The Sims 4 Online

"ScarletSimEater;c-16335161" wrote:
The whole point of a multiplayer game is interacting with other people's characters. Let's look at what online would require from a sims game:

-CC would be a pain, since being able to see everybody's CC would require having the content downloaded to your computer. Either CC would be spread around willy-nilly (inflating your downloads folder, and having it so that everybody can have a random creator's stuff without so much as a credit), or else you'll be stuck with a limited number of presets. That's just how online games work.

-A single player game can run on my computer without requiring anything other than electricity. Once you connect to other computers, you'll need someone else to run a server. (It's possible to be a server yourself, but your average simmer doesn't have the technical knowhow or the internet connection to do a good job of it.) If EA runs the servers, they'll cost money. Maintenance, electricity, and in all likelihood a mod team. These thing all cost money, and they cost money on an ongoing basis. How much subscription would you be willing to pay in order to keep the new online sims up and running?

-Pay close attention to what sim social interactions look like. Your sims are engaged in an interaction until one of them disengages. Normally, when it's just you and your computer, the computer is happy to go along with what you as the player want to do. While it would be fun for a little bit to watch other player controlled sims wander around the world, though, how much ability should one player have to tie up another player's sim? On the one hand, if anybody can opt out at any moment, lots of sims would completely ignore you and cancel any interactions because they have other things they'd rather be doing. If starting an interaction can lock a sim in, have fun getting sidetracked from the stuff you want to do because someone else wants to up their social. Or just pick a fight.

These are just some basic issues inherent to an online game. (The Sims Online was basically a glorified chat room where you had to constantly grind to keep your skills up. There's a reason that model of MMO failed.) You can talk about different models - a microtransaction model instead of a subscription model, for instance. (Although play a few microtransaction heavy games before saying that you want this.) But given how often multiplayer sims has crashed and burned, you'll really want to explain how you'll deal with the flaws inherent to the idea.

So much this. I would like the idea but there are so many logistics involved. Another point would be that people would love to build these amazing huge houses and lots, but then they will find that there would be s limit of how much you can place in a lot due to server space allocation. EA has struggled with this is the past with previous games like the latest SimCity which was online and its current gen of mobile games ( and any online game MMOs that provide any type of player housing) .. The cost of maintenance for huge warehouses of servers would be insane to allow infinite building/collection space. I’m the first one to admit that when it comes to my sims files I am a pack rat and when I decorate I throw everything including the kitchen sink...so imagine the backlash just from builders alone.