i voted yes as i would like more challenges... like alot more of a challenge. it seems alot of the people who said the game isnt too soft are assuming that we want to mass murder sims when we dont.
a more challenging game for me involves things like the skill journal - greatly missed from sims 3 - as i can max a skill in sims 4 and unlock everything with that skill but thats it. its almost like the life aspirations we choose are the skills journal - we do things related to one skill mostly and get a trait from it ... yay ...
two of the biggest shocks and exciting moments in my sims 4 was the first family where i tried to see how many generations i could get before i got bored of that family. one of my teen sims used the bbq grill and started a fire. he died. i wasnt expecting it and he died before i could save him. my other death was a fave sim of mine died at work in the scientist career repairing or mixing something on the serum mixer. she got electrocuted and died instantly. it was quite a shock that i wasnt expecting and as sad as i was that she died i let it happen as i didnt know how long ago id saved and it added spice to my sims lives
i would personally like more meteors or comets to hit sims, (maybe have a option in settings to turn off for those that dont want it) as ive played since sims 1 and i dont recall EVER having a meteor hit them. i miss burglars and the frustration that i cant stop it and praying that they stole something cheap. i miss traits actually meaning something and to me, it seems, the sims have a wider variety of skills than traits
im all for a simtopia where everything is sunshine and rainbows for my sims but even adding the random opportunities from sims 3 for jobs social or trait boosts would be a welcome addition to break up the monotony
I am 21 years old and even though I love The Sims with all my heart, it starts getting much too boring for me too quickly. It's literally a routine. All they get is moodlets. Nothing ever happens.
That was not really under Will Wright - he basically did just Sims 1 and that was Nervous Subject from Sims 2 being taunted/ experimented on in StangeTown. By then Will Wright was working on Sims Online - I tested that game too for him - and he said he was mainly the person the Sims team came to when they had questions and such. He was mainly their sounding board. But he did not want to really do a Sequel - he said it terrified him. LOL. He never explained why - but his team did make that - the same people he worked on Sims 1 with of course. Sims 2 is also where Sims Guru Grant started as well.
I heard he did approve of testing Nervous Subject though - lol. He said who wouldn't - his mother was a possible crazy killer and his father was The Grim Reaper - Lol.
You have to keep in mind - you did not have to play that way or even that household unless you wanted to - so it was not as if experimenting on Sims was a main point of the game. It was just something in that town.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
What I don't understand though is why people are so against simple basic things that are undoubtedly a part of life - like children, pregant sims or pets dying. Just because they are children, pregnant or pets doesn't make their lives matter more than others lol. Give us some realism please.
What I don't understand though is why people are so against simple basic things that are undoubtedly a part of life - like children, pregant sims or pets dying. Just because they are children, pregnant or pets doesn't make their lives matter more than others lol. Give us some realism please.
Wouldn't it be nice in RL if a gal didn't age whilst pregnant? Yes, some realism is necessary. I don't believe most of us are talking about rampant violence or anything. There are certainly enough games that revolve around that. Not for me, thank you. But, it was always such a challenge to keep my pregnant Sim alive in Sims2. She was prone to starving to death and she dared NOT take out the garbage. The ghosts weren't all "Casper the Friendly Ghost", either. They were what most of us think of. Scary and intent on scaring the beejeebies out of the Sims that dared to live in their home. I never did have a Sim get struck by a falling satellite. But, then again I wasn't one to have my Sim sit out on the lawn for hours at a time to improve the chances of it happening. I did like how a Sim could positively 'lose it' when an ambition didn't get fulfilled. Dancing with a mop, or carrying around a five pound bag of flour as if it were a baby. Standing on the corner begging for Simoleons. Having either Sigmund Freud drop in to help set their thoughts aright again, or or the Pink Bunny, if their social was in the red. Now, our Sims aren't even allowed to be insane. They changed the name of the Trait to 'Erratic'. Really? I'm sorry insanity happens. I have a sister-in-law whose cheese has totally slipped off of her cracker. Seriously, she's certifiable. But enough of my rant.
What I don't understand though is why people are so against simple basic things that are undoubtedly a part of life - like children, pregant sims or pets dying. Just because they are children, pregnant or pets doesn't make their lives matter more than others lol. Give us some realism please.
