The Sims without its community? What would it be?!

Jassieteacake

Hi all,

I'm really curious, what do you think The Sims game would be like without its community? So take away the exchange, the forums, and all the other ways we interact with other simmers.

Do you think that would affect the way you play The Sims, or not much at all?

Maybe that would even mean the expansion packs we have currently would be different, since the devs can't receive our input?

I personally would be pretty devastated having no one around to talk to that understands The Sims!

extremeasaur

I can tell you this, I wouldn't know half the stuff I know about this game without this forum.

I have the help, guidance, experience and knowledge from everyone here to get me through when I can't figure things out. and when my game blows up - everyone here understands my pain.

LetterM2013

Didn't your thread in I&F cover this?

Vihzel

Hmm... it definitely wouldn't affect the way I play since it's a single-player game. I've been playing The Sims ever since the first one came out in 2000 and actually never really used the forums until a bit earlier this year and never actually did anything until I joined earlier this month. So before 2012, it was essentially just me, The Exchange, and The Sims.

I really like The Exchange because of all the great lots that people build that are much better than anything I could possibly build, but I wouldn't really be devastated if it wasn't there because I would just be doing a lot more lot building myself.

LetterM2013

@Vihzel: The part in your MyPage bio was a legit lol about "In case you have any suspicions.."

HuckleberryHen90

I have been playing Sims for a long time, but I never really became active on the forums until recently. Before I started participating on the forums, I would become very bored with the game after playing it for a day or so. During Sims 2 I never used the forums so I rarely played at all. When Sims 3 came out, I purchased the game, but I didn’t even play it until Ambitions came out. However, I still didn’t use the forums so I stopped playing after a week. Around June I decided to check out the forums and I loved it. The people are so friendly and I’ve met a ton of awesome people. This is the first time that I haven’t gotten bored of the game in under a week. I can say for myself that without the community and forums, I probably wouldn’t be playing right now.

Also, I feel that by using the forums it has helped with my creativity. There are so many talented people that share their creations on the Exchange or just in threads on the forums. This has helped give me ideas for my Sims and their homes.

LaBlue0314

To be honest, if it was not because of the fourm, I probably would have stopped playing The Sims a very long time ago. I would have never even played The Sims 3.

Jassieteacake

LetterM2013 wrote:

Didn't your thread in I&F cover this?

No, this time I'm taking a different angle. Rather than finding out people's experiences, I want to see what people have to say about imagining The Sims without a community full-stop.

@extremeasaur I can completely relate to that! There have been times I thought I had game-breaking bugs but instead have found solutions through other Simmers. Also, it took me the longest time to figure out why I couldn't marry my sims... thank goodness for the forums.

Stormkeep

It would be a game i didn't play, or even own. Without the community of modders and CC creators the game would be just plain bad, imo. I won't patch until Twallan has his mods updated to the patch level, for example, because without his mods the game is boring, glitchy and annoying. And his aren't the only mods I use. I also hate almost all of EAs hairs. They aren't bad at clothing, but hair they simply are horribad at, so without the CC hair creators I'd be miserable.

Community isn't just important to this game, it elevates it from mediocre to greatness. Personally I don't think the franchise would have flourished nearly as well as it did without that community.

Jassieteacake

Stormkeep wrote:

It would be a game i didn't play, or even own. Without the community of modders and CC creators the game would be just plain bad, imo. I won't patch until Twallan has his mods updated to the patch level, for example, because without his mods the game is boring, glitchy and annoying. And his aren't the only mods I use. I also hate almost all of EAs hairs. They aren't bad at clothing, but hair they simply are horribad at, so without the CC hair creators I'd be miserable.

Community isn't just important to this game, it elevates it from mediocre to greatness. Personally I don't think the franchise would have flourished nearly as well as it did without that community.

Well said. I myself am a big fan of Twallan and his clean up mods.

As for your last statement, I wholeheartedly agree with that. I honestly can't imagine The Sims being as great as it is without its online community.

Cinebar

The Sims Series would not have prevailed as long as it has (12 yrs +) without the different gaming communities.

First,the official website for anyone of the three were the foundations for influencing people or inspiring people to either buy the game, the next EP or giving ideas to one another of how to play and or what to make.

Fansites took on a life of their own where as you can speak more freely with your opinions and if others don't like it you get told in a very direct manner what fanboys think of you for stating such things.

On official websites those things are tamped down, and for good measure.

If the official website goes away as it has done for TS1, and more or less of TS2...the games and the time spent playing them decreases.

