SimGuru Silence on Twitter: When Will They Respond?

I don’t expect a response, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we get one. Honestly though, we really should get one. I don’t think we’ve ever had a pack released as broken as this one (maybe Dine Out, but I feel like that one wasn’t as bad initially but I’m not sure) and the gameplay of a gamepack is just not functioning (so much so even Gamechangers weren't covering it or telling folks not to buy it (at it's current state). That is a big deal, in my opinion.

That being said, I know due to potential legal things within the company may have them not able to saying anything or they may just feel like saying something would only fuel the fire. I imagine a botched pack release after the Russian release controversy has made things more tense than normal for the simgurus. On a good day, the sims community can be overdemanding and incredibly toxic towards the devs (and each other). I do not blame the devs for not being as interactive on the forums as they used to be (or with the community as a whole).

A lot of the times I think the issues many simmers complain about (that isn't something that has been a core issue since its conception) isn’t even the dev’s fault directly (at least the ones directly working on individual packs), but decisions made by higher ups. When it comes to any kind of business, a lot of the workers often have to take the brunt of bad decisions made by management (or higher). Sometimes it’s a culmination of numerous issues that certain problems arise and it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault directly.

But honestly, it doesn’t matter who is “responsible” for the state of MWS as that’s something the devs need to figure out internally with one another and try to avoid repeating in the future and the finer details of what happened is something we will never know). What’s more important is *when* it gets fixed (along with the rest of the issues that this game is chronically plagued with).

TLDR – We may not ever get an official response. But what is important is to continue firmly but politely relaying our dissatisfaction/issues with the game and wanting to see things fixed but remembering that the gurus are people too and are just doing their job.

"BlueR0se;c-18071674" wrote:
TLDR – We may not ever get an official response. But what is important is to continue firmly but politely relaying our dissatisfaction/issues with the game and wanting to see things fixed but remembering that the gurus are people too and are just doing their job.

Right, the unfortunate reality is that the Simgurus are official spokespeople and the "first line of defense" when it comes to the feedback. However, the complication is that they are mostly producers, artists, etc... lower-level people without management power. It's really the VP of Franchise Creative leading the creative direction at the Sims and the VP and GM of Maxis and the Sims who is the business head for the Sims. Note that the latter was hired in early 2021 and has been in the role for about a year. Those two are the most important people in the Sims franchise right now.

Also, I answered March 1st or 2nd in the poll but would revise my answer because you all convinced me that the SimGurus are likely to stay silent on this.

deleted

Edit: I don't know how to delete comments but if mod is lurking & see this; feel free to do so.

@BlueR0se I edited my post. The names are still in your reply, so you may want to edit or delete your comment.

The only thing Im expecting is some new announcement on a kit or whatever.

Are you sure they don't know how to fix the bugs?

On the contrary, I know they do. I just don't think they have all the time and ressources they deserve and need to do so.
As an example, in order to enable Sims attending the ceremony to still walk the aisle, it just needs one simple additional part in the code. Still, one might not think of this solution with thousands of lines of code to go through. That has nothing to do with being bad at fixing bugs, it's a natural part of programming.
Also, there are approaches modders can take while the team can't, so if there's a mod for something, EA won't know without further investigation if they could even fix the issue the same way the modder has.
I've been offering that kind of solutions at AnswerHQ previously If I felt a mod I did solved the issue in a way that could be officially taken, but these comments rarely got noticed so it wasn't worth my time.
Which ist completely fine, I'm Not the one to judge If and why they don't take a certain advise, it's merely an offer, nothing more. I have No idea how they are working on bugs.

Maybe you should check out the EA job board if they are hiring. You would be an awesome guru who cares a lot to help us.

I already have a full time job in the law branch and no plans of quittung, but thanks.

With any other game that I play, this would have been fixed already. Just as a matter of course. The fans would have never had to identify a single bug, or alert the team, or worry about it in any way whatsoever. It would have simply been done, without the CUSTOMER even having to think twice about it.

Yet here we are, wondering if there will ever be any bugs fixed at all. AGAIN. As it's been for the entire lifespan of this iteration. We shouldn't have to even think about it, nor should we have to find the bugs ourselves, nor should we ever have to beg for relief from them. Yet those CUSTOMERS that do, often find themselves in the position of being the bad guy, and having to defend themselves, because this keeps happening over and over again with every release.