Wouldn't it be nice in RL if a gal didn't age whilst pregnant? Yes, some realism is necessary. I don't believe most of us are talking about rampant violence or anything. There are certainly enough games that revolve around that. Not for me, thank you. But, it was always such a challenge to keep my pregnant Sim alive in Sims2. She was prone to starving to death and she dared NOT take out the garbage. The ghosts weren't all "Casper the Friendly Ghost", either. They were what most of us think of. Scary and intent on scaring the beejeebies out of the Sims that dared to live in their home. I never did have a Sim get struck by a falling satellite. But, then again I wasn't one to have my Sim sit out on the lawn for hours at a time to improve the chances of it happening. I did like how a Sim could positively 'lose it' when an ambition didn't get fulfilled. Dancing with a mop, or carrying around a five pound bag of flour as if it were a baby. Standing on the corner begging for Simoleons. Having either Sigmund Freud drop in to help set their thoughts aright again, or or the Pink Bunny, if their social was in the red. Now, our Sims aren't even allowed to be insane. They changed the name of the Trait to 'Erratic'. Really? I'm sorry insanity happens. I have a sister-in-law whose cheese has totally slipped off of her cracker. Seriously, she's certifiable. But enough of my rant.
Me too - loved all of that. I sometimes go play Sims 2 for a few hours now and then just to experience all those things. LOL.
I have 4 Legacies of my own Sims going in Sims 2, a couple of colleges full of neighborhood kids from the Maxis sims, and of course my stand by Maxis fams - The Goths, the Brokes, etc, etc in Pleasantview. I love how they all just sit there waiting for me to come back and pick up where I left off.
Like wise I have games going in Sims 3 doing things I like there - a homeless Sim trying to make it; a horse ranch household; My Sim Self and simself family living still in our old house in Rflongs town ;- a number of my Sims going back and forth into the future from Lunar Lakes - and more Sims living the tropical life on houseboats and such in Rflongs Beach City.
But I play Sims 4 mostly - just going back to all those when the want draws me to them because Sims 4 can't do any of that.
I am one who does not like to miss things - so when it happens - I like to pick up where I left off - if I cannot do it in this game. I would rather just enjoy playing what i miss - instead of harping on the fact this game does not have something. I understand that is me and not everyone else - but I stress a whole lot less this way and I think I can find what Sims 4 does offer as a bit more satisfying. I love it's toddlers - no question. I love the Vamps better than any others also - no question. I enjoy doing things that are in Sims 4 that really are not in the other games.
I guess I just found a middle ground instead of letting myself get all twisted up in the diferences. I use them to my advantage.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I think some are getting confused in thinking that those who voted 'yes' want horrific things to happen, ie extreme violence or natural disasters. At least for me, that is not the case. When I say I want more to go wrong, I mean I want things like burglaries back. I wish fires were more common when you have a bad stove and a level one cook. Heck, my level one cooks hardly ever seem to even burn a meal! And, as I said before, the reaction to infidelity is lacking. I had a sim kiss a married man right in front of his wife, and all the wife did was huff and stomp her foot. Didn't directly interact with either cheating sim. So, in short, I don't want horrible things to happen to my sims, just more surprises and consequences for their actions. As much as I do enjoy playing it, this game is a little too happy all the time. It's like riding 'It's a Small World' in Disney World when I wanted a rollercoaster.
I agree with this. I'm someone who does not like or want any harm coming to my sims but we need more of the negative aspects of life in the game. I may find it frustrating or annoying but that's part of what makes the game more intriguing and even rewarding.
I get that the game is marketed to kids as well but it is rated T not E. It's okay for the game to be a mix of the immature with the slightly mature, to have more seriousness. It's fine to have the inconsequential and the consequential. I think that would be something cool if it worked in conjunction with a sim's traits and gave players the option to decide how our sims react to what. But it's a balancing act and The Sims 4 already heavily leaned towards the more immature childish side due to choices made from the start.
Then add to that the choices to take away or downplay the more serious things or remove them completely and it just makes it worse in a way where it is too soft for my taste. I liked that element that something may not go the way I planned and sometimes it sparked new ideas and new ways of approaching or executing my original plans. I'm not saying let's make serial killers and have sims bashing each other over the head with things harsher than pillows or typically handheld inflatable or foam objects. I'm just saying that maybe sometimes everything in my sims life isn't perfect or even okay. That some things in their day or their whole day is bad and everything negative isn't taken so lightly unless it suits their personality.
