Yikes .... The Game Pack Trailer has more dislikes than likes

"logion;c-17636202" wrote:

"LiELF;c-17636175" wrote:
There's some very important factors to consider here, if we're trying to speak "facts" and truth. And people aren't going to like this, so if you're not someone who can handle harsh reality, then move along, move along, and skip my post.

EA is a mult-billion dollar corporation. At their disposal, they have tons and tons of data, research, and analytics to make any major money-making decisions. They invest in this information on a regular basis, because they have shareholders to answer to. So.

The core Sims community's unrest with this pack was not unanticipated. They very well knew the family players, realistic players, the "old school" Sims players, would have a cow over this. They knew. And they did it anyway. Why? Because they don't care anymore to cater to those players. They really don't. The CEO has been saying all along that they are chasing new trends, year after year. They have confirmed to be aiming at the new, younger gaming audience and building the player base. They have studied their statistical analysis and concluded that catering to the "old" isn't as lucrative as pandering to the "new". Therefore...

They already knew there would be an outcry against this pack. They already knew they would lose some players over it. But statistically, it doesn't matter (to them). Because those Simmers on social media only make up a small percentage of the worldwide player community (25 million active players, as last revealed) and the potential for reaching new players, Star Wars fanatics, and trend followers, is much much more profitable. They even stated in a recent article in the Washington Post that from here on out, they will be focusing more actively on the trends and hype of young people, ranging from fashion to TV. So this is only the beginning.

The only way...the only way they would bother to change direction, and it's a long shot, is if the sales of the Star Wars pack took a huge dive, and it would have to be significant enough to be a substantial monetary loss. Because they don't care how upset players are on social media, or how many downvotes the trailer gets. That's only in the thousands. The player base is millions and the Star Wars franchise is legendary. People everywhere, all over the internet are taking notice of the fabled "Sims Star Wars Pack". People who have never played a Sims game in their lives. Remember, they now also have the power of Disney backing them up. If there's one company I'd predict to take over the world one day, it would be Disney.

I'm honestly very interested to see how this pack sells on release day because I feel like this is going to be the big test of the new direction for cross-marketing on a larger scale. I just wish they shared their numbers publicly. But I'll be keeping an eye out for that quarterly report after September to see if there's any mention of it. Because this move is going to change the franchise forever. Life simulator? hardly. Adventure simulator? Maybe. Trend simulator? You bet.

It feels like they have tried to make this a trend simulator for a while. I wish them good luck with this attempt. I'm not sure how many more new players this will draw in, they will probably buy the base game and this pack and then play it for a couple of hours, and the majority of people that don't engage with the community will probably buy it anyway.

I would be fine with them chasing trends if the game felt more complete, but it isn't. Six years of game development and my babies are objects and my families can't save up money for a car, but they can fly a spaceship.

Yeah, I totally get it. I've been rallying for Fear, better personalities and deeper romantic preferences and interactions and I've been doing it since at least 2015, lol. I think some things are too difficult to implement and some are just not profitable enough for the funding. It's unfortunate, because if the base game had just been allowed more time to be developed, we might have had more of these things in it. But then again, judging by the patches we've gotten, maybe not.

The Sims 4 is just a different animal than the previous games. It has metamorphosed into something new and it looks like EA is keeping it that way.