But I would be OK with if there was an online city where we could send our sims to meet others, if it was totally optional and didn't affect the normal single-player game. That could be fun to do for a change. But I would still play my game alone 99.9% of the time.
No. It would make me uncomfortable. Then you lose control over what you want your own game to be.
Also I think offline multi-player with your family or friends could be fine, but online multi player could be dangerous and potentially open the door to creeps, bullying, crooks, harassment...
In all my years of playing MMOs (I started with SWG), I have never had someone that bullied me or harass me as such. Maybe because I just walk off or ignore those types of people and regardless of everyone thinking there are more of those types of people, I have found the opposite to be true. Most people are friendly and polite and helpful.
A life simulation MMO is enough to attract those kinds of people. There are several of these games already in existence and making The Sims online isn’t the essence of the product.
I’m an MMO veteran myself and have spanned across many in my life. The Sims is definitely not the place for it.
Really? come on, people don't need a life simulation to come up with ways to make it more "real". I played SWG, Wow and now playing SWTOR and people can ERP with others but they keep it to themselves. No one is forced to play that way and they take it to private chats. It is easy to tell someone no and they just move along. They don't force you to play their way.
Hate to break it to you, but SWG, SWTOR, and World of Warcraft aren’t life simulator MMOs.
Which was my point. A game doesn't have to be a life simulator to have that type of "real" to the game. People can do it without it being a life simulator, especially roleplayers. Roleplayers are good at adding something interesting to a game.
It's easy to see we are not going to do anything but argue back and forth and I have better things to do than argue, so I am going to agree to disagree. Good luck.
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous. A girl should also always be a lady even when arguing
When are you guys going to let players join each others game? Like play with other players?...... I think that would be awesome!
That is an online game, which has already been shown to be unworkable in Sims format. Sims is for us to make and play our own households as we wish. The very idea that some unknown personage from no telling where with quite possibly malevolent intent could bust into my game and wreck havoc (not to mention introduce viruses and such) is utterly repugnant. There are at least 2 Sims-like games out there already, so try those if you like dangerous gaming.
I would welcome any of you into my game. However. I wouldn't want to inflict any of my personal whims, scenarios and gameplay on any of your sims. I think there is a mod for multiplayer if you don't mind mods. This isn't Rockstar making another GTA this is EA making the SIms.
Playtesting - not just tabletop games and card games any more. Really that should have been playtested in Beta and not [img]just with accounting and marketing but actual players. https://i.imgur.com/t48COW6.jpg[/img]
This thread is tame compared to some of the other ones that I've read and even commented in. I remember someone had created a thread that was a petition to get signatures from players who wanted the game to be an on-line game and that thread had turned ugly to the point that the community managers had to remove several of the posts where people had ended up calling nasty names to the players who was against on-line game play for the Sims.
But as for as the subject goes, no I don't want this in the main series of the game. I wouldn't want other players running amok in my game making it very unpleasant for me to play in. I wouldn't want other players to hit on my Simself and trying to start a family with my sim if EA was to ever make that possible which I doubt very much. And if EA was to do something like this, then more then likely they would change the rating from T for teen to M for Mature knowing that they wouldn't want to expose younger players to older players that might and would try to take advantage of the younger players by pretending to be their age. And I know that if I had kids of my own that I wouldn't want them to play such a game until they become young adults (+18 or older) as they would be at the age to know better than to engage in something that they really shouldn't be taken part in.
I have never played on console where it's allowed to have another player in the game, so I don't know what really happens between 2 Sims that want to have a relationship of some kind and to get married and have kids. But I would think that would be impossible in my opinion due to the fact that if the other player stops playing the game and the other player wants to be in another relationship with another players' sim but can't because they first need to break up or get a divorce from the sim before moving forward. And if players could have such relationships with each other, then it's not my cup of tea as I like playing by myself. If I want other players Sims in my game, then I would go to the Sims 3 exchange or to the Sims 4 Gallery and download other players Sims into my game and then take pictures of my game play so that I can share them to this site so that those players that I have their Sims in my game can see what their Sims have been up to.
I also remember that when TS4 was first announced back in the beginning of 2013, that SimGuruHydra had did a Q&A thread over on the old The Sims 3 site where she had posted the most asked questions about the game.
Well one of the questions was:
"Q: Will there be an online component for The Sims 4?
