Insimenator.org

I took my sims on vacation to what the game describes as the Far East.  The decor is all Asian, and we have tea ceremonies, tai chi, zen gardens, and so on.  Clearly, we're supposed to be in Asia.*

Then we have the people who inhabit the place, who seem to be the usual assortment of townies (not the SAME townies, but the usual variety of types).  There are just not this many blondes and redheads in Asia!  It looks really weird to see all these blonde, blue-eyed people running around in kimonos.  If Maxis was going to make an Asian locale, WHY didn't they make some Asian people to go with it?

I've been using Christianlov's hacked clothes rack to bring the townies in and at least give them straight black hair.  But there are still an awful lot of blue-eyed Asians and African-skinned Asians running around.  I find that it really undermines the whole feel of the Asian locale!


*What's in the version of this EP that's being sold in Asia?  Did EA make a different third locale for them, or are they being sold a vacation at home?

a) It looks more Japanese to me. And NO Chinese and Japanese is NOT the same thing.
b) Well, we don't now why the people from EA Games did that. But I agree; it is annoying.

It seems really rude to me to assume that your fellow members of Insimenator so stupid that we don't know that China and Japan are different countries.  

I've never been to either one, myself, so my knowledge of Asian culture comes mostly from Boston's Chinatown -- not exactly the best possible source. :-)

It's a hodgepodge of Asian culture.  For example, Tai Chi and Majong are Chinese while Zen and the tea ceremony are Japanese... not that EA would ever know the difference.  Therefore I can't say I'm particularly surprised that the so-called locals look no different from any other townies in Sims 2.

I'm also from the Boston area though I've never spent any significant amount of time in its Chinatown.

Note to self: as soon as SimPE is updated and one is in possession of BV, go extracting all the Eastern townies, make them over and Sim-surgerise them all ;)

I was weirded out by the same thing. I mean at least be consistent. BTW how do you get to the yoga and ta chi. I have been trying to get to do those. I had a thought is it like the hula dance and you just have to catch them doing it. If so what a good lot to do that?

Please note that EA Maxis made this game, they put the content in, and EA Maxis uses the same group of people to make all The Sims 2 content. Do not attack EA as the publisher, the one who distributes funds and require milestones for the developer.

For Hula dancing, where ever there is a speaker, someone will eventually dance. Yoga was always available as an option before Bon Voyage, Tai Chi is randomly done in East Asian lots, and your Sims will Tai Chi more than they pillow fight, which is greater than they play hackey sack in Open For Buisness

But it is the person that controls the purse strings that puts unreasonable demands on the development team.  The purse says, this is what I want.  DT says it takes X amount of time.  The purse says, that's too much you have Y time.  DT says, I can do it in Y, but I can't do everything.  What do you want left out.  Purse says I want it all.  BTW, budget was just cut.  Get rid of non-essential people.  DT says, sorry testers, you're cut by 75%.  Designers, you're cut by 50%.  Developers you get one more body so we can meet the deadline.

As a Developer, System Designer and later as a Test Manager, I've had many discussions with Project Managers and Clients on this very scenario.  Bottom line is the purse gets what he wants.  The client weighs the pros and cons, and eventually makes the decision.  The decision usually falls on the side of sales and profits.  It's not unusual for salaried members of the development team to work 80 or 100 hours a week to meet deadlines.  But someone on the client side decided a new EP every 3 months and won't change that criteria.

^^Also what he said. :D

I think game developers in general somtimes bomb rush through things a little bit too quick for the green. For those like me really look at the visual aspects and details, especially if you fork over the mula. They were going for a concept which involved asian influences, yet Maxis has a trademark for always filling half a glass. Not only did they try to show some cultural influences on the concept but they failed on one of the important things they feel we wont notice. Also, if they put enough time and half the effort into BV, at least they could have did somthing important with the town fuglies.

Going right along with the Asian looking sims that are missing, where are the Polynesians?  And then there's the rough, scruffy looking lumberjacks, those people are all too clean cut in the mountains!

How the sims in these 3 vacation 'hoods look doesn't bother me as much as knowing that when townies and dormies are created in game, they could easily come up wearing ninja, charlatan, or hiking clothes.  Jordi's made some great hiders for everything before BV, but this one will be difficult.   You want those clothes in vacation spots, but not in the other neighborhoods.

