Well it's true isn't it? Think of the things that have been cut over the years. Since the game still functions it's obvious the cut things weren't *needed* to function but they were still a lot of fun.
Once upon a time you had to go the fridge and actually get a bottle for the baby. Then you had to clean up. Switch to TS3 and bottles appear out of thin air. So did you *need* to go to the fridge? Obviously not but it sure added something.
I'd rather my sim did have to go to the frig, isn't the game supposed to be a life simulation? Seems cutting out all these animations is just lazy - lazy on the developers part and lazy on the players part. Remember Sims 1 - good grief, managing your sims was a handful then but more fun too. And more sense of accomplishment when you actually achieved something!
Well it's true isn't it? Think of the things that have been cut over the years. Since the game still functions it's obvious the cut things weren't *needed* to function but they were still a lot of fun.
Once upon a time you had to go the fridge and actually get a bottle for the baby. Then you had to clean up. Switch to TS3 and bottles appear out of thin air. So did you *need* to go to the fridge? Obviously not but it sure added something.
I'd rather my sim did have to go to the frig, isn't the game supposed to be a life simulation? Seems cutting out all these animations is just lazy - lazy on the developers part and lazy on the players part. Remember Sims 1 - good grief, managing your sims was a handful then but more fun too. And more sense of accomplishment when you actually achieved something!
That's my point. People saying we don't *need* this or that but it's the small things and the animations that made this a popular game. I'm not that familiar with TS but when I think of the things in 2 that were cut from 3 and now what's been cut from 4....it's astounding.
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
Heh. What gets me is it's often the same people
Who argue that we don't need this or that who defend other options by saying it's realistic.
Truthfully, there are a lot of things we don't need, but it's those little things that can either make or break one person's experience opposed to another's. Personally, I like the little touches, as long as they add to the game and suit my play style. Whereas other choices will have the opposite affect on me. So I kind of understand both sides.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
Well it's true isn't it? Think of the things that have been cut over the years. Since the game still functions it's obvious the cut things weren't *needed* to function but they were still a lot of fun.
Once upon a time you had to go the fridge and actually get a bottle for the baby. Then you had to clean up. Switch to TS3 and bottles appear out of thin air. So did you *need* to go to the fridge? Obviously not but it sure added something.
I'd rather my sim did have to go to the frig, isn't the game supposed to be a life simulation? Seems cutting out all these animations is just lazy - lazy on the developers part and lazy on the players part. Remember Sims 1 - good grief, managing your sims was a handful then but more fun too. And more sense of accomplishment when you actually achieved something!
That's my point. People saying we don't *need* this or that but it's the small things and the animations that made this a popular game. I'm not that familiar with TS but when I think of the things in 2 that were cut from 3 and now what's been cut from 4....it's astounding.
I agree one hundred percent and I hardly played 2 I mainly did 3 and I'm sad that so many things were cut like the toddlers fighting over bottles, why cut it? Why not add more for them to do? And now Sims 4 doesn't even have them. Even dishwashers were more thought of in Sims 2 where you could open it now it just opens by itself. Sims 2 babies have legs and are bassinet free but Sims 4 babies are stick in their cribs it makes no sense I'm of the young generation and I don't want cuts. I want more, think about it a sim putting on their pants only to mess up and fall over, or tear a hole right through by mistake. Everyday life doesn't have to be boring if there was more thought/imagination put through it. This little detail of my Sims 2 cat jumping into the car with me was so cute I loved it, not to mention destroying my sofa in five swipes I was so shocked but it was so fun. Details matter and make for fun gameplay.
---I gotta say...I just spent like 8 hours straight playing TS2. Didn't even realize that much time passed. It's totally time for dinner. LOL. Well, it has been a while since I played that game and it was a blast. I was really paying attention to all the little things. It's true, one of the greatest features of The Sims was that every single thing was animated. I mean, actually interacted with the environment. They touched objects. Now it's like there's the object, just stand in front of it and *poof*. Perhaps that's why TS4 is so lackluster. Some of us fell in love with this series because it *was* the only game that animated everything, where you could interact with almost anything in the world around you. It was amazing. All this slot popping from TS3 and TS4 gets on my nerves. At that point, why even bother?
They used to care about the game. They used to actually think about things logically. I don't know what this team is doing. Their ideas are all over the place and half-baked. Definitely not worthy of this franchise and what it could have been under different management.
This game engine is not ambitious.
