I am worried about having to login to Origin every time I just want to simply play my game. I am worried that this will allow background data collection that will be beyond my control. I am worried about EA's commitment to digital services.....

Introducing EA’s Newest CEO "Most recently he has served as the Executive Vice President overseeing EA SPORTS and our online portal for digital games and services, Origin. I also believe EA’s strategy is sound. Our focus on our talent, our brands and our platform together with our investment in next-generation consoles, mobile and PC free-to-play, as part of our ongoing transition to digital, is right."

I love cc's and to me they gave me more than CASt did in the aspects of design over just re-colours, I also loved CASt for the convenience to re-colour and matching made so much easier.

I am also worried the lack of CASt will mean that EA is certainly 'returning to the roots' of Sims 2 where cc's were a passion and a necessity for many to customization the game but this time under their control ......

Talking about the idea of developing a platform similar to Diablo 3's Auction House within The Sims 4, where players could share - and possibly even sell - their designs and lots, producer Ryan Vaughan revealed that it was "definitely" part of Maxis' plans.
"Unfortunately we're not going into too much detail on the sharing right now, but we are working on a way to bring all of that community, all of that sharing and connecting with people across the world into the game.

Vaughan wouldn't confirm whether players would be able to sell their designs, however, or whether everything will be shared for free.
"We're still working on that," he continues, "but the community for us is a really big part, we love all the creativity. Whenever we launch a game, the most exciting part is seeing how people play with it and share their creations, so it's definitely something we're focussed on."

And if this is the way they are going (the ability to click the ticket on cc's) I am worried about the price structure of the store items which is way too expensive - I need to buy Midnight Hollow Standard Version:
2,450 SimPoints - keep in mind a EP here normally costs NZD $49.99.

Now I only have one option to purchase enough points to buy this world and double what I need - 5,000 SimPoints @ NZD $52.00 for a world! I do not want to be forced to purchase anything else because I'm force to invest over my requirements. I do not want EA to have my money surplus to my requirements.

Beyond all my petty likes and dislikes over what I've seen or heard so far about TS4 these things give me the most fear and hesitation on a different level to what I can go for.This is all way out of my league of common sense in how I would ever spend my money or keep control over my own personally game.

If my views are twisted out of proportion I welcome some positive re-railing.

I don't know if your views are twisted out of proportion or not; I tend to think EA will follow through and make some controlling, money-grabby, online moves that annoys most of us. But I also think there will be ways around it.

When the store started out for Sims 3, there was an option to allow for smaller simpoint bundles. I remember 500 simpoint bundles and wondered why it was stopped. I could only come to the conclusion for money grab and the books look better. Make the simpoint bundles big and get the sales even if there's nothing purchased with it. Once I learned about EA cash cards and could use them for simpoints, I follow the sales here. I had advised family and friends that wanted to give me gifts for my Birthday and Christmas to send me the EA cash cards and that was tremendous. EA put limits on time for them so I ended up gifting people with the extras because time was getting close.

I am in the States and don't know if NZ have the cash cards, but if you find a way to get them, it's the way to go. I can find sales at game and department stores and load up, because I know I will be buying from the store. To avoid taxes, I redeem them at Origin and get the full amount of the card on my EA account. I find the $20 USD cards on sale from $10 to $15 USD. Don't know if they are available on line. Something I have to try out when I finish posting.



Contrary to what people think about this forum, we are negative and have no positive expectations for Sims 4, we respect others opinion. At least I do, even though I might not agree. So your likes are not petty, it's your opinion. Some of us, me included, are a bit suspicious of EA actions with this series, based on past actions with Sims releases, we are not able to jump on the "all is wonderful" bandwagon just yet. For some reason that peeves others off, we are not feeling the euphoria they feel when EA give tidbits of information. *shrugs*

Anyway I don't find your observations off at all. My turning point was with SHT. When I read that the CEO at the time was making a goal of all EA games be a online persistant experience and SHT had simporting, that made me see they want to "make fetch happen" as Original_Sim like to say. Wouldn't be a problem and I could have ignored it but you had to simport to unlock other stages and the sims spamming with hosting or wanting to go on a simport made the experience excruciating. First, I can't accomplish my own goals in my own game with the SHT professions and I have to let others come in the game to help me? OK, put me off because the game was becoming a FB thing for popularity and I don't care for it. I don't play the professions because of it, no way to succeed in my own game.

