Why parties aren't as fun as they could be:

SimmerGeorge

Hey guys,

So I have been playing The Sims 4 since 2014 and one thing I was really excited about was the parties. Now I love parties and I really liked them in The Sims 2 because the "fun" would just happen on its own most of the times. However I was very dissapointed in the Sims 3 parties because of all the sims getting stuck in front of doors and general glitching.
I liked how in the Sims 4 there were goals to fulfill for each type of party and the multitasking made eating and socializing better etc. However I soon realized that I didn't enoy the parties very much. These are the reasons why:

1. the goals for the parties are way too similar and I can never tell the difference

2. the group chat of death: Which is basically the name I have for when all my 12 guests start chatting with each other in this huge group of people for the whole night and do nothing else than sit there, talk and play musical chairs.

3. Nobody ever touches the food or the drinks and if they do they usually sit down to eat in the most random places like the pool which is annoying especially when you are throwing a dinner party and want the sims to eat at the table together.

4. No party AI: I don't even think Sims are programmed to realize they are in a party and act a different way than normal. They will arrive at my house and choose to play "blickblock" over dancing with the rest, or they will choose to go to my basement and do nothing instead of eating all the food I made, they'll watch TV in my kid's bedroom and fully ignore the rest of the group.

5. Nobody reacts to the main event (blowing out candles, wedding etc.): Really though every time I throw a birthday party and want people to react to my sim blowing the candles only the 3 people who are nearest might react and the rest will just ignore it. Sometimes some sims will try to come and celebrate but blowing out the candles happens in like 2 seconds and they never make it.

These are some of the reasons why I simply don't enjoy parties anymore even though I really love the idea of throwing them. Every time I do I am dissapointed or frustrated trying to make it fun. What are your thoughts on parties?

I don't know if this belongs in feedback or not maybe a mod can move it

CAPTAIN_NXR7

I agree. What I dislike about parties is when the party is over, it means IT’S OVER!

After the timer is up, everybody just drops whatever they were doing and leaves. It’s cruel. Because the best things about parties in real life are the AFTERPARTIES. Not in TS4. All my sim is left with is cleaning up all the food the guests didn’t eat. So long, suckers.

bixters

I'm going to have to disagree with your post a bit.
I actually think parties in the Sims 4 are the best they've been in the franchise since the Sims 1. Sims 2 and 3 parties were quite lame. In Sims 2, you were very restricted to how many guests you could invite. And in Sims 3, I just remember all the sims going to different parts of the house and not socializing.

In The Sims 4, the sims do socialize quite a bit, they dance, they eat, they drink. They will even do keg stands autonomously. They also tend to stay in the same area together.

I do agree with some of your complaints. I usually have to lock the doors to rooms with computers in them because they are just too distracting. In fact, if you have electronics in any other part of the house, they will actively search for them, and it's quite annoying. But I always lock doors so they can only go where I want them to go.
I usually don't have problems with Birthday parties and Weddings. Most guests do take a while to get to the scene of action, but they get there eventually.

I also wish that parties could go longer if you get a Gold rating like @CAPTAIN_NXR7 mentioned, like an extra 2 hours.
More "adult" activities would also be appreciated, I liked dancing on top of the bar in the Sims 3.

But nothing will top Sims 1 parties, they were the BEST!

Duvelina

@bixters There was a cheat you could put in so more sims could come to your parties in TS2. They restricted it based on your PC's specs, but you could cheat the system and invite even more sims than you can in TS4. Sims 2 is very cheatable and moddable. You can change basically anything you don't like.

I agree with the OP. Sims playing musical chairs drives me crazy. You have to lock doors to almost everything just so you sims will stay together and socialize. But I wish the game would interrupt the autonomous chatting at some point and throw in some games or dancing or something.

CAPTAIN_NXR7

@bixters wrote: »

More "adult" activities would also be appreciated, I liked dancing on top of the bar in the Sims 3.

I miss that. Probably too 'explicit' for TS4. Also the devs quite openly talk about that certain Whimsy mod, so they kind of seem to leave these features up to the modder who must not be named.

Daephene

I pretty much only throw wedding parties, and I enjoy them. I don't encounter some of your annoyances because I always throw them at a wedding venue where drinking, eating and dancing are pretty much all there is to do, rather than a house with a tv and computer and all that stuff. I actually like the chatting, because usually my weddings are like family reunions so I move around getting pictures of the family hanging out with each other. If I go to the arch pretty much right away (before the bartender starts serving), a lot of the guests will usually come watch, even if they don't sit.

But yeah I almost never throw house parties. And the dinner parties are especially a pain. Though maybe if you have parenthood and someone sets the table first that might help? It would be nice if the AI worked like clubs and steered them towards the appropriate party activities.