Why is Maxis making us start from Day 1 Again? As interesting and different as The Sims 2 is from the original, I find it annoying that Maxis included almost nothing from any of the expansions for the original game, with the exception of very limited neighborhood shopping. There are no objects for making restaurants, no hotel frontdesks, no pets, no vacation items...virtually nothing from ANY of the expansions. And four weeks after release, we've seen no new items, other than a computer which advertises another company and a few topiaries. Am I the only one who feels ripped off?? We're right back to making skins and houses again just like the first year of the Sims' release with modders frantically scratching their heads trying to figure out the object creation schemes. From what I can see Maxis is offerering no support whatsoever to the hundreds of Sims sites that have made their games the highest selling games in computer game history. They have to know that sooner or later someone will figure out the object-creation scheme, so why are they refusing to release the information to anyone? The 3D graphics are great, as are some of the gameplay enhancements, like aging and aspirations, but for $50 I expected a lot more, at least a decent amount of what I was used to using in The Sims 1. And for the first time that I can remember in a Maxis product, this game has way too many bugs, such that in some areas it is almost unplayable. Bottom line, I'm very disappointed in the game and if Maxis expects me to get on the expansion treadmill again they had better show some interest in supporting the Sims community and fix the game and make it interesting. As it stands now, it's just get a job, make money, make friends, buy stuff, make more money, etc. treadmill of the first game. 3D graphics and a few gameplay enhancements don't justify a $50 pricetag to me. That's just my opinion, if yours is different, that's fine, it's your right. But please don't flame me because you don't agree with mine.
I hear your frustration. It is very hard to get used to playing from square one especially if our basis of comparison is how big the custom community for Sims1 became. What helps me keep this in perspective is that Sims2 has only been out for about a week and Maxis didn't release programs to assist in making custom content for the Sims1 until much later than that. Currently, we have BS, more than we had when the Sims1 hit the shelves. It's not the best situation, but it's not the worst. I'm also frustrated with the custom Maxis objects so far (the computer is, as you mentioned, quite an obvious product placement). I'm also not a big fan of the way that Maxis has set up the community on their site. The game also has many running issues on my computer. I know it's hard, but try to give the rest of the community time to rebuild and I think soon things will be looking very good. If not, don't support the ongoing expansion packs, that's how I feel and will act accordingly. peace
I was always under the impression that the "iff pencil" program that maxis released to test groups is why we were able to have so much content in TS1. I think it was supposed to be kept to a limited group but it proliferated throughout the sims community. I am worried that if they don't release something along those lines fans won't ever be able to make the huge variety available in the original. I'm already a little bored with sim2. They have a huge fan base that are spoiled! lol I believe they should have put some thought into how limiting the game is for older fans. They could have included a cd with more items and color options to tide us over. It looks like they are trying to keep better control of this game and I think all fans would agree it's the worst thing they could do. Perhaps we need to bombard the ea forums with how boring it is without more choice! lol
Sims2 I agree with you 100%! But my main thing with the game is TIME!! I played a Family of 3 Dad, Mom, Child! I barly had time to get Dads Skills up, Mom was Wiped out taking care of Baby, All they want is EAT,Sleep,Potty,Play! It seems to me they could have slowed time a bit! NOTHING Near as good as Sims1. I won't support another Sim Game! I WISH I had waited before spending 50$ of this game! Just my opinion!
Aging can be turned off if you feel you need more time for your sims in any of their life stages, Mr Lucky. As for the choices issue ... well I seem to recall that the original game was extremely limited. No partying, no leaving the lot at all. Very few objects, wallpapers floors etc. I am still finding all the ways to use the camera/video modes and I have yet to take a baby thru to adulthood. Maybe I am just a slow player ... or else a patient one, but I guess I can cope with the so-called limitations until the first EP comes out in 2005.
I'm going to be patient. I CAN play TS1 when I'm truely bored with TS2! lol I had to play The Sims for ages because my computer at that time wouldn't support the expansion packs. (The first thing I bought when I got a new comp was the rest of the series! lol) I can remember how creative I had to be with so little content. I would scour the fan sites looking for stuff for my one game and dying to have all the stuff that could be played with the expansions. Without all those teasers out there, I would never have bothered with buying them. I hope maxis realizes that the fan sites "sold" the other games. I wouldn't have bought SuperStar at all if it wasn't for the items on fansites! I'd recommend turning the aging on and off during your game play. It makes the game better. For some characters it's a blessing there is a limited life span! lol On favorites you can freeze them in time if you choose.