"A: There will be additional fun and social gameplay elements for players who choose to go online (more to come on that later on) but the core game is designed to be played offline. It't up to the player to choose how they want to play."
https://simsvip.com/2013/05/06/the-sims-4-official-qa-by-simguruhydra/
Well after this was posted, people started bashing the idea of having an online social element claiming that they wouldn't be buying the game if EA allows other players into their game as they wanted to be able to play alone. So after awhile, they changed their minds about adding the online social element to having the gallery added instead for others to download other players Sims into their game. So SimGuruHydra had went and updated her original post on the old site to add info about the gallery for the game. https://simsvip.com/2013/05/06/the-sims-4-official-qa-by-simguruhydra/
The Sims 3 had introduced Simporting to their game when they added the Showtime EP that allowed you to host a sim from another players game but it was only for their performance and that was it. But the thing was that in order to unlock the extra outfits that was in the game, you have to earn certain achievements in the game by hosting Sims players. But luckily enough for the players that wasn't interested in using simport, we can download a mod from MTS that unlocks all of the extra outfits so that our Sims can use them as well. Then if you want to host another Sim in your game, your Sim has to be a level 2 performer for the other sim to come over into your game to perform which doesn't always work. I've tried hosting a sim once and I never got to see them once I had accepted their offer, so I don't even use it anymore. And then once you accept that players' sim into your game, then the other player can't close out their game while their sim is over in your game as they have to wait 12 hours. Plus when it was first introduced, players were ending up with custom content that they didn't have in their game in the first place which was another downside of simporting.
I play World of Warcraft almost everyday and so I see people in chat being rude and crude to other players when they ask for help or any type of advice from other players. I have also seen a lot of cussing going on, and yes I can check the foul language filter to "On" to keep out such smut from the game. Or I could just report the player for using foul language so that their conversation disappears from my chat and to let the GM's deal with the player by giving them a warning and/or temporary ban for a day or 2. I have also had players whispering me to have an adult chat with me. And I don't mean a nice chat between 2 players such as "So how are you today?", "What's the weather like where you live?" kind of stuff but more on the adult adult side of things. And yes, you can block such players like that from bothering you but that player could still go and create another character and seek you out to have that "Friendly" chat that they were trying to have earlier on their other player.
Then you have issues with weekly/monthly maintenance taking place on their scheduled days. Sometimes they can just be an 1-2 hours or they can be an all day thing depending on if it's patch day. So when you have players that have that day off and they want play their game, well they can't. I have seen players from WoW take to Facebook and post their complaints on the World of Warcraft page telling Blizzard that they pay $15 a month to play and now they can't because of all day maintenance and that they demand to have their money back or that they should get a month of WoW for free. Then there's occasions when the game has DDOS attacks either due to something that happened on Blizzard's end or to hackers that find it quite funny to disrupt other players fun just because they know that they can hack into just about any company that they want without being found out. But some of those hackers have been found out and arrested for their hackings. So just imagine that happening to this game and the uproar it would cause when people want to play but can't because of someone was looking to make the game play very unpleasant for other players.
Of course my main concern with playing WoW is the fact that one of these days, Blizzard could easily announce the end of WoW which then would mean that they would be removing it from their servers leaving the players high and dry after all of these years and after pouring all of their sweat and tears and a boat load of cash into the game for items that they brought from the Blizzard store. So if EA was to do an online element or a online version of the game and it fails yet again just like The Sims Online/EA-Land did, then players that wanted an MMO element to the game would be left out in the cold wondering what happened and why it didn't succeed like they thought that it would.
So to conclude my 2 cents to this topic, I really think that it would be better if EA was to make a separate game away from the main game allowing online game play so that anyone that doesn't want this in their game can avoid buying it.
I must be tough, I don’t see things getting ugly? Just people disagreeing with each other. It’s a forum, that does happen.
Anyway, one thing’s for sure, if EA wants to go online with this game and keep it teen rated, people have to realize there is no way woohoo would ever make it to such a successor. Because it wouldn’t be about pixel characters whoo’ing anymore.
No. It would make me uncomfortable. Then you lose control over what you want your own game to be.
Also I think offline multi-player with your family or friends could be fine, but online multi player could be dangerous and potentially open the door to creeps, bullying, crooks, harassment...
In all my years of playing MMOs (I started with SWG), I have never had someone that bullied me or harass me as such. Maybe because I just walk off or ignore those types of people and regardless of everyone thinking there are more of those types of people, I have found the opposite to be true. Most people are friendly and polite and helpful.
A life simulation MMO is enough to attract those kinds of people. There are several of these games already in existence and making The Sims online isn’t the essence of the product.
