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Reality Players, How Much Is Too Much?

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  • kwanzaabotkwanzaabot Posts: 2,440 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    kwanzaabot wrote: »
    Where's the "I want my game to be realistic" option?

    There is not one because realistic is subjective. Since none of us are playing an actual realistic game in TS4. Even less so than the other three.

    Your options are all incredibly specific with no wiggle room, so I don't know why an option for preferring realistic play is somehow too vague for you to even consider. Why not "I wish they would add more simulation but I don't currently have any pressing issues with TS4" or "I wish they would add more simulation but I *didn't* buy all of TS4"?

    Anybody who's looked at even one graph in their life would tell you you're fishing for the answers you want, not the answers we have.
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  • jpsulsuldagdagjpsulsuldagdag Posts: 450 Member
    I'm perfectly fine with Sims not having transportation or anything else because it takes too much time away from goals.
    I don't need cars, I just imagine things sometimes. But it would be nice if there will be cars, but I'm not really excited if there will be one in the future. I'd really love the sims team to focus more on traits and personalities of the sims, and making things like careers and skills a little harder to master.
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited May 2021
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    kwanzaabot wrote: »
    Cinebar wrote: »
    kwanzaabot wrote: »
    Where's the "I want my game to be realistic" option?

    There is not one because realistic is subjective. Since none of us are playing an actual realistic game in TS4. Even less so than the other three.

    Your options are all incredibly specific with no wiggle room, so I don't know why an option for preferring realistic play is somehow too vague for you to even consider. Why not "I wish they would add more simulation but I don't currently have any pressing issues with TS4" or "I wish they would add more simulation but I *didn't* buy all of TS4"?

    Anybody who's looked at even one graph in their life would tell you you're fishing for the answers you want, not the answers we have.

    lol, I might have been a little bit facetious but I did offer other as an option. :) And I made the poll because there are so many threads about realistic vs fantasy. When we know there isn't all that much 'reality' in this game compared to others. But the questions remain, is something like opening a drawer too much? Some things are meant to generate thinking about how much is too lofty and or too much and time consuming and or if we just want to click things and be done with it and claim we play realistic without any simulations actually but then don't want something like fantasy characters but ignore we don't actually have 'reality' either. Or there would be cars when walking from the desert to the mountains. Or a plane or something.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,701 Member
    edited May 2021
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    It's quite simple. When players say they want a realistic experience they mean within the game's parameters. What's currently available to realistic players. I'd prefer sims to open and close drawers and cabinets. But they can't. I'd prefer sims to go shopping for clothes and groceries. But they can't. My definition of realistic play simply mirrors every day typical family based interactions. Chores, preparing meals, raising children, going to work. For me it's not all about the animations.
  • simmerannsimmerann Posts: 24 Member
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    I went with "other". It's the lack of psychological realism that is the most upsetting to me- due largely to the imbalances of the emotion system, and the lack of integration of traits and aspirations in a meaningful way . I have to mod this end of the game way up for it to be playable at all.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    I'm not a "realist" player (my game is full with fairies, werewolves, aliens...) but i do love open world with cars. I love to watch my sims go to their actual workplace. I love to consider how far away my sims are from their workplace and how long it takes them to get there. I might even consider moving to a house closer to work or closer to the places my sims go more often, like in rl...

    I love to take my sim's co-workers to have a drink at the bar next door to their work place right after work...

    I love that my neighbours have a life. I can watch them tending their gardens, picking their newspaper, talking to other neighbours at their doorstep...

    I love how my sims share a taxi or how the family travels together in their family car. I love i can see them inside of the car (once my sim travelled in a taxi with a parrot in her shoulder and the animation didn't break: there she was, travelling inside the taxi with a parrot in her shoulder).

    I love that shops and clubs have opening and closing hours. It makes for a more challenging game in a time management perspective.

    Yeah Im playing sims 3: a game where supernaturals roam free and odd funny things can happen anytime, but it's actually much more "realistic" :smiley:
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited May 2021
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    It's quite simple. When players say they want a realistic experience they mean within the game's parameters. What's currently available to realistic players. I'd prefer sims to open and close drawers and cabinets. But they can't. I'd prefer sims to go shopping for clothes and groceries. But they can't. My definition of realistic play simply mirrors every day typical family based interactions. Chores, preparing meals, raising children, going to work. For me it's not all about the animations.

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    It's quite simple. When players say they want a realistic experience they mean within the game's parameters. What's currently available to realistic players. I'd prefer sims to open and close drawers and cabinets. But they can't. I'd prefer sims to go shopping for clothes and groceries. But they can't. My definition of realistic play simply mirrors every day typical family based interactions. Chores, preparing meals, raising children, going to work. For me it's not all about the animations.