It is a reworked engine from an attempt to remake The Sims Online. The Sims Olympus might as well have been called The Sims Online 2, because from the looks of it, it was going to be built upon the same framework: excessive mandatory socialization, with very little to do except go to bars and night clubs and maybe some skilling houses, where you meet with like-minded "friends" and sit around building up your skills with a group of people who are building up the same skill you are (and, of course, these skills deteriorate over time, because, after all, you don't want anyone getting an advantage over another player) One wonders how they would have handled the inevitable prostitution rings, mafia organizations, and griefers, which is what happened with the Sims Online because players got bored with the lack of diverse gameplay. For sure, it wouldn't have been anything like the offline version that most players are under the delusion that a Sims mmorpg game would be. Far from it.
So, we go to the Sims 4, which has taken Rod Humble's idea of turning the Sims 3 into just another quest based role playing game where the objective is to achieve goals and level up, hence the linear game play and the lie that "In the Sims 4, you control, you rule."
Male Bovine Excrement.
But it is this mindset that developed the Sims 4. It is this mindset that refused to take a serious look at the Sims 2's game engine with its wants/fears system, and which proudly proclaimed that "we didn't need any psychologist to tell us how to design this game; we just chose to focus on the Sims' emotions" (paraphrase). It is this rpg/quest-based/level-up mindset that nerfed the never-weary trait because "we didn't want anyone to have an advantage over anyone else." Say what? How is this attitude relevant in a single-player game? To put it bluntly, the heads of The Sims Studios really didn't bother to take a good long look at its core demographic. It simply assumed that the Sims was a dollhouse game filled with little computer people played by immature people with a juvenile mindset, completely ignoring all of the creativity that the fans demonstrated in their various forms of machinima and fan-made stories/graphic novels.
And this is why we got the game we have today. And now, the head honchos at The Sims Studios are slowly coming to the realization that they seriously underestimated the fan base. Sure, there are those who are perfectly comfortable with the quest-based, linear gameplay, who think this particular iteration is a vast improvement over the past 3 iterations. Heck, why not? it's not like this game requires any real strategy is it? Just do the goals and you've got it made in the shade. Or ignore the goals and pretend this game is open-ended and has sandbox play. So, that's what makes this game The Best Game Evah, at least to them.
As for cars....they're not going to be effective until and unless The Studio changes the loading screens to reinforce the effect that the Sim is actually traveling; just like the screens in The Sims 2 did. Otherwise, what's the point? Sure, your Sim climbs into the car, but then? Click, plumbob loading screen, Sim gets to location, climbs out of car. Not quite the same, is it?
And for toddlers....it doesn't matter how many people want them. Folks, you need to get over this mindset that EA just *has* to put the toddlers in because it will bring them in more money and because the fans want them. Because it has been shown that there are plenty of fans who have stated they don't mind that there are no toddlers in the game, and they will continue to buy expansion packs even if there aren't any toddlers. And while fans have said they're willing to pay for them, I'll wager that there are plenty who won't; who will consider such a move as a slap in the face.
Okay, so these are my opinions. Agree with them or not, as you wish. But common sense and logic have convinced me that I'm right on point, and that as long as EA can get by with putting forth minimal cost and yet getting maximum profit from the fans that will continue to buy just because it's The Sims or they have some mistaken idea that they must support the franchise and spending more money is the way to do it...EA will continue to spend as little as it can get away with while raking in the profits, and in some cases using the profits to help fund other games.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Post edited by Jarsie9 on
EA Marketing Department Motto:
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally) I Took The Pledge!
---I gotta say...I just spent like 8 hours straight playing TS2. Didn't even realize that much time passed. It's totally time for dinner. LOL. Well, it has been a while since I played that game and it was a blast. I was really paying attention to all the little things. It's true, one of the greatest features of The Sims was that every single thing was animated. I mean, actually interacted with the environment. They touched objects. Now it's like there's the object, just stand in front of it and *poof*. Perhaps that's why TS4 is so lackluster. Some of us fell in love with this series because it *was* the only game that animated everything, where you could interact with almost anything in the world around you. It was amazing. All this slot popping from TS3 and TS4 gets on my nerves. At that point, why even bother?
They used to care about the game. They used to actually think about things logically. I don't know what this team is doing. Their ideas are all over the place and half-baked. Definitely not worthy of this franchise and what it could have been under different management.
World building in TS2 right now on my other screen. When I'm not playing TS2, half the time I'm thinking about what I'm going to do the next time I play TS2. It is really--in my not so humble opinion--the best game ever made.
