EA apparently has adopted a marketing strategy that instead of starting us with everything we had in the Sims 2, they will dribble it out to us a few items at a time. In every EP we see several items which we had in Sims 2, but which were held out of Sims 3. While, at first, this may appear to be a clever marketing ploy to sell us what we have already purchased int he past, is it really backfiring on EA?

I ask this because it is pretty clear that there are things that the Simming community wants, like pets, weather, diving boards, board games, helicopters, real apartments, university life and magic. We had all of this in Sims 2, and more. We know EA can do it. We know there are hooks in the game that allow for the addition of these items.

Yet, here we are, at 2 1/2 years since the Sims 3 was released, and we still do not have all of the functionality of Sims2, while EA continues to dribble out that functionality at a glacial pace.

Is this backfiring on them?

For example, they are releasing Showtime, which now has received the moniker of "Sht" in the community. What has people upset is that it is not seasons and it does not offer us more of the items that we have come to expect with the game.

I suspect that the response to this new supplement would be far more positive if we already had Seasons, Open for Business, University, and Freetime in our game rather than something untried and unproven.

Is Sims 3 to be a rehash of Sims 2 with an open world? And if it is, why will it take EA a decade to get us back to where we were when the Sims 2 franchise ended?

They've made a completely new engine for the game, and most items have to be completely remade. Of course they're not going to give us everything for TS2 for TS3 base game all in one go - even assuming that was a good idea from a marketing standpoint (which it's not), TS2 took years to complete all the EPs/SPs, which means a LOT of work to make the stuff in the first place. If we wanted a "complete" TS3 from the beginning, we'd have been waiting another 5+ years to get it, and the expense of producing ALL that content all in one go would mean it wouldn't be feasible to price it at the $40-50 price point that new games generally come out at - which would make it out of reach for many sims gamers who wouldn't be able/willing to pay $200 or whatever for one game, even if it was as robust as a game with half a dozen EPs would be.

The fact that they're still putting out EPs and folks seem to be buying them means that nope, it's not backfiring - as long as they're still selling well, they'll keep it up. If ya don't like it, vote with your wallet and don't buy the EPs.

Just saw the next post, and yes, I am voting with my wallet.

The store is the worst. $10 and $20 for a handful of junk. I don't buy anything from the store.

I revisit Sims 2 on occasion and am charmed by it all over again. Sims 3 has lost that charm. I am not buying Sims 3 EPs anymore.

No competition.
We need a rival series.

Example: The Ridge Racer series used to be the king.
Rage Racer (Ridge Racer 3) had a mere 4 cars. 4!!
Then came along Gran Turismo, giving us 180 cars. The new game was the winner.
Ridge Racer 4 then gave us something like 300 cars in response.

See what happens when there's a bit of competition? The bar gets raised. We need that here.

I don't expect anything from EA. This way I'm never disappointed. I'd LOVE weather, but I'm not expecting it from them. Therefore the announcement of SHT has not angered me like it has angered so many people. I don't see the point; life's too short!

The Fog Emitter can produce a lot of different effects, such a rain and snowfall, so the potential for weather appears to be in the game already. See this thread: Ambitions "Fog emitter" can show other effects

Personally, I don't quite understand the obsession with celebrityhood, fame, and all that. I don't watch American Idol or any of the reality TV shows--people bickering and being rude to each other??? Yuck. Not funny or interesting. But obviously a lot of people are amused by these shows or they wouldn't be on TV year after year. Guess that's why EA thinks they can sell us another expansion pack about it.

But back on point, HP is right. Vote with your wallet. It's the only thing EA will ever understand.

and if they made every thing TS2 had, we'll turn out and say: what!! they are just doing everything all over again!
i just don't know they have to make it very intersting so soon =D and yeah. its not easy to do all what happened in ts2 in just this period since ts3 came out

The reason I'm not buying SHT isn't because it's not Seasons, but because it's more Fame careers. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, others have expressed their distaste for the theme for what it is, not just because it isn't weather.

