I'm always confused by people saying the target audience is young teens. It's always been the target audience. Their job is to appeal to them first. That's pretty much a law in gaming.
Hoping some day for some toddlers. But also dreading they'll never come. JK THEY ARE HERE!
That explains a lot ...
Unfortunately they should have remained with the target audience they have now, they've been sticking to the Sims for at least a decaded, if not since Sims came out, and they're still here.
I agree with what @Jarsie9 said, eventually they'll end up outgrowing the game really quickly. In today's society, trends change quickly, people change their minds in the snap of a finger ...
I'm just glad it hasn't come to a point yet where babies are made by the storks dropping them on the doorsteps.
Lol~ That sounds like fun. -Woohoo and in 3 days a stork brings their baby. 1 option... 2nd option is picking it from a cabbage patch which would be fun in some stories, too.
I'm just glad it hasn't come to a point yet where babies are made by the storks dropping them on the doorsteps.
Yet! That's going a brand new feature in The Sims 5. Order a baby now for $9.99 from eBa(b)y and have it delivered to your house by a stork! Free shipping!
I'm just glad it hasn't come to a point yet where babies are made by the storks dropping them on the doorsteps.
Lol~ That sounds like fun. -Woohoo and in 3 days a stork brings their baby. 1 option... 2nd option is picking it from a cabbage patch which would be fun in some stories, too.
lol If they do that...I'm done. I'm seriously done.
I'm just glad it hasn't come to a point yet where babies are made by the storks dropping them on the doorsteps.
Yet! That's going a brand new feature in The Sims 5. Order a baby now for $9.99 from eBa(b)y and have it delivered to your house by a stork! Free shipping!
What if the "package" comes broken? *shivers*
Note: eBa(b)y is not responsible for any damage to the product caused before, during, or after shipping.
There isn't anything wrong with targeting a younger audience. I don't understand the blatant hate for those who are younger who also play this game.
the problem is who the game is targeted to 12 years but they are making the game more like 6 to 10 years, even for a 12 years old target the game is too "childsh", that is the problem they are making the game more "childish than is supposed to be", others sims where about 14 to 16 years age but childs of 11 + years also could play and undesrtood the humor, now they made a 12 years which the humor target of a 8 years old child, then probably sims 5 will be 10 years target with 4 years humor and full of purples dinossaurs, litte poneys and boob sponges.
basically the problem is which sims 4 humor dont match his target audience.
you can easy see 12 years old childs playing wow, playing dragon age, playing god of war and in even more extreme cases playing gta(what i feel a little too much), 12 years old childs in overall are no more the "pure innocent" peoples which still believe in Santa Claus or Easter rabbit or faery tooth and things like that, they already aware of "real world" and life on that age, then put in game jokes targeted to even more childish childs make the game look bad.
what was considered "childresn" like at 20 or 40 or more years ago is not the same as today.
Now, The Sims was targeted more to adults, that can't be denied- just seeing the humor and jokes (like most cartoons, the jokes miss the young and they don't get it until they're older). Now, I'd say the market has opened up to younger kids so they're including them in their target. It's okay... wish it wasn't, wish it was still cool and whatever the hip word if for Awesome, to keep games harder. To me, each iteration has made the game easier for the player.
The Sims is still the best and hardest time manager simulation with added sandbox play.
*I didn't start playing computer games as a child- Sports was more important to me.
For me it's not about 'easy'. Because for me Sims is not just a game you play, it's more a story tool. And I do like to be challenged and I do want to have that proud feeling when my sims achieve things, but it has never been about 'keeping those need bars filled' for me. Because that has nothing to do with maturity for me.
I'm always confused by people saying the target audience is young teens. It's always been the target audience. Their job is to appeal to them first. That's pretty much a law in gaming.
I wonder if that already was the case back in 2000 to be honest. And besides, I don't think anyone is talking about teens being the market. It looks like actual kids are their new market.
