|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 12, 2015 16:53:20 GMT -5
Actually, working for EA as a coder doesn't seem to be such a dream job. In fact EA recently settled two class action law suits with its employees. One was with graphics people I think and one was with coders. These suits kind of grew out of this blog post detailing the abysmal working conditions and corporate culture going on at the EA shop. I guess it remains to be seen if the company leadership will head in a new direction in terms of how they treat the people who work for them. Yeah, see, this, this I don't deny is absolute poo. This is EA being a greedy money-sucking hole of a corporation. You'll get no argument from me on that front. The worst part is the people already getting mistreated by the management, are also the ones taking the most poo from the community. No one should have to take it from both ends like that unless they're kinky.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 11, 2015 16:16:45 GMT -5
There are times where people actually should be entitled. Of course, when it comes to video games, it's a trivial matter. But the bigger picture is a business climate where the argument for out-sized political influence is how awesome a job corporations are doing of serving the greater good (providing for people's needs for productive employment and consumption). When they can't even be bothered to pay lip service to that anymore, you know they feel that they have the political situation tied right up in their favor and they don't need to; no one can or will do anything meaningful to counter it for the betterment of their own interests. Video games are a luxury, we should never be 'entitled' with regards to them. Bad business practices are bad business practices, but a lot of bad business practices stem from ass protection in a hostile climate. Fact is, if a dev slips up even a little, the internet will hound their ass as long as it can. Ever gotten advice on what to do when you get into a car accident (or anything similar), a lawyer will ALWAYS tell you not to apologize or admit fault. That's the climate most businesses live in. It shouldn't be, but it is. There's a poo ton of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' issues with gaming, and I'm honestly just not going to give most fans the benefit of actually considering the fact that games take time and money, and people make mistakes. As I said, constructive criticism is great, but entitlement and bitching are not constructive. If you have a complaint about the game: 'Give me toddlers NAO!' (for example) is not the way to deal with it. Programming takes time, especially when you have a lot of checks and balances to go through, and quality is not objective. I'm sure you've probably worked some form of customer service, even if it's low-level, and if so, you know that customers will happily treat you like poo over things you can't do anything about. I've had customers bitch about things that are literally not even the management's problem, they're issues with the laws of physics or thermodynamics or other factors that simply have nothing to do with anything any worker did. For instance, working at a pizza place, I've seen customers ask to have their pizzas run through the oven twice, and then bitch that it was overcooked, even after being told that's what would happen. I've seen retail workers take poo for policies that they have no control over. All that does is make some worker's day worse. It's not fighting the man, it's not harming the business as a whole, it's not changing the business climate, it's just being unpleasant and entitled. A lot of the complaints with Sims 4 are just that. The workers are not responsible for decisions the higher ups make, they are doing their job; no one can really change that programming takes time and money and is fickle as hell; and if you just don't like the finished product, that doesn't mean it's bad. In the end, that last point is what it comes down to. I like TS4, I think it's far better than TS3 (at least where TS3 was a year in, and honestly, I'd still rather play TS4 right now than TS3, even with all the content). I don't exactly like the amount of nickle and diming in the series, but it's better in TS4 than it was in TS3. So yeah, I agree EA is a greedy corporate suckhole, I just don't think the fans are the innocent victims.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 11, 2015 7:38:25 GMT -5
