The main reason why I haven't gotten one yet is simply because there hasn't been a release yet that would compel me to do so. I have the distinct feeling that it's going to take a Fallout/Elder Scrolls sequel to make me plunk down the cash. I'm not seeing much else on the horizon that's of great interest.

You have to do a half roll and then pull back on the stick in order to turn planes at high speed in GTA V. Took me way too long to get the hang of that shit.

I don't agree that we "both know what's going on" here. My entire reason for believing that there were production constraints (technical-/time-based, or whatever) is simply because they didn't need to withhold either of these things in order to sell them back to us later. They're going to have plenty to stuff into…

The don't buy it?

Okay, well if they just took these things out so they can drop them into an expansion, then you'll get your shit later. They were going to put out a dozen expansions anyway. "It should have been in the base game" is a moot point if you're at all familiar with the first three Sims titles.

3) I can't speak to the exact motivation here, but redesigning build mode would almost certainly have an effect on the ability to implement pools. It's my understanding that they're trying to make build mode more dynamic, allowing players to make dramatic alterations on the fly (ex: being able to add and configure…

Yeah, I agree. In the rare cases where I took the time to build pools, I would almost never use them, either. They just ended up being sort of expensive decorations. It would have been cool to keep them in the game, but I'm not exactly beside myself with grief over it.

I imagine the reason why they passed on pools during initial development is because the new build mode aspects may have made pools more difficult to implement. I wish they'd been willing to get more technical in their explanation, but I just don't see a nefarious angle here. Sims games have always had loads of…

I really don't understand the hate. We all know that, pools/toddlers or no, a Sims game is going to end up having tons of expansions. Why would they have to take out pools and toddlers just for that, when they're already going to resell us the latest versions of countless other old features just like they have for 3…

I think a lot of people just don't understand the technology or how it works. They think the tech does all the work.

I know it seems sort of random and weird, but I think it's got to do with trademark law. If a trademark becomes generic in the public perception (i.e. the public no longer thinks of the trademark as solely connected to your products/services), the trademark can potentially be invalidated. So Nintendo was basically…

This is actually a technically savvy move, because a trademark can be put in jeopardy if comes to be perceived as a generic catch-all that applies broadly, rather than a reference to specific products or services. I'd say that, back when the NES was out, their trademark was certainly in danger of entering that…

Actually, with enough samples, you can basically recreate a real drum kit. There's software out there that does it.

And that's a totally subjective statement.

"Those button pushers" can do what's in that video, on MPC-style pads. You can look up Youtube videos of Jeremy Ellis teaching all sorts of different drum rhythms on an MPD unit (just type "Jeremy Ellis MPD"). He's not just an idiot who only knows how to make breakbeats.

Well, to be fair, he is playing the piano bit in an "in-key" mode, not chromatic, but you can tell he's already grasping the Push interface intuitively even though he's totally unfamiliar with it. And there's no "in-key" mode for drums, so all that stuff on the drum pads was fully legit.

I cannot deny that Jeremy Ellis looks like a total square.

Precisely. I was going to reply to him with "then piano players are just hitting keys," but I decided that I didn't want to dignify his nonsense any further than necessary. The drum analogy is still spot-on, but since MPC/Maschine-style producers routinely mix in melodic samples, it's got parallels with piano/keyboard…

1. They are not the same, but they are very, very similar. In order to do either live, you need to have rhythm. In order to do either live, you need to have practiced shitloads so you've got the technique down.

I don't really expect anybody to know who Jeremy Ellis is, since he's not exactly a household name, but he is pretty much one of the best, if not the best, technical MPC/Maschine users out there. And for everybody who says he's "just pressing buttons," that's like telling a professional drummer he's "just hitting…