I was waiting for someone to post about this topic because I don't know how to post links so hopefully someone will link the article.
But yesterday simguruduke posted a link to an article from vice games called:20 Years of ‘The Sims’ Keeping Up With Our Bizarre Reality
And simgurugrant talks about the direction of the franchise as I understand it.
I became greatly disappointed after reading it because I see they still plan to drive this game along with the youngest people and latest trends. And as a young person myself that's just not what I want to see for this game.
I understand a company has to keep up for business purposes but there's a reason I just installed sims 3 (an old game full of old trends) and I'm having a blast with it, along side sims 4.
And I have noted MANY young people who love the older games as well. I personally think they are still headed in the wrong direction. Maybe I am wrong but I don't believe young people care about the latest trends in a video game as much as the sims company think they do.
Grant even stated that people are still angry about not having newspapers, and from my understanding they "could have" added them for freedom of choice but chose not to.
I feel like they should stop trying to be so trendy and inclusive to everybody because it's negativley affecting the gamE. Just focus on having great gameplay. It just cannot be the perfect space for everybody in the world, nor should it try to be. I absolutely hate that my sims take selfies all day, technology addict, and behave so narcissisticly in general.
This won't stop me from loving or playing the sims 4 but I just wanted to Express my disappointment. Another reason I hope this game goes on for years because I can only imagine what sims 5 would be like. 😔
Link added that was easy lol
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v74zk4/20-years-of-the-sims-keeping-up-with-our-bizarre-reality
Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!!
Comments
If no one is going to tell them to stop travelling down this path and relent, they'll keep going and before you know it, sarcasm or not, this game will be so dumbed down, so inaccurate with what life is in order for children to play it, that it intentionally gives the wrong idea of what a life simulator is.
But about your words on it i agree. Being so worried about new trends and bla bla is killing the game. It has no humour anymore, it lacks on some great lifestyles (like you said, not everyone is a tech adict and i still subscribe newspapers and paper mags). Ok im on my 40s. But my 14 yo daughter is all in for paper mags too and also even film photography. The board needs to understand that old stuff is also a trend now if not just a lifestyle choice...
I feel that the article mostly talks about how the sims changes with the times, how in the first games we had jobs like law enforcement, firefighter etc. people subscribed to newspapers and had larger blackberry phones, we didn't talk so much about representation and how to express ourselves.
In the sims4 you can do things like being a freelancer, style influencer, internet personality and you have more options in how you can choose to express yourself, we have more gender options, more culture influences etc.
I think the article is okay, however I agree that they need to focus on how to reflect this when it comes to gameplay, the internet personality career is so bad when it comes to earning money for example and I don't see the point in adding clothing from other culture if the game is just gonna randomize the outfits into a mess for all the townies anyway.
Their focus of these trends and them trying to appeal to everyone takes away from what people liked with the old games as well. We still have no burglars or firefighters for example.
It's not about forcing the changing world on us as players, it should be about options for us to play our own ways.
I too wish the set up for the game could have been a little more flexible, I was so happy that we got a feature like the off-grid. The game is still locked to a modern civilization, I miss a way to play middle-age or stranded on an island, like we could in TS3.
How the mighty have fallen.
It's sad, really. I've said before that Sims 4 is nothing but restrictions on top of limitations. And their selling line of "You Rule" and "play with Life" is false advertising because we don't rule anything in this game. We can't even rule the clothing choices we make because the game overrides them.
This game forces the social aspect of these sims which is a false dichotomy of the real world we live in as it is lived on line through the computer. People aren't actually social in the real world. And the lives they present on line on their simstagrams are mostly fake stories. I guess maybe that's why these sims seem so fake and shallow....
Incorporating all of this trendy trash is going to make this game dated af by the time it ends. Trends are fleeting and my biggest issue with it is that it's also very alienating. Just because something is trendy, doesn't mean everyone cares about or likes it. It's extremely off-putting and ironic for a team that claims to be oh so inclusive to add in so many things a large part of their community can't relate to.
I love the gender patch, myself. What I don't love is that none of it transfers over in to actual game play. Creating diverse sims who all act the same, play the same, and have nothing unique about them is the problem with Sims 4.
Then you agree with me that the issues are being conflated and that people are creating a subtext here not present in the article.
I definitely don't prefer trendiness in The Sims.
ts4 is inferior? who said that?
ts4 is inferior because of a gender patch? who said that as well?
Ts4 is based on less game play features? who said that as well?
you are making a lot of your own "conflating" points of view, if nothing else you are presuming to know for us what our points of view are? i don't need you to tell me what to think or what to believe thank you.
Do you react with disgust when seeing the MP3 player in The Sims 2? I don't. The Sims 2 is a product of its time, as all games are.
No. The article discusses how the gurus and devs want to make it about the current trends irl. How teenagers want to be "influencers" etc. It's restrictive and disallows many different play styles by catering to SM "trends".
So you believe that The Sims 4 is inferior due to this? I fully disagree with this. If you dislike The Sims 4, it is not because of the fact that newspaper circulation has declined, or that there is acknowledgement that non-white and non-straight people play video games. If I have been reading your arguments correctly, and I think I have for the past 5 years, it is because it doesn't have the gameplay elements you like. Again, I think that a subtext is being inserted here.
So why are we talking about "political correctness"? Why is it a problem that there are gender options and more dark skin tones? How is this a problem? Again, I think you're conflating it with a perceived decline of quality, which even by the standards of the anti-Sims 4 crowd is about gameplay and not the gender patch.
thats your point of view as you see it, not mine. conflated indeed.
Here's the difference. In Sims 2, it was the choice of the player as to whether to purchase that. Just like it was the choice of the player if they wanted their sims to have cell phones. You bought them at the kiosk and YOU got to decide which sims you wanted to use them.
Sure, you can opt for a sim to use sm in sims 4, but EVERY pack, and almost everything revolves around that in this iteration. You cannot escape it and play any other way. Your sim is born with a cell phone. And they auto use it for selfies, games, etc. The player is left with hitting the "cancel, cancel, cancel" action.
I'm talking about choices. We don't have that in this series. And you're inserting an argument in there that is irrelevant.
Then perhaps you would care to clarify your remarks. I look forward to reading them.
Isn't that more of a reflection of the times rather than an indictment of gameplay? The advent of the SmartPhone has fundamentally changed the way that we communicate, or even handle day-to-day life, and not just for kids. We're Vegas natives, so when we went to Philadelphia for medical treatment for my wife we were all lost and turned around. So what did I do? I pulled out my phone, went to Google and used their GPS to locate not only where I was, but what direction I was facing. Disaster averted.
I don't think that acknowledging the reality that this sort of technology has become integral to life in 2014 or 2020 is a gameplay issue. Maybe that's where we disagree. Maybe I am wrong. I always am.
Well then I guess that ends the discussion. Pity, but that's how it goes sometimes. Have a good day.
And have you twist all out of shape to suit your point of view? haven't you already been disrespectful enough.
I mean you blurt into this conversation in such a rude tone telling us what you think is our problem for us.
I'm sorry, but i'm not in any mood for any more of this, at least for now.
That's fair. I know that I can only take this community in very small doses as well. But before we mercifully part, I should reiterate that the article in question doesn't talk about anything that you're mentioning. It just doesn't. The subtext is being inserted.
Here's where we differ. Humans are quite capable of maneuvering through life without the tech of today. Back in the day, we had MAPS. And the ability to ask directions. Reliance on tech isn't necessarily a good thing. It makes people stupid and unable to problem-solve and reliant.
Perhaps the game should reflect some of the pitfalls of tech reliance that is occurring in the real world.