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Dear EA, please do not make Sims 5 like Avakin Life.
SimsILikeSims
Posts: 1,634 Member
Avakin Life is fun in its own way, but if EA does with Sims 5 what Lockwood does with Avakin Life, it will lose most of its players.
1. Avakin Life is only playable while connected to the internet. It has no single player option.
2. Avakin Life is full of microtransactions and commercial brands - sure they make Lockwood money, but they lock out a lot of the players who have trouble using TapJoy, which by the way is not terribly reliable in its customer service if promised rewards are not delivered. If I wanted limited time content and microtransactions, I would be playing Sims Freeplay and Sims Mobile a lot more than I do. There is literally almost nothing for free in Avakin Life although one can start playing for free. (To advance past about level 5 requires either watching lots of ads, taking lots of surveys that pay out in game currency, or paying real money in exchange for game currency. A typical shortcoming of mobile and free to play games.) This also gradually drains all the fun out of playing the game, unless you have already made friends in game. Moreover, to pay out "free" rewards for watching ads, Tapjoy requires ad tracking be turned on for ipads, quite invasive of privacy, and in some cases location tracking as well. The ad system in Sims Freeplay and Sims Mobile is way better.
3. While there are "Petkins" in Avakin life, there are no toddlers. Players have asked for toddler petkins, but for numerous reasons (including player neglect of their petkins) there are no toddler petkins. Petkins work sort of like pets except they are confined to very limited areas of the game. This is gradually being expanded, but with the exception of dog petkins, petkins cannot go outside the lot they are placed in. No toddlers is a big dealbreaker for future major Sims series games.
4. There is no multitasking in Avakin Life. Multitasking is one of the features I miss most, followed by clubs, when I play previous Sims games (ie Sims 1, 2, and 3).
5. The emotions of all the avatars exactly mirror the emotions expressed by the players in game because only one avatar is usually allowed per player (or else per social media account and email address). For better or worse, players are usually pretty good at projecting their own emotions onto their characters. (This also applies to previous Sim games - this is how previous Sim games largely simulated emotion - by simply hinting at it and letting the player's imagination doing the rest of the work instead of announcing to the player the Sim's mood. Then the player would choose certain interactions based on the perceived mood of the Sim, instead of the Sim receiving weird moodlets that may or may not coincide with the player's story plans.)
6. Very few of the in-game furnishings can be interacted with by Avakin avatars. This is gradually changing as new furniture with animations is added, but they are wayyyyyy behind the Sims. There are cars in Avakin life, but like Sims 4 they are for decoration only and cannot be interacted with, only parked to look pretty in the driveway. However, they do have a wider variety of decorative car (and truck, and Jeep) sculptures than Sims 4 currently does. Heck, they even added their version of the back to the future Delorean and made the doors open.
1. Avakin Life is only playable while connected to the internet. It has no single player option.
2. Avakin Life is full of microtransactions and commercial brands - sure they make Lockwood money, but they lock out a lot of the players who have trouble using TapJoy, which by the way is not terribly reliable in its customer service if promised rewards are not delivered. If I wanted limited time content and microtransactions, I would be playing Sims Freeplay and Sims Mobile a lot more than I do. There is literally almost nothing for free in Avakin Life although one can start playing for free. (To advance past about level 5 requires either watching lots of ads, taking lots of surveys that pay out in game currency, or paying real money in exchange for game currency. A typical shortcoming of mobile and free to play games.) This also gradually drains all the fun out of playing the game, unless you have already made friends in game. Moreover, to pay out "free" rewards for watching ads, Tapjoy requires ad tracking be turned on for ipads, quite invasive of privacy, and in some cases location tracking as well. The ad system in Sims Freeplay and Sims Mobile is way better.
3. While there are "Petkins" in Avakin life, there are no toddlers. Players have asked for toddler petkins, but for numerous reasons (including player neglect of their petkins) there are no toddler petkins. Petkins work sort of like pets except they are confined to very limited areas of the game. This is gradually being expanded, but with the exception of dog petkins, petkins cannot go outside the lot they are placed in. No toddlers is a big dealbreaker for future major Sims series games.
4. There is no multitasking in Avakin Life. Multitasking is one of the features I miss most, followed by clubs, when I play previous Sims games (ie Sims 1, 2, and 3).
