Part of me feels like these jokes are lowkey a cry for help from the Sims Team! 😭 But on the other hand maybe they just can't read the room, and think they're joking WITH US when it actually comes across more like they're making a joke out of the community's concerns about the seemingly endless list of bugs people experience. 💀
@@SimmerErin being a gamedev myself I can confirm that the people writing the texts are usually not the ones that decide to release broken software. I think the dev team is suffering as well. Devs mostly like the work they do and want to deliver the best they can. Being forced to push out bad stuff might make them sad, bitter and sarcastic.
Since wedding stories has been out i have been realizing more that we already had marriage so there may be a higher chance that we WILL have to pay for updated babies
@@HH-yq6ch i mean toddlers they ADDED, not improved and then instead of giving us another update with more things for them they made a stuff pack of items that lets be honest shouldve been base game so.....wouldnt put it past them to make like a "baby shower" pack 🥴
@@julia-if5dm I think if we left it up to simmers everything would be base game (i would not argue with that at all), but that's not how this franchise operates. I didn't claim they improved anything. my point is that they can't charge us for a life stage like babies when they didn't charge us for the life stage of a toddler. also, it would be so wrong IF they charged us for the life stages of Sims. That needs to come embedded into the base game, and logistically speaking, it would make no sense to separate them from the base game Edit: I know the toddler update did not include the toddler stuff pack. I am only referring to the toddlers themselves as the addition to basegame.
I wish I knew more about what was going on-- what timelines, what resources etc. I do think the devs have some responsibility and more so though perhaps the managers at maxis. At the same time EA's obsession with pumping out content and its well deserved reputation speaks volumes. at some point if they ever get competition it's not going to be the best strategy.. but they really need something to make them want to change
@@SimmerErin finally someone said it. Everyone wants to blame EA and not their fav devs but I do think they're more responsible than they're letting on. I dont play a lot of EA games but the ones I do dont have overly rushed and messy updates/expansions. They do need more workers for sure but I don't think they're as innocent as some game changers say.
@@SimmerErin I am getting annoyed with the defense of devs. It IS ultimately up to EA but devs are choosing to stay there and continue to go with it. If my job wants me to do something I do not agree with, I look for a different job. I would have a major moral issue with putting out unfinished content all the time, worse every time, and charging for it and I would absolutely be looking for someone else to work for as opposed to staying and going with it. Devs aren’t innocent here.
@@erinkay2254 It is not that simple. They may very well love the game, love the projects, and love the fans, but the corporate structure is fucking them up. It can fall under the same kind of reaction and lack of action like a person staying in an abusive relationship. There's things that keep them hooked, but there's things that are awful as well.
On Twitter, someone pointed out that the pack being released coincided with the quarterly earnings report. If they had delayed it, they would have been missing that "income." By putting it out, they had income to report (even though the income from this pack and future packs is going to be down compared to what they eventually would have been since people are avoiding it and may never come back.) C-suites tend to look more at short-term earnings than long-term probabilities. That short-term thinking is not good if you have a long-running franchise. As the packs become more numerous (as is discussed in one of your quotes), there really needs to be an increase in QA assessments, not a decrease such as those you mention. I still want to see MWS compared to a game pack that has a world as well as complicated gameplay (such as Vampires.) I did screen shots of Vampires. I just have to get my "round tuit" so that I do the analysis!
Ahah I think they are certainly onto something there-- so they were pressured to release it regardless because they had to make that quota Okay, I'll keep that in mind, I keep forgetting 😅
They're legally required to pay attention to quarterly earnings and ignore what they're throwing away in terms of long term earnings because it they don't shareholders can sue the executives personally for imaginary "lost earnings" from that quarter.
@@PWNDON Of course that's why kits were made. I think that because of the pandemic they had to pull back on making gameplay heavy packs (because they take more time and resources). But they also needed to continue to bring in income. Kits (except for gameplay kits, as Bust the Dust shows) are easier to make and require less in the way of checking for inter-pack integration than packs. And they had ideas that have come up that are not enough for a "pack". Kits are the perfect niche answer to many of their worries.
I don't mind a few bugs or glitches. That's completely normal for a game that's constantly expanding and changing. But releasing a pack that's completely unplayable like the wedding stories pack is just ridiculous.
What kills me is that there are tons of simmers out there who would be willing to test the game for FREE! EA could add their name to the credits or something. All of these modders would jump on the chance to help. EA could give them a free copy for their time and effort. It just makes no sense for this situation to be this way. If they want more money, for income reports and the like, just make some sort of subscription service that includes random exclusive content, contests and other things that people would like.
@@Kattywagon29 thats an even worse idea. last thing this shit game needs is subscriptions for anything when we barely get anything as it is for $5-$40 a pack
@@Kattywagon29 I beta test alot of stuff including games and we must the time just get a free copy of the game which would be the best way to do this but you always have people that dont do the right thing and share their accounts with multiple people to play on so EA dont want this happening since leaks are already bad enough. They need to break down and anyone caught releasing copyrighted info on the game can and will be sued. Other games make me sign a NDA so if I leaked info they have the right to sue me.
I admit that them making jokes about the bugs feels a bit inappropriate, but on the other hand I think it's a sort of coping mechanism for them. I remember in my previous job, my co workers and I, over time we developed a whole set of dark humour, inside jokes about everything that went wrong, or wasn't how it's supposed to be, not because we didn't care, but because we cared so much that we needed those jokes just to cope with the situation.
…I fully admit to getting frustrated at times and naming variables/functions in my coding things like [tool]_is_broken or fixing_[tool] or no-soup-for-you 😉 Also, never stopping dancing is a bug I actually haven’t seen. Perhaps it was an inside joke about an early bug that actually was fixed?
@@bookcat123 No, the dancing bug is current and happening in my unmodded vanilla game. I have to fight with my sims constantly to get them to do ANYTHING, because they're always running to a stereo to dance. It doesn't even matter that their fun bar is topped out. They even stop eating to dance. It's just SO IRRITATING. And fairly new. They used to do it autonomously, but not nearly as much as they have in the last few months. I get so frustrated, I take their stereos away and stick them in household inventory if I'm trying to get them to do something specific. But hahaha, your variable names cracked me up. :D
@@HughLlewellyn I hadn’t heard that before! That’s… only funny because it’s not happening to me, sorry. I understand how frustrating that can be because I do the same with bars - keep them in household industry until they’re needed because otherwise my Sims will refuse to take care of themselves and just keep making drinks. 😂
Every game has bugs and glitches but it's unacceptable that MWS was released in the state that it is. They are still selling the game as we speak in its current state. Did they ever say when those two patches will be released? I wouldn't even consider buying it until I see gameplay AFTER the patches are out.
For sure. I think there's a big distinction between a few bugs vs something that is unplayable No, no dates on the patches yet. and I don't know for sure if the next patch will cover those fixes or be focused on (hate to say it) before the kit
As a programmer previously, I know for a fact that it is damn near impossible to have a perfect game/program. Every game will have bugs and glitches BUT those bugs and glitches should NEVER affect the core gameplay and should only ever happen in very rare scenarios. Technology is not perfect, it never will be, however this pack is just incredibly disappointing and reduces the trust of the sims franchise. I do not blame the devs at all, I blame EA 100% for only caring about money and not about the community. With how broken this pack is, I’m not even sure they’ve turned a profit at this point, and if they have… what is the community doing? I most definitely will not be buying this pack until majority of the bugs are fixed, and I really hope a lot of people do the same. MAYBE that will help EA realize they need to clean up their act…
I am with you. I always buy every pack but with this 1 I said no. Not until they fix it and I let them know that in the survey I got. I was really looking forward to it too so that is a shame.
@@queenbratbracken I am the same way, so it was very disappointing to see how they allowed this pack to launch when it doesn't work, embarassing even. That's EA for you though, they couldn't care less, they just want money.
very well said!' on one hand I think some expect perfection & that is not a reasonable standard. on the other, this is simply not functional. I think EA is a lot to blame-- I will say I think a little responsibility goes into the studio managers at maxis too
@@SimmerErin I’m sure maxis is also partly to blame but EA is the “big dog” and they continuously do this. Force games out before they are actually ready to be launched. When I was a programmer… if we released something like this… we would all be out of a job. It’s just straight up unacceptable. Things can go wrong, of course! And the sims is an extremely complicated game behind the scenes so I most definitely appreciate the devs and their ability to even program such a complex game, but there comes a point when quality of life NEEDS to be thought about BEFORE releasing further content that just adds to the complexity. It’s disappointing, not only as a simmer, but also as a programmer.
I think that they know that there's a good chunk of Simmers who are absolute chumps who will buy anything full price no matter what. That's why the people who say, "Stop complaining and be grateful for the game" are toxic to the entire community.
You get serious food poisoning from a restaurant... "stop complaining and be grateful for the meal" 🙄 as a consumer, you have the right to complain when you are sold something that doesn't work or is not to standard.
They statement is fitting sometimes, but if someone is saying it now 🤦♀️. Apparently "shut up and don't bother with sims." Is toxic 🤷♀️ but that's my opinion if you're one to always say because it's EA. It's been a mix of since ts4 started and just because they're in control of the franchise. 8-22 years of "because it's EA." Sounds like time to move on to me. Plus most people who argue that add on how EA doesn't give a rip, so really why complain? It's like the people who say there's constructive criticism and being an aft, and they get attacked like they actually said shut up. I've read a few things and it's definitely being an aft but people are going to defend it as constructive criticism as people are going to argue be greatfuk, because it's EA, they don't test etc.
I see a bit of both-- I see people dictating that people must be happy, and others dictating that people can't be happy. end of the day, the fault in my mind lies w/ poor management and a lack of proper competition
They were on the right track with pack refreshes. Beefing up already existing packs would still be profitable, and likely require fewer people working on it (who they could then put to work on TS5). The refresh made me want to buy Spa Day; I had zero interest in Spa Day when I got into TS4 in late 2019 (I was gifted like 8 packs that Christmas - made lockdown easier to deal with lol). Through all this, I keep coming back to one thing that EA could do that would make this less irksome: more transparency. As it is, we don’t see behind the curtain much at all and I think that’s a poor business practice. Looking forward to your next Paralives video!
Erin this has happened before, I used to watch all the livestreams before they became what they are today and there were times where they would laugh about what the community wanted like babies or whatever alluding that we might never get these things or say things like « the modders will fix it 😜» snarkly that’s why when people defend them I always give the side eye, they know our demands and they know we’re tired and that the modders will save the day for them. Harmless jokes or not it’s disrespectful we are paying money for this and it’s hard not to believe that they don’t care.
Whats crazy is that in the trailer for the Realm of Magic DLC, you can witness one of the bugs as it happens. The red suit with the silver moth on the lapel is broken and stretch for some reason in some weird way and if you watch for it, you'll see it behaving in that way when the wearer moves. Pathetic.
Still watching but I wondering if those descriptions were written by a disgruntled employee as a middle finger to EA and not the lm making fun of themselves. I still think they all knew and probably informed the higher ups who said “patch it later.”
Yeah I think I”m officially going to stop buy any and all packs after how things happened with My Wedding Stories. I’ll just wait and see what happens with the Sims 5 because it’s really painfully obvious that nothing can save the Sims 4. They had their chance to get a Final Fantasy 14 treatment but it looks like now is the time to just jump ship.
I'm in the same page. I had bought everything related to The Sims Franchise. Since the original until, well, The Sims 4 Cottage Living (I did bought Batuu, but just when it was on a big discount) but now I'm really thinking of not getting anything until the game (not just the Wedding pack) is fixed, or if they launch an occult pack.