If they do not develop TS4 to give TS2 a run for its money, I seriously hope the devs are listening to our feedback when they start TS5. I want full animations, cars that sims take the time to get in and get out and freak out with their little ("watch out") when a car pulls up to the driveway. Babies that you can bath in the sink and cuddle and walk downstairs to hand off to the baby's grandfather who will then feed the baby with a bottle and place the baby in the living room pen while he reads by the fire and the family dog naps by his chair and while the baby's older brother, waddles over to harrass the napping dog and to ask grandpa for attention. TS2 is still in my opinion the game with the most depth in sim personalities and relationships. Don't get me wrong, I think that TS3 and TS4 (eventually) will have a lot of cool objects to interact with, e.g., popcorn poppers and ice cream makers, but for me I care most about how my sims interact with each other, and that is really where TS2 nails it.
Along with cars and toddlers, I'm looking forward to more developed family play and (since I'm enjoying it right now) editable terrains. I hope TS5 will use TS2 as the base model for game play and reference TS3 and TS4 for customability and content.
@nanashi-sims, right now, there is an indie company that is trying to make a kind of sims type game with a "god" element to it, where the player is the god.
I think if we want the kind of game you describe, that The Sim Studio is going to have to change the way it looks at this game. I still maintain that they need to get two small teams of developers; one to play the Sims 2 and one to play the Sims 3, not from a developer perspective, but from a player perspective.
They need to get out of the quest-based leveling up roleplay mindset, and focus on what elements in both games makes the Sims a god game. Because, in the long run, that *is* what this game is designed to be...what it was turned into starting with the Sims 2 and the fleshed out gameplay. Yes, we do need more fleshed out animations, beginning with being able to open the refrigerator door and taking out the baby bottle, telling our Sims to make the bed, putting the dishes in the dishwasher, etc. We also need to be able to care about our Sims, and that includes all life stages; and we need to go back to the challenge of developing strategies in order to get our Sims to meet their life's aspirations. This game needs to be more than just a never-ending grind. It needs to be fun again.
They can make it fun again if they start taking the game seriously, put back the love that was in The Sims 2, and start looking at it from a player perspective...in other words...what would *they* like to see from a god game, and I don't mean just destroying your Sims. I mean allowing people to be creative with their Sims. That's what this game needs.
EA Marketing Department Motto:
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally) I Took The Pledge!
Uhh, and they're talking about everything else? I mean, if you've noticed, they've kept silent about everything right up until they're ready to launch it. GT they did announce at that convention thing a couple of months in advance to disasterous results and even the info there really didn't hit until a couple of weeks out. That's corporate policy (shrug).
I just hope no more 'dancing' occurs during announcements. 0_o
1. The Sims 2
2. The Sims 3
3. The Sims 4 (5 years later its decent)
4. The Sims 1
---I gotta say...I just spent like 8 hours straight playing TS2. Didn't even realize that much time passed. It's totally time for dinner. LOL. Well, it has been a while since I played that game and it was a blast. I was really paying attention to all the little things. It's true, one of the greatest features of The Sims was that every single thing was animated. I mean, actually interacted with the environment. They touched objects. Now it's like there's the object, just stand in front of it and *poof*. Perhaps that's why TS4 is so lackluster. Some of us fell in love with this series because it *was* the only game that animated everything, where you could interact with almost anything in the world around you. It was amazing. All this slot popping from TS3 and TS4 gets on my nerves. At that point, why even bother?
They used to care about the game. They used to actually think about things logically. I don't know what this team is doing. Their ideas are all over the place and half-baked. Definitely not worthy of this franchise and what it could have been under different management.
World building in TS2 right now on my other screen. When I'm not playing TS2, half the time I'm thinking about what I'm going to do the next time I play TS2. It is really--in my not so humble opinion--the best game ever made.
If they do not develop TS4 to give TS2 a run for its money, I seriously hope the devs are listening to our feedback when they start TS5. I want full animations, cars that sims take the time to get in and get out and freak out with their little ("watch out") when a car pulls up to the driveway. Babies that you can bath in the sink and cuddle and walk downstairs to hand off to the baby's grandfather who will then feed the baby with a bottle and place the baby in the living room pen while he reads by the fire and the family dog naps by his chair and while the baby's older brother, waddles over to harrass the napping dog and to ask grandpa for attention. TS2 is still in my opinion the game with the most depth in sim personalities and relationships. Don't get me wrong, I think that TS3 and TS4 (eventually) will have a lot of cool objects to interact with, e.g., popcorn poppers and ice cream makers, but for me I care most about how my sims interact with each other, and that is really where TS2 nails it.
Along with cars and toddlers, I'm looking forward to more developed family play and (since I'm enjoying it right now) editable terrains. I hope TS5 will use TS2 as the base model for game play and reference TS3 and TS4 for customability and content.
