profbutters

I was interested to see this in the paper this morning:

LA TImes Business section, December 10th.  "Electronic Arts Inc., which produces such franchises as the Sims and Madden NFL, said Tuesday that it probably would miss sales and profit targets for its fiscal year because of disappointing holiday sales in North America and Europe."

Disappointing holiday sales.  Ya think?  I'd been thinking for ages that they should have worked out their problems with Aspyr in time to get at least one EP and maybe two SPs ported for Mac for the holidays.  Mac owners would have rejoiced, asking for them for Christmas, buying them with gift cards at the Apple Store.  Now, after the holidays, people will go back to being frugal.  Harder to sell ports of new stuff then.

According to the article, which you can find here, video games are considered to be a relatively healthy sector in a recession, because consumers choose less expensive forms of entertainment.  They eat in more, go out less.  Video games are fairly cheap. And overall, the industry is still going to post a gain.  But EA didn't do as well with Spore as they thought they would.  First releases of new games often take a while to catch on.  So you would think . . .porting games you already have?  I'm not betting on it:

"Company spokesman Jeff Brown said consumers this year were buying more intensely from among the top five bestselling games, whereas in the past they had spread their purchases more among the top 20. So publishers are deciding to make fewer titles.

'We are going to make some changes in our publishing strategy to publish fewer games but making bigger bets on them,' Brown said. 'But that does not mean we will stop taking creative risks.' "

I don't know how sorry to feel for the suits who helped create this silliness. I do, however, feel very sorry for the workers who will be laid off.  I wonder if this will delay the release of the Sims 3? 

In other entertainment news, there may be an actor' strike, which, if authorized, would begin in January.  This is why Summit is so crazy to be shooting for a November 2009 release date of *New Moon*--they're going to have enough obstacles that they might as well leave an extra six months and do the thing properly.

We almost had a strike at my university.  It was called off at the last minute.  The times, they are a goin' hard.

Ugh, have to get up early for exams--four hours and some paperwork, and possibly no chance for lunch.  Blech.

--which will be the last chapter before college.  I have all the pictures taken and selected.  They're more or less in order, too.  It's really a question of how I want to break up some of the plotty scenes, and how much I want to keep Max and Cecil from running away with the chapter.  I'm hoping that maybe an update will happen this weekend, and then I will be well into University over Turkey Day weekend.

I don't show much of the main house, because there isn't too much to show, to be honest.  Penelope rolls wants to skill and to go to work.  I spend more time trying to stop the grownups from doing things, like playing with tired cats, than anything else.  I'll probably get Achilles a nice date or two before college, but since he isn't going until Ulysses' junior year, there's plenty of time.  I'm also going to tweak his turnons and turnoffs, I think.  He is turned off by unemployed girls, which will make it tough for him at college. I may do a little business tour when the weekend hits the main house, just for some variety, but I don't think it will come into the update. 

But I did play the main house a bit more, to balance things out and establish Penelope a bit better as a character.  I wish so much I had Free Time for her.  I really can see her with a potter's wheel, for some reason.  And Achilles is quite the jock these days. 

As for Max, he teened up, and I'll leave you with this picture. 



I'm really busy, but I'm making time for some fun stuff, too.

Anybody know where I can get some nice recolors of the flower-and-cardigan dress with skimmers from Nightlife?  The one Sunny was in, and which Penelope is wearing as a recolor? I'm not having a lot of luck finding those for adults.

PB

From:  Aspyr Feedback Dept.
To: Professor Butters
Re:  When do I get those flippin' EPs for Mac already?

Dear Prof: 

We here at Aspyr really enjoy your communications.  We've told you repeatedly that we've got no official line on when if ever we will port Free Time, Apartment Life, or any of the SPs for Mac.  EA is being a pain about that.  We've got troubles of our own. Still, the combination of groveling politeness and veiled threats never ceases to amuse us.

In your most recent email, you indicated that you would be celebrating a birthday shortly.  We were curious and looked up your registration data, and while we were at it, your financial records, your dental data, your voter registration, and the names of all your childhood pets.  (You had a cat named Nussbaum?  Seriously?) Anyway, we also noticed your age.  We realized that you were much too old to be worrying about computer games, and that you ought to be more concerned about middle-aged spread, varicose veins, retirement, and reconciling yourself to meeting your Maker, not necessarily in that order.

