Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new series here on SimsCommunity! This is ‘Our Opinion’ and it’s pretty much what it sounds like, as writers on here we don’t often get to express our opinions on big announcements, so this is aimed at changing that. Please note while this article is based off the opinions and views of some of the staff it is not a reflection of the whole team.
I’m sure most people reading this will be aware that the quarterly teaser for July, August and September was released a couple of days ago and it was met with critisism, a lot of people were upset because there was only one pack shown in the teaser.
SnarkyWitch – When I was in university, The Sims 3 was the most current game and I always found myself scrambling for money to purchase the new packs for it during the school year because there were so many other things I had to pay for like rent and groceries and tuition fees and school books. Then when summer rolled around and I stayed with my parents and no longer had to pay for all those things, there were no packs to buy!
The team felt the same way, most of us agree it isn’t fantastic that we’re only getting one pack over summer and honestly we felt it didn’t make sense. The Sims series is aimed at children and teenagers and while a whole array of people do play a huge chunk have the whole summer away from school/college. We thought that generally most have more money through summer jobs and not having to spend as much day-to-day so we couldn’t understand why the Guru’s wouldn’t take advantage of this, releasing more packs than during other months.
This isn’t a surprise though, if history is anything to go by packs don’t often get released during summer. During the 17 years since The Sims was released there has only been 8 packs released during July and August, although with all the leaks and spoilers recently hopefully after this quarter the news might be a bit more exciting.
Krista – I’m actually pretty excited for this pack. It’s nice to see a pack aimed at toddlers although I really do hope there is more than just this pack this quater.
It isn’t all bad though, we all mutually agree’d that the toddler pack teased in the quarterly teaser looked awesome, with the lack of toddler items and clothing it’s definitely a welcomed addition and we all can’t wait for the release, as well as more onesies for our toddlers! Although we are excited, we can’t help but think that it’s going to be a long summer.
Let us know what you thought about the quarterly teaser and the new toddler stuff pack coming out soon!
Unlike the consensus of Awesome, the game is dumming down… fitness, toddlers stuff,,, if you don’t get this, whatever, it is now becoming a simcity project
I’m hoping that because there is only one pack this quarter, it means we’ll be getting some sort of substantial update sometime in the next few months to make up for it. As I’ve only been playing the Sims for a year now, I’m not sure if this is something that has happened in the past before or is likely to happen at all, but I can dream…
I’m not at all sad that there is only one pack this quarter. I’m happy for any new content the game gets. 🙂 I’m hoping for maybe the team will have a challenge planned for fans during the summer 🙂
The game just doesn’t have enough content. It’s frustrating that the general consensus seems to be ‘I’m grateful for whatever I get’ because this isn’t a gift from a friend. This is a product I am paying for. I should be able to expect things like a constant introduction of new, unique and immersive gameplay. This isn’t some resourceless indie game company. This is EA. It is a company that produces billions of dollars of revenue, and we play a not-small part in that. You can be sure that whatever reason we’re not getting as much content as we did with Sims 3, it’s because EA is trying to milk their playerbase for more money. I am tired of them getting a pass on releasing rushed, incomplete content. They did this with Mass Effect: Andromeda, and they’ve been doing it with Sims 4.
I am NOT happy with this toddler pack. It is entirely insufficient, considering how few expansion packs we have, considering the fact that we’ve been playing this game for four years and we’re still playing with: permasummer, no university, no pets.
Until EA fills in the gaping holes in this game with something substantial, interactive and that adds a significant amount of gameplay depth, I cannot condone anything they’re making, because it’s just not enough, and it oftentimes does not answer a problems the game already has. (What gameplay problem was solved by the introduction of a rockwall treadmill? What depth was added by bowling?) The game suffers from being boring, easily solvable, and having basically no ability to be replayed over and over again… meaning no gameplay hours. It suffers from a lack of depth. All these endless stuff packs do is add decor. They do nothing to add depth or replayability to the game.
The game is boring, unimmersive, uninteractive, and, I know I’ve said this a lot, but it lacks depth. Meaning, the choices you make to solve the problems in your game have no effect on the gameplay itself. Parenthood was a good deviation from this, but does that mean we have to wait a year in between releases to add SOMEthing to make the game worth actually PLAYING? Toddler Stuff does not do that! Neither did Bowling! Or Fitness! And, again, I would be grateful and happy to receive these packs if they also came with an appropriate number of Game Packs and Expansion Packs, but they don’t. They seem to come in lieu of those packs, and so I can’t really feel anything but resentful toward EA for basically forgetting about Sims 4.
Agreed. If this was a gamepack or we still had 2 expansions per year, then I wouldn’t be so mad. But as it is now, this makes me fume at the mouth. Especially since the last 2 stuff packs have been downright awful. Seriously, a fitness stuff pack with no exercise bike? Oh, it’s too much work to add to a SP? Well, screw you EA, I say the piddly content you offer in SP isn’t the worth the money either.
Seriously, what is going on with the lack of content in TS4? I’ve been with this franchise for 13 years and we’ve always had 2 expansion packs per year. Sometimes more with TS3. And we had console ports and spin-offs, not to mention the store for TS3. Now we get nothing…no ports, no spin-offs, one piddly expansion pack per year. WTH?
