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A different game for a different generation?
KayeStar
Posts: 6,715 Member
In a little discussion about one of my favorite TV shows having gotten more childish over the years, someone gave me this answer.
Me: Why did the show have to become more childish (over its now 11-year run) to stay suited for its target audience?
Her: I think I remember [creator of the show] saying the first few seasons were for the first generation of fans. The more recent seasons are for the fans’ children. Today’s kids grew up very differently than we did, so the TV industry has changed, too.
Ignoring that makes me feel old now...
I started to think if that same kind of explanation would explain why Sims 4 is so different from Sims 2 and 3. I've seen a lot of people say Sims 4 is easier than the previous games, especially 2, and I personally agree. Did the game become easier because today's children grew up/are growing up differently than the past gen's the same way my favorite show grew more childish over its run?
Me: Why did the show have to become more childish (over its now 11-year run) to stay suited for its target audience?
Her: I think I remember [creator of the show] saying the first few seasons were for the first generation of fans. The more recent seasons are for the fans’ children. Today’s kids grew up very differently than we did, so the TV industry has changed, too.
Ignoring that makes me feel old now...
I started to think if that same kind of explanation would explain why Sims 4 is so different from Sims 2 and 3. I've seen a lot of people say Sims 4 is easier than the previous games, especially 2, and I personally agree. Did the game become easier because today's children grew up/are growing up differently than the past gen's the same way my favorite show grew more childish over its run?
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Are you getting paid to say this quote?? I feel like the same words end up in different threads even when they have little relevance lol! Love the persistence colton!
I think it's very possible the target audience has evolved over time. But I'm not sure what age range still purchases computer games (as opposed to instant access games on the smartphone). I do think there are more childish aspects to the game but who knows if they had been in the original sims if I would have noticed (because I was younger then).
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I think it appeals to those that maybe weren't used to having things like S2, simcity, city building games, sandbox games.. etc. It seems to be all about online social networks, meeting goals.. (boo-urns and if you know what that's from then you're awesome). However, S4 doesn't have a social network like they planned. Good and bad? I'm sure it would have rocked the social thing, but as it is... its sort of stuck pandering between two very different players. In which no one really wins.
Is it easier? I don't know... its not as... innovative. It missed the mark. Just IMO. It doesn't quite hit it for either side and it doesn't cater to inbetween groups. You can't really make this game the be all end all because its lacking too many sandbox items, and it now has no online social component. So.. I don't know where we are. Stuck in the middle I guess.
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I barely can watch it. It's so annoying and stupid, wow. Usually I love (!) all of the TS2-TS4 trailers. I watch them over and over again. But this particular one is terrible, like seriously.
But you made me curious now: What was the TV show you guys were talking about?
Yes, I knew that. Could you drop the name please, though. ^^
Aren't you about 18 years old? I remember you talking about that you recently graduated from High School. If so, you're still part of nowaydays generation of kids.
Don't mind me, I'm an old wench in her mid 20s.
Sure, you don't need a Master's Degree to play TS, but you don't need a Master's Degree to read Harry Potter either. Still, the main characters and the story become more complex and rounded with every single book of the series. There's a huge difference between the first and the eigth book regarding the story's depth. But still, normal intelligent young adults can read both of them without having to have a Master's Degree in literature.
Not needing to be graduated to understand something doesn't say anything about its possible in-depth complexity. They're two different things. If they weren't, we'll all be watching either "My Little Pony", oblivious to its simplicity, or reading good old Wittgenstein, feeling stupid while reading to the point we actually think he was the stupid one when he wrote it.
There's not just complex and simple in this world.
Tongue-in-cheek.
I do think TS4 is different from TS1 and TS2.
In the older games there was always a kind of lingering dark humour and a certain snarky undertone that just made the games a little bit more unique and quirky - we had Cake Dancers and the Tragic Clown in TS1 and Aspiration Failure and the Social Bunny in TS2, these days I doubt you could do that because everything has become so PC. Heck somebody here just the other day posted up a thread about how EA was encouraging bullying and how upset they were about it off the basis of a staged trailer that only lasted a few minutes.
I do feel the franchise has lost a lot of it's edge as it has progressed but I'm not entirely sure if it can all be put down to EA attempting to go for the mass appeal or anything along those lines. To me there are things that are simply not socially acceptable anymore - at least not in games with this rating and I do think society has changed how it views children and in all honesty it sends very mixed messages; you've got children being given about as much credit as toddlers in terms of what they can "handle" but then at the same time you've also got children being encouraged to become teenagers before their time. You mentioned TV shows; I can't imagine something like Animals of Farthing Wood being shown now because it'd be deemed too dark and depressing, but I watched the heck out of that show.
I don't think kids today are really any different than the kids of my generation (for reference I'm 27) and it most likely varies from country to country but they aren't being treated the same and they're not getting the same experiences.
