to support my claims, all you do is user your personal preferences as supporting evidence.
"the graphic textures are frequently mismatched and godawful."
That's factually incorrect. The Sims 3 has a consistent standard of mask size (250 pixels per square grid). What means is that a pattern (which can be 256 or 512 pixels) will be repeated 1 time per square grid. The Sims 3 doesn't really have textures. Objects have presets (pre-selected styles) but you can change them into whatever you want. I don't even know what you're talking about when you claim textures are mismatched. Textures are created dynamically in-game and it's up to you to select the patterns and colors you want. It cannot be mismatched unless you mismatch textures on purpose.
"As far as costs, I have presented what prices are showing for me."
And I have presented what prices are showing for me. They're equally as valid. Lucky Palms SE is cheaper than StrangerVille for me. The Gold Edition is only $4.5 US dollars more expensive. I already own Lucky Palms and I'm very satisfied with my purchase. It's one of the worlds I use the most, I love the way it looks, I love the amount of space I have to add community lots from other EPs, and I love the new gameplay added with the Gold Edition. The Casino has infinitely more value (in my opinion, of course) than StrangerVille's 2-hour linear storyline, 3 gameplay objects and a career (that has always been part of the base game, BTW) with 5 new interactions.
"Both Sims 2 and Sims 3 offered a bunch of superficial items and objects for $20."
No. Both Sims 2 and 3 offered a bunch of HIGH QUALITY items for $20. I could start breaking down the number of FUNCTIONAL items you get in each pack, which is less subjective than saying I prefer one or the other, but I let an image speak for itself. This is what you get in BB mode in the first Stuff Pack for each game:
It's not just about the quantity of items. You're also getting more functional objects, like beds; which, if you know anything about rigging and animations, you must know how difficult is to animate bed sheets. And both games, TS2 and 3, gives you more options when it comes to customizing furniture. Beddings in TS2, for example, all share the same textures, so you don't have to struggle to find the bed sheets you want unlike TS4, which has swatches combining both bed frames and bedding.
"one of the things that Sims 4 did right was change what we get for our $20 and reduce the cost of Stuff Packs to half the price"
You're paying what you're getting: lower price, for lower quality items. Do I have to keep bringing up the poor quality of meshes in The Sims 4? The fact that TS2's meshes have a higher polycount. A game released ten years before has higher quality meshes; let that sink in for a second.
"Game Packs, however, are a huge improvement for the customer. I don't see how that can be argued or denied, I really don't. We get a whole lot more now - we get a variety of things ranging from gameplay, CAS, build/buy, new ventures, worlds... and yes, we get experimental developments like StrangerVille. Game packs are meant to be optional, like Stuff Packs."
Except that they include content that had previously been part of expansions but you have to pay EXTRA money now. - Spa day and dine out include features from The Sims 2 Open for Business and Bon Voyage. Meditation was a base game skill. Owning a restaurant is better in The Sims 2 OFB. You can even work as a chef, which Dine Out doesn't give you the option to do. - Outdoor Retreat added a single destination to vacation, whereas Bon Voyage added three for $30 USD ($40 taking inflation into account). - Jungle Adventures added a single location with a single adventure (only thing that changes is layout) for $20. World Adventures added THREE locations with dozens of quests and almost 40 tombs as well as the option to create your own through powerful triggers. - Parenthood adds a tiny bit amount of gameplay compared to Generations for half the price (besides, Generation also adds an insane amount of gameplay objects like spiral stairs, bunk beds, sleeping bags, playground equipment, tree houses, etc, etc, etc). - And I won't even talk about StrangerVille. I think everyone already knows what I think about that pack. - Vampires is probably the only Game Pack that actually EXPANDED a feature from previous games and I think it was justified as its own separate pack. So out of 7 Game Packs, only one feels like it was worth to be released as a separate pack.
Stuff Packs, as I said many times, they mostly include gameplay items that would've been included in EPs in the past like buffet tables (base game), bowling alleys (Nightlife, UL), butlers (Superstar, Apartment Life, Late Night), slip 'n' slide (Generations), laundry (Ambitions), etc. And they barely add any new gameplay to justify these features being their own pack.
"You pick and choose what you want or will use in your game. Isn't that partly what the Sims is about?"
Except I didn't have to pick and choose in the past. Buying EPs would give me all the gameplay Stuff Packs and Game Packs have now. The only exceptions, as I said, are Vampires and Kids Room. The first actually expands a feature enough to be worth being its own pack; the second one has new gameplay (never featured in the series) and it actually has a good amount of replayability.
