Am I the only one who doesn't want pets and seasons? «1234...Next Go

aob

Am I the only one who doesn't want pets and seasons?
Because it feels like I am.
With pets, I don't want another "person" to control. My life is chaotic enough! And I don't want to customize my pet! That's just not realistic. I want to adopt, go to adoption fairs (maybe like a festival type thing?) and animal shelters! Maybe if they add those things (even though there's only like, a 1/10000 chance lol) I'll consider it. Also, animal related careers? Vet, animal shelter employee?
As for seasons, I just don't feel like my game is lacking that. I don't really notice it, and it doesn't matter to me. Sim time is all so arbitary anyway, and having seasons would just make the sim time thing weird in my opinion.

One EP I would like to see is a Vacation EP. I'm getting a bit sick of Granite Falls, and would love some other vacation spots. But that's really the only idea I have, so I would love to hear all your thoughts! Do you want pets and/or seasons? If not, what do you want? Let me know!

asa144

Of course you wouldn't be the only one. I'm hardly dying for them myself. Pets and Seasons would be nice, but I would still play the game if EA never released them for TS4 but did release expansions that I really want such as University and Vacations. I do recognise that most people want those two EPs though.

Cupid

if nothing else, I want them just so I can stop seeing the words pets and seasons everywhere
that's basically the same reason I "wanted" toddlers, too

Lomelindi7

I don't care about Pets at all. I've never enjoyed the pets packs in any previous version and never bothered to play with them. I find it dull. However, I am not opposed to them being added. I will simply try to wait for a sale before I buy the pack.

However, Seasons is an absolute must have for me. It actually bothers me that we don't even get basic weather (rain versus sunny) in the game. And I won't be excited about a vacation pack until we get Seasons. What would be the point of a tropical vacation if my sims can't even tell what temperature is and it's always sunny where they live anyway?

Anyway of course you're not the only one. Pets and Seasons are just both really popular expansions but not everyone is going to care about either of them. So many different types of players play this game! Can't please everyone all the time.

Chazzzy

I would like seasons but I don't care for pets and I'm disappointed that appears to be the next EP released.

Karallyne

shhhhh
this opinion isn't allowed in these parts

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Elaina

I want pets. Simply for the fact that it's more "realistic" for my gameplay. Lol, if that makes sense. I'm an adult with no kids. No plans on having kids. I do have 2 cats, though. I would love to put them in my game one day if I play my simself.

But I also Love playing with the parenthood pack, and toddlers.. so it's not that I would want that gameplay over everything else. It would just be nice to have.

Summerjase

Right? When I first bought Pets for Sims 3, I barely played it. I have a hard enough time ~focusing~ on one or two sims, add a pet to that mix?? Not even worth it. But I'm all for the idea for the animal-related careers.

I never had Seasons, and there was just one reason for that: why? What is the point of having seasons in a game? It seems just like another waste of $20.

Gosh, I'd love to see a new vacation destination. My sims are currently in Granite Falls as a 'honeymoon' vacation type thing, and I'm half debating sending them home early since it's just so boring. There's nothing to do there.

Lomelindi7

Chazzzy wrote: »

I would like seasons but I don't care for pets and I'm disappointed that appears to be the next EP released.

The only reason I'm ok with Pets being next is that it gets it out of the way!

DeKay

Yes, I do want pets. I'm not totally crazy about seasons, cuz I live in a country with no season anyway. But I think it will be nice to have seasons in The Sims cuz it will add rain and some other weather related things will make the game environment a bit more realistic.

But everyone is different. Looks like most of you who don't care for pets/seasons would love a vacation EP, whereas I couldn't care much for that. Probably cuz I'm not gonna make my sims go to a vacation spot every single day of their lives. But pets and seasons is something I can use more often in my game.

The only other EP that I want is one like Superstar (not Showtime, please no).

SparklePlumley

I have had many many Pets irl. My family ran an animal rescue, when I as growing up. I've personally had just about everything from cats/dogs to ferrets/hamsters, fish/birds, snakes/lizards, even a snail and a preying mantis. Pets in the Sims though, isn't my thing either. I thought I wanted them really bad in TS1. When we got them, I added a cat. I didn't like it. It was more aggravation than anything else. I never had another pet the whole time I played that game, which was alot. I did like the pet store and stuff. I hope they add that this time around. I do not like the idea of controlling a pet. No way.
Iay try them again this time around. It depends on how it done, and I for sure won't buy right away. I'll wait and watch a ton of reviews and LPs before I buy. I may buy it, on sale, though if I really like the CAS and BB.

Seasons on the other hand, I never got to play, like another said above. I think I would like just weather more. Rain, storms, wind. . . Than actual seasons. I'm not sure how that will go, like you, with how time runs in TS. It depends on how it's done, as well. Some have speculated it may only be per world. We'll just have to wait and see on that one.

DeservedCriticism

I don't either, I just never bother saying so because those two ideas are so popular, I feel bothering with my opinion is just a lost cause.

