The Sims 4 and False Expectations

So, I've been hearing all this flack Sims 4 is getting about the whole direction EA is going with preventing the possibility of reviews before the game's release. I've also been seeing people linking lists about what will or will not be included, and how so many people are getting their tits in a twist over how Maxis--or whoever the fuck is developing this rendition--are not combining all their favourite things and wrapping them in brown paper and string to be delivered in the finished product.

HELLO?!

First of all, there is never a finished product when you're talking about Sims anything. And the reason for this is...

SALES! Everyone should be aware by now, when purchasing ANYTHING from Electronic Arts, that they are essentially signing a contract with the devil (a company who wants to sell you shit). Case in point, the Sims franchise.



Let's start with a personal story:

I started playing Sims 2 but never had the pleasure to experience Sims 1, so I can't compare these two products, but I spent a ridiculous amount of money on completing my collection of the Sims 2 game. Then, during my Sims 2 reverie, I found out that Sims 3 was in development and would be released pretty much RIGHT AFTER the last expansion to Sims 2. GREAT. At first I was upset, I may even have said a few unsavoury things about EA during this time, but I experienced a moment of epiphany in which I realized that EA is a company, like any other, and its objective is to keep selling me their products. I, as the consumer, can choose to purchase these products or not. Fabulous. Moving on.

I chose to purchase. I found out that Sims 3 base game had a few things packaged in it that didn't come in its predecessor, and some that did. You could plant stuff from the beginning, something you needed the Seasons expansion for in Sims 2. It also overhauled the way in neighbourhoods work, how sims gain rewards and behave, included a pattern editor for furniture and clothing so you didn't have to manually recolour 3D meshes (a major plus I felt in the beginning). And yes, pools *rolls eyes*.

However, big bucks still had to be spent on further official additions to your game, through stuff packs (surprise! surprise!) and eventually... The WEB STORE. I do hate the online store gimmick, but realize that EA are cashing in on some major moola and have caught on to the digital micro purchasing system many Freemium MMOs have implemented in their cash-sucking schemes. Essentially, the money spending feature didn't go away, if anything EA became more vicious with its marketing.

Now let me go over some of the major things people are up in arms over that I know will not be included in Sims 4, according to developer videos I've watched, and compare these to its predecessor Sims 3.

One, neighbourhoods will no longer be open-world in Sims 4 as they were in Sims 3. YES. Here's why I like the regression of this feature, and I emphasize regression here because I think this is actually a step forward. Sims 3 brought with it huge maps that your sims could simply (haha) wander around in unhindered, which is awesome in theory and looked amazing, but this also caused major slowdown due to sim pathing issues and a plethora of scripting errors with vehicles and townie electronics that almost required you to download third party script cleaners to keep your game running as smoothly as possible. BAD.

Two, story progression will not be a part of Sims 4 as it was in Sims 3, it will work differently and to a less prevalent degree. To me, honestly, story progression wasn't that big of a deal and I don't care that it won't be in this rendition as it was in Sims 3. This feature ties in with the neighbourhood changes and how they will be smaller, and more similar to Sims 2. But, to explain this to people not familiar with the mechanic, story progression basically allowed people in your town to repopulate, get married, get jobs, grow old, die, be born, etc. This works for an open-world mechanic, but in a smaller compartmentalized game, is pretty moot.

This feature was also amazing in theory, but caused huge issues with script errors related to aging and whatnot. Not necessarily bad, but not developed in a way to ensure the game's stability. There are differences with how this will work in Sims 4 (sims won't autonomously form relationships or create babbies unless directed), but there will be more control in your hands it seems, which I am totally cool with.

Three, create-a-pattern and the colour wheel, which allowed you to pick from swatches of custom and prepackaged pattern options and colours and to apply them to specific elements be they furniture, walls, floors and/or clothing, will not be included in this rendition. I was and sort of remain on the fence with this, but have to say that it has its pros and cons. The mechanic had a tendency to get bloated and out of control, and often I would pick a predefined swatch of colour just to make the process faster for myself, but at the same time customizing things completely so that they could match as a set was a good thing.

Four, POOLS WILL NOT BE IN THE BASE GAME OH MY GOD I HAVE BEEN ROBBED. My simplest answer to this is, I can think of ONE time I deliberately had my sims swim in any pools in Sims 3, and they were a mermaid who needed to do this or become a dried out old husk. As mermaids will not be packaged in the Sims 4 base game, I think it's safe to assume that the need for a pool is pretty negligible. The point is, it's not that big of a minus when comparing the pluses.

However, let's not forget that there's a wealth of things that will be included, which you previously had to cheat to enable a poorer imitation of in both Sims 2 and Sims 3. Sims 4 introduces adjustable foundation heights, adjustable wall heights, adjustable window placement, adjustable roof dimensions, among other amazing building tool improvements that were not previously available in an official capacity, nor as flexible and fluid as they seem to be for this version.

As far as the sims themselves go, I will be able to give my sims different walk animation types between each other so they don't all look like the same zombie, which I believe was a passive thing that your sim acquired randomly in Sims 2. New behaviour animations are included for me to customize how my sim interacts with others, also a great thing to separate one sims from another, which I could only really do through conversation options in previous titles. Improved body customization and body sizes will be implemented, this really doesn't need to be explained, but Sims 3 only began to touch upon body differences from sim to sim, so more development in this area is, to me, crucial and awesome.

Ah, but then people begin to complain that developers are taking features out that SHOULD be in the game.

Here's the beef. No, several mechanics are not going to be around, and a lot of them (like pools) for very specific reasons the developers have already commented on. I think what they're doing here is actually learning from past mistakes (WOW, really?!), or poor design choices implemented in past titles, and improving upon what is included to reduce the possibility of encountering the same errors over and over again. And one of the reasons they do this is to ensure the game runs smoothly on a wider range of computers, which also ties in with (look above) SALES!

All in all, I think the developers are stripping out things that obviously caused major headaches, to both customer and publisher in the past, and are minimizing the chances of erroneous game behaviour by combining features from previous versions of the game. They know what works and what doesn't by now, and hopefully will create an experience that runs smoothly and plays like a dream.

As for the reviews thing, I honestly couldn't give half a fuck. I have already preordered Sims 4, because I have come to know what to expect from the developer and the publisher of this game, unlike many of the supposed fans of the franchise whining and complaining about something they should already be familiar with. I am fully aware that EA, like many other game developers and publishers, often pushes unfinished games out, and I am pretty certain that Sims 4 will be no exception. I am expecting bugs and limited features until they can get the money mill churning, but that's just a hallmark of this franchise and I am fully aware of that going into this devil's contract signing.