Except for the jukebox and pool table, the EP has nothing I'm interested in adding to my game, especially when I think of the autonomous actions/wants that will be added. I see many mods being created to stop/lessen them.

Not to mention many Sims will want to be a friggin' DJ or Rock Star and that just isn't realistic even for this game. I am not a fan of the "American Idol" type of shows and have no desire to turn my game into one of them.

Will my wallet be speaking loudly? Yep. I will be most happy to hold on to the 40 bucks not spent on this EP.

I am not angry about SHT although I am concerned about the online stuff. While I would love a business pack or weather, that is certainly not the reason I would be disappointed in an EP. I think SHT, aside from the online bit, simply doesn't seem to have much to make it attractive to me. I don't usually play celebrities and prefer quirky small towns. Another celebrity pack just seems a waste of EP space. Now, my daughters would love it so we might get it for them......although that depends on how the online stuff works.

It cracks me up to hear people complain that the Sims 3 doesn't have what the Sims 2 has. When the Sims 2 first came out, as interesting as it was, it lacks loads and people complained that it did not have what Sims 1 did. I don't think these games are intended to be complete duplicates with the only difference being the technology employed to make them. So far, the expansion packs are giving the Sims 3 character. I know people who were gaga over it from the word go and, for me, it hasn't clicked until generations.

Of course, each to his own, I just find it amusing that the comments are so similar from one Sims game to the other.

Hubby and I do vote with our wallets. We wanted Generations and we both finally got it. I didn't want Pets so I never got it. He did and he bought it. With SHT coming up the pipe, we both took a read at what it had to offer and decided.. nope, not for us. The Sims is a game where each of us lives in that little world for a short time and we enjoy it tremendously. We're both heavy into MMORPG's and since we aren't getting SHT, we decided to pre-order and play EA/Bioware's Star Wars:The Old Republic in it's place.

We're both disappointed that weather hasn't been released yet.. if at all. I'm seriously starting to have doubts about it. Sims 3 is lacking in many things that Sims 2 has and you'll always get comparisons - no getting away from it. And not just in Sims games, in all games in all genres. The one that really irks me the most is World of Warcraft compared to <insert an MMORPG title here>. Don't even get me started

In the end, we (the players in general) will decide what's good for our game and our gaming style and pick and choose. I know some out there will buy it regardless because they have to have the full set but I'm not one of them. If I won't use/play it, it's not going to be in my house taking up real estate space just because I need the whole set.

The Sims are not intended to be exact duplicates of each other, but their development tactic makes the game prone to be like that. Why? Because we get per game, 7+ EPs, and then they restart from the beginning. Maybe if the EPs were the same but greatly improved it could be overlooked. But that's not the case and, sometimes, EPs are even worse than previous ones, and I'm not talking about TS2 vs TS3, I'm talking about TS1, TS2 and TS3 all together. So if The Sims 4 starts all over again, then people will still ask again for Pets, Seasons, etc.

But the single idea that every game has to skip content is completely scary. Why (for example), if The Sims 4 has beautiful graphics, great gameplay, has just a few glitches, and has already an EP where you can create functional parks, aquariums, and zoos, it has an EP that unlocks most professions so that you can control your sims at work, etc. etc., has to omit good content such as weather or let's say, fully functional apartments? So if I want to play a good Late Night EP, I have to go back to TS3, if I want to play a good Superstar EP, i have to go all the way back to TS1, if I want real apartments, I have to go to TS2.

The tactic of Main Game + 7 EPS / Start over, new engine / Main Game 2 + 8 EPS + 8 SPS / Start over, new engine / Main Game 3 + X EPS + X SPS is not that good at all at this point. If this keeps up then we are always going to hear "The Sims X is missing what The Sims X had", or "This EP is crap compared to the one for The Sims X".