"You don't like Sims 4 because you prefer the things that Sims 3 offered."
I prefer the way Expansion Packs actually expanded the game in Sims 1, Sims 2 and Sims 3. EPs feel like they barely add anything new now. Why? Because a lot of content is being sold as separate packs.
@Pegasys "the lots in StrangerVille were specifically designed to go with the story."
Oh, yeah... right. That's the excuse they're using now. Not even James Turner, aka The SimSupply, believed that excuse if you watch his reaction to the empty houses with SimGuruRomeo. I guess next time a game-breaking bug occurs they can use the old meme: "it's not a bug; it's a feature."
"As far as the number of faces in the objects, the Sims team is purposely keeping them lower to cut down on lag."
The same way they got rid of open world, create-a-style or a color wheel, story progression, complex simology like in 2, limit the amount of lots, etc. all to cut down lag???? What kind of game needs to do so many sacrifices to cut down? We're talking about a FACT and it's that objects in TS2 and 3, games released 10 and 5 years before TS4, have a higher polycount and their 2014 sequel.
So...this conversation is going in circles and I'm just getting bored now at your desperation to "win". But a few final things...
First... polycounts. Who cares? Do you really think most players give a hoot how many polys, faces or pixels make up an object? Most people look at the game and decide if it's aesthetically pleasing or not. Do they prefer style A or style B? That's it. Subjective. Simmers can look at a low poly style and like it better than the high poly one and it's perfectly valid. So that's a useless argument.
Second... This weak argument about breaking up expansion packs and selling them "piecemeal". This is a closed perspective resulting from game bias. In order to determine that an EP has been "broken up", we have to have concrete evidence that there is a specific way to create and sell that pack to begin with. Which would mean that there is only one way to develop a pack theme, which, of course is completely false. Say, for example, you are a developer who wants to do a theme in the city. You then have to decide what you want the central basis of that theme to be so that the things you put in it are cohesive. Do you want it to focus on swinging single life and dating? Do you want it to be day to day life and personal encounters? Do you want it to be what night life in the city is like? And what kind of city are you basing it from? Etc, etc. You see, players have been exposed to previous packs and sometimes feel that those packs have to be created the exact same way, with the exact same themes and items included. This is what makes people upset when the next iteration releases something and it doesn't match item for item. But if you limit your thinking to only what has existed before, you are always going to be dissatisfied because you are really only looking for an exact replica of the past. But that's not how it works, and frankly, that would be boring. Themes are updated to match the present day, and new things are tried to keep things fresh and different and interesting. What's the point of making the same exact thing over again the exact same way you did it before? It makes the series stale and predictable. Now, with all of that said, I do think that many of the earlier EPs of Sims 4 fell very flat and should have had more to them. But what they needed were not necessarily the things that were in Stuff Packs. The Stuff Packs should have been in addition to complete and satisfying EPs, even if those EPS were done differently than previous games, which would be acceptable. Also, things like Vampires would never have been expanded on the way they were if they were part of an EP. They would have been, like in the past, just another same-'ol life state with barely a new twist to matter.
So, because I'm probably going to start phasing out of this discussion since you are unable to concede that your opinion is just that - an opinion, and using all the "facts" and skewed perspective you can dream up isn't going to change that ultimate truth - I'm going to wrap this post up with a final word.
No matter how many paragraphs or spread sheets or charts or poly counts or presentations you make to try to prove that one game is "objectively" better than another, you will always fail. Because there is no such thing. That is the real fallacy. I can trash talk Sims 3 until the cows come home and nitpick and make an example with gathered evidence for every single bad choice that was made, but it won't make someone who loves it see my way. The same principle applies here. I don't even know why you are on such a desperate crusade to prove your opinion to be "the right one", or why you have such a difficult time accepting that players just prefer different things. In the end, all feedback matters to the company. So you can present a post with 17 paragraphs of why you believe StrangerVille is so "inferior", and the next Simmer could write one sentence saying they enjoyed the story and the town and the items that came with it, and you know what? Both posts are equally valid. Your use of manipulative debate tactics to try to out-argue people into a corner to get them to back down just to prove yourself "right" are transparent, a little bullyish, and totally unnecessary. It might benefit you to learn how to agree to disagree and accept that there are people who just like things that you don't. It's just a game. If people are entertained by it, that's all the argument they need.