So the year before I was feeling a bit better-- there was the refresh, which I thought was good. Paranormal was strong, and CL had some issues but not too bad. There were some bg updates too-- so I was hoping they were on a better track. I was also hoping that if anyhing came out of kits it would be more time to develop packs that worked well sigh
@@SimmerErin well... they already had the same issue with eco lifestyle and their MAPs, Dine out, Bust the Dust, ect. They just don't test their DLCs and I don't know why 🙄 I also had hope last year, that's why I bought everything back then, even the "bust the dust" kit (after it was patched, of course) because, even if I dislike the idea of kits I was happy at the time with the latest additions to the game. But now, well. I loved the new world and I would buy buy the pack solely for that reason, but I don't want broken weddings since they are important for my gameplay... maybe if they fix the pack alongside Dine Out, I would buy it. But less than that, I won't accept it :
@@SimmerErin It was beginning to feel a little more optimistic too the year before, but now it just feels like EA/Sims has burned out all the good will that there isn't much worth holding out for. Which sucks since I've been a fan since Sims 1, but it is what it is.
It just sounds like programmer jokes to me, I got that kind of stuff a lot. We would frequently joke about bugs. One developer used to joke, he didn’t accidentally create bugs, he designed Easter eggs for those cleaver enough to find them. Maybe it does look bad given to how buggy the game is, but as a programmer I find the item descriptions pretty humorous myself.
This (joking about how bugged things are, generally trying to cover serious problems with forced humour and giggling) is the type of stuff that has been causing people to turn against the Sim "gururs" since day one. They probably aim at a different reaction, but it's stuff like that which makes them come off as unprofessional in the eyes of a good chunk of the Sims community.
A little while back, I had the glitch where you cook a bunch of food, go to manage worlds, go back into your household, and then the food would be everlasting without an expiration date. I would happily have that glitch back. I found it amusing and even handy at times like whilst playing a university student who doesn't have as much time to cook. A glitch like that is amusing. Now, I have Dine Out and it's one of my favorite ways to play in Sims 4 - I love playing restaurant owners and customizing a restaurant to that sim's taste (literally). Other than long wait times on serving, I don't really have many issues with Dine Out. It's playable for me as long as I have a bit of patience. The glitches I've seen in My Wedding Stories (along with a whole host of other subjective reasons about the type of gameplay) just have me not wanting this pack in my game at all - not currently as it is and definitely not at the full USD$20 price point. I just think... $20 is about a week's worth of my groceries, so yeah. I have better things to spend that money on, so if I am spending my money on a Sims pack - the core three facets (live mode gameplay, build/buy, and CAS) better have enough versatility and functionality to make it worth my while.
In Sims3 I had a bug that allowed me to play the role sims. It was a bit like having them have active careers and was loads of fun - best bug ever. As for Dine Out, for me it generally works well enough unless the restaurant is too big, has too many tables or there weird N.A.P.s active that push the sims to constantly get up and mold clay or paint.
Yeah exactly, and those are very good examples. A small glitch is understandable, funny even. I know everyone has different experiences with Dine Out but I too mostly have very long wait times-- sometimes the food has not come, but it was isolated. point is it has a number of issues but... MWS almost shocked me. It's the main, and only gameplay and most of it barely works or doesn't for the majority -- it was by far the least functional I've ever seen a pack
@@SimmerErin Most DO problems as a guest come from the staff in NPC restaurants not being trained or the restaurant being too big and having too few cooking stations. If the waiters have low fitness they constantly drop things and if the restaurants is too large in size or table number things will take ages - especially if there is only one cook. I usually have hole-in-the-wall type restaurants and they work well enough (unless Vlad ends up being a waiter, he drops everything) but recently I tried a spacious one and eventually changed it into a bar so my sims could grab chips after waiting for a couple of hours. In regards to brokeness, I think, DHD would be a better comparison because that pack also mostly relies on one single gameplay feature some portions of which simply do not work due to restrictions.
Honestly I was feeling optimistic at the start of 2021. There were some major fixes to the base game like updated traits and updated BG hairs and The Spa Day refresh was a genuine improvement. After this I honestly think I've met my limit. I have a fairly good computer but I end up not getting very far before I rage quit the game when I encounter a bug. At this point the Sims 4 is getting onto 8 years old and EA can't just keep ordering Maxis to pile more content unless they start looking at seriously improving the foundations- if as you say it's even possible? I've seen some good points in the Sims 4 lifespan but honestly I just think it's time to wrap this up. I already have doubts about "Sims 5" (deliberately adding speech marks) and the potential of Paralives is very real!
I have been playing sims since SIMCITY, I really don't like how lazy they have gotten with the quality of their products. Unfortunately I don't think I will be purchasing much more in the future.
Sadly I don't think lazy accurately describes it--I think here are deeper issues, and I think if it was an issue of laziness, team members would be fired. Management is poor
Interesting video Erin. The fact that Gurus are poking fun at the bugs in their products shows to consumers that they really don't care. It's one thing to poke fun after a problem was fixed, but many players shell out hard earned money for this game and DLC. I see two possible outcomes for simulation games: one, interest dies out (highly unlikely) or two, another company controls the market on these types of games. These problem at E.A. is also going to hurt sales on TS5 when or if it comes out. Have a great day.
I'm not sure. It could also be their hands are a little tied, and they are making light of the situation. I think they do have some responsibility but it's always the question of management in general
I feel like this might be a reference to something else. There actually was a ‘dancing plague’ case of mass hysteria wherein people couldn’t stop dancing and danced until they physically couldn’t anymore. Also: it wouldn’t be the sims team that we should point fingers at necessarily. A lot of this undoubtedly comes down to EA as a whole and the pressure/restrictions they put on their devs.
Not only that but with their "better to dance poorly than not dancing at all" it feels like they are trying to say better to have a DLC than no DLC at all. But I'm sorry but no. If you want my money, I want value for my buck, and with the the Sims 4, I feel this hasn't been the case since launch. I mean there are some packs that have that value, but those are just a handful. And over the years, the Sims team made bad decisions from bad decisions. And I think the bug jokes show great insensibility to the community. EA hasn't even apologized, and lets face it, they probably won't, so joking about bugs is in my mind unsavory and they should have known better.
I mean… “better to dance poorly than not dance at all” is exactly the kind of cheesy express-yourself message Sims keeps using in marketing. And then the “dance like an inspirational quote” pokes fun at that. I think it’s a stretch to say they ever meant this to apply to DLC quality. The only part that actually references bugs is the “if you don’t stop dancing, it’s probably a bug” part. And as that’s not actually a bug I’ve heard of in game, and was likely written well before release, I think it’s just a joke. One that unfortunately aged poorly quickly because they didn’t get the pack working before the release date.
I think after they decided to release this pack (which they should not have) they should have offered refunds for whom wanted them and made a statement explaining what happened.
Sadly, I think they have a major problem in their testing process and delivery planning. In the interview, when they say "...but another fix came after testing and a bug appeared without being noticed..." : when you add a fix, you have to test again the whole game to check if it doesn't add bugs. That's what I ask to my dev team when we make fixes on a program, that's what should be done on the sims too. And if it's time consuming to do the whole testing again, then the problem is the planning and it should be fixed so the team has the time to do it. EA has a lot to answer for with the state of the game. I can't even open the game anymore these last few months because it's too slow and buggy... which makes me sad because I was so excited for MWS.
I’m wondering if the dance floor descriptions wasn’t because the pack was broken but just poking fun at past glitches, because (correct me if I’m wrong) I think they make the items and descriptions before they make the packs and I don’t think they were planning from the beginning for the pack to be broken.
To me it seems like a way to express their frustration at the situation, like if I was writing the descriptions and knew ea was going to put this garbage out no matter what, even with (probably) plenty of employees saying it wasn’t ready, honestly I’d probably write something similar. Being on the other side of it though, I can totally see how it comes across as mocking
that joke sounds more like sarcasm from employees forced to not do the jobs they signed up for to me. I know that feeling. Do your job, but DON'T do your job.....
I had cop that too. I noticed she PURPOSELY didn’t show us certain things because they knew it wouldn’t work! The sims wearing the color and style you choose for example. I am floored lol 😂 it made sense after the fact.
Roast away, Erin! There isn't a single flame here that isn't well-deserved, especially since they are still trying their best to sweep it under the rug and not have to acknowledge what happened. Remember when Journey to Batuu was announced and the community was so unhappy that VP Lyndsay Pearson released a letter to the community acknowledging that people weren't happy and reassuring everyone that they were listening and were aware that they were not delivering on some of the things the community was asking for? THAT is what needs to happen here. Someone high-ranking needs to address the community, period. If this does not happen, and they are unable to acknowledge that this situation is unacceptable and should never have happened, I really can't see myself feeling motivated to purchase more packs. It's a matter of principle, and of respect.
I imagine the decision to release a broken pack came down to money and a decision higher up to do it. In no way did they care about the customer experience and that upsets me. Carl's Sims found issues in the code right away and made a mod to help with some of them. If he could do it, why couldn't EA? I feel like the more people make jokes and say oh it is just the Sims, oh it is a glitch or bug and accept it the more the message is sent that people will just buy whatever they come out with in whatever state it is in.
I think it's far past time for "The Sims" to become its own gaming company that purely creates Sims games and nothing else, and releases content only when it's satisfied with the stability.
I understand the frustration of the community on the game play aspect of this pack. Consequently I haven't purchased it yet although I fully intend to. I've also stated previously that weddings are a single slice of storyline in the perspective of life events that have about the same game time duration of the mermaids in island living. You can only swim around so much before it's time to move on in the story. The real value of the pack like vampires, realm of magic etc. is the variety of objects and interactions relevant to "life" in general and so they belong as extensions to the base game. The fact that I can't have a baby at hospital or get the scientist's invention machine to spin and whirl smoke like it did or place the scientist's shower without it causing an exception doesn't keep me from enjoying the rest of get to work. My point is, capitalize and enjoy the objects of the game pack and really enjoy it when EA fixes the problems. For the money per object in the pack it's still a sweet deal -- IMO. Fixes will come.
I agree with everything you are saying. I have to be honest - I love Sims 4. I love the aesthetic (even over Sims 3, despite the open worlds). I'm more patient than most with issues around Dine Out, Island Living, etc. just because I've been playing my save game for over five years and as sappy as this may seem, my Sims are like my tiny creations at this point and when I need to escape from how stressful the world has become, I dive into their lives. This is important to me and it hurts my heart that we're supposedly just okay as a community to throw all that away. However, I am becoming so disappointed with new EA releases that I'm seriously considering not buying any more DLC and just playing the game I already have. If all future DLC will just break my game more, what's the point? And I'm not willing to put this same level of investment into Sims 5 if EA is fine with content eventually breaking.
Yes. I think people assume that one complains because they hate the game, but often the opposite is true. This pack seems to be in a different category. all packs have some issues just not like this level
There is definitely a difference between a few bugs or glitches being in a game when it's released, (sometimes a team won't catch them when they're testing so they aren't aware that it's an issue until it's released to the public and a lot more people are playing with it), and the pack being unplayable. The descriptions of these items tell me that the team was aware and probably bitter about not having the time they needed to fix it. Somebody saw the bugs and told the devs that it didn't matter and other things were more important, like the art. I can't know who exactly that was, but it's getting more and more obvious that while the team has more creative freedom, the priorities have been shifted and the devs don't have as much power. They weren't even allowed to address anything on social media until a week after the pack was released. I can see that the devs are losing their motivation and probably won't be sticking around much longer if they can help it.
On Monday, EA's official account on Twitter tweeted out "Here’s your reminder to: Have a good breakfast, get your steps in, drink your water." The comments to that tweet are overflowing with people angry about major bugs and problems across all games. The "jokes" in the dance floors and the repetition of it really feels like this might be a motto or something that the team is being told by higher ups. "It doesn't matter if it's perfect, you just have to get it done." "Don't stop working on this until it is done." Then the team knows it's broken so saying "If you can't stop maybe that's a bug" because they're being told it doesn't matter and keep working, doesn't matter if there's a bug. That's what it feels like to me, anyway. I don't think it's a joke so much as it's a complaint from them about what is happening. Saying they will hold a release date is probably something they want to do. Doesn't mean they're going to be allowed to do it. I wish they would have pushed MWS release at least 1-2 months or more to fix it first.
