A lot of us are misquoting a recent article or interview which stated the next game is Free to Enter, they didn't say Free to Play. Nobody, so far, has been able to explain what is the difference? This may have been discussed somewhere here, but I'm curious to know what that phrase of terminology would mean for a franchise like The Sims. Free to Enter....maybe gurus will explain it in terms I can understand.What do you think it means?

It is a very suspicious quote, if you ask me. I don't know what it means, but I imagine "Entering" the game will require an internet connection. I also imagine that a lot of stuff will cost money once you "Enter," though this is just suspicions from years of playing EA. They are a company, not a non-profit, and are not interested in putting hours in to create a game then releasing it for free, without a way to make money worked in there. Expansion packs come out some time after the Base Game, unless they're working EA employees twice as hard. So, I'd say it can't be typical dlc. They might be stripping the game down to the most basic bare-bones, then releasing a pack with more stuff. But I think what most are afraid of is that they'll put a store with the individual items in it. And you'll use real money to buy a special fancy named Sim dollars. And each item will have a sim-dollar amount. It's a sneaky way to get you to spend more, because you're not spending real cash on the item. Of course, the original posted Job listing that had this on it was taken down, but sorry EA, you guys can't unring a bell. Getting us to stop talking about this will take more than that.

I have not heard "free to enter" before, if I had to guess, they mean that the entry barrier is very low, because you are supposedly going to be able to play the game on your phone and they assume everyone has a phone so the game is free to enter as in you don't require a computer or a tv with a console to play.From what we have seen it looks like Rene will probably be free to play with different ways of monetizing the game.I'm not a fan of them making the game for a phone as well because I think that will just limit them in what they can make.

I've never heard of "free to enter" in the context of gaming. It's well understood at F2P or FtP (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-to-play)I think it's possible that they chose those words for SEO/web crawling reasons as they don't want to be associated with F2P or the HR person who helped draft the job description wrote it that way and it was never changedBut maybe they specifically say Free to Enter in order to differentiate from games like Fornite, which are really free to play but rely on microtransactions for revenue. Free to Enter could suggest a very minimal base game with large DLC EPs being almost required to do anything.

My guess is that only the base game will be free.

From the following information in the posting (job posting) does this mean the person who gets that job will determine creators' content pricing? And advise what they should share and when and what? It sort of reads that way to me. And like I thought cliques of teams to create this content for them?The candidate will "own pricing of all content in this free-to-enter game, ensuring we have an optimal pricing and content architecture provide guidance to content teams on in-game content needs to meet player demand.ETA: Thanks for the answers. I don't play any F2P games, nor do I understand how MMOs work all that much with players selling their creations to other players. That doesn't sound like something that would be in the spirit of The Sims since most of us who played for years have always believed that custom content is shared (free) from a generosity of heart to fellow players and EA was the one who always went after those charging for their content creations. My how times have changed.I wouldn't even want to deal with the divisiveness this will eventually cause in the Simming Community. Maybe good for EA (money, money, money) but bad for the spirit of sharing and no one above anyone else sort of type community we have always tried to keep alive in the community. It almost sounds like EA/Maxis will be telling custom content creator teams what they should create and sell so that Maxis doesn't have to do it. And in my opinion, just like gamechangers/influencers, once they start depending on that income, they own their souls. I wonder if they will be told they have a deadline to create and upload some predetermined content..

Project Rene: What is the Difference in FTP and FTE?

20 Replies

rpgTabbycat
2 years ago
I think it's a code phrase for "How much can we milk this cash cow?" But maybe I am being overly pessimistic about it. I don't want an online Sims game so I won't be playing it anyway.
g01denswan
Rising Ace
2 years ago
"Chicklet453681;c-18290011" wrote:
"g01denswan;c-18289892" wrote:
Pretty sure the content teams they are referring to are just Maxis employees, not CC creators.

Yeah that's how I interpreted it too. I'm pretty sure they outsource stuff so maybe it's referring to those teams that aren't "officially" employed by EA or Maxis but are more like contractors that get paid for to do a job and that's it until something else is needed.

