So, a friend and I were debating. I'm thinking of starting a rotational game on the long life setting, which I've never used. She says this is "cheating" because Sims will be able to earn more skills, money, etc in a lifetime and will make the game dull and easy. So my question is: Do you consider playing on long life cheating or not?
Long Life 137 votes
Yes, it's cheating.
1 vote
Other. Please comment below.
1
Comments
I personally like the long life setting because I enjoy seeing my Sims max out certain skills but don’t want to just make them grind those skills all day every day. And I absolutely love transforming my founder Sims’ humble settlements into a grand manor with all the money we get ;)
Player: *instructs sim to prepare meal* "Then eat something, you little goofball!"
Sim: *starts cooking meal*
-5 seconds later-
Sim: *Stops cooking meal* "I'm so hungry!"
Player: *head hits desk*
It's a feature in the game. A setting.
Not cheating.
I play with aging off... and don't consider it cheating, it's the way I played sims in the past and is another option now.
I guess that’s the difficulty setting, as obviously a shorter lifespan makes it more challenging to complete aspirations, careers and raise a family etc. The longer the lifespan, the easier and more forgiving the game gets. But like everyone has been saying it allows to create different play styles. We see from these kind of polls there are lots of people who play with aging off too, as they don’t like the idea of their sims getting old lol..
I see what your friend is saying though. It’s easy to end up with a mansion and fortune by the time your founder sim hits elder when playing a legacy challenge on long lifespan, which kinda eliminates the whole challenge..?
Benefits for me are that as I'm a rotational player who only has the active household age, I get longer time to play with an household and get less dramatic effects from CAS aging glitch. Though one disadvantage is that it can be too long. Adults and younger sims can be aged up simply with a birthday cake/age up treat, but if I want an elder to die by old age, I'll have to get the AllCheats mod and use cheats to do it (more annoying with pets as I have to get their SimID first and that SimID can't be copied).
Usually when I think about cheating, it's filling the needs to the max and freezing them that was, maxing out skills instantly, getting from career level 1 to 10 in a one day (+ 50 bonus levels for higher salary), giving your sim many beneficial traits and university degrees so you'll have to scroll a lot to get to the bottom of the Simology panel, instantly maxing out your sim's fame level or reputation ect. At long life span, you do have more time, but you still have to work towards happier and richer sims. So I don't see it as cheating. Rather I see it as a less stressful patience training.
I also like wandering the hills.
All the sims err'day
I find short life sad and annoyingly unrealistic. It's not for me at all! (ETA: by short life I actually mean EVERY vanilla lifespan option, tehe.)
The Sims doesn't really have cheating, it's a different game/toy.
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I've used motherlode to edit different households and to add concepts that hadn't been in the game. I'll use less of it now that I have an established save and we have a better way to give inheritances. I never felt sorry for that. Not all of my households were "rags to riches".
I've never really cheated needs. I have occasionally added a specific reward trait for "story-telling purposes" but not often. I've heavily edited sims in CAS whenever I want to during gameplay.
The features including the cheats are made to be used or not. Lengthening the lifespan just means that you want to spend more time with a sim. With my large rotation, it is as though sims are already around for a long while so I don't play on long. I'm also not specifically attached to one household. I play on normal but I pause aging a lot so mine is a customized approach.
Also like everyone else said it's a casual game meant to played however you want, even if it was cheating there is no competition between players built into the game so it really doesn't matter.
It depends on the game play.
For example the "money" cheat where you can instantly give your Sim any amount of money. I use this a lot to create a diverse neighbourhood. Some Sims are rich and famous, most are not. I play a story line and the "getting famous" isn't part of it, this Sim is supposed to already be a rich celebrity at the start of the story I'm telling. So I don't consider it a cheat to use it to get there. However, if it was being used at the start of a rags to riches challenge or any similar storyline, than it would be. THat's the nice thing about Sims 4... most the tools are there to make the game anything you want and you aren't competing with someone, so feel free to use them.
Edit: At normal or short lifespan. Sorry.
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