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TS5 - Implement a Parental Pass Code?
Chicklet453681
Posts: 2,435 Member
TS4 to me is so very childish. There's so many things from the older games that were left out. I would really love it if all of that cheekiness could be brought back into the next generation. Like they're so afraid of enraging parents by including things that I'm sure 95% of kids know about today. If there was some sort of passcode that parents could input to "lock out" the more "teen and above humor and interactions" so their little ones wouldn't be scarred by the game, that would be amazing!
Another thing that would be good is a level of difficulty toggle.
TS4 is sooooo easy and dummied down which I guess is so those 7 year olds can play the game. What if we had a toggle for different levels of difficulty so those that like a more difficult game could enjoy it while keeping it simplified for the itty bitty ones too?
Just things I was thinking about, what's your thoughts?
Another thing that would be good is a level of difficulty toggle.
TS4 is sooooo easy and dummied down which I guess is so those 7 year olds can play the game. What if we had a toggle for different levels of difficulty so those that like a more difficult game could enjoy it while keeping it simplified for the itty bitty ones too?
Just things I was thinking about, what's your thoughts?
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Comments
I think we have this image of kids being completely stupid, naive and almost unaware of their surroundings that they can't play and enjoy difficult games.
I think it's very false. Many people played the Sims 2 as kids and even though we all struggled a bit from time to time in order to understand the game, it was part of the charm.
I think even 6-7 year olds are too smart for the Sims 4. It's oversimplified
Well I personally think so too, I know several kids who played TS2 and TS3 at ages that young. But the sims team seems to think that kids are too fragile for burglars in the game or confrontation and quite a lot of other things. That's why I said it's watered down.
But having some sort of parental control over what the game shows "young impressionable kids" would keep over-protecting parents from giving backlash to EA but allow EA to implement the more cheeky humor and behavior for older players.
- Complete Sandbox for the micromanagers
- Easy: less decisions, autonomy on, can’t get fired, promotions triple salary, nobody hates you, no jokes but poo ones, woohoo high-fives, couples that rarely touch, everything is basically free, etc.
- Hard: have to make decisions that alter the course of your day or even your life, requires more than two days showing up on-time and meeting two co-workers to get a promotion, get fired or demoted when you slack off, moxie, hard work, and/or scrappiness required to actually make money, actually affectionate with partner, don’t high-five before woohoo unless you really want to, actual humor, other Sims may think you’re a tool or a doofus, etc.
Example, Animal Crossing is rated E for Everyone and loads of kids play, but it has several depictions of full frontal human nudity in it in the form of paintings and statues.
The different is kids aren't so emotionally invested in what they are doing. I wouldn't let my 6 year old play Sims, including 4, because things like a sim that she has become invested in dying would upset her far more than a teenager. The woohoo/raunchy/drinking stuff would just go over her head anyways in the same way that the types of adult jokes Disney throws into kids shows does, and aren't really the problem.
I also think that adding those kind of things in shouldn't be a problem for people with young kids cuz the game is rated T, not E anyways. Kids age 6 to 7 shouldn't be playing regardless with that rating so it doesn't need to cater to them.
That being said, I'm glad Sims 4 left it out for me, not my kids sake haha! The kind of partying/raunchy/drinking type humour never amused me. I didn't start playing until I was 19 and it felt more like younger teen humour to me and a bit immature lol. I always thought of maturity more as going to work on time, paying the bills, raising the kids right etc haha! Just a difference of interests I know now, but a toggle would be great for those that want it in and those that don't.
Same with difficulty levels. Imo, the more toggles the better! Toggles for everything that CAN be toggled would be a smart idea from EA! Especially if they can be toggled on and off without restarting the game each time!
I think a change in management could maybe help if you wanted to see some changes in that area. I suspect that younger people might be more interested in making changes like that and make decisions that are more appealing to people who want a challenge.
I would very much appreciate if the game were more mature, that is, less silly, seen from the context I am in - not american conservative; where things like birth represented by a spinning animation is bordering on offensive in its silliness (TS3); or that sims gossiping about eachother limits the amount of love partners they can have - based on a nuclear structure to begin with.
There are of course lots of initiatives to loosen this up within the gameplay additions, like the Free Love NAP from Eco-Living; but what political climate that has got power over this game series' direction is clear.
Other games have difficulty levels and if it were possible to do such a thing in the sims without too much resources it would certainly be appreciated as well. I don’t mind the game being simple though, it has got a lot of features speaking for it, that makes up for the lack of challenge.
It's inevitably coming! Muahahaha
Also yes. A parental control would be better for the parents than the children honestly.
Parents are way too worried their kids are going to think sims dying are real or develop anxiety from burglars and what not. But like I said we underestimate kids. Remember how you were at 6 or 7, you could understand if something is real or fiction. Especially in the digital age, kids are smart.
Also anxiety is far more likely to be triggered when you already have emotional trauma than out of the blue. And if kids live in a safe environment things like Sim mental breakdowns or crying like in the Sims 2 won't trigger fear, because they feel safe.
An adult who has some emotional trauma is mich more likely to get anxiety from seeing Sims have mental breakdowns (I noticed due to personal experience).
This also explains why adults go out of their way to protect kids from seeing things that might be damaging, because the parents themselves are afraid and anxious and think the kid will feel the same way.
But kids are fearless and can handle a little game about life.
Parents need to work on themselves and realize why virtual people dying, being ill or having mental breakdowns makes them uncomfortable or anxious. Maybe there is an underlying problem they need to solve with a therapist. That's not EAs problem. That's theirs.
No, it needs to be taken further than that.
We need sliders for different aspects of gameplay, not a bulk easy vs hard.
This is how I feel about it.
More toggles means more options, and more individuality.
Perhaps there could be a password protected master toggle, to switch to "nothing bad ever happens, lots of fart jokes, no woohoo" To tone it all down to a 'kid safe' version, or switch back to the "user toggles everything" version.
I also disagree with letting 6 year olds play these games. It's teen rated or was. I don't know what TS4 is rated.
Now, Parents... it's rated Teen. Let them make some Sims and monitor them, but 6? Nope. You might not be dumb at 6 (mostly) but you are naive and most of the game goes past, you just like cartoon jokes.
A nothing bad ever happens though.. Forget the kiddos I want that one on my own game! Lol!
My opinion - it's about their ratings for Teen and I expect they wanted to go for younger players. The money is in New players. Why go after players they already have hooked? A Lot of Simmers buy even if they don't care about the expansions- I've been reading. I even did it for just a few things in Expansions.
I don't expect the Sims to go back to it's humor of The Sims days. That was so fun ~ which we all know there wasn't any woohoo until an expansion. Which one? I don't remember.
I might have forgotten that, lol, but you are right, I think TS1 Sims had to wait on that heart bed if I remember it correctly can't remember which EP.