I started playing the Sims 1 when I was 12, but yes I do agree how the Sims 4 was designed is to appeal to young kids. I've read that seven year olds are playing the Sims 4 in forums. I remember how funny it was the first time I saw the heart bed in the Sims. I think the Sims 4 is simple enough and has the childish humor enough for a kindergarten player to enjoy.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
Now, The Sims was targeted more to adults, that can't be denied- just seeing the humor and jokes (like most cartoons, the jokes miss the young and they don't get it until they're older). Now, I'd say the market has opened up to younger kids so they're including them in their target. It's okay... wish it wasn't, wish it was still cool and whatever the hip word if for Awesome, to keep games harder. To me, each iteration has made the game easier for the player.
The Sims is still the best and hardest time manager simulation with added sandbox play.
*I didn't start playing computer games as a child- Sports was more important to me.
For me it's not about 'easy'. Because for me Sims is not just a game you play, it's more a story tool. And I do like to be challenged and I do want to have that proud feeling when my sims achieve things, but it has never been about 'keeping those need bars filled' for me. Because that has nothing to do with maturity for me.
Hi
I didn't specify hard as in keeping the needs bars full. Yet, it's not all about telling stories, either. Nor did I say that keeping the needs bar and the old game being hard as being mature, either. It was the mature humor... and so on.
There was no woohoo in Sims 1 - When I first got the game as a pre-test for Will Wright - that was the one place i recall complaining about - that the sims would get a thought bubble that actually showed a baby being carried by a stork - and then they got a phone call asking them if they were thinking of having a baby. On the telephone they were offered a chance to have a baby or adopt one. If they said to have a baby the sims would kiss - and then poof the baby and bassinette appeared in a cloud of smoke. Again a picture of a stork showed in the thought bubble. But if my sim choose to adopt a baby - even though it appeared the same way - sims did not have to kiss - and the thought bubble showed a picture of a lady in a uniform carrying the baby. it was odd though the baby always appeared in a cloud of smoke in the bassinette.
So we have actually already done storks. If you want to get technical about it.
I just know i was so put off by the baby poofing in, the phone calls - like if the baby cried at all in the 3 days he stayed a baby you got phone calls threatening the sims as being bad parents and coming to take the baby. I even said it was like Big Brother watching you and very creepy to me. Sims would lose their jobs and everything else just to take care of that baby and keep it from crying. They nearly starved to death on top of it all and could not sleep for the 3 days. In fact everything about the baby I found left a bad taste in my mouth - so when I finally got the real game I just tried the whole baby scenario once with the Goths - it was pretty much the same but the last straw was when the baby poofed into a full size child the same age as Cassandra - well it just put me so off I just never played families again in Sims 1 and stuck to single sims or married sims that were just career oriented. It didn't matter anyway as sims did not age - and the fact a kid could never grow up - went to school 7 days a week, and really had nothing for the kids to do - it was as if there were no kids ever in my neighborhood after that. They really had no purpose in Sims 1 but create problems.
I actually just liked the Sims in Sims 1 - but actually did not love the game until Sims 2. Then I got obsessed with the game. I went from buying eps when I happened to see them in the store - to actually pre-ordering and waiting on pins and needles for every new bit of sims stuff. Instead of playing the game maybe a couple hours on Saturday evening like I did with Sims 1 - just once a week - to playing it every minute of the day and night of every day i could make a little time for it. That was the impact of the sims 2 and the perfection of it compared to Sims 1. I did end up playing the game in Sims 1 more after Superstar and Making Magic came out - but no where like I played the game night and day - once we had sims 2. It was because only in Sims 2 did the sims really become a life Simulation and i could actually compare it to real life and real people. In Sims 2 the game really was a God game.