Yep - When I said I did not think it was too soft - I was precisely focusing on meanest, bullyish behaviors - and having more ways to kill or torture sims. I am just not that kind of person. I like the game from the first one simply because there was no bullying and begotry. I detest both of those things - and loved the fact this game was free of them things.
I did not mean for instance if a sim did do something to anger another sim - that the sim who should be angry just keep smiling and chatting as if nothing annoyed them at all. That does make me a little crazy - because i know myself if some person came up to a small chold and started yelling at them and making them cry - hey I am going to get angry - not just smile it off. So in that respect - the sims are very unnatural. But I did not assume that is what people meant when they said too soft as I saw people posting about torturing sims - more ways to kill them - you know lots of mean things. I do not want meaness - but I sure want sims to reacte very unfriendly when it is called for.
The way they are now - I sometimes wish I could hit them with a stick - they are so numb. So yes to reacting angry if someone anger them - but not to go around purposely beating on other sims, no to kicking pets, or screaming at neighborhood kids - or if they do because of mean traits then fine let the parent sims get angry. Let flirt get what for - making moves on a sim mate. Add being normal in my book is fine.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
If I am in the rare mood where I want to kill things - well I go play a different game.
I don't kill my Sims on purpose, but I do like when unexpected things happen to them, including death. One of my strongest memories of TS3 is when I got a warning that one of my Sims thought it had gotten awfully dark outside. I knew that meant a meteor was a-comin', so I had him move inside ... only for his wife to unexpectedly run out to watch the meteor, which crushed her instead. It was interesting, and sort of funny, and TS4 lacks that kind of surprise much of the time.
Now if I want someone to have a surprising death, it has to happen to NPCs I have no control over, because the game is so forgiving. Letting someone die from, say, the Jungle Adventures poison feels extra cruel, because I'm given so much time to cure it. But if I made a bad decision, or took a risky shortcut, and it resulted in a poison that I only had hours to find a cure for instead of days? That would be something!
Then the game has that already - obviously if you have the option to save them. I had no problem in the game as long as we have the option to save them. I do have issues when my friend said she got a notice about her sim getting cold and got to the gym to see a massacre of frozen sims with no option to help them - including father Winter. That is IN this game and not something I want to see happen regardless of if they are Maxis sims or my sims. Speaking of Sims 3 - when a sim was freezing even other sims could help them but not in this game.
Same thing in Sims 3 with the meteors - all you had to do was make all the sims inside and out side the house go across the street - you had an option and no one died.
I object when sims are just killed with no way to prevent it - any sims. Even begging the Grim does not work most of the time in this game. How is that good?
Options - it is all about options. If they cannot give options to stop it - I don't want it added to the game.
Other wise that "YOU RULE in Sims 4 " means nothing!!!
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I think it's not gone too soft overall, but there are some things I have issues with. I acknowledge that it is softer, and that IS a bit annoying, because there are a lot of loyal players who expect a certain...feeling, I guess, about the game. And even if I'm not someone who plays in a way that endangers sims, sometimes things happen. I do miss that aspect. Things like alien abductions I feel like are less frequent (or at least in my game they are), just in case someone doesn't want that to happen. Meteor strikes were always a surprise too. It can be a nice challenge to end up working around these things.
As far as having to do things twice to kill sims (like how starving has stages) I don't think that necessarily makes it softer. I'd feel terrible just killing a sim once; having to make them suffer another stage seems worse, not better. That said, I don't harm my Sims, so the change doesn't really effect me.
I can see some people are a little confused by what some of us consider to be 'too soft'.
Murder, blood and gore are not what are needed.
It's more lasting interactions that we need.
If someone came and slapped you across the face, you're not going to laugh and make jokes with them ten minutes later. If spouse flirts with someone right in front of you, you're not going to forget about it when you walk into the next room.
Sims need to be able to hold grudges. They need to remember that someone did something to hurt them.
When someone bullies you, you don't become best friends with them.
TS4 sims seem like they're heavily medicated, and unaware of their surroundings. Are they the Stepford sims?
I can see some people are a little confused by what some of us consider to be 'too soft'.