5. The emotions of all the avatars exactly mirror the emotions expressed by the players in game because only one avatar is usually allowed per player (or else per social media account and email address). For better or worse, players are usually pretty good at projecting their own emotions onto their characters. (This also applies to previous Sim games - this is how previous Sim games largely simulated emotion - by simply hinting at it and letting the player's imagination doing the rest of the work instead of announcing to the player the Sim's mood. Then the player would choose certain interactions based on the perceived mood of the Sim, instead of the Sim receiving weird moodlets that may or may not coincide with the player's story plans.)
6. Very few of the in-game furnishings can be interacted with by Avakin avatars. This is gradually changing as new furniture with animations is added, but they are wayyyyyy behind the Sims. There are cars in Avakin life, but like Sims 4 they are for decoration only and cannot be interacted with, only parked to look pretty in the driveway. However, they do have a wider variety of decorative car (and truck, and Jeep) sculptures than Sims 4 currently does. Heck, they even added their version of the back to the future Delorean and made the doors open.
I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
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Comments
they'd have to be idiots to attempt this again. i'd hope, at this point, they'd realize that the sims fulfills a market niche that second life and avakin dont. and that is, sometimes we just wanna play our video games by ourselves and play god by ourselves. that's what made all four of these sims games popular, that's what made them money, they really shouldn't try and be something they're not cause it only just shot them in the foot when sims 4 had to go through a re-work for a single player system.
i totally agree, the sims 4 stands out from those other games and i hope they keep the sims 5 similar to the sims 4 yet better and more detailed, not like avakin life, second life etc.
whats up with the character? looks scary af
If Sims becomes multiplayer I'm out. I like my fellow simmers but stay tf outta my game.
If I want to play with people I can call or text a friend, walk out my door and cruise the neighborhood, or go to the mall, or the ball park, the dog park, or the beach.
If I want to play a game I want to play MY game and not have to weigh in to what others are doing and how they might affect the enjoyment of my gaming time. I don't want trolls messing up my gaming time. I sure don't want microtransactions, ads, surveys placed into my game. I don't want to be tied to the internet to play my game either, but, I doubt I'll get my wish on that. I sure hope the PTB's understand that. I've tried some of those other telephone games with ads and they get boring and repetitive and I didn't spend a nickel on them....too old and too cheap to get caught up in that nonsense. :::snaps my dentures and my cane and whips it around....young whippersnappers think we are all foolish....we are not:::
The Cowboy and the Mermaid
As for being multi player or not it has been tried. The principle problem with Sims City was lack of servers to allow everyone to play when they wanted. I would like to think EA learned from that experience so the company would at least offer a single player alternative. I am very protective of my games, I am, after all, mistress of all I survey and my word is law. Therefore the thought of having another player being involved makes me very unhappy. I am not alone in my thinking and I think EA is fully aware of how many players feel about the issue.
I agree to a certain extent about the emotion system and how we, not unnaturally project our own emotions on to our sims. I would like to see the emotions system which came with TS4 gone. Due to the programming the sims's behaviour is psychotic with rapid mood swings which have no relevance to the situation whether game created or player induced. IMO. I prefer my sims with a modicum of AI as was the case in TS2 and 3. I hope EA have a rethink about the emotions system for any future sims game. Otherwise I will not be investing.
Wherever I am friends call me Betty
Sim enim est vita
Yes, I want to control everything, I don't want to have to deal with someone else.
I've never heard of Anakin Life. I'll need to check it out now to see what you're talking about.
But if sims 5 has an option where you could go online multiplayer style, I wouldn't mind that at all. -But only as an option, because I know most simmers don't like that.
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I hope with Sims 5, they combine all the best bits of Sims 3 and Sims 4 and create what I feel should have been Sims 4. But obviously a better version, if that makes sense. I'm sooooo not technological so I struggle to vocalise what I want xD
Big flat rocks I colored in a coloring book as a child isn't my idea of rock formations nor their details. I collect rocks, and they all have more detail than that. Yes, some are smooth but they all have many shades if you look more closely. Lighting that doesn't make a white door gray. Or night bringing blue lines around doorways, especially when the walls are half down. Those things don't ring out 'better graphics'. I'm going to critique the next game with a fine tooth comb before I decide it's worth the $80 asking price.
Check out my Random Sims Skills Generator and more.
If Sims 5 had an online option I'd be ecstatic. Add pls.
Mood
Imagine you build a very nice house just so that your friends build an ugly shed right next to it
Multiplayer just doesn‘t work in Sims
And EA/Maxis...If you do make a Sims online game don't call it Sims 5 please. It'll bring bad luck!!
Those Avakin eyes are set too high in the face and that makes them spooky. If you look at any little baby or cuddly young animal their eyes are set lower down on the face. Look at any and you'll see I'm right.