All the way around, simmers who are particular about the consistencies of appearances of townies and NPCs will have much more work ahead of them to ensure that consistency remains.

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's naive.  Maxis does not get to do things the way THEY want; they get to do things the way the people with the money want.

Isn't that exactly what he/she said wth the purse thing?

That's why this is a response to Vpyroman2, not to AncientHighway.  See the quote?  I'm agreeing with AncientHighway.

Thank you Ancient for the insight on your work and what your co-workers go thru.  I have been naive about the development side of this game. I do not really play for realism, because I took things "for granted" this is the way the game should go.  I agree, it would be nice if the game was realistic with the facial construction of each vacation area, but I thought that would be impossible to accomplish.  See, I am one of the dense ones to the computer world. Heck, I just learned how to use the Bold, Italic, Underline, clicks here. I love to read comments, such as ancienthighway's, I gain enlightenment.

I thought those people were fellow tourists, which would explain why they don't look like they belong there.

 
 
look here now we aint all scruffy aound these parts. Some of us do clean up from time to time. * goes off to braid her leg hair*
 
 
and y'all need to simmer down, as AncientHighway has said in another post " IT IS JUST A GAME"

nova-storm  :  :laughing:


the townies wearing kimonos are locals, you can learn to bow from them!:)

The Sim far east is part of the Sim universe that doesn't have any strong ethnicity nor any history of racial isolation.  Everybody talks the same language and uses the same currency, so the vacation resort is an equal opportunity employer in regards to complexion etc.  Sim society is still prejudiced about age, though, so some jobs are only held by teens while others are adults or elders, and only young adults can go to college.

I wonder if Maxis will take advantage of all the new graphic technology when it comes ot the Sims 3.  Some of these next gen games have facial textures that are just totally trippy.  Maxis could so easily take the sims in a much more realistic direction because of the next gen video cards.  But then again, maybe it's best if they don't.  I can just see it now, they release Sims 3 and try to do the race thing right.. then a few groups lash out at them claiming the game stereotypes asians or blacks or romanians or what have you.

Then again.. I don't even want to think of Sims 3.  

I'm quite content with 2..

Since someone did bring up Sims 3, you know what I would like to see? A Sim be able to rock the baby to sleep or hold the baby while sitting on the sofa. Now THAT would be cool. I wouldn't mind more realism. For example, I wouldn't mind if my Sim was able to put their kid in a car seat and actually go somewhere. That would be rather cool. I am grateful for what we have of the Sims 2, but there is so much more they could have done with today's technology.

I say we contact EA with our desires. We might get somewhere if enough people express themselves.

If you want to make your locals look more local, Argon over at MATY has cooked up this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=9684.0) fix for us :D Also over there, people are coming up with experimental clean neighbourhood templates ^_^

I am laughing at the frustration at not having more Asian looking people in Tikamizu. Be careful what you wish for; if Maxis opted for more ethnicity think how ugly the results would be. Do we need to insult Asians? Leave them be!

perhaps they did not want to promote racisim in the game? That's the only reason i can think of when it comes to why sims "far east" do not look like asian.

You have a point there. :rofl:

It's very obvious that they didn't spend the minimum time to make them look like actual locals at least. Is it that hard just to set their hair colors all black and let them have black eyes? (I'm from South Korea, and I know for sure it would be very different even by only doing that)  It surely looks like they are just generated randomly as same as other townies from neighborhood. (same faces with random hairs just added new BV facial hair) The funny thing is the BV box from our country shows the screenshot in where you can see some asian Sims with black hair drinking a tea.

I look at it this way, if you go to Japan not all the locals are Japanese. Nor do they all look Japanese. Just as if you go to China not all the locals are Chinese. In the USA not all locals look European. The entire world is diverse and with the internet it has grown in it's diversity. I lived in China Town here in CA and I am not Asian in the least. Why stereotype people? And say all Asians have to look this way, all African American's have to look that way. All Europeans have to look this way. I think all the communities should be filled with people of all races. It's one of the things I love most about the USA. The fact that we have people from all walks of life so we get to enjoy cultures from around the world. In food, traditions, etc...If you want the townies to all look Asian though you can do a townie make-over. SimPE has been updated to include BV, H&M and the Teen pack.