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Have you stopped playing TS4, how long, and why?

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  • alanmichael1alanmichael1 Posts: 5,384 Member
    I have never stopped.
  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    edited February 2020
    6 months
    Simburian wrote: »
    I stopped actual playing for several weeks but am still building and using CAS for Sims to fill my houses. I'm filling every world with furnished houses and my Sims before playing it. The trouble is that each new pack makes me want to re-furnish again. :smile:

    Saying you are bored with it when you only have a couple of packs seems rather a silly comment to me.

    You can only speak for yourself as this is your feelings and to say that an person's boring even if they only have brought two packs shows is like my opinion is much more important than yours and it is disrepectful as well. As said the base game should have done well until more packs would expand on that base game attributes but they don't and didn't for many remember as well as myself on how it was such an drag to play. :s
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
  • cody6268cody6268 Posts: 642 Member
    a few weeks
    I got pretty bored and annoyed with the game at the start. I had bought TS3 some months before (it was back before EA started really discounting base game and packs heavily); and went back to it. I, when I started TS4, didn't even know there was an option to turn aging off. Seems with a lot of different mods, I've been able to make the game what older games were, and what I want it to be. Still though, there's a lot of things with the personalities of Sims (turn ons, turn offs, wants/fears, more traits, a memory system, likes/dislikes) that TS4 does not have, while older games all do. I thought TS4 was to be an improvement?!

    Still though, I think in terms of properly developed Sims, TS4s' got nothing on TS2.
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    edited February 2020
    Am I still playing TS4? If you count posing characters, taking screenshots, and using them for stories as playing, yeah. I'm still playing.

    However, I haven't attempted to actually play in Live mode since Seasons. I find the gameplay so same and boring, it isn't worth the frustration. Whatever EA offers is merely set dressing to me because the Sims themselves have no meaningful differences in personality. As well, romantic affection between adults is practically non-existent. Married couples still behave like hesitant teens. Sims also have no preference for friends, lovers, or rivals. Each Sim treats every other Sim identically.

    As a result of the above, when I want to play a game with Sims that are full of personality, distinct traits, and have their own wants/desires, I go back to TS3.

    TS3's gameplay isn't as deep as TS2's. Yet, with an open world and story progression, it feels more like a living, breathing game to me. Nraas mods would allow me to play many families in rotation, however, I have always preferred to concentrate on one family at a time. For me, that is where TS3 excels. In that game, my family has deep and lasting ties with their world and its other inhabitants without me having to play the other families as well. The other families develop independently alongside my main one, generation after generation. I can't express how much I love that.

    Am I interested in TS5? Less and less with each utterance from the powers that be at EA. Each time someone opens their mouth, they prove to me that they don't understand the reason why I've loved The Sims series for twenty years.

    A new base game would have to offer many things in order to pique my interest:
    • The game would need to have all life stages fully implemented and distinct at launch
    • The game would need a laundry list of diverse traits and Sims who react to stimuli according to those traits, not some universal script (at launch).
    • The game would need meaningful interactions with an array of unique animations, positive, neutral, and everywhere in between. That would also include idle animations that reflect the Sims' current state of mind. In other words, hire more animators!
    • The game would need to be truly neutral! I can't say that enough. I can't take another game based on utopian bliss in which everything is geared towards happier Sims, happier relationships, and lightning-fast progression. Positives need to be balanced by equally weighty negatives. There is no sense of accomplishment when a game has no significant failure states.
    • The game would need diverse environments, including places that depict urban squalor and rural decay. Enough with the Leave it to Beaver perfection, thank you. The game needs worlds that spark the imagination and can support any type of architecture and social class.
    • The game would need the ability for players to customize the environment, not only the current lot. It would need the ability to add lots, as needed. In addition, the game should never include custom lots that the player isn't allowed to change without mods. (Von Haunt Estate, I'm looking at you!) TS4 has these kinds of lots and all it says to me is that the developer is pushing their vision for the game onto me. If The Sims were another genre, I wouldn't care. However, TS series is supposed to be my vision, not the developers'.
    • The game would need the ability to eventually create/download additional worlds. This is key. The community's imagination is far more vast than what EA allows in a game world. TS3's player-made worlds added amazing longevity to the game. Especially when it became possible to move Sims to new worlds. I'm so tired of everyone playing the same worlds at all times, forever and ever amen. It's stifling.
    • A new game would require a robust story progression mode with a toggle to turn it off for those who prefer rotational play. If modders could accomplish that feat in TS3, I don't know why the engineers and developers at EA can't accomplish the same. It's possible, EA!
    • In order to make the worlds feel more real, the game would need to have civic buildings, services, and accompanying NPCs There should be a city hall, accessible police and fire stations, a hospital, a cemetery. The player should be able to designate any lot as such and build the buildings themselves if they like. If the player wants to demolish those lots altogether, that should be allowed, too. Because options.
    • There should also be public transportation as well as private. Not everyone wants I Dream of Genie style teleportation but it should also exist for those who do.
    [/list]
    • Above all else, the single-player experience should always come first. EA should stop trying to dropkick the game's single-player roots.