As much as I did enjoy playing Sims 3 - there was never that immersion of play I found in Sims 2 or how close to reality Sims 2 was. Sims 3 only looked real because of how great they made the worlds the sims lived in looked - the Sims themselves were sadly severly lacking all that made the sims 2 characters feel so like real people and characters i could really associate with. Plus we went everywhere with the sims in Sims 2 - did every thing with each and everyone of the ones we played, unlike everything and place the sims went in Sims 3 was just rh's where sims just vanished. The vanishing again bringing on a disconnect. In Sims 2 We were their Gods and there was no sp doing anything to the households you weren't playing. The sims waited for the hand of God to guide them. We had a real one on one with every household we played. I know i was so close to my sims I would sometimes catch myself talking about them and stressing over them as if they were real people. Now that was a game that totally immersed the player unlike before or ever since.
I have not felt that emotional tie - sadly with the game since Sims 2 to be honest. But i can say I felt a lot closer to the game with Sims 3 than I do with 4. Sims 4 to me is like Sims 1 - there's is a disconnect between me and the game - I just want to love it like I adored Sims 2 and even like I liked Sims 3 - but just can't seem to. I do enjoy some of the game while playing - but there is no draw that makes me want to go play the game. There is no second nature drawing me to it. It makes me sad - sort of like losing a good friend.
Post edited by Writin_Reg on
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I also see the fact, that kids play different then adults. Where adults would care about toddlers and family play or even Bro playing.
Kids would most likely like the weird or funny side of the sims, laughing at the angry poop, lose interest and move on. girls would see it as virtual Barbies. dressing up and all.
I still play it as dress up barbies. I guess I'm young at heart, lol.
We all play different, I see it as a live doll house. I guess we are all young at heart.
That's very true. I think that's why a lot of adults don't understand the fun of Sims.
My problem though is (and you obviously don't share that because you like 4), that Sims 4 feels more childish to me than the predecessors. And when advertising starts to support that feeling, I get worried I guess Well, hope I'm wrong.
I hope you soon get the things you want in your game so you can start enjoying the game again.
The Sims1 is the first game in the series. Developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts, it was released for Microsoft Windows in February 2000 I guess I never grew up or I am in my second childhood because I was, well lets put it this way well over the hill when I got the first sims of the series Sims 1, My granddaughter gave it to me as a gift. I got hooked and here I am still going strong.
But then again I am playing in my second childhood and loving it. I no longer have to worry about age.
I'm just glad it hasn't come to a point yet where babies are made by the storks dropping them on the doorsteps.
Lol~ That sounds like fun. -Woohoo and in 3 days a stork brings their baby. 1 option... 2nd option is picking it from a cabbage patch which would be fun in some stories, too.
Oh no, don't give them any idea, although it might be cute, can you see it now a stork flying over the house and dropping the baby into the bassinette.
I feel like a lot of companies do that, target young kids even if it's rated M for mature. Most companies know it is parents who buy things, and some can't say no to their kids thus more profit for the company.
As far as the whole Sims 4 is childish and only for young kids that some comments have implied. That simply is not true. People of all ages, and genders play Sims 4 just like the previous versions. It's fine that some dislike Sims 4, it's a game not everyone will like, but one shouldn't start generalizations when describing who does like Sims 4 either.
A personal note I am a thirty something year old adult who does enjoy Sims 4. I have yet to completely hate any of the sim versions. Some I have liked more, but I never hated any of them.
See this is why the 'Woohoo weekend' bothered me. We all know plenty of children play this game, even though it's rated teen and I think it gives a tactless message from EA.
I started with TS1 as a young teen, I loved it. I didn't need the game to be 'dumbed down' for my age group and I appreciated it all the more because it was universal and felt adult. I don't see that universal in TS4. I see EA trying too hard to capture young teens when all the long us simmers have been introducing our younger family members to the sims for many, many years for free. So plenty of that age group have experience of the older games and know exactly what they expect from the sims.
I have no doubt it compares favourably to free play. But it feels like a very expensive mobile game without a sturdy base for five years of progress in the sims series. If it was called something else as a spin game I'm sure it would do well. But calling it the main game is a huge mistake because for many play styles it doesn't compare favourably!