Yes, there does seem to be a shortage of restaurantage, considering that the community lot construction option actually *DOES* have the knife-and-fork restaurant indictator which would SEEM to suggest that you COULD create a restaurant, but you can't! Nyeah! They obviously left this part out intentionally, since I refuse to believe that the code for this could not have been more or less blatantly lifted from TS1HD, given that the code for this is mostly logics, rather than content. They don't have to. They're already a winner. If they WEREN'T the highest-selling computer game in history, or something had recently KNOCKED THEM OFF that post, they'd have cause for concern. But they're secure, and any attempt to promote TS2 will simply hurt their sales of TS1, which, I might point out, is still selling. Catch being, to promote TS2 requires that they pay programmers to release content which they COULD be peddling to you in an expansion pack. To let TS1 sell requires sitting on their hands. What do you think they're gonna do? That was the same logic that should have applied to TS1. The reason is simple: It's harder to peddle expansion packs when you're competing directly against your fans, who are handing out what YOU were gonna peddle for another $30-40 for free! You might actually have to *DO SOMETHING NEW* then. It's much cheaper to just reskin and decorate a few objects that do the same thing with new vfx than come up with entirely new content. You're kidding, right? Why give you what you can expect, when they can take your money, and then take more of your money to give you some, but not all, of what you expect? Okay, I have to admit, this is a first. With any other company, I'd just fall back on my standard cynicism, but I must admit, this *IS* first for Maxis. You know what this means, of course: I can now lump them with every other developer of crappy, bug-infested shovelware, and toss this in their face forever! WOOHOO! You say that, but like the drone you are, you're going to buy the expansion packs anyway, just to see if they do anything. They won't, but you'll buy them anyway. You can't help it. It's part of the subliminable marketing they've embedded in the game. Maxis owns you. Maybe not, but you bought it anyway. You'll buy TS3. You can't help it.
I agree with a lot of your comments, being the dedicated cynic that I am, but I see no reason to get insulting. Just because I bought the game doesn't make me a "drone." I'm in a position where I can afford to spend $50 to see if I like a game or not, I have hundreds of computer games, half of which sit unused because they were unsatisfying. Like most people who play the Sims, I wanted to see what Maxis was going to do with the 3D version. I actually stopped playing the Sims quite a while ago in favor or MMORPG's, but I wanted to see if Sims 2 was able to rekindle my interest in them..Answer..no. So, no, I won't be buying any expansions for it as I already have too many other games on my "to buy when released" list. Chief among them are World of Warcraft and Jump to Lightspeed, the Star Wars Galaxies expansion for which I received a beta disk today. So I guess I'll install that and consign Sims 2 to my pile of "also rans" until such time as the enterprising modders out there are able to figure out the secrets of the game and create new items for it. In which case I will support the their work and maybe find new interest for a while. I have always been an on again off again Sims player so I'm not heartbroken that the game didn't live up to my expectations, but it is somewhat disheartening to see Maxis, a company I have long respected, becoming like all the other big game companies, releasing buggy software and not supporting the Sims community.
Something as advance as Sims 2 there is bound to be a few bugs that is unexplainable or uncontrollable. That's one of the reasons why they removed weather. Nothing is ever bug free, so don't expect anything to be free of bugs.
Don't mind me, I'm just making fun of people in general. I'm in a position where I can afford to also, but I didn't get there by frivolously spending said money. My faith in the gaming industry was destroyed far too long ago to ever buy anything on release. In Soviet Russia, work supports YOU! Success breeds corruption. Once you accept this as the rule, you'll realize that once a company puts out a major hit, they should not be viewed with faith: They should be viewed with undisguised suspicion. Only small companies who put out games with a small, but devoted fanbase, can afford a sense of community. Major companies cranking out major hits view you as drones to collect their $50 from. When you see things in THIS light, it all comes together. I guess you're not yet the dedicated cynic you believe you are...yet. There is still hope, though. Being the cynic I am, I'm not getting *MY* hopes up over this, and if you want some advice on getting a good start, you shouldn't, either!
