I wanted a gamepack that followed in the footsteps of Sims 3 and took even more cues from the Sylavari from guildwars and the Vampires gamepack, calling on every myth about Dryads or Tree spirits ever for gameplay and CAS content.

Instead I get this stupid impermanent social media like "challenge" and see an iconic permanent race in the series shafted to the status of gimick?

Look I've said it before and I'll say it again, I want Sims 4 to surpass it's predecessors, but when it pulls crap like this, I get the distinct impression it's not even trying.

Am I alone in this? I was totally on board with the Vampires gamepack, they sold me on the idea of their piece-meal separating bull and then they pull stuff like this and that Bowling stuff pack where they separated out a feature but didn't bother to flesh it out despite the pack being based around it. It's like Vampires was a fluke or something.

You're crazy, these plant Sims are the best in the series.

A little too late to nip it in the bud, if that isn't too ironic.

I've not patched yet. Do those sims in plantsim form have that special effect of flowery footprints while walking, as they did in TS3? (And TS2 I think.) And if so, if you save and reload, does the flowery footprint effect remain, not glitch-out and disappear forever, as it (still) does in TS3? If so, then I'm going to have to agree that TS4 plantsims are the best yet - even though I've yet to see them. TS3 plantsims lose major rating scores for the bug that Maxis never fixed.

Well I like it better than seeing all my sims dressed up for day of the dead. I prefer non-religious events.

I would love it if a year was establish with the base game like we have days of the week. Maybe with months or something, so every so often we get a holiday. Maybe 4 weeks is a year, and holidays occur on that day of that week based on the season. They'd have to rework aging, though... and birthdays...

This isn't game isn't really worth getting outraged over anymore. It is what it is at this point. I'm just happy they dumbed down the occult that I use the least (I could count on one hand the amount of time I've played as Plantsims in both TS2 and TS3). It's highly doubtful but if one of the bigger returning occults, like Witches, got this treatment, I'd probably be more pissed. I'm more annoyed that we're still getting these "content only available for a limited time" events.

Aren't they in the code forever, just hidden away? A Plant Sims is probably a trait anyway.

Ummmm so aren't the streets supposed to have sims walking on them? I'm not seeing any sims walking on my streets as normal and parks don't seem nearly as populated as they usually are... *gulp*

Well, there is problem right there ... you think still that The Sims 4 is successor to the other three instead of treating it as separate game. This "successor" mentality is why many people can't enjoy things for what they are.

Also it's worth noting that plantsims were introduced into TS4 with Cool Kitchen Stuff Pack. One of the many flavours of Ice Cream will temporarily turn sims into Plantsims after eating. So this introduction with the latest patch is far from new. Though I never did try with the Ice Cream all this time, so I don't know how much more/less/equal these patch plantsims are compared to the Ice Cream plantsims from nearly two years ago!

I mean...the number 4 is in the title. This isn't a spin-off game, like Freeplay or Medieval. It's not really anyone's fault if they thought that would mean the next installment in a series should be better (or at least try to be better). As far as I know, The Sims is the only franchise I can think of where fans are urged not to judge a sequel by what came before it. The other two sequels were successors to what came before them. Now all of a sudden we shouldn't consider the fourth to be that in order to justify why things have turned out the way they did? I'm sorry but that excuse has never made sense to me.

Based on the info they released in a survey they were planning on doing fairy and witch game packs, I believe that plant sims are considered a separate life state from fairies and would like to point out that plant sims only previously existed in ts2, ts1 and ts3 had fairies. I'm happy they included them at all since there was no guarantee that they would, even if it is a challenge based thing. I also appreciate the fact that they offer seasonal variety with new creative challenges keeping things fresh. The old holiday events in World of Warcraft are only fun the first time to give a similar example of games with seasonal events and monthly patches.

I am not going to get outraged that a freebie they gave us is not a bigger freebie. They did not have to give us anything. We were owed toddlers, IMO, but not these additions. Reading a comment that you are so "outraged" that it is not what you want does make it understandable with some of the frustration the folks at EA have with the community. I totally get all the issues and shortcomings of 4, but the sense of entitlement in the community at times is a rather poor showing by some of the players IMO.