I’m an MMO veteran myself and have spanned across many in my life. The Sims is definitely not the place for it.
Really? come on, people don't need a life simulation to come up with ways to make it more "real". I played SWG, Wow and now playing SWTOR and people can ERP with others but they keep it to themselves. No one is forced to play that way and they take it to private chats. It is easy to tell someone no and they just move along. They don't force you to play their way.
Hate to break it to you, but SWG, SWTOR, and World of Warcraft aren’t life simulator MMOs.
Which was my point. A game doesn't have to be a life simulator to have that type of "real" to the game. People can do it without it being a life simulator, especially roleplayers. Roleplayers are good at adding something interesting to a game.
It's easy to see we are not going to do anything but argue back and forth and I have better things to do than argue, so I am going to agree to disagree. Good luck.
See the thing is, The Sims is a life simulation game.
As others have pointed out, this thread is far from ugly... it’s very, very tame. Simple exchanges of different opinions across players of the game. These opinions may be strong, but hostile? Far from it.
Sims having multiplayer or becoming an MMO is not to my taste, if they decide to go that route then I will walk away from the Sims franchise. I do unfortunately believe it is possible they will do this sometime in the future though, because almost every franchise of single player game I have come to love has incorporated multiplayer in their sequels. Pure single player games with no sort of online or multiplayer component seem to be a thing of the past.
When are you guys going to let players join each others game? Like play with other players?...... I think that would be awesome!
That is an online game, which has already been shown to be unworkable in Sims format. Sims is for us to make and play our own households as we wish. The very idea that some unknown personage from no telling where with quite possibly malevolent intent could bust into my game and wreck havoc (not to mention introduce viruses and such) is utterly repugnant. There are at least 2 Sims-like games out there already, so try those if you like dangerous gaming.
I would welcome any of you into my game. However. I wouldn't want to inflict any of my personal whims, scenarios and gameplay on any of your sims. I think there is a mod for multiplayer if you don't mind mods. This isn't Rockstar making another GTA this is EA making the SIms.
If EA made the Titanic it never would have made it to the iceberg, but gone down somewhere between Belfast and Southampton. At least only the crew would have been aboard, and there were enough lifeboats for them.
The Sims 4 was intended to be a multiplayer game. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to mention it by name, but there's a group of modders who released a mod unlocking its latent multiplayer potential. You can search for it on Google, although I believe you can only play with one other person at the moment.
Look, I don't mind having more options to make this game more vibrant like how we have the gallery since TS3 where we can download sims and lots to put in our saves and keep those ugly, weird, random townies away.
If other players would have more influence on our game, it should always remain the main players choice. OPTIONS! These are always the answer!
I could see an improved gallery where others can create sims and lots in a more easy way for you to place or update your world without them touching or influencing your story progression if that's not what you asked for.
I also would not mind creating a whole town and then see other visiting this place, win in game money with it by owning a few stores and clubs where other players spend their simoleons, so my sims can realistically pay their bills and such. Something like a live GTW thing.
It could be a cool option with self set restrictions, but it should not be the main drive of The Sims 5. That is NOT what the Sims is about. We are in control and we decide.
This doesn't interest me at all. I could understand making an option for people to play together in small groups with others that they know or consent to play with. Again, that doesn't interest me personally, but I can see how it would add to the game for other people.
I'm pretty imaginative and like coming up with my own worlds, plots or ways of playing out pre-mades. It's a fun thing that I do when I have the time. I know that not everyone plays like I do but I have no interest in multiplayer for myself and really no interest in some communally shared world.
I'm highly undecided about continuing with TS5 and it's unlikely to happen any time soon but if I do, it'd be as a single player. If they want to keep developing TS4 and then spin off some other multiplayer concept, fine. That's not for me, but I'm sure it would appeal to other people.
I am ok with collaborative contests or polls or community voting even when it doesn't always go my way. I'm fine with them doing stuff to engage the community. Multiplayer just has no appeal to me.
Realistic Answer instead of Doom and Glooming like everyone else here: Sims 5. They can't completely change the infrastructure of Sims 4 to suddenly add Multiplayer, games just don't work like that, changes like that can't just happen six years into a game's life.
So the answer would be, whenever they release Sims 5.
This doesn't interest me at all. I could understand making an option for people to play together in small groups with others that they know or consent to play with. Again, that doesn't interest me personally, but I can see how it would add to the game for other people.
