I think the IF I posted is an extremely long shot also, and I think what you say is far more likely to happen. I agree. It is all about corporations and $$$$$$.

Statics don't bother me ever, I wouldn't care less if there was only 5 people browsing the Sims 4 forums, I enjoy the game I glad the forum is there to be used.

I enjoy your posts for that reason.

I would, what's the point of having a forum if there's no one on it? I know places where it's entirely reasonable to post something and not get any replies for days - and I don't like it. Here on MTS, at least on the TS3 board that I post on the most, that's the exception rather than the rule.

the rumor i heard from a college student looking to get into the gaming industry as an animator was that the sims has no future because of things going on behind the scenes at ea, this post sounds like it backs that rumor up. PC gaming is also losing it's physical presence in stores across the country and emphasis everywhere seems to fall on console or app games. It is sad to discover but I can replay my sims games for as long as i keep them around and have access to them, and that will keep me content

edit: my guess is they will try to stretch out sims 4's lifespan as long as possible and then end the franchise afterwards

I blame social media and smart phones shortening everybody's attention spans, case in point, the community brought back TSO, a game I dearly loved and played for hours on end and it kept me entertained, now I can barely play it without playing something else at the same time, because I find it boring, especially skilling, no matter how much I chat with other players, I just cannot concentrate on it, and it is horrifying.

We have to have everything quick quick nobody wants to take the time to do anything anymore, and everyone has to have everything on there smart phone so they can keep there nose buried in them all the time.

Well there's certainly a lot more going on these days. Most of us hear from more friends each day than we would have done when it was harder to contact each other, and especially hard to speak to more than one person at once without physically meeting up. Now life is like one long party. Or, if you throw in the increasing rate of unpleasant world events, one long party with frequent funerals thrown in. Personally I think my own attention span shortened after I discovered one day I had been concentrating on something, that I had missed the news stations flooding with news of London terrorist attacks. I didn't know anything was going on until Peter phoned and announced that he was safe, which he wasn't able to do till a couple of hours after the event due to the phone lines being clogged. I had no idea that while I was concentrating on (what was it? I think I might have been modding the game) that he had missed being blown up on a tube train by about 2 minutes. After that I found that ever since I have to check media frequently. I think it's called hypervigilance (well mine is only to a degree but I think it's part of the same phenomenon spectrum). I wonder how much that sort of thing could be at the root of shortening attention spans in many of us - the need to keep checking some horrendous event isn't unfolding.

Are you talking about the original TSO or the recent reboot? With the original, there were many players who would set their Sims to skill and then go take a shower or cook a meal in real life. Some would weigh their keyboards down with an object so that their Sim would stay someplace and it was always so sad to see those Sims crying in their failure state. I didn't blame the players. The fun of TSO was the opportunity to create certain types of social situations and watching someone skill was up there with watching paint dry.

I agree with this - partiers are not the target audience, but it's always felt like that was the push by the developers since Sims 1. Remember the constant need to socialize, especially to get promotions? Connecting with other Sims seemed to drive the games mechanic. Same with the Sims 2 with the "popularity" aspiration and the set up for fighting between certain Sims, or even the desire to fight. Most Simmers learned to deal with it or learned ways around it, but for most of us, it was never the focus of the play the way it felt like the developers were pushing it.

Inge... That's so sad, and you could be right.

paradox just released a new expansion for cities skylines called mass transit. and it is fantastic they even added mods made by fans to the official game. EA need to take some lessons from THESE guys!

It's times like this that make me glad I avoided the whole smart phone addiction train. I can still happily sit and marathon PC games for 8, 10, 12 hours at a time (with snack and bathroom breaks of course.) I think one time when a new game came out I played for 72 hours before finally going to sleep. That would have been one hell of a livestream xD. Mobile be-damned, we as a community need to work to preserve good old fashioned PC gaming! :D

I can only speak for myself, but if I'm going to spend several hours playing a game, I prefer to sit on a nice comfy recliner with my feet up, especially if I worked all day. That wasn't true when I started playing Sims, but I was nearly 20 years younger then.

In the past, consoles were inferior to computer gaming in almost every area. That's not true anymore. They have great visuals (especially if you have a nice big 4k tv), decent processing power, adequate storage AND they are relatively cheap. Plus, when you are finished a game you can trade it in towards the next game you buy. What's not to love? And apps can be played anywhere, on just about anything that can fit into a mid-sized purse. No trying to balance a laptop on your knees while you are riding the train/bus or lugging it around with you all day.

I still play games on my pc but they are mostly ones that are heavily modded or really need a mouse to play, like Sims, Tropico, and Planet Coaster. And I don't play for 8 or 10 hours like I used to in the past. Everything else is on a console or my ipad.

My phone, OTOH can usually be found dead in the bottom of my purse or down the back of the couch.

I didn't start enjoying the game until the WickedWhims mod came out.

The parallels between how Simmers and WoW players seem to have such a love-hate relationship with their favorite game amuses me. x)