I'm confused as to why this is just high school and not grade school in general.



This would be a good time to at least add another teen stage, the same way we have two adult stages (or three depending on how you feel about the current teen stage)

That’s ANOTHER $40 please!

I assume this is why they added the telescope? Truthfully, I can only imagine what they’ll add that we don’t have already except for more music instruments.

Even half of University takes place in rabbit holes, but that makes sense because there’s SO much more to University than classes.

My guess is a Britechester clone.

The issue I think of is that a High School pack is sort of America-centric, and they've been sort of trying to move away from that in recent packs.

Will there be truly customizable schools that better fit cultures around the world? Or will every sim be forced to attend America High (just like how you need to go to Japan to ski)?

I mean personally I don't fault an US-American team for creating US-American stuff, and in fact I prefer them creating things based on stuff they are familiar with to those half-assed attempts to please everybody that have been their philosophy for a good portion of Sims 4. (just to be clear I don't live in the US)

But yeah, the High School pack will 100% be "Highschool USA" (and probably not even one that resembles one of today, but rather the way they were portrayed in sitcoms and cartoons in the 1980s/90s), maybe they make some attempt at making it seem "British" too by having an option to wear school uniforms.

Something, something, High School pack, whatever

This has leaked since last of this year, everyone is convinced it's definitely a high-school pack

Two weeks after the launch of werewolves, the new expansion pack trailer is dropping.

I’m convinced it’s only teen inspired because teens are basically adults and the animations can be reused elsewhere.

Well…


I don’t know how to feel about this because following my sims to school has been something I’ve wanted to do since the Sims 2 (and this is the first pack in a LONG time that’s even mildly interested me and made me consider reinstalling the game back on my computer), but at the same time this game is so friggin burnt out and I wish they’d move on from it already instead of trying to bleed it dry almost 10 years after its release (yeah. it’s been almost 10 years. think about that for a moment)

Agreed, the devil is in the details. If high school is essentially a Get to Work checklist or a University clone (and proms work the same way as goaled parties), then how much gameplay is there really?

I know I am older than dirt now, and I know this is Sims, but this is so fantasy/fake/Disney/whatever even compared to when I was in HS ages ago. I watch the students when they leave the school a mile or so from my house and this is sooooo far from reality. But as have said, this game is geared to 12s who want stuff like this, and I am not the target audience. And if they still go home and sit at dinner with the parents and I pretty much still cannot even tell who the teens vs. parents are unless know, well that just continues to make teens in the game of about zero interest to me. This will not change that for me. Too rainbows and roses for me. Pass, so far.

Hi y'all! I have somethin to show ya. I can do this. *send this picture to her friends*

I see we're still going with the Hollywood version of teens SMH would it have killed them to make them look under 25?

There's an awful lot going on in this trailer, I'll need to rewatch it. I noticed they made a point to show off different designs for the school...dare I hope they'll actually allow us to properly edit the 'feature' lot this time?

I think they're pretty much channeling the Life is Strange Pacific Northwest setting, so unfortunately your designs still need to fit into the Lower '48...

Been a while since I bought an expansion pack. I'm sorta-kinda interested in this. I don't play many teens, but for the ones I do, I use a mod to give them PT after-school jobs and another to give them more aspirations. BUT, what I hate is that I'm gonna-hafta break out the ole' height mod again if I add new teens to play this.

For the builders, Art Deco has arrived!

I’m either impressed, or the bar was set too low to begin with.

I really wish they had taken this opportunity to fix teens so that they look more like...teens. Or at least introduced a preteen stage like in Freeplay. If you took out prom, this trailer would look like it's for a second University pack.

That said...it does still look like it'll be a lot of fun. Loving the carnival, all the build/buy stuff, the return of the photo booth, and sims actually being able to sneak out of windows.

I got excited until I remembered it's for the sims 4 and I'm no longer the targeted audience (Which is clear in the trailer)...

I'm lying.

I didn't get excited.

