Am I the only one who doesn't mind no open world in sims 4?

I hated completely open world so I'm happy about its removal. ((Don't kill me.))

The point of it being the next in the franchise is to improve it and move forward, not backwards. It should be open world like 3 and have open shops like 2 together, they shouldn't have to chose either or.

I'll be really honest, as much as I loved it in Sims 3; I am very happy it is gone with Sims 4. I like it a lot more like this and being able to focus entirely on one family and the generations after instead of how hectic Sims 3 could feel at times. I loved being able to walk around and stuff but the big picture is, I'm only loading one house at a time now. Which is fantastic. If Sims 3 had done this, I would be able to play the mermaid xpac without the problems I have now. I can play the entire game with every option on high, even using the in-game recorder while doing so. But that island is just a huge laggy mess for me. So working with one lot to load from now on is going to be a blessing as far as I am concerned. o:)

On the other hand, I am worried about the story progression going back to Sims 2 style. Don't get me wrong, I adore Sims 2 but what I like about whole neighborhoods being open and functional all together is that the story evenly progresses with all of the families. While this also had it's obvious downs (families splitting up, while you weren't playing them; because Sims don't really understand relationships well for instance lol) I am worried about losing this key function in Sims 4. As much as I like to focus on one family or even at times, a single Sim; they do tend to make friends or begin romantic interests. So does this mean my Sim children's friends won't grow up when they do? Will we receive a notice like Sims 2 when our children grow up, notifying us that yes their friends have grown up but because they had a crummy life (you aren't able to control and help them so most likely they won't be happy a lot of the time) they will grow up with less opportunities as your Sims? :o

These are my personal up and down concerns about this. I just hope things sort of even themselves out and that this time we are heard more so then fans were in Sims 3. I expect game bugs and all, don't misunderstand me. But glitches that crash the game and make it unplayable are inexcusable, especially in such large amounts of game-play, after it has been released. :s

What people are missing is that they didn't have to ditch 'open world' in order to reduce loading issues. I appreciate that they removed it to make the game run better, but I just think that was taking the easy way out as opposed to actually fixing the technical problems.

Take an open world RPG, like Two Worlds or Skyrim, or even much older Oblivion (I'm choosing this genre and these titles purely for examples). You didn't have loading screens out while running around in the wilderness (only when passing between two completely separated world spaces). That is because the computer only loaded your active cell and the ones directly around it at any given time.

Multiple games have already perfected ways of tracking and dealing with NPCs and other entities that are not currently in the loaded cells. Some of these games have hundreds of entities with more AI and activity than what's being showcased and discussed in Sims 4, with little lag. Heck, I've seen text-based MUDs handle this issue better than what I expect to find in the Sims 4 (and most of those games were made in the 80's and 90's). So far, the only thing it seems off-camera Sims are capable of doing is age and die.

The world lag in Sims 3 was due to multiple issues, including trying to render lots VERY quickly (cuz players could pan fast), track everything through Story Progress, pre-loading the hundreds of objects added by purchases, Expansions, and Stuff Packs, load all meshes and textures from CAST, etc. etc. But ALL of these features have been cut now, and for all the bluster about optimizing the game, it's still running single-threaded and 32-bit, for reasons that I can only imagine are related to engine licensing or some EA executive who had no understanding of computers calling the shots early on. For our purposes, this means that the game is not future-proof, and will eventually become as jacked up as the Sims 3 was when you get done adding 3 or 4 more expansion packs on top of it. It also means that modders can't go hog-wild with creations (like they've done with Sims 3, creating MASSIVE, feature-packed worlds), because right from the get-go, you have PHYSICAL limitations as to what the game can do.

Well, I don't know...so long as the game will not freeze frequently or take really long time to save your game like Sims 3, I think it will be fine

Anyway, it's probably just like playing Sims 3 Xbox 360 version...at least it would still allow you to visit your neighbours.

I feel like people are judging it too early before even playing it. I dont mind change. I really want to play the game before saying if I like it or not.

I never really played much of Sims 2 and i'm used to the open world in Sims 3 so i will dearly miss it. I will probably get used to it. Hearing all the bad things about the game all i have to say now is "Emily, stop hating the game and wait to see proper gameplay from youtubers"

So that is what i'm gonna do xD

I don't mind it as well. Open worlds cause lag and problems in slow computers and laptops that have a graphics card that doesn't support the game well. People are judging it too early like @AngelAmyRF said. It's funny how some people, before The Sims 3 came, said: "Ew, the characters are too realistic, I don't like it.", "The world is so laggy." , "So many rabbit holes." , "I won't buy the game, it sukcs." and then got used to it and said it was the best game ever. I just think that EA is trying to make the game "kids friendly" and more capable of running in computers with low support.

Edit: Seriously EA ? "Sux" is not a vulgar word. Mind growing up :sigh: ?

Yeah, it doesn't bug me much either... I'm really excited to just dive right into it and see how amazing it is!

I loved the open world because you don't have to stick with lots only. And also I'm not against rabbit holes that much, it would be too hard to command all sims. But if sims do their work autonomously and we can see their career building's inside, that would be the best for me.