For example: Butlers were included in TS1 Superstar, TS2 Apartment Life and TS3 Late Night. Bowling was included in TS2 Nightlife and TS3 University Life. Slip N Slide was included in TS3 Generations. The Buffet Table was included in TS1 House Party and TS2 and 3 Base Games. Laundry was part of TS3 Ambitions and Sewing (similar to Knitting) was part of TS2 FreeTime.

You understand what I’m saying?

Perhaps they should do Community Voted Game Packs instead of Community Voted Stuff packs because these do seem to be built around a gameplay idea along with being bigger in size. I definitely think that during the vote they ought to tell us how many CAS assets are allowed, how they are supposed to be divided up between ages and genders, as well as how many objects, including the number of useable ones like furniture, as well as decor and unlockables. Perhaps they could even allow us to vote on the division and proportion of CAS assets, useable objects and decor, before holding the vote on the assets themselves.

To me, the Stuff Packs are not falsely limited content but a certain category of how they choose to deliver content. They represent a certain price range, which, yes, inherently limits the number of team members, resources, etc that they are able to devote to it, but which also makes them attractive for their price and niche appeal. Now some people (like LGR) think that they should stop doing SPs at all, and they have certainly been doing many more than in previous games, but compared to the SPs in previous games these are mostly much better. Would knitting be better if it had been included with candlemaking as another activity in EL? I doubt it would be as fleshed out. It’s doubtful whether it would have been a 10 level skill or available to children, increasing their motor skill until maxed and then as a separate skill. In contrast, kids can only make one type of dipped candle in EL, and its not a skill, nor does it even enhance one of their existing skills like creativity.

I also see the TS4 SPs as an improved replacement for the overpriced TS3 store, which I do not think was nearly as good as you seem to suggest. I was a frequent consumer of that store, even if I tried to get a lot of its items and sets on sale, and the objects there rarely included gameplay (or, if they did, they were hugely expensive — as expensive as this stuff pack), nor were they as well made. Some of them never integrated with the game properly or fully, or they broke and were never fixed. Here are a few examples: the buccaneer bounty telescope which was static, Jazz age stereo being without animations, the Crate TV being unable to be repaired or upgraded, the Bayside counters not recolouring, the entire restaurant set never working properly, etc. I could go on, but I won’t.

Looking back, while I remember a few very nice items from the TS3 store, mostly I think they were disappointing and overpriced. They were truly shallow. With a few exceptions, mostly early SPs like Luxury Party, the SPs from TS4 have been far better. Now the rest of the game, that is a matter for debate on which we can agree to differ. TS2 was, and remains, my favourite for gameplay, but TS4 reminds me of it in many ways. TS3 could certainly be fun, and holds up fairly well on a newer system, but was overall so buggy that it was, for me, as much a source of huge frustration as it was entertainment.

Sure you may feel heard and I certainly dont think the fact the team is allowing people to vote is a bad thing in any way. But this does not make the end result perfect. The fact is that they whittled the idea of arts and crafts down to this. The problem isnt the content that was voted on, its how limited these results were. This issue isnt exclusive to this pack. The bowling pack is another great example of this made worse by the fact that it was not even a new animation to the franchise. However, I think this pack fledged out the idea of knitting far greater than the bowling pack fledged out bowling. My personal issue isnt this pack in relation to the others.

You cannot blame simmers for wanting more out of an idea. This arbitrary limitation of “its just a stuff pack” is a self-created limitation. Using bowling again, it was nothing but an animation. The idea could be expanded on, even slightly like renting bowling shoes or having competitive teams, arcade machines, anything really. These packs are not being developed with actual playing in mind and i think thats evidenced in all the live-steams. It seems like a showcase of new things rather than creating an experience and playing a story.

The infrequency of content makes this type of object-driven pack frustrating to those who are not interested. In this respect I think this is how The Sims 3 store and its premium content items were great when done right (although there were many things wrong with the store) It did not detract from larger title pack releases.

I could go on about how ridiculous the idea of creating a few aesthetic items around a single object people actually want is but in short The Sims 4’s piecemeal approach to content was cute with game packs. It offered gameplay at more affordable prices without feeling like you were ripped off. However, i think after so many years of this approach we can see how its created an unengaging, shallow gameplay experience something TS2 and TS3 did not suffer from as bad.

And just to add as someone who awards TS2 the best in the franchise there is an inherent problem with TS4 when even after all these packs combined, disregarding how expensive that is, hobbies still arent as deep as they were in Freetime.

My impression was the opposite of yours: that the team that worked on this pack really did care what the players wanted and thought of it. For instance, they invited player input on the forums regarding what kind of knitting gameplay to include. A bunch of players responded (myself included) and the main thing we all stressed was how much we wanted children to be included, to be able to be taught to knit, and to be able to use the rocking chair etc. Lo and behold, when the pack arrived, we got exactly that and more, like the Metal station and air guitar (with new animations). People are always saying that they want more gameplay, and for me the nicest feature of the pack is that it includes some fun new gameplay, especially tailored for multi-generational families (which are the kind I like to create and play).

In addition, the developers even added extra objects into the pack, giving us four variants of the rocking chair, two knitting baskets (in recognition that the vote was so close), extra children’s boots (not chosen in the vote) and all three wall heights of the hanging plants. On the whole, there’s a really good number of objects and clothing which are craftable, and the Plopsy online selling system integrates well with a number of packs and the basegame.Seems like pretty good value for $10 to me — at least as good, if not better than anything available from the much more expensive TS3 store. And it is easily avoidable if, like LGR, you think it is superfluous.

As for your other point, I was huge fan of Freetime (one of my most favourite TS2 packs), but the fact is we have already been given some of the elements of that pack dispersed throughout other packs: we got the violin in basegame, insect collecting in OR, robot-making in DU, basketball hoops and the synthesizer in CL, the Don’t Wake the Llama game in Get Together, etc. Plus we have already received several other good hobbies/ activities like Flower Arranging, Candle-making, Woodworking, Baking, etc, dispersed in the basegame and various other packs (GTW etc) as well. (If we ever do get a hobbies pack, with a new enthusiasm system, I expect it would be combined with something else like a farming or country pack). However, this stuff pack makes me hopeful that they are listening to players: it even seems that we will be getting long-requested items to follow the rocking chair, with perhaps some of them coming as free updates like a baby update and bunkbeds, etc (both of which seem to be hinted at in various easter eggs scattered throughout the pack).