This whole thing is messed up. As a consumer I would never tolerate buying a TV that won’t turn on. The Sims team still got their pay check. EA still got paid. The consumers. Well we all bought a game pack that does NOT work and there was not even a hint of a disclaimer prior to purchase saying that what we are buying will not meet our expectations as the ongoing (still ongoing) advertising would have us think. They said NOTHING!! Took my money and sold me a product out of the scratch and dent bin at FULL PRICE and when I tried to contact them about my broken purchase I received SILENCE. THIS IS HORRIBLE. It feels and though EA is preying on their loyal customers that blindly buy each pack for the sake of having each pack and who also blindly trust that this company is doing the right thing. WELL THEY ARE NOT!
yeah, and I know they are working on fixes-- thank goodness- but they should never have sold something they know didn't work and I also agree continuing to advertise it is problematic
EA and Sims team need to address these issues and bugs. Sooner, rather then later. For if Paralives is successful . It will show other gaming companies . That players want this type of Sim game. And their Competition will grow overnight.
I have supported Paralives on Patreon since the beginning and will continue to do so until its release. The big difference in the two is that Alex and his team actually listen to the people who are supporting them and are making changes accordingly. It's basically the difference between actually caring about the product you are releasing and the people who are going to be playing it (Paralives) and placing a flaming bag of dog crap on your supporters' front porch and expecting them to thank you for it (Sims 4)
Of course they knew, they didn't have enough time to finish it before release time, so they probably added the descriptions kind of as a warning about the bugs.
I am 100% on with EA and the Sims team. It is ridiculous even if he is pulling the strings, that’s a Sims team would even joke about that stuff. They are literally spitting in the faces of their fans. We do not deserve this. I am no longer buying any more EA or Sims team stuff until they fix this. There are so many amazing CC creators and moders out there. A new spring collection cc collection just came out that is amazing! Lilsimsie And some other RUclipsrs made a video on it and it is great! Free for all of the community by the way. And honestly I’d rather get my harder money to people who genuinely care about fans (aka cc and modders). If we all stand up together they can’t keep ripping us off and laughing all the way to the bank.
Great video, Erin. And I agree with a lot of your opinions. It's really sad how fans of this franchise is being taken for granted. Yes, the community can be toxic. I'm not excusing that type of behavior. But I've never seen such disregard such a lucrative market/franchise. The Sims is the crowning jewel of life simulation. To see its quality decline like this is just painful.
Exactly. I hate how a part of the community gets super extreme-- but I also hate to see how they are hurting such a loved game, I just want the standards to improve. I really hate seeing this
Thanks for video. Even though I love the Sims so much I enjoyed the roast video being I along with a lot of people are frustrated. I hope they can fix their issues because I would like to return to sims 4 at some point but I literally stopped buying anything from sims 4 since 2020. Fingers crossed they don’t go down the drain and lose fans such as myself even though I have been playing since sims 1 came out…. I can’t believe i resisted the temptations on buying more packs this long, when I always buy everything sims related.
The bug reference in the dance floors descriptions may be referring to an actual dance called the Jitterbug. In a cut scene from the Wizard of Oz, the witch sends a jitterbug to attack Dorothy and her companions. Once they start dancing, they can't stop. Vague reference but it could be that. The jitterbug was also a popular dance back in the day
Honestly I am old enough to have played all the Sims Games and in the they had to make the games work, because there were no patches between packs. Sims3 did not work for some poeple, but I wonder if that was, because it needed specific hardware (I remember a wiki side side that told you which graphic cards work for each pack) ? It is just sad, that every Pack seams very broken on release. I think the problem is more the mentalaty of 'we just fix it in a Patch update' instead of just releasing working packs, even if that means fewer packs.
Yeah, there was also a small period of time after 4 launched that it was not compatible w/ mac new graphics card. For the most part though, all packs up to this at least mostly worked
You always bring up so many good, thought provoking points. 👍👍 Even for die hard sim buyers, they have to reach a point where broken packs stop them from buying future packs. I bought bust the dust, learned my lesson right away, and never bought another kit. Thanks for the info and have a fantastic day! 💓🤗💓
Honestly, I think the jokes were a reference to the "It's not a bug, it's a feature" meme. I don't think they knew the pack will be this bad. It's probably just one of those cases of jokes that didn't age well.
Sadly it aged quite poorly. But much more important than the jokes I think is the second half, and the discussion and worries about bugs and instability even a few years ago
Honestly the jokes made me laugh, I like dark humor so it was funny to me. I also differenciate programmers and EA executives, and I think it's a way for the programmers to make themselves heard, while keeping it light. But I think these jokes would have worked best if the patch they released right after the pack worked. Because in this current state, the jokes they made border on provocation.
I wonder if Maxis sending message by joke maybe to express how they’re feelings & let us players know to warning us early the game are buggy. Maybe they don’t like the directions of this game is going because EA continued this trending of not helping Maxis with the resources, lacking communications from the higher up, not enough time to testing all the old & new packs & kits before the release date, & so on.
Pardon my light swearing but AH HELL NAH. I WAS THINKING THE TEAM WAS INNOCENT AND WASN'T AWARE. Not buying this pack because console gamers are SCREWED.
Yeah, and frankly, I don't use mods myself much-- they take up a lot of space and bog down lower power computers. In any case a game should never rely on mods
TBH This, to me, reflects a state of rot internal to EA I keep thinking about what happened with Battlefield 2042, another title of theirs that recently released in such a poor state that Steam overruled its longstanding policy on refunds to give people their money back. EA has been hated a long time at this point. I've been playing their games since the early 90s and they have massively lost sight of what drives a title's success: player satisfaction. It makes me so sad that we've gotten here. I already had feelings about Sims 4 because of how it launched (I've been salty for that long) but this is...ridiculous. Edit: I also find it worrying that patches intended for the launch of a new pack are now causing base game problems. My game has been crashing constantly since the update. I didn't even BUY MWS
Devil's Advocate here.... you know some several years ago, there was a "dancing plague?" While it's pretty much summed up to mass hysteria, it's still called a "dancing plague" and plagues usually involve a sickness which are often called "bugs." Yeeeeah.... it's a reach.... a long reach.... but this is Sims. You can't tell me they wouldn't have made the same reach in a joking manner. 🤷♀️
I feel like poor engine is already crumbling under so much content they are trying to put in. And it is not that there is too much content (comparing to previous games) it is that the engine was meant for online one-sim game
The fact is that Wedding stores is not fit for purpose we as consumers can sue The Developers as it is not fit for purpose and there is also the fact that it is false advertising there for under (UK law at least) we can sue them for delivering a product that is not fit for purpose and false advertising people have sued and win before and someone should again.
I was trying to look into it. Complexities, depending on the country and region. There are some US laws but it's a question of if they can get by with "fixing" issues later
I’ve only bought 1 kit because I won’t pay $5 for slightly different clothing/furniture swatches. Might have paid for the vacuum kit since it had gameplay, but it was broken.. And this broken wedding pack is just insulting. Won’t buy until it’s fixed and on sale at this point.
I think it's funny, but it's probably only funny because I didn't buy the pack. But The Sims in general is so buggy and problematic, beyond Sims 4. I'm on day 3 of carefully reinstalling and setting up Sims 3 using player made guides (because depending on how you install store content it can uninstall itself not to mention the nearly 600 missing stencils from store and pack content), then I'm going to start on Sims 2 and refresh myself on the dos and don'ts because you can easily and unknowingly corrupt the game. It's just a giant reminder of why I was hesitant to get behind Sims 4 because this is crazy. I love these games. They're fun to play when they work, and I know they aren't easy to make but the quality defintiely could and should be better. I really hoped when Sims 4 came out it'd be better but it seems like it's only gotten worse. I hope Sims 5 will be better too but I'm not expecting much.
I love them too, and a lot of people do.. I think that's what makes it all the more frustrating! I do too.. I will say if and only if they spend more time and are more thoughtful, maybe they will use a better base. I hope you enjoy 2 and 3!
My guess is that EA needed this pack out and basically everyone working on it knew it and let the descriptions slide because they were all angry about it
When we say we like Sims self deprecating humor, we don't mean poking fun of their bugs. I missed the old Sims 1 and 2 humor, there's sarcasm, puns and some wit and pizzazz to their descriptions and notifications. Sims 4 is always trying too hard to impress and often times they fail epically.
When it was first announced I was so excited but that all changed when I seen the live stream and all the problems with this pack. I agree the sims needs some competition. There is no other game like the sims so they feel safe. I spent so much money on the sims. I used to buy every pack but not anymore. I think the last pack I bought was cottage living or dream home decorator and before that was Realm of magic.
I don't care if it was an "innocent joke". They sold us broken trash that they knew was broken trash, and then they immortalized it in the object description by basically laughing at us. They even did that weird shady secret survey where they asked people if they should just market it better even though they knew full well why that pack was a flop. The only "innocent jokes" here are us, the people buying this trash still. Honestly. They actually made me feel embarrassed just now. Like wow. Shows me for being a loyal fan and buying basically everything they ever released, I guess.
Yeah, I saw-- the buyers and non buyers surveys. It does seem they had to have been aware how broken it was. See I can fully understand a glitch or even several-- the issue is the main core features don't work- and I could tell they knew that during the livestream. I wish they would have said hey it's not ready we're going to have to push it back
At least the Sims team acknowledges people when they screw up unlike Rockstar Games they ignore their community and don't care what anybody thinks so at least I can give the Sims that that they communicate a little bit
I don't think holding the demo wedding on that lot did them any favours either. The baked earth/ patchy grass terrain paint they've got going on there just makes it look even worse.
So, I don't actually think the jokes are about the bugs. I think it's a very dorky joke about the dancing plague of the like 1500s. Unfortunate, given the bugs in the game but the comments on the dance floor line up with it being a dorky plague joke much more to me. And I say that as someone who is so mad about this new pack I'm not buying any new Sims things until it's fixed.
I really think the majority of the sims team are probably frustrated with their management. I think they WANT to release quality content, and they're being hampered by lack of time, manpower, funding, whatever, and that all comes down from above. I think like most of us who have struggled to do a good job DESPITE bad management, they are TRYING. But there's only so much they can do, given the obstacles management is putting in their way. I don't think anyone expects "perfect" at this point. Like the description said... but dayum EA! YOU ALL SAW THAT LIVESTREAM TOO. So... yeah. They were well aware of how broken the pack was. But what the hell can ya do when your manager says "Time's up. Ship it!" You need your job and paycheck. You do what you're told.
So when it comes to what the engine can do, I think MWS is possible. I say this because I actualy bought Batuu recently and yeah I know it's the Devil's pack, but there are some pretty complex interactions in that pack and they work perfectly. Maybe that's the mouse's doing, but in Batuu there's a lot to keep up with and a lot of things your Sim has to do to with multiple NPCs.
Wish they'd just work on the base game bugs but gotta make money. I hate how my sims always stand there for a minute before completing a simple action. I can see the ones in charge running this game/ franchise into the ground.
I think it's all about the funding of the QA and I think they want to save money by any means necessary, and they're cutting in this department. I've been thinking this for longer time already, your video only confirms my thoughts (unfortunately).
I place blame on EA. they push for releases to satisfy numbers for stockholders. I think the devs knew there were major issues because they weren't given the time to fix.
You remember when the game launched 7+ years ago and the babies were scary gross glitchy? At least that was fixed. After a while. They were so scary, I didn't play with kids at all. (Also toddlers didn't exist) There are bugs from the very first packs that wasn't fixed yet. It's embarrassing by now. It has been sub par quality from the start. And they should have stopped, at least back when they spilt the game into regular and "unupdateable" and 1000s of players were effectively left behind by a game they already spent 100s of dollars on. The engine is Not strong enough to keep building on. And I'm an avid player. A completist. I really love this game and have logged more than 20.000 hours in it. But at this point, it's like being hooked on a bad drug. I wish I could quit.
Just a reminder that when we talk about competition, that no one- including paralives - has shown us they can do life simulation game play with any complexity. So I am not holding my breath about competition till we see that. Its an often invoked trope about paralives- that they will give The Sims that "much needed competition" (which I agree would be good)- but we just haven't seen it in terms of game play- which is the actual hard part of these games.