Murder, blood and gore are not what are needed.
It's more lasting interactions that we need.
If someone came and slapped you across the face, you're not going to laugh and make jokes with them ten minutes later. If spouse flirts with someone right in front of you, you're not going to forget about it when you walk into the next room.
Sims need to be able to hold grudges. They need to remember that someone did something to hurt them.
When someone bullies you, you don't become best friends with them.
TS4 sims seem like they're heavily medicated, and unaware of their surroundings. Are they the Stepford sims?
This is exactly it. I don't think it has anything to do with bigotry and bullying like Writin_Reg mentioned. I think its the lack of genuine and meaningful and impact from interactions and decisions. At least, that's my opinion.
I agree and I just don’t understand why anybody would think that we could want to change the game into a shooter or a violent war game!?
This game is too soft in the sense that it is too easy and happy. Since TS1 every new Sims game has just gone even further in that direction and I really don’t believe that anybody really wanted it. But EA generally seems to think that simmers are just weak naive gamers who are afraid of challenges and conflicts and just want eternal happiness in a very easy game. The reason likely is that most simmers are females. But so were all the students that I have been a teacher for in 30 years and they sure weren’t weak naive people who were scared of conflicts. So I think that EA is wrong just going on and on changing the game in that direction.
Exactly how the game should be harder and less soft is very difficult to describe though. TS1 was a much harder game which I only tried after I already had played TS2. But even though TS2 was softer than TS1 I strongly preferred TS2 even though already TS2 was too soft in my opinion. But TS1 was hard in a wrong way. We just IMO need a Sims game that is more challenging and less trivial and happy in a new way. But alas EA thinks that the game should be more of a dollhouse game and a dress up game with mostly just stuff and SPs to support that idea. Therefore I don’t play the game anymore.
SPs are cheap to make and they sell very well because of their low prices. But I don’t really think that even very young simmers prefer them anyway. So EA has to add a little gameplay even in SPs. But this way with smaller packs, more stuff and less and more trivial gameplay doesn’t make the game very interesting anyway.
I make my own challenges and rules for my Sims to keep the game interesting. As a kid, I was always more interested in toys that allowed me to make up stories. An inert dollhouse that required me to imagine what was happening appealed more than, say, a lego model. (If I played with legos, I was usually building a house for my dolls, not following the manufacturer's instructions to build the x-wing fighter I was supposed to build.) I actually feel more free to play Sims 4 the way I want to play it than I did with previous games.
What I think is that the game just needs more challenges for it to be more interesting. TS2 had some great things in this regard.
-Chance Cards with real negative consequences: with the chance cards we have now, the only consequence wrong choices have is a decrease of the job performance. It would be way more challenging if the wrong choice would demote a sim or let him lose his job.
-Aspiration Failure: Maybe if a sim hasn't gotten any new satisfaction points, be it from aspiration goals or whims, they will become sad for a day.
-Emotions should be more believable: When a sim close to them died, I expect them to have a sad moodlet which is much stronger than how it is now, so they don't become happy as soon as they walk into a nicely decorated room. I want traits to really make a difference. A creative sim shouldn't just get inspired more often, the inspired moodlet resulting from the trait should be stronger, maybe +5 to make them feel different than sims who are not creative. Also, sims shouldn't mourn the death of a stranger they have seen maybe one time.
-Meteor/Satellite: I want this to return to the game. Meteors were so rare in TS3, I had maybe 2 or 3 the whole time I played this game. If this could make a return, it could be like TS3 that you get a warning and if you don't let your sim walk away, they simply die.
-Death should be different: It's really hard to kill sims in this game. It's like the game desperately tries to save a sim no matter what happens. Where is the challenge when a burning sim immediately gets extinguished from a sim nearby? Where's the challenge when extremely tired sims go out of the pool by themselves? Don't even get me started on emotional deaths. They are nearly impossible to achieve. And because we're already talking about death, how about more frightening ghosts? They are far too friendly. Ghosts with the angry emotion shouldn't just show this with breaking things around the house, they should try to scare sims (maybe with a chance of death by heart attack like in TS2).
-Deadly Illnesses: The illnesses we have now are useless because they have no real consequences. The only deadly ones we have each come in packs, but what about the other ones? Why do we have the option to buy medicine when the sims don't even need it to be cured?
