• Inconsistent world style. Especially careers. There is a definite shift towards ‘realism’ in the presentation, yet TS3’s writing still sticks to the far-out whimsical style of TS2 when you can become the World Leader of a town with a population under 100.

Realism mods might still be thin on the ground, but for the most part few players have taken an attitude towards the unrealism being detrimental to the game. Personally, I found it was not so much the whimisical style that put me off, but the surprising lack of quality in the writing, and also the lack of attention to detail to constructing a believable, fictional world. The release of World Earth Adventures proved that I, and probably a few other players, are in the minority when it comes to caring about the fact that Sims world != real world.

• In game advertising. Especially having to pay for it. Take a hint, game companies – gamers (well, PC gamers I’d like to think) don’t like to see advertising except in certain contexts (e.g. sports games). They’ll respect it less if all it does is add to the game company’s revenue, not drop the price meaningfully for consumers or provide some tangible benefit. Example: they could give discount codes for the Store to players that leave ads on. Reward people!

Non-issue, as TS3 shipped without ads, and it’s highly unlikely that they’ll ever be introduced in the future. I was pretty pleased they used Simlish in-world banners as replacements.

Instead EA is much more focused on advertising their own Sims store in the game, as the addition of Shop Mode last November proves. I guess they just couldn’t strike a good enough advertising deal with anyone, so they resorted to shilling their own stuff.

• The missing features. Not just pets and weather. Specifically: guitarist-ism. EA, please think of the pianists, the drummers, and most importantly the BASSISTS. And give brass and woodwinds some love too.

Yes, think of the bass guitarists. It should have added fuel to the fire when revealed that a lot of missing features are already coded into the game (those images I put up are barely the tip of the iceberg), but most players take this in their stride.

• Four month delay, and they STILL wait to release the neighborhood editor? Come on it can’t be that hard to do in that time.

Ha ha. I was only beginning to get whiny about it, and seven months passed before Create-A-World was released.

• Crappy textures and copied stuff. Yes, it’s meant to be a low-spec game, but not everyone appreciates “gameplay > graphics”. I do, naturally. I actually like that TS3 sticks close to the graphic style of its predecessor, but some screenshots and videos show outright duplicates of objects and animations. Don’t make TS3 “53% new game.”

Yup. And let’s not forget that most of TS3’s reused objects have fewer features than their TS2 counterparts did (e.g. the toddler play table).

• Lack of custom content. EA’s the type of company to whom ‘modding’ is a foreign concept. More advanced creators will undoubtedly be frustrated from the lack of concern.

On this point I was wrong: there was no lack of custom content. In fact TS3 modding was quite storied. First came the advent of core modding, with the rapid rise & fall of Indie Stone and ongoing development of AwesomeMod; the subsequent boom in scripting mods and TS2 conversions; the release of more mod tools; the patch that broke .packages; the patch that broke Sims3Packs; the patch that broke both; and so on.

• The dodgy save system. On a PC game this is inexcusable. Limiting save numbers and tying them to a single family seems like a recipe for fiery-ball descruction …
• There was no save limit, but certainly more than a fair share of fiery ball destruction with Error #s all around (the # depending on the patch level, or indeed any unknown factor). AwesomeMod added an autosave function.

Overall? The things I complained about were for the most part alleviated, although the release of TS3 brought many other issues to the fore. Over time, the game will mature with more mini-titles adding more gameplay, objects and features.

Basically, it adds dozens more ‘elements’ to the random drink recipe generator for the coffee/beverage machine. My currently active Sim’s favorite drink is an Iced Filtered Macchiato with Passionfruit Swirl. Mmm.

Ryan,
Well, first, my reply was more just me being a flip smart-ass than what you would call an official statement of policy. :) My point, I guess, was that if these guys were really doing something wrong or illegal, I guarantee you that EA would not be linking to them, and would probably be going after them. So, your questions are worth trying to get a more official response. I’m off for holiday break now, but after the new year, I’ll ask the Sims folks to help sort this out. –Jeff

Will we get satisfactory answers? Official licensing? Another forum sticky? Nothing? I think a “To Be Continued…” is appropriate here!