J MzunguThat "Honestly, I'd never spend a second on this forum if it werent for all the nice people I've come across on here. " counts for me too. On ModtheSims you only talk with people for help and I barely smiled reading posts on that website (except in the downloads comment sections). But here it feels more friendly, you get more the feeling that people ARE really interested in you and not only in what you do for The Sims 4 and that's a good thing! You sort of "get to know" people. Some will always help you with your problems, some will keep the conversation going and others are just totally nuts that makes these people very funny! (I'm not going to give any names) :P I think MTS has a less active forum, most of the activity tends to be in the comments for downloads, because it's just more fitting the design of the site.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 11, 2015 2:19:31 GMT -5
This statement makes me really sad. Whether you're 22 or 54, Ryu, I'm thinking, "Kids these days have such low expectations." Running a business isn't brand new territory. There is nothing new under the sun about an exec jumping on-board with some new thing and not having the sense to stop for a second to think that maybe one or two of the many, many projects he's decided it will apply to across the board aren't as uniformly suited to it (especially when his employees are saying so emphatically). It was a mistake. It was a matter of incompetence. It wasn't that suddenly for no reason there was a budget; it was that the budget couldn't cover both the failed project and the one that went out. And, yes, when the franchise ends, which I'm sure has already been decided, there will be other people to fill the gap. I just hope those people aren't doing it in an economic environment, where marketers are telling them straight up that it would be stupid to even try to make it a quality product because everyone now knows that customers will accept anything (even having to be unpaid pro-corporate spokespeople) and still pay as much. You make the world you live in. I did say, I hate EA as much as the next guy, and I do, but I also hate fans who act entitled. Again, I'm not talking about people here, but it's not a small portion of the fanbase. I can't count the number of 'This is what EA/Maxis needs to do' posts out there. No one needs to cater to anyone, or make video games at all, and there's plenty of content I want, but I'm not going to pretend they owe me. If they were catering to me, we'd be seeing Pets and Supernatural content now, and screw toddlers (not that I don't want toddlers, but I want other stuff way more). So yeah, there's totally greedy assholes at the top who are taking more than their share and using shoddy data to push bad ideas, but they're not the developers. If I work at the cash register at Wal-Mart, I'm not in charge of their policies. The fans don't get a pass for entitled, childish tantrums because EA is run by greedy businessmen. The customer is very much not always right, and that mentality does no good. As to 'The next game in the series needs to be better, period', your statement isn't objective truth. Even with all the expansion packs and content, I haven't played Sims 3 as much in the entire time it was out as I have Sims 4 in the past month. To me, Sims 4 is the much superior game. I get why some people wouldn't feel that way, but it's not objective by any means. I'm not saying anyone's wrong to dislike the game, but it's 'inferiority' is not a fact, and I've seen way too many people talk like it is. Once you start talking in absolutes and demands, it's no longer constructive.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 10, 2015 15:10:38 GMT -5
I like the way you explained your name Finn Quill! You didn't just picked a name, but though about it very deeply...(deeply is an english word right..?) :P And I see something of myself in your post above this one. I do like to make people happy or laugh too. And it also makes me happy. It's also good for my self-confidence of course.. So, nice to have you here too! There can't be to much people who are willing to help making this forum the best one there is. Not only because of the excellent help you get here, but also because of the nice people. n.n I appreciate it, and yes, deeply is a word.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 20:13:50 GMT -5
Okay, if you clicked that, you probably get the reference. Anyway, D0rkysimmer converted this Sims 3 furniture set to Sims 4. In it you can find a table lamp called the 'Comrade Cube'. I would love to see someone add the tuning to this lamp that would allow a Sim to talk to it. Bonus points if it functions like an Insane Sim talking to themselves, but I understand if it might be easier to make it work like talking to plants. Either way, how cool would it be?
