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

"filipomel;c-16688755" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-16688445" wrote:

"filipomel;c-16688396" wrote:

"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.

I'm starting to wonder if the community was happier before without this much communication. You're right, they can't have it both ways, but either way people will find something to complain about. The devs say nothing and people complain, the devs say something and people complain. They gave the community what they wanted in the best way they could deliver it, more communication and transparency, if the community isn't happy with these forms of communication then I don't know what to say really.

Transparency definition:
the quality of being done in an open way without secrets

Vs

We have a feature we're planning to release in the near future. Today and tomorrow we're conducting research on it to see how it works, what we need to tweak, and how to make it the best. Just peeling back the layer a little on how we do some things.
4:49 PM - Aug 16, 2018

We can’t talk about future content.

I don’t agree the above is what people want. I don't even think being open and transparent is a strong point at this stage as referenced above. People will complain a heck of a lot less if communication felt more like a conversation and if they stopped this ridiculous charade. Other game studios manage to go off and work on their projects without feeling the need to make vague, nonsense statements on twitter. (I should know - my Husband works for one) and fans don’t self combust with no information.

This new way isn’t any better than not having a quarterly teaser. It’s worse. They may as well tweet: “Today we are working on new content and tomorrow. In other news Night follows day”

What would make me happy is if they kept their head down and got on with the day job and actually only told us information when they had solid information to share. Not this ‘We have exciting news- don’t get hyped!” Train they are riding. The community still wildly speculates, many are disappointed and the whole thing starts again a few weeks/ months. Why does the game need information constantly being drip fed to fans? Doesn’t that say a lot about the game itself? When the focus is on the hype surrounding the game but not actually the game itself?

I play lots of different type of games and this is the only game that needs this PR being constantly pushed. Most games speak for themselves.

I'm going to be honest, I don't know where you got your definition of the term Transparency, all I can say is it doesn't match up with what I have found, I believe secrets and transparency to be two different things, you can be transparent and still hold back information, or as you I guess would call it 'secrets'. On the note of communication feeling like a conversation, I don't really know what to say besides mention the fact that the developers have been speaking a lot about certain topics regarding the development of the game lately. On the topic of comparing Sims/Maxis/EA to other game studios is like comparing apples to oranges, different games, different companies, different communities, different regulations and so on. When you say "What would make me happy is if they kept their head down and got on with the day job and actually only told us information when they had solid information to share," you have to remember that what makes you happy or unhappy isn't the same for everyone else, but also in regards to your statement, isn't that what it was like before? Waiting to announce something until there was solid information to share? And even then the community wasn't completely pleased, and to my recollection this whole 'We have exciting news- don’t get hyped' situation happened once if not maybe twice. If people wildly speculate and then get disappointing in the end I wouldn't say it's the devs fault, especially if they have openly spoken about what to expect, or where to keep expectations.

I feel like people are quick to forget that this new form of communication they are currently practicing is new to them as well, the devs themselves are learning and transitioning into this new form of communication, give them time to adjust. If the devs actively keep up with threads like this, or listen to feed back similar to what is mentioned in this thread I'm sure they will learn what methods are the best to communicate and deliver certain types of information.

"JoAnne65;c-16688461" wrote:
.

"filipomel;c-16688396" wrote:

"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.

I'm starting to wonder if the community was happier before without this much communication. You're right, they can't have it both ways, but either way people will find something to complain about. The devs say nothing and people complain, the devs say something and people complain. They gave the community what they wanted in the best way they could deliver it, more communication and transparency, if the community isn't happy with these forms of communication then I don't know what to say really.

No, people don't find 'something to complain about either way'. It's just that not everyone considers any form of using your voice or Twitter 'communicating' ("sharing or exchanging information, news, or ideas") No information or news or ideas have been shared here is the point of the post you're quoting, it's all just food for speculating and hyping again, and it's very thoroughly argumented why the poster thinks that too. It's just rude to dismiss that with an 'either way people will find something to complain about' just because you happen to be satisfied with the way they are communicating.

My apologies if my statement sounded dismissive, I didn't intend for it to sound like that.

When you say "No information or news or ideas have been shared here... it's all just food for speculating and hyping again," I would disagree because Grant himself mentioned in the tweet the purpose of the tweet, "We have a feature we're planning to release in the near future. Today and tomorrow we're conducting research on it to see how it works, what we need to tweak, and how to make it the best. Just peeling back the layer a little on how we do some things", peeling back the layer a bit, giving us insight on how near future content is being handled at the moment. Of course speculation will arise from this, but he clearly stated what the purpose of the tweet was. Take what you will from his statement, to all their own.

My definition is from the Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/transparent

Before we had twitter teasers we had quarterly teasers and while I didn’t care for them they were a bit more solid than this current method. It may not be directly their fault this community gets hyped and jumps to conclusions but they are to a degree what EA made. Some people are starving for content and tweets like my example are a fish being thrown to a very hungry crowd. If when it came to the gallery business they had just said from the beginning they were making changes to the gallery or even announcing it was gallery related ahead of time, it would have been fairer, more honest and would have saved a whole lot of disappointment.