EA didn't just come with the idea of simport, the online wall, and making friends on it when SHT came out. This was being pushed on the developers by the executives that wanted to use this as a money grab and present it to the stockholders with glee. Not only for the Sims but for all EA games across the board. Hopefully Simscity taught them a valuable lesson, but I fear Sims 4 will have something pushed on us later down the line with a EP "feature". That is why I don't even want to get started with Sims 4 and see the game take a turn I am not willing to join in and lose my investment in the game. Sure, EA could implement those features all they want, it is their game. If they want to force it by making the offline player follow some connection rule and give all the objects or new interactions to the online game player, then they forced me out. Nope you may not be too far off with your observations.

Let me interject for a moment to shut down the Diablo 3 Auction House nonsense right now.

That's an extremely misleading article filled with conjecture by the author. Look at the actual quotes; Ryan never said anything about Diablo 3 and never said anything about players selling content. What he has said is that sharing content between players is an important part of what we're building, to which end we're working on bringing the exchange functionality from Sims 3 directly in-game rather than requiring it to go through a website outside of the game. What we're not answering yet is questions about how that functions, and the author seems to be using that as a platform to speculate on what we will do.

Graham, thank you for that clarification. What you're describing makes far more sense. Could you mention to the team responsible for that, though, that the lack of CAST is going to make the amount of custom content that can be shared in an Exchange like setting extremely limited in available items for, well, exchange?

Tangentially related to what Graham said, Blizzard has also announced they're shutting down the Auction House for Diablo 3. Apparently it was hurting the gameplay in the long run because it removed so much of the fun and challenge.

One thing that would be cool for TS4 is if you could "buy" or "sell" your creations using SimPoints. In other words, if someone has a lot or Sim on the Exchange that you appreciate, you can send them a few SimPoints as a donation or "tip". I think that would be a fun, fair system.

Why didn't Ryan say it like the underlined instead of using the AH as an example? Thank you for the clarification and I hope not to see that come up again. That was a major reason I don't want to be part of Sims 4 community. Now what about simport...can that leave too?

I'm genuinely curious. Why does EA consider sharing between players in-game such an important part of the Sims 4?

I'm sure it'll be convenient for some players (especially those who only ever share their stuff on the Exchange), but when all is said and done, it's not really going to fill the hollow space left by the gameplay features that didn't make the cut. Whether it's CASt or weather or pets or a wedding cake. Being able to share a house with a few clicks isn't going to fill that void for me.

I also don't think there were that many players asking for such a feature.

I already know I'm not going to be downloading rubbish from the Exchange, I know where to get quality CC without being price-gouged, so the only CC sharing feature that would interest me right now is the ability to install any CC while my game's up and running. So many times I've gone to use a piece of CC and remembered it's still zipped up elsewhere.

Look at Ryan's quotes, he never used the Auction House as an example; that was a parallel that the author drew.

Graham, does EA consider the in-game exchange feature more important than gameplay?

Just want to add my voice: I have no interest in an integrated exchange. Never been something I've seen anyone wanting, never been something I've wanted, never will be something I'll use. I think developing this aspect is or was a waste of time and resources.

Okay, I will give you that. Yeah the AH was taken out of context and put words in Ryan's mouth. Still this quote here bothered me:



If the intention of Ryan's words was taken out of context, did the reporter ask that question about being able to sell creations? If so, why not just say no! That would have sufficed.

I completely agree. It's not something I want either. It's like ordering spaghetti and being served green tea.

It's all a devious plan. When simmers ( that don't know any better) start downloading "exchange quality" items that look horrific , break their game ..or both , then those grotesquely overpriced store items look like a sweet deal.

I think it's more likely an attempt to move (what they think is) a seemingly online-phobic player base to use an online tool. You know, like the story about the frog in the pot of water where the temperature is gradually increased so that he doesn't even notice that he is being boiled? This is partly why I don't think they have really changed their plans at all, they have just realized that they are going to have to gradually manipulate everyone into behaving the way they want them to. Not that it's actually going to work on everyone, but sadly it will work on some players.

If it's an area of the game we're not ready to discuss yet we won't confirm things one way or another. Confirming information by definitively answering any question thrown at us defeats the purpose of not talking about it in the first place. That's just standard PR really. I find it odd how the author obfuscated the point to make it sound like Ryan did answer. When we're ready to reveal more about exchange type functionality in Sims 4 we'll definitely open up about it!