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 20:07:36 GMT -5
If you like your name, then it has meaning. It's a word that refers to you, and you seem like the kind of person who is plenty meaningful. Plus, I like the name Jojo, it suits you from what I've seen so far, it's playful and cute, but without being too childish. Good qualities in a name. Wow - thanks! Your makin' me kinda blush ova here, not use to hearing such nice compliments! I'm pretty darn playful and like to joke around, so if you think my name reflects that, then I'm happy! I'm very complimentary, I get a lot of joy from making other people feel loved and happy. Sadly, it's that level of empathy and compersion that also hurts me the most (I can't stand not seeing people happy, at least good people, and it's messed me up pretty badly), but I try to maintain that as much as possible. When they're not hurting each other, people are wonderful, and everyone should feel like it. Also, at my best, I'm a terrible flirt. I like making people happy, and the more happiness I can derive, the more joy I get, so I'm a bit of a hedonist. That said, people aren't happy when they are uncomfortable, or non-consenting, so my compliments are only as flirty as you want them to be. If interpreting them as flirty makes you happy, then that's how I mean them, and if you just want to interpret them as compliments, then cool, that's how I mean it. So far, you seem like a cool chick, so I'm happy to make you blush. n.n
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 18:57:56 GMT -5
I think a lot of the things that are less than perfect in Sims 4 evolved from the fact that it wasn't meant to be the kind of game it is when it was first put together. It was meant to be more of an online social kind of "experience" rather than what it became. The coders weren't given a whole lot of time to do a 180 degree switcharoo on it and some things show signs of being hastily thrown together. Yeah, that's a piece of transparency I wish Maxis would make better known. I'm sure some people would call poo on it, but honestly, it's a budget issue. They can't just scrap a project that big, they can't postpone too much, games take money. AAA games eat funding. It's sad, but true. If Maxis were just like: 'Ohp, no pools, no ghosts, no toddlers, firetruck** everyone!' sure, I'd jump on the bandwagon of screw them. However, they are providing plenty of free content updates to the game, and again, in this day and age, I think that's just the nature of video games. Don't buy games when they first come out expecting the experience to be complete, it's pretty much never going to be (short of games with a very focused narrative). We live in the era of evolving games, the Early Access market proves that (I mean, look at how popular ARK is and that game is legitimately an incomplete game). Sadly, AAA developers can't market that way, their consumer base would never have it. Gamers are a vitriolic bunch of entitled jerks a lot of the time, and people would cry foul if the developers pointed hat out. Honestly, I'd love to see Maxis (or any developer really) come out and just say: 'Hey, stop being assholes or code it your damn selves. We have budgets, salaries, deadlines, and a number of other issues to deal with, we're working on it!' The Sims is pretty much the only game of its kind on the market, that's usually a pretty good indicator that it's either very niche or hard to develop. Objectively, the game could be better, but relatively, who is making better content? Maybe it's just not that easy. Again, this isn't aimed at anyone here, specifically, I just really can't stand entitlement. I'm totally all for constructive criticism. If you're angry that Maxis isn't sitting down and having constructive discussions, that's not all on them. Point some fingers at the fanbase that can't wait to tear someone a new esteemed friend for every perceived sleight. The worst of it are the people who complain about subjective content like it's objective. As I said before, what is a feature to some is game-breaking to others. You're never going to see me trolling the mod community like: 'You don't want your cowplants to autonomously murder your Sims? What? You play with long life spans/immortality?! There's no challenge in that you loser! Use the mods I think are good and stop playing like a bitch!' That's hyperbole, of course, but I'm just making a point. I actually do feel like sometimes the mod community adds way too many features that make an already easy game easy, but I don't have to use them. Anyway, I'm excited to see EA/Maxis add more framework for modders to build cool stuff on. The mod community has no lack for random decorative poo (I don't mean to be dismissive or derogatory, I mean that with total admiration for how much decorative poo is out there), I want EA/Maxis to give me stuff the modders can't. Bring on the new life states (I'm so ready for a 'Supernatural' style EP). EDIT: I'm sorry if I'm coming off as overly aggressive, I'm not very good at controlling my mental functions lately, and I was always a bit of a ranter. Once this damn mattress/bed frame list is done, I won't be looking for some place to vent anymore. Moodlet: 'Minor OCD' Tense +2 - Once you start a project, you gotta finish it, and it's gotta be done right.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 17:30:49 GMT -5
Ryu, I see your points. And I would prefer smarter Sims, but I am not expecting Maxis to custom tailor the game to me. I also have zero problems with the conscious decision to make The Sims amenable to customization. It's when you get way less for the same amount of money or there are obvious problems that you know weren't planned for game play. I mean, I can't believe that the programmers thought that having a Sim sit down first before putting books or plates of food away was just part of Simology. They just started the anims at the wrong place and still haven't been bothered to fix it. Okay...okay...there is one point at which that is kind of funny - when your Sim is cleaning up a dozen pates of food inside the house after a party, but all the chairs were moved outside of the house for the wedding ceremony. But that's Deviousness, not Mischief! No doubt, there's some wonk, though I think there's something to be said about how much fricken' better the CAS and build modes are in 