And the expansion packs we do get are extremely lacking. Remember when we used to get bowling, vampires and butlers as parts of expansions (TS2 Nightlife even had both bowling and vampires, and TS3 Late Night had both butlers and vampires). Not anymore we don’t. We have to cough up an extra 40$ if we want that stuff now, the price of a whole EP by itself! Because City living was soooo bursting at the seams with content, they couldn’t possibly include it in that pack. What with its lack of real elevators, no customizable apartments and small development time of a year, there was no room for that stuff!
Seriously, what is going on? Either they screwed themselves when making the framework for this game (since it was originally an online game, I doubt they planned for huge addons like EPs), or EA just wants to make as much money with as little effort as possible. At the rate we’re going, it’ll take an extra 3 years to get to TS5, and who knows if we’ll even have all the basic features like Seasons, pets and University by then. But EA will still make a bunch of easy money but putting out stuff packs every 3 months to the starved Sims fanbase.
Either way, I’m very resentful towards them myself.
I’m not at all sad that there is only one pack this quarter. I’m happy for any new content the game gets. 🙂 I’m hoping for maybe the team will have a challenge planned for fans during the summer 🙂
I’m hoping that because there is only one pack this quarter, it means we’ll be getting some sort of substantial update sometime in the next few months to make up for it. As I’ve only been playing the Sims for a year now, I’m not sure if this is something that has happened in the past before or is likely to happen at all, but I can dream…
Unlike the consensus of Awesome, the game is dumming down… fitness, toddlers stuff,,, if you don’t get this, whatever, it is now becoming a simcity project
The game just doesn’t have enough content. It’s frustrating that the general consensus seems to be ‘I’m grateful for whatever I get’ because this isn’t a gift from a friend. This is a product I am paying for. I should be able to expect things like a constant introduction of new, unique and immersive gameplay. This isn’t some resourceless indie game company. This is EA. It is a company that produces billions of dollars of revenue, and we play a not-small part in that. You can be sure that whatever reason we’re not getting as much content as we did with Sims 3, it’s because EA is trying to milk their playerbase for more money. I am tired of them getting a pass on releasing rushed, incomplete content. They did this with Mass Effect: Andromeda, and they’ve been doing it with Sims 4.
I am NOT happy with this toddler pack. It is entirely insufficient, considering how few expansion packs we have, considering the fact that we’ve been playing this game for four years and we’re still playing with: permasummer, no university, no pets.
Until EA fills in the gaping holes in this game with something substantial, interactive and that adds a significant amount of gameplay depth, I cannot condone anything they’re making, because it’s just not enough, and it oftentimes does not answer a problems the game already has. (What gameplay problem was solved by the introduction of a rockwall treadmill? What depth was added by bowling?) The game suffers from being boring, easily solvable, and having basically no ability to be replayed over and over again… meaning no gameplay hours. It suffers from a lack of depth. All these endless stuff packs do is add decor. They do nothing to add depth or replayability to the game.
The game is boring, unimmersive, uninteractive, and, I know I’ve said this a lot, but it lacks depth. Meaning, the choices you make to solve the problems in your game have no effect on the gameplay itself. Parenthood was a good deviation from this, but does that mean we have to wait a year in between releases to add SOMEthing to make the game worth actually PLAYING? Toddler Stuff does not do that! Neither did Bowling! Or Fitness! And, again, I would be grateful and happy to receive these packs if they also came with an appropriate number of Game Packs and Expansion Packs, but they don’t. They seem to come in lieu of those packs, and so I can’t really feel anything but resentful toward EA for basically forgetting about Sims 4.
Agreed. If this was a gamepack or we still had 2 expansions per year, then I wouldn’t be so mad. But as it is now, this makes me fume at the mouth. Especially since the last 2 stuff packs have been downright awful. Seriously, a fitness stuff pack with no exercise bike? Oh, it’s too much work to add to a SP? Well, screw you EA, I say the piddly content you offer in SP isn’t the worth the money either.
Seriously, what is going on with the lack of content in TS4? I’ve been with this franchise for 13 years and we’ve always had 2 expansion packs per year. Sometimes more with TS3. And we had console ports and spin-offs, not to mention the store for TS3. Now we get nothing…no ports, no spin-offs, one piddly expansion pack per year. WTH?
And the expansion packs we do get are extremely lacking. Remember when we used to get bowling, vampires and butlers as parts of expansions (TS2 Nightlife even had both bowling and vampires, and TS3 Late Night had both butlers and vampires). Not anymore we don’t. We have to cough up an extra 40$ if we want that stuff now, the price of a whole EP by itself! Because City living was soooo bursting at the seams with content, they couldn’t possibly include it in that pack. What with its lack of real elevators, no customizable apartments and small development time of a year, there was no room for that stuff!
Seriously, what is going on? Either they screwed themselves when making the framework for this game (since it was originally an online game, I doubt they planned for huge addons like EPs), or EA just wants to make as much money with as little effort as possible. At the rate we’re going, it’ll take an extra 3 years to get to TS5, and who knows if we’ll even have all the basic features like Seasons, pets and University by then. But EA will still make a bunch of easy money but putting out stuff packs every 3 months to the starved Sims fanbase.
Either way, I’m very resentful towards them myself.