Side Quest: Sims Summit Thoughts
10/28/2022
I was going to make a more deep and more well-thought-out post about the Sims Summit, but I don't think it really needs all that fuss. I was going to break down how I figured out that the Summit was going to be oof, but it really all started when the Sims Offical Twitter tweeted that the Summit was going to be hosted by comedian, Phoebe Robinson, what does a comedian have to do with the Sims franchise?.......NOTHING of course! That was the first sus thing about the Summit, the next sus thing was them inviting a former BuzzFeed employee to the summit, Kelsey Impicche, who has more of a name in the Sims community for doing click baity lets plays, which is more credit than Phoebe has in the community, to be honest. EA/Maxis having a former BuzzFeed employee involved with the Summit as a selling point, still didn't bow well, but I kept my hopes high. The final nail in the coffin for my hopes was EA/Maxis inviting a tik tok dance group to the Summit (yeah I don't why either), ironically them inviting a dance to the Summit made a lot of people realize that this event might more than the standard guru Livestream.
Literally, nobody knew who this dance group was, not even some of the younger players! So, all these signs were an obvious red flag that the EA/Maxis still hasn't learned to connect with their core audience. The Summit itself was only 30 mins, it was recorded (of course), and it felt like EA/Maxis was trying to copy the direct motif/aesthetic that Nintendo uses for their game announcements, but this felt so off because Nintendo never has their host goes and on and on about their personal life disguises as poorly made cringe relatable jokes, they don't have a random dance crew nobody asked for smack dab in the middle of a direct, nor do they have a BuzzFeed person interview randos on the street about simple surface level Nintendo facts.
Enough about my problems with the Summit structurally, let me move on to the meat and potatoes of this event, I say meat and potatoes but its more like peanuts and crackers (maybe half a cracker, if you're lucky). The Summit really didn't inform the fans much, they promised they were going to show a roadmap for what to come for the Sims 4, but they just showed off some concept art for new worlds and stuff packs, there was stuff for Sims mobile and people were presenting for the Sims mobile were a lot more bearable than the other hosts, but to be honest I don't think anyone was on the edge of their seat for Sims mobile news.
Oh wait, there was an announcement for a new platform for downloading CC and Mods made by CursedForge, that sounds interesting, but that was totally glossed over during the Summit. If anyone was interested in that they would have to go over the official CursedForge website to find more info about it, info that could of easily been added in the Summit (especially if they took away the cringe interview and the random dance break).
EA/Maxis revealed some stuff about The Sims 5, which seems to be going under the codename Project Rene (as in renew), what they showed off was mostly build-buy stuff. The color wheel is back (which is good), it looks like you can decorate the room with another person, and you can continue decorating on your phone (if you're on the go). This does seem like a good thing at FIRST, but after thinking about it for a while this does mean that the game might have some limits both graphically and technically if the WHOLE game is mobile compatible. EA/Maxis also mentioned that the Sims 5 will have both a multiplayer and single-player option, so that's a thing. There are rumors going around that EA/Maxis is copying off of Paralives because of how the new build buy is eerily similar to Paralives' Build Buy, personally, I just think that's just a consequence (but some think not).
The last thing they showed off was an overhaul for babies, at first people thought it was a complete overhaul for the baby's life state, but it seems like EA/Maxis is going to add a new life state in between infants and toddlers, the babies look cute. Some people think the new baby life state just looks like a shrunk version of the toddler stage, personally, I think the babies look cute but they're babies so that's pretty hard to mess up (especially in the current sims graphic style). Others say this is EA/Maxis' hint that the next expansion pack is going to be a true blue generations pack, this theory is semi-supported by the fact dentures were shown in the concept art for the upcoming packs at the start of the Summit.
Anyways, that's all I have to say about the Sims Summit, was I disappointed? yeah, I was expecting this to be a way EA/Maxis could redeem themselves in the community's eyes, and finally show everyone they were working away diligently on the Sims 5, while everyone else was complaining about the Sims 4, but I guess I had too much hope. EA clearly doesn't understand their audience, which is funny because a part of the summit was them going on and on about how much they appreciate and acknowledge their fan base, how the game wouldn't be the same without their creative fanbase, which is true I don't think I would keep coming back to the Sims 4 if it were for all the cool CC and mods the fans make.
Currently, I'm not playing the Sims 4, but I plan to come back to it when the new CC/Mod hub is up, I've heard some bad things about CursedForge, which makes me kind of weary about it, so I might not join on the jump, I'll probably wait until some Sims peeps I trust say its okay. I felt like I might have been too harsh about the Summit but at the same time EA/Maxis were hyping it up the high heavens, I mean they even had youtube commercials hyping up the Summit, so I felt like some of my saltiness was needed.
Anyways, I hope this will be the last time I talk about The Sims 4 at least for a while
Until next time days~