I'm pretty happy with the content in Sims2, but then again I've never sold my soul to the expansion packs. Going from baseline Sims 1 to baseline Sims 2 is a good transition for me and I doubt that I'll be forking out any more money for the expansions to this game. Well not until they're drag underfoot cheap... There are some things I'd like to see ( weather sounds like fun ), but in general I like where it's going and will continue to further my experience in Sims 2 via custom content. Also on the bugs issue... I've had WAAY more bugs with Sims 1. Mainly because I'm a custom freak and downloaded waves of clothing for the original... only to find that some of it crashed my PC... this made creating Sims VERY HARD, as you would press -> on the costumes and CRASSHHH!! No new Sims for you. With the hundreds then thousands of custom downloads I had for the first game it was near impossible to find what costume was giving me errors... but YAY FOR SIMS 2 !! I have not yet found a single item of clothing that crashes me! And if I did then I can identify what it is! ANYWAY... the game is fully 3D, the character creation and expressions are Sublime, this is a lot better than the Sims 1 series... get over it!
I dunno, I'm not sure weather would add anything here. Sims running around shrieking as their flesh dissolves with sizzling hisses in the rain is not my idea of fun. Okay, I lied. Actually, that's funny as hell. I do think this is why custom content is unofficial, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before this starts happening with TS2. Admittedly, TS2 does a much better job making custom content look decidedly unwelcome and ostracized, so maybe there's better damage control. In TS1, custom content was more or less indistinguishable, except possibly in quality. In TS2, you get the nice ostracism thing going. Yeah, but there aren't hundreds and thousands of custom downloads for TS2 yet. Just you wait. Yeah, the expressions are ever-so-loveably exaggerated. I mean, have you seen the way they play video games? If I did that while playing video games, I'd surely develop motion sickness....and I have a very strong stomach. Admittedly, realistic video-game playing posture is not terribly exciting, but hey. Everything about TS2, however, elegantly captures the feel of "They don't make 'em like they used to". From the objects in the game, to the game itself, it neatly underscores the point of how they just don't make 'em like they used to. The TS2 toilets, for instance, jam constantly, even when flushing only a standard single-load, not a slob sim's accumulated triple-load. My TS1 toilet practically never jammed. Hell, if my real toilet jammed like this, I'd angrily demand a refund from the manufacturer for failing to meet spec. It's pretty clear that they're selling defective merchandise if you can find other companies capitalizing in on this. And don't even get me started on the exercise machine. The *OLD* exercise machine in TS1 was a right and proper work of craftsmanship. The new one? With the fancy electronic gewgaw on the side that always breaks, jamming the entire machine? Piece of crap. They just don't make 'em like they used to. I'd give my left testicle to have the old TS1-vintage bench press back, I tell you. They just don't make 'em like they used to, and that goes for the game itself: TS1 didn't ship with bugs that would render your game unplayable.
JM, just curious, do you personally believe perhaps you are holding TS2 to the high expectations of TS1?
Not at all. My policy is to hold everything to impossible expectations, then fully expect them to fail. That way I'm never surprised. That's my approach to life: Demand the impossible, expect them to fail. Plan accordingly. I mean, come on: If you actually had reasonable expectations, you'd actually be disappointed when they aren't met. I just settle for having impossible ones, and then figure "Meh, I didn't really expect them to succeed anyway."
Boombarding EA Forums! Rather than talk about it DO IT!! I DID, And also Wrote them a VERY NASTY Letter!! Talking won't change ANYTHING, ACTION DO MUCH BETTER! OR LIVE WITH IT!
As much as I love a good act of arson every now and then, I don't think firebombing the EA office is the answer to your problem.
Fire Bombing Well, Sitting around Complaining about it doesn't get anywhere! OR you can standup and be heard, Or you can Sit back and don't say anything!! YA right that will really get things done!!! I,m a doer not a Whiner! Again, just my opinion
I was always taught "you can be part of the problem or part of the solution." If all we do is whine, then all we're doing is being part of the problem. But if we do things like fill out the bug feedback submission forms, help others get through problems, say a kind word instead of a sarcastic one and realize that people are only human and should be forgiven their mistakes, then we are part of the solution. I guess I've always preferred to be part of the solution. PS. Forgiveness is not for the person being forgiven. It's a healing within the person doing the forgiving, without which most people can't crawl out of their life's negativity.
