The Sims 4 Needs a Living World

I’m starting to feel increasingly disappointed with The Sims 4, and that’s difficult for me to say because I truly love this franchise. I’ve been playing The Sims since I was 7 years old, and now, at 27, I’m still playing. I’ve spent 20 years following the different versions of the game, creating families, building houses, and making up stories. But nowadays, I realize that I can no longer spend hours playing the way I used to with The Sims 3. I think the biggest reason is the feeling of immersion that has been lost.

In The Sims 3, I genuinely felt like my Sims were living in a city. The open world made everything feel connected. I could leave the house, follow my Sim through the city, watch them get into their car, drive somewhere, and arrive at their destination without simply disappearing from the screen. Even the simplest things felt interesting because I was actually experiencing the journey with my Sim.

I really miss cars and motorcycles. And not just the vehicles themselves. I miss being able to build a garage, create parking spaces, decide where my cars and motorcycles would be kept, have an actual garage door, and see all of that become part of my Sims’ daily lives. These may seem like small details, but those are exactly the things that make a life simulation feel like a real life.

I also really miss being able to follow my Sim while they traveled from one place to another. In The Sims 4, I often send my Sim somewhere and simply wait for the loading screen to finish. In The Sims 3, I could follow the journey, watch what was happening around the city, and sometimes even encounter unexpected situations along the way. It made the world feel so much more alive.

I understand that one of the goals may be to keep the game from becoming too demanding for players’ computers. But honestly, sometimes I think: what is the point of making the game lighter if, in doing so, it becomes inferior in such important aspects of gameplay? Personally, I would rather have The Sims 3’s style of gameplay, even if that meant having a heavier game, because the immersion and freedom it provided made such a huge difference to me.

And there is one idea that, in my opinion, could take The Sims to another level: a truly online mode.

I’m not talking about simply putting several Sims in the same location. Imagine being able to enter a friend’s world, visit their house, meet their Sim in real time, talk to them, go out together, visit restaurants or parks, attend parties, do activities, and simply experience that world together.

It would also be amazing to have online events on specific dates and at specific times: Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, festivals, celebrations, competitions, and other events where the community could participate together. There could be special activities and rewards that would make players feel like they are actually part of a community.

And I don’t think this would have to take away from what makes The Sims special. We could still build our homes, create our families, work, study, date, and tell our own stories. The difference would be having the option to share some of those experiences with other people.

I have so many ideas about how something like this could work that I could probably write pages and pages about it. 😂

I want to keep playing The Sims for many more years, but I also want to feel that excitement again — the feeling of opening the game and spending hours living my Sims’ lives. I’m not saying this because I stopped loving The Sims. I’m saying it precisely because I love this franchise and because it has been such a huge part of my life.

That’s why I sincerely hope this discussion reaches the people responsible for developing the game. I want the team to know that there are longtime players who aren’t simply asking for more objects, clothes, or new content. We miss a more alive, connected, and immersive gameplay experience.

I would love to see the team revisit ideas like the open world, cars, motorcycles, garages, parking spaces, garage doors, being able to follow Sims while they travel, and especially new possibilities for interaction between players. Maybe it isn’t possible to bring everything back exactly as it was in The Sims 3, but I believe there are ways to bring back that feeling.

The Sims has been part of my life since childhood. I just want to keep having reasons to fall in love with the game the same way I did when I was 7 years old. ❤️