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Why does everybody hate the idea of multiplayer in TS5?
aiex
Posts: 103 Member
I'm confused.. everybody seems to be turned off by the potential of TS5 being multiplayer, and I'm not really sure why. Think of how fun it would be to visit your friends towns/worlds, interact with their sims, and go on dates/adventures/etc.
For those that only play singleplayer, then EA should introduce the multiplayer style in a way that won't impact the individuals who prefer to play on their own. EA should look at games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and Stardew Valley. All of these games allow you to get the full experience in singleplayer, but also allow for multiplayer experiences as well. How awesome would it be if TS5 was like this?
For those that only play singleplayer, then EA should introduce the multiplayer style in a way that won't impact the individuals who prefer to play on their own. EA should look at games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and Stardew Valley. All of these games allow you to get the full experience in singleplayer, but also allow for multiplayer experiences as well. How awesome would it be if TS5 was like this?
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we basically don't want sims 4 2.0 to happen again, where we're missing key features of a staple sims game. i mean, if they're able to balance it out this time, with fully fleshed out single player and a multiplayer side i won't mind, but i doubt it. and i'd rather them just focus on what made their game so great for 20 years.
edit: they still have the capability of hooking the sims 4 to be online. a modder was able to do it with a server because the code is still all there still. if they really wanna see how it will work to have a multiplayer and a singleplayer mode they should invest into turning the feature back on and seeing how it is received by the community here and now in the sims 4, instead of investing into a whole new game instead.
My thoughts on why I hate it
Ewww dates with other simmers that could be children....umm NO!! If they put it online I pray they will remove all romance from the game.
Let’s kill the modding community because mods will probably be non existent with every thing online. Sims without mods is like peanut butter without jelly.
I don’t want other simmers messing around with my storyline I created for my sims.
There are enough social platforms for people to talk on we don’t need the sims added to it.
In games like Animal Crossing & Stardew Valley, you choose the specific people who are able to visit your towns / world. I think if TS5 was multiplayer, this would have to be the case as well.
I think Minecraft is a good example of how a game handles both modes, it can be an exclusively offline experience but you can create a private server to play with your friends.
I personnaly have no interest in multiplayer gameplay, so my worries would be:
- if there is an online component, that its development does not mean half-done single-player mode.
- if the two modes exist, that they will be completely independant
Well look at the history online killed the Sim City franchise and Sims online was a flop for the developers if you have an online mode you open up your worlds to trolls.
Let’s say I build a house and then some clown come on to my lot and builds a room on my lot but separate and traps my sim in it. this has happened in WOW and it’s a big problem.
Also how would this work with stuff,game and expansion packs not everyone buys every pack what happened if I have a bar let’s say and I have I dunno a couch from a stuff pack that you don’t have in there do you see you don’t own the pack can you use it you haven’t payed for it.
Also what about CC same example I have a cc couch can you see that you haven’t got it yourself see it would kill a big part of the Sims community .
This is just the tip of the iceberg too if it’s online it will probably be subscription game and not everyone or wants to spend £30 a month on a game that’s £360 per year do you want to pay that I don’t you could spend that money on a City brake In Rome (ok bad example right now) Or a new GPU or an amazing night out (or In) also lots of people don’t play online games that’s why .
For many people the sims works as a way to escape real life, introducing multiplayer would invite people from real life into your world with your sims, your relationships etc.
A lot of features that people want with the sims, personalities, more relationships, gameplay with depth, open world, color wheel, customization etc. would most likely not be possible to do online or these features would be heavily restricted. A lot of people suspect that the reason why the sims4 feels so limited is because it was originally designed to be online.
Mods would not work or not be allowed online, especially not mods that do not follow the recommended age rating. Some of the most popular mods for the sims4 are script mods which would be considered hacking in an online environment.
Time would not work like in the other sims games, there would be no way to speed up time.
EA have a history of implementing microtransactions in their games, especially their sports games, often by implementing roadblocks which forces you to grind for hours. If you want to see what that looks like, download the sims online on mobile, even the different hairstyles are locked and requires money to unlock that you have to work for in the game for a long time or buy for real money.
If the game would be online, they would most likely not be able to sell so many packs that they do for the sims, because it is really difficult to have an online environment where the world would look different depending on which packs the players have bought. Rockstar Games solved it in GTA5 online by making their expansions available for everyone, but you have to buy properties that cost loads of money in game so you either have to grind money for days or buy virtual in-game money.
