"In the end, I got addicted to trying to get these packs- and it was unhealthy" - Now that is something for all of us here to think about
Now, for me, it was quite the opposite. TS4 started gaining charm in my eyes, as new packs were being released over time. However, a game that's only become playable after 3 years is still a failed game. End of story. Didn't need to wait until TS2 and TS3 were almost done to enjoy them. The first time I've ever truly enjoyed playing TS4 was when Parenthood came out. I try not to compare too much, because it's not like I wanted a re-boot of TS3 with better graphics, but to see my favorite franchise go back in time instead of taking us to the future as far as the technology of simulation is concerned kind of broke my gamer heart.
We used to think more content will improve the game, but then it was becoming more clear with each DLC that no amount of fun gameplay will fix the core issue of this iteration which is its design right at the core. You cannot turn a game that started out as something completely different into a simulation game overnight, which was what they tried to do. It'll always be painfully visible that TS4 was just not meant to be your usual sims title, a fun albeit complex game that celebrated player's imagination. I will always feel like Im playing some weird, co-op/sims hybrid. Especially looking at the map view of the towns. We are now in the year of 2018 and my sim can't drive a car. This is just sad.
It is not good to get too addicted to games when you have studying to do, not particularly unhealthy but there are other things that need doing when you are young and social interactions are really important these days. I got addicted to a particular author whilst at school and spent more time reading her books than studying. The Sims hadn't come out then.
I find that too many packs does upset my immersion in a game eventually. I loved World Adventures in Sims 3 and would have happily stayed with that expansion and probably Ambitions and Generations as well. I should have stopped there but got caught up in buying everything I could and stopped enjoying the game.
I could happily settle for Seasons as the last pack for me unless Farming comes out next. Oh dear, here we go again!
I think it's a pretty common thing for most people who put a considerably large amount of hours into a game to get bored of it, moving on to play something else or take up an entirely new hobby. Hopefully, with some time away from the Sims franchise, you'll find an interest in it again.
I agree that the game does have some core issues that result in it not withstanding the test of longevity.
The first major problem that I see with Sims 4 is its predictability. Because of the way the emotion system is programmed, most Sims end up behaving the exact same way in almost every circumstance. When emotions are made to override a Sim's traits, they take away the individuality of each Sim. This makes every scenario repetitive with every household, no matter how you create your Sims in CAS. In the past games, the Sims behavioural AI seemed more programmed to follow the choices of the player and the traits given to them, thus resulting in a variety of unpredictable actions and reactions, differing from the other Sims in the household. There also seemed to be a much more expansive variety of unique animations and quirks that came with each choice, so that we would be seeing completely different behaviors and distinct personalities.
Another major problem that I see is lack of Sim awareness or memory of their own actions and the events around them. Our Sims can get into brawls and make enemies of each other but they never seem to remember a wrong done to them. They have no acknowledgement of loss if it doesn't happen right in front of them and they often just go about their daily routines in a drab, repetitive loop, merely gravitating to the nearest object that has the strongest pull. Their whims are generic and object- or pack-based, and hardly ever circumstantial or specific to their own life events. Cheating spouses, death of siblings who live in other neighborhoods, enemies and rivals....these things barely summon any reaction beyond the usual moodlet that is exactly the same as the next Sim in a similar circumstance. It's as if there are no individual lives being lived, because all scenarios just circle back to the same autonomous behavior. No matter what happens, life continues happily on.
Which leads to my final major issue, the excessive happiness and complete absence of major "dark" emotions. It seems like, in the end, everything in the Sims 4 is designed to keep our Sims happy. Happy is the default emotional state, which is a humongous mistake to begin with. The static default emotion should have been "Fine" from the very beginning and allowed a Sim's happiness to be earned. But our Sims start off the game already "winning", which takes a huge amount of the challenge and realism away from the player and makes the game feel childish, like we're being walked through lala land on easy mode. Just decorating your Sims house throws a gazillion unwanted happy buffs that should be reserved for materialistic Sims. For crying out loud, even clean laundry causes too much happiness, and every single positive buff a Sim earns adds to the euphoria so that we constantly have worlds filled with grinning fools instead of diverse moods. On top of it all, (and this is one of the very worst oversights in my opinion), is the complete absence of fear. There is no existing fear emotion. No stress, no distress, not scared, afraid, etc.... fear is completely missing. The closest we get are a few animations when something bad is happening, like a burning house or poisonous insects attack, but the actual Sim never acknowledges their own fear. They merely get tense, and in a short while they're happy again.