@filipomel Thanks for the clarification, for me it makes a lot of difference reading the arguments now that make that you do appreciate the way they are communicating. That indeed is personal. I was mainly objecting to the statement people complain either way, not the fact simmers feel differently about what’s being revealed.

One could argue whether ‘peeling back a layer’ is being transparent. There is no doubt it’s food for speculation (this topic proves it, all people can do now is think of possible features and they go all over the place, from personalities to stairs to CAW to cars to CASt to open neighborhoods to better babies, and express their hope it will be that) and there’s also no doubt that the peeling back a layer so far has revealed nothing more than that there apparently is a layer covering something. That’s as transparent as frosted glass ;) Less, in fact, because through frost glass at least you can see a shape. We’re shown absolutely nothing yet.

For some that’s enough, they like this way of interacting with the devs and are happy there is some form of communication in the first place. But others don’t care about that part, they in fact are bothered by it and just would like to hear actual information. It really comes down to that I think ;) On top of this, it’s EA and the devs who keep telling us not to hype and not to speculate. And still they keep adding fuel to the fires this way. I find that confusing myself tbh.

"drake_mccarty;c-16687814" wrote:

"KirbySkywalker;c-16687311" wrote:

"sikasika18;c-16684222" wrote:
It just feels like the studio is so missmanaged and that they have no clue what they're really doing. I am not hyped and won't be because I have learned that this studio is running out of passion and that is never good.

Hmm. I actually feel like now they have people who are passionate about and enjoy the sims and want to continue releasing things that make it more fun and put a stop to the path they were on. We just need to give them the time needed to get things cruising in the right direction since the team is so small.

This mentioned “feature” might not be a game changer on its own but I bet it’s a move in the right direction.

With absolutely zero information on said feature I don’t see how you can reach that conclusion. For all we know this “feature” could be another trivial inclusion.

Also the people working on the game now, are mostly the same people who have been working on it for years. If they weren’t passionate about it for the last 4 years, then why would that all of a sudden change? If they were passionate about the game they would make it the best it could possibly be, which they have not so far and more than likely will not in the future with their teams being even smaller and more underfunded than before.

How do you know the funding each team receives, and how that's compared to the funding each team has received in every game of the franchise, and previous years of TS4's development? Unless you have numbers for all of those, there's no way to prove this and it's speculation on your part.

As regards the OP, I agree with @filipomel that the point of Grant's tweet was to show a glimpse of the process that new features go through when they are discussed by the team. A lot of people complain that the Gurus are ignoring them, or won't add XYZ feature because they're lazy/unwilling/out of touch with the fans, but a Tweet like this shows the long process new ideas have to go through before they are added to the game. They are always working on new features for TS4, which comes as no surprise because we know there will be another game pack or expansion pack in the near future - that part is not what makes the Tweet have new information.

I hope it's some sort of new banking/inheritance feature.

"filipomel;c-16688755" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-16688445" wrote:

"filipomel;c-16688396" wrote:

"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.

I'm starting to wonder if the community was happier before without this much communication. You're right, they can't have it both ways, but either way people will find something to complain about. The devs say nothing and people complain, the devs say something and people complain. They gave the community what they wanted in the best way they could deliver it, more communication and transparency, if the community isn't happy with these forms of communication then I don't know what to say really.

Transparency definition:
the quality of being done in an open way without secrets

Vs

We have a feature we're planning to release in the near future. Today and tomorrow we're conducting research on it to see how it works, what we need to tweak, and how to make it the best. Just peeling back the layer a little on how we do some things.
4:49 PM - Aug 16, 2018

We can’t talk about future content.

I don’t agree the above is what people want. I don't even think being open and transparent is a strong point at this stage as referenced above. People will complain a heck of a lot less if communication felt more like a conversation and if they stopped this ridiculous charade. Other game studios manage to go off and work on their projects without feeling the need to make vague, nonsense statements on twitter. (I should know - my Husband works for one) and fans don’t self combust with no information.

This new way isn’t any better than not having a quarterly teaser. It’s worse. They may as well tweet: “Today we are working on new content and tomorrow. In other news Night follows day”

What would make me happy is if they kept their head down and got on with the day job and actually only told us information when they had solid information to share. Not this ‘We have exciting news- don’t get hyped!” Train they are riding. The community still wildly speculates, many are disappointed and the whole thing starts again a few weeks/ months. Why does the game need information constantly being drip fed to fans? Doesn’t that say a lot about the game itself? When the focus is on the hype surrounding the game but not actually the game itself?

I play lots of different type of games and this is the only game that needs this PR being constantly pushed. Most games speak for themselves.

I'm going to be honest, I don't know where you got your definition of the term Transparency, all I can say is it doesn't match up with what I have found, I believe secrets and transparency to be two different things, you can be transparent and still hold back information, or as you I guess would call it 'secrets'. On the note of communication feeling like a conversation, I don't really know what to say besides mention the fact that the developers have been speaking a lot about certain topics regarding the development of the game lately. On the topic of comparing Sims/Maxis/EA to other game studios is like comparing apples to oranges, different games, different companies, different communities, different regulations and so on. When you say "What would make me happy is if they kept their head down and got on with the day job and actually only told us information when they had solid information to share," you have to remember that what makes you happy or unhappy isn't the same for everyone else, but also in regards to your statement, isn't that what it was like before? Waiting to announce something until there was solid information to share? And even then the community wasn't completely pleased, and to my recollection this whole 'We have exciting news- don’t get hyped' situation happened once if not maybe twice. If people wildly speculate and then get disappointing in the end I wouldn't say it's the devs fault, especially if they have openly spoken about what to expect, or where to keep expectations.

