Essentially, five years in, I have more and more the impression of... you know, do like the kids in the sims 4 and playing dolls at the dollhouse. Much like those dolls, TS4 sims do things because they're told to, but don't really feel things. They are content to simply fill their needs and that's all they do. No memories of anything, no real long term goals, pedestrian whims acting as 't's what I wanna do, just because'. I wonder if, at this point, we can talk of a simulation game, or a glorified 'tamagochi', with cool anims and cute graphs.
Imo, Sims 1 sims were already more complex, due to both their genealogy, and their role as 'customers', always telling you how they felt about their home. Sims 2 sims pushed that to the next level with their memories, and also their roles as 'witnesses' when something out of the ordinary happened in their vicinity.
Since then, the live mode has taken a huge slap. Those new sims have no astrologic character, 2 to 4 traits less than TS3 sims (with a much more shallow pool to chose from), no memories, no feel for their home, no real items they naturally feel attracted to, no real long term desire that drives them... making them, in my opinion, the bleakest of them all, on a 18 year long series.
