**DISCLAIMER** Please do not take this thread as me trying to be rude to people who want a Farming pack. I'm just wondering why people find something interesting.
But seriously, what? Farming? I understand that a lot of you want new hobbies that might come with it, like sewing and nectar making. I can understand sewing- but nectar making? What's so fun about your sims jumping barefoot on grapes? And horses, I can also understand, as I can see why having more pets would be fun. Cats and Dogs is great, so I expect Horses would be too. But... I don't know how exciting sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens can be. And growing crops sounds so boring, again. Most of the aspects that people say they want in a farming pack (that I have seen), seem so ridiculously boring to me that I can't understand why on earth anyone would want it!
So please. Explain to me, why you think a Farming pack would be fun.
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Everyone has a diff playstyle. For me I find things like the City Living boring (though I like some of the CAS items and the food stalls) and the idea of a university pack boring, but a lot of people like that. And while I like the Cats & Dogs pack, the actual cats and dog pets are boring to me. I have no interest in them when I put them in my families so I usually don't lol. I prefer to fill my 8 household spots with a parent and maybe a baby or 2, three tots and a couple kids lol. So having a nice big farm for them to run around and play on would be a lot of fun
For me, the biggest draw of a farming pack would be build/buy. New roofing, barns, landscaping, wooden fences, beds with quilted covers, a well, furniture that looks handmade (and the possibility of more stuff to do on the woodworking table). I know we already have a lot of that kinda stuff and I have built what passes for a farm lot, but more is always better.
Also, my Sims are rarely straying off their lots, which makes the farm gameplay quite welcome, honestly. Having everything you need to live within one space: awesome.
If we are getting a farming pack at some point, I"d also love a farmers market where Sims can sell things they've harvested (in bundles, rather than piece by piece) or produced (dairy products, jams/preserves, nectar), maybe even crafted items from possible new hobbies like weaving or yarn-spinning or similar. There aren't all that many hobbies or skills that produce things (we have painting, woodworking, writing, instruments) to sell, so a farm pack seems like a good way to expand that.
For some people farms are a draw because it's different to what they know - if they've lived in an urban or suburban area all their lives, farms can seem fascinating. For others it's the grind of keeping everything functional and alive. For some who grew up in a rural area or farmland, it's being able to recreate their own experiences in the game.
Also, it's not something that's been done before as a standalone pack, I believe. There were some things in previous games but this would be a theme that's shiny and new, which is great.
And before anyone suggests I don't know what farming is like - my mom had horses (and a ton of debt) and my aunt lives in a town with a population half that of my graduating class. I spent many a summer just east of nowheresville in the midwest, where you can drive for miles and see nothing but alternating corn fields and dairy farms.
Why are cats and dogs (and by extension, horses, though I'd like to have them too) somehow more exciting than sheep, chicken, cows and pigs? If horses are done as they were in Sims 3 you would at least get relatively in-depth training and competitions and riding, but there's barely anything you can do with cats and dogs. With sheep, cows and chicken you could at least get produce out of them that you could (hopefully) also make further use of or process into something else.
If it's done right, it would just expand the gameplay possibilities a lot and that's what for me makes Sims such an awesome series, giving options to play in any way I want, even if those ways are radically different from each other. Currently some ways are lacking. It is also something that hasn't been done as a whole in the series before so it would be fun to see something a bit fresh.
Sewing or maybe knitting or some other craft like that would definitely be awesome though.
Really in the end it comes down to providing more things for your sims to do and more story opportunities. Some want that in a university setting, others in a country/farm setting.
I liked the addition of cats and dogs because it made my sims lives more complete to me. I'm allergic to both in RL, so I was very happy to give my simself a dog.
Second,
What's so fun about your sims sitting on a couch and watching TV? Or your sims raking leaves, or doing laundry, or staring at a computer and watching things you can't really look at? Why forgo living in a house to live in a two-bedroom apartment in a crowded city? A lot of things sims do sound boring on paper, but can be fun, immersive or charming in practice. And I'd rather have that simple charm over parties and white-collar jobs.
I always liked the quiet life of rural living, so the simple things actually appeal to me. I want cozy town festivals and a strong sense of community. The festivals in City Living were fun, but these ones would be less personal and could focus on cultivating your sims' strengths. It'd be great to have livestock competition, baking contests, crop judging, or just bonding with the community. I'm looking at the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons holidays and imaging how well they would fit in with The Sims.