I recently started looking into Sims 2 more as it was a game I only played a few times on Game Cube as a kid, Ive been exploring it more and trying to play it more. And I have heard a lot about how Sims 2 was the best game, and i always thought "how is that don't they keep making it better". But after seeing more of the sims 2 I realized that yes they added different features in Sims 3 and 4 but the Sims 2 was clearly made with more care. There was a lot of effort put into it from animations to storylines. They went from Sims and made it so much better and into Sims 2. From there they mainly just added a few other things each new series, Sims 3 open world, sims 4 emotions. These ones seem to lack that extra attention the Sims 2 got.
Sims 3 is my fav, and I don't think there is a best game though so much as what the focus is. I think the issue with sims 4 is the lack of time devoted to the core AI. I also think 2 and 3 just have a lot more charm and depth
@@SimmerErin I play sims 4 the most and probably enjoy it the most. I find there is more to do and explore But that may also be because it’s the newest one and the one I am the most familiar with
@@SimmerErin they way they literally implied it being a glitch or bug is...yikes! 😬 i know they're self aware but IF and only IF MWS gets fixed...its going to simming ptsd with how horrid and broken the pack was
I wish all the devs could branch off and take the Sims IP and just make the game they want to make and that they know the community wants without EA messing it up... oh to dream...
The jokes in descriptions are minor considering bugs existed prior to this pack, but the quote about quality as far back as Realm of Magic could indicate an erosion of standards over time due to low moral. It must be very hard creating something that is always savagely critiqued.
Yeah I actually am very glad you listened to that part, because I feel that is the more important message I'm looking into. It's not often about something in isolation, but deeper, systemic issues
They knew and constantly using what is so messed up as a running joke. Uncouth, and just straight up contemptible. Imagine being at a notable eatery and this the treatment that you and others are receiving and they tell you it’s just a joke. Next day they scratch their heads as to why they have no customers in the foreseeable future.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🥰👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️🌷🌷
It makes me sad to see, but I can understand people feeling that way I'm going to see what 5 turns out like, as well as Paralives, as both are unknowns
At first I was like “oh they are just making a knock at bad dancers.” And then they mentioned bugs and I was like …”mmmm” I wonder if the people creating the content know that this is going to happen and instead of making a knock at the bugs themselves, they are making a knock at the higher ups. I think they are on our side. Either way, I agree that the sims is getting too big for their britches and unfortunately I don’t see a way to fix it - other than creating a larger game with more features, and less DLC.
Ok so the part of the interview saying that the variety of combinations of packs complicates quality testing is concerning to me. That along with the mindset you can not fully integrate packs from the past in new releases because of the potential of bugs for those who do not own everything ( which is valid because if there was pack integration with if/else testing for packs then those delays while the game checks for what options to offer to players can seem like lag as it runs through the list of what is installed before offering options) are valid reasons for pushing for a subscription service like game where they have more control over what is included in the game upon load universally. It's terrible for those who pick and choose their packs based on personal beliefs and preferences but from a quality control standpoint switching to a subscription-based platform makes sense.
I think they will stick to a subscription option through EA play, but I certainly understand those concerns. That wouldn't be a model I'd have any interest in
I think its actually really messed up and in poor taste to have jokes like that in the game. Its one thing if it was like, a free game, but it just feels musty to essentially make fun of the fact that something is broken … that you literally sold to that person. I know whoever writes the catalogue copy is not the same person that codes the items, nor are they the person in charge of setting the price for content. But the company is responsible for all of those factors coming together. It’s just not ok to joke about things being broken when you’re making money off of selling those things. Idk, it just smells off to me.
@@SimmerErin so true, honestly it must be so embarrassing to have worked on the pack even if they didn't get a say on whether it was ready to be released or not
If this is a joke then no one is laughing! They are getting paid HUGE salaries to create these packs, kits etc. We’re paying good money for these packs w/ no refunds if we have problems w/ them so BEFORE they release a pack they need to be FULLY tested first!
I recently thought about which five packs had the most bugs, and four of the five were more recent packs. For the joke in the description, I'm going to say that's a harmless joke though I can't say I really like it. The devs were definitely aware how broken the pack was, and how it was released is immoral and gross, but idk how much control the developers have over when the pack is released, so it may not be like the people who made this joke were the ones who decided to release this pack completely broken
Dine Out is often used as the example of broken content from the past. I don't know what it was like when it was released, but I got it this year as part of a package of stuff. (I didn't care about Dine Out, it just came with some other things I wanted.) It is slow, I can easily see why someone would be unhappy with it, but technically, it works. Like it or not, it does the stuff it claims to do. Sims *can* go to a restaurant and eat and they *can* own and operate one. Yeah, I have a lot of complaints about it, and if I was manager of the team that built it I'd have complained a lot and told manglement it's not ready until some stuff got added and/or changed, but technically, it works. MWS *doesn't*, which is the problem.
I don't think they should be joking when the launch happened like this, for the regular launches, like Cottage Living, that was fine, but not for soemthing as broken as the Wedding Pack. I'm glad they are at least saying they are working on it and not just breezing past it to the next thing
I wonder what happened, it's just so notably bad... and it's suc a shame. I am glad we know we are getting fixes.. just wish they'd waited to release it
i have to say you are really a beacon of hope, for the community, one of the few simmers and youtubbers dedicated to the sims and life simulation in general which is really awaken for the truth which is the sims is not a "perfect game" neither "the best" it is just "the only option" and which "all the blame is to EA and the dev team are all "innocents victims of EA greedy and all the bugs and mess in the game is EA fault, which more and more is being showed which is not even "close to be", as you told everyone is to blame even the fanbase/costumers" which is thanks to the "shu***p and take my money mentality which the sims franchise ending being a mess and getting worst on each generation, because they will "keep buying anyway" no matter how "broken" something is, another issue to show the greedy is without any doubt how they keep "milking stuffs" with insane number of dlcs, which getting more and more "cheap to make" each time, and i remember when peoples complained about the Sims 3 store" selling stuff then the sims 4 we get the "new mini pack(forget the name) which is basically the same as the sims 3 store selling, props and outfits, it's show how the EA can be greedy and take advantage of die hard fanbase, because in the end "they are the only one", no competition means, they can keep doing it forever without care about anything. with the interview and jokes and how they normally "handly" the problems we can see which without any doubts the dev team really have they "dirty hands on it too" and in the end you really don't have any victims because again in the end even the fans are to blame for the current poor state, which as you told it just gonna get worst since they are using a really poor developed base game engine, which get more "bloated overtime with many bloated and poorly tested codes. without any doubts the only hope for the sims franchise is competition otherwise be ready to have a load screen to go to bathroom or when woohooing or have a toilet dlc , because you know they "must make the game most accessible possible to run in calculators and sell the endless dlc as fast and cheap as they can.
This is such a kind comment! I often feel bad because there are long periods of time I feel my channel leans critical-- and I don't want to be negative-- I just really care about this franchise, and I hate seeing what is happening. I think yeah-- the situation is complex/ I think EA IS to blame for a lot, but that doesn't mean the devs don't have responsibility. competition is so badly needed
In the live stream, the sim guru controlling the stream said something along the lines of “I’m not going to tell the sims what to wear because I’m not a bridezilla.” So not only did she use an extremely sexist term and imply that if you DO want sims to all wear the same color then you are this horrible term, but she did this to hide the fact that if you DO choose a specific color, it doesn’t even work!!
To start I really loved the glorified trailer they released for Valentine’s Day, but I did not get my hopes up for the actual gameplay. Given EA’s track record I never buy a newly released pack, only when it goes on sale and after it has been out a while due to their negligence. It is insensitive and unprofessional for gurus to poke fun at the game. It shows the lack of passion and how much of a detachment they have towards it. They first need to understand that The Sims franchise is important to so many people and that should not be taken lightly. It is crazy how people get paid to work on The Sims, yet are severely under skilled. It’s embarrassing, I would not tell anyone I worked for EA if I were them. Never give your customers excuses, you have their money and they want what they paid for, otherwise you are running a scam. I definitely agree when you stated more competition is needed. that is one of the reasons why I have been following the development of Paralives. P.S. Though I haven’t commented in a while, great content as always Erin!
Thank you. Yes, it is very important-- it's not just a single game, but the care that needs to be placed into a franchise that's now over two decades. I can only hope they get the push they need
Part of me feels like these jokes are lowkey a cry for help from the Sims Team! 😭 But on the other hand maybe they just can't read the room, and think they're joking WITH US when it actually comes across more like they're making a joke out of the community's concerns about the seemingly endless list of bugs people experience. 💀
Yeah hard to say- and who knows who comes up with them. Like, it's sort of funny, it's just the context sucks
@@SimmerErin being a gamedev myself I can confirm that the people writing the texts are usually not the ones that decide to release broken software. I think the dev team is suffering as well. Devs mostly like the work they do and want to deliver the best they can. Being forced to push out bad stuff might make them sad, bitter and sarcastic.
Since wedding stories has been out i have been realizing more that we already had marriage so there may be a higher chance that we WILL have to pay for updated babies
i can already see them selling "baby stuff"
I doubt it. if they didn’t sell us toddlers which would’ve been ridiculous if they did, They won’t sell us babies
But... We're already paying for parenthood 😅
@@HH-yq6ch i mean toddlers they ADDED, not improved and then instead of giving us another update with more things for them they made a stuff pack of items that lets be honest shouldve been base game so.....wouldnt put it past them to make like a "baby shower" pack 🥴
@@julia-if5dm I think if we left it up to simmers everything would be base game (i would not argue with that at all), but that's not how this franchise operates. I didn't claim they improved anything. my point is that they can't charge us for a life stage like babies when they didn't charge us for the life stage of a toddler. also, it would be so wrong IF they charged us for the life stages of Sims. That needs to come embedded into the base game, and logistically speaking, it would make no sense to separate them from the base game
Edit: I know the toddler update did not include the toddler stuff pack. I am only referring to the toddlers themselves as the addition to basegame.
I feel so bad for the devs honestly, and the team in general. EA is abusing them as much as they're abusing their fans.
I wish I knew more about what was going on-- what timelines, what resources etc. I do think the devs have some responsibility and more so though perhaps the managers at maxis. At the same time EA's obsession with pumping out content and its well deserved reputation speaks volumes. at some point if they ever get competition it's not going to be the best strategy.. but they really need something to make them want to change
@@SimmerErin finally someone said it. Everyone wants to blame EA and not their fav devs but I do think they're more responsible than they're letting on. I dont play a lot of EA games but the ones I do dont have overly rushed and messy updates/expansions. They do need more workers for sure but I don't think they're as innocent as some game changers say.
True so true. Like I don’t care if there is no new content I just want to have a game where I don’t need mods to help it out.
@@SimmerErin I am getting annoyed with the defense of devs. It IS ultimately up to EA but devs are choosing to stay there and continue to go with it. If my job wants me to do something I do not agree with, I look for a different job. I would have a major moral issue with putting out unfinished content all the time, worse every time, and charging for it and I would absolutely be looking for someone else to work for as opposed to staying and going with it. Devs aren’t innocent here.
@@erinkay2254 It is not that simple. They may very well love the game, love the projects, and love the fans, but the corporate structure is fucking them up. It can fall under the same kind of reaction and lack of action like a person staying in an abusive relationship. There's things that keep them hooked, but there's things that are awful as well.
On Twitter, someone pointed out that the pack being released coincided with the quarterly earnings report. If they had delayed it, they would have been missing that "income." By putting it out, they had income to report (even though the income from this pack and future packs is going to be down compared to what they eventually would have been since people are avoiding it and may never come back.)
C-suites tend to look more at short-term earnings than long-term probabilities. That short-term thinking is not good if you have a long-running franchise.
As the packs become more numerous (as is discussed in one of your quotes), there really needs to be an increase in QA assessments, not a decrease such as those you mention.
I still want to see MWS compared to a game pack that has a world as well as complicated gameplay (such as Vampires.) I did screen shots of Vampires. I just have to get my "round tuit" so that I do the analysis!
Ahah I think they are certainly onto something there-- so they were pressured to release it regardless because they had to make that quota
Okay, I'll keep that in mind, I keep forgetting 😅
They're legally required to pay attention to quarterly earnings and ignore what they're throwing away in terms of long term earnings because it they don't shareholders can sue the executives personally for imaginary "lost earnings" from that quarter.
