TS4's Lack of Toddlers and EA's response...
Damage control is always interesting to watch. Sometimes it works well, other times not so much. We will have to see how EA’s attempts at damage control work out for them. Personally, I think they seriously underestimated how cutting key elements out of the game would tick folks off and I hate to say it, because it makes me seem rather mean spirited, but I can’t help but enjoy watching them get roasted by the fan comments and blogs. I feel for the Sims team, because they are just trying to keep their jobs, but am pleased to watch EA get smacked around. What can I say…I think they deserve it. I love the Sims, but not EA Games. I am not a fan of arrogance and that is something that EA seems to have in abundance. EA seems to think that they can get away with anything and Simmers will still pay, and sadly they got this way because people have done just that, over and over again. We complain about their mistakes, often and loudly, but because we love our little pixel people Simmers as a whole continue to pay for the Sims games and new store content as fast as EA can release it. It really isn’t any wonder they think they can get away with murder.
So the no toddlers and no pools thing has turned into a big deal with some Sims Players (myself included) and as such is turning into a big headache for EA. Blog postings ripping at EA’s mismanagement of the project, on Tumblr there is a “Toddlers and Pools” recognition month movement going on, and there are petitions to delay the game and/or to put the tots and pools back into the base game that have popped up in a few spots and have a decent number of signatures. Obviously not enough to make them really delay the game, but apparently enough that they realize for every single person that has signed the petitions, that there are a whole lot more who are dissatisfied and now feeling like they might just keep their money instead of handing it over to EA in September.
So today we got this response from EA-
http://www.thesims.com/news/whats-out-and-whats-in
"We’re less than 60 days out from the launch of The Sims™ 4, and I have so much I want to talk about. But let me start with a bit more about the decision we made not to include pools and toddlers in The Sims 4, as we’ve seen some of you have concerns about this.”
I guess saying that some of us “have concerns" sounds better than saying "are mad as hell and threatening to boycott the game”.
"The fact is, we owe you a clearer explanation for why pools and toddlers will not be in The Sims 4 at launch, so here goes. It begins with new technology and systems that we built for this new base game for The Sims - a new AI system, new animation system, new audio positioning tools, new locomotion logic, new routing intelligence and much more are all entirely new in this game. The vision for The Sims 4 is a new experience that brings your Sims to life in deeper and uniquely personal ways - through emotions, personality traits, behaviors and interactions. To do that, our technology base needed a major upgrade.
So the bottom line is that when we sat down and looked at everything we wanted to do for this game, all the new tech we wanted to build into it, the fact was that there would be trade-offs, and these would disappoint some of our fans. Hard pill to swallow, believe me, but delivering on the vision set out for The Sims 4 required focus. Focus on revolutionizing the Sims themselves. So, rather than include toddlers, we chose to go deeper on the features that make Sims come alive: meaningful and often amusing emotions; more believable motion and interactions; more tools in Create A Sim, and more realistic (and sometimes weird!) Sim behavior. Instead of pools, we chose to develop key new features in Build Mode: direct manipulation, building a house room-by-room and being able to exchange your custom rooms easily, to make the immediate environment even more relatable and interactive for your Sim.”
While I completely appreciate the improvements to CAS and in pathing, interactions and multi-tasking with the sims in world, I have to wonder if I am the only person who is really tired of hearing about how the sims will have these zany emotions and weird behavior? I like the concept of emotions, but honestly I don’t want super extreme emotional responses in my sims- no crying because they listened to sad music, no steam coming out of their ears because they are mad, no dying of laughter or embarrassment- and as for the weird sim behavior aspect- Did they poll folks and a fringe group managed to make it sound like weird, bizarre behavior was the way to go? Because it seems to me that people have been pretty content with how not weird or bizarre their sims were in TS2 and TS3. People have actively used mods to kill a lot of Maxis behaviors for years- that says to me they don’t like the zany or weird all that much even when it wasn’t what EA considered extreme. I mean, I’ve actually seen people who complained about how weird the insane sims were in TS3! I’d much rather have toddlers than bizarre sims running around acting goofy.
