How do you feel, about this iteration of our beloved Sims?

Kerem93 · June 2019

The Sims has always been a huge part of my life. I've never not played it. I enjoy The Sims 4, however I feel that it is lacking depth and quality. I read a post here that someone made (feel free to quote yourself). This post perfectly summed up how I feel about The Sims 4. It is lacking depth. We are given systems and gameplay features with limitations, which hinder our imagination and gameplay. I have really been thinking a lot recently, about these limitations. For example; having sims sleepover, at their families' house. I have an idea for a story I'd like to tell. My sim will move to Sulani and visit her family in Willow Creek, often. It is very disheartening, when my sim is shooed and told off for sleeping in her old bedroom at her families' house. I shouldn't have to work around these limitations, with mods or traits. What made The Sims 2 brilliantly executed (if not exactly like the example I gave), was that these systems were outstandingly built and attention to detail was given.
What are your thoughts? What issues are limiting your story telling?

FurSimsOfficial · June 2019

Yes those little feature that are only understood when someone plays like a huge part of the community does. You need to be in it to miss those little features and to experience the lack of creativity here.

There are so much more then just sleep overs. I wish I would keep a strict list of things that I could not do in The sims 4 till now. Maybe we should open a thread like this. Would be very informative. Also if someone has a way or idea to make it happen that others might not have thought of.

But yes in general, the devs should have a more serious look into things like these. It can not be fixed with numbers and statistics, but with actual players.

trulyoutrageous · June 2019

I agree 10000%. I miss sleepovers but I also miss the random vacation parent sims would get which would allow teen sims to throw a "teen party." I miss the way parties went in the sims 3. I miss the roommate system sims 2 and 3 offered. I miss the way families actually meant something and that they weren't just strangers who shared a house (for example, step-parents had a title, grandmothers, great-grandparents, brother/sister-in-laws, etc).

I mean, even a few of the items. I miss cars, lounge chairs, relaxing on a bed with a loved one, bunk beds, picnics, swing sets, taking a class to learn a skill, the memory system, rocking chairs, slow dancing with a loved one, among many other things. (Man, talking about it makes me miss Sims 3 a whole lot).

The little things definitely matter and the Sims 4 missed the ball with this. I love the new content they put out, don't get me wrong. I'm glad they've been becoming more inclusive, but game-play wise, it's just lacking.

I think what I'm really frustrated by is that while I like Sims 4, it's very apparent that they took all the good from Sims 2 and built on that with Sims 3. They didn't do that with Sims 4 imo.

EnjoyfulSimmer · June 2019

There's already a trending thread about this exact thing though.

JestTru · June 2019

I just brush it off and work around it. I did just turn my game off because I got annoyed with how my sim went to her daughter's house to meet her new grandson and cook dinner for the new parents when her daughter walked up to her and I got that negative red mark with the pop up its inappropriate behavior to do this.
Really? She can't go to her daughter's house and cook for her... OOOk.... moving on

Kerem93 · June 2019

EnjoyfulSimmer wrote: »

There's already a trending thread about this exact thing though.

Okay, you can go enjoy that thread then? You don’t have to be here.

WildIrishBanshee · June 2019

I love it, just about as much as I love Sims 2. I don't think it lacks depth at all, but I've barely scratched the surface so far. Don't really miss anything from Sims 2, besides maybe being able to create my own town/world. Of course, different playstyles are going to enjoy different things.

Simpkin · June 2019

I have no issues or limitations.
The only thing I have a small problem with is my pets are always scared. Makes me feel like I'm not fulfilling their needs when really I am. It's just a glitch I hear.
I have never had the need for a sleepover so. Would be fun though. I remember in previous games I basically had a homeless sim with lots of friends and they'd stay over at friends' houses to sleep in a bed

Thunderbat87 · June 2019

The «always welcome» trait is the first one my sims get. Makes it so much easier to visit and sleepover

I love this game a lot and feel like I can be really creatove though..