Of course, as time goes by, you forget some of the details, but I was so impressed with the game again. It seems like every time I play TS2, I find something new or something I completely forgot they could do. For example, a teen was playing with the fridge, opening and closing the door and then swinging from it. When multiple cars are on the street, they will not drive through sims or other cars. They stop and wait until nothing is in their path.
And the thing is...the dev team took the time to come up with things for the world. So you didn't just start off empty with no history. Every town had a history and a story and a scenario. I have never played the premades before, but I decided to give it a try today. I started by playing Brandi Broke and it's the little things even in their story. Her husband mysteriously drowned because the pool ladder was removed. So the house has a tiny pool with no ladder. That's continuity. The Dreamers, the wife died and her grave is in the yard and she haunts the house. There are bills all over that need to be paid or the repo man will come. Plus the dad is in love with Cassandra who is in love with Don who was having affairs with everyone and depending on whose lot you enter first, you get to see different things happen. If you go to the Goth's first, there's the wedding, Don's, he's shacking up with the Calientes. If you play the Caliente's first, there's a burglar that comes at night, but if you get Dina married to Mortimer first, no burglar. It's so cohesive. It's just remarkable how much thought and effort they put into the whole world and its inhabitants. Not like TS3 where they focused on only the world and the sims were an afterthought. And definitely not like TS4 where everything's an illusion. This was the pinnacle of world design because they got everything right within their means. I'd love it if they could open it up, but honestly, I'm ok with this game just as it is. I'd like some updated graphics and that's about it.
And I totally agree...TS2 is the best game ever made.
Just thought I'd add some other noticeable qualities of TS2...
- The animations are superior! There is so much detail put into them. From sims getting into the bath, turning on the tap, getting in slowly because the water's hot. Cooking, using the counter drawers to get out utensils, opening and closing the oven to check if the food is done, ACTUALLY TOUCHING AND OPENING THE OVEN DOOR RATHER THAN IT MAGICALLY OPENING UP WITH A DISH OR TRAY ALREADY IN IT.
- Sims waving to each other as they walk by rather than looking like idiots and stopping to wave to someone who is now 20 metres down the street from them.
- Sims don't walk through each other when using the stairs at the same time, they walk on one side of the staircase.
- They are conscious of each other, if one sim is in the way then (in most cases) they will move out of the way rather than being walked through.
- Using chairs, sims grab the bottom of the chair and pull themselves in with their hands and feet rather than being magically wooshed towards the table.
- They actually touch everything they interact with rather than it magically appearing from their hands to a random spot on a surface.
Just a few things that I've noticed that make it such a beautifully crafted game.
When I play in a house from ts2, I really feel like that place is real not game stuff.
Indoor light and graphic, all together is just the best! not to mention sim's diverse animations.
I took this little video while running a retail lot yesterday. This is of sims queueing up at the register. I mean, why could they not do this in GTW? We literally have to hunt down sims who are ready to pay in TS4...and heaven forbid you built a multilevel shop like I did. It's ridiculous. Why couldn't they make a functional register. I understand wanting to appear cool and hip and apple, but we lose functionality because of it. And OMG...the business aspect of TS2 is far more superior to TS4. I thought we should be getting upgrades?
This game engine is not ambitious.
It is a reworked engine from an attempt to remake The Sims Online. The Sims Olympus might as well have been called The Sims Online 2, because from the looks of it, it was going to be built upon the same framework: excessive mandatory socialization, with very little to do except go to bars and night clubs and maybe some skilling houses, where you meet with like-minded "friends" and sit around building up your skills with a group of people who are building up the same skill you are (and, of course, these skills deteriorate over time, because, after all, you don't want anyone getting an advantage over another player) One wonders how they would have handled the inevitable prostitution rings, mafia organizations, and griefers, which is what happened with the Sims Online because players got bored with the lack of diverse gameplay. For sure, it wouldn't have been anything like the offline version that most players are under the delusion that a Sims mmorpg game would be. Far from it.
So, we go to the Sims 4, which has taken Rod Humble's idea of turning the Sims 3 into just another quest based role playing game where the objective is to achieve goals and level up, hence the linear game play and the lie that "In the Sims 4, you control, you rule."
Male Bovine Excrement.
