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Is The Sims too childish now? Teen & Adult players have been forgotten

Controversial but with Sims, adult players need to be prioritised with regards to marketing - not kids. We’re the ones with disposable income to actually invest in the franchise. Don’t make it overly childish, we can handle some drama, tragedy etc

For a Teen rated game, Sims 4 seems solely targeted towards children? The players who’ve grown up with the franchise & continue to play seem to have been forgotten about. We want messy storylines, drama, personality, DEPTH. Everything’s just too pretty, happy and dull

They haven’t even bothered to put an affair storyline in, or a secret child or even a death. How fragile do they think we are? We can handle a bit of emotion and scandal

This won’t happen but I’d love The Sims franchise to start being marketed as a 15+ game with teen/adult concepts like violence, crime, scandals etc. Kids will always convince their parents to buy the game no matter the rating anyway. Make it less childish?

Comments

  • NorthDakotaGamerNorthDakotaGamer Posts: 2,559 Member
    edited April 2020
    I would not say it is too childish, but they are playing it safe to keep it rated Teen. I do allow my kids to play it, but they also play other games. I do have certain mods on my laptop that are not allowed on the family desktop, where they play. EA has always been about making more money, and not about pleasing the customer. At least that is the impression given off over the last 5+ years.
    Post edited by NorthDakotaGamer on
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,644 Member
    edited April 2020
    I do see some features aimed towards younger simmers, but mostly they can be used in various ways. I play the game in my way, and I don't need the stuff I don't fancy, but there is still lots of features that I DO fancy. And, I always added a great deal of imagination anyway, so I can fill in the gaps quite easily. I still think TS4 is a good game, and it felt more childish with just the base game, I think.

    There's nothing stopping you from putting a "secret child" in the game, or make up those story lines. I would not have used such features, because I prefer my own versions of those ;) I have lots of "secrets" in my game, which is rather silly as I am the only one who will ever know, lol.
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  • pinot_grigiopinot_grigio Posts: 91 Member
    If you want your game to appear less "childish", you can get some R18 mods that will allow your sims to live out some pretty messed up storylines. They're free to install if you're interested.
    49886159581_8ebc2b57a8_h.jpg
  • SindocatSindocat Posts: 5,622 Member
    I'm 51, and not bored. The depth is there if you make it. It's a sandbox. My Sims still surprise and delight me. TS4 families seem genuinely close across multiple generations, if you let them be. Or you can have dysfunctional train-wrecks who relate poorly if at all.

    It's what you make it.
  • Kellogg_J_KelloggKellogg_J_Kellogg Posts: 1,548 Member
    I have two children who play the game so I want it to remain broadly family friendly. Whether you want to make it more about affairs and teen angst is up to the way people want to play it. I don't want the game to exclude younger players. Also, bear in mind that ever since Sims 1 it has had a fairly wide age appeal.
  • SimmyFroggySimmyFroggy Posts: 1,762 Member
    I'm 40, my daughter is 13, neither of us feels it's too childish a game. It's a matter of personal taste, I guess. The game is 12+/Teen, which means it needs to stay relatively clean to fit the rating. But I will never understand why clean should equal childish.
    The emotion system could do with an overhaul and have more consequences but that's a whole different conversation.
    Kids will always convince their parents to buy the game no matter the rating anyway.
    This is a bad argument for anything.
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  • beadierturtlebeadierturtle Posts: 295 Member
    We wouldn't be having this conversation if EA didn't disagree with my suggestion for flamethrowers.
  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    edited April 2020
    To be fair, they haven't put in much of any story line in, drama or happy.

    There's a bit of something there going on with Johnny Zest and the Landgraabs (secret adult child?) and the Pancakes have some issues and weirdness going on with them. It's not as much or as clear cut as past games, but they've included a tiny bit. I can't remember the name of the family, but I think there's one that came with Get Together that has a suspicious death tied to it.
    Origin ID: Peapod79
  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,351 Member
    There are a ton of plot hooks if you bother to look. Yes, it may be up to the player to actually do anything with them (and a lot of the families don't have the right relationship levels indicated by their writeups, but that's not a ratings issue) but they are there.

    There's also a bit of lore in the descriptions of several items in the Buy catalog. Maybe not as much as previous games, but it is there.