The jump from TS1 to TS2 was huge, and we got tons of content not seen in TS1 while at the same time TS2 missed very few content from TS1. However, it was from a 2D game with no aging (and other stuff), to a new 3D with beautiful graphics game, with wishes and fears, a whole aging system, etc. The EPs added things never seen before (businesses, university, hobbies, apartments, supernatural creatures, seasons, etc) while keeping most of the content from TS1. However, it is not that easy at all to keep that trend. It is not as easy to, for The Sims 3, keep most of the content, use a new engine, and still keep coming with a lot of new stuff(not at the pace they release the EPs and SPs). There's so much content that can be added to The Sims, never touched before, but with this system, I doubt it will come any fast.

When sims 3 came without weather, i promised myself i would not spend one more dime buying things again and again from EA. i bought pets twice, nightlife twice, and that was it to me. of course as it turned out, I hated sims 3 so buying anything else for it just was not necessary, as i won't be needing expansions for a game i don't play. I get HP's point, but in my heart, I think EA should give us the good stuff in the base games and then build on to that, like the original game. Of course, the base game would probably be HUGE and no one would be able to afford it, though.

The problem I keep having is that, while I'm enjoying the last couple of expansions - Pets and Generations, I still get bored rather quickly with Sims 3 and still haven't figured out why. There's so much to do in the game, you would think it would hold my attention longer. Anyway, it's there when I want it and I do seem to want it from time to time.

TS2 never shipped with everything a fully expanded TS1 had so I really don't understand why so many people expected TS3 to have everything that TS2 had. And it's not like EA wasn't holing back any features back with TS2. There were early screenshots of the basegame that had weather in them, albeit it didn't look as developed as what we got with seasons, but there was at least a semifuctioning version of it early on the base game, and we still had to wait a few years for it to be put in an EP instead.

I do agree that EA has made several bad decisions (like marketing SHT in a way that was too similar to LN's strategy) when it came to TS3, but they also made several bad decisions when it came to TS2 and they've also made several good decisions when it come to TS3, like making it harder to explode your neighborhood than it was in TS2.
Blah, I put a lot of complaints in this fandom down to nostalgia goggles.

I don't know if EA marketing is backfiring, but all I know we are weaponless........

I mean, EA can do anything they want, and we can do nothing about it.

EA can screw up with the next TS3 EP and the rest of EPs........and we keep buy it, because there's no other choice.

We have no choice? Have you been playing with free will off again?

Releasing buggy games is nothing new. It's been going on since the days of Sims 1 in this series. It's not right, but as fans we put up with it because we like the product overall so darned much. That does bother me to an extent. But what bothers me more is when expansions and stuff packs are released without enough content to them. Then I feel truly ripped off.

The difference being, in TS2 we saw many new features never seen before full of new content, and over time we saw what the Sims 1 had hopefully improved. People were expecting more new things than what we actually have, and they were also expecting to see what we had in TS2 in its full content back in TS3. But your point stands, I never expected TS3 to be shipped with everything TS2 and its EPs had. What I did expect was, more new content. But the way EA does it makes it hard for themselves to actually add more content and keep what we had before.

Also, EA made it harder in TS3 for us to implode the hood, but the cost? The hood has a high chance of imploding on its own without mods. Neither of both games will implode instantly, it is corruption over time. Which one would you rather have?

We all have a choice. If you don't like what EA is doing with Sims 3, play the Sims 3 EPs that you like, but don't buy the ones that you don't. Or, go back to Sims 2. Or, turn off your computer and go for a walk.

If you are unwilling to do anything else, that's because you are choosing to buy the EPs, over the alternatives.

And in TS3, we got a lot of new features never seen before too - moodlets, the CAST system (which is AMAZING - not having to have umptyjillion recolours of everything? YAY!), the open neighborhood, story progression, collectibles, shoes separate from outfits... We also got TS2 features in the base game which, for TS2, were EP-only (gardening, cars, young adults separate from adults, accessories). I'm probably forgetting a lot of other stuff too.