But it is this mindset that developed the Sims 4. It is this mindset that refused to take a serious look at the Sims 2's game engine with its wants/fears system, and which proudly proclaimed that "we didn't need any psychologist to tell us how to design this game; we just chose to focus on the Sims' emotions" (paraphrase). It is this rpg/quest-based/level-up mindset that nerfed the never-weary trait because "we didn't want anyone to have an advantage over anyone else." Say what? How is this attitude relevant in a single-player game? To put it bluntly, the heads of The Sims Studios really didn't bother to take a good long look at its core demographic. It simply assumed that the Sims was a dollhouse game filled with little computer people played by immature people with a juvenile mindset, completely ignoring all of the creativity that the fans demonstrated in their various forms of machinima and fan-made stories/graphic novels.
And this is why we got the game we have today. And now, the head honchos at The Sims Studios are slowly coming to the realization that they seriously underestimated the fan base. Sure, there are those who are perfectly comfortable with the quest-based, linear gameplay, who think this particular iteration is a vast improvement over the past 3 iterations. Heck, why not? it's not like this game requires any real strategy is it? Just do the goals and you've got it made in the shade. Or ignore the goals and pretend this game is open-ended and has sandbox play. So, that's what makes this game The Best Game Evah, at least to them.
As for cars....they're not going to be effective until and unless The Studio changes the loading screens to reinforce the effect that the Sim is actually traveling; just like the screens in The Sims 2 did. Otherwise, what's the point? Sure, your Sim climbs into the car, but then? Click, plumbob loading screen, Sim gets to location, climbs out of car. Not quite the same, is it?
And for toddlers....it doesn't matter how many people want them. Folks, you need to get over this mindset that EA just *has* to put the toddlers in because it will bring them in more money and because the fans want them. Because it has been shown that there are plenty of fans who have stated they don't mind that there are no toddlers in the game, and they will continue to buy expansion packs even if there aren't any toddlers. And while fans have said they're willing to pay for them, I'll wager that there are plenty who won't; who will consider such a move as a slap in the face.
Okay, so these are my opinions. Agree with them or not, as you wish. But common sense and logic have convinced me that I'm right on point, and that as long as EA can get by with putting forth minimal cost and yet getting maximum profit from the fans that will continue to buy just because it's The Sims or they have some mistaken idea that they must support the franchise and spending more money is the way to do it...EA will continue to spend as little as it can get away with while raking in the profits, and in some cases using the profits to help fund other games.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I really don't see any basis for this Sims Online theory whatsoever. But I've already expounded on that over and over.
Good news, guys - it looks like there are already placeholders for toddlers.
I'm still under the impression that toddlers were in the development and were planned for the game, but because of time and money constrictions they couldn't add them in, and decided to leave them out for a while and not put in something half-baked. And I personally agree with the decision, I rather have no toddlers than half-baked toddlers.
Good news, guys - it looks like there are already placeholders for toddlers.
This was discovered some time ago. It also doesn't mean anything. Mod any game and you'll find all sorts of things that could have been but never were. All coders add placeholders, but they don't always use them.
The only good news is that which will come to actual fruition.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
I myself have already abandoned TS4 because of no toddlers. Everyone I know loved having toddlers and even if it's not a big deal to some, having toddlers made it life-like and I've noticed there are many players who think that as well. It IS a LIFE SIMULATION game after all. I will stick to playing TS3 or TS2.
Good news, guys - it looks like there are already placeholders for toddlers.
I'm still under the impression that toddlers were in the development and were planned for the game, but because of time and money constrictions they couldn't add them in, and decided to leave them out for a while and not put in something half-baked. And I personally agree with the decision, I rather have no toddlers than half-baked toddlers.
I agree. I think the reason that the teens are the same as adults and young adults is because adding a new type of Sim with different size dimensions is a LOT of work.
And yes, I know there are a lot of artifacts to be found in code, but this at least tells us that at some point in time there were plans to add toddlers. And considering the lengths that Maxis has gone to to try to rectify everyone's complaints, I don't see why they wouldn't implement them in the future. Everyone seems to forget that the TS2 base game also didn't include toddlers, and that the TS4 creative director was the one who oversaw the very creation of Sims toddlers and the system that TS3 went on to use. Even when something has seemed impossible,, if Sims fans want it badly enough, we usually get it. Does anyone else remember when Maxis stated that we probably wouldn't be getting rain or snow because it was too hard to implement? Well, they figured out a way.
Good news, guys - it looks like there are already placeholders for toddlers.
I'm still under the impression that toddlers were in the development and were planned for the game, but because of time and money constrictions they couldn't add them in, and decided to leave them out for a while and not put in something half-baked. And I personally agree with the decision, I rather have no toddlers than half-baked toddlers.
