should the following thread be sent to ea/maxi developpers of the sims3

[Pierre]

hello

http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=23780g

should the following thread be sent to eagames/maxi

don't be shy to cast your votes

[bear5000]

frankly I don't want a sims 3, I'm tired of all the bugs with the sims 2 so much so that I probably won't be buying anymore packs, it's getting really old.

[boeketjebloemen]

frankly I don't want a sims 3, I'm tired of all the bugs with the sims 2 so much so that I probably won't be buying anymore packs, it's getting really old.

Completely agree.
Besides, it's not like they'll listen...

[BeosBoxBoy]

The days of believing EA listens to us, likes us, and wants to make us happy have long ago ended for me and many others.  I think they have more than proved that the see us only as cattle and a pool of cash to be drained.  Their entire performance during the TS2 series more than adequately substantiates any accusation of perfidy and mendaciousness.

I am not alone in this sentiment, indeed every day more long-time Simmers are coming to realise the past three years have not been "all that".  The euphoria has given way to a cold realisation that 99% of the euphoria was wishful thinking, and in its stead arrives a chilling realisation we have been lied to, robbed, and betrayed.

So, sending anything like this to the developers at EA will not achieve anything, they only wish to serve their profit line by the cheapest means possible, which in the cold-hearted reality of the financial world, is all they will ever do.  When they were developing The Sims (original) they were shocked at its success and were not able to use a formula since no game had ever been so successful or demanded so many expansions before.  Now they have a formula and a business plan, the creative spark is gone and we are left with a trope of lawyers, underhanded salesmen, and money-grubbing republicans calling the shots.

[Tenshii~Akari]

... They'd listen to us, just like they listened to all of the people who had plenty of negative things to say about what SecuRom did to their PCs... then claim that it wasn't the cause of the problems, when clearly it was for many.  :roll:  I'm with everyone else in saying it's useless to reason with the big-wig now... they just want our cash, not our ideas.  :?

BUT... I do still have some wishful thinking in the matter that if they were to get it together and 'fix what's broken' company wise, it'd be worth a shot.  (But with the way some of their patches and codes work, I wouldn't trust the current staff to do that.  :lol:)  I'm not keeping that option open unless there's change for the better in the future, but with the way things are going... :dontknow:

[Pierre]

you never know what might appen they might ask test gamers what they would like to see in the game sims3 and i read on the site sims2 valley that ea maxi will release a new simcity game in the same year that they will relase the sims3

[MaryH]

Think of the entire franchise as the goose that laid the golden egg. It seems to just lay out money like crazy-they don't even have to work at it, for god's sake, and it makes money! How can they resist making the Sims 3 when they know beyond the shadow of a doubt that there'll be millions of ardent fans eagerly awaiting the Sims 3, never mind the boo-boos in Sims 2-that was just a glitch.
They pay test gamers to test the games. They don't really do anything more beyond making band-aid style corrections-hoping that the really big problems will only occur after they've made their millions. Then they will reluctantly release patches and apologize..sort of.
No. Until they change their modus operandi, there will be a lot of people who will not touch the Sims 3 until they have solved their attitude towards the really smart fanbase, which says that their games suck hard in coding.
I won't buy it until they do this, and I won't even buy any expansions until they shape up. They've had the last of my money for a while. I've got a game that works, and without any problems-but that is not due to them, it is due to my "tech support" and I being very careful to not push the envelope in hardware and software.
I can't afford their mistakes.

[Pierre]

why was the sims1 so popular?
1- is it because the sims1 as more expansion pack or because they rerealise the basegame combine with the first expansion pack

2-is it because the gamer could tell the sims what to do

this we will never know

[billyd1000]

I would feel more like hearing about the Sims 3 if the Sims 2 was the greatest game ever. Damn thing is it should have, could have been. I can even live with some of the stupidity, (some is funny as hell!), but there is no such thing as customer service at EAxis, nor do they even understand the game they made. I honestly do not think any engineer, technician or QC (?) people know what building up a town from scratch, or developing 10 to 15 generations entails. I wish that they would fix the Sims 2 first. Then we can say: :let us see what new ideas you have...But I for one will not be on the band wagon to load up the hard drive with Sims 3.

[BeosBoxBoy]

Pierreandreply4, actually it is well know why the original The Sims was so popular: The Sims presented to the world for the first time a game that was fully capable of being customised by the addition of user-made content without need of especial programming or technical knowledge; it was emotional satisfying for a wider audience through the ability to add a seemingly endless variety of modifications and animations; and more especially was not a goals-oriented game with a "win" solution, but followed a more challenging theory of "staying in play" as the goal.

All other games rely on the achievement of specific goals or targets, the defeat of enemies (usually through combat), the amassing of points, or the achievement of some end-game scenario.  The Sims was a success not by design, but by accident.  It had almost nothing to do with the developers and game designers, but rather we as the Simming community grabbed hold and made the game as we wanted it as individuals and as groups.

EA has demonstrated their inability to grasp the appeal of The Sims with the release of goal-oriented versions of The Sims 2 in their Stories series and most particularly in the OFB and BV expansion packs.  This betrays their complete misapprehension of what it is we want.