I think the majority of old simmmers that played the sims as a young person was probably female. I may be wrong but I have to agree with Jarsie on this one. I am not saying that the male species doesn't like the sims it just seems to appeal more to the female player. Him being a little boy it may entertain him now for awhile but he will probably go on to other more stimulating games. I know my nephews would come out and play the sims when they were his age, but they would laugh if I asked them if they would want to play now. They have other interest and the games they play are more suited to what a male would like. I guess all women love the doll house aspect of the game. I know I do. I love my little families and decorating their homes and making up stories about them. I think that's why this game has held it's appeal for us older simmers all these years.
The game is being marketed more towards the younger crowd without question, which is unfortunate, because it is at the expense of its existing fan base. I myself start playing the Sims 15 years ago as a adult. The sims attracted several age groups. Not just kids and teens. It didn't matter if you were young or old or if you were male or female. Some of these folks had never even considered playing a video game until the Sims came along. Then came the CC creators, the people who made mods, the CAW people, the storytellers, etc. So I agree. It is equally a tool for creative expression as well as also being a game.
I think the majority of old simmmers that played the sims as a young person was probably female. I may be wrong but I have to agree with Jarsie on this one. I am not saying that the male species doesn't like the sims it just seems to appeal more to the female player. Him being a little boy it may entertain him now for awhile but he will probably go on to other more stimulating games. I know my nephews would come out and play the sims when they were his age, but they would laugh if I asked them if they would want to play now. They have other interest and the games they play are more suited to what a male would like. I guess all women love the doll house aspect of the game. I know I do. I love my little families and decorating their homes and making up stories about them. I think that's why this game has held it's appeal for us older simmers all these years.
wow, so much fail...
I have to agree with Gnarl Lees astonishment at that statement - as the Sims has always been as well received from the boys as the girls in my family. i will say their playstyles differed - but the number of females to males is not all that far apart considering we have lots more female kids in the family than males. The girls tend to talk about the game more with their friends - in fact I have heard the girls talk about their game, but rarely hear any of that from the boys unless someone else brings it up. The girls seem more attached to the game at younger ages than the boys - but then the girls seem to play less varieties of games where the boys tend to love to play everything. Like the boys in my family love all the first person shooters and the sports games like Madden and fifa - while I seldom hear any of the girls mention the sports games, a few do play the first person shooters but there is a pretty equal number of those playing mmo's and the Sims, as well as things like Mario Cart, GTA, Rock Band type games etc. It seems Sims is in that group where both male and female play them.
After all who doesn't really like seeing what life could be like under different scenario. With a sims game you can do that. It is the one game you can make yourself and make you having any kind of life you imagine. I do not see that as gender specific at all as long as Sims get out of their doll houses and have things in the game people in general can dream about. It's all about playing at life and dreaming what if... That is definitely not something that is gender specific at all.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
The average gamer is in their 30's. I read that the Sims franchise is the best selling franchise of all time. If that's true, then the demographics can't shift that much from the overall gamer population. I'd bet that the average and even median Sims player is in their 30's as well. Even if not, teenagers aren't the stupid, easily amused people EA must think they are. When I was a teen, I looked for good games with complex gameplay, like Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Starflight 2, Xcom-UFO Defense, and Civilizations II. There's a big difference between teens and someone 4-8 years in age. The games that appeal to teens are the same as the ones that appeal to adults. If I were the target demographic for Sims 4, I would be insulted beyond belief.
Now, The Sims was targeted more to adults, that can't be denied- just seeing the humor and jokes (like most cartoons, the jokes miss the young and they don't get it until they're older). Now, I'd say the market has opened up to younger kids so they're including them in their target. It's okay... wish it wasn't, wish it was still cool and whatever the hip word if for Awesome, to keep games harder. To me, each iteration has made the game easier for the player.
The Sims is still the best and hardest time manager simulation with added sandbox play.
*I didn't start playing computer games as a child- Sports was more important to me.
For me it's not about 'easy'. Because for me Sims is not just a game you play, it's more a story tool. And I do like to be challenged and I do want to have that proud feeling when my sims achieve things, but it has never been about 'keeping those need bars filled' for me. Because that has nothing to do with maturity for me.