I agree. I think the reason that the teens are the same as adults and young adults is because adding a new type of Sim with different size dimensions is a LOT of work.
And yes, I know there are a lot of artifacts to be found in code, but this at least tells us that at some point in time there were plans to add toddlers. And considering the lengths that Maxis has gone to to try to rectify everyone's complaints, I don't see why they wouldn't implement them in the future. Everyone seems to forget that the TS2 base game also didn't include toddlers, and that the TS4 creative director was the one who oversaw the very creation of Sims toddlers and the system that TS3 went on to use. Even when something has seemed impossible,, if Sims fans want it badly enough, we usually get it. Does anyone else remember when Maxis stated that we probably wouldn't be getting rain or snow because it was too hard to implement? Well, they figured out a way.
Comments
I'd rather my sim did have to go to the frig, isn't the game supposed to be a life simulation? Seems cutting out all these animations is just lazy - lazy on the developers part and lazy on the players part. Remember Sims 1 - good grief, managing your sims was a handful then but more fun too. And more sense of accomplishment when you actually achieved something!
That's my point. People saying we don't *need* this or that but it's the small things and the animations that made this a popular game. I'm not that familiar with TS but when I think of the things in 2 that were cut from 3 and now what's been cut from 4....it's astounding.
Who argue that we don't need this or that who defend other options by saying it's realistic.
Truthfully, there are a lot of things we don't need, but it's those little things that can either make or break one person's experience opposed to another's. Personally, I like the little touches, as long as they add to the game and suit my play style. Whereas other choices will have the opposite affect on me. So I kind of understand both sides.
I agree one hundred percent and I hardly played 2 I mainly did 3 and I'm sad that so many things were cut like the toddlers fighting over bottles, why cut it? Why not add more for them to do? And now Sims 4 doesn't even have them. Even dishwashers were more thought of in Sims 2 where you could open it now it just opens by itself. Sims 2 babies have legs and are bassinet free but Sims 4 babies are stick in their cribs it makes no sense I'm of the young generation and I don't want cuts. I want more, think about it a sim putting on their pants only to mess up and fall over, or tear a hole right through by mistake. Everyday life doesn't have to be boring if there was more thought/imagination put through it. This little detail of my Sims 2 cat jumping into the car with me was so cute I loved it, not to mention destroying my sofa in five swipes I was so shocked but it was so fun. Details matter and make for fun gameplay.
---I gotta say...I just spent like 8 hours straight playing TS2. Didn't even realize that much time passed. It's totally time for dinner. LOL. Well, it has been a while since I played that game and it was a blast. I was really paying attention to all the little things. It's true, one of the greatest features of The Sims was that every single thing was animated. I mean, actually interacted with the environment. They touched objects. Now it's like there's the object, just stand in front of it and *poof*. Perhaps that's why TS4 is so lackluster. Some of us fell in love with this series because it *was* the only game that animated everything, where you could interact with almost anything in the world around you. It was amazing. All this slot popping from TS3 and TS4 gets on my nerves. At that point, why even bother?
They used to care about the game. They used to actually think about things logically. I don't know what this team is doing. Their ideas are all over the place and half-baked. Definitely not worthy of this franchise and what it could have been under different management.
It is a reworked engine from an attempt to remake The Sims Online. The Sims Olympus might as well have been called The Sims Online 2, because from the looks of it, it was going to be built upon the same framework: excessive mandatory socialization, with very little to do except go to bars and night clubs and maybe some skilling houses, where you meet with like-minded "friends" and sit around building up your skills with a group of people who are building up the same skill you are (and, of course, these skills deteriorate over time, because, after all, you don't want anyone getting an advantage over another player) One wonders how they would have handled the inevitable prostitution rings, mafia organizations, and griefers, which is what happened with the Sims Online because players got bored with the lack of diverse gameplay. For sure, it wouldn't have been anything like the offline version that most players are under the delusion that a Sims mmorpg game would be. Far from it.
So, we go to the Sims 4, which has taken Rod Humble's idea of turning the Sims 3 into just another quest based role playing game where the objective is to achieve goals and level up, hence the linear game play and the lie that "In the Sims 4, you control, you rule."
Male Bovine Excrement.
But it is this mindset that developed the Sims 4. It is this mindset that refused to take a serious look at the Sims 2's game engine with its wants/fears system, and which proudly proclaimed that "we didn't need any psychologist to tell us how to design this game; we just chose to focus on the Sims' emotions" (paraphrase). It is this rpg/quest-based/level-up mindset that nerfed the never-weary trait because "we didn't want anyone to have an advantage over anyone else." Say what? How is this attitude relevant in a single-player game? To put it bluntly, the heads of The Sims Studios really didn't bother to take a good long look at its core demographic. It simply assumed that the Sims was a dollhouse game filled with little computer people played by immature people with a juvenile mindset, completely ignoring all of the creativity that the fans demonstrated in their various forms of machinima and fan-made stories/graphic novels.