I wonder if that is part of why Kits were made.
@@PWNDON Of course that's why kits were made.
I think that because of the pandemic they had to pull back on making gameplay heavy packs (because they take more time and resources). But they also needed to continue to bring in income. Kits (except for gameplay kits, as Bust the Dust shows) are easier to make and require less in the way of checking for inter-pack integration than packs. And they had ideas that have come up that are not enough for a "pack". Kits are the perfect niche answer to many of their worries.
I don't mind a few bugs or glitches. That's completely normal for a game that's constantly expanding and changing. But releasing a pack that's completely unplayable like the wedding stories pack is just ridiculous.
Yes, fully agree
I agree and it will actually make you game play worse your better off not buying and loading it if you want to play sims 4
What kills me is that there are tons of simmers out there who would be willing to test the game for FREE! EA could add their name to the credits or something. All of these modders would jump on the chance to help. EA could give them a free copy for their time and effort. It just makes no sense for this situation to be this way. If they want more money, for income reports and the like, just make some sort of subscription service that includes random exclusive content, contests and other things that people would like.
@@Kattywagon29 thats an even worse idea. last thing this shit game needs is subscriptions for anything when we barely get anything as it is for $5-$40 a pack
@@Kattywagon29 I beta test alot of stuff including games and we must the time just get a free copy of the game which would be the best way to do this but you always have people that dont do the right thing and share their accounts with multiple people to play on so EA dont want this happening since leaks are already bad enough. They need to break down and anyone caught releasing copyrighted info on the game can and will be sued. Other games make me sign a NDA so if I leaked info they have the right to sue me.
I admit that them making jokes about the bugs feels a bit inappropriate, but on the other hand I think it's a sort of coping mechanism for them. I remember in my previous job, my co workers and I, over time we developed a whole set of dark humour, inside jokes about everything that went wrong, or wasn't how it's supposed to be, not because we didn't care, but because we cared so much that we needed those jokes just to cope with the situation.
…I fully admit to getting frustrated at times and naming variables/functions in my coding things like [tool]_is_broken or fixing_[tool] or no-soup-for-you 😉
Also, never stopping dancing is a bug I actually haven’t seen. Perhaps it was an inside joke about an early bug that actually was fixed?
Yeah, could definitely see that-- I'm afraid it must not be very pleasant to work for EA
I hope you're in a better situation btw
@@bookcat123 No, the dancing bug is current and happening in my unmodded vanilla game. I have to fight with my sims constantly to get them to do ANYTHING, because they're always running to a stereo to dance. It doesn't even matter that their fun bar is topped out. They even stop eating to dance. It's just SO IRRITATING. And fairly new. They used to do it autonomously, but not nearly as much as they have in the last few months. I get so frustrated, I take their stereos away and stick them in household inventory if I'm trying to get them to do something specific.
But hahaha, your variable names cracked me up. :D
I feel the jokes are more of a middle finger to EA. EA pushes for release and doesn't care if it's broken. they know people will still buy it.
@@HughLlewellyn I hadn’t heard that before! That’s… only funny because it’s not happening to me, sorry. I understand how frustrating that can be because I do the same with bars - keep them in household industry until they’re needed because otherwise my Sims will refuse to take care of themselves and just keep making drinks. 😂
Every game has bugs and glitches but it's unacceptable that MWS was released in the state that it is. They are still selling the game as we speak in its current state. Did they ever say when those two patches will be released? I wouldn't even consider buying it until I see gameplay AFTER the patches are out.
For sure. I think there's a big distinction between a few bugs vs something that is unplayable
No, no dates on the patches yet. and I don't know for sure if the next patch will cover those fixes or be focused on (hate to say it) before the kit
As a programmer previously, I know for a fact that it is damn near impossible to have a perfect game/program. Every game will have bugs and glitches BUT those bugs and glitches should NEVER affect the core gameplay and should only ever happen in very rare scenarios. Technology is not perfect, it never will be, however this pack is just incredibly disappointing and reduces the trust of the sims franchise. I do not blame the devs at all, I blame EA 100% for only caring about money and not about the community. With how broken this pack is, I’m not even sure they’ve turned a profit at this point, and if they have… what is the community doing? I most definitely will not be buying this pack until majority of the bugs are fixed, and I really hope a lot of people do the same. MAYBE that will help EA realize they need to clean up their act…
I am with you. I always buy every pack but with this 1 I said no. Not until they fix it and I let them know that in the survey I got. I was really looking forward to it too so that is a shame.
@@queenbratbracken I am the same way, so it was very disappointing to see how they allowed this pack to launch when it doesn't work, embarassing even. That's EA for you though, they couldn't care less, they just want money.
very well said!'
on one hand I think some expect perfection & that is not a reasonable standard. on the other, this is simply not functional. I think EA is a lot to blame-- I will say I think a little responsibility goes into the studio managers at maxis too
@@SimmerErin I’m sure maxis is also partly to blame but EA is the “big dog” and they continuously do this. Force games out before they are actually ready to be launched. When I was a programmer… if we released something like this… we would all be out of a job. It’s just straight up unacceptable. Things can go wrong, of course! And the sims is an extremely complicated game behind the scenes so I most definitely appreciate the devs and their ability to even program such a complex game, but there comes a point when quality of life NEEDS to be thought about BEFORE releasing further content that just adds to the complexity. It’s disappointing, not only as a simmer, but also as a programmer.
No ones expecting perfect. But this is unexcusable.
I think that they know that there's a good chunk of Simmers who are absolute chumps who will buy anything full price no matter what. That's why the people who say, "Stop complaining and be grateful for the game" are toxic to the entire community.
Right? Like im entinteled to the product i buy Lmao
You get serious food poisoning from a restaurant... "stop complaining and be grateful for the meal" 🙄 as a consumer, you have the right to complain when you are sold something that doesn't work or is not to standard.
They statement is fitting sometimes, but if someone is saying it now 🤦♀️. Apparently "shut up and don't bother with sims." Is toxic 🤷♀️ but that's my opinion if you're one to always say because it's EA. It's been a mix of since ts4 started and just because they're in control of the franchise. 8-22 years of "because it's EA." Sounds like time to move on to me. Plus most people who argue that add on how EA doesn't give a rip, so really why complain? It's like the people who say there's constructive criticism and being an aft, and they get attacked like they actually said shut up. I've read a few things and it's definitely being an aft but people are going to defend it as constructive criticism as people are going to argue be greatfuk, because it's EA, they don't test etc.
I see a bit of both-- I see people dictating that people must be happy, and others dictating that people can't be happy.
end of the day, the fault in my mind lies w/ poor management and a lack of proper competition
I cant stand those people.
They were on the right track with pack refreshes. Beefing up already existing packs would still be profitable, and likely require fewer people working on it (who they could then put to work on TS5). The refresh made me want to buy Spa Day; I had zero interest in Spa Day when I got into TS4 in late 2019 (I was gifted like 8 packs that Christmas - made lockdown easier to deal with lol).
Through all this, I keep coming back to one thing that EA could do that would make this less irksome: more transparency. As it is, we don’t see behind the curtain much at all and I think that’s a poor business practice.
Looking forward to your next Paralives video!
I hope we get another pack refresh this year- I agree. The spa day one was pretty well done
"there isn't anyone who's innocent in this, but I think there's different levels of responsibility" - yes! 👏 Exactly how I feel.
Yep! I think so often we try to make things simple-- in reality, I think the responsibility is compelx
Erin this has happened before, I used to watch all the livestreams before they became what they are today and there were times where they would laugh about what the community wanted like babies or whatever alluding that we might never get these things or say things like « the modders will fix it 😜» snarkly that’s why when people defend them I always give the side eye, they know our demands and they know we’re tired and that the modders will save the day for them. Harmless jokes or not it’s disrespectful we are paying money for this and it’s hard not to believe that they don’t care.
Some of it has. The concerning thing is I'd argue it's never been close to this level of not working, sigh
Especially if your on ps4, no mods can fix it for us sadly 😔
Whats crazy is that in the trailer for the Realm of Magic DLC, you can witness one of the bugs as it happens. The red suit with the silver moth on the lapel is broken and stretch for some reason in some weird way and if you watch for it, you'll see it behaving in that way when the wearer moves. Pathetic.
huh! I honestly didn't notice that-- so interesting
Why do those descriptions sound like a cry for help from the devs? Blink if you're being held against your will!!
That’s the vibe I got too
Still watching but I wondering if those descriptions were written by a disgruntled employee as a middle finger to EA and not the lm making fun of themselves.
I still think they all knew and probably informed the higher ups who said “patch it later.”
It's certainly possible! If so, gusty employee
Yeah I think I”m officially going to stop buy any and all packs after how things happened with My Wedding Stories. I’ll just wait and see what happens with the Sims 5 because it’s really painfully obvious that nothing can save the Sims 4. They had their chance to get a Final Fantasy 14 treatment but it looks like now is the time to just jump ship.
I'm in the same page. I had bought everything related to The Sims Franchise. Since the original until, well, The Sims 4 Cottage Living (I did bought Batuu, but just when it was on a big discount) but now I'm really thinking of not getting anything until the game (not just the Wedding pack) is fixed, or if they launch an occult pack.
@@KagamineRinVocaloid I don't think discounts can save this sucker. lol.
So the year before I was feeling a bit better-- there was the refresh, which I thought was good. Paranormal was strong, and CL had some issues but not too bad. There were some bg updates too-- so I was hoping they were on a better track. I was also hoping that if anyhing came out of kits it would be more time to develop packs that worked well sigh
@@SimmerErin well... they already had the same issue with eco lifestyle and their MAPs, Dine out, Bust the Dust, ect. They just don't test their DLCs and I don't know why 🙄
I also had hope last year, that's why I bought everything back then, even the "bust the dust" kit (after it was patched, of course) because, even if I dislike the idea of kits I was happy at the time with the latest additions to the game.
But now, well. I loved the new world and I would buy buy the pack solely for that reason, but I don't want broken weddings since they are important for my gameplay... maybe if they fix the pack alongside Dine Out, I would buy it. But less than that, I won't accept it :
@@SimmerErin It was beginning to feel a little more optimistic too the year before, but now it just feels like EA/Sims has burned out all the good will that there isn't much worth holding out for. Which sucks since I've been a fan since Sims 1, but it is what it is.
This is not good. If they're joking about bugs, then they know they're selling inferior products. That's very unprofessional.
It just sounds like programmer jokes to me, I got that kind of stuff a lot. We would frequently joke about bugs. One developer used to joke, he didn’t accidentally create bugs, he designed Easter eggs for those cleaver enough to find them. Maybe it does look bad given to how buggy the game is, but as a programmer I find the item descriptions pretty humorous myself.
This (joking about how bugged things are, generally trying to cover serious problems with forced humour and giggling) is the type of stuff that has been causing people to turn against the Sim "gururs" since day one. They probably aim at a different reaction, but it's stuff like that which makes them come off as unprofessional in the eyes of a good chunk of the Sims community.
A little while back, I had the glitch where you cook a bunch of food, go to manage worlds, go back into your household, and then the food would be everlasting without an expiration date. I would happily have that glitch back. I found it amusing and even handy at times like whilst playing a university student who doesn't have as much time to cook. A glitch like that is amusing.
Now, I have Dine Out and it's one of my favorite ways to play in Sims 4 - I love playing restaurant owners and customizing a restaurant to that sim's taste (literally). Other than long wait times on serving, I don't really have many issues with Dine Out. It's playable for me as long as I have a bit of patience.
The glitches I've seen in My Wedding Stories (along with a whole host of other subjective reasons about the type of gameplay) just have me not wanting this pack in my game at all - not currently as it is and definitely not at the full USD$20 price point. I just think... $20 is about a week's worth of my groceries, so yeah. I have better things to spend that money on, so if I am spending my money on a Sims pack - the core three facets (live mode gameplay, build/buy, and CAS) better have enough versatility and functionality to make it worth my while.