That is how Neverwinter Nights I handled it. The game had the capability, secondary to solo play, but you had to go to someone hosting a server and go through whatever hoops they laid out to join. It was a set of small scale individuals that had hosting capability. Bioware itself did not handle a 'y'all come' master server. They left that, like most of the game's development to the community. I'm not personally interested, either, but that is the only way it might work for Sims, small bands of like minded folks you know and trust.
This doesn't interest me at all. I could understand making an option for people to play together in small groups with others that they know or consent to play with. Again, that doesn't interest me personally, but I can see how it would add to the game for other people.
That is how Neverwinter Nights I handled it. The game had the capability, secondary to solo play, but you had to go to someone hosting a server and go through whatever hoops they laid out to join. It was a set of small scale individuals that had hosting capability. Bioware itself did not handle a 'y'all come' master server. They left that, like most of the game's development to the community. I'm not personally interested, either, but that is the only way it might work for Sims, small bands of like minded folks you know and trust.
Thanks for letting me know. As I mentioned, it really isn't something that I need but I can see why that would bring in more players.
When you can figure out who can even host a sims multiplayer game.
If the player hosts it, then the world is gone when the last player logs off. This is not like a multiplayer FPS where you can just host a new round after 10-20 minutes.
If EA hosts it, then that would be a game where time and relationships would progress on the server, which means that they would either be very restricted, or change every time you log in. You can't make friends or families because they could be gone the next time you log in.
If EA hadn't changed it's mind about cancelling the online mode I expect we wouldn't be thinking of a Sims 5. The Sims would have ended at Sims 3 from what the CEO thought at the time.
I've always secretly thought that it wasn't only the crashing servers which brought SimCity 5 to an end it was the fact that you had to share your worlds. I only bought that afterwards as a sale item but loved SimCity4 before that. It just doesn't work except for games with a certain end in mind and not several.
No, no online for me thanks. I play the Sims when I'm not dealing with rl people, I don't want want to have to make ingame friends in order to play. And from a practical point of view this game may be aimed at teens but younger kids play it too...we all know the types who use online forums to groom kids, which would mean the game would have to move up to adult only level to stop this. As the Sims is now aiming toward that teeny market do they really want to take that kind of move? And yes parents should be watching their kids yadda yadda, but in the real world helicopter parenting is just as damaging as parental neglect. I don't really care all that much because in the end if the Sims 5 is an online game, I'll just play one of the others that aren't, watching from the sidelines as the franchise crashes and burns.
The Sims series is really one genre of game where it completely doesn't make sense. Life simulation and real life to me should stay completely separate.
Adventure games, first-person shooters, racing games, party titles. Yeah, it makes sense. I've messed with several racing titles (and played multiplayer), I did a couple online RPGs as a kid, and I have Garry's Mod, but it gives me vertigo, makes me nauseated, and causes one heck of a headache (don't know if it's my autism or what) so I avoid playing it.
When are you guys going to let players join each others game? Like play with other players?...... I think that would be awesome!
If it became an online game, three things would happen. 1) Microtransactions and ads would proliferate, ruining the game. 2) No more cheat codes. No more 50k simoleons, no more 1k simoleons, no more free real estate, no more manually setting family funds or manually increasing all needs to full green. 3) Trolls, bullies, and griefers harassing other players.
If you want an online version of a life simulation, please, please try Second Life or Avakin Life or IMVU. These are chat apps/online simulations that let you both build rooms, furnish rooms, and style your avatars. Then ask yourself if you really want Sims 5 to become like these apps.
I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
Comments
But I would be OK with if there was an online city where we could send our sims to meet others, if it was totally optional and didn't affect the normal single-player game. That could be fun to do for a change. But I would still play my game alone 99.9% of the time.
Which was my point. A game doesn't have to be a life simulator to have that type of "real" to the game. People can do it without it being a life simulator, especially roleplayers. Roleplayers are good at adding something interesting to a game.
It's easy to see we are not going to do anything but argue back and forth and I have better things to do than argue, so I am going to agree to disagree. Good luck.
From what I have seen in these forums, it doesn't surprise me, no matter the topic and I thought SWTOR forums were bad.
I would welcome any of you into my game. However. I wouldn't want to inflict any of my personal whims, scenarios and gameplay on any of your sims. I think there is a mod for multiplayer if you don't mind mods. This isn't Rockstar making another GTA this is EA making the SIms.
This thread is tame compared to some of the other ones that I've read and even commented in. I remember someone had created a thread that was a petition to get signatures from players who wanted the game to be an on-line game and that thread had turned ugly to the point that the community managers had to remove several of the posts where people had ended up calling nasty names to the players who was against on-line game play for the Sims.