Not only because they are now ancient history, but that feeling of belonging and finding out new information and sharing experiences disappears. Even if they go elsewhere to talk about the game..it slowly seeps into the psyche the game is over, and players do start to play less and less and may only be discussing it on other fansites instead of actually playing the older series.

Or certaintly not as much as when there was an official site, not necessarily because the games are now considered old or outdated but because the official websites ended.

It's a fact, official websites fuel the need to play and once they are over, people do start to play less and less as it dawns on them it's time to move on...

It's because though some love single player, there is something about discussing or complaining or dreaming up new ideas with other people, or even having a common enemy (EA) to rag on that makes people feel they 'belong' and without the official websites the games would die on their own.

Cinebar

I just wanted to add if you really think about it, of any of the three series, at some point people stopped playing and spent more time on forums or maybe creating for others instead of playing the game.

With that said, the different communities (official and fansites) either fueld the need to play in some cases, or took away from the time people actually played, even in this game.

I bet more and more people spend more time on forums these days than they do actually playing. After twelve years of it, no matter if it is a new game or not, we have all out grown the Sims, we just don't want to face that...so we do buy more etc. to try to bring back some excitement...but I can bet money if all the sites were gone people wouldn't play anymore. And probably don't play that much really at all. Or they wouldn't be here.

TanyaRubirose

Honestly, without the community, this would be a game I only play once every months. I do like it, but a lot of what I do now is related to the community or what others ask for, not related to just playing the game.

So... without the community, this would be just another mediocre game on my shelf. The community honestly makes a lot of the difference.

SimCitySouth

The Sims without the community, you ask? Hmm. It would have mostly drawbacks, some benefits too.

CK213

If TS2 never bothered with a community, other than a general forum, I believe EA would have dropped it after The Sims 2. I don't think the game would have been as successful without the community as we know it now. EA probably would have focused on the hardcore gamer and the pure casual gamer.

I had the original Sims game, but never was involved in the online community. I never got past the base game because I quickly lost interest. TS2 attracted me with the house building aspect, but once I became involved with the community and began sharing what I made for other to enjoy, I was hooked.

The main features of TS3 (the open neighborhood, traits, and Create-a-style) kept me interested initially, but the game seemed a little lacking in other aspects, especially in how sims relate and react to each other. There was also the look of them that I had a difficult time adjusting to.

Custom content and mods help me a lot and got me past the point of abandoning the game. The expansion packs did the rest and further modding to fix things I didn't like about some of the EPs.

Anavastia

Sims needs it's community. Without it, it couldn't thrive. This game success is because of that community so the stronger the better. Modding is the most important next to cc as sims team can't pump out content enough to keep a player entertained. Players like ck213 like to have hd graphics, skins, textures which EA doesn't provide. So the community is a good source for him to find those things.

Then you have builders and artistic players without the community and encouragement a lot of that beautiful work wouldn't be there. You also have the story and movie making community.

Then you have just ordinary players who like to look at the work of all those people and many times the reason we're attracted to sims is because of those players. Then you have your more vocal players on the forums. They help get fixes, and changes for the game. You have helps too who go in and help players having difficulty with the game. So the community itself is like it's own customer service.

If Sims didn't have this community it would not be successful at all.

MissCee

It would be sad. I mean pitifully sad. And like a few others I believe the game would have tanked, or certainly not been as successful.

The Community provides the support that keeps simmers creatively finding new facets of the game.

windweaver

I played The Sims 2 for a long time before I joined the community. Once I learned how to post (I'm an old person) and started to get to know different people who posted regularly, it was a whole new ball game.

I still miss the connection to the TS2 community I had, the "flavor" of that group was very different from what we have here. The whole experience was wonderful, I really do miss that game, that community (even though some are still here on this one) and that dev team, at least the base and early ep's team.

There was something very special for me in that time. Ts3 feels very commercial, whereas the ts2 group felt very human.

Just my take on it.

Jassieteacake

windweaver wrote:

I played The Sims 2 for a long time before I joined the community. Once I learned how to post (I'm an old person) and started to get to know different people who posted regularly, it was a whole new ball game.

I still miss the connection to the TS2 community I had, the "flavor" of that group was very different from what we have here. The whole experience was wonderful, I really do miss that game, that community (even though some are still here on this one) and that dev team, at least the base and early ep's team.

There was something very special for me in that time. Ts3 feels very commercial, whereas the ts2 group felt very human.

Just my take on it.

Agree with you there. There was just something special about The Sims 2 forums, although I can't say exactly what! Might've been because I was just younger and it becomes all that more nostalgic. I do miss the Sims 2 but I could never go back to it either.