    I mean, I personally think they could get a bit darker without violating their rating code, but I understand why they don't. And honestly it's easier to take the game darker than intended than take a dark game and lighten it up without going to parody levels of melodrama.
  • mock68mock68 Posts: 696 Member
    I'm 51 years old and I have found sims 4 to be catering for the 'woke' younger people and does not cater for us older ones who just want to play a game without PC being rammed down our throats.
    I have not played it for about three/four weeks now and do not miss it as I got bored with it.
    There is no fun in the game anymore if you just like to play normally and not get too into it.
    It's supposed to be a fun game but I don't see the fun in it anymore. It needs more to be a little more adult if it really cares for it's players who have played sims since sims 1 but it's all about money so I doubt us oldies are even considered now.
  • ListentoToppDoggListentoToppDogg Posts: 2,103 Member
    edited April 2020
    How have teen players been forgotten when that's literally who the game is being marketed to? Several gurus have admitted that their appeal is toward teenaged girls, which is pretty obvious considering the content that is coming out. Regardless of how childish the game seems, teens are their main priority. I also don't agree that all adult players have been forgotten. Adult family players surely have, but the people who only play with young adult sims are certainly not being ignored. Again, it doesn't matter how childish the content is, teens (and a community of adults) are still getting content while many of us aren't and haven't been for years.
  • RouensimsRouensims Posts: 4,858 Member
    I like its happy vibe, and I would be really disappointed if it went darker. But one of my Simself’s traits is Childish, so what do I know? :D
    Ooh Be Gah!! Whipna Choba-Dog? Whipna Choba-Dog!! :smiley:
  • CoffeecrumblecakeCoffeecrumblecake Posts: 6,549 Member
    I started playing when I was 12 haha, so that's a ways before the teen rating. I think it really should be for everyone, too, since it only gets scandalous if you want it to. In fact, it is a really good game for kids younger than their teen years for educational purposes: like pay your bills or the lights don't work haha. Me, on the other hand, quickly discovered, despite my age, that more can be done with the game. Thankfully, my parents somehow never really snooped in to see what I was doing with it though 😂
  • OEII1001OEII1001 Posts: 3,682 Member
    You know, video games are an inherently childish pastime. Even ones with graphic content are often about revenge or survival fantasies. Others are about living vicariously in a world with magic, or space travel, or vampires, or all of them. Others are about squabbling over meaningless internet points on a leader board. Video games are what they are.

    One things that this particular community does a lot is fret over whether a game is childish, or perceived as childish, or if fans of one iteration or another are childish. I would offer that these sorts of discussions and distinctions aren't useful, nor do they foster productive discussion. I think you'd be better off just talking about features you like or don't like and leave the labels and their connotations out. But you do you.
  • TamakiSakura84TamakiSakura84 Posts: 543 Member
    I'd rather see more depth added, but keep the content level welcoming to all ages. Sex and violence do not equal maturity.
  • HayleeSimsHayleeSims Posts: 124 Member
    I agree somewhat. I do think the sims 4 is childish but it has less to do with drama more about things like jobs. We have so many freelance and social media jobs and not enough regular jobs. I have to a get a mod just so I can get simple things like a construction worker or janitor.
  • OEII1001OEII1001 Posts: 3,682 Member
    HayleeSims wrote: »
    I agree somewhat. I do think the sims 4 is childish but it has less to do with drama more about things like jobs. We have so many freelance and social media jobs and not enough regular jobs. I have to a get a mod just so I can get simple things like a construction worker or janitor.

    To be fair, I don't think that construction worker or janitor were ever career paths in any of the Sims titles.
  • LindsaySeddon1LindsaySeddon1 Posts: 284 Member
    They haven’t even bothered to put an affair storyline in, or a secret child or even a death. How fragile do they think we are? We can handle a bit of emotion and scandal

    They didn't put ANY storylines in
  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    I'd rather see more depth added, but keep the content level welcoming to all ages. Sex and violence do not equal maturity.

    @TamakiSakura84 I don't think most simmers are talking about sex and violence, we just don't want a childish game.
  • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
    edited April 2020
    Karon wrote: »
    I'd rather see more depth added, but keep the content level welcoming to all ages. Sex and violence do not equal maturity.

    @TamakiSakura84 I don't think most simmers are talking about sex and violence, we just don't want a childish game.

    Exactly. Just look at both available interactions and traits from Sims 2 and 3 (without mods) and yeah... this game is watered down enormously. The ONLY thing more mature and more controversial in 4 compared to the rest is the gender options.
    Origin ID: A_Bearded_Geek
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