So the term "Emotion" has been thrown around alot recently in the game industry. Such a vague term, What does that really mean? EA's sims 4 announcement claims that

Is "soul of the sims themselves" code for sims that actually seem alive and have better AI reminiscent of humanity's free will?

How do they plan exactly to be able to deliver a "deeper connection" in a sandbox game where that is dependent on you the story teller?

TBH ,based on the sims 4 eyes released picture, they don't look anymore "expressive" than the sims 3 characters we have now,

Does "most surprising" mean more varied animations than are not just animations that are recycled and named differently?

They certainly don't mean they are going to offer us any graphical fidelity.


So What do you think EA means when they say "emotion"?

TBH, your post title is a little misleading, as the EA quote doesn't ever mention the word "emotion". =)

But, my own take on it is that "the heart and soul of the Sims themselves" refers to going back to the humor and charm of the Sims from the first and early 2nd games. Since EA also made the announcement that creators and designers from those games were back and working on TS4.

By making the Sims more charming and have a more robust personality, players themselves will build a deeper relationship with the Sims they create.

And I totally agree that the "eyes" teaser looks exactly like TS3 Sims. I wasn't sure why that picture was anything special to get worked up over. =)

The gods only know what play on words we are getting, but if we accept it at face value, then I hope it means we are getting Sims that will behave more like our TS2 Sims than they will 3. But really, who knows? Time will tell.

Nothing can say about it now,we have to wait till august 20,then most things will be clear.God(and EA) know what it be like.......

I'm not reading anything into it at this point, it's a marketing buzz word as far as I'm concerned.

Well they're not exactly going to say "the players will have a cold and stale relationship with their pixel creations as the sims are lifeless and dull in this offline player experience" are they?

Truth in advertising.

When they said emotion I thought that sims will actually have properly animated facial expressions. Right now they look like they had a lot of Botox and they can't smile properly.

I guess they just picked a couple of random abstract words to gibberish the sentence.

What they said: "The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience."

What they really meant to say: "The Sims 4 will be Single-Player."

i'd rather see sims that look like they had botox than sims that look like they got hit in the face with a shovel

LMAO

Yes, please!

And you don't need to be online to play it.

... You know, I was expecting Uncanny Valley, but god damn, that looks really good.

Uncanny Valley=lazzy or bad animators.Good animator can create realistic characters emotions without uncanny valley effect(like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq1Nq2Zvv0Y or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhoYLp8CtXI )
So I don't understand why people scare that sims4 will be realistic and always talking about uncanny valley,like this can't be avoided.If there will be good animators everything would be fine...

There’s the rub ...

I think people don't know what they're asking for to be terribly honest. Those who want realistic sims probably wouldn't enjoy playing the game in the long run. The sims are animated, stylized, and exaggerated. Putting those animations to a realistic model would look off.

Also. The uncanny valley isn't just something that video game developers hide behind because they want to be lazy. It's an actual psychological phenomenon. I also think it's kinda rude to call animators lazy. To be honest, the first representation of good animation, the link of that guy talking, is motion capture. The second link, while good, was still a bit stiff. I think the current animations we have for the Sims are better than those.

I...uh....actually did get an "uncanny valley" feel from those videos :/

That's what Nemiga was saying, good animators can create realistic characters with real emotions without them going into uncanny valley, which was what those videos were showing.

Quite frankly the first one was quite scary as it looked really real to me (apart from around the mouth area), and the second one looked great and I think it would be good for sims.

With every new sims game in the series, the graphics have been in some way upgraded and I think most people think that with The Sims 4, the next step they will take will be into uncanny valley or at least almost there, but from what we've seen, it looks like they're taking a step back and are somewhere in between TS1 and TS2 graphics IMO. I expected them to take a step ahead of TS3 graphics wise but hoped they didn't go into uncanny valley, but it doesn't look like it's heading that way. I think The Sims series has always had a game/cartoony feel to it and it wouldn't be the same game if they went too realistic.
I like my games with some sort of cartoony feel as I really don't like anything too realistic.

What do they exactly mean by emotion? I don't get that. If they mean the rage that feel we at it when does not work then that seems sound.

I don't understand this opinion at all. Sims 3 had pudding faces and I see more definition in the "eyes" picture than I do in any of the Sims 3 sims photos over the last 4 years. (Namely the brow/bridge of nose area.) More definition means more poly/edges therefore they are higher poly than the sims 3. Graphics are technically going to better, just stylized.

Heck, the prototype sims posted for the rumored failed Olympus game looked higher poly than The Sims 3 sims and they were designed for an MMO style game.


Once again, the first video of the guy that Nemiga posted showing emotions.. that is motion capture. Any emotions/animations were done by the actor being recorded, not the animator. Sure, they could have easily been tweaked by an animator after and animators do need to slap the animation file on a rig, but it wasn't done frame by frame.

...as in Sim3. OMG those videos! I love "real" looking Sims - but I guess that's what people ment (?) - it's SO real, it was sort of scary. I can torture cartoony sims; but trying to "play" a Sim that looked so real -- year, it just would be scary!

The 1st time I read this TS4 producer's announcement I interpreted it the same as you. Bring back the "old humor and charm of TS1 and 2 that the simmers love so dearly". I never thought of "emotions" at all.

I agree - the quirks and goofy-ness of the Sims (in the correct dosage) is what makes it different and recognisable, not to mention fun.

If some players want a more 'realistic' game in terms of sim and object appearance, I dare say that the custom content will take care of that. Look at TS2! It's near enough a decade old and you can download skins and hair and clothes and everything that has sheen and texture and even a bit of animation. I'd rather have more cartoony than lifelike sims anyday - hence why I've stuck with 2 and never bothered with 3. Asthetics doesn't make characters come to life - actual character does!

'Emotion' should bring the sims alive through the charm and actions they are associated with (including new ones - why pay for what you already own?), rather than having them walk around like boring little dolls until you set them on fire. Their emotion is the reward for gameplay; watching their reactions , be it joy or terror, is what I aim for. I can't speak for anyone else though...

Medieval's faces were great, and it had some cool options for editing the face. I hope faces in TS4 will be even better.