Hacking could very well be an issue, and with the exception of a reporting system that they have on the gallery, Maxis does not seem to have any experience in security.
When a lot of things are happening at once in the sims4, you can experience something like simulation lag, which is the game stopping everything until some processes have finished, this is something that requires Maxis to go back and try to optimize the code to prevent this. Which is really difficult to do and is something that would be even more difficult if the game would be online.
When a player has a bad connection to an online environment the other players often experience network lag where they can experience things lagging or loading slowly. You can handle this by using good netcoding. However, netcoding is really difficult to do. Network lag will most likely be an issue.
It wouldn't be a true sims sandbox with other people potentially interacting with my house, my characters. Because of other people, I wouldn't have a full range of actions likely either. TS4 more than proves this by it being meant to be online, scrapped, and now offline but missing so much game play and actions from previous sims games. To be fair though, I wouldn't want a full range of actions if it were online either. How creepy would the entire romance menu be with complete strangers? Predators would come from all over to play this. Ew, just ew. Never mind the mischievous or mean options either. People just randomly coming up and face slapping a sim? Funny for the first time, annoying for life after. They could leave all of this out though.
An online/offline version? Offline would still suffer with less options. Look at TS4. What about expansions? Guess online couldn't have those because how would people see each other's content? Or interaction with a skill item that only came with said pack? Bye bye modders and CC creators. They would likely handle this with a subscription fee. Pay monthly and everyone gets all the content, whether you want it or not. No more choices on your game customization. I also imagine this would be overpriced. I would be right ticked off if I were paying the price of a stuff pack every month just to get a hot tub... but, they do need money to keep those servers running. (Which would likely be broken more than their up if other EA games are any indication how that would be managed, more on that later).
Private servers or games then? Yeah... That MIGHT work, but if you follow EA Help on twitter and see that most games their servers are down and broken dang near every weekend, I have zero trust that they could get it to work for the sims. I have no desire to be like the Fifa and Battlefield fans who can't play their games during peak times, when people have time off to actually want to play their game that they've paid for.
Basically I see it as being a more broken and watered down version of what we already have. Looking at past and present games across EA I've got every reason to be worried. I'm looking for a more in depth version of this game next and this would not be it. It would have more limitations that this version, but, to be fair, it would have to be to protect the public and children that play these games.
They tried online in the past with sims online... dumpster fire. Tried again with simport in TS3, another dumpster fire. Ok fine, Simcity online only... the biggest dumpster fire of them all. They've tried this THREE times already and every time was a disaster. It boggles my mind why they are so keen to crash and burn yet again.
I like coming to the forums or even twitter and interacting with other simmers and talking about the game and showing off screenshots. I don't want you guys or anyone in my game. That's MY place to build and tell stories and I don't want someone else just changing the story board, (so to speak).
Oh yeah, stories. That would be a harder thing to do with sims online. You can't control everyone. Probably could say goodbye to a lot of that too.
That being said, at the end EA will do what they will do, whatever they feel right. Imo, and against what i would want for the sims franchise, i think they will do it multiplayer. And i think that because in my line of work i deal with 12-15 yo girls (and boys). Almost all girls play the sims (specifically sims 4) and ALL of them told me they would love to play multiplayer. I didn't ask them a thing. They just comented how cool it would be to play with their friends. I have no doubt that sims 4 is already a watered version of what the sims were exactly to cater to this young girls that just want to play an easy game.
Maybe when people mention private servers they mean LAN (local area server), which is located on one of the players computer who then invites his friends to join. Main advantages: you do not rely on the company's servers and you have total control on who has access your server. Main issues: it requires a very good internet connection and to be a little tech savvy, as you have to deactivate your firewall.
A God Mode means Total control, Multiplayer Mode means Out-of-control, it's Second Life, a big mess.
TS3 Exchange was a nightmare with the tons of ugly CC included in the Sims3Pack.
The people are irresponsible and disrespectful, they can destroy your game.
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionGenerally when people talk about private, or dedicated servers it means that the game is hosted on a server that people connect to. The other way you can do it is that the player hosts the game on their own computer, which is common in some FPS games.
I don't think a sims game would be possible for a player to host, because that basically means that the world disappears when the last player is closing the game.