To be honest, if these things would be addressed the game would be far more fun and more challenging. As much as I love the game, in terms of real consequences and challenges, it looks like the game is targeted at 6 year olds.
Yes, I understand that violence occurs in real life, but how many people actually witness/experience it first hand? Not a lot.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone over the age of 25 who hasn't witnessed or expierenced some form of violence in their life. I don't think many would reach 18 without having witnessed some form of violence. It happens at school, at home, on the street, at parties. It's a very real part of life.
I honestly find it quite disturbing how so many people seem to want horrible things happening to their Sims...
They're pixels. It's a game. I would much rather people take out aggression in a game, than take it out on the people around them.
I miss the grudges that sims would have in ts2
When two sims didn't like each other, every interaction between them was mean. They'd argue, insult each other, slap each other, fight. It was great.
The things you mentioned are great - very realistic. I was talking about killing sims or I really hated all the sims that hate children or even pets sometimes in earlier games and were downright mean to them. Granted I don't see that in Sims 4 in my own game - but I saw it a lot in Sims 2 and 3. But I have no problem if a sim royally makes another sim angry, or worse goes after their love interest right in your face - well yeah they deserve a punch in the nose - not a pat on the back or a smile and just keep chatting. I am human you know. LOL. But yes I'd be all for that - but on the other hand some hateful , mean sim yell at some little toddler and make them cry, or do something mean to some pet - I'm not going to like that.
Ts4 is a "safe space" where nothing really bad happens. Boring imo.
Yes and No. I mean there are some features that are extremely dark, but then most of the time it's so PG that I'm like "...Is this really made for teens? I feel like my six year old cousin could play this"
The vampire break in and nibble feature, dark and creepy and very much hinting toward physical assault.
Fighting, out right violence.
Feeding neighbours pufferfish to steal their husbands, just having that ability is dark but apart from those things and a few others...Sims 4 is just...meh.
Yes, I understand that violence occurs in real life, but how many people actually witness/experience it first hand? Not a lot.
I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone over the age of 25 who hasn't witnessed or expierenced some form of violence in their life. I don't think many would reach 18 without having witnessed some form of violence. It happens at school, at home, on the street, at parties. It's a very real part of life.
I honestly find it quite disturbing how so many people seem to want horrible things happening to their Sims...
They're pixels. It's a game. I would much rather people take out aggression in a game, than take it out on the people around them.
I miss the grudges that sims would have in ts2
When two sims didn't like each other, every interaction between them was mean. They'd argue, insult each other, slap each other, fight. It was great.
The things you mentioned are great - very realistic. I was talking about killing sims or I really hated all the sims that hate children or even pets sometimes in earlier games and were downright mean to them. Granted I don't see that in Sims 4 in my own game - but I saw it a lot in Sims 2 and 3. But I have no problem if a sim royally makes another sim angry, or worse goes after their love interest right in your face - well yeah they deserve a punch in the nose - not a pat on the back or a smile and just keep chatting. I am human you know. LOL. But yes I'd be all for that - but on the other hand some hateful , mean sim yell at some little toddler and make them cry, or do something mean to some pet - I'm not going to like that.
Ts4 is a "safe space" where nothing really bad happens. Boring imo.
I agree. A game that plays too safe, and in itself, is too easy, is just boring. It is against the nature of this series to be upbeat, sunshine, and rainbows. For instance, I still cannot believe it's 4 years after release and we still don't even have criminals in a Sims game.
I think psychologically they’ve got the ‘safe space’ theory all wrong. Having danger and mischief and evilness and bad luck in a game can actually contribute to the safe place feeling of a player irl because it’s playing around with something that is not real. It’s a way to in fact canalize and cope with bad things, without it actually affecting our lives. Like, I remember when 9/11 happened, for quite some time people didn’t want to watch disaster movies, because it had come too close, become too real. Misery and catastrophe in a game (or a book or a movie) emphasise the safe space feeling in reality and that can be very comforting. And safe.
