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The Biggest Problem with The Sims 4
Onverser
Posts: 3,364 Member
So I was thinking about the packs in the game, and I realised that the pros and cons for basically every single one is the same. The Sims 4 seems to have a running theme of style over substance. For most packs the worlds are visually beautiful, the CAS is full of nice items, and there's tons of really nice build-buy items and these things repeatedly become the star of the show. Rather than the gameplay, which tends to fall short.
For example; Eco Lifestyle. The overall response seems to be that people love the build-buy stuff and the CAS, but don't like the gameplay features.
Then in Island Living - the world is stunning, the build-buy is nice and so is the CAS but again, the gameplay isn't all there.
Then in Get Together, people praise the world all the time and there's so much love for Windenburg, but the gameplay elements of the pack are nowhere near as popular.
City living, it's nice to have apartments and everything looks nice but there's not really much else to the pack.
Realm of magic - beautiful visually, lacking interesting gameplay. You get the gist.
In past editions it seemed to be the opposite way around. If you look at packs in TS3 for example, the build-buy and CAS generally aren't very exciting (in my opinion at least), they're heavily themed and are generally just there as an add on to the gameplay, there isn't many items that are usable in every day gameplay. Whilst in TS4 every pack is full of tons of really nice items, and it's almost like the gameplay is an add on to the visuals.
It just seems like as an over all, in TS4 the majority of the focus is put on the visuals and making everything look nice rather than creating fun gameplay. Essentially, the game is like a pretty building simulator and character creator first, and a game second. And I hope that changes with the next edition and we'll get to see more gameplay focus, rather than visual focus.
For example; Eco Lifestyle. The overall response seems to be that people love the build-buy stuff and the CAS, but don't like the gameplay features.
Then in Island Living - the world is stunning, the build-buy is nice and so is the CAS but again, the gameplay isn't all there.
Then in Get Together, people praise the world all the time and there's so much love for Windenburg, but the gameplay elements of the pack are nowhere near as popular.
City living, it's nice to have apartments and everything looks nice but there's not really much else to the pack.
Realm of magic - beautiful visually, lacking interesting gameplay. You get the gist.
In past editions it seemed to be the opposite way around. If you look at packs in TS3 for example, the build-buy and CAS generally aren't very exciting (in my opinion at least), they're heavily themed and are generally just there as an add on to the gameplay, there isn't many items that are usable in every day gameplay. Whilst in TS4 every pack is full of tons of really nice items, and it's almost like the gameplay is an add on to the visuals.
It just seems like as an over all, in TS4 the majority of the focus is put on the visuals and making everything look nice rather than creating fun gameplay. Essentially, the game is like a pretty building simulator and character creator first, and a game second. And I hope that changes with the next edition and we'll get to see more gameplay focus, rather than visual focus.
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Comments
I like playing sims 4, i love actually, but truth must be said...
But you're right, every focus seemed to have shifted towards building and CAS, and because there's so much of it, we may not feel the lack of an Open World, Create a Style, or a World Editor. Except we do. Or at least a lot of players do. Other game play elements such as AI suffer because of a game engine that was supposed to support the game differently than what it is doing now. But at least we have beautiful colors and 'depth of field'.
Which of course isn't enough for a lot of players who want an implementation of the kind of Ai and story telling/ gameplay mechanics that previous games offered.
Speaking from a builder/ CAS creator's POV, I do think Building and CAS are equally important game play elements, but those shouldn't take away from the actual life simulator aspect of a game. If I want to play with my sims, I also want them to have personality. Right now there is none of that.
I often compare it with Blockbuster Movies. They can look magnificent with top notch special effects and beautifully Rendered Sci-Fi Cities and fantasy landscapes.
But when it comes to the actually narrative and the characters within that narrative, one may find it's often an empty, meaningless story line driven by characters with no personality whatsoever.
Personally I agree that there is a clear imbalance between all the necessary game play elements in TS4.
Well, I don't think this is a problem. Worlds and objects are like maybe half the game, and at least everyone agrees that the worlds and objects are nice looking. This means they have good artists and art director, or whoever decides how things should look like. The gameplay is down to coding and another team of people does that and could probably be improved on if they wanted to, especially as I understand this is something they do themselves, not outsource it. With gameplay however, many people want different things, so I guess it's difficult to implement everything so it satisfies everyone. Some want open world, some want more or less autonomy, some want rampaging vampires, some don't want them at all. There are also 3 previous iterations to compare current one with and the team wants the players to accept a sims MMO as TS5.
I think what makes expansions, game and stuff packs different is just the number of build/buy/cas items/world size
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
They keep expanding the shallow base game instead of fixing it. That is for me the biggest problem of The Sims 4.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
Eco Lifestyle is a case in point. We need someone to guide us in starting if off as it's a complete mystery as to how one starts off a community lot in another world for instance. We learn more of what guide makers are disappointed about than how to get started.