This oversight, to me, has been the elephant in the room with many packs, most predominantly my favorites: Vampires, Jungle Adventures, and yes, even now with Seasons. Where is the terror of the Vampire who comes into your room at night and walks in the dark, waiting to enslave or prey on lesser beings? Where is the fear of going into the unknown jungle, fraught with dangers, deadly bugs, trapped temples and curses? Where are the phobias that should make each Sim unique, like being afraid of the lightning, or spiders, or occults, or the dark, or scary movies? Or how about the fear of failure or divorce or that your child will grow up wrong or of the Sim who picked a fight with them at the pub in Windenburg? Fear is so very important to the basics of human nature that it will always astound me that it was never included. At least the cats and dogs can experience it.
But this absence, along with the issues above, are the things that will always make the Sims 4 feel somewhat shallow and dull in long-term gameplay. For the casual gamer, these things may be less noticeable, but Simmers are rarely casual gamers. We plunge into our Sim worlds for weeks on end with stories in our heads and hours of CAS to make our Sims the way we want, and sometimes building for days to make the perfect lots. We notice when corners have been cut.
I will say that the game has most certainly improved, particularly in the last year and a half. I do think that the devs are working hard to find solutions but because of how deep these things go in the core programming, they will be very difficult to correct. I do still enjoy the game when I can accept it for what it is, but there are always going to be those times when I'm just not feeling it and choose to play something else instead. I never felt that way with Sims 2, so I really miss that feeling of loyalty out of genuine immersive contentment and I do hope that one day, the Sims 4 will be improved on and filled out enough to bring some of that back.
Essentially the AI in this is not so different from SC2013, they have no actual attachment to anything, no memory, no personality, they just flow to whatevers required and then on to whatever else, it's just to create the appearance of life, just so long as you don't look too close!
I think it's a pretty common thing for most people who put a considerably large amount of hours into a game to get bored of it, moving on to play something else or take up an entirely new hobby. Hopefully, with some time away from the Sims franchise, you'll find an interest in it again.
Ive recently taken up the ukulele as new hobby and im loving it!
I still can't get really into this game, too shallow - as so many have said. Going to TS4 after some time in TS2 is like going to '🐸🐸🐸🐸 and Jane' after reading 'Hamlet'.
> @agustd said: > "In the end, I got addicted to trying to get these packs- and it was unhealthy" - Now that is something for all of us here to think about :) > > Now, for me, it was quite the opposite. TS4 started gaining charm in my eyes, as new packs were being released over time. However, a game that's only become playable after 3 years is still a failed game. End of story. Didn't need to wait until TS2 and TS3 were almost done to enjoy them. The first time I've ever truly enjoyed playing TS4 was when Parenthood came out. I try not to compare too much, because it's not like I wanted a re-boot of TS3 with better graphics, but to see my favorite franchise go back in time instead of taking us to the future as far as the technology of simulation is concerned kind of broke my gamer heart. > > We used to think more content will improve the game, but then it was becoming more clear with each DLC that no amount of fun gameplay will fix the core issue of this iteration which is its design right at the core. You cannot turn a game that started out as something completely different into a simulation game overnight, which was what they tried to do. It'll always be painfully visible that TS4 was just not meant to be your usual sims title, a fun albeit complex game that celebrated player's imagination. I will always feel like Im playing some weird, co-op/sims hybrid. Especially looking at the map view of the towns. We are now in the year of 2018 and my sim can't drive a car. This is just sad.
Parenthood is probably the weakest EP - why…? Because a pack called 'Parenthood' should contain actual kids and it does not, 'kids' are nothing more than tiny adults. Absolutely no effort went into making them behave like children - unless you believe it's okay for toddlers to be fed a diet of crisps, cereal, PB&J sarnies, crackers, apple sauce, raspberry yoghurt and peas…? They should all be dead from malnutrition!
2. Toddlers taken out are unceremoniously dumped. The buggy in S3 was a good idea but, if a parent tried to leave somewhere without the kid, I recall there being a prompt along the lines of “<child sim> cannot be left in the park (or wherever). Call someone to come and get them” (I can’t recall the actual wording, it’s a long time since I’ve played TS3), but I do recall it did NOT force the adult sim to leave with the kid, and there was no option for you to force them to do so. TS4 takes this nonsense one stage further - you can now tell toddlers to “go home” - WTAF…?! I don’t believe anyone at Maxis has ever come into contact with anyone below the age of 18. How the feck is a 2-3-year-old meant to understand what ‘home’ is, much less where it is, and even less how to get there…?! Am I seriously the only one who thinks this ridiculous…? Finally, what do you do if you see a lost kid…? Try to locate the parent(s) I’d hope. Yet toddlers dumped in San Myshuno are simply ignored, nobody seems to care that there’s a little lost person there.