Comments
a more challenging game for me involves things like the skill journal - greatly missed from sims 3 - as i can max a skill in sims 4 and unlock everything with that skill but thats it. its almost like the life aspirations we choose are the skills journal - we do things related to one skill mostly and get a trait from it ... yay ...
two of the biggest shocks and exciting moments in my sims 4 was the first family where i tried to see how many generations i could get before i got bored of that family. one of my teen sims used the bbq grill and started a fire. he died. i wasnt expecting it and he died before i could save him. my other death was a fave sim of mine died at work in the scientist career repairing or mixing something on the serum mixer. she got electrocuted and died instantly. it was quite a shock that i wasnt expecting and as sad as i was that she died i let it happen as i didnt know how long ago id saved and it added spice to my sims lives
i would personally like more meteors or comets to hit sims, (maybe have a option in settings to turn off for those that dont want it) as ive played since sims 1 and i dont recall EVER having a meteor hit them. i miss burglars and the frustration that i cant stop it and praying that they stole something cheap. i miss traits actually meaning something and to me, it seems, the sims have a wider variety of skills than traits
im all for a simtopia where everything is sunshine and rainbows for my sims but even adding the random opportunities from sims 3 for jobs social or trait boosts would be a welcome addition to break up the monotony
Will Wright's Maxis was more cruel than The Sims Studio.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General DiscussionThat was not really under Will Wright - he basically did just Sims 1 and that was Nervous Subject from Sims 2 being taunted/ experimented on in StangeTown. By then Will Wright was working on Sims Online - I tested that game too for him - and he said he was mainly the person the Sims team came to when they had questions and such. He was mainly their sounding board. But he did not want to really do a Sequel - he said it terrified him. LOL. He never explained why - but his team did make that - the same people he worked on Sims 1 with of course. Sims 2 is also where Sims Guru Grant started as well.
I heard he did approve of testing Nervous Subject though - lol. He said who wouldn't - his mother was a possible crazy killer and his father was The Grim Reaper - Lol.
You have to keep in mind - you did not have to play that way or even that household unless you wanted to - so it was not as if experimenting on Sims was a main point of the game. It was just something in that town.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
If I feel like playing something more violent or "adult" I go and play GTA or The Witcher for example.
All my creations are CC free.
I like to build stuff
Wouldn't it be nice in RL if a gal didn't age whilst pregnant? Yes, some realism is necessary. I don't believe most of us are talking about rampant violence or anything. There are certainly enough games that revolve around that. Not for me, thank you. But, it was always such a challenge to keep my pregnant Sim alive in Sims2. She was prone to starving to death and she dared NOT take out the garbage. The ghosts weren't all "Casper the Friendly Ghost", either. They were what most of us think of. Scary and intent on scaring the beejeebies out of the Sims that dared to live in their home. I never did have a Sim get struck by a falling satellite. But, then again I wasn't one to have my Sim sit out on the lawn for hours at a time to improve the chances of it happening. I did like how a Sim could positively 'lose it' when an ambition didn't get fulfilled. Dancing with a mop, or carrying around a five pound bag of flour as if it were a baby. Standing on the corner begging for Simoleons. Having either Sigmund Freud drop in to help set their thoughts aright again, or or the Pink Bunny, if their social was in the red. Now, our Sims aren't even allowed to be insane. They changed the name of the Trait to 'Erratic'. Really? I'm sorry insanity happens. I have a sister-in-law whose cheese has totally slipped off of her cracker. Seriously, she's certifiable. But enough of my rant.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
Me too - loved all of that. I sometimes go play Sims 2 for a few hours now and then just to experience all those things. LOL.
I have 4 Legacies of my own Sims going in Sims 2, a couple of colleges full of neighborhood kids from the Maxis sims, and of course my stand by Maxis fams - The Goths, the Brokes, etc, etc in Pleasantview. I love how they all just sit there waiting for me to come back and pick up where I left off.
Like wise I have games going in Sims 3 doing things I like there - a homeless Sim trying to make it; a horse ranch household; My Sim Self and simself family living still in our old house in Rflongs town ;- a number of my Sims going back and forth into the future from Lunar Lakes - and more Sims living the tropical life on houseboats and such in Rflongs Beach City.
But I play Sims 4 mostly - just going back to all those when the want draws me to them because Sims 4 can't do any of that.