Hi
I didn't specify hard as in keeping the needs bars full. Yet, it's not all about telling stories, either. Nor did I say that keeping the needs bar and the old game being hard as being mature, either. It was the mature humor... and so on.
I know you didn't say that and maybe you meant something else? But a lot of people do mean that when they state Sims 1 and 2 were more challenging, harder to play. And in a way that's true, because I quit playing 1 because of that Sometimes I respond, quoting because a post triggers something, a thought, without entirely adressing the person I quoted.
What did you mean by 'each iteration has made the game easier for the player'? Social behaviour maybe? Although I must say I don't find that really hard in Sims 2 as well so far. But that may be caused by the fact my sims' traits match?
There was no woohoo in Sims 1 - When I first got the game as a pre-test for Will Wright - that was the one place i recall complaining about - that the sims would get a thought bubble that actually showed a baby being carried by a stork - and then they got a phone call asking them if they were thinking of having a baby. On the telephone they were offered a chance to have a baby or adopt one. If they said to have a baby the sims would kiss - and then poof the baby and bassinette appeared in a cloud of smoke. Again a picture of a stork showed in the thought bubble. But if my sim choose to adopt a baby - even though it appeared the same way - sims did not have to kiss - and the thought bubble showed a picture of a lady in a uniform carrying the baby. it was odd though the baby always appeared in a cloud of smoke in the bassinette.
So we have actually already done storks. If you want to get technical about it.
I just know i was so put off by the baby poofing in, the phone calls - like if the baby cried at all in the 3 days he stayed a baby you got phone calls threatening the sims as being bad parents and coming to take the baby. I even said it was like Big Brother watching you and very creepy to me. Sims would lose their jobs and everything else just to take care of that baby and keep it from crying. They nearly starved to death on top of it all and could not sleep for the 3 days. In fact everything about the baby I found left a bad taste in my mouth - so when I finally got the real game I just tried the whole baby scenario once with the Goths - it was pretty much the same but the last straw was when the baby poofed into a full size child the same age as Cassandra - well it just put me so off I just never played families again in Sims 1 and stuck to single sims or married sims that were just career oriented. It didn't matter anyway as sims did not age - and the fact a kid could never grow up - went to school 7 days a week, and really had nothing for the kids to do - it was as if there were no kids ever in my neighborhood after that. They really had no purpose in Sims 1 but create problems.
I actually just liked the Sims in Sims 1 - but actually did not love the game until Sims 2. Then I got obsessed with the game. I went from buying eps when I happened to see them in the store - to actually pre-ordering and waiting on pins and needles for every new bit of sims stuff. Instead of playing the game maybe a couple hours on Saturday evening like I did with Sims 1 - just once a week - to playing it every minute of the day and night of every day i could make a little time for it. That was the impact of the sims 2 and the perfection of it compared to Sims 1. I did end up playing the game in Sims 1 more after Superstar and Making Magic came out - but no where like I played the game night and day - once we had sims 2. It was because only in Sims 2 did the sims really become a life Simulation and i could actually compare it to real life and real people. In Sims 2 the game really was a God game.
As much as I did enjoy playing Sims 3 - there was never that immersion of play I found in Sims 2 or how close to reality Sims 2 was. Sims 3 only looked real because of how great they made the worlds the sims lived in looked - the Sims themselves were sadly severly lacking all that made the sims 2 characters feel so like real people and characters i could really associate with. Plus we went everywhere with the sims in Sims 2 - did every thing with each and everyone of the ones we played, unlike everything and place the sims went in Sims 3 was just rh's where sims just vanished. The vanishing again bringing on a disconnect. In Sims 2 We were their Gods and there was no sp doing anything to the households you weren't playing. The sims waited for the hand of God to guide them. We had a real one on one with every household we played. I know i was so close to my sims I would sometimes catch myself talking about them and stressing over them as if they were real people. Now that was a game that totally immersed the player unlike before or ever since.
