I know we've had low windows before, but not that style - all pelmetted and stuff. Those look like the type of windows that are usually tall. How about if the "+" thing between the rotate icons was for ceiling height?

But... people are still buying it! That's the point. As long as people are buying the expansion packs, EA will continue to release expansion packs. It's not a question about respect, it's a question about demand and supply, as with every other business in the world.

The only way EA would have to re-think their way of handling things (EPs, SPs, selling the good items through their store) is if another game came along and threatened to "steal" their players and income. That hasn't happened, and probably won't happen, so EA will continue doing this.

As much as I can't stand the Store, if it were dirt cheap, I'd prefer that to SPs because of the variety of individual items and sets that do not require an .exe installation. I mean, at this rate, what is the point of SPs? Hasn't the Store now been accessible worldwide? Just stick to EPs and load them up with hella-good content and features.

I just wanted to thank you for posting this! I often use sandbox interchangeably with simulation and you've expressed what I really meant and what I want out of the game as well. I asked in a tweet last night if Graham could clarify what he means by sandbox, since it didn't make any sense to me for him to ask if we wanted sandbox or if we wanted shopping!

So thank you for posting this very accurate description of what I awkwardly tried to say. You explained it so much better than I did!

I hope they are listening. I hope Graham does share your post with the whole TS4 team. Simulation got replaced with questing and "unlocking" in TS3, and linear do once gameplay, or the other extreme, unlocking everything (which is apparently what Graham refers to as sandbox). But that turned it into a whole different game, IMO. I want the simulation back. Like Inge said, I don't really want a game, I want a toy!

Oh thank you, you're going to make me blush ;-) A good night of sleep works miracle to clarify the mind.

It's very normal that there's some confusion on terminology between the developers and us, and to some extent, nobody should be blamed. We players are just that, players, and no game designers nor software/PC/electronic specialists. And the game designers/producers work all the time on their projects and so lose the ability to see it from an outsider/distant point of view.

This happens in all the trades and that's why it's very important to talk and communicate simply and directly. Graham does it naturally and it's great, we can't thank him enough for that (and EA should thank him too). I wish more of his colleagues would do it, and I wish the bean counters would understand that it's very important to spend a minimum of $ on that too.

And surveys/polls aren't enough either to know what people want. What type of questions is asked, how they are worded, on which subjects, those are all ways to influence the results of the survey and miss important points in the end.

If only EA could end their policy of secrecy and silence, the adequacy of the game designed and the satisfaction of their customers would probably improve.

Stuff packs could have been a way to add incredibly smaller portions of gameplay and add additions to the game the store team wouldn't have the opportunity to do. Sadly, the store is doing that.

There could have been a stuff pack in created strictly for the purpose of Home Improvement - Improved or even new types of appliances, sleek plumbing, architectural accents and landscaping additions, since that's an area of 3 that's be completely neglected. In that regard, a stuff pack would have been the perfect opportunity to fill in that gap, depending on how it's designed. It wouldn't be full of a set matching pieces, but odds and ends that cross a variety of architectural and design styles.

The store could do that, but they don't often release 50 or 60 objects at one time, nor do the sets have any real purpose except selling something. Stuff packs never really had a purpose in 3, but the addition of the outdoor kitchen was more than welcome.

Now, I want to design a stuff pack. -_-

i recommend you all the new video of thejessachannel where she reviews all the new info in themagazine, commentaries and also a pdf so you an read it (in english, not german).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppm7Q7zGPWY

Care to translate that for us non-german speakers?

I don't really know what to say about these screenshots. I don't mind the sims themselves or the exterior shots too much even if none of it is awe-inspiring but I am finding the interiors extremely unappealing visually. I understand how TS2 evolved into TS3 but this is styled in such a different fashion, like an online free to play game or early console. Regardless of whether one likes the style of furniture portrayed, the lighting, the odd textures and the overly cartoony simplistic atmosphere does not feel like the next step. I think something went horribly wrong here.

With EA's development habíts, shouldn't they start to work on TS5 by now? Maybe TS5 is going to be what TS4 should have been, as in a step up from TS3 - maybe even from TS2, but let's not get too optimistic.
For TS4 they wasted years developing an online RPG type game. It still shows, unfortunately. If they start working on TS5 about now, they already know online won't work. So maybe a lot more energy can be put to good use in developing features that actually work...

So, even if I not only skip TS3, but also TS4 (which is not yet decided, but rather likely), I still won't give up the franchise.

It will happen eventually, its just a matter of when. It'd be awesome if Valve did; they know how to treat and respect their customer base; they really take account of feedback from the community.

EP wise, I will never understand why simmers blindly buy EP's without researching.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have some early, early ideas for TS5. TS4 started in early 2008, apparently.

They probably will try and make it online again. Would it be stupid of them, since they apparently wasted four years developing Olympus? Yes. Is EA smart? No.