    Having said all of that, from what I can tell, EA is going in the polar opposite direction of what I'd like to see in an upcoming game. They're running away from my ideal at light speed, no less. So, no. I guess that I'm not very interested in TS5 at all -- not anymore. I didn't leave The Sims series, The Sims series is leaving me.
    I3Ml5Om.jpg
  • AHolyToiletAHolyToilet Posts: 870 Member
    edited February 2020
    a few weeks
    Cynna wrote: »
    Am I still playing TS4? If you count posing characters, taking screenshots, and using them for stories as playing, yeah. I'm still playing.

    However, I haven't attempted to actually play in Live mode since Seasons. I find the gameplay so same and boring, it isn't worth the frustration. Whatever EA offers is merely set dressing to me because the Sims themselves have no meaningful differences in personality. As well, romantic affection between adults is practically non-existent. Married couples still behave like hesitant teens. Sims also have no preference for friends, lovers, or rivals. Each Sim treats every other Sim identically.

    As a result of the above, when I want to play a game with Sims that are full of personality, distinct traits, and have their own wants/desires, I go back to TS3.

    TS3's gameplay isn't as deep as TS2's. Yet, with an open world and story progression, it feels more like a living, breathing game to me. Nraas mods would allow me to play many families in rotation, however, I have always preferred to concentrate on one family at a time. For me, that is where TS3 excels. In that game, my family has deep and lasting ties with their world and its other inhabitants without me having to play the other families as well. The other families develop independently alongside my main one, generation after generation. I can't express how much I love that.

    Am I interested in TS5? Less and less with each utterance from the powers that be at EA. Each time someone opens their mouth, they prove to me that they don't understand the reason why I've loved The Sims series for twenty years.

    A new base game would have to offer many things in order to pique my interest:
    • The game would need to have all life stages fully implemented and distinct at launch
    • The game would need a laundry list of diverse traits and Sims who react to stimuli according to those traits, not some universal script (at launch).
    • The game would need meaningful interactions with an array of unique animations, positive, neutral, and everywhere in between. That would also include idle animations that reflect the Sims' current state of mind. In other words, hire more animators!
    • The game would need to be truly neutral! I can't say that enough. I can't take another game based on utopian bliss in which everything is geared towards happier Sims, happier relationships, and lightning-fast progression. Positives need to be balanced by equally weighty negatives. There is no sense of accomplishment when a game has no significant failure states.
    • The game would need diverse environments, including places that depict urban squalor and rural decay. Enough with the Leave it to Beaver perfection, thank you. The game needs worlds that spark the imagination and can support any type of architecture and social class.
    • The game would need the ability for players to customize the environment, not only the current lot. It would need the ability to add lots, as needed. In addition, the game should never include custom lots that the player isn't allowed to change without mods. (Von Haunt Estate, I'm looking at you!) TS4 has these kinds of lots and all it says to me is that the developer is pushing their vision for the game onto me. If The Sims were another genre, I wouldn't care. However, TS series is supposed to be my vision, not the developers'.
    • The game would need the ability to eventually create/download additional worlds. This is key. The community's imagination is far more vast than what EA allows in a game world. TS3's player-made worlds added amazing longevity to the game. Especially when it became possible to move Sims to new worlds. I'm so tired of everyone playing the same worlds at all times, forever and ever amen. It's stifling.
    • A new game would require a robust story progression mode with a toggle to turn it off for those who prefer rotational play. If modders could accomplish that feat in TS3, I don't know why the engineers and developers at EA can't accomplish the same. It's possible, EA!
    • In order to make the worlds feel more real, the game would need to have civic buildings, services, and accompanying NPCs There should be a city hall, accessible police and fire stations, a hospital, a cemetery. The player should be able to designate any lot as such and build the buildings themselves if they like. If the player wants to demolish those lots altogether, that should be allowed, too. Because options.
    • There should also be public transportation as well as private. Not everyone wants I Dream of Genie style teleportation but it should also exist for those who do.
    [/list]
    • Above all else, the single-player experience should always come first. EA should stop trying to dropkick the game's single-player roots.