I have not felt that emotional tie - sadly with the game since Sims 2 to be honest. But i can say I felt a lot closer to the game with Sims 3 than I do with 4. Sims 4 to me is like Sims 1 - there's is a disconnect between me and the game - I just want to love it like I adored Sims 2 and even like I liked Sims 3 - but just can't seem to. I do enjoy some of the game while playing - but there is no draw that makes me want to go play the game. There is no second nature drawing me to it. It makes me sad - sort of like losing a good friend.
And what if I tell you it's exactly like that for me with my sims in 3 ? For me immersing means focussing on one sim (like I am in real life) and leading his or her life. And although there will always be a family around them at one point and I will guide them through life as much as the heir I'm playing, he or she is the focus. It's just a different way of playing the game and for me that's a game that's totally immersing. More than Sims 2 is so far (although I like that game more than 4, especially because I prefer the sims).
One of the things I don't like in 2 for instance, and this really breaks the immersion for me, is that when my male sim goes to work, and my female goes to the store (and I follow her obviously), and she buys clothes and then goes to another shop to buy a game and after a couple of hours she returns home, my Sims 3 mindset thinks 'hubby will be home by now'. But he isn't, because when she returns hubby just left the house to go to work and there's still a whole day ahead of her.
Vanishing brings a disconnect you say. But sims in Sims 2 vanish as well. And my female sim has to live two days now instead of one, waiting for her husband to come home, in her house.
I've said this before on these forums, but I really do worry that this game might be steered away from me just because I fall outside the 'target audience' age range. Having said that, I started playing the original Sims when I was 11... so there may be some hope!
Please, excuse my bluntness, my filter isn't as strong at the moment. I blame my late afternoon nap.
Screw the target audience. If you enjoy a game, play the darn thing and have the time of your virtual life. If I cared about targeted audience I wouldn't play half of the games I do. I mean, for crying out loud I still play Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing. I have at least two MMO characters, in various games, with the most ridiculous, immature, hilarious names I could think of.
Furthermore, I would actually read magazines targeted at females. In my teenage years, I would have actually read Seventeen magazine. Instead of rolling my eyes at the whole notion, that a piece of paper was instructing me how to act/dress/get a man and so forth. If I didn't follow that piece of paper, I was somehow less of a female than those that did.
As for The Sims, I enjoy the stupid, immature, classless humor. Because that is just the type of person I am. I can find humor is pretty much anything, and will laugh if someone belches in public. I still enjoy funny woohoo, and now the high-five that is exchanged before the deed. My sims farting after eating frank and beans makes me laugh. Heck, when I actually played The Sims 3 I would spend an entire 10 minutes, laughing hysterically at a freshly electrocuted sim. I even find enjoyment out of seeing my sims pass out due to lack of sleep.
Lastly, gaming companies always target a specific audience. Always. Some happen to be younger, or male, or female. Which leads me back to the beginning of my post.
Play whatever game you want. As long as it makes you happy that's all that matters.
Personal Note: I am 32 years young and still act like a goofball. Who refuses to let her inner child go.
Comments
Unfortunately they should have remained with the target audience they have now, they've been sticking to the Sims for at least a decaded, if not since Sims came out, and they're still here.
I agree with what @Jarsie9 said, eventually they'll end up outgrowing the game really quickly. In today's society, trends change quickly, people change their minds in the snap of a finger ...
Lol~ That sounds like fun. -Woohoo and in 3 days a stork brings their baby. 1 option... 2nd option is picking it from a cabbage patch which would be fun in some stories, too.
What if the "package" comes broken? *shivers*
lol If they do that...I'm done. I'm seriously done.
basically the problem is which sims 4 humor dont match his target audience.
you can easy see 12 years old childs playing wow, playing dragon age, playing god of war and in even more extreme cases playing gta(what i feel a little too much), 12 years old childs in overall are no more the "pure innocent" peoples which still believe in Santa Claus or Easter rabbit or faery tooth and things like that, they already aware of "real world" and life on that age, then put in game jokes targeted to even more childish childs make the game look bad.
what was considered "childresn" like at 20 or 40 or more years ago is not the same as today.