A dedicated server could work, it could be an open environment where players could interact with each other, or it could be a hosted world where players could invite each other.
I think a hosted world sounds like the most reasonable solution, relationships and time would be controlled by the host. Maybe other players could only interact with sims that you do not have as favorites. An open environment would just be restricted or really weird where people would meet with their sims and have relationships with each other.
I also forgot that I also wanted to respond to this in particular in bold. Just because EA should doesn't mean they will. Especially considering across everything done/made by EA, they "should" a lot of things and almost never do.
Someone else said something about EA doing what they will do, whatever we think about it and I've got to agree with that. I don't think multiplayer is a good idea for this game, but I bet it does happen anyways.
Also, on a reverse note, why should it be multi player? What exactly is it that would be "so cool" about it. I've seen a few people say they would think it was cool but zero reasons why it would be cool. To show off your house? You can already do that with screen shots and the gallery. The sims? Same thing. To sit there together and watch tv in the game or dance? *hmmm* well that's real life... go be in real life?
If the focus shifts to a multiplayer game, I'll stay where I am and ultimately quit. I think it's inevitable that they'll add some version of multiplayer but since I'm not interested, that won't benefit me at all.
I'm ok with the gallery and with ignoring the gallery when I want but, nope, I'm don't want to play a multiplayer game. Those features won't be selling points for me.
That's just a totally different playstyle that doesn't appeal to me.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
All you really need to do is look at how multiplayer games are played, what's in them, how they are hosted, and compare all that to Sims. Look at the other Sims games, then look at Sims 4 (which others have already pointed out was supposed to be an online game). Look at SimCity.
Multiplayer is fine for people who want it, and if they go that way there will be happy players and new players out there to embrace it. But the core Sim players will jump ship because it won't be the same.
In the grand scheme of things, does that matter? It depends on the size of the fanbase that wants multiplayer. If it's big enough, they'll move on and be fine. If it's not, Sims will die. Since I don't want Sims to die, I'd rather they not chance it and go back to their roots.
After the game changer predator situation, I don’t think EA is equipped to handle Sims online with the way it is now. Choosing Simmers to join still doesn’t make it safe because people lie online all the time. I am very skeptical and concerned because they swept the predator situation under the rug in my opinion. I never played Stardew or Animal crossing but they don’t sound like games that have woohoo. Anyway I will have no part in the game if it goes online. Good luck
thats my concern. we lost a very beloved (before the controversy happened) sim guru because of that and how it was handled and i dont think we need more of that integrated in the game itself. the cost to hire moderators and deal with that would be a cost i wouldn't want if it replaced content
that you could play alone, without internet, at 3am, in your room,
making messed up storylines of sims killing their 10 spouses for fun,
ain't nobody telling you what to do with your sims.
naturally the fans of original series do not respond well to the idea of introducing real humans to their game
they are scared of other people messing up their games or love messing up games (like me)
and don't want to make real life awkward because of it or hurt other (real) people.
I just don't like it just like I don't like other multiplayer games
and sims as big part creative game (building, making sims, making storylines)
don't really work as multiplayer in my opinion
(+ I also feel like its big waste or resources they should just put into the gameplay instead
since I am very unlikely to ever play sims as multiplayer even if it was option)
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One, to work properly, the engine would have to be stripped down. That's the main problem with TS4 as it sits. They thought it was a good idea with Sim City (5), and tried to make TS4 the same way. SC5 failed miserably, with lots of negative reception from multiple outlets, and last-minute, the online features were quickly abandoned.
And, uh, secondly, why mix real life and a simulation of life? Just seems weird to me. If you want that, there's Second Life.
Choosing who and when someone can enter your 'worlds' is not multiplayer. That is more like co-op. I think some (not you) don't understand the differences. I see here often some say but it would be fun to play with friends. Maybe for them but that would be a co-op setup and not an actual multiplayer game like WOW. A setup like co-op already exists in console versions of 2 and 3. How many are loving those still yet? Not many.
Distinction between co-op and multiplayer:
Quote:It is important to distinguish a cooperative or co-op game from a PvP(player vs. player or player vs. player). Both are multiplayer modes, but while in a PvP you compete against the other human players of the game, in a Co-Op you are collaborating with them, either to solve puzzles or problems or to end a common enemy controlled by the game itself .