JOB POSTING: Multiplayer Gameplay Software Engineer

"simmerorigin;c-18274852" wrote:

"celipoesias;c-18274642" wrote:
Guys, how much drama. The development conditions for The Sims 4 were different, the game was conceived on a low budget. The Sims 5 is a high-budget triple-A game, as every job opening has indicated.

Online multiplayer will be optional, as guaranteed by grant. He said that if you want to play online, you can do it whenever you want, and if you want to play offline, you can do it whenever you want.

It’s not causing “drama” to be skeptical about the development of Sims 5 Rene. You don’t have to share our skepticism; please don’t suggest we are being dramatic.

To address the points of your comment: being a high-budget, triple-A game does not make the game immune to poor decisions. I’ve also never heard of Sims 4’s base game being low budget…only that the game was built as a heavily multiplayer experience under Project Olympus before being quickly changed last minute due to Sim City. Do you have a source you can share on the low budget bit?

Moreover, people are aware that multiplayer is optional. Some don’t want any development of multiplayer at all. Pointing out its optionality is going to do little to sway people’s feelings on the matter. Again, you don’t have to share our skepticism. But it’s becoming a common refrain on these forums to challenge people’s skepticism by pointing out that multiplayer is optional.

Speaking for myself, I have no problem with an optional multiplayer IF and only IF the core single-player is fully fleshed-out, treated with care, does not cut corners, or lack core base game features of the previous games. My skepticism lies in the possibility of that.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to provide you with every article released over the last 10 years which talks about the development of The Sims 4, and which corroborates that the game was initially developed as a low-budget product.

But I can send you the link to the very first article that talked about the troubled development of The Sims 4. The person responsible for providing the first information was Patrick Kelly, who, curiously, was also the first person who leaked the first images of the game.

https://honeywellsims4news.tumblr.com/post/63437610043/more-corroboration-for-patrick-kelly-the-sims-4

Patrick Kelly, at one point in the article, said: "EA isn’t “the evil empire” or anything like that. The Sims label especially is full of really talented creative people who will more than likely deliver an awesome TS4 game in 2014. Generally the problems come from upper management who control the budget. There is a constant struggle between the designers and producers trying to get every great new feature possible into the game and the management who want to cut costs and get the game out as soon as possible."

This was just one of the indications that The Sims 4 could have problems related to its budget. Over the years, other articles that talked about the game's development also reinforced this point even more.

When The Sims 4 launched in 2014, it didn't look like a high-budget game. The game was a huge mess of design choices, not to mention the massive amount of missing features. Everything about the game indicated an extremely troubled development. Even the game did not understand itself. This was all in the eyes of anyone who played at the time.

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You're right about what you said about triple-A games, and really, they aren't immune to bad decisions. But I think bad decisions are also very much related to developmental conditions (Though that may not always be the case).

After the catastrophic, failed, and controversial launch of The Sims 4, if there's one thing I'm pretty sure of, it's that the game's producers don't want a repeat with The Sims 5.

While development on The Sims 4 was a big mess, development on The Sims 5 appears to be well on its way. There's a lot of hiring going on all the time, and they're hiring a lot of people who specialize in very specific areas, like multiplayer.
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When I see people say they don't want online multiplayer in The Sims 5 even though it's optional, I also see a lot of prejudice. Of course, I'm not generalizing, not all comments about not wanting multiplayer have to do with prejudice, but many of them are. Many are from people who don't even play, have or had experience with online multiplayer games, but are there saying they don't want to.


The Sims 5 will still be a game about storytelling. But now we will be able to tell and create stories with our friends. And I think that's just brilliant, mainly because it's going to be optional.

I understand that many people are concerned about a bad single player experience if there is too much focus on multiplayer, but honestly, I don't think there will be many differences between the modes, it will be pretty much the same thing.

The fact that online multiplayer is a controlled experience, where I can play with a few friends, is something that puts me at ease, because I always wanted multiplayer that way.