    Having said all of that, from what I can tell, EA is going in the polar opposite direction of what I'd like to see in an upcoming game. They're running away from my ideal at light speed, no less. So, no. I guess that I'm not very interested in TS5 at all -- not anymore. I didn't leave The Sims series, The Sims series is leaving me.

    You're my new favorite person here. I can't believe how moved I was from this.
  • BrittanyChick22BrittanyChick22 Posts: 2,130 Member
    2 years or longer
    -Played it, didnt like the limitations or loading screens so stopped.
    -only the base game
    -sims 3 for the most part
    - no, I dont have much hope in the next game
    giphy.gif


  • akuheikomatsuakuheikomatsu Posts: 79 Member
    edited February 2020
    2 years or longer
    Why have you stopped?
    Never played regularly in the first place. When the game first came out, I requested a refund in under 24 hours and went back to playing TS3. I had never refunded a game before. TS4 has failed to capture my attention the way TS2 and TS3 did.
    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?
    All of them, actually. Because I foolishly keep hoping that one of these days, the game will be fun. I end up playing when a new pack comes out only to put it down again within 24-48 hours.
    Do you play any other iterations regularly?
    Not currently but have been thinking of picking up TS2 again.
    Are you interested in a TS5
    Honestly, no.
  • SimsLovinLycanSimsLovinLycan Posts: 1,910 Member
    edited February 2020
    a few weeks
    Why have you stopped? I got bored and started playing Stardew Valley instead.

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs? All GP's except "Dine Out," all EP's except "Island Living," "Discover University" (forgot that one even existed when I learned you can't make the robots full-on, nearly-human androids, really...), and "Get Famous," and only one SP--"Spooky Stuff."

    Do you play any other iterations regularly? Had a big binge on TS3 around Halloween, but I started getting frustrated with the crummy group system and always having to manually fix the bad werewolf default design anytime I turned a sim in-game, so I had to step back and heal from the nerd rage...

    Are you interested in a TS5? No. I want them to finally get werewolves in TS4, and finally do them PROPERLY this time. Then, and only then, can I even half-care about TS5.
    Post edited by SimsLovinLycan on
    There is a song I hear, a melody from the past...
    5MNZlGQ.gif
    When I woke for the first time, when I slept for the last.
  • MsKatieRoseMsKatieRose Posts: 672 Member
    edited February 2020
    a few months
    error.


    Post edited by MsKatieRose on
    Always be your unapologetically and authentic self
  • LukeLuke Posts: 642 Member
    6 months
    Why have you stopped?
    Don't feel like the game is worth it at this point.

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?
    Everything except for University.

    Do you play any other iterations regularly?
    I used to play TS2 a lot, not really anymore.

    Are you interested in a TS5?
    Yes. I'm hoping and praying that they can do TS5 a solid and make a great game. Also very interested to see how Paralives turns out. It looks like there's a lot of substance there.
    Origin ID: Derpiez
  • x4m1r4x4m1r4 Posts: 3,901 Member
    I play the game for almost every day. Yesterday is the shortest time that I play with the game, just because I'm disappointed with their 20th anniversary plan. :p However, I must admit that, most of the time, I play TS4 while watching Youtube (and other games - I don't really watch TS LP (because most of the time, too many CC/Mods) but more towards building. For me, watching other games besides TS4 is more interesting, fun, & sometimes, relaxing.)

    I have all the GP, almost all the EP (except IL) and few SP. If you can, I would suggest that you could get more packs to add new gameplay to your game.

    So far, TS4 is the only TS series that I'm playing. I need to balance my RL too. :D

    TBH, as of now, I'm not interested with TS5 yet. I won't commit to something that would probably share the same fate. They need to lobby it harder for us to move on (IF only TS5 is going to be a thing).
    OID:- x4m1r4
  • Evil_OneEvil_One Posts: 4,423 Member
    2 years or longer
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WglifOsZgEQ

    The Problem with TS4 in one short vid.
    raw
  • comicsforlifecomicsforlife Posts: 9,585 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    I have health problems so when I can play a game like this franchise TS4 isn't worth my time and trouble.
    It has out lived itself. These Sims are shallow, no depth, all the same, just a different hair, body type,etc.
    Yes, I have some GPs and EPs. GTW,GT, OR, DO, Vampires, SpaDay, KidsStuff,MovieStuff,PH.

