It’s been interesting to read the responses here about what it would take to encourage TS3 players to move on to another Sims game. For myself, I don’t think there is anything that would stop me from playing TS3. There is still so much I want to build and play in this game; so many variables and scenarios I want to try. New content in the form of mods and CC are still being created, and these add a bit of novelty to the experience for me too.
While I still enjoy TS2 on occasion and like returning to it from time to time, TS3 is my overall favorite in the series. The combination of CASt, open worlds and terrain tools are a huge part of that. My game is an all-disk install with a pre-2012 base game; on patch 1.67, bypassed launcher and tuned exactly as I want it. I own all EPs, SP’s and store content and truly have no inducements at present to move on. I do regret that there was never a 64 bit option for TS3, but even if one were offered in the future, a TS3 Origin requirement would not be acceptable to me, so I’d pass on it anyway.
I had no plans to buy TS4 after doing the free trial. Among other things, it didn’t offer the creativity and customization I had come to enjoy most. But in 2016, I unexpectedly needed to temporarily live hundreds of miles from home for several months when my husband was catastrophically injured, and traveling with only my laptop meant I had no access to my desktop installations of TS2 and TS3. So given that I really needed some form of therapeutic mental escape during this time, I bought TS4 (on sale, along with one GP and one SP), rationalizing that TS4 was better than nothing. And it was... until we were able to return home and I had access to the older games again. I’ve only attempted to play TS4 twice since, and end up closing it in a short amount of time. I don’t regret the purchase as it served its purpose and I paid what I considered to be a fair price for the hours I did play it. But it just doesn’t engage me in the same way, and while I do like some of the features, all I can think about when I launch it is how much more I’d rather be playing TS3/2. So that’s what I do. TS4 is just not for me.
Any future Sims game, should the possibility come to pass, would require a lot for me to be willing to invest in it. Given the major changes in my life and having much less time to play as it is, I’d rather spend it playing something I already know I’ll enjoy. A future game would have to have the features I mentioned that are in TS3, but with the addition of some of the features from TS2 and TS4, and new ideas too. Because honestly, the idea of purchasing a limited BG followed by the same DLC all over again is hardly appealing. In that case, I wouldn't be “missing” anything, and may as well stick with what I have. So that is what I intend to do, and I'm okay with it.