I honestly didn't know what to think about the trailer or the idea of it all... Idk I'm just tired of what the franchise has become so nothing interests me anymore when it comes to the sims 4. It also made me realize that I was really done with it after all. In the past, something like this would have had me saying, " take my money", but now it's like a numbness toward it all. This is something I used to want in the game, but now it's like it's too little too late.

EA adds the classic stereotypes for high school, the jock, the cheerleaders, but then when they got to the band nerd, they're like "Nope, can't have that, because if we did, we'd have to add a wind instrument, and we hate wind instruments."

Prove me wrong. We have a solid 22 years of this and counting now. T.T

Socially, "nerds/geeks" have changed over time and have been replaced with gamers, which are fairly popular now, primarily because the students are likely to have fairly high incomes based on their interests.

Also, I can finally spends some times digging into this trailers because it was feature... after feature... Normally, EA likes to pretend to have feature with careful camera work, but much of what's here appears to be solid content. So much content in fact, I want to make a list of stuff like I used to. I see where the Dream Home Decorator AND My Wedding Stories budget went...

Edit: Subtle, but I think they reintroduced actual acne again.

Edit-Edit: I also noticed in the Tea/Thrift shop, there was two registers. One for tea, and one for the thrift shop. There are also two clothing racks - cheap and modern. Clothing shops don't have to be boring anymore, or use a mannequin. I bet we can't make money from them.

Well, speaking of teen height difference and/or new preteen age - certainly not seen in the video - what could they possibly be doing to the game at this late, nine year stage where the road map says there will be a "major" update to base game?

I mean, what the heck falls in the range of "major" for TS4? I understand we could draw up an extensive list of what should've be in the game all this time, that we would consider "major." But it's TS4, it's nine years old, and more and more shallow for each of those years of recycled "meh," while less and less capable of technically running anything worthwhile. Who really gives a shit?

Edit - And it's also now surreal to think if the target audience was 12s nine years ago, (Just took us ye olde fans of the franchise a long while to cotton on.) and most of those 12s then would be hitting their 20s now, and they still want Maxis EA to sell them a game to make them still feel like 12s. What the fuck is going on? Who the hell is this game for, really?

an expansiom back about high school (years or not)? From the sound it, may as well call Teenager update but regarding school life.

Although, the name isn't my main concern. The idea they choose chunks and small periods of a Sim life is making an expansion about it. With university, you at least leave a different town and events are more sophiscated. This expansion about a Sim child leaving into a building (i.e. Ambitions/Get To Work but with one active career for younger teen).Could have just been saved for a game... unless it's a blatant sign expansion packs will be more compressed theme than before, which isn't a good thing eitherway. Like how players mock there being broom kit stuff pack or take out the trash cleaning gamepack.

I suppose we'll all love it in the end. It seems like we always do.
(By "we" I mean those who'll buy it no matter what.)

As of now the only reason I would ever buy is if there is a darn good looking world and enough build/buy I like. The fair looks a tad good but a heck of a lot like the Myshuno festivals? I ended up getting Wedding Stories and have built there and played a little. But have not had a wedding. So if consider this would be if on sale, and I think is enough value without doing most if any of the teen stuff. Werewolves is still a pass for me no matter what the price.

And even when I like the world, build, and buy, I get so irritated about the scale of some things and the quality (or lack of it) of some of the items, and the lack of CASt that I normally am bored/irritated in 4 a few days and then head back to CAW in 3 where I never lose interest.

Someone leaked curved walls and the girls are shaking

Three things about this trailer:

Oh wow, a gay couple as the center of the trailer!? SO BRAVE!!...For the 14th time! And such a convenient distraction from a lack of features!

Interesting how the real world has an LGBT population that compromises an average of 3% of the world population, but in the Sims World, it's slowly crawling it's way up to 30% at this point. Seriously, am I mistaken or have they consistently released pre-made LGBT characters since Cats and Dogs...?

