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Why Fans Want Everyday Stuff In The Games.
Cinebar
Posts: 33,618 Member
Several people asked why people want dishwashers, and or laundry or anything other mundane thing having to be done in life in their games.
Two words: Life Simulator.
Some say they play these games to escape, I don't do that, I play to 'Play With Life' as the motto of the TS3 says.
I am not looking for a game that is about fantasy (though I love many things about fantasy in my games) but about a Sim that has to do everything I do in my life, has to deal with it, over come it, and persevere. And in the meantime while bad things are happening or the boring mundane things like picking up the trash around the living room, (too many parties?lol) they may find some 'fun' now and then just like we all live.
If I want a game that has no ups and downs, always happy, never makes a Sim sick, they never have to worry about getting sick from not eating properly, worry about dying, worry about someone leaving them, or finding someone cheating, and or worry about their kids, then I would have quit playing years ago and found a 'happyville' game.
Why do some of us want dishwashers? or Laundry and enjoy these things?
Because it's life. Not everything about life has to be in the game but c'mon why should my 'Sims' have a better life than I do? Seriously?
Let's say I am sick with a very bad cold, what do you find in person's living room that is camped out on the couch? Lots of juice glasses, water, cups, and plates on their coffee table. Tissue thrown everywhere, dust gathering, (causing more sneezes) and about five different remotes to their TV, their stereo, whatever else they have rigged up, probably a laptop laying in the floor, a couple of blankets, piled on the couch, a Kindle or NextBook somewhere buried in the covers, (they are so small) a phone in that pile of mess on the table, and maybe many more things in the room.
That's life. And I want my Sims to be as miserable as I am sometimes. That is playing with life. Playing with 'life' to me isn't happy, happy, but somebody is going to have to get better, get up and clean up that mess and or not get better and call the doctor and be rushed to the emergency room. LIFE. (In reference to the game of LIFE). lol
Did you ever play the game of LIFE? the old board game? It's not a happy road most of the time.
Why do I want laundry in The Sims? Because I have to do it. Why should these pixel people have it better than me? I don't own a dishwasher. But that is a luxury to me, so yes, I think my richer Sims should have one. It's not that I can't afford one, it's that there is a problem under my cabinets that one can't be installed without a total remodel of my foundation in my house.
So, yeah, dishwashers are big deal. Not only because Will Wright thought about these things and what Sims should suffer, enjoy, and or make their lives easier or worse but because it's supposed to be about 'life' and life isn't a bed of roses.
Two words: Life Simulator.
Some say they play these games to escape, I don't do that, I play to 'Play With Life' as the motto of the TS3 says.
I am not looking for a game that is about fantasy (though I love many things about fantasy in my games) but about a Sim that has to do everything I do in my life, has to deal with it, over come it, and persevere. And in the meantime while bad things are happening or the boring mundane things like picking up the trash around the living room, (too many parties?lol) they may find some 'fun' now and then just like we all live.
If I want a game that has no ups and downs, always happy, never makes a Sim sick, they never have to worry about getting sick from not eating properly, worry about dying, worry about someone leaving them, or finding someone cheating, and or worry about their kids, then I would have quit playing years ago and found a 'happyville' game.
Why do some of us want dishwashers? or Laundry and enjoy these things?
Because it's life. Not everything about life has to be in the game but c'mon why should my 'Sims' have a better life than I do? Seriously?
Let's say I am sick with a very bad cold, what do you find in person's living room that is camped out on the couch? Lots of juice glasses, water, cups, and plates on their coffee table. Tissue thrown everywhere, dust gathering, (causing more sneezes) and about five different remotes to their TV, their stereo, whatever else they have rigged up, probably a laptop laying in the floor, a couple of blankets, piled on the couch, a Kindle or NextBook somewhere buried in the covers, (they are so small) a phone in that pile of mess on the table, and maybe many more things in the room.
That's life. And I want my Sims to be as miserable as I am sometimes. That is playing with life. Playing with 'life' to me isn't happy, happy, but somebody is going to have to get better, get up and clean up that mess and or not get better and call the doctor and be rushed to the emergency room. LIFE. (In reference to the game of LIFE). lol
Did you ever play the game of LIFE? the old board game? It's not a happy road most of the time.
Why do I want laundry in The Sims? Because I have to do it. Why should these pixel people have it better than me? I don't own a dishwasher. But that is a luxury to me, so yes, I think my richer Sims should have one. It's not that I can't afford one, it's that there is a problem under my cabinets that one can't be installed without a total remodel of my foundation in my house.
So, yeah, dishwashers are big deal. Not only because Will Wright thought about these things and what Sims should suffer, enjoy, and or make their lives easier or worse but because it's supposed to be about 'life' and life isn't a bed of roses.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
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Comments
Personally I am content with the game. By that I mean there is still a lot I would like changed/added (like TODDLERS!) but I still enjoy it. Heck I still have yet to take any of my sims camping. Not sure why I was so excited to buy OR. Oh well. I'm sure they will eventually
I agree with you, but to be honest I'm done asking for stuff for this game. I stopped buying after GTW and have yet to see something new or something that interest me. I mean, I already have and ice-cream maker and dishwasher in TS3, so I'm not wasting my time asking for things, I'll just wait and see if anything 'Extraordinary' comes, but till then I'll have my fun in TS2 and 3.