    I can understand all that, I like some of TS4 and other simulators that don't have as many animations. However, I'm wondering if we will someday accept just clicking on an item and the Sim's motives will be filled without them ever even needing to move. That would be within the 'parameters of the game', too, so I'm wondering how much is too much if we are willing to chalk many simulations of that nature. We've already seen a move to shorten the time or remove animations of eating in one of the last patches. I can understand why people think sometimes it's too long (multitasking stops and starts) but has that all now become 'too much'? It seems we keep moving toward just clicking on stuff and be done with it without any animations.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • CaptainNinjaPantsCaptainNinjaPants Posts: 17 Member
    I like those things in the older games, but teleporting etc. is ok or no knives in the drawers is no biggie to me, don't need simulation.
    Compared to some of the things I've seen listed for "realistic gameplay" I think there should be limit. Will Wright never meant for the Sims to be too realistic. Not many people seem to understand this.

    Life simulation does not mean simulating normal life it means simulating a life you want. THAT is want the Sims franchise has always been about and yes this includes occult life states whether people like it or not.
  • LogicallyironicLogicallyironic Posts: 137 Member
    Other for those who can't fit into the above boxes.
    I don't have all of sims 4.

    I love realism and small details. Obviously, I'm not really looking for the gritty, dark side of life (I have GTA for that), but the poofing and divine intervention (I'll explain a bit below) gets on my nerves a bit.

    I guess I'll address some points in the original post since they are some things that I have thought a bit about.

    - "Is it ok that their teen Sims look exactly like YAs and Adults, unless you zoom and or alter the Sim?"
    I don't mind the height so much. Teens comprise 13-18/19 IMO, so a (let's say) fully grown 13-year-old teen boy is a bit weird. But I stopped growing around that age, so it isn't unrealistic. I liked how baby-faced sims 2 teens looked, so even if there wasn't a height difference I could tell. Sims 3 teens were weird looking, there was a near-uniform facial distortion that all teens had that wasn't present in 2. I'd like if they got a growth spurt, so mid life stage they suddenly become y/a height, almost like a mini age transition.

    - "Or that Sims who own a shop don't have to hire a manager for the shop while they are away and can still get money from the pot with a click of a button?"
    That's a little immersion-breaking. I'm personally a little too lazy to micromanage shops, but it feels cheaty

    - "Or that they don't take out the trash but players just drag it over to the can and kaching! instant cash?"
    This is very immersion-breaking. Obviously, it is useful for large families and I find myself using it, but imagine if in real life GOD just picks up your dirty dishes and pops them in the trash? And I don't find myself missing this feature when I play 2, in fact, I like how I have to handle the minutiae of life. I would like a macro clean command, though.

    - "Or that Sims with particular traits don't even have anything mildly related to those traits but get an inspired buff, the one go to buff for almost everything in TS4?"
    The buffs/emotion system in 4 is annoying and unrealistic. Not a fun, "quirky" unrealistic, but a shallow and unenjoyable unrealistic. I'm not really that interested in buffs in the first place, I don't mind not seeing a tally of everything in my sims' heads (2 was fine without, for example), but they made a LOT more sense with the way they were implemented in 3. They're weighted wrong in 4 too, since a sim in labor will be distracted by their sparkling floors and nice paintings so much that they just ":DDDD" their way through childbirth. This particular instance could be/may have been patched since I last played, but it illustrates how messy and unnatural this system has been.

    - "Or that Sims can get money faster than bees can collect pollen in TS4 or perhaps any future game?"
    Money is wayyy too easy to earn in 4. It's a little depressing, but the Sims does stand out as a potential rags-to-riches simulator. I don't want to deep dive into ~capitalism~ and ~consumerism~, but part of the joy for me is seeing your sims rise from being a family with 200 simoleons to spare to owning a car that costs 20,000 alone. Hobbies, unless turned into a business, shouldn't be more lucrative than having a job.

    - "On the other hand how much reality is too much? Such as Sims having to buy new clothes if they have grown taller? And or fatter? And or skinnier? Or having to call a taxi because yes, it is a long way to the desert from a snow capped mountain."
    I'd actually like to buy new clothes if sims become fatter, but with the shaping system of TS4 CAS this would be a bit funky. I miss having to buy clothes in general. And bring back taxis, or implement other forms of transport like trains! The subway/monorail system of 3 was so exciting when it first came out, even if it made routing issues worse.
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