We all know that Simmers love a bit of speculation. Not all Simmers, obviously, but many ? including us ? love letting our imaginations run wild with the direction The Sims 4 could take with upcoming content.
Sometimes, this can go pretty badly wrong, especially when there is radio silence from The Sims 4 team themselves. While much of this is easily avoided by remembering that everything is speculation until it is confirmed by EA, things do not always pan out that way.
We won’t dwell too long on the way we have disappointed ourselves through our own ideas, despite knowing that a Norse Mythology pack was just not going to happen and it was all but confirmed that Star Wars: Journey to Batuu was going to the game pack for which the icon leaked.
Like we said, we digress. Have you ever wondered what the Sim gurus think about all the wild speculation? Well, turns out at least one of them thinks it can be quite fun seeing what Simmers dream up.
Graham Nardone, aka Sim Guru Graham, recently gave an interview to The Gamer where he discussed the development of the recently released Sims 4: Snowy Escape expansion pack.
Many players had an inkling that something winter-related was coming as the next expansion. Earlier in the year, a Sims 4 survey asked players about what sort of winter activities they would like to see in a pack.
Some of us (that’s us!) did not think it would come so soon after the survey. The Sims 4 team revealed that the expansion had been in the works since last year already, which did not seem to fit the timeline of developing an expansion around this theme.
But Nardone’s interview with The Gamer reveals some insights on how the development process for new DLC works and how the answers in the surveys influence the progress of developing a pack.
Which came first in Snowy Escape: The world or the activities?
The latest pack, set in Mt. Komorebi, is inspired by Japan with all sorts of snow-sports included as part of the pack.
But where did it all start?
Sim Guru Graham told The Gamer that winter activities set the tone for the expansion, saying it was one way for The Sims 4 team to ?listening to our players and the community and the things that they were talking about and asking about?.
Some of that hankering for winter stuff might have come form players who thought it should have been included in The Sims 4: Seasons expansion pack (which is not required to play Snowy Escape), but after the survey about winter activities earlier in 2020, players started to wonder what might be coming.
Nardone added:
“A lot of them were expecting French Alps,? he said in reference to players wondering where the setting for the snowy pack might be.
He added:
?We do like to subvert expectations a little bit. As soon as we knew we were doing winter activities, we started thinking about well what are some other great locations for those winter sports that we could pair with this pack.?
Oh, and about players speculating about what might be to come? Sim Guru Graham reckons it can be quite entertaining.
?It’s fun watching them speculate sometimes because they all start to imagine, ‘Well, oh, if it’s going to be winter activities, what’s the likely destination??
Well, okay then, Mr. Nardone. We look forward to seeing what The Sims 4 throws at as to fuel our speculation next.