Of course, whether one -likes- those features is a different story, but my main point is that TS3 base game was not just a new engine and prettier graphics version of TS2 base game.... Not the reset back to utter basics that some folks seem to be making it out to be.

Couldn't have said this better myself. Well, I did try.

TS3 came with a lot of what only came in expansion in TS2, or didn't come at all. Exactly the same as with the transition between TS1 and TS2. I keep seeing people describe the transition as a 'big step backwards', but I don't see it that way.

I did appreciate what was added in the base game and played that game to 5 generations before WA update destroyed my save. Yeah I might gripe about what the EPs had that could have been added in the base game, also recognize that EA was adding certain popular features that will help sell the EP. I bought those EPs, mainly because I must have all the experiences for my sims. Now it is too early to see or even make a projection, but the latest marketing turning Sims 3 online, multiplayer might not be as good as they think it will be.

I am watching this one.

The funniest comment today :D



Very true. People just don't seem to remember all the game breaking bugs TS2 had. Their games are now all patched up either with EA patches, or community fixes. TS2 is perfectly capable of breaking up the hood on it's own, just like TS3 is. People also don't seem to remember all the disappointment posts written about the EP's when they came out in TS2, or all the bug complaints people had after EP's were installed but no EA or community fixed were yet available. There is a still a very active help section for TS2, and it's very easy to check out the older posts to see what it was like back then.

I don't care for the social aspect of SHT but I'll get the EP anyway. There is always something good in all EP's. Uni and BV were EP's where I pretty much ditched the main idea of the EP, uni and travelling because they were just dull and repetitive in my oppinnion. But I still had the EP's installed for the other things they added to the game like the objects and interactions. FT and AL I didn't get to experience that much, because they were never ported to macs and I didn't switch to a Window computer until about six month before TS3 came out. But those two were probably the most frustrating EP's I've ever had the pleasure to get acquaintance with. Starting from the constant hobby spam, the eternal platinum aspiration meter that took the joy out of the game when you could no longer have Sims in bad moods, to the horrid apartment neighbours to the landlord from hell. But I still kept those EP's installed because of the other aspects that they provided to the game. And the good thing about getting those two EP's so late, was that there were then already patches, and mods to fix the bugs EA left + to remove all the annoying stuff that spoiled my gameplay.

And about choice. Basically what Mootilda said, there is always a choice, even if it means not playing.

I think I phrased the sentence in the wrong way. When I said TS2 had many new features never seen before I meant the whole game + the EPs. I didn't mean to say that TS2 base game had many features never seen before and TS3 had none xD.

I'm talking about whole new things after the base game, new sets, new systems. CAST system is something big, open neighborhood is as well. But in terms of EPs, I'd call something new, the Universities, a whole new set of features not seen before, so was Apartment Life, Open For Business, etc. The theme of the EP itself is something new. And that's what I'm not seeing anymore. All the EPs up to know, we have seen them before, and most likely, they have less content here because they try to be compilations than in the previous games, because they were full EPs about one thing. I'm just seeing little new features that most likely resemble previous ones. (Not the social ones of course)

Not comparable. The Sims 2 hood won't break up on its own if you don't do what you shouldn't. I played a hood where I deleted sims to the bin, moved people from other hoods to mine, deleted urns, etc., the hood lasted 2 months before it came down to unplayable. I had 6 friends that played TS2, we knew what to do. The longest hood lasted for 1 year and a half, the shortest, 10 months. That was back when we got Pets, after that, we used Pescado's mods, our games literally never became corrupted again.

TS3 can break on its own even if you don't do anything wrong. Sudden lag? Let's check the whole city. OMGOSH half the city is clogged at the disco! WTH!!! Yea, it happens. Even with AM and Twallan's mods, sometimes they'll not guarantee you 100% safety. There's no way you can compare how prone to corruption on its own a hood is in TS2 to how prone it is in TS3.