3. Toddlers have no sense of danger, and can’t walk that well and yet, in TS4, they manage to not fall into open pools, not fall down stairs, not open drawers and fatally stab themselves, wander along a busy road and not get run over…even the ‘inquisitive’ and ‘independent’ ones manage to make it through toddlerhood. I’ve never come across a toddler who climbs stairs like that, either; usually they hold onto the banister and go one step at a time, holding a parent’s hand, not crawling up, that’s too dangerous.
Comments
It is not good to get too addicted to games when you have studying to do, not particularly unhealthy but there are other things that need doing when you are young and social interactions are really important these days. I got addicted to a particular author whilst at school and spent more time reading her books than studying. The Sims hadn't come out then.
I find that too many packs does upset my immersion in a game eventually. I loved World Adventures in Sims 3 and would have happily stayed with that expansion and probably Ambitions and Generations as well. I should have stopped there but got caught up in buying everything I could and stopped enjoying the game.
I could happily settle for Seasons as the last pack for me unless Farming comes out next. Oh dear, here we go again!
Essentially the AI in this is not so different from SC2013, they have no actual attachment to anything, no memory, no personality, they just flow to whatevers required and then on to whatever else, it's just to create the appearance of life, just so long as you don't look too close!
Ive recently taken up the ukulele as new hobby and im loving it!
> "In the end, I got addicted to trying to get these packs- and it was unhealthy" - Now that is something for all of us here to think about :)
>
> Now, for me, it was quite the opposite. TS4 started gaining charm in my eyes, as new packs were being released over time. However, a game that's only become playable after 3 years is still a failed game. End of story. Didn't need to wait until TS2 and TS3 were almost done to enjoy them. The first time I've ever truly enjoyed playing TS4 was when Parenthood came out. I try not to compare too much, because it's not like I wanted a re-boot of TS3 with better graphics, but to see my favorite franchise go back in time instead of taking us to the future as far as the technology of simulation is concerned kind of broke my gamer heart.
>
> We used to think more content will improve the game, but then it was becoming more clear with each DLC that no amount of fun gameplay will fix the core issue of this iteration which is its design right at the core. You cannot turn a game that started out as something completely different into a simulation game overnight, which was what they tried to do. It'll always be painfully visible that TS4 was just not meant to be your usual sims title, a fun albeit complex game that celebrated player's imagination. I will always feel like Im playing some weird, co-op/sims hybrid. Especially looking at the map view of the towns. We are now in the year of 2018 and my sim can't drive a car. This is just sad.
Parenthood is probably the weakest EP - why…? Because a pack called 'Parenthood' should contain actual kids and it does not, 'kids' are nothing more than tiny adults. Absolutely no effort went into making them behave like children - unless you believe it's okay for toddlers to be fed a diet of crisps, cereal, PB&J sarnies, crackers, apple sauce, raspberry yoghurt and peas…? They should all be dead from malnutrition!
2. Toddlers taken out are unceremoniously dumped. The buggy in S3 was a good idea but, if a parent tried to leave somewhere without the kid, I recall there being a prompt along the lines of “<child sim> cannot be left in the park (or wherever). Call someone to come and get them” (I can’t recall the actual wording, it’s a long time since I’ve played TS3), but I do recall it did NOT force the adult sim to leave with the kid, and there was no option for you to force them to do so. TS4 takes this nonsense one stage further - you can now tell toddlers to “go home” - WTAF…?! I don’t believe anyone at Maxis has ever come into contact with anyone below the age of 18. How the feck is a 2-3-year-old meant to understand what ‘home’ is, much less where it is, and even less how to get there…?! Am I seriously the only one who thinks this ridiculous…? Finally, what do you do if you see a lost kid…? Try to locate the parent(s) I’d hope. Yet toddlers dumped in San Myshuno are simply ignored, nobody seems to care that there’s a little lost person there.
3. Toddlers have no sense of danger, and can’t walk that well and yet, in TS4, they manage to not fall into open pools, not fall down stairs, not open drawers and fatally stab themselves, wander along a busy road and not get run over…even the ‘inquisitive’ and ‘independent’ ones manage to make it through toddlerhood. I’ve never come across a toddler who climbs stairs like that, either; usually they hold onto the banister and go one step at a time, holding a parent’s hand, not crawling up, that’s too dangerous.