You are not listening
It shocks me to read a post of EA/Maxis saying that they are listening to simmers. I'm sorry, but you are NOT. Simmers, have been asking for cars, babies, farms, romantic interactions, more depth i...
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Too true. If they were really listening to simmers, they wouldn't have put out that Eco pack before getting a true "Generations" pack out of the way...like, Year 2 of the game's run so the family players wouldn't keep complaining all the time about it. If they were listening, we would have had the core occults (ghotst, aliens, plantsims, casters, werewolves, vampires, zombies, robots) all complete, fully fleshed-out, and better than ever by now, and would likely have had the newer/more minor occults (genies, fairies, imaginary friends) mostly done by now as well. If they were listening, magic would have been a skill, not requiring a whole new lifestate to use like in TS3. If they were listening, we would have had cars by now. If they were listening, we would have Create-A-World or at least the ability to decide whether we wanted to start a new game with a populated save or an empty one. If they were listening, we would have more non-item-dependent play interactions for sims of all ages. If they were listening, the away system and emotion system wouldn't be such a hot mess. If they were listening, traits would be much more impactful. If they were listening, we would have difficulty settings and on/off toggles for occults instead of all of those annoying nerfs they've deployed over the years. If they were listening, we'd have better skintones. If they were listening, we'd have paintable ceilings. If they were listening, we would have natural and dyed options for hair color and unnatural hair colors available and heritable for Toddlers and Children.
But, they're not listening to simmers. They're listening to their bosses, who think of The Sims as a virtual Barbies game for little girls and therefore don't take it seriously except for pushing them to toss out more packs of accessories like a virtual Mattel. They're listening to Game Changers, who represent only a very narrow sliver of the playerbase as a whole not only in terms of demographics, but tastes and gameplay styles as well. They pop into these forums every now and again, but they're not really listening to our complaints or requests. They pay them lip-service, fix stuff only when it's too big to ignore or when a group of Game Changers who are too popular to ignore complain about it loud enough. They are more interested in squeezing in what they want in the game between the things corporate wants in there at this point than really making the TS4 that players have been trying to lead them toward from the beginning.
The result is a game with weak gameplay, no depth or challenge, and a fractured sense of identity. Even with the state it launched in, TS4 could have been great if more of the people in key decision-making positions (not just devs, but executives too) had been more keyed-in to what the playerbase wanted in the game instead of what they wanted to do with the game or what players they wanted for the game.
But, they're not listening to simmers. They're listening to their bosses, who think of The Sims as a virtual Barbies game for little girls and therefore don't take it seriously except for pushing them to toss out more packs of accessories like a virtual Mattel. They're listening to Game Changers, who represent only a very narrow sliver of the playerbase as a whole not only in terms of demographics, but tastes and gameplay styles as well. They pop into these forums every now and again, but they're not really listening to our complaints or requests. They pay them lip-service, fix stuff only when it's too big to ignore or when a group of Game Changers who are too popular to ignore complain about it loud enough. They are more interested in squeezing in what they want in the game between the things corporate wants in there at this point than really making the TS4 that players have been trying to lead them toward from the beginning.
The result is a game with weak gameplay, no depth or challenge, and a fractured sense of identity. Even with the state it launched in, TS4 could have been great if more of the people in key decision-making positions (not just devs, but executives too) had been more keyed-in to what the playerbase wanted in the game instead of what they wanted to do with the game or what players they wanted for the game.
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