Nectar-making would be a great, unique way to make a living without having a proper job. But my main interest lies in having more animals, because I'm a major animal lover and love raising them. It's a shame that for the past 20 years, The Sims has neglected animals outside of cats, dogs and rodents, with small forays into horses and dragons.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
I always liked the quiet life of rural living, so the simple things actually appeal to me. I want cozy town festivals and a strong sense of community. The festivals in City Living were fun, but these ones would be less personal and could focus on cultivating your sims' strengths. It'd be great to have livestock competition, baking contests, crop judging, or just bonding with the community. I'm looking at the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons holidays and imaging how well they would fit in with The Sims.
Nectar-making would be a great, unique way to make a living without having a proper job. But my main interest lies in having more animals, because I'm a major animal lover and love raising them. It's a shame that for the past 20 years, The Sims has neglected animals outside of cats, dogs and rodents, with small forays into horses and dragons.[/quote]
This 100%.
I also want to see the Sims represent some of the backbone of our civilization. Where do city folk think their food comes from before the shelves in the grocery store?
Personally, I want my Sims to play away from so much of the technology that we've become too dependent on. I want representation for the lifestyle that I have been exposed to growing up. We need the option to be able to get back to basics.
*Argh! Tried to shorten the quote, but screwed it up.
Lets make this a reality!
That said, I'd still appreciate a farming pack since at least it shouldn't include social media/Simstagrams, technology focused careers, fashion, influencing, and all this other modern day young adult focused stuff that we've gotten so much of recently.
Thanks for the feedback!
Anyways, on the note of this thread, thank you all for your opinions. I still find it boring, but at least I understand why others want it.
• Off-the-grid possibilities
• Some light gardening stuff for kids or toddlers. I would like children to be able to water and both of the should be able to raid the strawberry-bush.
• A world that perhaps suits historical play
• All my sims garden, they have pots in their apartments in San Myshuno. This is useful for all my sims
• I would like my sim in Sulani to be able to raise chickens and sell eggs
• Have recipes updated to use eggs and more produce. That would make gameplay more fun for me
• I love Sulani, Granite Falls, Jungle Adventure, Glimmerbrook. We might not get that kind of world but maybe.
• Maybe an outfit or two that suits my elders. They have so few options that does not have super-cleavage or bare stomach
• I love occult sims so they will invade the countryside and make it magical.
• Would be happy to see some small pack-interaction if you have pets and so forth. It makes the game feel like one unit and not separate parts
• Hmm for me farming is not tech-adverse. It would be cool to be able to have a high-tech-farm making use of machinery to make more crops. As long as I don’t have sell them one apple at the time! I can play a little sim growing crops pretty well as it is, this would just enhance it. If I could do it high-tech too it would be a very fun option.
This could be a bonus for many of the things I love in the sims. A vampire archeologist that lives in the woods but goes into the city every now and then to sing karaoke. I use most packs just in varying degrees and have most fun when I mix them.
I'm not sure that Sims 4 would include it in a farming pack, but it would be nice if they did. I also loved horses in Sims 3, so if they added horses to a farming pack it would be great (don't know if they would). Canning and preserve making would be fun for me, too. I like craft-like things in these games. Sewing would be awesome.
I want a farming pack because I think the world would be nice and more opportunities for different game play is needed, I think. I'd really just like to see what the Sims 4 developers come up with for ideas. I'm sure they'd come up with some new ideas and hopefully incorporate some older ideas that are missing right now from the game.
Edit: And I really like SilentKitty's idea about kids raiding the strawberry bush - that would be adorable! Also I liked the cows and chickens from the Sims 3 store. I know they were just objects you interacted with, but they were a bunch of fun for me.
The other parts could be integrated with other packs. In The Sims 1 our sims could stomp on grapes without a farming pack. And we already have gardening in the base game (which I love!). I would love a farmers market though, and the ability to make food items with your crop - food items that aren't available unless you have the ingredients.
I'm more interested in playing retro storylines than futuristic ones. I'm not a technophobe - I don't mind most of the techno stuff in the game, but it would be nice to have other options for Sims living in the days before cell phones and computers. And as noted by @darrenfroggy , the potential build-buy could be fantastic. Even if I don't want to do a retro storyline, I can think of a lot of things they could include in a farm pack that would round out my Sims' houses and day-to-day lives nicely.
I have experience with horse riding and farms. I guess it's just something I relate to and find to be fun. I know there are other games out there but I'd like to see this in TS4. TS3 had Appaloosa Plains and a very involved approach to riding that I enjoyed. I'd just like the resulting world and to have the new gameplay. Running a farm can be pretty complex and also relaxing.
I also think that sims need more to do including rural sims. I know there is already some makeshift hobby farming through gardening but there's a lot of gameplay that could be added with this type of pack.
I'm really interested in seeing some packs and themes that haven't been done before or that add something new.
Everybody has different tastes I guess.