This made us very sad.  We thought about urging you to get a life, but decided that this would probably be futile.

So we decided to send you free copies of all the EPs and SPs for Mac!  That's right:  a copy of the much-coveted Celebration Stuff is on its way to you!  Those dull uninspired cakes are now a thing of the past!  You will be able to toss those multiple weddings without expiring from boredom!  Your Romance Sims can have cool vibrating beds that you will probably never let them use! We even have something for your freakishly celibate malcontent Cecil--the Giant Fish Tank of Wonder! Enjoy them in good health!---

Nah, not really.  We were just yanking your chain.  Happy birthday anyway, and keep those pathetic requests comin'.

Love,

Those Crazy Cats at Aspyr

This is inspired by fireflowersims Rhys/De meta. I was going to put this in a response, and then I thought other people might like to read it.

( thoughts follow under the cut )

At some point, I might do something about Squeaky Cleanliness and ethics, but I thought I'd toss this out there.

So I am moving at slug's pace partly because I have been fooling around instead of playing.  It seems to be a bit rough to do more than one household at a time for me, but I stuck it out and played Elroy and Count Whoopie house until Lucy and Carmilla were teenagers.

I resisted posting pics, partly because you gotta hold *something* back for a chapter and also because it takes up time that if I had a conscience, I would be spending cleaning the house, or doing something productive, or maybe playing another house.  Still, it's hard not to share them, and I think there's also a useful object lesson here.

( Werewolf/vampire/plantsim kiddos, ahoy! )
Also, Lucy rolled Knowledge.  Carmilla rolled Romance.  I haven't yet checked their LTWs.  Stephan and Heneage are teens now, too, and while Heneage rolled Fortune, Stephan rolled Romance.  And he is not, not, not getting his LTW.  Tough cookies, I say.

PB

This isn't really spoilerish, so you don't really have to worry about it.

Two households that may amuse you:

My parents arrived yesterday.  I'm always a bit anxious about how we'll all manage.  This time I got them passes to my gym, which was a good idea.  It keeps us all comfy and gives us something to do.  My cats are very shy and are hiding in the back bedroom as though my parents were *ax murderers,* which I think hurts my folks' feelings.  Can't do much about it, though--Marko especially is so nervous that he is even spooky after they aren't here.  I'm pretty tired out, but I think I'm going to toss around a mouse for them for a while before I go to bed. 

First, in case anybody didn't know yet, a couple of updates--

The Insimenator has updated for Free Time.  Of course, I don't have it yet. 

Christianlov's Boutique Clothingrack hack has also been updated.  If you don't use it yet, you might like to try it, and if you do, this is a great piece of news.  The main thing it does is save you the loading time of going downtown or offsite to buy your sims clothing.  It isn't free:  you spend the same amount you would if you took your sims to Bluewater or Downtown, but it saves you time.  You can also "gussy up" townies:  really handy for updating a townified simself's look or doing "costume" switches.  It's how I arranged for Jack Buccaneer to have two different sets of clothing and a mask (or not).  It's been updated as far as Free Time.  I've never had any trouble with the old one and I've always been able to buy CC clothes from it, but before, it didn't have an "outerwear" option.  Now it does.  I try to buy and set outfits as soon as my sims transition--that way I'm not stuck with a nasty surprise when they go outside. 

You also probably know this, but All-About-Style has changed some things.  There are nice new Victorian things.  Some of the stuff, like the playboy bunny outfits and the showgirls ("Careers," ahem) has been migrated to a yahoo group.  Most of the files are there, if you can't find the original.

Second:  those of us who play on Macs really, really get tired of being left out.  I don't care if we get the EPs a bit later.  Frankly, it's ok with me to find out if there are problems (like the endlessly spawning Tour Guides.)  But the SPs--now that's a pain.  We had to wait forever for Glamor Life Stuff and Family Fun Stuff.  Now we still haven't gotten Celebration Stuff, let alone H & M Stuff or Kitchen and Bath.

So if you're so moved to do so, would you please consider dropping a line to feedback@aspyr.com ? Just tell them you know a bazillion people who would run right out and buy eight copies of Celebration Stuff (as well as the more recent EPs) if they would please get on the stick and port them for Mac.  They do keep track of stuff like that, and every little bit helps.

PB