And this is why we got the game we have today. And now, the head honchos at The Sims Studios are slowly coming to the realization that they seriously underestimated the fan base. Sure, there are those who are perfectly comfortable with the quest-based, linear gameplay, who think this particular iteration is a vast improvement over the past 3 iterations. Heck, why not? it's not like this game requires any real strategy is it? Just do the goals and you've got it made in the shade. Or ignore the goals and pretend this game is open-ended and has sandbox play. So, that's what makes this game The Best Game Evah, at least to them.
As for cars....they're not going to be effective until and unless The Studio changes the loading screens to reinforce the effect that the Sim is actually traveling; just like the screens in The Sims 2 did. Otherwise, what's the point? Sure, your Sim climbs into the car, but then? Click, plumbob loading screen, Sim gets to location, climbs out of car. Not quite the same, is it?
And for toddlers....it doesn't matter how many people want them. Folks, you need to get over this mindset that EA just *has* to put the toddlers in because it will bring them in more money and because the fans want them. Because it has been shown that there are plenty of fans who have stated they don't mind that there are no toddlers in the game, and they will continue to buy expansion packs even if there aren't any toddlers. And while fans have said they're willing to pay for them, I'll wager that there are plenty who won't; who will consider such a move as a slap in the face.
Okay, so these are my opinions. Agree with them or not, as you wish. But common sense and logic have convinced me that I'm right on point, and that as long as EA can get by with putting forth minimal cost and yet getting maximum profit from the fans that will continue to buy just because it's The Sims or they have some mistaken idea that they must support the franchise and spending more money is the way to do it...EA will continue to spend as little as it can get away with while raking in the profits, and in some cases using the profits to help fund other games.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally)
I Took The Pledge!
World building in TS2 right now on my other screen.
If they do not develop TS4 to give TS2 a run for its money, I seriously hope the devs are listening to our feedback when they start TS5. I want full animations, cars that sims take the time to get in and get out and freak out with their little ("watch out") when a car pulls up to the driveway. Babies that you can bath in the sink and cuddle and walk downstairs to hand off to the baby's grandfather who will then feed the baby with a bottle and place the baby in the living room pen while he reads by the fire and the family dog naps by his chair and while the baby's older brother, waddles over to harrass the napping dog and to ask grandpa for attention. TS2 is still in my opinion the game with the most depth in sim personalities and relationships. Don't get me wrong, I think that TS3 and TS4 (eventually) will have a lot of cool objects to interact with, e.g., popcorn poppers and ice cream makers, but for me I care most about how my sims interact with each other, and that is really where TS2 nails it.
Along with cars and toddlers, I'm looking forward to more developed family play and (since I'm enjoying it right now) editable terrains. I hope TS5 will use TS2 as the base model for game play and reference TS3 and TS4 for customability and content.
I think if we want the kind of game you describe, that The Sim Studio is going to have to change the way it looks at this game. I still maintain that they need to get two small teams of developers; one to play the Sims 2 and one to play the Sims 3, not from a developer perspective, but from a player perspective.
They need to get out of the quest-based leveling up roleplay mindset, and focus on what elements in both games makes the Sims a god game. Because, in the long run, that *is* what this game is designed to be...what it was turned into starting with the Sims 2 and the fleshed out gameplay. Yes, we do need more fleshed out animations, beginning with being able to open the refrigerator door and taking out the baby bottle, telling our Sims to make the bed, putting the dishes in the dishwasher, etc. We also need to be able to care about our Sims, and that includes all life stages; and we need to go back to the challenge of developing strategies in order to get our Sims to meet their life's aspirations. This game needs to be more than just a never-ending grind. It needs to be fun again.
They can make it fun again if they start taking the game seriously, put back the love that was in The Sims 2, and start looking at it from a player perspective...in other words...what would *they* like to see from a god game, and I don't mean just destroying your Sims. I mean allowing people to be creative with their Sims. That's what this game needs.
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally)
I Took The Pledge!
I just hope no more 'dancing' occurs during announcements. 0_o
2. The Sims 3
3. The Sims 4 (5 years later its decent)
4. The Sims 1
Of course, as time goes by, you forget some of the details, but I was so impressed with the game again. It seems like every time I play TS2, I find something new or something I completely forgot they could do. For example, a teen was playing with the fridge, opening and closing the door and then swinging from it. When multiple cars are on the street, they will not drive through sims or other cars. They stop and wait until nothing is in their path.
