http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/profile/DeservedCriticism: (Tried to quote you and it went all wonky!)
1) Totally agree! I wouldn't mind paying $10 for a new stuff pack if there were actually NEW STUFF in it. And I don't mean new skins for old objects (like the plethora of treadmills and other gym equipment we have), but actual new objects that add gameplay--and if you're going to pad it with new skins for existing objects (chairs, beds, etc.), you need at least twice as much padding. If the so-called "premium objects" like the hamster cage in this joke of a pet pack were glassware, it'd be shattered for the lack of padding it came with.
Also TOTALLY agree on the plethora of 2-D stickers we're getting. The hamster climbing tube stickers were the last straw for me on that one... It's like they those climbing tube stickers purely for their trailer, knowing/hoping people would mistake them for a fun, interactive object where you could take your hamster to play (like I did), so they'd think the pack had more to it than it actually did.
2) YES! I so agree with this ridiculous "collection" craze EA keeps trying to force on us. True, I've appreciated the collection part of the gameplay in Sims 3 and before as a sort of break from traditional gameplay, but in Sims 4 it seems like their aim is to overwhelm us with collections to complete so that we won't notice the limited gameplay features. Well, it didn't and won't work. It seems like the aspirations are easily completed and not very challenging (and the rewards that come with them are tired too, even the "new ones" are just mega versions of the old ones I never used anyway--I mean, steel bladder? If I use aspiration prizes to remove my sims' needs, what's the point of playing?)
OKAY, off the point tangent: Why CAN'T they add personality traits as purchasable prizes instead of all these lame remove/reduce needs prizes? I've always thought that it was lame that we could only have 3 personality traits. How AWESOME would it be if we could expand our sim's personality and abilities as they complete aspirations? Just make it impossible to purchase conflicting traits (like you can't have good and evil at the same time), and it should work fine. AND, you could even have a personality trait remover (that maybe wouldn't work to remove the three core traits you chose in CAS?), so if you purchased the "good" personality trait as an aspiration prize, but you want your sim to be corrupted by an "evil" sim, you can purchase a trait remover potion that deletes the good trait, so they can then purchase the evil one! If they'd implement something like this, there would finally be SOMETHING to spend all of those excess aspiration points on! It feels so much like, why bother completing aspirations after a while since there's nothing good to spend it on!
3) Yes, I get not wanting to stick around. I feel that from time to time with Sims 4, which is so surprising to me because I never felt that way with Sims 1, 2 or 3 (and yes, I've stuck with the sims since 2000!). At first I thought it was because I'm getting older and less interested in playing games... but I quickly realized that there's simply less to do in Sims 4 so it's much easier to get bored!
So why do I stick with it? Well, #1, I love the Sims (clearly!), #2 there are some fun things about Sims 4 that I really enjoy, like the toddlers, parenting pack, exploring the jungle, owning businesses/restaurants; swapping aspirations without losing progress, etc. -- but the real reason is #3....
#3--I switched from Windows to Mac and Sims 3 simply doesn't play well on a mac (thanks to the GB-limiting wrapper or whatever that caused repeated game crashes). So, I'm stuck with Sims 4 until I invest in a Windows gaming computer that can handle Sims 3 again. I certainly hope that's before they eliminate the Sims 3 store as I finally watched enough videos to earn store points so that I now own ALL store content for Sims 3. There's SO MUCH in the store that I never even got a chance to play with yet (and packs that I absolutely love and miss, like the Roaring 20s pack!!!, Oh, and islands, and the roller coaster in the theme park, and the farm, and a wider variety of career choices!!!) Ugh, there's so much I miss about it that I actually can't wait to get back to playing Sims 3 again!!!
And that's the sad state of things... I'm actually more excited by the idea of playing Sims 3 again sometime in the future than I am about playing Sims 4 which I could play this very second... But until I get that gaming computer, I'll toy around with Sims 4 and enjoy it. (Just not as much as previous versions of the game!)