Over a year ago I made a thread about this. The thing is that both Pets and Seasons are valued for their immersion factor: they help make the world feel more realistic, they make the Sims world more like real life. However, I don't think either of the two have ever been very big on gameplay. Seasons is a very passive (but appreciated) feature that's not in-your-face or active about making your Sims behave differently, and Pets...? Can spend a lot of time sleeping and doing nothing lolol. Horses were a bit more gameplay intensive thanks to the competitions, but we're not getting those again.

My issue with these two is....say Pets are the 2017 expansion and Seasons the 2018 one. When the heck are we gonna get an Expansion that focuses on gameplay?!

When we request these, we're more or less asking to degrade EPs into introducing more passive, immersion-focused features, rather than using the EPs as a chance to add loads of gameplay. I personally have nothing against Pets or Seasons (though I've never been a huge Pets fan), but I think in the context of Sims 4, we need gameplay. I would gladly sacrifice or delay concepts like Seasons if it means we can focus on gameplay-intensive concepts instead to help flesh out this game, but yeah, I'm in a clear minority here so it simply won't happen.

It's a bit sad too, because I fully expect to see some complaints that Pets or Seasons don't add much gameplay, though in this case I think we the consumer sort of need to accept some level of responsibility for that. I do think this is a case where perhaps a decent amount of people "don't know what they want." They know they want Pets and Seasons, but perhaps some fail to realize that there's decent odds Pets/Seasons and gameplay could effectively be mutually exclusive. They're not, but all EP development is on a time limit and a budget, and Pets/Seasons are so resource-intensive that I doubt it's realistic to expect them to have much time left over to focus on gameplay. I don't think many people put thought and consideration into this though, so I do expect to see some mixed feedback about Pets especially when people slowly realize that Pets hasn't resolved Sims 4's sparse gameplay issues.

DeKay

@DeservedCriticism: Could you give some examples of gameplay that you wish to see in the game then? Just curious since you didn't put it in your post.

Paralee

DeservedCriticism wrote: »

I don't either, I just never bother saying so because those two ideas are so popular, I feel bothering with my opinion is just a lost cause.

Over a year ago I made a thread about this. The thing is that both Pets and Seasons are valued for their immersion factor: they help make the world feel more realistic, they make the Sims world more like real life. However, I don't think either of the two have ever been very big on gameplay. Seasons is a very passive (but appreciated) feature that's not in-your-face or active about making your Sims behave differently, and Pets...? Can spend a lot of time sleeping and doing nothing lolol. Horses were a bit more gameplay intensive thanks to the competitions, but we're not getting those again.

My issue with these two is....say Pets are the 2017 expansion and Seasons the 2018 one. When the heck are we gonna get an Expansion that focuses on gameplay?!

When we request these, we're more or less asking to degrade EPs into introducing more passive, immersion-focused features, rather than using the EPs as a chance to add loads of gameplay. I personally have nothing against Pets or Seasons (though I've never been a huge Pets fan), but I think in the context of Sims 4, we need gameplay. I would gladly sacrifice or delay concepts like Seasons if it means we can focus on gameplay-intensive concepts instead to help flesh out this game, but yeah, I'm in a clear minority here so it simply won't happen.

It's a bit sad too, because I fully expect to see some complaints that Pets or Seasons don't add much gameplay, though in this case I think we the consumer sort of need to accept some level of responsibility for that. I do think this is a case where perhaps a decent amount of people "don't know what they want." They know they want Pets and Seasons, but perhaps some fail to realize that there's decent odds Pets/Seasons and gameplay could effectively be mutually exclusive. They're not, but all EP development is on a time limit and a budget, and Pets/Seasons are so resource-intensive that I doubt it's realistic to expect them to have much time left over to focus on gameplay. I don't think many people put thought and consideration into this though, so I do expect to see some mixed feedback about Pets especially when people slowly realize that Pets hasn't resolved Sims 4's sparse gameplay issues.

I don't think its even going to be an Expansion this time around. If its just Cats and Dogs first like its sounding like, that sounds like a gamepack to me. We'll probably still get something super disappointing as an EP though since they've been on track for doing that. So much so I bought all of Sims 3 on Steam for sale. Well not quite all. I'm still missing some EPs and a handful of SPs but I'll get them next sale

Shadowmarked

I'm very meh on all of it. I like pets I like seasons but I'm not in a big hurry to get them. But then that is pretty much my opinion on everything ts4. There are things and ideas I like and would buy but honestly I like a majority of content so I really don't care when things are released. Plus I have a rule with games of don't buy it unless you can like it as it is so even if they stop making packs tommorow I'm amused enough with what I have.

DeservedCriticism

DeKay wrote: »

@DeservedCriticism: Could you give some examples of gameplay that you wish to see in the game then? Just curious since you didn't put it in your post.

I did a post once suggesting a Hobbies pack, because I think it's easy to use skills to provide new types of gameplay. I actually managed to dig the thread up.