In Sims3 I had a bug that allowed me to play the role sims. It was a bit like having them have active careers and was loads of fun - best bug ever. As for Dine Out, for me it generally works well enough unless the restaurant is too big, has too many tables or there weird N.A.P.s active that push the sims to constantly get up and mold clay or paint.
I am also guilty of purposely triggering that bug for my rags-to-riches college student. I was disappointed when they fixed it. 😉
Yeah exactly, and those are very good examples. A small glitch is understandable, funny even. I know everyone has different experiences with Dine Out but I too mostly have very long wait times-- sometimes the food has not come, but it was isolated. point is it has a number of issues but...
MWS almost shocked me. It's the main, and only gameplay and most of it barely works or doesn't for the majority -- it was by far the least functional I've ever seen a pack
@@SimmerErin Most DO problems as a guest come from the staff in NPC restaurants not being trained or the restaurant being too big and having too few cooking stations. If the waiters have low fitness they constantly drop things and if the restaurants is too large in size or table number things will take ages - especially if there is only one cook. I usually have hole-in-the-wall type restaurants and they work well enough (unless Vlad ends up being a waiter, he drops everything) but recently I tried a spacious one and eventually changed it into a bar so my sims could grab chips after waiting for a couple of hours. In regards to brokeness, I think, DHD would be a better comparison because that pack also mostly relies on one single gameplay feature some portions of which simply do not work due to restrictions.
Honestly I was feeling optimistic at the start of 2021. There were some major fixes to the base game like updated traits and updated BG hairs and The Spa Day refresh was a genuine improvement.
After this I honestly think I've met my limit. I have a fairly good computer but I end up not getting very far before I rage quit the game when I encounter a bug.
At this point the Sims 4 is getting onto 8 years old and EA can't just keep ordering Maxis to pile more content unless they start looking at seriously improving the foundations- if as you say it's even possible?
I've seen some good points in the Sims 4 lifespan but honestly I just think it's time to wrap this up. I already have doubts about "Sims 5" (deliberately adding speech marks) and the potential of Paralives is very real!
I was too, and for the same reasons -- it seemed like a good trajectory.
I have been playing sims since SIMCITY, I really don't like how lazy they have gotten with the quality of their products. Unfortunately I don't think I will be purchasing much more in the future.
I don't think "lazy" is the right word.
Lazy and inconsiderate. I agree. I'm not investing anymore money into sims.
Sadly I don't think lazy accurately describes it--I think here are deeper issues, and I think if it was an issue of laziness, team members would be fired.
Management is poor
Interesting video Erin. The fact that Gurus are poking fun at the bugs in their products shows to consumers that they really don't care. It's one thing to poke fun after a problem was fixed, but many players shell out hard earned money for this game and DLC. I see two possible outcomes for simulation games: one, interest dies out (highly unlikely) or two, another company controls the market on these types of games. These problem at E.A. is also going to hurt sales on TS5 when or if it comes out. Have a great day.
I'm not sure. It could also be their hands are a little tied, and they are making light of the situation. I think they do have some responsibility but it's always the question of management in general
I feel like this might be a reference to something else. There actually was a ‘dancing plague’ case of mass hysteria wherein people couldn’t stop dancing and danced until they physically couldn’t anymore.
Also: it wouldn’t be the sims team that we should point fingers at necessarily. A lot of this undoubtedly comes down to EA as a whole and the pressure/restrictions they put on their devs.
This is such a good video, and I completely agree there is a time and place for jokes, this is beyond a joke broken.
Thank you for making this video
Thanks! I appreciate it.
@@SimmerErin Agreed! Thanks for all your behind-the-scenes sleuthing. It's really fascinating to learn about.
Not only that but with their "better to dance poorly than not dancing at all" it feels like they are trying to say better to have a DLC than no DLC at all. But I'm sorry but no. If you want my money, I want value for my buck, and with the the Sims 4, I feel this hasn't been the case since launch. I mean there are some packs that have that value, but those are just a handful. And over the years, the Sims team made bad decisions from bad decisions.
And I think the bug jokes show great insensibility to the community. EA hasn't even apologized, and lets face it, they probably won't, so joking about bugs is in my mind unsavory and they should have known better.
I mean… “better to dance poorly than not dance at all” is exactly the kind of cheesy express-yourself message Sims keeps using in marketing. And then the “dance like an inspirational quote” pokes fun at that. I think it’s a stretch to say they ever meant this to apply to DLC quality.
The only part that actually references bugs is the “if you don’t stop dancing, it’s probably a bug” part. And as that’s not actually a bug I’ve heard of in game, and was likely written well before release, I think it’s just a joke. One that unfortunately aged poorly quickly because they didn’t get the pack working before the release date.
I think after they decided to release this pack (which they should not have) they should have offered refunds for whom wanted them and made a statement explaining what happened.
Sadly, I think they have a major problem in their testing process and delivery planning. In the interview, when they say "...but another fix came after testing and a bug appeared without being noticed..." : when you add a fix, you have to test again the whole game to check if it doesn't add bugs. That's what I ask to my dev team when we make fixes on a program, that's what should be done on the sims too. And if it's time consuming to do the whole testing again, then the problem is the planning and it should be fixed so the team has the time to do it. EA has a lot to answer for with the state of the game. I can't even open the game anymore these last few months because it's too slow and buggy... which makes me sad because I was so excited for MWS.
I was excited too.
& yes, I honestly think it's reached a level where I'd like to see a letter addressing what happened
I’m wondering if the dance floor descriptions wasn’t because the pack was broken but just poking fun at past glitches, because (correct me if I’m wrong) I think they make the items and descriptions before they make the packs and I don’t think they were planning from the beginning for the pack to be broken.
It's possible, just looks bad in context~!
I know it was meant probably light heartedly. I just wish the context was better
Maybe it’s a reference to jitterbug, a type of dancing done in a jazzy style🤔
To me it seems like a way to express their frustration at the situation, like if I was writing the descriptions and knew ea was going to put this garbage out no matter what, even with (probably) plenty of employees saying it wasn’t ready, honestly I’d probably write something similar. Being on the other side of it though, I can totally see how it comes across as mocking
Those jokes honestly don't mean they don't take it seriously or whatever but alot of devs do that to cope through this whole disaster.
It's possible. I imagine it must be very stressful to work for EA
that joke sounds more like sarcasm from employees forced to not do the jobs they signed up for to me. I know that feeling. Do your job, but DON'T do your job.....
Quite possibly. If they are indeed under bad working conditions, I don't blame them for that
I had cop that too. I noticed she PURPOSELY didn’t show us certain things because they knew it wouldn’t work! The sims wearing the color and style you choose for example. I am floored lol 😂 it made sense after the fact.
Roast away, Erin! There isn't a single flame here that isn't well-deserved, especially since they are still trying their best to sweep it under the rug and not have to acknowledge what happened.
Remember when Journey to Batuu was announced and the community was so unhappy that VP Lyndsay Pearson released a letter to the community acknowledging that people weren't happy and reassuring everyone that they were listening and were aware that they were not delivering on some of the things the community was asking for? THAT is what needs to happen here.
Someone high-ranking needs to address the community, period. If this does not happen, and they are unable to acknowledge that this situation is unacceptable and should never have happened, I really can't see myself feeling motivated to purchase more packs.
It's a matter of principle, and of respect.
now, in comparison.. JTB is looking good ha
I imagine the decision to release a broken pack came down to money and a decision higher up to do it. In no way did they care about the customer experience and that upsets me. Carl's Sims found issues in the code right away and made a mod to help with some of them. If he could do it, why couldn't EA? I feel like the more people make jokes and say oh it is just the Sims, oh it is a glitch or bug and accept it the more the message is sent that people will just buy whatever they come out with in whatever state it is in.
not enough time or money allocated to QA and engineering is my only guess
I think it's far past time for "The Sims" to become its own gaming company that purely creates Sims games and nothing else, and releases content only when it's satisfied with the stability.
if only
Please submit your ideas RIGHT THIS MOMENT ! Let's make The Sims great again 😭
I understand the frustration of the community on the game play aspect of this pack. Consequently I haven't purchased it yet although I fully intend to. I've also stated previously that weddings are a single slice of storyline in the perspective of life events that have about the same game time duration of the mermaids in island living. You can only swim around so much before it's time to move on in the story. The real value of the pack like vampires, realm of magic etc. is the variety of objects and interactions relevant to "life" in general and so they belong as extensions to the base game. The fact that I can't have a baby at hospital or get the scientist's invention machine to spin and whirl smoke like it did or place the scientist's shower without it causing an exception doesn't keep me from enjoying the rest of get to work. My point is, capitalize and enjoy the objects of the game pack and really enjoy it when EA fixes the problems. For the money per object in the pack it's still a sweet deal -- IMO. Fixes will come.
I agree with everything you are saying. I have to be honest - I love Sims 4. I love the aesthetic (even over Sims 3, despite the open worlds). I'm more patient than most with issues around Dine Out, Island Living, etc. just because I've been playing my save game for over five years and as sappy as this may seem, my Sims are like my tiny creations at this point and when I need to escape from how stressful the world has become, I dive into their lives. This is important to me and it hurts my heart that we're supposedly just okay as a community to throw all that away. However, I am becoming so disappointed with new EA releases that I'm seriously considering not buying any more DLC and just playing the game I already have. If all future DLC will just break my game more, what's the point? And I'm not willing to put this same level of investment into Sims 5 if EA is fine with content eventually breaking.
Yes. I think people assume that one complains because they hate the game, but often the opposite is true. This pack seems to be in a different category. all packs have some issues just not like this level
Yeah its basically a huge middle finger to the community
They've been giving us the middle finger since the 20th anniversary of the franchise. Everything has been rapidly downhill from there.
There is definitely a difference between a few bugs or glitches being in a game when it's released, (sometimes a team won't catch them when they're testing so they aren't aware that it's an issue until it's released to the public and a lot more people are playing with it), and the pack being unplayable. The descriptions of these items tell me that the team was aware and probably bitter about not having the time they needed to fix it. Somebody saw the bugs and told the devs that it didn't matter and other things were more important, like the art. I can't know who exactly that was, but it's getting more and more obvious that while the team has more creative freedom, the priorities have been shifted and the devs don't have as much power. They weren't even allowed to address anything on social media until a week after the pack was released. I can see that the devs are losing their motivation and probably won't be sticking around much longer if they can help it.
100 percent. A few glitches sure, and tat happens. The degree this was unplayable for nearly everyone is a huge problem-- and far different.
On Monday, EA's official account on Twitter tweeted out "Here’s your reminder to: Have a good breakfast, get your steps in, drink your water." The comments to that tweet are overflowing with people angry about major bugs and problems across all games. The "jokes" in the dance floors and the repetition of it really feels like this might be a motto or something that the team is being told by higher ups. "It doesn't matter if it's perfect, you just have to get it done." "Don't stop working on this until it is done." Then the team knows it's broken so saying "If you can't stop maybe that's a bug" because they're being told it doesn't matter and keep working, doesn't matter if there's a bug. That's what it feels like to me, anyway. I don't think it's a joke so much as it's a complaint from them about what is happening.
Saying they will hold a release date is probably something they want to do. Doesn't mean they're going to be allowed to do it. I wish they would have pushed MWS release at least 1-2 months or more to fix it first.
Oh yes I saw that-- and you could really see the discontent amongst not just sims but a whole spectrum of games
This whole thing is messed up. As a consumer I would never tolerate buying a TV that won’t turn on. The Sims team still got their pay check. EA still got paid. The consumers. Well we all bought a game pack that does NOT work and there was not even a hint of a disclaimer prior to purchase saying that what we are buying will not meet our expectations as the ongoing (still ongoing) advertising would have us think. They said NOTHING!! Took my money and sold me a product out of the scratch and dent bin at FULL PRICE and when I tried to contact them about my broken purchase I received SILENCE. THIS IS HORRIBLE. It feels and though EA is preying on their loyal customers that blindly buy each pack for the sake of having each pack and who also blindly trust that this company is doing the right thing. WELL THEY ARE NOT!
yeah, and I know they are working on fixes-- thank goodness- but they should never have sold something they know didn't work and I also agree continuing to advertise it is problematic
I take it that no one has even been bitten by the "dance bug". I honestly think that that was the bug they were trying to refer to
They're definitely joking but it's 100% the wrong time. It means they KNOW how bad things are and just let it happen
yeah, and I don't mind jokes. But I just can't wrap my head around how they felt it was acceptable to release this pack the way they did
I've always supported the Sims since Sims 1 but this Sims 4 has been the longest running ever and it keeps adding on to the problems.
