The Sims 3 are demonstrating for more customer rights and against Blah!
Though i expect more official news about The Sims 3 to be released soon i’m slowly getting scared.
What if The Sims 3 will not be so damned nice like everybody is going to tell us actually? What if all the euphoric smiles turn into angry grimaces or - even worse - boredom and sheer disappointment?
Just like it happened with EA’s latest flop “Spore”.
The casual Sims-Gamer will be happy about The Sims 3 anyway and the game will be a Mega-Seller, that’s for sure. I will be happy about The Sims 3 as well and it’s no question that i will buy it on its release date (February 20). I’m even planning to take a day off…
But i also know for sure that i will not be satisfied by the gameplay only. I am a custom creator (one of thousands), it’s in my nature that i want to mod The Sims 3.
When i think about The Sims 3 as a creator of custom content i realize that it’s about time to become skeptic and ask some inconvenient questions.
That’s what i’m going to do in this post because there’s way too much useless blah around…
Since months we only read about the same boring stuff. All the new features are nice and wonderful, i’m really looking forward to them, but to be honest:
The known Sims 3 features are only part of usual game evolution!
It’s just normal that every new sequel of a game will have a new look, increased this and that, more or other functions and so on. What’s so special with that?
When will journalists start to ask really important and interesting questions? When will the Maxis-People start to blog about stuff that’s deep and tells more than only the same old “open neighborhood” stuff?
Having a “Sims 3″ article or topic on a website generates many visitors these days. There are only 5 months left and everybody is trying to post some “news” about The Sims 3. That’s okay and i’m doing so as well.
But it’s embarrassing what you can read sometimes:
On one site (that i found on the second page of Google’s “the sims 3″ search results) they are really telling people that there will be a “create a sims” editor in The Sims 3 - as if it were a new feature!
Well, “CAS” is the oldest feature of the whole sims series and believe me, those guy doesn’t know anything about The Sims 3 - he doesn’t know anything about the sims at all.
And believe it or not, i even found many articles written by professional game-journalists and it was obvious that those guys never ever had played The Sims in their life.
When they are happy by doing their jobs this way, it’s alright. But better think twice before you believe every word…
We already know that the new editors, CAS or the Object-Designers, will have many more options than those “Create-Modes” in The Sims 2.
But i can assure you that it still won’t be enough. Even the best and largest editor will get to its limit, no matter how many nice color-options and brushes are in there.
To tell you the truth: The new re-color tools are surely nice, but when i cannot import my own textures and cannot modify the 3D-Mesh i will get bored after 10 minutes!
Despite all the cool new editors there will still be the need to mod the sims 3!
Is really everything sweet and nice in The Sims 3?
If gamers want to get more designs they go online where they find the really cool stuff. Collecting downloads this way always has been an very important part of simming.
In fact, it’s the modding community who has established the intense re-coloring of objects (thanks to the great custom-made SimPe tool)!
EA/Maxis is only grabbing the ideas of those who modded The Sims 2, put them into The Sims 3 and sell it as new!
That’s OK, basically. But what will they give back to that creative part of the community that mainly has nothing to do with the official exchange?
Will EA still support us independent artists, the modders and their independent websites? Or does EA want all the traffic and honor for themselves? It would not be a surprise…
Let me stop for now. I don’t want to take the happiness about The Sims 3 from you. I just told you that it’s time to become a little skeptic about The Sims 3.
I’m getting tired of all the super-happy posts and “we are so wonderful” official statements.
I believe that it’s not good to say “Yes, Nice, Fine and Amen” to EA Games all the time. It’s better to let them know that Sims-Fans are not only 10 years old girls and blind followers.
I’m thinking about collecting a small list with my personal “interesting questions” about The Sims 3.
It would be great if you would create such a list, too. I’m sure you’re having some important questions now ;)
maybe it is not a great comparison but this situation with Sims 3 reminds me that of Anno(strategy). First game Anno 1602 was realy great and its sequel Anno 1701 - contained a lot of useless things what made me bored.
All I want Sims 3 to be is just more vertex for MilkShape (or in-game MilkShape - why not?) and to remove the blanket while having sex:)))
I want also them to live all addons. Cause I’m already bored with collecting and installing Sims 3 addons!!! And lots of problems and disappointments surraunding that!