    I stated at the time when they got around to toddlers I would support the game out of some sense of misplaced loyalty, so I bought a few packs more. Many family players said that. After toddlers, the last pack I purchased was Parenthood. I uninstalled TS4 in 2017 almost three years ago. TS4's shallow, lackluster gameplay, direction, attitiude of company, attitude of some players to those who aren't happy, problems with Origin, slap happy programming in EPs and GPs or even stuff packs, the reoccurring bugs, the changes they continue to make with each patch that take away a feature, and the general attitude we all have to be wrong because TS4 is the best....pile all that on with my health problems and TS4 isn't worth it.

    With my health problems it is not worth the trouble to even load it when there are two other games that did everything better in so many more deeper ways.

    Yes I still have 2 and 3 installed and will never uninstall them. Yes, I'm interested in TS5, it's why I stay engaged here, because we can sort of get an idea of what they might do by what they do in TS4 for better or worse.

    No, I do not play regularly but if I load a game to play, it would be the TS2 but that may be several weeks or months apart now. It would still be TS2 once you look around at everything in TS4 by reading posts, pack info, mistakes, excuses, direction of game etc. I did my little part, I helped get it off the ground by supporting it, but I'm sure they don't expect die hard fans of TS2 to keep it going five more years, as we can see our ideas are never implemented and instagram popularity ideas are. We know we aren't who they want to play these games anymore. We are too much of sticklers for detail.

    I saw a rumor that sims 5 will come out 2021 @cinbar
    more for sim kids and more drama please
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    edited February 2020

    You're my new favorite person here. I can't believe how moved I was from this.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to read all of that. That was high praise and it means a lot. <3

    I know that there are a lot of people like us, people who don't recognize The Sims series anymore and who feel that our years of loyalty have been taken for granted.

    Those of us who have been here from the beginning are growing older and it's clear that we hold less significance. The focus now is to grow the fan base, which is fine. However, I never expected for the fans who made the game a success in the first place to be displaced and snubbed at every turn. The 20th Anniversary 'celebration' told me exactly what EA thinks of their bread and butter supporters.

    It is what it is, I guess. The way that I see it, EA is intentionally stepping down and putting the crown that Maxis forged up for grabs. All I can hope is that someone, anyone, will pick that crown up, dust it off, and make it shine again. The field is wide open.
    I3Ml5Om.jpg
  • BusufuBusufu Posts: 1,965 Member
    edited February 2020
    6 months
    Why have you stopped?

    At the very beginning when TS4 came out, I took a 6 month break already after a few days playing, because I was just too bored with it and I couldn't get warm with the game.

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?

    I own every pack except my first pet accessoires or whatever it's called.

    Do you play any other iterations regularly?

    No.

    Are you interested in a TS5?

    Not really. But still curious.
    Sul Sul!
    On my blog (German) you'll find two completed vampire stories 🦇 and an ongoing ghost story 👻.
    I'm also posting about my I'm surrounded by idi🤪ts! - challenge, in which I've now reached gen 9.
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  • Renato10Renato10 Posts: 472 Member
    2 years or longer
    @Renato10 how are you getting TS1 to work? Im afraid of buying it and it not playing. I have windows 10

    My new pc and laptop are updated but I still have an old desktop with Windows XP where I play some old games.
  • FinvolaFinvola Posts: 1,041 Member
    1 year
    At least a year or more. I go through phases where I get burned out and play something else for a while, then I'll play something else for a while and eventually make my way back to feeling like playing Sims again. Sometimes it's been a long period of time, other breaks have been between 6months-1 year.
  • AngeliqueAdelaideAngeliqueAdelaide Posts: 1,026 Member
    edited February 2020
    a few weeks
    Was playing Sims Medieval instead.
    Playing Sims 4 can be a bit of a struggle, because you need several mods to make it interesting, otherwise all sims end up being the same and doing the same. It feels like more effort was put into scenery than gameplay.
    I have most packs, except for those I have zero interest in, like laundry, bowling and now tiny living.
    I want to play Sims 3, but the large open world would kill my old computer. It still runs Medieval and Sims 4, so I am sticking to those for now, until i am able to buy a better one.
    Sims 5 would have to be really awesome to interest me, right now I have very little hope that it is going to be any better than 2 or 3 or even 4. I hate multiplayer, so that would be a big no.
    Post edited by AngeliqueAdelaide on
  • LeGardePourpreLeGardePourpre Posts: 15,175 Member
    edited February 2020
    6 months
    Why have you stopped?

    My imagination was temporarily gone (Blank Page syndrom)

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?

    Everything except SP14 My First Pet Stuff

    Do you play any other iterations regularly?

    Not really, sometimes I play to TS2 when I need to remember a story and bring some houses and characters to TS4

    Are you interested in a TS5?