But more importantly before people ask "what have you got against LBGT?!" Nothing! It's about a distraction. A distraction from the lack of features. In the same way people trash corporate America for flying the LGBT flag like crazy during Pride Month and then trashing it immediately when the topic isn't trending, Sims 4 throws Pride everywhere because it's guarenteed sales for people who cannot separate their politics and their purchases. It is not about representation, it's about guarenteed sales. They're trying to "guilt" people into supporting by screaming about what loyal allies the Sims Team is and how they should be rewarded for this. It's amazing one of the features of this pack isn't teen Simbortions given how talked about the topic is at the moment.

It all just feels manipulative and gross, and this seems like a good time for my periodic reminder that the Sims Team has a really strange and somewhat hostile history with the disabled community, having previously locked threads calling for disabilities and banned users for asking for them due to breaking the rules of "political campaigning" whilst LGBT discussion is actively encouraged. Last we heard of this topic was the community calling them out for this terrible behavior towards the disabled, and the ban policy relaxed a bit, followed by Grant saying he realized a way to include the disabled and now this was SO DOABLE and totally plausible!! I remember calling this out as false hope just to distract from their terrible track record with the disabled and that no such update was planned...and here we are. Funny how nothing came of his tweet, huh? It's as if they just manipulate their customers in ways that improve their "street cred" with them!

LGBT is "trendy," so the Sims Team cries from the rooftops about what a great ally they are to try and coerce sales as a reward for their good morals. The disabled aren't as mainstream and trendy, so they can go die in a fire for all the Sims Team cares. Oh but if they have money, they can gladly continue buying into false hope, that works too! And at the end of the day, none of this has anything to do with GAMEPLAY.

Over-abundance of socializing as content; where's the gameplay?!

Look at the trailer, ask yourself what you're shown. There's a decent amount of buy mode items on display, but that's it. The majority of the content shown is just random socialization and a crafted story to service the trailer.

The abundance of socialization is reminiscent of Get Together and City Living: what is there to actually do...? We got shown a photobooth, cheerleading, American football, (or at least throwing one back and forth, from what we've seen) prom and a pier park. (with rabbit holes)

With the exception of cheerleading/football, which is likely a skill and we don't know how useful or garbage it is, all of the rest are a way to fill the fun meter. It's the type of experiences where only players who are waaaaaaaaaaaaay too invested into the individual actions of their sims would get enjoyment out of watching them for the sentimental value of watching them. For everyone else though...? It fills the fun meter. It's not a new way to play, it's not a new way to experience the game, it's the equivalent of Get Together selling a giant arcade machine and a nightclub venue as "content" when they shouldn't be main selling points of the pack.

The Sims Team does this every single time: the trailers are always 99% socializing and random choreographed events, and then when the pack releases, there's nothing in it. They pad these trailers because they have to. The only pack that comes to mind that had deceptively more content than shown was Get Famous. Every other pack delivered exactly what was shown, which most of the time meant: nothing. No gameplay to be found.

Their text description of the pack on the website says it all

Read it and ask yourself what sounds like a new feature and what sounds recycled.

There's an entire paragraph about being a Simfluencer and selling clothes....so their Etsy system they released in that other pack again. Of the school activities listed, half are pre-existing activities. They go on in length about how you can set up pranks in school...so the Mischief skill, which we already have. And have others have pointed out: what is the likelihood the high school experience is a Get to Work career...? I'd say it's worth betting money on.

The majority of the text is about pre-existing features or new features where you can immediately anticipate what old feature they'll be copypasting. FFS a part of the text boasts about your ability to "plan snacks" for a party. How long is it going to be until the Gurus do a livestream for the pack and they're showing off exciting cafeteria pizza and other new foods your sims can eat as a part of the "features?"

There's nothing new. The idea is an old one people wanted for ages, but it seems that as always, they did the bare minimum and put no heart into it.


TL;DR:

Ugg ugg. Where Gameplay content? Gameplay content no there? Gameplay content no there bad. Community should demand gameplay content. Ugg ugg.