EA and Sims team need to address these issues and bugs. Sooner, rather then later. For if Paralives is successful . It will show other gaming companies . That players want this type of Sim game. And their Competition will grow overnight.
I have supported Paralives on Patreon since the beginning and will continue to do so until its release. The big difference in the two is that Alex and his team actually listen to the people who are supporting them and are making changes accordingly. It's basically the difference between actually caring about the product you are releasing and the people who are going to be playing it (Paralives) and placing a flaming bag of dog crap on your supporters' front porch and expecting them to thank you for it (Sims 4)
i am not sure how paralives will turn out-- as I always say, I wish them well. But I think the more games and the stronger the games the better
Of course they knew, they didn't have enough time to finish it before release time, so they probably added the descriptions kind of as a warning about the bugs.
it's possible, but regardless, certainly depressing
I am 100% on with EA and the Sims team. It is ridiculous even if he is pulling the strings, that’s a Sims team would even joke about that stuff. They are literally spitting in the faces of their fans. We do not deserve this. I am no longer buying any more EA or Sims team stuff until they fix this. There are so many amazing CC creators and moders out there. A new spring collection cc collection just came out that is amazing! Lilsimsie And some other RUclipsrs made a video on it and it is great! Free for all of the community by the way. And honestly I’d rather get my harder money to people who genuinely care about fans (aka cc and modders). If we all stand up together they can’t keep ripping us off and laughing all the way to the bank.
oh cool, I'll have to watch her video
I almost feel like writing a community letter
Great video, Erin. And I agree with a lot of your opinions. It's really sad how fans of this franchise is being taken for granted. Yes, the community can be toxic. I'm not excusing that type of behavior. But I've never seen such disregard such a lucrative market/franchise. The Sims is the crowning jewel of life simulation. To see its quality decline like this is just painful.
Exactly. I hate how a part of the community gets super extreme-- but I also hate to see how they are hurting such a loved game, I just want the standards to improve. I really hate seeing this
Thanks for video. Even though I love the Sims so much I enjoyed the roast video being I along with a lot of people are frustrated. I hope they can fix their issues because I would like to return to sims 4 at some point but I literally stopped buying anything from sims 4 since 2020. Fingers crossed they don’t go down the drain and lose fans such as myself even though I have been playing since sims 1 came out…. I can’t believe i resisted the temptations on buying more packs this long, when I always buy everything sims related.
Yeah & the idea is, a lot of us really care about sims-- we really want to see things improve!
The bug reference in the dance floors descriptions may be referring to an actual dance called the Jitterbug. In a cut scene from the Wizard of Oz, the witch sends a jitterbug to attack Dorothy and her companions. Once they start dancing, they can't stop. Vague reference but it could be that. The jitterbug was also a popular dance back in the day
Aaaaaand this is precisely why I bought all the games off of ebay for $30. EA is taking advantage of everyone.
Honestly I am old enough to have played all the Sims Games and in the they had to make the games work, because there were no patches between packs.
Sims3 did not work for some poeple, but I wonder if that was, because it needed specific hardware (I remember a wiki side side that told you which graphic cards work for each pack) ?
It is just sad, that every Pack seams very broken on release. I think the problem is more the mentalaty of 'we just fix it in a Patch update' instead of just releasing working packs, even if that means fewer packs.
Yeah, there was also a small period of time after 4 launched that it was not compatible w/ mac new graphics card. For the most part though, all packs up to this at least mostly worked
You always bring up so many good, thought provoking points. 👍👍 Even for die hard sim buyers, they have to reach a point where broken packs stop them from buying future packs. I bought bust the dust, learned my lesson right away, and never bought another kit. Thanks for the info and have a fantastic day! 💓🤗💓
Thanks Patti!
I think they need competition-- I know I sound like a broken record-- afraid that will be the only way they improve
Honestly, I think the jokes were a reference to the "It's not a bug, it's a feature" meme. I don't think they knew the pack will be this bad. It's probably just one of those cases of jokes that didn't age well.
Sadly it aged quite poorly.
But much more important than the jokes I think is the second half, and the discussion and worries about bugs and instability even a few years ago
Honestly the jokes made me laugh, I like dark humor so it was funny to me. I also differenciate programmers and EA executives, and I think it's a way for the programmers to make themselves heard, while keeping it light. But I think these jokes would have worked best if the patch they released right after the pack worked. Because in this current state, the jokes they made border on provocation.
yeah exactly. I kinda like dark humor-- it's the context that's bad
I wonder if Maxis sending message by joke maybe to express how they’re feelings & let us players know to warning us early the game are buggy. Maybe they don’t like the directions of this game is going because EA continued this trending of not helping Maxis with the resources, lacking communications from the higher up, not enough time to testing all the old & new packs & kits before the release date, & so on.
I do certainly think that there a number of people working there that aren't happy with their working conditions nor the products they're putting out
Pardon my light swearing but AH HELL NAH. I WAS THINKING THE TEAM WAS INNOCENT AND WASN'T AWARE.
Not buying this pack because console gamers are SCREWED.
Yeah, and frankly, I don't use mods myself much-- they take up a lot of space and bog down lower power computers. In any case a game should never rely on mods
TBH This, to me, reflects a state of rot internal to EA I keep thinking about what happened with Battlefield 2042, another title of theirs that recently released in such a poor state that Steam overruled its longstanding policy on refunds to give people their money back.
EA has been hated a long time at this point. I've been playing their games since the early 90s and they have massively lost sight of what drives a title's success: player satisfaction.
It makes me so sad that we've gotten here. I already had feelings about Sims 4 because of how it launched (I've been salty for that long) but this is...ridiculous.
Edit: I also find it worrying that patches intended for the launch of a new pack are now causing base game problems. My game has been crashing constantly since the update. I didn't even BUY MWS
Ive seen that comparison, & it's a worrisome one. they don't seem to like to learn much from their mistakes
Devil's Advocate here.... you know some several years ago, there was a "dancing plague?"
While it's pretty much summed up to mass hysteria, it's still called a "dancing plague" and plagues usually involve a sickness which are often called "bugs."
Yeeeeah.... it's a reach.... a long reach.... but this is Sims. You can't tell me they wouldn't have made the same reach in a joking manner. 🤷♀️
Huh! Could be, certainly
I feel like poor engine is already crumbling under so much content they are trying to put in. And it is not that there is too much content (comparing to previous games) it is that the engine was meant for online one-sim game
I do think the engine has always been a big problem'
& at the same time, it's their responsibility to only release something if it reasonably works
The fact is that Wedding stores is not fit for purpose we as consumers can sue The Developers as it is not fit for purpose and there is also the fact that it is false advertising there for under (UK law at least) we can sue them for delivering a product that is not fit for purpose and false advertising people have sued and win before and someone should again.
I was trying to look into it. Complexities, depending on the country and region. There are some US laws but it's a question of if they can get by with "fixing" issues later
I’ve only bought 1 kit because I won’t pay $5 for slightly different clothing/furniture swatches. Might have paid for the vacuum kit since it had gameplay, but it was broken.. And this broken wedding pack is just insulting. Won’t buy until it’s fixed and on sale at this point.
They have to know that this isn't acceptable, there can be a debate about pack themes, but they need to work
I think it's funny, but it's probably only funny because I didn't buy the pack.
But The Sims in general is so buggy and problematic, beyond Sims 4. I'm on day 3 of carefully reinstalling and setting up Sims 3 using player made guides (because depending on how you install store content it can uninstall itself not to mention the nearly 600 missing stencils from store and pack content), then I'm going to start on Sims 2 and refresh myself on the dos and don'ts because you can easily and unknowingly corrupt the game. It's just a giant reminder of why I was hesitant to get behind Sims 4 because this is crazy.
I love these games. They're fun to play when they work, and I know they aren't easy to make but the quality defintiely could and should be better. I really hoped when Sims 4 came out it'd be better but it seems like it's only gotten worse. I hope Sims 5 will be better too but I'm not expecting much.
I love them too, and a lot of people do.. I think that's what makes it all the more frustrating! I do too.. I will say if and only if they spend more time and are more thoughtful, maybe they will use a better base.
I hope you enjoy 2 and 3!
My guess is that EA needed this pack out and basically everyone working on it knew it and let the descriptions slide because they were all angry about it
someone mentioned it was right near a financial earnings report
When we say we like Sims self deprecating humor, we don't mean poking fun of their bugs.
I missed the old Sims 1 and 2 humor, there's sarcasm, puns and some wit and pizzazz to their descriptions and notifications. Sims 4 is always trying too hard to impress and often times they fail epically.
True. I never played 1 (started with 2) but I've always admired that. Both games had a quirkiness to them
They may think this was funny, but I know a lot of people were NOT laughing about this broken dlc 😑
I cry every time I think about the money I've invested in this game...not cool EA 😓
Im really sorry- I know a lot of people have spent far too much for the game to be in the state it is
When it was first announced I was so excited but that all changed when I seen the live stream and all the problems with this pack. I agree the sims needs some competition. There is no other game like the sims so they feel safe. I spent so much money on the sims. I used to buy every pack but not anymore. I think the last pack I bought was cottage living or dream home decorator and before that was Realm of magic.
I was too.. it has a lot of potential & it's really sad to see .-- they need to take more care in what they put out
I don't care if it was an "innocent joke". They sold us broken trash that they knew was broken trash, and then they immortalized it in the object description by basically laughing at us. They even did that weird shady secret survey where they asked people if they should just market it better even though they knew full well why that pack was a flop.
The only "innocent jokes" here are us, the people buying this trash still. Honestly. They actually made me feel embarrassed just now. Like wow. Shows me for being a loyal fan and buying basically everything they ever released, I guess.
Yeah, I saw-- the buyers and non buyers surveys. It does seem they had to have been aware how broken it was. See I can fully understand a glitch or even several-- the issue is the main core features don't work- and I could tell they knew that during the livestream. I wish they would have said hey it's not ready we're going to have to push it back
At least the Sims team acknowledges people when they screw up unlike Rockstar Games they ignore their community and don't care what anybody thinks so at least I can give the Sims that that they communicate a little bit
Oh for sure, the gaming industry has gotten quite bad and sadly it isn't a sims only issue. It's painful to see
I don't think holding the demo wedding on that lot did them any favours either. The baked earth/ patchy grass terrain paint they've got going on there just makes it look even worse.
I think it showcased how broken it was, even then sigh. I was hoping they'd use the extra week to address some issues
It's time for Sims 5 to release. More and more adding on to a Sims base game has always created problems.
Not sure, I def don't want it now if it means being rushed like 4 was
After this im not buying anything else from EA/the sims unless this addressed and fixed. I don't even care about ts5 now
If the same team of people end up on the sims 5 then i don't want it.
This pack has soured me so much that I don't know I'll buy new Sims 4 content going forward.
And I hate they referred to it as few bugs and glitches...I can't even have regular weddings in my game anymore. None of it's works.
So, I don't actually think the jokes are about the bugs. I think it's a very dorky joke about the dancing plague of the like 1500s. Unfortunate, given the bugs in the game but the comments on the dance floor line up with it being a dorky plague joke much more to me. And I say that as someone who is so mad about this new pack I'm not buying any new Sims things until it's fixed.
I really think the majority of the sims team are probably frustrated with their management. I think they WANT to release quality content, and they're being hampered by lack of time, manpower, funding, whatever, and that all comes down from above. I think like most of us who have struggled to do a good job DESPITE bad management, they are TRYING. But there's only so much they can do, given the obstacles management is putting in their way.
I don't think anyone expects "perfect" at this point. Like the description said... but dayum EA!
YOU ALL SAW THAT LIVESTREAM TOO.
So... yeah. They were well aware of how broken the pack was. But what the hell can ya do when your manager says "Time's up. Ship it!" You need your job and paycheck. You do what you're told.