In other news, the Error 12/13 problem with my old save unexpectedly disappeared. (I posted on MATY about it; no, I don’t know what the hell I did to make it work again.) So now I’m on the verge of Generation 6 in my “don’t call it a Legacy”. It’s definitely the furthest I’ve ever played in a Sims game. What? I think it’s cool. Pics soon.

Also, Create-A-World. Man, I plan on having some fun with it, but my handmade efforts so far have sucked, and I tried to import a heightmap only to get crazy spikes everywhere. I have another modding project that I want to finish before starting a new custom town though.

Not long ago, the Left 4 Dead 2 “boycott” amicably wound up (I hate to admit it, it seems like an instance where online petitions do work.) Now outrage is brewing and gamers are cracking out the signatures with the news that the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will not support dedicated servers – the tried and true model of multiplayer FPS gaming. A brief but amusingly weary summary can be found here. Naturally, this sort of news would not be easy to accept for casual gaming communities, competitive clans, modders and their fans. The developer, Infinity Ward, already indirectly responded to this controversy, rebuking ‘the modders and the tuners’ who want to ‘bifurcate the community’ in favour of a solution that will satisfy the majority of their audience. But is it necessarily good to alienate your most ardent fans in this way? Sound familiar?

Now, neither of these are actually games I play. I rented Call of Duty 2 AGES ago if that counts for anything. It’s just interesting to see that video games will always arouse strong and passionate opinions, and there are circumstances where a game company simply has to make concessions for its own sake. Interesting sort of interaction.

Also interesting how apart from the SecuROM fiasco (for which The Sims was only one game affected) EA seems to be largely immune to its community opinion. Outside of their official forums, is there any meaningful interaction or contact to speak of? I believe this dynamic is no doubt driven by the ‘silent majority’ who help keep Sims games on the bestseller lists constantly. I wish they’d speak up more.

EA now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game. That’s because advertising is critical to getting a game in the top ten rankings. If you have a $10 million game, don’t be surprised if the the TV advertising costs drive the ad budget to $30 million. If a $60 game yields revenue of $35 for EA, then (according to my math) the company has to sell 1.1 million copies just to break even.

I’d sure like to know how much it cost to develop The Sims 3, and exactly how much of that budget was spent on flashy billboards and product placements.

(Source)

I enjoyed TS3’s freedom from expansions while it lasted, but all good things come to an end. EA have announced the first TS3 expansion.

I am wholly, WHOLLY unimpressed with a single flaw in this game design.

From the press release:

"[Players will] discover new cities in China, France, and Egypt, and share new stories."

Why am I unimpressed?

Because using real countries is a freaking stupid idea.

I once called this sort of thing a rule of the Sims universe: it’s not Earth! It’s fiction! Suspension of disbelief matters – but obviously not to EA, where money comes ahead of creating a coherent, entertaining game. Did not one person designing this game speak up and point out the ridiculousness of using real country names? Maybe they didn’t want to lose their jobs.

See, the sensible angle would be to describe locations as “European”, “Eastern”, or “Egyptian” (whatever, it’s a dead civilization anyway.) These vacation towns already have unique names – why not market the game with those, like Bon Voyage did?

Seriously, are we to believe that there’s a Sim Taiwan/China and a Sim Israel/Palestine too?

Will these places have real-world languages (hell no), terrible accented gibberish (probably) or just the same Simlish we’re used to (most likely)?

Are the developers trying to shove pro-Yankee imperialism down our throats by having Sims governed by a Leader of the Free World?

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Just the fact that all these questions exist shatter my suspension of disbelief and will ruin any enjoyment I could probably get out of this expansion.

But don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more reasons to hate on World Adventures. The linear, mission-based stories turning the game into less and less of a Wrightian sandbox. The inevitable bugs. Being the harbinger of the upgrade cycle. Cultural stereotyping. My loathing of Vacation and Bon Voyage. The content-stripping (taking content out of the game to plump out future EPs/SPs/the Store).