Sharonia · June 2019

I love it. I really don't understand the issue people have with it when they say it lacks depth. I've played all the previous iterations and I can't think of many things that felt that different. I don't spend my time in build mode or cas though so maybe that's where it's lacking for others?

I miss the Sims 2 memory system and personalities could really be improved on but that's pretty much the only things I think is wrong with the Sims 4 currently. I'm still enjoying the game a lot despite these two things.

FlyingPotato659 · June 2019

Oh I do love the attention to detail, don't believe The Sims 4 has not a lot of it but they did a few like seeing a male sim's urine into the toilet but The Sims 2 certainly did a lot with the weed growing in your backyard and their hair animates a little and the sims' personality was different, it was easy to make friends with some and some are difficult to make friends based on personality

Sha2520032003 · June 2019

@Kerem93 - I totally understand where you're coming from. I think for me, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where the game is lacking. But I will try to describe what I mean: TS4 everything is 'happy, happy' all the time. There's no real challenge in making friends, or even falling in love. In TS2, it was not easy to make friends and you couldn't just walk up to someone and have a romantic conversation if they weren't attracted to you. I miss random things happening, like in TS3, I recall a meteor falling out the sky and killing my Sim's child. I was literally shook, as it was totally unexpected. This type of stuff doesn't happen in TS4....again, it's so 'happy, happy' all the time. & then there's the emotions. TS4's selling point was emotions when it first was released. TS2 Sims had way more emotion than TS4 Sims do. If my Sims are angry, I want them to stay angry....not be angry for 2 seconds and then flip back to happy because of some moodlet. If my Sim's spouse cheated, I don't want them to be able to hug right in that moment. If someone died, I want them to be sad and stay sad for a bit (if it was someone they had a relationship with). If two Sims fight, I want them to be mad, not just hug it out 2 seconds later.

The stuff I mentioned above is what I mean when I say that this game lacks 'depth'. I enjoy TS4....I play it, sometimes I find myself getting lost in my gameplay. I do like how the Sims look, and the graphics and how the game runs on my machine. But I do not play this game without mods. I play a heavily modded game in order for me to enjoy it. TS2 & TS3 I didn't ever need mods. But I think what's challenging is that with each iteration, I think the Devs will have more of a challenge to come up with new content + old. It's finding that balance as players want both. It was probably easier going from The Sims 1 to The Sims 2, as you only had 1 version to compare to, so TS2 was a major improvement. But I think as time goes on and you have all this content to compare/contrast to, it's always going to be this major challenge to make the next iteration bigger and better......where the benefits outweigh what doesn't carry over from the previous version. I think that's where TS4 missed....there were no major benefits in the base game to outweigh everything that didn't carry over from TS3, so it just felt like this huge hole where things are missing. I think has gotten better since it was first released, but IMO, this is why I feel the game is lacking.

AriaMad2 · June 2019

There’s definitely areas where we’re lacking depth. Hopefully they can be added in the future.

Jordan061102 · June 2019

I think the main problem is always the lack of personalities. The sims themselves are shallow, it is what makes the game just boring.

MidnightAura · June 2019

For me the game is shallow. I’ve said it before and I will say it again but there’s no real consequence and that can make it boring. For example cheating. Have your sim cheat on their spouse, sometimes right in front of them and at best you get an angry moodlet, at worse nothing. The player has to engineer the reaction and consequences after. Because if the player doesn’t, it’s like the cheating didn’t happen. The couple’s relationship will remain unchanged. My sim got a whim to try for baby with her cheating husband minutes after catching him cheating. Minutes after she caught him cheating she went and shared a joke with the other woman. I had to make her be angry about it, I had to make her confront the other woman and as soon as the interactions were complete the sims returned autonomously to nice interactions. They shared a hug. The game fights against the player for any interaction that isn’t sweetness and light.