That isn't to say I don't think EA haven't made decisions with the game to try to appeal to a more mass-market audience:- the games are definitely easier than they used to be and I'm hesitant to say that it's just because the AI or the technology is better. The first time I played TS1 I accidentally killed Betty Newbie because I made her change a lightbulb, now it seems you have to be really intent on killing your sims off for them to actually die.
To me though, the fact it has become easier is because it has also become more accessible over the years. There are a lot of people who play The Sims for a variety of different reasons and not all of them are people who generally play video games and I imagine people would've been put off if the game had retained it's original difficulty. It's a shame because I do miss the challenge of the game and I miss the random tragedy's that could happen even when you thought you were fully in control of everything, but I can see why it was tweaked.
Well, why would you comment at all if you don't really mean anything you say because it's simple ironic chitchat?
Sure the Master's Degree thing was totally ironic, I got that. The overall statement behind the irony did seem serious though. I was simply using your ironic metaphor to make my point clear. If there wasn't any serious content in your comment adding to the discussion anyway - well enough, I don't even have to disagree. Simple mocking usually makes itself quite disagreeable on its own.
It was a joke for goodness sake. Can I not comment unless I have something serious to say?
And since I see you edited your post to include the mocking comment I'll add that there is a difference between humor and mocking.
The problem is.. that EA made a huge mistake by focusing on younger players only.. there are several studies showing that average player in games is around 35 years old, not 15 or lower. So logical for me is to get this fact into mind and create a game which will satisfy older players too. A solution is quite easy.. they said that they wanted to add 50 expansions.. so why not to create 25 of them in party style and 25 for family players.. I think that would make more players happy and gives more profit..
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If I keep coming back to sims 4, then I really wanted sims 2 to be changed or why would I keep looking for something else.
NO I play the game I like, there have been many games that I have brought and if I do not like them or keep comparing them, then I just let go and continue playing the game I like.
Now as far as childish, this is the way I see it. When I was young, people in their 20s look old. funny thing now that I am over the hills, the people in their 20s look like kids to me. yet they are just a mature as I was in my 20s. it seems to be the same with games, or TV. I just watched a mystery in black and White, now that I am older, it seemed more funny then a mystery. but when I was young to me it was a mystery.
Sims is sims. and yes in my eyes it has changed. but my eyes are growing dim, so maybe I don't see all the faults as some do. I just know that I am having fun with them as much as I had fun with sims 1,2 and 3. I still love them even if they appear to be a little childish as some say.
The heart of the older games were the motives, so the watering down of how fast the motives would decline is where it started. And they removed a few didn't they? Like needing comfort which I think should make a return and replaced it with a happy moodlet (no longer important) and environment scores which could put Sims in a bad mood or even make them not do things in the older games.
The formula was changed for TS3 where motives were no longer what would motivate your Sim and really removed that motivation this time, and totally wiped it out in TSM by having only two motives. Hunger and Energy. That is, yes, watering down a game.
Players no longer wanted to fill motives and actually play out the simulation of having to buy groceries, cook it, and eat it. And they no longer wanted the scores on furniture where if you/Sim slept on a board you/Sim would be too tired to go to work. They wanted other animations which they could play over and over and over without the Sim (a parody of a human being) would no longer need for anything but could do whatever the player wanted all day long. That is what happened in TS3. They began to remove or omitted many simulations the players no longer wanted in the game.
Example: In the older games if your Sim fails to eat within about four hours they are dead. In TS2 this was improved or 'watered down' to a better system they would still die but if your Sim ate a better food value (such as turkey) they would stay full for hours and no longer had to worry they would die in four hours, they could probably make it for at least six to eight hours and not be as hungry and could then just eat a sandwich. Giving players more time to play out other life simulations. It was a better balance.
However, in TS3 players wanted and so did Maxis, the removal of motives (for TS3) and there was talk for a long time that Maxis was thinking about it> by Maxis, not to have any motives at all in the game. None. But then there was a huge backlash when players learned they might be just thinking about it. They said they wouldn't buy it. So, it didn't happen. But they were watered down and we got a moodlet system which very watered compared to the older games.
It's the players who want less motives and or simulation to fill those motives that have changed this game forever. Because both the later games are built for them.
You're usually pro TS4, so I didn't see any reason whatsoever to interpret it as humour. You're usually one of the first to tell everybody how great you think the game is. Which is fine with me, but that's why I thought you were being serious and the irony was simply a metaphor to convey your point of view. You're usually defending the game, so why would you suddenly be joking about its quality?
Just couldn't see the joke. But everybody can comment whatever they like. I just coudln't match humour with you and your overall pro TS4 attitude. That's why I understood it as a mocking kind of a joke. I'm sorry if I judged you wrong.
Hmm, I don't think it comes down to motives. It's a general rejection of life simulation and an increasing emphasis on the social factor in the sense of modern, social media young adult and teen socializing. Olympus would have focused on just that if it had ever been realized.