I am one who does not like to miss things - so when it happens - I like to pick up where I left off - if I cannot do it in this game. I would rather just enjoy playing what i miss - instead of harping on the fact this game does not have something. I understand that is me and not everyone else - but I stress a whole lot less this way and I think I can find what Sims 4 does offer as a bit more satisfying. I love it's toddlers - no question. I love the Vamps better than any others also - no question. I enjoy doing things that are in Sims 4 that really are not in the other games.
I guess I just found a middle ground instead of letting myself get all twisted up in the diferences. I use them to my advantage.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Here there are consequences!
I agree with this. I'm someone who does not like or want any harm coming to my sims but we need more of the negative aspects of life in the game. I may find it frustrating or annoying but that's part of what makes the game more intriguing and even rewarding.
I get that the game is marketed to kids as well but it is rated T not E. It's okay for the game to be a mix of the immature with the slightly mature, to have more seriousness. It's fine to have the inconsequential and the consequential. I think that would be something cool if it worked in conjunction with a sim's traits and gave players the option to decide how our sims react to what. But it's a balancing act and The Sims 4 already heavily leaned towards the more immature childish side due to choices made from the start.
Then add to that the choices to take away or downplay the more serious things or remove them completely and it just makes it worse in a way where it is too soft for my taste. I liked that element that something may not go the way I planned and sometimes it sparked new ideas and new ways of approaching or executing my original plans. I'm not saying let's make serial killers and have sims bashing each other over the head with things harsher than pillows or typically handheld inflatable or foam objects. I'm just saying that maybe sometimes everything in my sims life isn't perfect or even okay. That some things in their day or their whole day is bad and everything negative isn't taken so lightly unless it suits their personality.
I did not mean for instance if a sim did do something to anger another sim - that the sim who should be angry just keep smiling and chatting as if nothing annoyed them at all. That does make me a little crazy - because i know myself if some person came up to a small chold and started yelling at them and making them cry - hey I am going to get angry - not just smile it off. So in that respect - the sims are very unnatural. But I did not assume that is what people meant when they said too soft as I saw people posting about torturing sims - more ways to kill them - you know lots of mean things. I do not want meaness - but I sure want sims to reacte very unfriendly when it is called for.
The way they are now - I sometimes wish I could hit them with a stick - they are so numb. So yes to reacting angry if someone anger them - but not to go around purposely beating on other sims, no to kicking pets, or screaming at neighborhood kids - or if they do because of mean traits then fine let the parent sims get angry. Let flirt get what for - making moves on a sim mate. Add being normal in my book is fine.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I don't kill my Sims on purpose, but I do like when unexpected things happen to them, including death. One of my strongest memories of TS3 is when I got a warning that one of my Sims thought it had gotten awfully dark outside. I knew that meant a meteor was a-comin', so I had him move inside ... only for his wife to unexpectedly run out to watch the meteor, which crushed her instead. It was interesting, and sort of funny, and TS4 lacks that kind of surprise much of the time.
Now if I want someone to have a surprising death, it has to happen to NPCs I have no control over, because the game is so forgiving. Letting someone die from, say, the Jungle Adventures poison feels extra cruel, because I'm given so much time to cure it. But if I made a bad decision, or took a risky shortcut, and it resulted in a poison that I only had hours to find a cure for instead of days? That would be something!
Same thing in Sims 3 with the meteors - all you had to do was make all the sims inside and out side the house go across the street - you had an option and no one died.
I object when sims are just killed with no way to prevent it - any sims. Even begging the Grim does not work most of the time in this game. How is that good?
Options - it is all about options. If they cannot give options to stop it - I don't want it added to the game.
Other wise that "YOU RULE in Sims 4 " means nothing!!!
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
As far as having to do things twice to kill sims (like how starving has stages) I don't think that necessarily makes it softer. I'd feel terrible just killing a sim once; having to make them suffer another stage seems worse, not better. That said, I don't harm my Sims, so the change doesn't really effect me.
Murder, blood and gore are not what are needed.
It's more lasting interactions that we need.
If someone came and slapped you across the face, you're not going to laugh and make jokes with them ten minutes later. If spouse flirts with someone right in front of you, you're not going to forget about it when you walk into the next room.
Sims need to be able to hold grudges. They need to remember that someone did something to hurt them.
When someone bullies you, you don't become best friends with them.
TS4 sims seem like they're heavily medicated, and unaware of their surroundings. Are they the Stepford sims?
