Sims 4 Announced

[Quintillus]

Anhellia, I agree that The Sims is fairly easy. It's hard not to be successful. Having a few difficulty options probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

civver, for me, the biggest problem with MMOs is that it promotes playing only that one game, and playing it a lot. To an extent, that's certainly influenced by how much some people play WoW, though I do know some people who play it in reasonable quantities of time. I like the idea of playing several games, and only play one a ton if it's really my cup of tea. The monthly fee... it depends. Personally, that's a big deterrent to me, because I usually spend quite a bit less than the $180 or so that a typical MMO would cost on video games in a year. Even in 2005, when I bought both Civ4 and AoE3 new, I probably spent a fair amount less than that. Compared to other forms of entertainment like going to the movies and cable television, it's not bad. But why add another monthly bill when I can spend less and get more variety?

(Perhaps it's worth noting that I very rarely buy a game within a month of release - I haven't done so since Civ4/Aoe3 in 2005. So that decreases the amount I spend considerably. I'm kind of like the guy in this XKCD)

I do see the benefit of the business model for the studio from a business perspective - I'm sure it costs a lot less than $15/month to maintain the servers for subscribers, even assuming the occasional tech support call. So it's not necessarily a bad thing for the industry. But as a consumer, I prefer the perpetual license model.

 

[sophie]

I don't want to derail the thread too much, but what's so bad about the typical mmo business model? It makes sense to me, buy the game, expansions cost less, monthly fee to pay for servers and tech support as well as new content patches. As long as the expansions get all bundled later so the entry cost isn't too high, and the support and content that you pay monthly for is good, I don't see an issue. I spent less yearly on gaming when all I played was world of warcraft than I do now buying individual games, even with steam sales.

This type of MMO-business model is actually losing its viability, best evinced by the fact that WoW has lost 1.3 million subscribers over the period January '13 to March '13, and has lost 4 million subscribers over the past 2 and a half years.

Nowadays the preferred MMO-model is FTP with microtransactions.

 

[AlpsStranger]

I try my best not to finance EA's evil business model.

EA makes a lot of fun stuff, and I'm a pretty chill capitalist consumer ( probably more supportive of capitalism than like 80% of this forum, actually ) but too much is too much. EA doesn't so much try to serve you as a customer as find creative methods for mugging you. You're a mark, not a customer.

This type of MMO-business model is actually losing its viability, best evinced by the fact that WoW has lost 1.3 million subscribers over the period January '13 to March '13, and has lost 4 million subscribers over the past 2 and a half years.

Nowadays the preferred MMO-model is FTP with microtransactions.

In pure economic terms it's definitely true but nothing to celebrate. The MMO genre was always kind of dodgy, but the microtransaction version of it is twice as bad. There used to be a sort of "honor" among MMO players and we didn't really tolerate the "Ebayers" and stuff. Now? You can basically Ebay right in the UI.

Capitalism is a b****. It gives us the sort of environment that creates MMORPGs( a good thing, ) but then it corrupts them by having incentives other than pure quality.

 

[Stylesrj]

I fell for the trap of the expansion packs for both the Sims 1 & 2. Got 'em all (except for those Stuff Pack scams)

When I looked at the Sims 3, I scoffed, deciding that I've learned my lesson. No way was I going to buy that and only have to buy each expansion as it comes out.

Well here I am, waiting for a Pre-order of Into the Future. I broke my personal code of "No pre-ordering expansion packs" and "Not waiting for a discount before buying" but only because Island Paradise was actually something I wanted (houseboats!)

Anyway, I've decided I learned my lesson this time now and I won't get the Sims 4 until another year or so when 500+ expansion packs are out and I can begin anew

Also, if you have problems with 2 hours for fixing a bowl of cereal, get a Relativity Mod and slow that stuff down, unless the Sims 4 is going to massively discourage modding...
But still, mods are your friend. Some games just require 3rd party mods to be playable *coughSkyrimcough*

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

When Sims 3 first came out, it too, massively discouraged modding. They finally fixed it a few EP's later after heavy opposition from the Sims modding communities.

 

[Stylesrj]

Didn't actually know that...
I just thought when you could add a folder called "Mods" they encouraged it. Just like the Sims 2 (although I never played that with mods (unless you count custom content). Didn't realise there were such things available until I stopped playing).

But anyway, I'd wait a year or two before getting a new Sims game. That way prices are down and there will be a couple of expansions/stuff packs out there.