Interesting.
You see, I was kind of interested in the idea of SP's "expanding on" other EP's/GP's.
The problem is that people feel like they have been cheated. Because the EP just came out in November. I think it would have been cooler if they actually worked on an older pack, something like GTW, and introduced something fresh and new instead of doing it with the last EP that was released. Because it means they obviously could have included this SP in the EP.
But to be honest, I do find it an interesting concept. However, I think with the track record of TS4, unfortunately a lot of people will be outraged by it because the EP's kind of suck all around. If this stuff pack had a large discount for those who owned C&D, then I think people would handle it better. I have made posts before defending the SP/GP's from TS4 compared to TS3. But with the increased frequency of the SP's, even though we are getting more compared to the way TS3 was set up, the quality of the EP's are lower yet the prices stay the same. So does it matter that the SP's are better in TS4 when you compare prices and quantity of TS4 to the amount of "stuff" you get in other iterations? Especially when the quality of TS4 is much lower? In my opinion, no. They should be working harder to impress us since the quality of TS4 is lower than any other iteration. This iteration is actually regressive in a lot of ways, and it would be good for them to step their game up. Not just for one or two packs either. They need to continuously raise the bar until they find a level of quality that as many people as possible are satisfied with.
I genuinely gave TS4 a chance to prove itself. I thought with packs like DO, Vampires, Parenthood, etc. - funnily enough all GP's - were a sign that there was going to be a change in the content that was going to be released. But it seems like they are just trying to sell incomplete products that require SP's to fill in the gaps. I think that is wrong. I think they should be releasing complete products to the best of their ability and if they want to create SP's or GP's that expand on other packs, I think they should be doing it with the older packs that could use some polishing and have had more analytics and metrics that have been collected over a larger period of time. It would also be nice if their game update focused on fixing issues specifically in the EP that they are gearing the SP/GP towards, making the EP their prime focus to fix as much as possible. C&D JUST came out. They should have more data on older packs meaning they could have used those efforts to tackle both large and small issues that have existed for a longer period of time and did not have the resources available to fix it after the initial release of the pack since they had to move on to another project.
Imagine if they created a GP for CL that allowed users to create their own apartment buildings along with other new ideas and gameplay? Or an SP for GTW that added new gameplay items that allowed users to have more control over their shops and cafes? The SP's and GP's that are geared towards specific EP's should provide more than a standalone SP/GP since they are building upon frameworks that have already been developed. So the SP's/GP's released for C&D should be more advanced since the systems, tools, etc. of C&D were already developed in the EP that was released, and they would still have all of the ideas and concepts that didn't make it to the final EP so they wouldn't be working on something entirely new and different, they would just be continuing their work on C&D, meaning the extra content related to that pack should feel a lot more abundant.
I think this type of SP has some potential to be effective, but EA is going about it in the wrong way in my opinion. Instead of selling us low quality EP's and releasing SP's after the fact to make it feel complete, they should be releasing high quality EP's and then people will genuinely see this as an extension of the EP rather than a cash grab to just make a profit off of stuff that should have been included in the original EP to begin with.
That's just my opinion though. Maybe this idea just won't work, period. I think it could work if they did it correctly. But then again, I haven't bought any packs since Parenthood. The last SP that I received was Vintage Glamour, and that was gifted to me. The last EP I received was CL and that was also gifted to me ... I'm waiting for them to step their game up before I buy anything else. If I do happen to buy something, I'm going to wait for it to go on at LEAST a 50% off sale.
EA Staff
