Sometimes Less Is More

"Cinebar;c-17956611" wrote:

"haneul;c-17955837" wrote:

What most players don't understand because most here buy everything as soon as it hits the market, is this, there are more bugs in games when a person doesn't buy everything and doesn't have a particular pack installed when everyone else does. Like skipping over a few, then buying one while everyone else has it all and would never see those bugs or would see other bugs. It was true for TS2 and TS3,too.

I think we do understand this. Most players don't have all of the packs and don't even consider getting all of them because they simply can't afford them all/justify spending so much money on a game, so they just pick what they like best and are fine with it. Not having a full set can lead to more bugs, but the Sims 4 is generally better about this than the past games where it was even recommended (almost required) that you install packs in order. If you're overwhelmed, just get one pack or focus on one thing at a time.

Also, even though it may be hard to believe, it seems that the Sims 4 is the most (financially) successful of the Sims games by far and I think we need to keep that in mind. Frequent updates are industry standard. Patches every six months or once a year just won't cut it in 2021. Consumers like a steady stream of new content. TS4 is also probably more popular and well liked than these forums may imply. A lot of us are older and have some nostalgia about the older games, and a lot of the younger players don't do forums like this because they're an older way of exchanging information that may strike them as odd or boring (when there's insta, discord, tumblr, twitter, YT, etc.). I played all of the games and I prefer 4 now.

But the Sims 2 and 3 still exist, so if people prefer those games, they really should just play them. Because even with all of the updates there's no guarantee that Sims 4 will ever implement their key features...

Live service is fine if it was updates to patch a game once or twice a year, but I don't think players realize just how many things were knocked out of the game, and or changed and or once a new pack installed became irrelevant after that because they drop those previous packs and play in a new world (if one) and new features and don't realize the magnitude of things have actually changed in this game. People can say well, that's a good thing, but not if you hold saves to return and add something only to see you need like fifteen or so packs more to bring the game up to the level of older games and still not do that, and or, have to scrap older saves because most here have mods installed and have no idea anymore what exactly is wrong with a vanilla game boasting of forty packs.

Like I said - once or twice a year just isn't acceptable for AAA games in 2021. There are so many games for people to play. You want to constantly have your game out there in the news, etc. to stand out and it's easiest to do that with monthly or at least quarterly updates. If you wait a year people will start rumors about your "dead" game and the problems that must be going on at your studio, because the industry pressure to update is so extreme now that the assumption is that there must be a problem if it's taking you that long to produce new content. Also, for better or worse, more updates lead to more $.

It's expected that most players will try out new content in new saves and not play one save forever. I play one save personally, but I recognize that it's abnormal and that there will be changes. Of course, there's a tipping point where things are just too much, but the Sims 4 isn't there yet and EA likes to push the envelope regardless, so unless there's a lot of complaining and bad press like there was around the lack of toddlers and the skintones, they're not going to stop coming out with new things. People like new packs, largely ignore bugs and are used to games having a ton of content overall. The latest pack is probably doing well too so what incentive is there for EA to slow down or stop?

Reputation.

People are forever banging on about how terrible EA’s reputation is already why would this be an incentive? I don’t understand why you continue to frustrate yourself about this game. You have made it abundantly clear that you dislike it intensely but you’re apparently outnumbered by millions. They’re continuing to make new content because millions are continuing to purchase it. You list features the game does or doesn’t have but you have said in other posts you haven’t played in like 4 years so how do you know what the game is like at this point?

The way I see TS4 is what it is some like it and some don’t. It’s a bit of a departure from previous iterations it’s more modern, it doesn’t necessarily follow previous lore, it’s on it’s own timeline and it what it is at this point.

I bought TS3 - I basically hate it. I hate the graphics, I hate the box headed pudding faced sims, I hate the dull uninspiring muddy colors, the inability to live in one world and visit another world and have relationships in both, building is a freaking nightmare and I could go on. But I won’t and what I won’t and don’t do is go into the TS3 part of the forums and spew my negative attitude toward that iteration thereby raining on the parade of those who truly enjoy that game because it just seems better and healthier to me to focus mainly on the positives of the game I do enjoy. Is there room for improvement? Yes. Do I point that out from time to time? Yes. But none of the previous games were perfect either. They all had foibles and shortcomings and limitations. Yet people enjoyed them and still do and that’s great. But what I don’t understand is why those of us who enjoy this version aren’t allowed to just do so without a constant barrage of negativity from those who don’t. Why are players of previous iterations who for years have expressed their dislike of this iteration constantly turning up in this part of the forum for no other purpose than to berate this game and those who enjoy it? They have changed nothing, accomplished nothing, added nothing. It’s not the “constructive criticism” they pretend it to be.

I have lurked in 2 & 3’s threads a lot and I never see 4 players over there going on and on about how they dislike those games, or how this that or the other thing should have been different, like seriously never. Maybe because those games are what they are, and they’re never going to be anything different? Well neither is this one. It is what it is, you either enjoy it or you don’t. It may just be easier to accept that fact about the iterations that are finished. They have said they plan to carry on with this game for awhile to come, they wouldn’t do that if it weren’t profitable to do so, and it wouldn’t be profitable if there weren’t more fans than detractors so it just seems that it would be far healthier for those who think TS4 isn’t up to scratch to move on either to something newer, or something older and let those of us who do enjoy it do so in peace. It’s The Sims 4, and no matter how much some folks carry on it will never be The Sims 1, 2, or 3.