Yeah, a win is a win. If people enjoy this game and all that's added to it, Its a 'plus 1' for them, and I'm kinda jealous.
I wanna enjoy the shiny new Sims game, but I can't!
Agreed, and environment should play a bigger roll like it always did. Not just a -1 point downgrade to happy meter. But impact them all day and until they can clean it up, my Sims in this game groan at the broken commode, say something about the water then leave the room and right back to happy. That's not how life works is it? If my sink is throwing water all over my walls and floor (going to rot them) then I'm not happy just because I left the room. It's kind of superficial and shallow gameplay in the TS4.
I haven't felt challenged since TS2, (Pregnant Sims, need I say more?). I don't feel very challenged in 3, and sure as heck don't feel challenged in 4, (with all the hand-holding you CAN'T fail).
Yes and yes!
One of the things I miss the most is the wants/fears from TS2. To me, it brought a level of gameplay that was meaningful. I don't want my sims to be perpetually happy in a Utopian world. I want reward and consequence, this to me makes playing fun and an adventure. How we can guide their lives and be there thru their triumphs and misfortunes.
I missed this level of play when TS3 came out. I held out hope they would bring this back for TS4. That has not happened. Heres to hoping they ( The Devs) finally get it and bring it back to TS5.
The devil is in the details and in a Life Sim its even more important to focus in on those "minutia" of details. Even if we were to be guided by how @simgururachel described it, a soap opera, the game seriously lacks drama to be even described as such. I don't know what soaps she watches but the ones I've seen are chock full of crazy drama.
I miss the wants/fears system in TS2, too. I thought it was neat that Romance sims could roll the want the get married AND the fear of getting married at the same time. It's the little things.
YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwUE8EBk9VunVA_wkDFVRUw
I never drag trash to the bin or dirty dishes to the sink. My sims have to do it. I may use the cas cheat, but if I want a sim to change appearance, then I need to get them to a mirror or dressing table. I put the notion of animated curtains in the ideas forum as I would like my sims to wake up and let the light in (or shut it out).
It is those little details that enhance the immersion tremendously. For each of these items, there is also the potential for adding new types of sims and interactions - cleaner, for example if we had working washing machines, ironing boards etc.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
And this is why/how i've been playing the sims, for 14 years.
If i wanna play a fantasy game, I play Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts.
If I wanna play a game about supernatural powers, I play "Life Is Strange"
If I wanna just watch my virtual dolls go through life experiences in their own quirky way, I play the Sims.
Because there's no game known, that truly does that in the deep way that the sims has. I'll never forget the sims and the sims bustin' out. Their story was like: "moving out of mom's house and living your own life."
The "Play with Life" campaign that TS3 had pretty much defined what i always did in the sims. Playing with life, life experiences, good and bad.
Note: Mind you, I have nothing aganist anyone who plays opposite from me. To each their own
YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwUE8EBk9VunVA_wkDFVRUw
Not because their motives are pressing but for their own mental health. I know in TS3 and TS4 we have a little bit of this with moodlets but I miss the days when Sims drug their feet when you told them to go do something they didn't want to do, and or against their trait and personality. I think good Sims should refuse to do mean interactions (to the player) but could do them if forced. I think they should look at you and say no, I refuse, lol but then you could eventually make them do it. Why is evil and good the same thing in this game with the mischievous trait available to everyone? Why even bother in CAS to assign different traits if they can all be mean. Any Sims without good traits could and should if we press them, but not if they are good. They should refuse up to a point. Then it's dance puppet, dance puppet.
I like this as well. Of course, it will be open to the criticism that some control of our sims has been taken away! For me, this is a price worth paying, providing that the game provides a solution to the 'puzzle' of how to, say, tell a sim to go away without being mean - Plead for Mercy, perhaps?
I have been exploring the mischief trait recently and it is actually proving to be one of the most interesting set of interactions. I still haven't got to the bottom of it. Sometimes it is positive, others negative. I am pretty sure the outcome isn't random.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I used the trash a few times. Just felt wrong. I used the sink a few times...you know it breaks the sinks (Sims can no longer use it) if you drag the dishes to the sinks. I don't do that and again it just feels wrong. Simulation. Get off your duff Sim, do the dishes but thank goodness with so many some of my Sims can put them in a dishwasher again, I hope they actually use it, lol, but when I think 'Sims' I think about them having to do everything I have to do and that means no slot popping but walk to that fridge while toddler screams to get that bottle. Good times.
I would prefer having a game with everyday real-life events and consequences, as long as they "Sim-ify" them, than to have one where my Sim could be an elite master secret agent or something unrealistic like that.
Yes! This is a huge issue for me. I want my Sims to suffer and I want to be challenged as a player to help my Sims get through the tough times. Then, when (and if) they succeed in life, I will feel rewarded for my efforts. To me, this is the 'game' part of the game and it is woefully missing.