Who the Game is Marketed To

"CarpeNocheSims;c-18192745" wrote:
I don't think I agree that the community is annoyed at how childish some of the game is, least I haven't seen that to be true. As part of the over 50 crowd around here (and there are a ton of us!), I don't find it childish (because this game is whatever you make of it).

I find it idyllic (because I play it that way) and that's refreshing. I don't play the game for mature content, there are tons of games out there that are mature. For me, the game is an escape from my very mature life. My sims are beautiful (to me) and live perfect little happy lives. It's a fantasy world and I love it. I have heart issues and the game calms me down, it helps me with my high stress level. I consider it every bit as important as my heart medication.

I don't want realism in this game. I would hate it. It's why I get so worked up over all the bugs and glitches and the lack of QA. This game has become part of my relaxation technique and I need it to behave.

Anyways, I think the game is currently geared towards a very young demographic and that's a massive mistake on EA's part. That demographic is notorious about chasing the next shiny, new object. I don't mean Gen X,Y,Z or whatever, I mean that age group in general. They have short attention spans and are easily distracted. I was at that age, everybody is. EA needs to be catering to us, the old crowd, those who have been playing Sims for years. We are the backbone. I get that it's business to attract new players, however to toss aside your loyal base in the process? Ridiculous and a mistake.

Yes, Sims is important to me BUT I can replace it. I can start painting, coloring, walking more. I can find a word app or something else to relax me. I prefer sims but if EA continues to ignore "ME" and continues to push out buggy crap? I WILL move on. I've done it before, gone over a year without playing and I'll do it again.

So please, stop ignoring us and stop chasing after the finnicky demographic that isn't loyal to anything. Remember those who got you to this point while still courting the new players.

I'm waxing philosophical because I'm rather annoyed that I don't recognize a single person their hyping for this "summit" thing. Not one. They're all my son's age and he hates sims. Again, big mistake going after his generation like this.

Agreeing so hard with all of this. Watching the Sims summit recently I felt as if I was being talked down to, and at one point I did ask myself, "would I still feel this way if it was teenage me watching this, and not 50 year old me", and the answer to that was, "Yeah, I would've still felt the same way if I was watching the summit as a teenager." I don't think that necessarily has to do with Gen X vs Gen Y, or any other 'generation gap' type thing either, I'm a Gen X'er who was raised by Silent Generation parents, and my friendships today run the gamut from Gen Z to Boomers and older. Most of the Gen Z'ers I know are a lot more sophisticated in their understanding of the world than a lot of my peers seemed to be at that age, so why your marketing would involve sounding like your speaking to a group of 10 year olds (in my opinion) is beyond me.

Like you I also don't care much for realism or grittiness in the Sims4, I play my game the way I want to play it and that's what makes me happy. If I want to include drama I can do so through my own imagination, without feeling like I'm being forced into certain scenarios. The Sims is my escape time from life stuff so most of my Sims do lead very idyllic lives. It's also one of the reasons why certain bugs have been bothering me so much lately, because from my own storytelling point of view it interrupts the flow of my game and makes it stressful to play when I constantly have to be either trying to correct stuff in games, or searching out new mods to try and work around the bugs.

The Sims is for everyone, and I know they have to market to new comers to the game as well, but I also wish their marketing was a little broader to recognise older players, or players that have been with the Sims from the beginning.