We are getting a new feature in "NEAR FUTURE"!

"Eliharb;c-16691416" wrote:

"Jordan061102;c-16691143" wrote:

@SimGuruKate I think you should read this. Cause the team really need to change the way they communicate. That's not better, before we got teaser and at least we knew about what it was, but now it's worse!

Absolutely agree. Now we're getting "There will be a livestream in 3 weeks. Don't get too excited bye!".
With quarterly teasers it wasn't perfect, but at least we could speculate a bit around the themes in the teaser and not be completely off in our predictions and be super disappointed when the content came out. It also limited what we expected in a certain quarter (3 months) and we'd know when to expect packs or updates.

Well you gotta give them one thing though, they give you the right mindset when it comes to anything TS4 related - "don't get too excited" :P

"MidnightAura;c-16683047" wrote:
I really wish they wouldn’t do this. They claim they want to be more transparent and open and honest with fans but yet they persist on teasing with vague statements. It’s the online equivalent of putting a few cats among the pigeons and watching the feathers fly. Once the hype train starts rolling full steam ahead, they are then quick to put the breaks on it by saying: “But don’t get hyped!” I mean come on, with that referenced tweet, what do they expect? They certainly don’t want people reading it and going: “meh” It’s a rather bizarre communication strategy. Talk of the game is becoming a focus rather than the game itself.

They can’t have it both ways. Be open and transparent like many other game companies are with future content or say nothing until you can reveal. Because they cannot complain when fans get upset with their current strategy of communication. Practise what you preach.

Couldn't have said it better. It's frustrating.

I get they're trying to do the whole let's play, but that's not communication to me. If I wanted to watch a let's play I'd go to one of the HUNDREDS of sim streamers out there on Twitch or Youtube.

I prefer not to get excited, however, I am!

I honestly don't know why they're so averse to telling us about upcoming content. As recently as 2014 they informed us in advance of new things. We knew about pools and the new careers long before they were patched in. And nothing bad happened as far as I remember. As a matter of fact, it kept me hopeful that TS4 would improve and make up for the severe lack of features on release.

I get that they can't reveal too much when a product isn't stable yet, because they might have to cut some features that the players would be aware of, but a teaser avoids that problem. Would it really kill them to say "Hey expect a new vacation pack in a few months. That's the general theme, but we can't give the specifics yet"? The teaser trailers did that in a sense. And in the older games we'd even get leaflets teasing the next expansion pack. It's enough info to keep people informed, but not so much that they would risk promising something they can't deliver.

Whoever thought it would be a great idea to just drop toddlers without any notice too? Saying "Hey we're working on toddlers" even just 3 months before would've calmed a lot of people down, even if there weren't any details yet. And then they could've just given more info as the release got closer. The only explanation I can think of is that lots of things were still being changed shortly before toddlers were patched in, so they couldn't even guarantee anything before release, which would be a terrible software development practice since features should be somewhat stable for quite some time leading up to release. Stable enough that marketing can guarantee that what they'll show is close to the final product.

TL;DR Is it too much to give even small teasers?

I mean, is something like this really too much?
http://snootysims.com/newspics/hobbies.jpg

It gives us the general idea (hobbies) while not promising any specific features. Even this would be good enough for me

It's like this with pretty much every game nowadays. Back in the 2000's many games would include promo cards for the next game in the series even if it was over a year away.
Nowadays I can't think of a single game developer that does this.

"Brindleton;c-16693606" wrote:
It's like this with pretty much every game nowadays. Back in the 2000's many games would include promo cards for the next game in the series even if it was over a year away.
Nowadays I can't think of a single game developer that does this.

I'd say a year away is too much. TS2 EPs were 6 months apart, so this one is 6 months. I think maybe even teasing a new feature or pack 2-3 months would be enough. Maybe 1 month if it's a single feature patched in, I guess.

"MidnightAura;c-16683047" wrote:
I really wish they wouldn’t do this. They claim they want to be more transparent and open and honest with fans but yet they persist on teasing with vague statements. It’s the online equivalent of putting a few cats among the pigeons and watching the feathers fly. Once the hype train starts rolling full steam ahead, they are then quick to put the breaks on it by saying: “But don’t get hyped!” I mean come on, with that referenced tweet, what do they expect? They certainly don’t want people reading it and going: “meh” It’s a rather bizarre communication strategy. Talk of the game is becoming a focus rather than the game itself.

They can’t have it both ways. Be open and transparent like many other game companies are with future content or say nothing until you can reveal. Because they cannot complain when fans get upset with their current strategy of communication. Practise what you preach.

Agreed. I even think that if they shared what they want to implement, we could help by giving opinions about what we like. Haven't they really seen the success of Laundry Day SP?! Like... come one...

"MaggieMarley;c-16683628" wrote:
@Bleepbloop there’s a sand snowman? Like, you can make a snowman in sand?!

No, you can buy one. haha
But, wow, that would be cool. Like, if we could build sandcastles, but if we wanted, we could build snowcastles and sandmans.