Hi
I didn't specify hard as in keeping the needs bars full. Yet, it's not all about telling stories, either. Nor did I say that keeping the needs bar and the old game being hard as being mature, either. It was the mature humor... and so on.
So we have actually already done storks. If you want to get technical about it.
I just know i was so put off by the baby poofing in, the phone calls - like if the baby cried at all in the 3 days he stayed a baby you got phone calls threatening the sims as being bad parents and coming to take the baby. I even said it was like Big Brother watching you and very creepy to me. Sims would lose their jobs and everything else just to take care of that baby and keep it from crying. They nearly starved to death on top of it all and could not sleep for the 3 days. In fact everything about the baby I found left a bad taste in my mouth - so when I finally got the real game I just tried the whole baby scenario once with the Goths - it was pretty much the same but the last straw was when the baby poofed into a full size child the same age as Cassandra - well it just put me so off I just never played families again in Sims 1 and stuck to single sims or married sims that were just career oriented. It didn't matter anyway as sims did not age - and the fact a kid could never grow up - went to school 7 days a week, and really had nothing for the kids to do - it was as if there were no kids ever in my neighborhood after that. They really had no purpose in Sims 1 but create problems.
I actually just liked the Sims in Sims 1 - but actually did not love the game until Sims 2. Then I got obsessed with the game. I went from buying eps when I happened to see them in the store - to actually pre-ordering and waiting on pins and needles for every new bit of sims stuff. Instead of playing the game maybe a couple hours on Saturday evening like I did with Sims 1 - just once a week - to playing it every minute of the day and night of every day i could make a little time for it. That was the impact of the sims 2 and the perfection of it compared to Sims 1. I did end up playing the game in Sims 1 more after Superstar and Making Magic came out - but no where like I played the game night and day - once we had sims 2. It was because only in Sims 2 did the sims really become a life Simulation and i could actually compare it to real life and real people. In Sims 2 the game really was a God game.
As much as I did enjoy playing Sims 3 - there was never that immersion of play I found in Sims 2 or how close to reality Sims 2 was. Sims 3 only looked real because of how great they made the worlds the sims lived in looked - the Sims themselves were sadly severly lacking all that made the sims 2 characters feel so like real people and characters i could really associate with. Plus we went everywhere with the sims in Sims 2 - did every thing with each and everyone of the ones we played, unlike everything and place the sims went in Sims 3 was just rh's where sims just vanished. The vanishing again bringing on a disconnect. In Sims 2 We were their Gods and there was no sp doing anything to the households you weren't playing. The sims waited for the hand of God to guide them. We had a real one on one with every household we played. I know i was so close to my sims I would sometimes catch myself talking about them and stressing over them as if they were real people. Now that was a game that totally immersed the player unlike before or ever since.
I have not felt that emotional tie - sadly with the game since Sims 2 to be honest. But i can say I felt a lot closer to the game with Sims 3 than I do with 4. Sims 4 to me is like Sims 1 - there's is a disconnect between me and the game - I just want to love it like I adored Sims 2 and even like I liked Sims 3 - but just can't seem to. I do enjoy some of the game while playing - but there is no draw that makes me want to go play the game. There is no second nature drawing me to it. It makes me sad - sort of like losing a good friend.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I hope you soon get the things you want in your game so you can start enjoying the game again.
But then again I am playing in my second childhood and loving it. I no longer have to worry about age.
Oh no, don't give them any idea, although it might be cute, can you see it now a stork flying over the house and dropping the baby into the bassinette.
As far as the whole Sims 4 is childish and only for young kids that some comments have implied. That simply is not true. People of all ages, and genders play Sims 4 just like the previous versions. It's fine that some dislike Sims 4, it's a game not everyone will like, but one shouldn't start generalizations when describing who does like Sims 4 either.
A personal note I am a thirty something year old adult who does enjoy Sims 4. I have yet to completely hate any of the sim versions. Some I have liked more, but I never hated any of them.
