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Sims 4 Generations Has Been Done (Kind Of)
Loanet
Posts: 4,079 Member
Let's say Sims 3 Generations is currently comparable to Sims 4 Toddlers/Discover University/Parenthood. By splitting them up, EA gets more money out of us and you know it. What we need now is some kind of decent Elders pack.
Anyway I watched those three trailers rapidly. When I watch a good Sims 4 trailer, they make me laugh. When I watch Sims 3 trailers, like Generations or Pets, they make me cry. As a writer, I tried to think what it is that makes the difference. I think maybe it's that they take time to emphasise the Build-Buy items in Sims 4, than the life they live. And the music helps.
Anyway I watched those three trailers rapidly. When I watch a good Sims 4 trailer, they make me laugh. When I watch Sims 3 trailers, like Generations or Pets, they make me cry. As a writer, I tried to think what it is that makes the difference. I think maybe it's that they take time to emphasise the Build-Buy items in Sims 4, than the life they live. And the music helps.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
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Comments
I think we have a void in gameplay for babies, teens, older adults and elders. There’s less of a void with toddlers and children if we have Kids Stuff and Toddler Stuff, and newer packs have done a better job of incorporating those age groups.
We have different needs in TS4 but we haven’t gotten the equivalent to a Generations pack. Where are the milestones for teens like school dances or learning to drive 😉 sneaking out or participating in more after-school activities - with Parenthood we got mood swings and some curfew stuff but that’s not what we like to look back on and remember about growing up.
I’d be out of my mind to speculate they’d update the teen bodies at this point, but it’s bothered a lot of people that they don’t look different from adults. We at least need some more gameplay to differentiate them.
Adults could get a mid-life crisis, their whims (remember those, Maxis?) could get really extreme, their traits could change, we could get more than one way to show partially graying hair (that one Nifty Knitting hair for guys).
And I don’t see why they couldn’t add romance and attraction to this pack, we haven’t even talked about BB or a new world, these are just gameplay ideas. We got bachelor & bachelorette parties in Generations. Better weddings are needed in TS4.
Updated babies we can travel with, put in a stroller or bouncy chair, give a bath. I’d love more board games for the whole family to play, I think elders would love them, too. Maybe a dominoes set, or how fun would a Monopoly knockoff be? I also would love a way to “hang out” again so I could let some sims chill together without having to keep selecting topics of conversation. Similarly, having a way for kids to play together without directing their every move or making sure the guest kid doesn’t wander off and do household chores (could they stop doing that btw?)
And we could get memories, maybe?
Lots of things aren’t a copy & paste of Generations, but the theme is about unique gameplay for all life stages, without the regular focus on young adults.
In my opinion, kids are not fleshed out. They stand around talking just like adults and I don't know any real life 10 year olds that do that. I want to see them playing games like tag and hide and seek and jumping rope. They should climb trees and make mud pies and draw with chalk on the sidewalk. Where's the hopscotch? Slappy hands and Mary Mack? Those are games I see kids playing all the time.
And teens...they need to be different from adults. They need to pick on their younger siblings like giving noogies, roughhousing, doing something like in TS2 where they'd rub their feet on a rug and then go static shock their sibling. They should be interested in dating and obsess about their first kiss, first date, rebelling, preparing for college, etc.
Adults and elders need more family related interactions. Grandparents should have special interactions for only their grandkids...could be spoil where they just give them candy and sweet things. They could give kisses and pinch cheeks. They could slip older grandkids money or a gift. Adults need more, too, but I don't know what can differentiate them.
Generations wasn't strictly about family gameplay. It was about giving each life stage unique content to be able to tell a full, meaningful life story.
Can't help but agree with you. I'm not against the heavy Young Adult weighting of Sims 4 as they want to appeal to Young Adult players, and hey, Young Adults DO go out and party more than your parents, but the age groups need to be defined more.
Ultimately though, EA is releasing the agre groups seperately.
And elders are even more ignored. Sims 3 Generations gave them walking sticks and the ability to show off about their grandkids, and that was it. They could do stuff like bingo, bridge/other card games, have their grandkids over for a day/night, that kind of thing.
Baby Shower, Driving Training & Teens graduating from High School. There's still no In-Laws, Great-Grandparents,
Great Aunt/Uncle, Half-Siblings & Step-Families. This was all in Sims 3 Generations.
I'm just still not convinced that the only way it can appear in the game is as a single pack with activities and gameplay for every generation.
More wedding options? Romance pack. Possibly combined with Hotels and maybe heists for those of us who don't care about romance
More after-school activities? School-focused pack, that specifically expands on the Child and Teen life states with more school options, more extracurricular options, and teen events such as prom. Also the pack that adds cars to the base game.
Baby showers? Maybe as part of a Nursury pack, that provides decor and furniture and more bassinette options - after they (watcher help me) free the babies.
Elders? A Retirement pack, with rabbit hole cruises - or even an actual cruise "world" - or a Retirement community apartment.
Yes, we could get some of this in a single EP, but I think EA would rather get more money out of us and I think the devs would rather give us new spins on stuff - and new stuff. Having the aspects of Generations split between various packs might let them do that better than having to sacrifice some of it because there's not enough time or other resources to get it all done.
We need a Generations pack.
There's nothing for Children to do, except collect Pokemon cards and gain character values. Where's the childhood crushes? Or after-school karate? Ballet? Baseball? It's just scouts, scouts, and more scouts.
There's nothing at all for Teens to do, at all. Prom? Homecoming? Joining the Yearbook Committee? Joining the football team? Cheerleading? A/V Club? Marching band? Glee Club? There's not even an active high school, there's no malls to hang out at... I could go on.
Adults can't have bachelor/ette parties, baby showers, mid-life crises. You can't have a best man or bridesmaid at your wedding, there's no wedding celebrant, there's no wedding cakes (oh wow, a birthday cake with a wedding topper, that counts).
Elders in this game look middle-aged.
They barely have wrinkles, they don't have canes, mobility scooters... and yet despite clearly not being octogenarians, somehow they can't be active Elders (that's a thing, not every Elder dies the second they go jogging), and many Elders have active... ahem... woohoo lives... but you can't do that in this game, because they'll drop dead immediately.
Elders need some serious fine-tuning. How old are they supposed to be? They look 60, but they act 80. Maxis needs to figure that out.
And what about remembering all these lifetime events? Memories in this game are difficult to find, difficult to access, and ultimately meaningless. All they do is make your Sim feel a certain emotion, but you have to trigger it yourself. They don't autonomously remember the day their spouse proposed, the first time their child walked, the time they wet their pants in 3rd grade... Imagine if you could go to Brindleton Bay lighthouse, and your Sim remembers woohooing for the first time inside it. Completely of their own accord. And then they get Flirty (or Sad, if their partner has since dumped them or passed away).
They could even add a new emotion--Nostalgic--where Sims feel an urge to visit places or speak to Sims that are connected to important memories.
Yeah... don't give EA any ideas.
Their rampant greed does not need encouragement.
Sims 3 trailers always made me want to buy the pack. I can resist more with 4.