The jist of it is that I'd want to see the skills either unlock new gameplay functions, or cater to old fan requests. Autorepair for example would be tied in with collecting (lord knows we need a faster method of collecting MySims trophies) and unlocking other beneficial locations, and would function as a great way to introduce cars to the game. (albeit limited) Martial Arts was directly tied in with competitions, and the idea behind competitions was that it encourages your Sims to stay involved with their alleged hobby because if they're the best chessmaster/martial artist/gamer/etc in town, then they enjoy some nice, beneficial reward traits that they can lose if they start to fall behind and lose to the local competition. I feel that would result in more specialized/customized Sims that truly remain involved with certain hobbies, instead of simply maxing a skill and never touching it again. Flower arranging was the final one and I thought it would work well as a means of manipulating Sim relationships. Give bouquet X and they forget their relationship with the next Sim they talk to. Give Bouquet Y and they immediately hate the next person they talk to. Bouquet Z would provide the unique function of maxing romantic feelings but putting friendship status in the red. Yknow, functions like that.

It's just an example that you may or may not like, but I'd say the goals I want to see for an EP are:

1) Find a way to individualize Sims, make them feel different from one another and make them feel more unique. (The competition reward traits - alongside a list of new hobbyish skills your sims can opt to do or no - were meant to achieve this)
2) Provide new gameplay with new functions that we don't have in game yet. (repeating existing features isn't so great, but exploring and adding on new features and gameplay mechanics is always fun)
3) Gameplay needs to be the focal point and take priority over all else. (Life states, skills, careers, competitions, areas to explore or tasks/"quests" to complete...there's plenty of ways to introduce gameplay, but I feel the ones I named do a pretty consistent job of providing gameplay)

DeKay

Okay, thank you for elaborating.

Hermitgirl

It's not that I don't eventually want them they just aren't as important to me as having other themes that will come to this iteration more. I'm not making the schedule though so I'll make the best of what comes and hope I end up enjoying it (mostly thinking about Pets here). I'm pretty sure I will. I'm enjoying things more this time around than in the past so willing to give it all a chance. (Well except apartments.. they still didn't win me over to want to be an apartment dweller this time around).
I want University, Witches, Stardom (of some kind), Bands, Crafting and other Hobbies, and another vacation world (tropical). I'm hoping for Farm Life.. The rest is just try it as it comes and enjoy what it adds in the meantime. I can be patient.

simgirl1010

I wouldn't mind if we never get Pets or Seasons. I'd much prefer a vacation expansion, sports/hobbies, and university.

Teslachick2

Pets is the only TS3 EP I didn't bother getting and I'm not excited for the supposed pets pack in TS4 as well. Only reason seasons is installed in my pc is because of the BB items, weather is always switched off in my game. I wish we'd get a vacation pack or anything else really.
Still, like someone already said, I hope we get those two packs out of the way so the constant annoying demand for them goes away like toddlers and laundry.

pinkish

@aob The thing about being human is we all have our own minds, which means we may all want something different. We can choose which to purchase or not. I would have rather had pets before toddlers, seasons I can do without, I would love to have the snow, rain, changing leaves, but as far as sports or any of the extras seasons had before I never used them. I never purchased university, so I can't speak on that but I chose not to because it wasn't something I was interested in, but I would have never wanted them to leave it out because I didn't want it. I don't know how long you have played the sims, but this is the way it has always been, you wait till what you want is available, it isn't necessary to purchase every pack that comes out.

Nectere

I'd be interested in small pets like fish, hamsters and parakeets, but I really didnt enjoy pets in S2; plus the pets having jobs I thought was just kinda weird. I def want seasons to return tho, even if it were just subtle and atmospheric.

JumpingTrains

I would like to have rain and some winter clothes in the game as Game Pack, definitely not an EP!

No offense but Spring and Summer are pretty much the same.
Snow could be a cute vacation spot though.

I LOVE pets in real life but in the Sims I just neglect them.

I would like a College / University pack, I feel like it has so much potential.

simplysims25

I want both.
Without Seasons every day is the same. I like rainy days & snow. Makes the game a bit more realistic.
And pets for me is fun. I never micro-managed them in other games, and probably wouldn't now either.
I'd like an adoption option or if I want to customize a pet (I'd like to remake my dog) having a pet store would be nice. Being able to buy dog houses, collars, leashes & food bowls would also make it seem more real.

I'd just like my Sims families to experience different weather & have their pets roaming around. Like life.

Tomatplante

Seasons is absolutely crucial to me, maybe because the difference between summer and winter is absolute where I live and weather changes are a big part of how I go about my everyday life. And even if the gameplay it adds is kind of passive and "in the background", it would add such detail and immersion to my game. Do I want my sim to have a winter wedding, or among the spring blossoms? Yay, it's stopped raining, we can have our dinner on the terrace! It's getting colder outside now, so better light up the fireplace and spend the evenings around the cards table or with a book. Summer is here, time to get that waterslide out and throw a pool party! Sure, we can do all of these things already - but I long have weather as an external force to influence how my sims spend their days and not have every day feel the same. Or course it should add unique gameplay too, but I'll gladly admit that's not the most important part of the seasons game experience for me.

Pets is less important to me than seasons, but I still enjoy it as an addition to family gameplay. But I'm one of those who would rather not control my pets or give them careers.