And the neighbourhood editor that has yet to see the light of day and probably never will. Now that EA is on the expansion wagon, this is the kind of thing that will get pushed to the bottom of the pile and stay there, despite pre-release ‘representations’ that it would be out a few weeks after release.

Really, the editor is the one thing that I’m still ‘following’ TS3 for apart from modding because I will never get attached to premades and premade towns.

Anyway, I’ve never been in this camp before. Before I would eagerly look forward to new expansions. Actually with the Sims, it would be what ‘brought me back to the game’ after not playing it for some time. But I am not going to buy World Adventures. I have no interest in it at all.

Fantasy Novel Title Generator – Actually I can’t remember at the moment whether Fantasy is an available genre, but whatever. Finally, you can put names to the vaunted God and Illusion Cycle: The Dream of the Children, The Lollian Rogue, The Discord of Adian, and Master and Empire (coming in Summer 2010).

Random Speculative Fiction Title Generator – you gotta hit this one a few times to get some interesting titles. Like Killing of the Worm, Dark Station, Ghost Vendetta, and my personal favourite: Sword Spam!

By the way, I was planning an update to the lot rotation experiment I had going on. I got up to the middle of the seventh round, but I was let down by two things: boredom with the Sims themselves, and a lack of good housing in Riverview. Unfortunately I’m not that great a builder, and the complex decoration in the building options puts me off a little. Also I don’t like massive lots – another reason to wait for the World Builder to come out, I suppose.

So, I’ve wiped Riverview and I’m currently playing one of the random families that decided to sneak in while Story Progression was left on.

These data are extracted straight from the XML in the game’s files, though I’ve stripped out some of the extraneous information and adjusted it a little where the ingame job title is different from the XML name. Feel free to copy this data and rewrite it into readable/meaningful form.

Note that:

• I can’t explain what the skill and mood Mappings mean.
• DayLength = the number of hours to work
• In DaysToWork, R means Thursday and U means Sunday

TS3 Careers (html)

TS3 Careers (xls)

What’s more, Story Progression is OFF and I’m using Awesomemod. Now, I did modify the “Demographics” XML in the game’s GameplayData.package to encourage households to get jobs…maybe this is how the game reacts. But it’s a frustrating mechanic.

I think in my last post I complained about Story Progression townies always being unemployed? If I didn’t, I’m complaining now. Well, now that I’m attempting a Prosperity playstyle the problem’s reversed. My Prosperity Sims keep getting high-level jobs at random places (and which don’t match up with their career LTW). *Sigh* EASS, what will you do next…

By the way, with this little Challenge I was trying the aging idea posted here by Rebeka. Thanks, Rebeka! Anyway the idea is to turn SP off (obviously) and leave aging off for all but one round (which I haven’t gotten to yet).

I’ve been pretty busy over the past few days, while most of my free time has been taken up with playing TS3 (of course) as well as mucking around with the .packages using S3PI. Already I’ve made a few basic hacks for personal use: an aging hack to reduce the duration of Toddler- and Elder-hood, a hack to reduce the chance of genetic mutations, and a hack to stop families moving out. I don’t know what effect the last one has on long-term Story Progression though, so I’m currently testing it out.

Anyway, I won’t post my full thoughts on the game here because it would just repeat what others have said over the past two weeks. At first the game didn’t “hook” me like TS2 did, but I’m warming to it. I will make a few comments though:

• EA has BLATANTLY cut content in the base game to pad out future EPs/the Store. Where’s the Education career?!?!
• I still don’t like the whimsical careers, and I plan to do something about them.
• The Live-mode camera sucks; I can’t wait for a camera mod.
• It was trivially easy to make a Self-sim; took about 15 minutes. Luckily my face is already kind of pudding-y.
• Needs more keyboard shortcuts.
• Social interaction is a matter of queueing up actions again and again and it’s a real grind. At least accumulating friends isn’t as integral to the gameplay as it was in TS2.
• Starting with a single Sim is a bit boring.
• Awesomemod, for all your empty-hood needs.
• Romance is thin. There’s no sense of attraction or chemistry; you can flirt with anybody of either sex.

More later.