    I only care about the present, let's talk about it when this game will be released.
  • DaepheneDaephene Posts: 1,760 Member
    6 months
    In the past, I used to play for a few months, then do other things for several months, then come back for a few months, etc. Last year about this time I started my first rotational save in Sims4, which was the way I always played back in Sims2, and that time I stuck with it for pretty much the full year. I've realized that always playing the same household gets old much faster than switching it up. I also started this rotation with the goal of trying out as many game features as possible, while my old households used to get in a rut, so that's kept things more interesting.

    Right now I'm down to playing once or twice a week, more due to what's going on in real life than to the game. It might turn into a real break if I get engrossed in something else. We'll see.
  • EricasFreePlayEricasFreePlay Posts: 849 Member
    2 years or longer
    I stopped playing because I got bored with missing features from previous games.

    I have everything except a few packs (Seasons, MFPS, Jungle Adventures, Island Living, etc).

    I play Sims 2 almost daily. I have played it regularly since it came out in 2004.

    I hope Sims 5 will draw me back to the series like Sims 2 did.
  • GabbyGirlJGabbyGirlJ Posts: 6,858 Member
    edited February 2020
    2 years or longer
    Why have you stopped?
    I just couldn't get into it. I thought the gameplay was one-dimensional and lacking in deeper systems and details. I felt there was a flatness to the sims' personalities compared to previous Sims games and that bothered me. I was put off by the lack of features and in short I felt as though there wasn't much on offer for a player like me. I realized I was trying very hard to like it and that if I had to try that hard, it just wasn't for me.

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?
    No. I was tempted by Pets but after I saw gameplay I lost interest. I was also a little tempted by Seasons, but when it came out I realized that it didn't make sense to spend any money on it when I probably wouldn't play it much. Basically, I know that at its core it doesn't offer the simming experience that I want, so I can't see buying additional content for it.

    If a game has additional content I have to enjoy it enough to want to buy the DLC to further enrich my experience. If it ever gets to the point where I feel like I need DLC to have a good experience in the first place, I’m out.

    Do you play any other iterations regularly?
    I still play Sims 3 on a pretty regular basis and Sims Medieval occasionally. But these days other games take most of my time and money.

    Are you interested in a TS5?
    Eh, not really. I'm a little curious to see what TS5 will look like, but I'm sort of turned off of the idea of future iterations in general. Unless TS5 is something really special I doubt I'll go for it.
    Post edited by GabbyGirlJ on
    IHJCfa6.jpg
  • thesimmer14thesimmer14 Posts: 393 Member
    edited February 2020
    2 years or longer
    I inverse stopped. :p

    I bought it in December of 2015, but couldn't find the hook to invest myself in it. That was the time I bought TS3, too, and played that iteration religiously until November of 2018, around when Get Famous was released. Then, all of 2019, I played pretty regularly. I think it needed time to flesh. I guess it speaks for the lack of base game content. :/

    edit: Ooh, questions!

    Have you purchased any expansion, GP or stuffed packs?

    I own all of those which interest me.

    Do you play any other iterations regularly?

    I rotate between TS2, TS3 and TS4.

    Are you interested in a TS5?

    Absolutely, even if it's partially online. Someone released a mod that unlocks TS4's latent multiplayer potential. It seems like a fun idea. [I would still need an offline portion, though.]
  • damageincracingdamageincracing Posts: 275 Member
    2 years or longer
    If it wasn't for all the mods I've found to make the game fun, I would have stopped playing completely about 2 months after the joke- I mean game- came out. There is literally NOTHING to do in the game that makes it remotely entertaining unless you have mods. Mods to fix the bugs EA won't fix, mods to change traits and skills to something not generic, third party custom content since EA took away our ability to customize their content. In all actuality, I didn't start playing again until a couple months ago- I spent most of my time playing Sims3, just for the abundance of things to actually DO in the game. Until then, it was just update to see what they fixed and what they screwed up worse...
  • Evil_OneEvil_One Posts: 4,423 Member
    2 years or longer
    If it wasn't for all the mods I've found to make the game fun, I would have stopped playing completely about 2 months after the joke- I mean game- came out. There is literally NOTHING to do in the game that makes it remotely entertaining unless you have mods. Mods to fix the bugs EA won't fix, mods to change traits and skills to something not generic, third party custom content since EA took away our ability to customize their content. In all actuality, I didn't start playing again until a couple months ago- I spent most of my time playing Sims3, just for the abundance of things to actually DO in the game. Until then, it was just update to see what they fixed and what they screwed up worse...

    Trouble is, you're not actually playing the game... You're playing the mods.
    raw
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