Just a little news/food for thought if you haven't seen this already, what do you think? Good or bad? There's always a sigh of relief when one of EA's "evil" cronies leaves but then you have to wonder who they'll cart in next.

Source: http://www.simprograms.com/27331/ro...or-second-life/

I saw this on the official boards and the response has been overwhelmingly "yay!"

I guess people blame Humble for the anemic nature of TS3. If that is in fact the case, then count me in the "yay!" column as well. I want the wacky back!

I thought Grant Rodiek was to blame for any annoyance in TS3, or maybe I just blame for anything that annoys me because his face is everywhere and I can't stand how happy and excited he always is. There are days I wish I could to smack him on the head with all the free cars and musical instruments the game keeps showing into my Sims inventories. Lets hope who ever replaces Humble has actually played the game and knows what it's about.

I'm not surprised, but not for any TS3-related lackluster. Executive Whatevers never seem to last much longer than a Sim near a hungry Cow Plant. Maybe I don't understand their work/political environment, management rotation cycle or whatever...but I remember there being several Executive Producers for TS2. There was Lucy Bradshaw who'd sent out updates with screenshots to fan sites while the game was being developed. Then Tim LeTourneau took over and the updates became "Tim Mails" (at least that's what Snooty Sims called them). Even with the EPs, there were different teams, so a different person would be in charge and would be showing off the EP in the developer walkthrough.

There will likely be a few more years of TS3 EPs before we start hearing about TS4. (And there will likely be a TS4 if EA knows how to milk a cash cow.) But, yes, it will be interesting to see what, if any, changes this will bring.

Exactly my thoughts, and I love you for saying it aloud, Ani. :lovestruc

I recall a presentation video when FL was about to be released and how he kept calling the cars "sexy". Dude, if the only sex experience in your life is related to car designs you are in a big trouble.

Right on Ani!, and preferably not this background again "...Product Development...for the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG)..."

Seeing these credentials makes it clear why TS3 took the turn it did (for the worse in some ways).

Though considering their limited used in the game I wouldn't call all those cars shoved into sim inventories free--I would call them useless.

Grant's okay, at least he always seems genuinely excited about talking about the game, in my opinion we're probably better off if an existing maxoid gets promoted instead of someone completely new being carted in because they'll just move us even farther away from "the golden age of Will Wright".

I'm going to laugh really hard if a few months later all the people who said "good riddance" to Rod Humble will be begging to have him back because of an even worse replacement. With that said I'm on the fence, I'll wait until EP5 is out before I say whether I'm glad he's gone.

I like Grant. At least he's not boring and monotonous. I doubt Humble alone is responsible for taking The Sims 3 in the direction it went though, regardless of his background.

Guys have none of you thought that Rod Humble wont be giving our little simmys in Sims 2 anymore free computers pre-installed with Sims 3? :P



But I agree with Captain_THPS4, I'm gonna wait and see how future EPs turn out like, before I make my perception on Humble leaving.

Who is taking his place? Ben Bell? Sam Player? Tim LeTourneau and Sam Player made the best TS2 expansions so I hope it's one of them.

With Secondlife never know what disaster they announce the nest day on the blog which may cost you your house, business, friends (because they leave). There is lot of opportunity, but Linden Labs is notorious for it's "improvements". Linden Labs can learn a lot from looking at Maxis, EA, or well, about ANY business which has some level of basic creator-user communications.

GuySim1993 - Haha. Love the cartoon.

Reserving judgement is a good idea since as CaptainTHSP stated the next head of Production could be "an even worse replacement".

Out of Ben Bell, Tim LeTourneau, and Sam Player I necessarily wouldn't want any of them since they all had a hand in TS3 and allowed the Sims to be moved towards being a quest game.

What about Lucy Bradshaw? Bradshaw worked on TS1/TS2 and now on Spore so she may understand how important of an aspect player creation is to the game and toss all those TS3 directives into the trash can. But then again--she might not.

Wright developed the game with 2 women (Claire Curtain and Roxy Wolosenko) and credits Wolosenko with having the idea to put social interactions into the game. Social interactions are what many players are craving more of in TS3 so maybe next head of production should be a woman.

Just a thought, just speculating here.

Hahaha... I left Sims 2 to play Second Life for a few years. Finally got tired of it and am back playing the Sims (and Real Life). So is everyone in Second Life going to get a new computer upon logging in?

Have any of you played Second Life? When I went over there they had a Dog like thing that was frightning. IMHO anything he can do to help that thing would be good. RuneScape has the best pets though.

Well that's awfully sexist but I do agree about the social interactions part. (being a man has something to do with adding social interactions ) Lucy Bradshaw would be nice but I think she's pretty committed to Spore, it seems like she likes working with Will the most...

