Expansion pack-oriented Let's Plays

waterywatermelon

Back in the Sims 2 days, people would upload stories to the Exchange, and they never focused on just one expansion pack. Rather, the number of expansion packs was irrelevant to the story, and when I say "story", a lot of them were either observational stories (in which the author took a lot of pictures and wrote comments about them from the author's POV) or dramas (in which the author had a fixed plotline and scripted behaviors/texts). But, people never really focused on one expansion pack.

Now, moving to the Sims 3, I see tons and tons of YouTubers who may post "Sims 3 Generation Let's Play" or "Sims 3 Seasons Let's Play". As the viewer, I would assume that they focus on just one expansion pack by keeping only one expansion pack installed, but nope, they actually have a wide variety of expansion packs, maybe even stuff packs, Store content/worlds, custom content/mods. What's the point with this?

The same thing occurs with The Sims 4.

Perhaps, The Sims 2 expansion packs were so well integrated with the base game, because the base game had the basic coding for the expansion packs in the original release, while The Sims 3 expansion packs and The Sims 4 expansion packs were their own little thing and deserved special attention because they weren't very integrated into the core gameplay?

simgirl1010

I don't watch a lot which is why I actually prefer the pack focused Let's Plays. I can pick and choose those I'm most interested in. You tend to see a lot of the pack specific videos after the release of a new pack but some YouTubers do have ongoing series unrelated to a particular pack.

duhboy2u2

I personally think it has less to do with integration and more to do with youtubers who listen to their fans and find out what people are specifically looking for. If more people are looking for a walkthrough of a specific pack or a lets play on that same specific pack, it makes more sense to just do that one.

I do miss some of the stories that unfolded for the Sims 2 because everything seemed more all-inclusive, but I'm also staggeringly happier being able to just search out what I'm looking to find also. I play the game. I have everything but the newest pack and the Star Wars one (which I doubt I'll ever buy) so when I do a search, its generally to find out about the new pack, what it offers, and if I want to add it to my game or not.

That said, I DO wish there were more story based, all-inclusive lets plays because they were quite intertaining.

Calico45

I don't really watch a lot of let's plays of the Sims either. It is a game I enjoy playing a lot more than watching, but if I had to guess they are trying to market their videos. Like this EP/theme? My video focuses on it. It might even show you if you want to buy it. Probably pretty necessary to be more interesting now since it is more competitive and some people even make videos for money.

This being said, I am a "everything and the kitchen sink" type player. So those kinds of limitations seem quite boring to me just watching when I won't even play that way.