Don’t contractors just do what’s already decided by EA employees and then get paid for their service? I don’t think they have input into what gets made.
Chicklet45368
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
"g01denswan;c-18290035" wrote:
"Chicklet453681;c-18290011" wrote:
"g01denswan;c-18289892" wrote:
Pretty sure the content teams they are referring to are just Maxis employees, not CC creators.

Yeah that's how I interpreted it too. I'm pretty sure they outsource stuff so maybe it's referring to those teams that aren't "officially" employed by EA or Maxis but are more like contractors that get paid for to do a job and that's it until something else is needed.

Don’t contractors just do what’s already decided by EA employees and then get paid for their service? I don’t think they have input into what gets made.

Yes, that's what I was referring to. The "Content Teams" they mentioned might be contract workers and not actual EA/Maxis employees.
leo3487
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
"Cinebar;d-1009859" wrote:
A lot of us are misquoting a recent article or interview which stated the next game is Free to Enter, they didn't say Free to Play. Nobody, so far, has been able to explain what is the difference? This may have been discussed somewhere here, but I'm curious to know what that phrase of terminology would mean for a franchise like The Sims. Free to Enter....maybe gurus will explain it in terms I can understand.

What do you think it means?

I only read this post to reply, no others at this thread
But for me this mean Free to Play bur also patches than bring free features to base game
11a4d9d88dcc7bea
New Veteran
2 years ago
"leo3487;c-18295942" wrote:
"Cinebar;d-1009859" wrote:
A lot of us are misquoting a recent article or interview which stated the next game is Free to Enter, they didn't say Free to Play. Nobody, so far, has been able to explain what is the difference? This may have been discussed somewhere here, but I'm curious to know what that phrase of terminology would mean for a franchise like The Sims. Free to Enter....maybe gurus will explain it in terms I can understand.

What do you think it means?

I only read this post to reply, no others at this thread
But for me this mean Free to Play bur also patches than bring free features to base game

I think most of us are worried because EA has to make money on their games in some way. Free to Enter is a very low minimum bar, but there will certainly be features after that that you have to pay for. Most likely not the typical expansion packs, as those take time to produce. What some are worried about is they will strip the game down to bare bones then make you pay for everything else in some microtransactions store. Or charge a subscription to gain access to this content. EA is not a non-profit. They're not just going to make their game free unless they see a way to make money off of it.
i_love_frogs_11
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
It kind of sounds like Dream light valley :| The game may cost money in early access, but once its at full launch I heard it will be free to download, but the game is already soooooo riddles with micro transactions for bundles, single items that enhance gameplay tasks, etc. It may be that TS5 will be a base game with a version of The Sims 3 store built into it and the only way to purchase items, which would be expensiveeee. But I am not sure, as many others so who knows *shrugs*
mightyspritesims
Legend
2 years ago
Could "free to enter" mean it's free to visit someone else's multiplayer game online, if they have invited you?

But not free to host your own game or play single-player?
Horrorgirl6
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
"mightysprite;c-18302451" wrote:
Could "free to enter" mean it's free to visit someone else's multiplayer game online, if they have invited you?

But not free to host your own game or play single-player?

No no,free to enter is probably is what Le Grande Propue says.Since it was use a term sims 4 basegame.It probably just means the base game will be free and the re s t will be dlc.Since that work for four.
@Cinebar
11a4d9d88dcc7bea
New Veteran
2 years ago
"mightysprite;c-18302451" wrote:
Could "free to enter" mean it's free to visit someone else's multiplayer game online, if they have invited you?

But not free to host your own game or play single-player?

It's possible, Sims 4 is free to play, if I'm not mistaken. We will have to wait until they give us more information to know for sure.
OldeSimsFan
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
The term I've encountered while watching some of the few info videos out there is 'Free to download'. As others have said, EA is a for profit company so there will be some device for obtaining revenue once said game is downloaded, either immediately or soon thereafter.

As logion has said, am not keen on the game being on a phone:
Phone processors are not nearly as powerful as PC ones
The screen is tiny so seeing anything will be difficult
Trying to do anything, even simple movement, will be challenging at best
Any attempts at playing are subject to interruptions from incoming calls and texts
If the programming is so simplified that even a phone can run it, what does that mean for computer users?

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