This is exactly it. I don't think it has anything to do with bigotry and bullying like Writin_Reg mentioned. I think its the lack of genuine and meaningful and impact from interactions and decisions. At least, that's my opinion.
Legacy: https://www.theplumtreeapp.com/public.html#59acd9dc03a89f01b73bbf4e
Not so Berry: https://www.theplumtreeapp.com/public.html#596592475e3b3a0e268e7f7f
Family Dynamics: https://theplumtreeapp.com/public.html#5b565bffcb9247000fe6d4d4
This game is too soft in the sense that it is too easy and happy. Since TS1 every new Sims game has just gone even further in that direction and I really don’t believe that anybody really wanted it. But EA generally seems to think that simmers are just weak naive gamers who are afraid of challenges and conflicts and just want eternal happiness in a very easy game. The reason likely is that most simmers are females. But so were all the students that I have been a teacher for in 30 years and they sure weren’t weak naive people who were scared of conflicts. So I think that EA is wrong just going on and on changing the game in that direction.
Exactly how the game should be harder and less soft is very difficult to describe though. TS1 was a much harder game which I only tried after I already had played TS2. But even though TS2 was softer than TS1 I strongly preferred TS2 even though already TS2 was too soft in my opinion. But TS1 was hard in a wrong way. We just IMO need a Sims game that is more challenging and less trivial and happy in a new way. But alas EA thinks that the game should be more of a dollhouse game and a dress up game with mostly just stuff and SPs to support that idea. Therefore I don’t play the game anymore.
SPs are cheap to make and they sell very well because of their low prices. But I don’t really think that even very young simmers prefer them anyway. So EA has to add a little gameplay even in SPs. But this way with smaller packs, more stuff and less and more trivial gameplay doesn’t make the game very interesting anyway.
-Chance Cards with real negative consequences: with the chance cards we have now, the only consequence wrong choices have is a decrease of the job performance. It would be way more challenging if the wrong choice would demote a sim or let him lose his job.
-Aspiration Failure: Maybe if a sim hasn't gotten any new satisfaction points, be it from aspiration goals or whims, they will become sad for a day.
-Emotions should be more believable: When a sim close to them died, I expect them to have a sad moodlet which is much stronger than how it is now, so they don't become happy as soon as they walk into a nicely decorated room. I want traits to really make a difference. A creative sim shouldn't just get inspired more often, the inspired moodlet resulting from the trait should be stronger, maybe +5 to make them feel different than sims who are not creative. Also, sims shouldn't mourn the death of a stranger they have seen maybe one time.
-Meteor/Satellite: I want this to return to the game. Meteors were so rare in TS3, I had maybe 2 or 3 the whole time I played this game. If this could make a return, it could be like TS3 that you get a warning and if you don't let your sim walk away, they simply die.
-Death should be different: It's really hard to kill sims in this game. It's like the game desperately tries to save a sim no matter what happens. Where is the challenge when a burning sim immediately gets extinguished from a sim nearby? Where's the challenge when extremely tired sims go out of the pool by themselves? Don't even get me started on emotional deaths. They are nearly impossible to achieve. And because we're already talking about death, how about more frightening ghosts? They are far too friendly. Ghosts with the angry emotion shouldn't just show this with breaking things around the house, they should try to scare sims (maybe with a chance of death by heart attack like in TS2).
-Deadly Illnesses: The illnesses we have now are useless because they have no real consequences. The only deadly ones we have each come in packs, but what about the other ones? Why do we have the option to buy medicine when the sims don't even need it to be cured?
To be honest, if these things would be addressed the game would be far more fun and more challenging. As much as I love the game, in terms of real consequences and challenges, it looks like the game is targeted at 6 year olds.
I like to build stuff
Ts4 is a "safe space" where nothing really bad happens. Boring imo.
The vampire break in and nibble feature, dark and creepy and very much hinting toward physical assault.
Fighting, out right violence.
Feeding neighbours pufferfish to steal their husbands, just having that ability is dark but apart from those things and a few others...Sims 4 is just...meh.
It's meh.
I agree. A game that plays too safe, and in itself, is too easy, is just boring. It is against the nature of this series to be upbeat, sunshine, and rainbows. For instance, I still cannot believe it's 4 years after release and we still don't even have criminals in a Sims game.