It's a very depressing situation. I wonder how much turnover there is
So when it comes to what the engine can do, I think MWS is possible. I say this because I actualy bought Batuu recently and yeah I know it's the Devil's pack, but there are some pretty complex interactions in that pack and they work perfectly. Maybe that's the mouse's doing, but in Batuu there's a lot to keep up with and a lot of things your Sim has to do to with multiple NPCs.
Honestly Batuu is a better pack than this
@@SimmerErin Batuu is more a values thing lol. Annoyingly, the pack just works really well and has features we've been beggin for like vehicles.
Thank you for unearthing this. This is disgusting news.
One day, I hope to unearth something positive ha
Wish they'd just work on the base game bugs but gotta make money. I hate how my sims always stand there for a minute before completing a simple action.
I can see the ones in charge running this game/ franchise into the ground.
Yeah, and sadly they will always have that pressure to make more and more-- for the company not their salaries.
I think it's all about the funding of the QA and I think they want to save money by any means necessary, and they're cutting in this department. I've been thinking this for longer time already, your video only confirms my thoughts (unfortunately).
Yeah, I think I may take a look at some other packs for a broader comparison if I have time. It's likely to be depressing
I think they’re not making fun of themselves but making fun of management with sarcastic spite.
It's certainly possible
I place blame on EA. they push for releases to satisfy numbers for stockholders. I think the devs knew there were major issues because they weren't given the time to fix.
You remember when the game launched 7+ years ago and the babies were scary gross glitchy?
At least that was fixed. After a while.
They were so scary, I didn't play with kids at all.
(Also toddlers didn't exist)
There are bugs from the very first packs that wasn't fixed yet.
It's embarrassing by now.
It has been sub par quality from the start. And they should have stopped, at least back when they spilt the game into regular and "unupdateable" and 1000s of players were effectively left behind by a game they already spent 100s of dollars on.
The engine is Not strong enough to keep building on.
And I'm an avid player. A completist. I really love this game and have logged more than 20.000 hours in it.
But at this point, it's like being hooked on a bad drug. I wish I could quit.
I think that the year before they were making improvements. But you make a good point about a bad start. It was rushed from the beginning
Just a reminder that when we talk about competition, that no one- including paralives - has shown us they can do life simulation game play with any complexity. So I am not holding my breath about competition till we see that. Its an often invoked trope about paralives- that they will give The Sims that "much needed competition" (which I agree would be good)- but we just haven't seen it in terms of game play- which is the actual hard part of these games.
Yes, as of now, there is no for sure competition. That's the problem. We don't know yet if there will be
I recently started looking into Sims 2 more as it was a game I only played a few times on Game Cube as a kid, Ive been exploring it more and trying to play it more. And I have heard a lot about how Sims 2 was the best game, and i always thought "how is that don't they keep making it better". But after seeing more of the sims 2 I realized that yes they added different features in Sims 3 and 4 but the Sims 2 was clearly made with more care. There was a lot of effort put into it from animations to storylines. They went from Sims and made it so much better and into Sims 2. From there they mainly just added a few other things each new series, Sims 3 open world, sims 4 emotions. These ones seem to lack that extra attention the Sims 2 got.
Sims 3 is my fav, and I don't think there is a best game though so much as what the focus is. I think the issue with sims 4 is the lack of time devoted to the core AI. I also think 2 and 3 just have a lot more charm and depth
@@SimmerErin I play sims 4 the most and probably enjoy it the most. I find there is more to do and explore
But that may also be because it’s the newest one and the one I am the most familiar with
Those....descriptions on the dance floors...triggered my red flag alarm....
for what?
@@SimmerErin they way they literally implied it being a glitch or bug is...yikes! 😬 i know they're self aware but IF and only IF MWS gets fixed...its going to simming ptsd with how horrid and broken the pack was
I wish all the devs could branch off and take the Sims IP and just make the game they want to make and that they know the community wants without EA messing it up... oh to dream...
it would be interesting... I wonder how different it could be
@Simmer Erin I bet it'd be a lot like Sims 1 only with aging and better graphics.
The jokes in descriptions are minor considering bugs existed prior to this pack, but the quote about quality as far back as Realm of Magic could indicate an erosion of standards over time due to low moral. It must be very hard creating something that is always savagely critiqued.
And under really bad time constraints it seems.
Yeah I actually am very glad you listened to that part, because I feel that is the more important message I'm looking into. It's not often about something in isolation, but deeper, systemic issues
They knew and constantly using what is so messed up as a running joke. Uncouth, and just straight up contemptible.
Imagine being at a notable eatery and this the treatment that you and others are receiving and they tell you it’s just a joke. Next day they scratch their heads as to why they have no customers in the foreseeable future.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🥰👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️🌷🌷
& sadly how they sold this is akin to buying an appliance and it not working at all and saying "well at least it looks pretty"
This is exactly why I'm done with this franchise. I will NOT be buying The Sims 5. I'm holding out for Paralives.
It makes me sad to see, but I can understand people feeling that way
I'm going to see what 5 turns out like, as well as Paralives, as both are unknowns
At first I was like “oh they are just making a knock at bad dancers.” And then they mentioned bugs and I was like …”mmmm”
I wonder if the people creating the content know that this is going to happen and instead of making a knock at the bugs themselves, they are making a knock at the higher ups. I think they are on our side.
Either way, I agree that the sims is getting too big for their britches and unfortunately I don’t see a way to fix it - other than creating a larger game with more features, and less DLC.
Well in that case, I hardly blame them.. ugh it's such a bad situation
@@SimmerErin I know! It’s so hard, and frustrating.
Ok so the part of the interview saying that the variety of combinations of packs complicates quality testing is concerning to me. That along with the mindset you can not fully integrate packs from the past in new releases because of the potential of bugs for those who do not own everything ( which is valid because if there was pack integration with if/else testing for packs then those delays while the game checks for what options to offer to players can seem like lag as it runs through the list of what is installed before offering options) are valid reasons for pushing for a subscription service like game where they have more control over what is included in the game upon load universally. It's terrible for those who pick and choose their packs based on personal beliefs and preferences but from a quality control standpoint switching to a subscription-based platform makes sense.
I think they will stick to a subscription option through EA play, but I certainly understand those concerns. That wouldn't be a model I'd have any interest in
I think its actually really messed up and in poor taste to have jokes like that in the game. Its one thing if it was like, a free game, but it just feels musty to essentially make fun of the fact that something is broken … that you literally sold to that person. I know whoever writes the catalogue copy is not the same person that codes the items, nor are they the person in charge of setting the price for content. But the company is responsible for all of those factors coming together. It’s just not ok to joke about things being broken when you’re making money off of selling those things. Idk, it just smells off to me.
i wonder if it was a disgruntled worker
There have been so many packs etc that i've been saved from wasting my money on thanks to watching youtubers who test them out
You know, it's weird-- they gave all those earl reviewers, knowing how broken it was. At least people on social media were warned
@@SimmerErin so true, honestly it must be so embarrassing to have worked on the pack even if they didn't get a say on whether it was ready to be released or not
When they decided to push back the release of MWS they should have gone all-out in fixing it.
agreed
If this is a joke then no one is laughing! They are getting paid HUGE salaries to create these packs, kits etc. We’re paying good money for these packs w/ no refunds if we have problems w/ them so BEFORE they release a pack they need to be FULLY tested first!
yes, it was released in a state that simply isn't acceptable
I recently thought about which five packs had the most bugs, and four of the five were more recent packs. For the joke in the description, I'm going to say that's a harmless joke though I can't say I really like it. The devs were definitely aware how broken the pack was, and how it was released is immoral and gross, but idk how much control the developers have over when the pack is released, so it may not be like the people who made this joke were the ones who decided to release this pack completely broken
for sure, I think the joke itself is not so much the issue but the context of all that is happening
Dine Out is often used as the example of broken content from the past. I don't know what it was like when it was released, but I got it this year as part of a package of stuff. (I didn't care about Dine Out, it just came with some other things I wanted.) It is slow, I can easily see why someone would be unhappy with it, but technically, it works. Like it or not, it does the stuff it claims to do. Sims *can* go to a restaurant and eat and they *can* own and operate one. Yeah, I have a lot of complaints about it, and if I was manager of the team that built it I'd have complained a lot and told manglement it's not ready until some stuff got added and/or changed, but technically, it works. MWS *doesn't*, which is the problem.
yeah. dine out is a pack that needs tweaking and has issues but you can still play w/ the core gameplay-- that's what makes mws all that much worse
I don't think they should be joking when the launch happened like this, for the regular launches, like Cottage Living, that was fine, but not for soemthing as broken as the Wedding Pack. I'm glad they are at least saying they are working on it and not just breezing past it to the next thing
I wonder what happened, it's just so notably bad... and it's suc a shame.
I am glad we know we are getting fixes.. just wish they'd waited to release it
@@SimmerErin Same
i have to say you are really a beacon of hope, for the community, one of the few simmers and youtubbers dedicated to the sims and life simulation in general which is really awaken for the truth which is the sims is not a "perfect game" neither "the best" it is just "the only option" and which "all the blame is to EA and the dev team are all "innocents victims of EA greedy and all the bugs and mess in the game is EA fault, which more and more is being showed which is not even "close to be", as you told everyone is to blame even the fanbase/costumers" which is thanks to the "shu***p and take my money mentality which the sims franchise ending being a mess and getting worst on each generation, because they will "keep buying anyway" no matter how "broken" something is, another issue to show the greedy is without any doubt how they keep "milking stuffs" with insane number of dlcs, which getting more and more "cheap to make" each time, and i remember when peoples complained about the Sims 3 store" selling stuff then the sims 4 we get the "new mini pack(forget the name) which is basically the same as the sims 3 store selling, props and outfits, it's show how the EA can be greedy and take advantage of die hard fanbase, because in the end "they are the only one", no competition means, they can keep doing it forever without care about anything.
with the interview and jokes and how they normally "handly" the problems we can see which without any doubts the dev team really have they "dirty hands on it too" and in the end you really don't have any victims because again in the end even the fans are to blame for the current poor state, which as you told it just gonna get worst since they are using a really poor developed base game engine, which get more "bloated overtime with many bloated and poorly tested codes.
without any doubts the only hope for the sims franchise is competition otherwise be ready to have a load screen to go to bathroom or when woohooing or have a toilet dlc , because you know they "must make the game most accessible possible to run in calculators and sell the endless dlc as fast and cheap as they can.
This is such a kind comment! I often feel bad because there are long periods of time I feel my channel leans critical-- and I don't want to be negative-- I just really care about this franchise, and I hate seeing what is happening.
I think yeah-- the situation is complex/ I think EA IS to blame for a lot, but that doesn't mean the devs don't have responsibility. competition is so badly needed
In the live stream, the sim guru controlling the stream said something along the lines of “I’m not going to tell the sims what to wear because I’m not a bridezilla.” So not only did she use an extremely sexist term and imply that if you DO want sims to all wear the same color then you are this horrible term, but she did this to hide the fact that if you DO choose a specific color, it doesn’t even work!!
hhmm it seems they chose not to show a feature-- indeed many features-- that don't work
To start I really loved the glorified trailer they released for Valentine’s Day, but I did not get my hopes up for the actual gameplay.
Given EA’s track record I never buy a newly released pack, only when it goes on sale and after it has been out a while due to their negligence.
It is insensitive and unprofessional for gurus to poke fun at the game. It shows the lack of passion and how much of a detachment they have towards it.
They first need to understand that The Sims franchise is important to so many people and that should not be taken lightly. It is crazy how people get paid to work on The Sims, yet are severely under skilled. It’s embarrassing, I would not tell anyone I worked for EA if I were them.
Never give your customers excuses, you have their money and they want what they paid for, otherwise you are running a scam.
I definitely agree when you stated more competition is needed. that is one of the reasons why I have been following the development of Paralives.
P.S. Though I haven’t commented in a while, great content as always Erin!
Thank you.
Yes, it is very important-- it's not just a single game, but the care that needs to be placed into a franchise that's now over two decades. I can only hope they get the push they need