But as for as the subject goes, no I don't want this in the main series of the game. I wouldn't want other players running amok in my game making it very unpleasant for me to play in. I wouldn't want other players to hit on my Simself and trying to start a family with my sim if EA was to ever make that possible which I doubt very much. And if EA was to do something like this, then more then likely they would change the rating from T for teen to M for Mature knowing that they wouldn't want to expose younger players to older players that might and would try to take advantage of the younger players by pretending to be their age. And I know that if I had kids of my own that I wouldn't want them to play such a game until they become young adults (+18 or older) as they would be at the age to know better than to engage in something that they really shouldn't be taken part in.
I have never played on console where it's allowed to have another player in the game, so I don't know what really happens between 2 Sims that want to have a relationship of some kind and to get married and have kids. But I would think that would be impossible in my opinion due to the fact that if the other player stops playing the game and the other player wants to be in another relationship with another players' sim but can't because they first need to break up or get a divorce from the sim before moving forward. And if players could have such relationships with each other, then it's not my cup of tea as I like playing by myself. If I want other players Sims in my game, then I would go to the Sims 3 exchange or to the Sims 4 Gallery and download other players Sims into my game and then take pictures of my game play so that I can share them to this site so that those players that I have their Sims in my game can see what their Sims have been up to.
I also remember that when TS4 was first announced back in the beginning of 2013, that SimGuruHydra had did a Q&A thread over on the old The Sims 3 site where she had posted the most asked questions about the game.
Well one of the questions was: https://simsvip.com/2013/05/06/the-sims-4-official-qa-by-simguruhydra/
Well after this was posted, people started bashing the idea of having an online social element claiming that they wouldn't be buying the game if EA allows other players into their game as they wanted to be able to play alone. So after awhile, they changed their minds about adding the online social element to having the gallery added instead for others to download other players Sims into their game. So SimGuruHydra had went and updated her original post on the old site to add info about the gallery for the game.
https://simsvip.com/2013/05/06/the-sims-4-official-qa-by-simguruhydra/
The Sims 3 had introduced Simporting to their game when they added the Showtime EP that allowed you to host a sim from another players game but it was only for their performance and that was it. But the thing was that in order to unlock the extra outfits that was in the game, you have to earn certain achievements in the game by hosting Sims players. But luckily enough for the players that wasn't interested in using simport, we can download a mod from MTS that unlocks all of the extra outfits so that our Sims can use them as well. Then if you want to host another Sim in your game, your Sim has to be a level 2 performer for the other sim to come over into your game to perform which doesn't always work. I've tried hosting a sim once and I never got to see them once I had accepted their offer, so I don't even use it anymore. And then once you accept that players' sim into your game, then the other player can't close out their game while their sim is over in your game as they have to wait 12 hours. Plus when it was first introduced, players were ending up with custom content that they didn't have in their game in the first place which was another downside of simporting.
I play World of Warcraft almost everyday and so I see people in chat being rude and crude to other players when they ask for help or any type of advice from other players. I have also seen a lot of cussing going on, and yes I can check the foul language filter to "On" to keep out such smut from the game. Or I could just report the player for using foul language so that their conversation disappears from my chat and to let the GM's deal with the player by giving them a warning and/or temporary ban for a day or 2. I have also had players whispering me to have an adult chat with me. And I don't mean a nice chat between 2 players such as "So how are you today?", "What's the weather like where you live?" kind of stuff but more on the adult adult side of things. And yes, you can block such players like that from bothering you but that player could still go and create another character and seek you out to have that "Friendly" chat that they were trying to have earlier on their other player.
Then you have issues with weekly/monthly maintenance taking place on their scheduled days. Sometimes they can just be an 1-2 hours or they can be an all day thing depending on if it's patch day. So when you have players that have that day off and they want play their game, well they can't. I have seen players from WoW take to Facebook and post their complaints on the World of Warcraft page telling Blizzard that they pay $15 a month to play and now they can't because of all day maintenance and that they demand to have their money back or that they should get a month of WoW for free. Then there's occasions when the game has DDOS attacks either due to something that happened on Blizzard's end or to hackers that find it quite funny to disrupt other players fun just because they know that they can hack into just about any company that they want without being found out. But some of those hackers have been found out and arrested for their hackings. So just imagine that happening to this game and the uproar it would cause when people want to play but can't because of someone was looking to make the game play very unpleasant for other players.