"But now the upshot: The Sims 4 is a completely new game, and it feels different to play. You’ll notice the new technology base the first time you play.
I’ll give you one example that continually jumps out at me as we talk about how to make The Sims 4 feel uniquely personal to you, our players. I mentioned Create A Sim - which, to me, is still one of the single most impactful features of the entire game. Not only is it hilariously entertaining, now you’re building in real personality. In The Sims 4, there are seven unique walk styles that you can choose from to help your Sims express themselves. To make those walk styles come to life, we had to create around 75 distinct animations.And it doesn’t stop there. Every emotion in The Sims 4 comes with a visible reaction or even another special walk style. No more looking at the UI to figure out how your Sims are feeling - just look at their faces, posture, movements. That’s where you’ll see about 320 new emotion-based animations, as well as over 600 reactions to objects.”
“Seven unique walk styles"… Um, big woop! I’ve seen the demos of them and am pretty dang sure I wouldn’t use them.They have a very "It was cute/funny/amusing to watch for the first 10 minutes, but then it started to bug the crap out of me" kind of feel to them, I honestly can not see myself using them- heck, I killed the lazy walk that lazy sims and all the YA sims in the Sim 2 have with a hack years ago because it bugged me so much.
“320 new emotion-based animations, as well as over 600 reactions to objects”- And we are back to the extreme emotional responses and zany, weird behaviors! I can’t help but wonder how many of those animations and reactions are extremely cartoony and hammed up? How weird? Guess what EA? I would have vastly prefered those 75 distinct animations you dedicated to “walk styles” were toddler animations. Maybe instead of 320 new emotion based animations and 600 reactions, many that I can guarentee are the kind of biazarre stuff than many of us use anti-annoyance types of hacks to kill in both TS2 and TS3- that number should have been pared down and some of the time you spent on it given over to making sure that all the life stages were included.
"There’s so much more depth in The Sims 4. For the first time, the Sims act like real people. They can interact with groups, not just one-to-one. A standing Sim can talk with a sitting Sim. They can multi-task (eating, watching TV and talking? Sounds like my typical evening!). You can even put a hat on any hairstyle or pair boots with any pants… well, maybe that’s just me that cares about that.
That’s the thing about The Sims 4, though - you do care about things like that. Because you can now. Emotions touch every single system in our game, and every single experience you have inside it. Multi-tasking completely changes how your Sims go through their day and interact with the world around them. The new Create A Sim and Build Mode tools completely changed the way we think about creating Sims and homes.
But let us show you this instead of just talking about it: The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo will be available later this summer for absolutely everyone to play. We are currently rolling out an early trial experience and invitations are going out very soon to a limited number of fans to help us test it. After that, you’ll all get your hands on it and see firsthand the depth, personality and emotion that are part of your new Sims.
And another thing - we were thrilled that more than 1200 people came through our E3 demo room last month to see The Sims 4 in action, but we want all of you to see it as well. We’ll be releasing over 15 minutes of in-game Live Mode footage (with complete UI) in the next two weeks. We can’t wait to hear what you think.”
So from the entire development team here at The Sims Studio, thank you for your feedback and support. Our hearts are being poured into every line of code, every single piece of art, and every single Sim that is created. We’re building a brand new Sims experience with a foundation we can build on and evolve based on your feedback. We think you’re going to love playing with life all over again.”
”Let us show you this instead of just talking about it:” Hmmmm… A free CAS demo. 15 minutes of real game play available to view. IE- Damage control at work. It will be interesting to see if it helps. I really think that it is just like throwing a band-aid on top of a bullet wound, but who knows. Maybe we will all be so wowed by the wonders of CAS and new walk styles that we’ll forgive them and throw our wallets open en mass.
I kind of doubt it though.