Maxis going in wrong direction with expansion pack gameplay?

At first I was really excited for Snowy Escape mostly because of the setting/I grew up in Fernie, BC basically a ski resort town. Plus I love anime so it just works for me until I realized what lost opportunity it was.

Having literally re-installed the Sims 4 JUST for it, I found myself doing the same old gameplay I've always done in the Sims 4. By that I mean, skiing IS new - but just another athletic skill using new animations.

Even the "story packs" such as Star Wars and Strangerville are based on leveling/doing skill activities that already exist for the most part (like talking to sims with charisma skill).

Outside of the odd pack like exploring the jungle and the eco pack (literally changes the way you build) Snowy escape demonstrated Sims 4 packs are largely recycled gameplay with new names, paint and animations. The only real time we've gotten new gameplay or its changed the underlying game, is when they make packs based on OLD Sim packs (like university or seasons) but yet still cut back on content.

In contrast I would have LOVED if Snowy Escape actually let you MANAGE a sky hill, its slopes and allowed you to build resorts.

So for example manage ticket prices, get customer ratings, ect based on what slope difficulty and snow quality, are your slopes too icy? Ticket sales go down. Not only that but you'd be competing with neighboring ski slopes for business.

Don't want to manage, than compete to enter ski events or become a ski bum, get a job running at the mountain as an instructor, for safety or running the lifts. Or become a hermit on the backside of the hill in an off the grid house. So many options missed....

While I love "japan town" I would have loved it more if instead of a new neighborhood, it was a HUGE mountain to allow for all this, with multiple ski resort lots and lots for hotels ect at the bottom.

Not only that but it WOULD have two seasons (or 4 if u had seasons) which allowed for winter activities and summer activities - heck maybe even a summer camps to keep business up during the summer. YES SUMMER CAMPS. Send your kids or be a camp counceller.

I just realized that Snowy Escape could have been so much more than just a new neighborhood to level up skills and I think its because the Maxis teams have been stuck in a grove how they design Sims 4 packs - a range of activities based on skill advancement but not a new type of game play outside of really Eco living.

What do you think?

Fluteline24
New Spectator
4 years ago
See, I find the idea of managing a ski resort, or hotels in general, to be insanely dull.
crocobaura
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
I think if they add too many details to one activity like you describe then there is the risk that it becomes its own game. I miss the freedom we had with TS2 EPs, they introduced gameplay that applied to everything else in game and it was easy to set up and manage. The ticket machine could be used to charge for everything you imagined, you could sell anything, and it was easy to set up venues to your liking without the constraints of lot types. I like the snowy part of the EP, I think it's a lot more fledged out than the Japanese part of the game which is mostly aesthetics but it has little gameplay.
Sharooonia
New Spectator
4 years ago
It pretty much depends on game play and what an individual is looking for in a pack. Running a business in the sims is not really something I've had much interest in so far but that doesn't mean that it's not something they couldn't of still added in the pack.

My biggest gripe with Snowy Escape and a lot of the expansions is they don't really expand on the day to day game play. If I want to enjoy all of what Snowy Escape has to offer then I have to do it in that world, I have to have my sims travel there on a vacation or move there permanently. The pack adds nothing besides life styles & sentiments that affect the game over all. I would like to see packs having more of an impact on the game as a whole instead of just adding one world where all the focus of that pack is centered.

I'm not sure I explained well but that's how I feel about the Sims 4 expansions.
Sigzy_29
New Spectator
4 years ago
"Snowy escape has demonstrated that Sims 4 packs are largely recycled gameplay with new names, paint and animations."- I don't want to be that person but....duh. And even most animations are copy pasted.

A side from the snow activities, there's nothing to do in that pack that is new unless you only have the BG, and those are specifically tied to one world. And regarding those snow activities there's no career or competitions you can take part in to get extra simoleons or awards, so it feels like it lacks substance, the reward for building those skills is non existent or just cosmetic. Not sure if you get fame from it if you have Get Famous. You just do it for the sake of....??? It's the overall problem with TS4, things are just kind of there just to be.
Simmingal
Hero
4 years ago
i slightly disagree with what you said about snowy cause for me its the snow activities eating away budget for the japan inspired goodness i was hoping for and i wouldn't really care for sports or hotels as much as theme

but i feel pretty much every pack in ts4 could have been whole lot better if ea did better job at budgeting.