4, and that stuff takes time and coding and whatnot. It's content, whether or not it 'feels' like it (I'm not saying you're disregarding it, but I think a lot of people do). Coding is a bitch, too, and stuff breaks. I haven't run into any majorly game-breaking issues, and anything I found was just dumb, has mostly been fixed by modders. Should they have to, maybe not, but they did, and in the end, when I play the game, the stuff works the way I want it to, I don't care who put it there. Sure, it sucks for non-modders, but I think modding needs to become more of a mainstream thing, that companies push and support. Ultimately, it's just better for the gaming community, because then I can play my version of the Sims and you can play yours. I'm happy to admit when I think some poo is just laziness though. I mean townie generation is straight up stupid... You'll get no arguments from me there. That is just laziness, they legit need to at least add more family templates into the mix. Also, the inventory system needs a hardcore overhaul. As far as little bugs go, they should fix them, but coding is wonk and again, I'd rather see them implementing new gameplay features. Coding is wonky, anyway, I'm not going to begrudge it, there's a reason the '99 little bugs in the code' meme is a thing*. Honestly, what bothers me most is that people love to jump on the bitching bandwagon. I don't know how anyone can get away with suggesting TS4 is worse for nickle and diming than TS3. The Sim Point store was some microtransaction hell. Yes, there's also a lack of content, but base-game TS3 wasn't especially full either, and I don't remember TS3 getting any real content updates for free. TS4 is embracing that games can be an evolving experience now more than ever, and I appreciate that. Also, the lack of transparency with the development team just doesn't strike me as worth bitching about. PR is damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you say something wrong, the interpret will rip you a new one, at least when you don't say anything, there's nothing to misinterpret. I blame the fans for lack of transparency, too many game companies have seen what rabid speculation, minor missteps, and other little stupid things can do. It's not worth it. If we want transparency, we need to start shutting those assholes up and make it a safe place for developers to talk to the community. I mean, that's not all addressed at you, Merry, this is just my general buckshot response to the general way 'TS4 is the worst' discussions go. It's not productive. You seem totally reasonable, so I'd happily shoot the breeze with you on what you'd like to see in the game. If the dissenting opinion sounded more like you most of the time, I think we'd get a lot farther. *For those that don't know:
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 15:28:32 GMT -5
Well, I very much appreciate the empathy.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 13:51:14 GMT -5
If you like your name, then it has meaning. It's a word that refers to you, and you seem like the kind of person who is plenty meaningful. Plus, I like the name Jojo, it suits you from what I've seen so far, it's playful and cute, but without being too childish. Good qualities in a name.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 13:35:25 GMT -5
Wow - Finn Quill you really put alot of thought and energy into your username, I really like that! (Ps. Dragons are awesome!) Well, Ryu's something I've been using for years... since I was 14 or 15 (I'm in my mid-late 20s now), so it's had time to gain a little history. I do tend to overthink names though, I always want my names to be something meaningful, so I use a lot of references.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 13:19:37 GMT -5
Finn Quill you're agoraphobic? Oh man, that really sucks. Mental illness is no joke, it can be really crippling. I've spent years not being able to leave my house. Luckily, with a bit of help, I've overcome my issues. Now I have some personal problems, that a lot of people would find daunting, my family seem worried about me. But I'm at ease, I don't worry about myself. These current challenges are a joke compared to what I've been through. I hope you can beat this thing, it is possible, and if you do, it gives you such peace of mind, nothing bothers you anymore. I haven't tried making animated objects in S4S and I'm not sure I can actually figure out how. I haven't seen any object animation tutorials out there. If you've found one, let me know. Thanks for the empathy, it does suck because I want to get better and I don't. I used to be very assertive and confident (even though I was bipolar, I was pretty in control of it, without any meds). Then my life got super messed up, and I had a severe identity crisis and lost my will to keep control. That led to a lot of failed attempts to end things, and when I realized I couldn't do it, I broke. Ended up in a mental hospital twice, and had a huge panic attack when I got out. I learned that Agoraphobia is often not defined correctly. Most people treat it as the fear of leaving the house (more or less), but it's actually the fear of being trapped in a situation from which you cannot escape. Turns out, as messed up as it was, the knowledge that I could kill myself at any time, meant I never felt like I couldn't escape a bad situation. When I realized that I probably couldn't do it... I discovered that I've probably been an agoraphobe for as long as I can remember, I just always believed I had an out. Sorry to hijack your thread with that, the events leading to all this have left me with not a lot of people to talk to, and the Sim modding community has kinda become my safe place. You're not the first person who has mentioned that they get what I'm going through, and I appreciate that. There's probably some kind of irony in the fact that I started immersing myself deeply in a life simulator after I stopped being particularly capable of handling the real thing. As for the animation thing, I suddenly realize that despite you and other mentioning the baby cowplants moving in various places, that I guess the baby ones don't usually have animations. I was figuring you could use the ones that were already there, but I guess that's not really a thing... I'd guess if anyone knows how to create an object animation, it'd be Andrew or OM.
