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I really can't stand the Sims 3 anymore
Maneo
Posts: 30 New Member
When I first got it, it was unbelievably fun. I had always loved the sims 1 and 2, and this game was even better
I got really into it and i played as a sim version of myself mostly.
But after a while it started getting boring. Life was repetitive. My sim and his wife had both fulfilled their life goal. Their kids were A+ students. Not much was left to do. We already had a dreamhouse and had bought up some of the businesses around town.
So i decided to try playing as new sims. But for some reason life was just boring with every new sim. It felt the same. Generic start up home, get a job, get promoted, start a family, get more promotions, etc. The repetitiveness began to hit me.
I decided to go back to my original sim. As my sims got old, the game began to become... not boring, but rather...depressing. I was begining to feel the same feeling I've been feeling in real life. Life is too short, time just flies by, and we can never go back.
Yet when I try to 'go back' in the sims, i hit that other wall again: boring.
I don't understand whats wrong with me (or maybe the game), but i just keep smacking between these two walls, depression and boredom. And it leaves me unable to stand the game at all.
I don't know why I never hit this problem with the sims 1 and 2. I don't know if the game changed, or if I changed, but suddenly the game that I loved most had become a game that I despise, but yet I continue to play it from time to time, just because I want to try and experience the fun that I used to. But I just can't find that fun.
I got really into it and i played as a sim version of myself mostly.
But after a while it started getting boring. Life was repetitive. My sim and his wife had both fulfilled their life goal. Their kids were A+ students. Not much was left to do. We already had a dreamhouse and had bought up some of the businesses around town.
So i decided to try playing as new sims. But for some reason life was just boring with every new sim. It felt the same. Generic start up home, get a job, get promoted, start a family, get more promotions, etc. The repetitiveness began to hit me.
I decided to go back to my original sim. As my sims got old, the game began to become... not boring, but rather...depressing. I was begining to feel the same feeling I've been feeling in real life. Life is too short, time just flies by, and we can never go back.
Yet when I try to 'go back' in the sims, i hit that other wall again: boring.
I don't understand whats wrong with me (or maybe the game), but i just keep smacking between these two walls, depression and boredom. And it leaves me unable to stand the game at all.
I don't know why I never hit this problem with the sims 1 and 2. I don't know if the game changed, or if I changed, but suddenly the game that I loved most had become a game that I despise, but yet I continue to play it from time to time, just because I want to try and experience the fun that I used to. But I just can't find that fun.
0
Comments
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/51674.page
(expect a flood of sims 3 fan-club owners to flame)
Not much else to be said.
Use the bad traits. I know I usually use the same ones because that's what I like but this is a game, twist it up.
Make Sims after your favorite TV/Movie/Book.
Build your Dream house.
Enter a Challenge on the site.
Or, quit playing for awhile. The game should be fun and if it's not you should take a break.
I decided to take a break and came back to the game faster than I thought I would. I'm having fun with it again, but I don't play as long as I used to.
First to explain what I mean, you have to realize that what you call "fun" or "entertaining" is, at the root level, the result of your brain responding to various chemicals produced by stimuli in the real world. This is the case with any form of entertainment.
Excitement, Tension, and fear, for example, cause your body to produce Adrenaline (as well as other chemicals) which many people enjoy the feeling of. This is the source of why many people enjoy action games and horror films. Receiving rewards causes your body to produce dopamine, which gives the feeling of pleasure. This is the source of why so many people enjoy RPG's, MMORPG's, their birthday, christmas, etc.
There are other forms of stimuli as well, but all of them come down to a reaction to the stimuli in the real world producing chemicals in your brain that you respond positively to.
And this brings us to the design flaw in the Sims 3 that makes the game less likely to hold people for as long or be as addicting as previous Sims games. The main one being that the rewards (which produce that oh so addictive dopamine) are just simply not as rewarding. The top of the careers no longer give you really cool items, for example. Making enough money to buy everything you want is easier, the reward for life time achievements is incredibly lame, and there's less reason to want to keep buying new things because the design tool lets you make things look like whatever you want so there's not so much drive to go into build mode as often.
Overall, the level of dopamine that the Sims 3 throws at you over time is far lower than it's predecessors. Dopamine is addictive, by the way, which also explains why you are going back and forth between depression and boredom...you aren't getting your fix.
All that being said, I think TS3 is a great game...better than TS2 or TS1 when looked at as a platform to expand on with expansions. Unfortunately, from the standpoint of chemicals in your brain...until those expansions come, and unless they do a better job of introducing things that will allow more satisfying intermittent rewards, it may never actually FEEL as satisfying to some people.
Think of it as a good Chinese food meal compared to steak and potatoes. Even if you like Chinese food a lot more, it never makes you feel quite as full.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
@OP - Try doing a story, and uploading it. Make it a series, and let it gain popularity. Having people compliment your work is an epic feeling.
@Myself - I'm losing my poor mind.
Stormkeep. That was great and very wisely said. I hope the creators read this and take this in mind. Because it's so true.
Just read Stormkeep reply. SOoooo True.
I agree though, some of the rewards are a bit poor. I miss the money plant, the regenerator and the counterfeiting machine, there just isn't as much...drive?
Thats what I used to do when I got bored with TS2
If only BoolProp still had all of it's cool stuff like it used to =/
That's why people were so dissapointed when the patch stopped any grim contact.
Try making a sim with some crazy traits and just mess around with them, do things you wouldn't do irl.
Nice summation.
I noticed I started to fall into my same rut of the "good life" for my sims. So I started to mix it up by trying the Asylum challenge (I never played challenges in TS2) and I'm also using more of the "bad" traits like evil, insane, etc. It makes the game play more interesting and fun.
I agree Stormkeep. Some things just seem too easy.
Having every item of clothing available without any cost to your sim is just unrealistic. Part of my sim's success was having a large wardrobe of clothing that they worked their behinds off to get.
Others don't feel rewarding when you do get them. I really like one of the more expensive cars, and it cost a lot of money, but when you do get it, you don't get to see them climb behind the wheel and they don't use it most of the time anyway. So what's the point of even owning one. I hope EA builds on cars, like if you take another sim out for a date they get a "Nice car" moodlet and makes building the relationship easier or harder if the car is a beater" "Hunk of junk" moodlet. It would probably also depend on the traits of your date.
Other first time achievements don't feel very special when they happen. I really like the movie events from TS2. The first kiss, woo hoo, getting married, going to college, getting abducted, did add a bit of celebration. Getting married has been dumbed down.
There are some fun objects in the game like the gun my sim can experiment on objects with, but it's only something she can use and no one can inherit it. I like the food replicator a lot. I just wish there where more objects. TS2 had a ton of aspiration and career reward objects. They have been replaced by invisible benefits.