they often mention devs don't have "time or staff or money to add new animations"

and that people who make stuff then add random fun objects that do not need animation cause well they can't add animations which obviously is not devs fault but they really need to hire more animators and give them better budget cause obviously whatever it is now is not enough to make game truly shine

like what even is game with no gameplay

also as for pack themes I do hope they would make them more unique like what is the point if every pack has same items slightly altered give me something new

and when you make pack about theme please dont repeat it 5 times over do it properly the first time

id honestly rather have one ep a year if that meant it would be made properly and with enough unique content to call it ep
Sigzy_29
New Spectator
4 years ago
"Simmingal;c-17748840" wrote:
i slightly disagree with what you said about snowy cause for me its the snow activities eating away budget for the japan inspired goodness i was hoping for and i wouldn't really care for sports or hotels as much as theme

but i feel pretty much every pack in ts4 could have been whole lot better if ea did better job at budgeting.

they often mention devs don't have "time or staff or money to add new animations"

and that people who make stuff then add random fun objects that do not need animation cause well they can't add animations which obviously is not devs fault but they really need to hire more animators and give them better budget cause obviously whatever it is now is not enough to make game truly shine

like what even is game with no gameplay

also as for pack themes I do hope they would make them more unique like what is the point if every pack has same items slightly altered give me something new

and when you make pack about theme please dont repeat it 5 times over do it properly the first time

id honestly rather have one ep a year if that meant it would be made properly and with enough content to call it ep

Except they have done this in the past, and imo, those packs had the same exact quality....aka City Living, Cats and Dogs and Seasons. Cats and Dogs recycled from GTW's scientist and doctor careers and Dine Out's business system, it only had two pets and they barely had any interactions as is, and they didn't even include proper pet beds or dog houses...it's a literal rug. Like....???? I'm just confused with this Sims itteration.
logionX
Seasoned Vanguard
4 years ago
It depends, I assume if they would have focused on resorts in Snowy Escape, then features like hiking and mountain climbing would probably not make it into the pack if they made this pack with all the resources that they had available.

Maybe they thought it was a better idea to make hotels into a possible game pack, then people could add them to snowy escape.
fullspiral
4 years ago
I just realized that Snowy Escape could have been so much more than just a new neighborhood to level up skills and I think its because the Maxis teams have been stuck in a grove how they design Sims 4 packs - a range of activities based on skill advancement but not a while new type of gameplay.

I'm not sure how much of it is skill advancement or skill-building type of play.

I think the core issue with Sims 4 is the completely faulty, superfluous, superficial "emotions" game design. Their 'goal', it seems, is to trigger emotions with new packs. And that's usually tense, or sad, or just not in tune at all with what simmers expect. I feel like sometimes they've given up and are just trying to ruin the game.
Simmers want "fear" or "real" emotions, but the game design is strictly superficial coding to get the animations going. pouting while eating, slamming fridge doors, stomping around, shuffling with head down. I guess that's where their real animation budget went?

The problem is that the much touted emotion system of S4 is strictly superficial coding for those animations and they do NOT affect sims inlong term, at all.

But yes, as to the OP? I agree, that description you gave is much more about game PLAY vs watching a sim go down the slopes over and over again. Or taking selfies on hikes. It's all GAME controlled. Players DO NOT rule.
WolvesCreek
New Spectator
4 years ago
"logion;c-17748853" wrote:
It depends, I assume if they would have focused on resorts in Snowy Escape, then features like hiking and mountain climbing would probably not make it into the pack if they made this pack with all the resources that they had available.

Maybe they thought it was a better idea to make hotels into a possible game pack, then people could add them to snowy escape.

Well that in itself has been another issue I've had with Sims 4 packs, the themes are VERY narrow and don't branch out very from from their basic concepts. In past expansions for ALL Sism games explored so much more in much bigger worlds. I also don't believe its a cost thing either, the Sims 4 is not pushing technology with 4k resolution graphic textures or effects that increase budgets into photo realism optimization.

Basically we seem to be getting less content than before, for example running a resort in Sims 3 was just a feature of that expansion - it wasn't the theme of it.
Aikamatkustus
4 years ago
I was expecting to actually ski down a really big mountain, or have a race. It's also a very fast way for Sims to lose weight.