Like a lot of simmers, I like to talk to the Gurus. Maybe it’s a reach for a common friend, a celebrity (honestly, how many of us can’t name at least a couple Gurus?), or genuinely have questions about errors bugs and upcoming releases; I don’t know. I think for me it’s a bit of the first two. I often read really long Twitter conversations involving Simmers and the Gurus (a lot of ones running to Graham because their ancient computer won’t render the game properly on highest settings and a lot debating the awesomeness of Grumpy Cat with Lauren) and have pretty much integrated morethanregular checks of my reader because I seriously enjoy reading them!
This time my (slight) obsession has turned up gold for me at least because I learned something new.
[flickr id=”8624825868″ thumbnail=”medium_640″ overlay=”true” size=”medium_640″ group=”” align=”center”]Let’s recap for newbies: The Sims 3 expansions are created primarily out of two studios; Redwood City in California and Salt Lake City in Utah both under the EA Maxis label. Each campus has it’s own people though sometimes producers go back and forth. On to the Twitter Conversation!
@SimGuruGraham thanks so much for the help, also weird question. Why is it that EA SL produce 2 EP’S a year e.g Supernatural and Showtime, however EA RS only produces one e.g seasons 🙂
@ Seasons was an extremely technically challenging EP; we knew upfront that we needed a longer development time on it. It was also actually a bit of an experiment – we thought that having a smaller team size with an extended development cycle might improve our overall work load per person, but in the end it didn’t really change much. That said, we’re back to alternating releases between the two teams 🙂
It’s up for you to argue away on the comments with each other about what you think the actual effect having a smaller team did to Seasons, and I am actually kind of hoping we do get a discussion going. Regardless, I never really clued in that they would have alternated development cycles prior to and now.
Another fact that I found out while doing some digging… there’s a group from my own Country of Canada too!
So, that’s why they released the Seasons EP almost empty of content, compared to Supernatural and Showtime.
(sorry, i don’t know english very well)
Hmmm, I think Seasons was a nice add on, and they did add quite a bit, and it did feel more full than other EP’s to me, most likely because of it actually changing the way the game plays by adding a new system.
But Supernatural was chalk full of great stuff, and the latest University is just mind blowing with the amount of detail put in, like one of my favourite little ones I found. On the Science building on the campus you can donate: Saliva, Laughter, and plasma! How cool is that, it even comes with a moodlet and a little interaction that rolls on its own according to the donation. They didn’t have to add that, but they did, to me that just shows that they spent extra time even on the small things. So if that was made by a larger team congrats.
My thing is that with a smaller team there is more work per person, but because the team is smaller there is less chance for a miscomunication and that means they can all get a good idea together of what they want.
But, with a larger team you can do more, and maybe a bit might get lost, but because it is so large there are more ideas being put in and that can make for something the smaller team would have never made.
All I know is that right now is an exciting time for the Sims series, and I am so happy that we are getting what we are getting, because it really feels like they are doing it for us and only us, not the profit to me at least.
I’m kind of thinking that Seasons may be one of my top expansions at the moment and I don’t think I could play without the snow and fog and such anymore:)
I do agree that the amount of content ‘feels’ smaller than powerhouses like Supernatural (still not fully sold on University myself..), but I also think it has quite a deal more technical tweaks to the game than a lot of the others. Even with the patch, the whole way that love and attraction is dealt with is more advanced than a lot of systems. Doesn’t mean that the EP itself works all the time, but that it accomplished a lot all around. Maybe it was less specific, even though it’s focus is literally Seasons.
I think I kind of like ‘less hands’, but am aware that there is more chance for errors as there aren’t as many people going over the work… if that makes sense?
There is also the problem with less minds less ideas. If the team is overworked, then they will be less likely to add a humorous asset or reaction just for the smile, which is what makes the Sims great.
I’m thinking the team size has shrunk and EP development shifted over to EA SL so that the EARS team can work on TS4.
You really are in a rush for TS4 aren’t you Spon? LOL