And the thing is...the dev team took the time to come up with things for the world. So you didn't just start off empty with no history. Every town had a history and a story and a scenario. I have never played the premades before, but I decided to give it a try today. I started by playing Brandi Broke and it's the little things even in their story. Her husband mysteriously drowned because the pool ladder was removed. So the house has a tiny pool with no ladder. That's continuity. The Dreamers, the wife died and her grave is in the yard and she haunts the house. There are bills all over that need to be paid or the repo man will come. Plus the dad is in love with Cassandra who is in love with Don who was having affairs with everyone and depending on whose lot you enter first, you get to see different things happen. If you go to the Goth's first, there's the wedding, Don's, he's shacking up with the Calientes. If you play the Caliente's first, there's a burglar that comes at night, but if you get Dina married to Mortimer first, no burglar. It's so cohesive. It's just remarkable how much thought and effort they put into the whole world and its inhabitants. Not like TS3 where they focused on only the world and the sims were an afterthought. And definitely not like TS4 where everything's an illusion. This was the pinnacle of world design because they got everything right within their means. I'd love it if they could open it up, but honestly, I'm ok with this game just as it is. I'd like some updated graphics and that's about it.
And I totally agree...TS2 is the best game ever made.
I don't see how it could do anymore damage. In fact, I highly doubt they're able to top that one.
Dancing and selfies...
What more could they do?
At least they're not doing those embarrassing trends
- The animations are superior! There is so much detail put into them. From sims getting into the bath, turning on the tap, getting in slowly because the water's hot. Cooking, using the counter drawers to get out utensils, opening and closing the oven to check if the food is done, ACTUALLY TOUCHING AND OPENING THE OVEN DOOR RATHER THAN IT MAGICALLY OPENING UP WITH A DISH OR TRAY ALREADY IN IT.
- Sims waving to each other as they walk by rather than looking like idiots and stopping to wave to someone who is now 20 metres down the street from them.
- Sims don't walk through each other when using the stairs at the same time, they walk on one side of the staircase.
- They are conscious of each other, if one sim is in the way then (in most cases) they will move out of the way rather than being walked through.
- Using chairs, sims grab the bottom of the chair and pull themselves in with their hands and feet rather than being magically wooshed towards the table.
- They actually touch everything they interact with rather than it magically appearing from their hands to a random spot on a surface.
Just a few things that I've noticed that make it such a beautifully crafted game.
Indoor light and graphic, all together is just the best! not to mention sim's diverse animations.
I remember the TS2 Retail so well ! Man, why couldn't they do that for GTW ?
Because S4 is superior. We don't need those things anymore.
I really don't see any basis for this Sims Online theory whatsoever. But I've already expounded on that over and over.
<V t="sim_info">
<U n="sim_info">
<V t="specified" n="ages">
<L n="specified">
<E>TEEN</E>
<E>YOUNGADULT</E>
<E>ADULT</E>
<E>ELDER</E>
<E>CHILD</E>
<E>UNUSED_FLAG</E>
<E>BABY</E>
</V>
Good news, guys - it looks like there are already placeholders for toddlers.
I'm still under the impression that toddlers were in the development and were planned for the game, but because of time and money constrictions they couldn't add them in, and decided to leave them out for a while and not put in something half-baked. And I personally agree with the decision, I rather have no toddlers than half-baked toddlers.
This was discovered some time ago. It also doesn't mean anything. Mod any game and you'll find all sorts of things that could have been but never were. All coders add placeholders, but they don't always use them.
The only good news is that which will come to actual fruition.
I agree. I think the reason that the teens are the same as adults and young adults is because adding a new type of Sim with different size dimensions is a LOT of work.
And yes, I know there are a lot of artifacts to be found in code, but this at least tells us that at some point in time there were plans to add toddlers. And considering the lengths that Maxis has gone to to try to rectify everyone's complaints, I don't see why they wouldn't implement them in the future. Everyone seems to forget that the TS2 base game also didn't include toddlers, and that the TS4 creative director was the one who oversaw the very creation of Sims toddlers and the system that TS3 went on to use. Even when something has seemed impossible,, if Sims fans want it badly enough, we usually get it. Does anyone else remember when Maxis stated that we probably wouldn't be getting rain or snow because it was too hard to implement? Well, they figured out a way.
Um no. Toddlers were in TS2 base from day one.
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