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 7:35:06 GMT -5
Personally, I'm totally okay with EA 'outsourcing' minor stuff to the mod community. The mod community exists, it makes good stuff. As long as they aren't constantly breaking mods willy-nilly, then I'd rather Maxis work on stuff the mod community can't fix or add. Let them do the big stuff, and modders take care of fixing stuff. Honestly, with a game like this, there's no way to please everyone anyway. One man's fix is another man's gamebreaker. I've seen a lot of 'fixes' on MTS that I think are complete poo (of note, I don't mean that I think the modder is having some kind of badwrongfun, I just think those mods would make my experience less fun).
For instance, there's a tuning mod for fishing that makes fishing take a lot less effort/time, and I get it, but the game is easy enough as is, and sometimes it's nice to just tell my Sim to go away and fish for a while so I can take care of some other stuff. For them, that's a fix, for me it's cutting corners. In turn, I asked earlier for an update to a mod that makes the cowplant much deadlier (including luring poor dumb Sims to autonomously chow down on the cake), I'm sure that's not a feature that would appeal to everyone. I am happy to make sure my cowplant is very carefully tended and locked away so my dumb little Sims won't die, but also so it'll be much easier to just open the lock on the gate and let guests be enticed into providing me with eternal youth.
In turn, lots of people dislike the non-open world in Sims 4, and sometimes I'm frustrated by it too, but I'd rather have a game that runs well, and Sims 4 runs much better for me than 3 ever did (plus, in Sims 3, loading time was still an issue, it was just all frontloaded, so you had long ass loads right at the beginning, even if you didn't really plan on leaving the lot, I'd much rather have extra, short loads, but only have to load stuff when I plan to go there).
Some people hate the humour and cheekiness and dumbness of the Sims, I see it as part of the charm. The Sims are dumb, they're not humans, they need guidance. That's why it's a game. I wish they didn't suck quite as hard as they do, but in my mind, that's just what makes Sims what they are. Stupidity is just inherent to their species.
I honestly hate EA as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to poo on Maxis or Bioware because of it. They're good developers that happen to be stuck with a sucky overseer, and honestly, 'The Sims' suffers greatly for being very open to interpretation (as to what makes a good life sim) and basically being the only game in town (meaning everyone wants it to cater to their ideal life sim). I mean, in the same way I don't understand how GTA is more popular than Saints Row (because if you're going to do stupid ridiculous stuff all the time, just own it and get ridiculous, don't try to pretend to be serious). Still, I don't begrudge it, I just play Saints Row and soldier on.
Anyway, that was more ranty than I wanted, but I've been thinking about this stuff a while, and my brain is screaming at me for taking on this bed frame/mattress project, so I'm in a venty mood. I needed to write something that wasn't part of a bulleted list for a while...
|
|
|
Post by Finn Quill on Nov 9, 2015 6:31:57 GMT -5
This is super cool, and I already have Gabriel and his daughter wearing your hoodies in one of their party outfits.
|
|