I Miss the Premades

OminousFlare

As I recall that Gunther Goth appeared in Sims 3, I was looking up the Goth family on Google to see if they make another appearance on Sims 4 as well, and this made me remember the awesome storyline the Goths had in Sims 2, and how those premade stories were the one thing that kept me engaged and motivated throughout my Sims 2 gameplay. I remember they got me to work my creativity in thinking of how to expand those stories with my own style. My favorite storyline was of course the aforementioned Goth storyline with Bella being kidnapped by aliens - that was a lot of fun to work with and had so many possibilities in various genres of storylines.

Now, I know that the first Sims was originally a sandbox game to begin with and having no premade storylines, but in spite of the nature of the Sims games, I felt like the "story mode" of Sims 2 was a crucial ingredient in giving new players (especially inexperienced storytellers) a "head-start" of sorts, providing them a premade story to work with. The one reason I kept getting demotivated in playing the other Sims games was because I had no idea what to do with my Sims. Most of the stories I came up with on my own and tried to incorporate into my Sims either felt flat and boring or were ripped off from TV shows and movies, unlike the Sims 2 storylines that had a mix of emotional drama and witty humor in them. So I felt that The Sims 2 were helpful in that sense, giving players like me who want to tell a story but aren't very good at them and need a little help. Sims 2 was almost like a fan fiction video game that way, and it was fun.

I know there are technically "Story Mode" spin-offs for the Sims series (The Sims Life Stories), but those were so poorly made and limited in content. I think The Sims 2 had a better balance between sandboxing and having a pre-generated storyline.

I won't have hopes of premade Sims appearing in future Sims games, but since this is the feedback section, I just wanted to leave my feedback on this.

DragonCat159

You mean non-bland premade story(lines)? TS4 has premade sims/households/families.

fruitsbasket101

I agree with you. The premade story lines were my favorite part of the game. Back before the sims 4 came out, it was one of the things I was most excited about them expanding upon. The ones we have in the current game just aren't as good anymore.

EnkiSchmidt

Different strokes for different folks. I can see why people would want to have back what they liked, but I am also selfish and am glad Sims 4 handled the premades in a way I enjoy much better.

What we have here is two different storytelling traditions, the difference between playing in a comedia dell' arte style play and writing fanfiction.
In fanfiction (= Sims 2 and 3 style premades with clearly defined interests and favourites) you intrude on another author's turf, you borrow their creations and as a result can get a character - or the whole canon - wrong.
In contrast the comedia (= Sims 4 premades, to some extend also Sims 1 and the Sims 2 family bin sims) has no canon, each play is a world of it's own and what the protagonists did or were in one doesn't effect the other. The comedia uses types that have like two or three set characteristics but other than that are different persons depending on the play they are in. For example the Capitano is always a military guy with a big mouth and little guts let alone wisdom. But whether he is a sailor, soldier or mercenary or what exactly his place in the flow of events is depends on the play and can change from evening to evening even within the same play.

In Sims 4 Liberty Lee is like that. We know she's an astronaut, lives with her two best friends and is a little eccentric. We are also getting nudged into establishing a love triangle between her, Summer and Scott. But that's everything there is already and can be easily worked into whatever setting I wish to establish. The BFF also differ a lot from their My Sims counterparts.
Contrast that to Sims 2 Tank Grunt with a definite list of ancestors, memories and relationships, not to mention that his dad is programmed to pass by a certain lot upong loading that other lot for the first time! Also there is little change between the portable games and Sims 2, Tank is always the same person. He isn't a mask to fill with life, he is a clearly established character.

That said, I do not think the developers had the comedia dell'arte in mind when they decided to keep the premades sketchy. That's just my association. I guess it was more like making the sims generic dolls that a young player could easily pick up and play with without studying all that backstory. In the end whatever the reasoning behind it, it works for me.

OminousFlare

@EnkiSchmidt and @DragonCat159
Yeah, I remember that other Sims games still have backstories of their own, if not entirely generated storylines. That being said, I really hate the new "backstory" design for Sims 4. I went to play the Goths after reading your posts, Mortimer Goth to be specific, and I tried looking for his backstory in the Simology section (which was where all the backstory for Sims used to be in previous Sims games IIRC), but it wasn't there. Of course, I found out that the backstory has now ended up in the "Manage Worlds" section where only a single backstory is written for each household, meaning the Goths only has one backstory slapped on them instead of four written for each of the family members. I really don't like this change, and prefer the one where each individual has his or her own backstory in previous games.

Also, they got the Goth backstory wrong anyway. It says that Belle disappeared, when she's clearly in the household! What terrible writing.

Anyway, I understand your point, EnkiSchmidt, of having a generic blank space you could play in whatever ways you like instead of having a restrictive criteria - even if I don't agree with it. I think that for casual storytellers like myself who don't have an active interest in writing our own stories, it can be a little difficult to jump into a blank state character and come up with ideas of our own how, for example, the love triangle of Liberty Lee you mentioned, is supposed to go without borrowing ideas from TV shows or other generic love triangles we've already seen before. I think it's less of a matter of taste (as you put it, "different strokes for different folks") and more of a matter of experience and skill. Are you good at coming up with stories of your own without any help? It's that kind of issue. I think nobody likes to play around with a boring or bad story, and pretend that we're playing with a fun one. It's one of the reasons why playing House can feel a little silly for many adults who have lost that spark of imagination children have.

Also, it really doesn't help that you can't fire up your imagination too much. Aside from aliens and maybe some fantasy creatures like unicorns, you don't have a lot of options to play with if you want to have fantasy stories with your Sims, especially superheroes. Where are the capes? The superpowers? Or how about if you want to play a pirate Sim? Or if you want to play an archaeologist who's also a part-time adventurer wielding a whip? So yeah, a lot of things in The Sims, you have to imagine on your own without visual-aid. You have to mostly limit your storylines to drama, like love-triangles and mothers with cancer. But I digress.

I think at the end of the day, certain people would just be more motivated with a pre-established goal at hand rather than running around in an empty space. I feel like that's why The Sims 2 worked for me. I mean, even most sandbox games you find out there have a certain established set of lore that you could follow rather than, "Okay, here's a list of generic people. Come up the story on your own and make them non-generic." I feel like there's something lazy about that kind of design.

keekee53

I liked the stories because it helped me connect with those sims right away. I deleted a few premade sims in Sims 4 and it didn't bother me because I never got to know their story or connect with them.

BreezaaRose

Very good point!
I always make stories to add to the descriptions of the households in my world, they are very bland otherwise in TS4.
I hope they put more backstory effort in the next game