A lot of the Olympus stuff, which is apparently from when it was an online multiplayer game, looks very similar to TS4 in it's current state. My guess is that they were probably "lucky" enough to have completed most of the games design and instead had to just work on eliminating some of the online and multiplayer stuff. This might have not been too hard in itself; rather, I'm assuming the harder work came from adding things a single player, offline game would have, such as a good AI.

The online stuff still worries me. I don't want achievements. I'm loving the games look so far so I will be so disappointed if it's full of bugs, has an unstable game engine, terrible gameplay, almost always online, and has a bundle of multiplayer features still included. I wasn't as disappointed that TS3 sucked (imo) because I didn't like the look of the game anyway. The look isn't the most important thing to me, but if it's too hard for me to look at without hating it...

It's the same vice versa, though. The gameplay is very important to me. If I can look at it nicely (I originally said I didn't think TS4 was the "ooh! Pretty!" type of game, but the more I look at it, the more I do think it's pretty), but I can't play it and have fun, then it's equally as bad as me not being able to look at a game without hating it.

/end long, pointless, stupid rambling

You can really see the similarities between these 2 images, and since the picture PK gave us were obviously legit i'm guessing the other stuff he said was too, which would mean that image 1 was for a multiplayer game that was playable across computers and tablets and image 2 is the modified version of the scrapped original TS4..
I hope this game isn't a half-assed slap dash version because they only had 2 years to make it

I think they haven't scrapped anything and are just waiting to implement these "great ideas" (like Ryan Vaughan called them in GamesTM interview) until we're invested in the new game and more likely to buy them. They think we're rejecting all of the "great ideas" out of hand and that once we try them we'll love them. That's just my opinion, of course, I hope I'm wrong because I'd love a new Sims game.

Looking at these sshots and reading all the thread, I have the impression that EA TS4 team, many years ago, began to create TS4 thinking of a MMO. That would be their revolution: a simmic Second Life. We would play with real person.
In this context the saga would radically change: new task e new achievements: SOCIAL ones. For example meeting new (real) people, localizing friends, etc

Reasons I'm thinking this:
1. they talk about "AVATARS", and the fact that player will have a more emphatic relationship with his sim ("In The Sims 4, tangible emotional states replace the simplistic mood system inherent to each Sim, which The Sims Studio hopes will establish an empathetic connection between player and avatar.");
2. during TS3, in five years, the "social" phenomenon exploded, and they certainly study trends;
3. lower graphic (not to burst in case of a MMO);
4. UI very similar to sims social (the base of ts4?);
5. promo screehsots: where are toddlers or elderly? Those sshots represent us. the avatars. No toddlers can play mmo. Of course in the game we would produce families, but it was not important for a MMO promo.

I think they step off, maybe for simcity5 flop, or maybe they realize that will be a huge purpose.

I think it might be a regular wall with friezes on top that make the walls look higher. I know that you need to place friezes on top of a floor in the sims 3 but maybe you don't need to in the sims 4? Just guessing but... =P

I just had a horrible thought. What if by "avatar" they're saying that we can only choose one sim to play with...

The one in ingame shot we saw did have only one Sim in it. :o

/lays on the floor in a fetal position and cries

Yeah.. that's kind of the reason I was like o_o. Maybe I'm wrong and the wording was just a tad awkward.

But.. come to think of it... did anyone see anything in the articles which suggested playing with more than one sim?

If it isn't valve or some other developer, I can see a life sim game popping up on kickstarter eventually

I could've sworn I saw something about creating families, but that doesn't necessarily mean playing those families.

The survey mentioned the aging cycle from birth-death, so I doubt they got rid of ages. EA's not the brightest; they might focus on the YA/Adult lifestage, but I doubt they are that stupid to completely eliminate toddlers/kids/teens/elders, or to just make them NPCs.

...Right?

Yeah. Just an odd choice of words I guess. We'll see on the 20th, hopefully, in the trailer.

That is a truly horrible thought. I'd like to think that because they're using the plural "sims" rather than just "sim" that there is no basis for that but...

Ugh. If they do that, I won't be able to play around with my beloved "once-per-game" legacy challenge. No focus on the younger and older people = no fun. Besides -- I actually love sim children. They might be annoying little buggers sometimes, but they're okay. My avatar's a child. Heh. Avatar.

But to the point: if they make it so that it's constant focus on one sim, or one particular lifestage, then I'll be majorly ticked off. I'd be majorly disappointed, normally, but I don't expect great things from EA. They've made my expectations of them really, really low.

The trailer's on the 20th, everybody. We'll see then if it's worth our time (and money). Until then, let's all speculate like crazy.

Also, I think that the game looks like TS2 and feels like TS3. Hm. I'd prefer looks like TS2 and plays like TS2, but... eh. It could be worse. At least the houses, world, and sims seem nice. And the new CAS looks pretty snazzy. Just hopin' that there isn't a limit to how far I can stretch a sim's nose. The sliders had limits, but I dunno what's up with the new CAS. Hopefully we'll know by the end of the 20th.