Thank you Graham I can see Diablo 3's Auction House has unfortunately been linked to Ryan's statement and not actually said by him but in saying that it is also obviously the authors interpretation of the discussion and a comparison to the direction he felt this feature was heading – so I suppose we can chalk it up to another lost in translation scenario.

Edit: answered above



It is a bit like this...

Gibeau is very proud of the fact he has never green lit a single project that consisted solely of a single-player experience. He insists that every game EA publishes has an online component to it. His reason for doing this? Apparently EA has “evolved with consumers” suggesting he thinks this is what consumers want in every game.

Just other mislead perspective of what the consumers really want.

Where do they get their information from?

And we still only know little about gameplay...

Yup, I think it's clear that EA only wants our money. Why don't they become Wall Street bankers?

I agree with the OP. I've never played the Sims 3 so I don't care if CASt is in the Sims 4 or not. However, the possibility of having to use the Internet just to play the game bothers me, even if you just have to log in once per play session. What if someone's Internet isn't working? Or even worse, what if one day the Sims 4 website is taken offline? Will people just never be able to play the game again?

Also, I hope the ability to share custom content with others in your game won't interfere with the ability to get custom content from other sites. If that ever happened I probably won't purchase the Sims 4.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lewisb40
If the intention of Ryan's words was taken out of context, did the reporter ask that question about being able to sell creations? If so, why not just say no! That would have sufficed.




But...but... hang on a minute - the whole article was about this topic, it was being discussed in the first place, it was not a random question thrown at Ryan from left field but an obvious leading inquiring from what he was openly discussing, so why be 'mum' about a question (within the discussion topic) that would be the most influential aspect and a major impact on every Sims player that ever used, created or intended to use creative content from third party sites.

The Article –
Maxis is integrating a digital platform into The Sims 4 that will allow players to upload and share content with other users, the developer has told VideoGamer.com.
Talking about the idea of developing a platform similar to Diablo 3's Auction House within The Sims 4, where players could share - and possibly even sell - their designs and lots, producer Ryan Vaughan revealed that it was "definitely" part of Maxis' plans.
"Unfortunately we're not going into too much detail on the sharing right now, but we are working on a way to bring all of that community, all of that sharing and connecting with people across the world into the game.
"In The Sims 3, you were doing a lot of it through the Sims website – you could upload creations and stuff. We're bringing all of that and making the experience in the game so people are able to connect with other people and grab somebody else's house and try it out in their own lot. We have a lot more detail to get into in the next few months but it's definitely a big part of what we're working on."
Vaughan wouldn't confirm whether players would be able to sell their designs, however, or whether everything will be shared for free.
"We're still working on that," he continues, "but the community for us is a really big part, we love all the creativity. Whenever we launch a game, the most exciting part is seeing how people play with it and share their creations, so it's definitely something we're focussed on."
Though players will be able to share Sims 4 content with other users, they won't be able to import their existing Sims 3 families or content.
"We have brand new technology driving the game so unfortunately none of that carries over," Vaughan said. "Especially with the new tools: It's a whole new way of building your Sims and building your families so it doesn't carry over."
The Sims 4 launches on PC early next year.

"Having to login to Origin every time just to play the game"...who said anything about that?

"Lack of CASt"...good. CASt took wayyyy too long just to load up the patterns, and while they'd load you couldn't do anything about it--you just had to suck it up and wait for alllllll of 'em to load, even when you accidentally pressed the button, even when you didn't want the particular pattern type loading, yadda yadda yadda...besides those patterns weren't even that good anyways. They gave you three-ish channels, so what? The "roots" gave you MUCH more creativity, believe me.

I'm not gonna comment on anything else...

On the other hand, it's actually a pretty short article. The direct quotes alone (which make up about half the length) do not lend themselves to "auction house system coming!" and it's not really implausible that someone would take a small thing and run with it to garner page hits.

http://www.thesims.com/en-gb#/frequ...asked-questions

There is a faq on here about logging onto Origin. It states that only one log in is needed, at the point when you install the game.

It doesn't say however in what ways not logging in again may limit the game, which I assume it does.

It's the author's purview what they choose to write about, we don't dictate that to them. Sharing content wasn't an area we were openly discussing at Gamescom. Ask yourself why you didn't see any other articles on it... if you search online, every mention of Sims 4 and sharing traces back to that original article. It makes sense that an author would rather pursue what they perceive to be an interesting angle rather than repeating the same information everyone else is getting.

"If it bleeds, it leads." Same concept.