The Sims 3: name-the-EP Let's Play
The Sims 3 seems to be the only version that has Let's Plays with titles that specify the expansion pack, but if you were to actually watch the videos, you can tell that the player actually has more than the titular expansion pack. It may be a Generations Let's Play, but the player may have Seasons and Supernatural and University Life installed. Were the earlier Sims 3 Expansion Pack videos more about the actual expansion pack in the title, whereas the current ones are loosely tied to the expansion pack in the title? If so, then it's kind of like the term Legacy. Back in the Sims 2 days, the Legacy Challenge literally meant a challenge or specified set of rules. Nowadays, as long as you have a Sim and a starter home of whatever size, and you intend to go on for 10+ generations, it's somehow called a "Legacy". Hardly anyone keeps scoring; and there is no attempt at all to have some kind of standardized gameplay. I mean, if you want to keep score, then you have to make sure that the players are playing under the same conditions to be fair. This is what I mean by "standardized gameplay"; in other words, the gameplay is standardized to give everyone a fair shot.
I suppose it is quite difficult to really do a standardized gameplay, because everyone has a different game configuration. Some people are just base gamers; other people may have a few EPs; and a handful may have all the EPs. For Sims 2 base gamers, there are not that many opportunities to make $$$. The primary source of income is the job, and you can earn money from the money tree. The expansion packs really add the number of ways to generate Simoleons, giving people who own the EPs the upper hand at a challenge over a base gamer.
Anyway, the biggest reason why I think people like to make "Generations Let's Play" or "Supernatural Let's Play" is that The Sims 3 is a very resource-intensive game. It is much easier to play The Sims 3 base game with maybe 1-2 expansion packs. Go farther than that, and people's computers may struggle with the larger demands.
Of course, people with very powerful gaming computers may be able to do a Generations Let's Play as well, but because their own computers are so powerful, they can install more packs, maybe even all of them at once, and the game would still run very smoothly.
This style of naming a Let's Play based on the expansion pack seems to have carried over to The Sims 4.
The Sims 2 is a much older game, and by the time Simmers got on YouTube, The Sims 3 was already the active Sims game. By that time, people who still played The Sims 2 already had collected most of the expansion packs and just played with The Sims 2 and called it The Sims 2 Let's Play.
The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 also came with brand-new challenges that were never a thing with The Sims 2, such as The Runaway Teen Challenge. How exactly do you do this in The Sims 2? There are so many loading screens in TS2 that they can really break the immersion of your Sim living alone in the world, but in TS3, it really feels like your Teen Sim is living alone in a big wide open world. Your Teen Sim in TS3 can dig in dumpsters, while in TS2, you can get your Teen Sim to dig through the trash only if the trash can is on a residential lot and your Teen Sim is sloppy enough to do it.
Of course, The Sims 2 Build A City Challenge is very difficult to carry over to The Sims 3. It may carry over to The Sims 4 because you can play multiple families in rotation like you can in the Sims 2, but you are very limited in the neighborhood layout. In The Sims 2, you can customize the neighborhood layout with SimCity4 and make your own BACC unique and special.
Anyway, that's just my rambling on Expansion Pack Let's Plays, the evolution of challenges over time, standardized gameplay and challenges that can cross over to other Sims games.
I suppose it is quite difficult to really do a standardized gameplay, because everyone has a different game configuration. Some people are just base gamers; other people may have a few EPs; and a handful may have all the EPs. For Sims 2 base gamers, there are not that many opportunities to make $$$. The primary source of income is the job, and you can earn money from the money tree. The expansion packs really add the number of ways to generate Simoleons, giving people who own the EPs the upper hand at a challenge over a base gamer.
Anyway, the biggest reason why I think people like to make "Generations Let's Play" or "Supernatural Let's Play" is that The Sims 3 is a very resource-intensive game. It is much easier to play The Sims 3 base game with maybe 1-2 expansion packs. Go farther than that, and people's computers may struggle with the larger demands.
Of course, people with very powerful gaming computers may be able to do a Generations Let's Play as well, but because their own computers are so powerful, they can install more packs, maybe even all of them at once, and the game would still run very smoothly.
This style of naming a Let's Play based on the expansion pack seems to have carried over to The Sims 4.
The Sims 2 is a much older game, and by the time Simmers got on YouTube, The Sims 3 was already the active Sims game. By that time, people who still played The Sims 2 already had collected most of the expansion packs and just played with The Sims 2 and called it The Sims 2 Let's Play.
The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 also came with brand-new challenges that were never a thing with The Sims 2, such as The Runaway Teen Challenge. How exactly do you do this in The Sims 2? There are so many loading screens in TS2 that they can really break the immersion of your Sim living alone in the world, but in TS3, it really feels like your Teen Sim is living alone in a big wide open world. Your Teen Sim in TS3 can dig in dumpsters, while in TS2, you can get your Teen Sim to dig through the trash only if the trash can is on a residential lot and your Teen Sim is sloppy enough to do it.
Of course, The Sims 2 Build A City Challenge is very difficult to carry over to The Sims 3. It may carry over to The Sims 4 because you can play multiple families in rotation like you can in the Sims 2, but you are very limited in the neighborhood layout. In The Sims 2, you can customize the neighborhood layout with SimCity4 and make your own BACC unique and special.
Anyway, that's just my rambling on Expansion Pack Let's Plays, the evolution of challenges over time, standardized gameplay and challenges that can cross over to other Sims games.