I mean for crying out loud! Yes there is the argument that not every sim should respond to cheating by slapping the cheaters and the relationships being severely damaged (ala previous games) But relationships not being damaged is just ridiculous. Because it’s not realistic. How can the first three sims games get that aspect right and the sims 4 cannot? Boggles the mind.

Traits are a huge problem as they have very little impact. A good example is the evil trait in the sims. An evil sim will autonomously do a “evil laugh” regularly. They become happy when others have negative moodlets (but all sims are almost always happy so that’s irrelevant) and they have a few unique socials that don’t change the relationship with the target and don’t mean diddily squat.

Now an evil sim in the previous games could steal candy from toddlers, did better in certain career tracks, laughed at others misfortunes, woke up sleeping pets and left to their own devices would be incredibly mean to those around them. You had to micromanage their relationships as they would quite happily destroy it on their own. On the contrary my evil sim in the sims 4 has a great reputation and has lots of friends. In the sims 4 you have to pretend your sim has emotions they don’t have. I’ll never forget an LP I watched where the youtuber was talking about how distraught and upset her sim was, her sim was heart broken at a situation. Except.. the sim wasn’t. There she was, sitting on the couch eating popcorn wit the worlds biggest smile. The sim should have been broken hearted as her dad had died but the sim didn’t care!

Will Wright recognised that players preferred to explore failure states in games and as such if that’s how you wanted to play you could. If you didn’t you didn’t have to but your sims would still have fulfilling, challenging lives. The game encouraged you to try different things, different traits, mix things up and many times it encouraged you to mess with your sims lives. It threw you challenges like burglars, like the repo man, like bug infestations, social services taking your children if they were neglected and woe betide your sims if they angered another. Your trash can would be on the ground for at least a week. Your sims could lose their jobs. It felt realistic as our sims went through lots of different things good and bad and it kept it interesting.

Sims 4 wants your sim to live a perfect utopia where everyone is friends with everyone else, there’s no conflict and the only challenge your sims will face is the occasional fire. Try creating a family situation with say feuding siblings and watch as the game fights you to maintain a negative relationship. Watch as children don’t give a darn if their parents are cheating or if their parents separate then compare it Sims 2 kids who if they found their parent cheating would hate their parent and the person caught doing it too. In sims 4 I could turn my game on at 8pm and leave it running all night long and come back and everyone would be fine. There’s no challenge. It’s fun in short bursts but after a while of “Go and react to your child misbehaving”, “Go and tell this sim his mother is a llama”, “Go and react angrily to your mother being called a llama” and cancelling out the friendly social queuing. It feels very tiring.

Sims 4 wants to be a story telling game, it wants to be a safe space from an already safe space and it’s completely forgotten it’s roots. They say they want it to be a story telling game but in a world with checklists for so many things, shallow relationships and meaningless traits i find it very hard to overcome. It looks pretty but aesthetics should not be everything. But in this game, they very much are.

SommoreButta · June 2019

The reality of this situation is they are making these games for younger players. Although we all know that the older players are the ones dominating in playing the game. See the younger players aren't looking for much. It's the older players and storytellers who have high expectations for the games. When in actuality the dev's aren't thinking about the storytellers or the older players who are looking for real life in the game. The younger ones have no expectations. They love all of the little things added to the game. It feels like reality to them. That's who their catering to. Jmo... but yeah

yupp · June 2019

I agree. I’ve been playing since the sims 1 came out. I’ve always bought just about every pack. I feel like the sims 4 is severely lacking in depth, but I am sooooo in love with the art style that I find myself comprising often.

Simmerville · June 2019

I played TS2 a lot, but don't recall the sleepover feature. I did not have the apartment pack, though.

Anyway, when I want a sim living in San Myshuno to spend a weekend with her parents in Oasis Springs, I just use the household manager and let her join the old household temporarily. Sunday night I will move her back into her new city household. If she lives alone I will place a random placeholder sim in her city flat, otherwise I guess the game would think she is selling it. I don't think this routine is problematic at all, but of course the game will not see her as a visiting relative, but a full worthy household member.

