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What online/multiplayer options would you find acceptable in a Sims game?
SimmyFroggy
Posts: 1,762 Member
The starting point for this poll is: we already have some online features in The Sims: as of now, it's only the gallery and the ability to comment on others' creations, download and favorite them, run challenges by uploading shells and letting others edit them. The core of the game is single-player and I personally don't think that part is going away anytime soon in a future installment. That said, adding more online and multiplayer features has clearly been on EA's and the devs' minds for a long time.
So I figured it would be interesting to know what level of multiplayer/online would people here be okay with.
Umbrella assumption #1:
Any online features would not be accessible to Simmers with a child account (as they are now). Only Teen+ accounts would be allowed to take advantage of them.
Umbrella assumption #2:
Any multiplayer feature is in addition to the typical single-player functionality (with the exception of option 6) and not a requirement to participate in (to make the game still fully functional for players under the specific ages excluded from online features by law).
Question: What kind of multiplayer options would you find acceptable in an upcoming Sims game?
1) Gallery only
Just the gallery sharing as it is at the moment: uploading lots, rooms, and households, favoriting and downloading other Simmers' creations.
2) Gallery + Friend sharing
Being able to share creations with friends only (as well as public sharing of lots, rooms, households for the whole community). Being able to send creations directly to someone you're friends with either on the gallery or on Origin.
3) Community neighborhood
Ability to bring your Sim to an online neighborhood accessible to other Simmers, uneditable lots/areas that maybe have a cafe where your Sim can order food and drink or item and food stalls with unique items that can't be purchased with a DLC. Areas designed for skill-building where Sims could mentor others if their skill is high enough. If your Sim is the one mentoring, they can earn Simoleons for their effort.
4) Socializing community areas
An online area that works as a giant chatroom where you can bring your Sim and talk to others directly.
5) Semi-online experience
Two sections of the game: a typical single player that's closed off to anyone else and a multiplayer open section where anyone can join in and interact with what you create. If you build in the communal area, your creation can be modified by others, items removed or added, etc. Something like, for example, certain Roblox games where you can join a server and it's open to anyone. Possibly an ability to create areas with access limited to friends only.
6) Fully online MMO
Everything is online and open to the public. You can purchase a lot and build on it, set access to public or friends only (like setting up a social media account), run a business where other Simmers can send their Sims to eat or participate in activities. Story progression created by other Simmers around the world.
7) Sims Freeplay model
Ability to visit worlds of people you've friended, special in-game currency obtainable by visiting friends' lots or neighborhoods, community challenges and events (working towards a common goal), DLC packs and currency purchasable via an in-game store (micro-transactions or direct purchases).
8) Single-player only.
No online features. Creations are only shareable by directly sending someone a file or via an exchange site.
9) Other
There are tons of other possibilities: Simmer profiles being expanded so you could share more than just lots, rooms, and households. A "dashboard" kind of feature where you could share screenshots or text posts about and from your game. A way to cooperate on a build in real-time (there is a mod for it at the moment but it's not 100% flawless since the core mechanic isn't in the game). Build challenges included directly in the game itself. Rewards for maintaining a streak in playing daily.
If you have ideas that you think would work for a Sims game that are online and/or multiplayer, sound off in the comments.
If you think anything at all multiplayer/online is a bad idea, just click option 8
So I figured it would be interesting to know what level of multiplayer/online would people here be okay with.
Umbrella assumption #1:
Any online features would not be accessible to Simmers with a child account (as they are now). Only Teen+ accounts would be allowed to take advantage of them.
Umbrella assumption #2:
Any multiplayer feature is in addition to the typical single-player functionality (with the exception of option 6) and not a requirement to participate in (to make the game still fully functional for players under the specific ages excluded from online features by law).
Question: What kind of multiplayer options would you find acceptable in an upcoming Sims game?
1) Gallery only
Just the gallery sharing as it is at the moment: uploading lots, rooms, and households, favoriting and downloading other Simmers' creations.
2) Gallery + Friend sharing
Being able to share creations with friends only (as well as public sharing of lots, rooms, households for the whole community). Being able to send creations directly to someone you're friends with either on the gallery or on Origin.
3) Community neighborhood
Ability to bring your Sim to an online neighborhood accessible to other Simmers, uneditable lots/areas that maybe have a cafe where your Sim can order food and drink or item and food stalls with unique items that can't be purchased with a DLC. Areas designed for skill-building where Sims could mentor others if their skill is high enough. If your Sim is the one mentoring, they can earn Simoleons for their effort.
4) Socializing community areas
An online area that works as a giant chatroom where you can bring your Sim and talk to others directly.
