Re: Why can

@RandomBuzziness  Yeah, I'm pretty sure our playing styles are pretty different.  But I play lots of ways and try to play most of the features in the game since they're there.  I can micromanage a household with the best of them, and used to do that a lot and hardly ever leave the home lot but it realized it was becoming a grind and I wasn't really enjoying the game as much so now I've stopped doing that so much and experiment with the different things the game offers and I've been having a lot of fun doing that.  I'm also finding new things I've never seen before too even some things from base game that I never knew were there even.  Little things mostly, that are like finding a hidden easter egg surprise like a lot of games have in them.  And there are still some big things I haven't tried like owning a business or restaurant.  Haven't played a single pet yet either.  I play a lot of households too.  Most days I load the game and unless there is something specific I want to do, I'll just usually just pick a random household.  Some times it's just for an ingame day or week, sometimes it's for a season and sometimes its for a whole year.  And sometimes it's just to reach a specific event like an age up or max out a career.  And some days, I'll create a new household with one or two sims and play them for a while.  Really just depends on what I feel like doing at the time. 

And I do things just for fun to see it the game will do it.  On one save, I wanted to see if vampires could take over the world.  Started with the 3 Vampires premades in the same household going through the Vampire aspirations and with MCCC's story progression and risky vampirism options on.  Set the game for short lifespan and allowed the game to move NPCs in houses too.  After turning the 15 vampires you need to complete the Vampire Family aspiration and only just using a bite to feed and keep those three alive after that, I basically set the game on high speed most of the time and let it run.  And the answer is ……Yes they can!  And it was just amazing how fast it happened too.  Filled up every single residential lot in every world I had at the time with vampires.  Probably would take longer now though with all the worlds that have been added since I did it.  Of course that save was good for nothing after that and I deleted it but it was kinda fun.

It's a shame you can't play Sims 2 unless you can find the old CDs on ebay or at a garage sale or something.  And it's no longer being given away in the EA store either.  They stopped that back in late 2018 I think it was from a post I read over at the main site.  I do have Busting out for one of consoles though.  It was fun in it's own way but way different than the Sims 2 on PC.

@CGrant56 I remember in the XBox 360 version of Sims 3 Pets where my cat also decided to take over the world. He did not get as far in his quest as your vampires did. In the end he decided it was too much work and instead settled for napping on the most comfortable couch in town as being close enough. Typical cat! xD

Yeah, there are lots of ways to play Sims 4 but I think every way is the right way as long as you are having fun! I usually pick one Sim as my "me" Sim and I will play her as my character, just as I would in a game like Skyrim or Fallout (oops sorry EA, I meant to say Mass Effect! I still love ya!). This way I can focus on her and control everything she does, though I do let whims influence her decisions. This is what I meant when I say I'm a control freak. I prefer to let the game control everyone else in her household as NPCs. This is why I love having roommates and pets and clubs for NPC families! I do like to control how the townies look and dress, how & when they age up, etc., so I'm very happy the game allows me to do that (the other aspect of me being a control freak). I have several saves as I like to have my various "me" Sims live in different worlds, have different looks, styles, and traits, and try out different careers and aspirations. To generally live their lives in very different ways.

So yeah I guess my style of play is more like traditional old-school video game but I can't think of any game that allows me to play like this better than Sims 4. See EA? I told you I still love you ;-D

@RandomBuzziness  LOL!  That cat's name wouldn't be Garfield by chance?

I agree with you completely.  You hit the nail on the head.  There is no "wrong way" to play this game.  The main strength of the game allows everyone to play it the way they want to.  Compared to the games you mentioned which are all good games too, each in their own way, the Sims games offer something those don't.  There is no beginning and no end.   There are no goals you have to do to proceed to the next level really.  No XP to earn.   The player gets to choose what goals he/she wants to pursue and play in their own way.  By how we pick traits and such we can tailor our sims to our own tastes which vary widely.  And this game is meant to played for as long as the player want to play the game and that can be for years.

Anyway, I think we're straying way off topic now so probably ought to end this for the moment.  I've enjoyed the conversation here with you and I'm sure we'll have other exchanges.

Hey, no worries! I stay very on-topic on the bug reports side but if they didn't want us to generally discuss Sims 4, then they should not have created a General Discussion area in a Sims 4 forum! xD I usually learn more about the game when things get a little bit OT anyway. Let me know if you ever get a chance to try that relationship.add_bit cheat or if I can re-create the issue in one of my saves then I will give it a go.

P.S. I think the cat's name was Midnight and I was using the Karma Powers in Sims 3 Pets to pretend my Sim was a witch with Midnight as her familiar. Be mean to my Sim and you might find an asteroid falling on your head! xDDD