Of course my main concern with playing WoW is the fact that one of these days, Blizzard could easily announce the end of WoW which then would mean that they would be removing it from their servers leaving the players high and dry after all of these years and after pouring all of their sweat and tears and a boat load of cash into the game for items that they brought from the Blizzard store. So if EA was to do an online element or a online version of the game and it fails yet again just like The Sims Online/EA-Land did, then players that wanted an MMO element to the game would be left out in the cold wondering what happened and why it didn't succeed like they thought that it would.
So to conclude my 2 cents to this topic, I really think that it would be better if EA was to make a separate game away from the main game allowing online game play so that anyone that doesn't want this in their game can avoid buying it.
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
Anyway, one thing’s for sure, if EA wants to go online with this game and keep it teen rated, people have to realize there is no way woohoo would ever make it to such a successor. Because it wouldn’t be about pixel characters whoo’ing anymore.
See the thing is, The Sims is a life simulation game.
As others have pointed out, this thread is far from ugly... it’s very, very tame. Simple exchanges of different opinions across players of the game. These opinions may be strong, but hostile? Far from it.
None taken. I'm happy to invite other Simmers' work into my games via the Gallery, but on my own terms.
If EA made the Titanic it never would have made it to the iceberg, but gone down somewhere between Belfast and Southampton. At least only the crew would have been aboard, and there were enough lifeboats for them.
If other players would have more influence on our game, it should always remain the main players choice. OPTIONS! These are always the answer!
I could see an improved gallery where others can create sims and lots in a more easy way for you to place or update your world without them touching or influencing your story progression if that's not what you asked for.
I also would not mind creating a whole town and then see other visiting this place, win in game money with it by owning a few stores and clubs where other players spend their simoleons, so my sims can realistically pay their bills and such. Something like a live GTW thing.
It could be a cool option with self set restrictions, but it should not be the main drive of The Sims 5. That is NOT what the Sims is about. We are in control and we decide.
I'm pretty imaginative and like coming up with my own worlds, plots or ways of playing out pre-mades. It's a fun thing that I do when I have the time. I know that not everyone plays like I do but I have no interest in multiplayer for myself and really no interest in some communally shared world.
I'm highly undecided about continuing with TS5 and it's unlikely to happen any time soon but if I do, it'd be as a single player. If they want to keep developing TS4 and then spin off some other multiplayer concept, fine. That's not for me, but I'm sure it would appeal to other people.
I am ok with collaborative contests or polls or community voting even when it doesn't always go my way. I'm fine with them doing stuff to engage the community. Multiplayer just has no appeal to me.
So the answer would be, whenever they release Sims 5.
That is how Neverwinter Nights I handled it. The game had the capability, secondary to solo play, but you had to go to someone hosting a server and go through whatever hoops they laid out to join. It was a set of small scale individuals that had hosting capability. Bioware itself did not handle a 'y'all come' master server. They left that, like most of the game's development to the community. I'm not personally interested, either, but that is the only way it might work for Sims, small bands of like minded folks you know and trust.
Thanks for letting me know. As I mentioned, it really isn't something that I need but I can see why that would bring in more players.
If the player hosts it, then the world is gone when the last player logs off. This is not like a multiplayer FPS where you can just host a new round after 10-20 minutes.
If EA hosts it, then that would be a game where time and relationships would progress on the server, which means that they would either be very restricted, or change every time you log in. You can't make friends or families because they could be gone the next time you log in.
I've always secretly thought that it wasn't only the crashing servers which brought SimCity 5 to an end it was the fact that you had to share your worlds. I only bought that afterwards as a sale item but loved SimCity4 before that. It just doesn't work except for games with a certain end in mind and not several.
Adventure games, first-person shooters, racing games, party titles. Yeah, it makes sense. I've messed with several racing titles (and played multiplayer), I did a couple online RPGs as a kid, and I have Garry's Mod, but it gives me vertigo, makes me nauseated, and causes one heck of a headache (don't know if it's my autism or what) so I avoid playing it.
If it became an online game, three things would happen. 1) Microtransactions and ads would proliferate, ruining the game. 2) No more cheat codes. No more 50k simoleons, no more 1k simoleons, no more free real estate, no more manually setting family funds or manually increasing all needs to full green. 3) Trolls, bullies, and griefers harassing other players.
If you want an online version of a life simulation, please, please try Second Life or Avakin Life or IMVU. These are chat apps/online simulations that let you both build rooms, furnish rooms, and style your avatars. Then ask yourself if you really want Sims 5 to become like these apps.