As much as I love the graphics, the visuals, the worlds etc. many times I find myself not giving a woohoo about the Sims themselves.
ALL THE BUGS AND CRASHING!!! And EA refusing to fix them all because there's no competition.
Also, why are people limited with what they can do; can't build water features in basements, removing those 2 two tiles at the bases of multi-storey staircases. The simplest things should not be the hardest to do.
There should be improvement on long lasting effects - memories, life aspirations, traits that do something.
But with emotions, every Sim is the same. They do react same if they have the same emotion. When sad, they will just won't be able to use some stuff, that's not really interesting for me.
I'd like to see unexpected outcomes, passive gameplay, more diverse Sims in sense of personality. Not how easy is to make them "happy" or "inspired".
My build previews on this site HERE.
''Imagine''
''Control''
Gameplay is the third feature in its feature list and it is for a reason. I mean the only thing that bothers me is the asking price.
It should not cost you that much money to design and look at pretty things. For this price i wanted a challenging game with complexity, Sims having a mind of their own, things that happens outside of your control and freedom to create whatever the players want.
But oh well i still like to play the game because of mods and my imagination and at least there are sales so yeah.
"ugh i hate this pack but i'm buying it anyways cuz i like to have everything" like, it's okay to disagree on something, it doesn't mean ur less of a fan or a hater. and don't worry ea won't cease the sims franchise just because it gets a loss in sales.
it's okay if you actually like what you're buying, i just disagree with people that doesn't like what they buy yet they still get it for the sake of owning it.
we speak to companies through money and feedback, apparently feedback is no longer a concern for them since they are still making millions and they're keeping media approval by their constant "look how inclusive we are!!1!!1!"
@bellagoth_ yes yes this! It seems like simmers need to buy every new pack no matter what. Just to have the complete experience no matter the cost.
The more selective you are with what you spend your money on, the more effort EA and the Sims team will have to make creating the packs.
then there's all the censoring like when sims have drinks, there should be a 'tipsy' moodlet or a drunk one because that's what happens irl. there should be a pack based on drugs, gangs, grim storylines as well (for the simmers who like some grit and mafia stuff lol). currently, im using basemental drugs and gangs but it still doesn't add much.
like i have to use my imagination for everything almost cos there's not much depth nor a storyline.
(also ignore the profile pic cos i had made that when i was 12 so yuck and i cant change it until i have 15 posts so get rekt)
Also, one thing I do hate is how the game makes the Sims we created as slim, but aren't currently playing, fatter. For example, a lovely Sim I created months ago named Mariko Kikuchi has a nice slim body. I was playing a different household and over time when I saw her moving about the city, she had gone from having a nice slim, sexy body to looking like she had eaten far too many chocolate cakes.
TRUTH
Exactly. I've never understood peoples obsession with getting the "complete game". For me atleast I buy the packs I want and I don't buy the packs I don't want. I've barely bought any stuff packs as they're overpriced and don't interest me, and rather than paying full price for other packs and then complaining about how overpriced they I always wait for sales.
People who buy everything even though they know they're not gonna like it annoy me. It's like the 500 people who buy vampires, and then complain that there's vampires it their game. Like ??? If you don't want vampires, don't buy a pack called vampires
That isn't really a Sims 4 issue though, that's a general issue with the franchise. Sims 3 has tons of nightmare bugs that they never even attempted to fix like Island Paradise being a mess. Atleast with TS4 there's somewhat regular bug fixes
That's a part of story progression I dislike in TS4. I played rotationally and if I brought a Sim to a resturant or cafe I would see my other Sims there, too. That's all good but they were getting fatter and fatter the more I saw them out. I had to switch and make one jog a lot to lose weight. The game should at least respect rotational players and not touch my played Sims, even if they are at a cafe every time I brought another Sim to one. It was very annoying.
This is the problem. Yes, what many fans don't understand (unfortunately) is that we “speak to companies through money.” The thing is, I still subconsciously trust The Sims to deliver quality over quantity, because their brand has earned my trust for over a decade. But rationally? The Sims 4 has mostly failed us. They pump out so many packs with such little meaning.
They have the potential to update the gameplay tenfold — as you can see with their base-game updates — and yet, they continue to push their Expansion/Game/Stuff Packs that just adds more fluff to the game. (Actually, they should be called Fluff Packs. LOL) Previous games could not easily update gameplay like The Sims 4 can. It's awesome technology; but they waste their resources pumping out more fluff instead of meaningful, fulfilling content... Why? Because it's guaranteed money (remember: money is their language) because of the completionists. These “completionists” are being taken advantage of. That is the biggest problem with The Sims 4.
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities