This is becoming a trend in a lot of EA/Maxis marketing now, and I believe it could become a huge problem for The Sims going forward.
The entire point of Simlish was to be a gibberish language you could never quite understand or get it's hooks into you. That's beginning to change now when we have EA/Maxis solidifying Simlish words and translating them into english, and now we're getting 3rd party articles that are supporting it (just do a google search for "simlish translation" to see for yourself)
My suggestion? For the next game Sims 5, they need to jumble everything up again. Have our Sims use completely different phrases for Hello, goodbye, thank you, etc. This will pull the rug out from this trend and return Simlish back to it's original intent.
But who am I kidding.. I know they won't do that. I fully expect these words to be a huge part of their marketing on the next game..
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I think once these 20-odd words become more solidified as words with direct translation, this will actually harm the game because now that we actually have an understanding on what our Sims are saying (and it's not just gibberish), it will start becoming incredibly obvious how our sims are simple people who only have a vocabulary of about 20 words.
The giberish simlish is supposed to be giberish for the reason of giving the illusion of a much wider vocabulary. By solidifying 20-odd words, you undermine that illusion completely.
I don't mind when they do words like Sul Sul
cause fine that much is obvious from how sims use it
and as long as rest is gibberish who cares really but eh...
it also kind of reminds me of sims version of live laugh love
when they be using those english text designs on stuff
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It's still not my native language.
I don't understand the meaning of this thread, all the popups and notifications in the game are translated.
When the sims discuss, nobody can translate it into full sentences so I don't know what is the issue.
Everybody end up to recognize repetitive terms, for example "Kon'nichiwa" (Hello) and "Arigatō" (Thank you) in the Japanese animes.
Simlish is a language with a small dictionary, it's not just a bunch of random sounds.
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The Sims 4 General Discussion"Sul sul" is recognized by any players around the world as a term from The Sims franchise for decades.
Changing it could have same effect as replacing the plumbob by a new shape, the franchise would lose a part of its identity.
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionI mean how many players listen to their sims talking in the game ?
And how many players know more than 5 words in Simlish ?
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionSul Sul e Dag Dag I don't mind but let's stop there!
Beyond that, I don't have much of a horse in this race, as in I don't really care either way, so....that's all.
So yeah, I also remember in videos that Will Wright experimented with languages like Estonian and Tagalog, but he found even these too repetitive, thus he went with Simlish.
So yeah, as the article tells, the goal of Simlish is for players to resonate with the emotions of the characters rather than their speech. While I do kind of agree that translating some phrases will go against the goal, it could also build up an unique culture for The Sims fans (hold up... which could be used in marketing... oh no...).
Personal off-topic opinion under spoilers (ignore if unwanted).
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Over the years i've been able to make out a few words of Simlish and that's how I want it. I can associate a task or action with the sounds coming out of their little Sim mouths and figure it out myself. I avoid spoilers that translate it into English.