Explore or Shop?

The Fate Gardens sim is built around and into a mountain with an ancient stone forum area, a swampy boardwalk, a dwarven mountain gate, a little hidden cave, a super sekret laboratory, and a couple of quiet beaches to explore.  Unfortunatley, the comments and behaviours I’ve compiled indicate that people have a hard time shopping in the sim.  Having items scattered throughout the build, requiring people to walk or fly around to various areas, is confusing and unameniable.  Another odd item that’s been mentioned regularly is that, although the product is fully functionally visible on the landscape, in such a unique fantasy setting, people can’t envision the trees placed in their “real world” home and office environments.  My attempts to provide some virtual-style entertainment seems to be cutting into the sales that support the sim in the first place.

Much as I dislike the idea of scrapping the environment that’s evolved from my imagination, it seems that the business needs a more traditional build, in which the trees are quickly found and seen in a familiar type of setting, in order to survive.  Granted this is likely not the only reason figures have slipped over the past couple of months.  One is the holiday listings of Christmas Trees and such that are already disappearing from Search.  But I believe, based on what people have said and done, that a complete rebuild of the sim will make a difference to a number of shoppers.  Ideas and suggestions are of course welcome.  In fact, a few comments on the blog will be nice in general.