Hello! I am not sure what would be acceptable to talk about with the restrictions that are in place so I will try my best not to violate guidelines. I want to start by saying that I am impressed with the initiative to hear what players have to say about this game. It shows that you are interested in what players have to say, but I feel that this will have no real result just like past survey's. On that note, there are still many issues with this game. This game feels dead. It's so boring with mod usage and that is not how past games were. This version of the franchise is not cannon for me. It is lacking so much! Mods help the game, but it is not, and should not be, an over all fix! Console players obtaining MOD usage is ideal, but most of the mods that are offered should be a feature in the game already. I think what would make the game great again would be to improve on the over all game. Traits feel lacking and are not an addition to the game. They are hallow and offer no substantial gameplay. Giving a sim a trait is the equivalent to pushing your hand against the screen and hoping the sim with touch it. The three trait slots that are given are not widely the issue. The issue is that traits are not tied in anyway to the sim, in addition, they add noting to the game. They are virtually useless. Whims are on the same level. They are random and are not tied to the trait or the sim, so it feels equally as hollow. In older games, picking certain traits was tied with whims and made the sims feel more alive, as it felt like it was part of their personality. Now, it is a shallow hollow version of itself and there is nothing exciting to keep most players who are not builders or CAS creators. This game caters to a specific group of people and the ones who do not fall into that category are left wanting and disappointed.
On that note, Aspirations are just terrible. They are glorified tutorials. They should be something a sim needs to work hard for, for their life, not something to hold the players hand to make gameplay easier. I will say that I was happy to see that some things were added back to the game, I.E Firefighters, The Repoman, Bonehilda, ETC... But a lot of NPC's that made the game enjoyable are still missing. Personally, I miss Burglar's and Good Cop NPC's, I miss the Social Worker that comes to take your kid after giving the parents a thorough lecture about how to care for the kids. I miss the charm the game had in previous versions. I also hate that we went back to babies being objects that we can literally pull straight out of CAS. Why is it like this? Why can we not make Babies on CAS? Why has the option for Sims to be hybrid gone? Where is the charm of the game? New packs should excite the player. make them hyped for the game. Most of us are tired of dishing money for a few CAS and BB objects. Where is the gameplay? Substantial gameplay, like building up money to buy an expensive item, only to have said item be quaked off the wall and break, or having a teen sneak out after curfew only to come home to their parents angrily waiting by the door. This was the charm of the game, along with the little details of the game, like having two sims snuggle in bed, it is something so simple, but brings so much charm to the game, which this iteration lacks severely. Instead we get fancy cooking animations that add noting to the charm of the game. I personally would trade those broken bottles and sneezing into meals animations, that do not effect the game in anyway, for a quick snuggle animation that will make me swoon.
In this version of the game, Sims walk everywhere! If you do no own Discover University then your sim just walks, and the all the walking that they do does not contribute to the athletic skill in anyway. I mean, they literally walk everywhere, so their skill should go up because of it! Story Progression is also shallow. I suppose it is a little better than it was at launch but it is still lacking. I want sims to marry and have kids and cheat and break up and move out and live their best homeless lives. I don't want to have to go into every household to make them have kids, get a partner, ETC. The game lacks depth. It lacks the charm it once had. Babies are reverted back to usable objects; crying furniture if you will. Aspirations, Traits, and Whims are all a joke. I understand that most of this stuff was cut down so that the game would be more diverse and run on a more wide variety of machines but it is the same as it always is when people add so many mods to the game to get close to what the game used to be. I know that it is the problem of the player for adding said mods to begin with, but there would not be a need for those handful of mods if the game had the features plays are downloading mods for! That is just in my opinion.
Now, I know we are not supposed to add a wish list of things we wish to see in the game, and I know that this is not the place to suggest things, but having the opportunity to talk about the game should have included all of these things for eager players who love the game, I.E: me; and just want it to be the best game it can be, opposed to the train wreck we've had for the past 7 years. Now don't get me wrong, there are some really good aspects of the game, it is not all crap, but when a game fails to hold interest even after new content is released shouldn't finding the source of the problem be a priority? Wouldn't you want to know why there are constant complaints about the game even though new things are coming out that the team is excited for, only for their to be a negative backlash? I know I would, and hiding the problem only makes players feel like they will never be heard and that their money and time and effort would be better off elsewhere. All I want to talk about in the next 411 is what the plans are for improving the game and making the franchise something players actually want instead of tacking packs onto a broken game and hoping everything comes up millhouse. I hope that question is answered, because personally as a player, but also as a consumer, I am ready to move onto a different franchise because this game is not worth time, or money.
EA Staff (Retired)