I feel like people are quick to forget that this new form of communication they are currently practicing is new to them as well, the devs themselves are learning and transitioning into this new form of communication, give them time to adjust. If the devs actively keep up with threads like this, or listen to feed back similar to what is mentioned in this thread I'm sure they will learn what methods are the best to communicate and deliver certain types of information.

"JoAnne65;c-16688461" wrote:
.

"filipomel;c-16688396" wrote:

"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.

I'm starting to wonder if the community was happier before without this much communication. You're right, they can't have it both ways, but either way people will find something to complain about. The devs say nothing and people complain, the devs say something and people complain. They gave the community what they wanted in the best way they could deliver it, more communication and transparency, if the community isn't happy with these forms of communication then I don't know what to say really.

No, people don't find 'something to complain about either way'. It's just that not everyone considers any form of using your voice or Twitter 'communicating' ("sharing or exchanging information, news, or ideas") No information or news or ideas have been shared here is the point of the post you're quoting, it's all just food for speculating and hyping again, and it's very thoroughly argumented why the poster thinks that too. It's just rude to dismiss that with an 'either way people will find something to complain about' just because you happen to be satisfied with the way they are communicating.

My apologies if my statement sounded dismissive, I didn't intend for it to sound like that.

When you say "No information or news or ideas have been shared here... it's all just food for speculating and hyping again," I would disagree because Grant himself mentioned in the tweet the purpose of the tweet, "We have a feature we're planning to release in the near future. Today and tomorrow we're conducting research on it to see how it works, what we need to tweak, and how to make it the best. Just peeling back the layer a little on how we do some things", peeling back the layer a bit, giving us insight on how near future content is being handled at the moment. Of course speculation will arise from this, but he clearly stated what the purpose of the tweet was. Take what you will from his statement, to all their own.

Sorry, I had to quote your whole post (I forgot how to just get part of it) but do you think these developers have never done any walk-throughs, interviews, or Twitch shows before? Most of them have been around since TS3 where the information flowed almost daily. I'm pretty sure they are very familar with how to communicate something to the community as they had plenty of practice before TS4. It is only TS4 that comes up with this stuff about not being able to talk about free content before it's released. They can talk about paid content anytime they want, if they choose to do so. Of course it wouldn't be wise I guess unless someting didn't work out, but saying this is a new way for them to learn to communicate is not what I would believe, it may be new (since TS4) to keep their mouths closed, but teasing without an actual tease isn't communicating it's bating. Transparent means just that, you can see all the way through, nothing blocked, hidden or secret.

ETA: I'm just going to add my two cents about the terms 'new' and 'learning' they have been on Youtube and Twitter and FB for four years now, what is there to learn? TS4 is four years old next month, don't you think it's about time we all stop making excuses for anything about this game or how they communicate.

I don't think the gurus are purposely holding back information from us, I'm pretty sure they want to tell us what they are working on. I think they have certain rules they have to follow with announcing stuff so they can't share certain information. So it would be between not sharing any sort of information at all or trying to share as much as they can without breaking any rules. Which is what I would say they are trying to do.

And I'm not going to disagree that it maybe causes over speculation and disappointment. To me I'm fine with it. It's cool to see what ppl think it's going to be. I mean it's fun speculation as long as everyone is aware that there's a huge chance it won't be what they're expecting.

But could they just say exactly what they are working on? It would be best if they could but clearly they can't. And because it says they are researching then I would guess that would mean they are trying to see if the feature can work in the game and how it can be implemented. In this case maybe it would be a good idea to not say what the feature is until later because I'm guessing that it's possible that it won't work or can't be implemented in the way they hoped it could. So after everyone gets hyped and starts saying "OMG spiral stairs is coming to sims 4" Then they have to come out and say "oop sorry can't be put in the game".

But they can also not say anything about researching a new feature and just say something later in development about what the feature is.

I think they are just trying stuff so maybe they won't do anything like this again or maybe they will. I think this is the closest we will get to "transparecy" with this game unfortunately. But I do expect maxis monthly to be more transparent. Like stuff that would be announced in quarterly teasers. But for free patches I'm not sure cause even those weren't in quarterly teasers.

I also think this new feature will take long. They have been working on our last update since February so I expect this new feature to come early next year or the end of this one.

New feature in sims 4.... an EA game.....
https://i.imgur.com/aoXAEIn.png

"Haskorentaro;c-16689915" wrote:
New feature in sims 4.... an EA game.....
https://i.imgur.com/aoXAEIn.png

Don't give them anymore ideas!

"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.

I hope the feature update is paired up with an expansion pack, hopefully education (wishful thinking lol)