There simply was no competition; since no other game yet made has offered the same flexibility to be used as a platform for us to build a game as we want it.  Not even The Sims 2 has offered us this.  The people who played and yet play The Sims are not typical of the game-buying market; and frankly EA still doesn't understand us or what we want; they probably never will.  They simply aim to repeat the success.

EA has a mind-set, that mind-set has availed them much in the area where it is best applied: combat and sports games; they have attempted to do other sorts of games with remarkable failure.  Even their strategy games have been of limited success.  A close review of their product history will easily reveal these facts.  So it was a great surprise to the original developer Will Wright as well as EA's management that The Sims became the success it did.  The success was not by design, they patently expected it to be a flop.

The guys at Maxis/EA only had to hang on and ride the run-away train into wealth and success.

With The Sims 2, they have deliberately placed obstacles in the path of the learning curve to delay the development of all forms of custom content, animations and mods; continually making unnecessary changes that complicate the development of tools like SimPE.  I have 14 years 3D CAD experience and I can tell you with certainty that EA used the stupidest and most complicated means to achieve almost everything visual in this game, adding unnecessary data at every level to complicate everything.

What we want is a canvas to make our own, what EA wants if a larger cut of the action.  I have every confidence that the problems that have beset the development of custom content since day one of The Sims 2 will be 100-fold in The Sims 3.

This may not be an issue for all players, but I will point out you are asking on a forum that was specifically created to host InSIMenator, the most complicated and most well developed and most regularly update game modification in the history of computer games, so you are definitely asking the question of a biased audience.  If you want an answer that is different from mine, I would suggest you ask on the BBS, where everyone seems to spend most of their energy kissing EA's collective arse and like the game exactly as it is shipped.

We here at InSIM are the guys that say EA sucks and lacks the creativity and understanding to make this game the way we want it, otherwise this forum would not even exist.

[Pierre]

i understand tank you

[BeosBoxBoy]

Pierreandreply4 - you aren't off base in wanting EA to listen to us; I fear the problem is that they don't understand since what we say doesn't fit their pre-formed ideas of what makes a game successful.  It's like Mr Tolkien said of his Lord of the Rings, he didn't write it as a writer since he never was one, and truthfully the appeal and success of Lord of the Rings comes from that very fact.

The management at EA wants "safe" games with predictable success; sadly, they are not alone in this mind-set.  "The Movies" was game that was gaining ground and looked to overtake The Sims 2 for sales until the software company got scared by all the mods and imposed a moratorium on all mods. Rather efficiently killing the game.

So this is an industry-wide problem, EA only happens to be the biggest in the industry (largely due to the accidental success of The Sims) and therefore the one most prone to this corporate mind-set.

[MaryH]

I have another take on the game: for the first time in gaming history the gamers did not have to kill people or punch people out, lay entire cities to waste and generally destroy the entire world to meet a goal. It isn't a body count style of game, and I fear that EAxis has turned their mindset into that kind of thinking-that it has an "end-game" within itself, and therefore they're not looking to expand their minds to what we want, but what they want-which is a controlled experience in a game. I don't think they understand the entire motive of the Sims game themselves, just befuddled on how to make more money.
I'm sure they're as puzzled as all get out to understand what makes most Sim players tick-it is the basic idea that this game is not one of violence or destruction, but of growth and an expanding universe, where anything is possible. It is a living game, not a death game, where players create their innermost ideals of people and their lives, and  play out their alter egos in a structured way.
Will Wright was the genius behind the Sims idea. Sadly, he has abandoned any role in the game development except for his name being used for streets. I'm sure he's probably pretty pissed at what has happened to the series by the mistakes of the EAxis, which he had no hand in.
Perhaps they should rehire him to put them back on track-he understood better than any of them what it is all about.

[Pierre]

I have another take on the game: for the first time in gaming history the gamers did not have to kill people or punch people out, lay entire cities to waste and generally destroy the entire world to meet a goal. It isn't a body count style of game, and I fear that EAxis has turned their mindset into that kind of thinking-that it has an "end-game" within itself, and therefore they're not looking to expand their minds to what we want, but what they want-which is a controlled experience in a game. I don't think they understand the entire motive of the Sims game themselves, just befuddled on how to make more money.
I'm sure they're as puzzled as all get out to understand what makes most Sim players tick-it is the basic idea that this game is not one of violence or destruction, but of growth and an expanding universe, where anything is possible. It is a living game, not a death game, where players create their innermost ideals of people and their lives, and  play out their alter egos in a structured way.
Will Wright was the genius behind the Sims idea. Sadly, he has abandoned any role in the game development except for his name being used for streets. I'm sure he's probably pretty pissed at what has happened to the series by the mistakes of the EAxis, which he had no hand in.
Perhaps they should rehire him to put them back on track-he understood better than any of them what it is all about.

i agree they think that the only things players are intrested are violant games witch is not the case for every player i think the sims is a funny game and a tool to prepare the future genaration for life. if only ea maxie would understand that.

[abaris]

My answer is no and I'm obviously a minority. The reason why I voted to the negative is, that I know corporate life and I know, that corporations don't give a (insert any dirty word of your liking here) about wishlists like that. Also, if they're aiming for release sometime in the first half of 2008, the product is pretty much done anyway. And since the majority of potential buyers doesn't give a (insert any dirty word of your liking here) about the quality of the product as long as it's called the Sims, EA won't even consider and the mail will land in one of those wonderful virtual shiny bins.