I play more than one game, and all the games seem to be giving teasers for other games, for instance Runescape lets you build a house, its not a great house, but you have a house. I think the Quest business in this game is more about giving a "teaser" than any real move to questing. Runescape has some Quests that players will pay a professional player to get them through so does War Craft. What is fun about the tombs are that the items can be used to decorate a much more flexible house on a lot with neighbors and stuff. People hated it when Fable let players have a baby with their Hero too and didnt want to raise the baby *LOL* Its just a teaser.

Thank you :P

Im not too sure as who is who on the Sims Team, but I would just love to have someone who worked on Sims 1 and on the early stages of Sims 2. Mainly someone who can bring back that certain "something" which The Sims 3 is lacking.

Helplessness. The sims were sometimes adorable, sometimes infuriating, but helpless dolls. Now I feel as if I should ask them whether they mind testing my latest house or world.

I know, right? I feel there is something missing, although I love playing Sims 3, I don't find the game endearing. I guess it could be the lack of social interactions that make me go "Aww".

I hope the new person rearranges the creativity department and bring in more social interactions between the characters. Do you think they will read the official forum and actually care what the majority of players (consumers) want?

]Yeah, that's if their not too busy fullfilling opportunities, becoming a celebrity, raiding tombs, or collecting crap. LOL.

I feel the same way and enjoyed watching them bumbling around clueless.



Isn't it a bit sexist that Lucy Bradshaw has been with Maxis since TS1 and is still there at EA but her name never comes up--just the guys are mentioned? As it was a woman who decided the Sims needed to have social interactions in the first place (Wright credits Roxy for this) and studies have shown that men tend to prioritize goals higher then relationships and women tend to prioritize relations higher than goals and having social interactions increased in TS3 is what is needed...I thought what about a woman as head of production? And because of her credentials--Bradshaw came to mind. So my statement wasn't meant to be sexist. My apologies to you and anyone else who may have misconstrued the reason for my suggestion.

Though I think you're probably right that Bradshaw would continue with Spore. I wonder if she'd even be asked?

Christmas scenario: They hire a Superman, who single-handedly overhauls animations and clunky codebase and finds a new, perfect, gameplay balance. TS3 becomes a masterpiece instead of just a good game.

Best case scenario: They find someone competent, nothing changes much. We still have to live with all the yawn-inducing interactions, anemic animations, half-baked ideas like celebs, pieces of gameplay that simply aren't The Sims, etc, but new EPs are much better.

Worst case scenario: They hire a guy from packaged goods industry, EPs get even worse, packaged guy destroys franchise. We still have our TS2.

Doomy doom of ultimate DOOOM!!!! scenario: They hire someone who thinks he is Superman, the whole things turns inro re-run of Daikatana and DNF, franchise is killed, the guy is laughing stock of the internets forever, and the whole affair is so disgusting no one ever wants to play TSanything again, except extremelly sarcastic LPers.

The Sims will remain more or less the same.

The worst we'll be seeing is more Sim Medieval-style spin-off-and-burn kind of games.

You know, I doubt that because by what I read that was Rob's idea ... same with the TS2 story games, with him gone I doubt we see more of that.

I'm kidding, of course, but it always bugged me that a Free Computer was never questioned.

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Rod leaving probably won't change much in the game style, but it should hopefully alter Gameplay a little. A Creator who is MMO and RPG motived is obviously going to come up with ideas that reflect this, wheras someone who has been part of Simulation titles, like Suzetter mentioned before about Lucy Bradshaw, who works on SPORE. Heck, I'd love anyone working on SPORE or from the Maxis team, or even similar titles.. though there are few.
Still, Rod's departure could either mean lots of changes, a new era of game.. or just a new face on the same problem.
What I think Sims 3's EPs are lacking is the unfocused style, Sims 2 EPs were adding stuff for your sims to do in a different way, Sims 3 EPs are adding stuff to be used to "create Sims for these paths". I want a Sim who likes playing Football, who has been on holiday to the Far East, but now works as a firefighter and made a Servo in their spare time. Not an Inventor sim, a Football sim, a Traveller Sim, and a Firefigher sim. Also, Sims 2's early days were about creating "Generations", familes. Sims 3 was about "Creating unique Sims"; Because of this focus, we gained a lot of interactions and set paths for our sims to go down, but only need the rest of the town as Backdrop for occasional tinkering about with. Or maybe that's just me. *Shrugs*

YES! Put the focus back on the Sims themselves rather then their jobs and social status in the neighborhood.

Love the cartoon! Sims never question the Mystery Man leaving a box of magical equipment on the lawn either.