5) Semi-online experience
Two sections of the game: a typical single player that's closed off to anyone else and a multiplayer open section where anyone can join in and interact with what you create. If you build in the communal area, your creation can be modified by others, items removed or added, etc. Something like, for example, certain Roblox games where you can join a server and it's open to anyone. Possibly an ability to create areas with access limited to friends only.
6) Fully online MMO
Everything is online and open to the public. You can purchase a lot and build on it, set access to public or friends only (like setting up a social media account), run a business where other Simmers can send their Sims to eat or participate in activities. Story progression created by other Simmers around the world.
7) Sims Freeplay model
Ability to visit worlds of people you've friended, special in-game currency obtainable by visiting friends' lots or neighborhoods, community challenges and events (working towards a common goal), DLC packs and currency purchasable via an in-game store (micro-transactions or direct purchases).
8) Single-player only.
No online features. Creations are only shareable by directly sending someone a file or via an exchange site.
9) Other
There are tons of other possibilities: Simmer profiles being expanded so you could share more than just lots, rooms, and households. A "dashboard" kind of feature where you could share screenshots or text posts about and from your game. A way to cooperate on a build in real-time (there is a mod for it at the moment but it's not 100% flawless since the core mechanic isn't in the game). Build challenges included directly in the game itself. Rewards for maintaining a streak in playing daily.
If you have ideas that you think would work for a Sims game that are online and/or multiplayer, sound off in the comments.
If you think anything at all multiplayer/online is a bad idea, just click option 8
avatar art: Loves2draw1812
What online/multiplayer options would you find acceptable in a Sims game? 83 votes
Gallery only
43%
36 votes
Gallery + Friend sharing
20%
17 votes
Community neighborhood
6%
5 votes
Socializing community areas
2%
2 votes
Semi-online experience
6%
5 votes
Fully online MMO
1%
1 vote
Sims Freeplay model
1%
1 vote
Single-player only
8%
Other
10%
9 votes
0
Comments
If they want to continue with an “online multiplayer” IP, I would prefer if they continued on with the mobile road. This way, they can invest on even more resources to develop The Sims 5. A lot more focus towards the main game and give us a stable, working great product. I would rather that instead of EA envisioning a cross-platform game or releasing it on multiple platforms on day 1 as a quick cash grab.
I just hope that, even though every single one of us is a Simmer at heart, we would be a lot more observant, skeptical and passionate about the next sequel as to not simply allow EA Games to get away with a bare bones release again.
The big thing here is that Sims Studio/Maxis/whatever they are now are not involved in FP or Mobile anymore since they've both been transferred to Firemonkeys now. So the development of those has no impact on resources of the main PC/Mac/console game.
I do think they will go for cross-platform, but not mobile. Rather, as they're aiming for now, they'll try to make sure that all the current platforms will get a concurrent release. Mac and console have previously been behind and I think they'll try to avoid that with the next installment. It's still different teams working on console vs PC vs Mac though (well, the PC/Mac ones overlap) so that should not impact anything other than the release date.
If they're looking at some form of multiplayer added to the usual single-player game, I think it's a good sign that we're not going to end up with the same start as TS4 (aka a MMO converted into a SP on an impossible deadline).
But community neighbourhood seems a fun idea
I'm fine with having community challenges or events. I don't want some virtual shared world. I don't need to play someone else's game.
The few times I've watched others play on YouTube or Twitch, I end up just wanting to go and play my own game. I can appreciate that there's a different play style out there but if most of the resources go into some shared group play, I'm not going to be interested.
I understand. Regardless of whether it is developed by The Sims Studio or not, I would rather them fully focus on a PC version (Windows & Mac) with gallery sharing elements and not further than that. EA servers have not been known as the most stable during launch.
I’ve also come to notice that way back then during TS2 - TS3 era, they made console Sims in a completely different direction/concept. I found the franchise to be a lot more engaging to the community and of better quality...
In terms of cross-platform, they will be watering down a multitude of features if that is their intentions. I honestly don’t want to think on how much will be missing in base game if they did that.
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
Playing sims together sounds like it would be fun for maybe five minutes, for me. Young players might use it as a way to just hang out, so I'd keep it limited to friends only version of option 3 if I was including that, with the types of interactions that would be abused disabled in multiplayer. I would most likely never use it unless my granddaughter had it and wanted me to play with her.
There is a looot of shaky ground with something like multiplayer games, especially The Sims.
I wouldn't want to risk sending save files apart from 3rd party cloud sites to QA Gurus because of the risk of computer viruses. I mean I use discord to share a lot of my creations already.
I definitely don't want the sims freeplay/mmo type game, or any gated off 'connect to multiplayer to visit' in the single player game. If ea/maxis absolutely couldn't resist putting micro transactions/loot boxes in (I strongly disagree with the concept), I don't want to see any allusions to them in the single player version.
Visiting community lots created by others without altering each others game is as far as I want to go.
If anyone else can alter my save I am out.