Also since I've only been playing since May '16, this is the first event I've been able to participate in. (I didn't do day of the dead- again don't want to do religious)

Um no, Plantsims existed in TS3 -_-
WTF did you never play University?

I don't want a freebie, I want a Gamepack. On which I would lavish an admittedly undeserved and ridiculously pricey amount of money. I've been wanting them to make plantsims more awesome since they introduced them. A gampack would have been the chance to expand on that and give us something really amazing to play around with creatively. Instead we got a free piddle of nothing, that's pandering in the worst way, using the name of plantsims to build hype but in reality just dodging the bullet of working on them.

Damn right I'm entitled to a Plantsim gamepack, if they give me a Vampire gamepack that means I get one for ALL the Life states. That's the deal: I spend a ridiculous amount of money with the promise that the content I collect is comprehensive and fills in ALL the gaps the Sims 4 has created for itself. Otherwise why would I ever buy anything? If they aren't promising me a complete and consistent gameplay experience I'd just play Sims 3.

So your saying I should ignore the fact that better games exist and just putout for EAs overpriced half-hearted incompetence? Without a word of constructive criticism to help them improve?
Right...cause that's healthy and helpful. Totally.

Normally, I'd agree with this. Especially that last sentence. But...I mean... I may not be particularly upset about it because I never liked them, but I'm sure there are people who loved the Plantsim life state in previous games and are rightfully upset that they've been reduced to this. Just because the occult stages aren't a necessary addition, like toddlers, doesn't mean people can't feel burned when they're reintroduced like this :/

I think many folks still expect this game to be as full and as complete as the prior versions, and by now I think most of us know it ain't gonna happen. We have been burned already in many ways. This version just is and never will be what the others were and we should know that by now. It is not right and not what we want, but the situation we have. I am not going to get outraged over something like this. I think my expectations at this point are not at the level of generating that.

But if you lower your expectations you let them get away with it! That's not right! It's the job of the customer to demand, so that the market will produce quality. Sure there are generally laws in place too, but art is subjective so gaming companies get away with ALOT we are literally all that stands between a bad video game and a good one. You CAN'T give up, it goes against destiny!

my mistake, I forgot about them because I did not really play with them, no need to freak out over it

And you'd usually be right. The customer has a lot more power than some companies give them credit for. Unfortunately, not enough people are speaking with their wallets (Me being one of those people) At least not enough to bring about any significant change yet. In my case, it's hard. Because I do genuinely like TS4, so I continue to buy packs (at least the packs that interest me. I'm not so invested in this game that I strive to be a completionist like in the last ones). But I also think the game is a lazy, half-assed mess that has no business calling itself the next installment in the Sims. Especially after TS3 tried so hard (with varying degrees of success) to push the series' boundaries as often as it could.

It sucks because whenever I do see a pack that looks fun, I wanna buy it. But then I also don't because that means I'm one of the reasons EA clings to their "People are buying. So clearly there's nothing we need to improve on" mentality. Their clever, I'll give them that. Make a game that's just passable enough, with packs that are just cheap enough, for people to still wanna put money into it. Best believe, I've spent many assignments in my marketing classes talking about EA and The Sims 4. This little three year journey has been both intriguing and sickening



Yeah. I honestly forgot they were in TS3 for a while too. My least favorite life state, introduced in my least favorite pack lol

The challenge is a gimmick, the plantsims are a gimmick, this whole game is a gimmick!
...

In defense of gimmicks, they are a perfectly acceptable and common way to advertise a product. The problem comes when your gimmick sucks. When you think about it, each game in the Sims series had its own little gimmick or feature to set it apart from what came before it. The problem is that TS4's gimmick (emotions and social interaction) does not hold a candle to any of the series previous gimmicks in terms of innovation.

I could make a green sim and pretend it's a Plantsim