No matter what else the franchise comes out with, it will dovetail with a framework of base game plus additions that are too broken to provide a working game experience. Full stop.

And yet, nothing has ever been done, and we are still begging after having begged for years for our purchases to be honored and our product to work - other companies just fix it.

And the next thing they come out with will simply add on more problems, yet again. We can never be confident that fixes will even come, ever. Here we are begging, when it should have already been handled. Why are we even here having to ask, plead, beg? Why does this thread even exist?

You can't reasonably expect people to take it well when we get teased, hyped, excited, and mind screwed about the magical wonders of the next most incredible life-changing experience, only to get handed a sack of already stomped fresh dog poo, then dropped like a hot potato and ghosted. Most people don't take too kindly to being treated like that. Especially when the fixes should be a matter of course that we should never have to think about or question, and should already have been done by now.

Considering how big this issue is, to the point where even the youtubers are discouraging people from buying the pack, I'm really disappointed in how quiet things have been on their end.

I don't need any big community engagement or "fun" banter or "witty" patch notes. Especially not on twitter. That's just a cesspool of idiots and cyberbullies. So in that regard, I do sympathize with why some of them have clammed up. But I'm also not a fan of how long it's taken to acknowledge that this pack was shown to be a hot mess even before its official release. Even after said release was delayed. Someone said earlier that they should keep things "strictly business" and I 100% agree. So make some kind of statement here or make a tweet with the comments turned off. Something to show that the legitimate concerns about this pack aren't falling on deaf ears like other concerns have in the past.

I'm hoping this isn't another situation like Dine Out, where it's just...never fixed. But right now I'm kinda leaning towards that being the case.

"EveryDaySim;c-18071931" wrote:

No matter what else the franchise comes out with, it will dovetail with a framework of base game plus additions that are too broken to provide a working game experience. Full stop.

And I feel like that base game is where a lot of the problems reside, honestly. Especially in the case of a pack like this, which relies heavily on the AI being able to properly function and...well...it's kinda never been able to do that. For all the talk of "smarter sims" when TS4 launched, I've actually found these sims to be some of the dumbest. And nowhere is that more painfully highlighted than in both Dine Out and the footage I've seen of MWS.

I'm still trying to figure out how Dine Out turned out to be such a hot mess when my sims in TS2 can have a simple family dinner at a restaurant with zero problems. Little to no routing issues. Nobody randomly getting up or switching seats for no reason. No NPCs joining them at their table so they can butt in on their conversations...or straight up steal their food. Chefs aren't taking all day to get my sims' food out to them. Making an actual mini-game out of sims skipping out on the bill. The restaurants in Nightlife weren't even the pack's main feature and they still knocked it out of the park. What happened?!

"MidnightAura;c-18071094" wrote:

I personally don’t think the devs should have individual accounts unless they are prepared to deal with player frustration, my husband is a game dev (not EA) and he doesn’t comment on work on social media. Which is very useful if there’s player back lash. He isn’t caught in the middle

With the devs having accounts and talking about their jobs and content etc, it encourages fans to feel like we are a family and to connect with the gurus like they are celebrities. But they aren’t our friends or family, EA is not our friend they a multi billion business who just want access to your wallet.

It’s also worth remembering that the former Executive Producer said they had a lot of freedom to decide pack themes and what went in packs, a fact verified by a dev when Journey to Batuu released who said they chose the the idea and gushed about how much fun they had making it. There is a big difference between giving constructive feedback and hate. They do not deserve threats but they must have enough respect for their paying customers to acknowledge they messed up and own it and as a company it’s disappointing but not surprising once again EA are ignoring backlash they knew was inevitable and people are justifying the silence.
The Sims Community needs to have higher standards.

Just needed to take a second and point out that everything said here is absolutely perfect.

I think there are a lot of internal discussions and wound-licking right now. In the best case they analyze the made mistakes from the bottom to the top and avoid the mistakes from now on or in the worst case they blame the simmers for misunderstanding their product and move on as nothing like happened here.

I hope for the best case of course, and if they do so then I don't need further communication about this gamepack, than just the patchnotes. Honestly I don't care about twitter communication, they the devs don't communicate here either most of the time.

One part of my current job has to do with the risk management of a project, so I have a tons of questions about their decisions since the trailer, which would blow up the text here, unfortunately and which would probably bring me a ban.

CM Edit: Removed content that was irrelevant to thread topic.