Other than A(which Sims has BEEN doing), these are all just whines of a fan who will probably suck it up and buy TS4 anyway.
It's far more likely they're just behind in development, or EA is forcing them not to talk. I'd say the former, because they've been saying stuff like 'we still haven't worked out the system requirements' and 'we're planning on adding more hair types' and 'we're working on lessening loading times,' as well as just not having legitimate gameplay outside of CAS and build mode done.

Again, if they can say "we're planning on adding more hair types", why can they not say "we're planning on including swimming pools"?

You obviously don't follow many games in development This kind of response is completely typical. If they tell people stuff and it changes, there's an uproar... so since people can't cope with change, they don't tell. And there's still an uproar But it's smaller.

At the very latest, you will know by release if there are pools... and everything else about the game. (Probably well before release in fact, since typically there's a hands on session with at least a select group prior to release, as well as press previews.) So if this kind of stuff is critical to you, just wait till you know before deciding whether to buy.

Because they also said 'Unfortunately, we need to add loading screens' and have broken other bad news to us before.
Clearly pools are in a gray zone where they're unsure about it. Maybe they don't know if they have enough time to add it.

You don't say!!

You're absolutely right, though. I think a lot of game companies have learned to under-promise and over-deliver, but it could be something as silly as pools wasn't placed on the list of things cleared for public consumption by E3, probably as an oversight because of course there will be pools. Clearly EAxis has under-estimated the anal-retentiveness some of their player base. Or rather some of their former player base who swear up and down they won't play the new game.

Hah, nah, every game community has some of that They know they'll get that response, but they lose a lot more by catering to those people than by ignoring em :p

If they're still working on adding content, they really need to hurry, because the release date is only 3 months away. If they still have major work to do, they're already in a bit of trouble. You can do a lot in 3 months, but there are limits as to what is possible to chunk into a game if you want everything to work perfectly, and you want to play-test to make sure everything is working perfec...

Who am I kidding? We'll get a somewhat working basegame with not so much content as we'd hoped, and a halfway working patch some months later, that screws other things up.

I can see how it might be smart not to comment on certain aspects of a game that is still in development.

My problem with the "no comment" response to questions about the swimming pool is the fact that it's such a basic feature that has been around since 2000. Yes, it's a different game. But if the developers aren't confident that they can include said feature in the base game without a hitch, why should potential customers buy their product?

It's like asking someone to believe you can move mountains when you can't even pick up a rock.

No, it isn't. It's like asking customers to purchase a game based on the features that have been presented. I don't really understand why you seem to think the development team is trying to pull a fast one on you, or believe that they're doing the game equivalent of "move mountains" -- what does that even mean, anyway, other than I'm a naysayer, I say nay! It's a meaningless noise that offers no analysis.

People will buy the product for what features it contains, or they won't. I don't understand at all your contention that they're somehow coercing you to buy something lacking in the features you require. You're not really making any sense.

So EA expects people to pay about $70 for CAS, Build Mode, adult sims talking, children playing, grannies with no tolerance for bad poetry, jocks dying of laughter, half the neighborhood getting on rocket ships, and evil dictators being eaten by a cowplant?

Just because I don't feel pressured to purchase a game doesn't mean I can't have an opinion on it.

It's EIGHTY DAYS to release. Eighty days out from TS3, you would have been throwing a tantrum about any number of things because they hadn't been specifically confirmed, or changes that were made between TS1 and TS2, or TS2 and TS3. It's almost as if you weren't paying attention the last two times we've done this -- and the countless other times we've seen games release not in the same franchise.

By all mean bitch and complain, but don't expect to peddle your logical fallacies unchallenged just because everyone is entitled to their opinion.

And now, a turtle:

You can't expect people to not bitch and moan about things they've come to expect when they're loyal customers to the fan-base...I suppose I am one of them since I started this thread. But I think we're all pointing fingers in the wrong directions when we're getting angry about unnecessary features being added and the ones we believe to be absolutely imperative being removed.

I believe that The Sims 4 is being seriously underdeveloped, with all the resources going toward CAS, Build Mode, and possibly emotions (but only time will tell). It would be in their best interests to learn from the mistakes of The Sims 3 and just delay the launch of the game to be absolutely freaking certain that the game will be as stable and powerful as they claim they're trying to make it be, with or without pools, CASt, or car door animations.

But please, for the love of all that's good and holy, no bugs or glitches...

--Sapphire

Ya know..I don't like pools even in real life. So much to maintain and ya can get all them flesh-eating viruses at the local pool. I'd much rather have a hot tub. And anyway...if we get pools in the Sims 4, I'd rather them in an expansion that way we actually get well functioning and more interactive pools rather than in ts3 that are beyond boring.

I actually get what you mean in the second part of your post. TS3 pools were kind of... useless. No diving boards, almost no accessories, and only two interactions. They were pretty, sure, but it was kind of silly that they barely had anything functional about them. At least if it comes in an EP, we'll be more likely to get pool slides, group interactions like marco polo, etc. associated with them. (But to be honest I think we should have gotten all those things in the TS3 and now TS4 base games... )

And you might have a point if this 'no pools' business wasn't entirely conjecture and pants-wetting hysteria.

That's also something we've come to expect with the release of every new Sims game, is it not? Think about it...no release of OFB in TS3 and everybody loses their minds.
This "conjecture" that you speak of is that there will be no pools in the base game but that they probably will be added later on. I can live with that, so long as they honest to God devote the time they didn't spend on adding pools right away to making the base game as bug-free as an exterminator's house.

--Sapphire