Features that you request might be good for a future gamepack?

Elstar · June 2019

You can have sleepover at an other sims place if you get the "Always welcome" traint in the "reward store".

davina1221 · June 2019

I didn't really play before Sims3. I have no clue why some simmers enjoyed Sims2 over Sims3, which had open worlds that truely made it a life simulation game and the bulk of content that Sims4 seems will never catch up on. The Sims3 just had so much going for it early on with freed infants, cars, cemeteries, a Grim you could do more with, open world, customizationable clothes and items, a non-criminal Nancy, Gunther Goth, collecting, ECT. With strollers, bikes, house boats, some farming via store, Uni, attractive trait, picking favorites in CAS like colors/signs/fav food/fav music, making bin Sims supernaturals right in CAS, boyfriend/girlfriend and fiancee in CAS relationships, stores like in World Adventures where you can buy 100 shower in a cans if you want, grocery stores where you can buy all harvestables easily, babysitting/stylist/home interior careers, riders for toddlers, more playground equipment, unicorns, dragons, and so much more. I miss the oogers animation from toddlers.

I do love some things about Sims4 over the rest.

Ease of saving and getting out of CAS
Roof placing
Ability to move several lots on a piece of land
Lot traits
Ease of erasing CAS accessories
Moving whole fence pieces
Yardsale tables & selling paintings thing
Snow globes
Mayor Whiskers
Seeing Sims/animals to choose for adoption
Careers playable
Store, dining, doctor, vet, ECT playing

Ease of finding a Sim in the world and doing what you want with them instead of befriending and adding to the house.

I simply was immersed in Sims3, but not 4 as much. I actually bought one pack on sale and will buy Strangerville on sale. I always bought Sims3 pre-order or right on the day of sale. I have all of the store and all discs for it on my 99% vanilla game (downloaded a caw empty large world that I love). This vanilla game and appropriate computer made my game work near perfect. I am right now in the process of using that empty map to make my own world that is large, an impossibility in Sims4.

Also, I don't like leveling up all the time. We should have sliders on relationships, jobs, skills, ECT. Also, shower in a can, full meter food, awake pill, ECT right in buy without cheats for story purposes and for people like me who don't like leveling up

XxAirixX · June 2019

I like it way more than Sims 3 as they have more emotions and personality so they seem less stiff. Sure there is room for improvement but new packs and patches have been adding and fixing things all the time and they have no plans on ending it anytime soon, which means room for more things added and improved on.

It is slowly catching up to Sims 2. People loved Sims 2 as it had a lot of game play, randomness and just never seemed boring even if stuck on one lot. Who cares about the open world? It was laggy, often felt empty and still had a lot of rabbit holes, probably even more.

SimAlexandria · June 2019

Sims 2 had nicer animations but Sims 4 has better gameplay overall and better graphics. In the end, Sims 4 is my favourite of them all

monkymn00 · June 2019

To me Sims 3 is the better game. It has more content and more depth overall. Having said that, now that I've been playing Sims 4, it's hard for me to go back. Sims 3 was quite glitchy and froze a ton. Sims 4 runs so much smoother. I don't like turning my back on Sims 3, but it's too hard to go back and try and play.

QueenMercy · June 2019

I’m enjoying TS4 more than I did TS3, though that might be partly because I finally have a nice computer. I know I could try TS3 on my new pc, but I also know it’d take forever to download, and I can’t be bothered.

Gdurma · June 2019

Honestly, OP, I'm feeling the same way. With Island Living, it's lack luster. There's nothing magical about it from what I can see. The streamers are already getting bored, and on top of that, they themselves are finding annoying game breaking glitches. I feel like we're just being milked for all we've got. I'm actually redownloading the sims 3 and sims 2 ultimate editions right now.

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How do you feel, about this iteration of our beloved Sims?

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