I started with TS1 as a young teen, I loved it. I didn't need the game to be 'dumbed down' for my age group and I appreciated it all the more because it was universal and felt adult. I don't see that universal in TS4. I see EA trying too hard to capture young teens when all the long us simmers have been introducing our younger family members to the sims for many, many years for free. So plenty of that age group have experience of the older games and know exactly what they expect from the sims.
I have no doubt it compares favourably to free play. But it feels like a very expensive mobile game without a sturdy base for five years of progress in the sims series. If it was called something else as a spin game I'm sure it would do well. But calling it the main game is a huge mistake because for many play styles it doesn't compare favourably!
https://twitter.com/sparkfairy1
wow, so much fail...
I have to agree with Gnarl Lees astonishment at that statement - as the Sims has always been as well received from the boys as the girls in my family. i will say their playstyles differed - but the number of females to males is not all that far apart considering we have lots more female kids in the family than males. The girls tend to talk about the game more with their friends - in fact I have heard the girls talk about their game, but rarely hear any of that from the boys unless someone else brings it up. The girls seem more attached to the game at younger ages than the boys - but then the girls seem to play less varieties of games where the boys tend to love to play everything. Like the boys in my family love all the first person shooters and the sports games like Madden and fifa - while I seldom hear any of the girls mention the sports games, a few do play the first person shooters but there is a pretty equal number of those playing mmo's and the Sims, as well as things like Mario Cart, GTA, Rock Band type games etc. It seems Sims is in that group where both male and female play them.
After all who doesn't really like seeing what life could be like under different scenario. With a sims game you can do that. It is the one game you can make yourself and make you having any kind of life you imagine. I do not see that as gender specific at all as long as Sims get out of their doll houses and have things in the game people in general can dream about. It's all about playing at life and dreaming what if... That is definitely not something that is gender specific at all.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
What did you mean by 'each iteration has made the game easier for the player'? Social behaviour maybe? Although I must say I don't find that really hard in Sims 2 as well so far. But that may be caused by the fact my sims' traits match?
One of the things I don't like in 2 for instance, and this really breaks the immersion for me, is that when my male sim goes to work, and my female goes to the store (and I follow her obviously), and she buys clothes and then goes to another shop to buy a game and after a couple of hours she returns home, my Sims 3 mindset thinks 'hubby will be home by now'. But he isn't, because when she returns hubby just left the house to go to work and there's still a whole day ahead of her.
Vanishing brings a disconnect you say. But sims in Sims 2 vanish as well. And my female sim has to live two days now instead of one, waiting for her husband to come home, in her house.
Screw the target audience. If you enjoy a game, play the darn thing and have the time of your virtual life. If I cared about targeted audience I wouldn't play half of the games I do. I mean, for crying out loud I still play Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing. I have at least two MMO characters, in various games, with the most ridiculous, immature, hilarious names I could think of.
Furthermore, I would actually read magazines targeted at females. In my teenage years, I would have actually read Seventeen magazine. Instead of rolling my eyes at the whole notion, that a piece of paper was instructing me how to act/dress/get a man and so forth. If I didn't follow that piece of paper, I was somehow less of a female than those that did.
As for The Sims, I enjoy the stupid, immature, classless humor. Because that is just the type of person I am. I can find humor is pretty much anything, and will laugh if someone belches in public. I still enjoy funny woohoo, and now the high-five that is exchanged before the deed. My sims farting after eating frank and beans makes me laugh. Heck, when I actually played The Sims 3 I would spend an entire 10 minutes, laughing hysterically at a freshly electrocuted sim. I even find enjoyment out of seeing my sims pass out due to lack of sleep.
Lastly, gaming companies always target a specific audience. Always. Some happen to be younger, or male, or female. Which leads me back to the beginning of my post.
Play whatever game you want. As long as it makes you happy that's all that matters.
Personal Note: I am 32 years young and still act like a goofball. Who refuses to let her inner child go.
Edit: Ah kin spelz!!