April 2020 Survey

My choices for the survey:

Fan club Creator: What do our sims have to be a fan about? There are no actual sports teams in this game. There is an acting career in Get Famous, so there are actors, but that expansion doesn't allow you to actually make a movie similar like you could in the 2005 The Movies game by Lionhead Studios to be a fan of. The entertainment careers in the sims 4 are also quite rabbit hole, missing a lot of features that were available in Sims 3 Showtime, making being a fan of any sim in your game that has has become a superstar rather méh. If you want to be a fan of a celebrity cook, then just go a restaurant and order food from them. Any books written by accomplished sim writers can't even be bought by other sims after these books have been published. Etc, etc. The usefulness of this concept may also heavily depend on how many expansion, game, and stuff packs a player has installed. I can't imagine much in regards of the concept of a 'Fan Club Creator' with what the game has to offer so far. Also note we already have clubs (in an expansion), so worst case scenario, a 'Fan Club' would end up a copy/paste club from Get Together that just happens to be specific. The lowest vote for me here.

NPC Story Progression: Without even looking at the description for this idea it already gets a high vote from me. This would allow more game immersion when the rest of the sims in your worlds become less static and hopefully act and live more natural. However, like aging, this should be optional, something for player to toggle on or off. Depending on a player's play style and story telling, adding this to their game can be very disruptive.

Growing Pains and Life Issues: Uhm, yes and no. I still gave it a reasonably high vote, but I'm a bit concerned about the description for this concept. I really want the team to overhaul the emotions in this game, and I get that life is hard, but I don't necessarily want my game to become hard to play. If there were a memory system and sims had personalities and emotions weren't generically applied the same way causing each of our sims to react identical to any given emotion, then I would say yes. Make life meaningful for our sims. That's not the same as making life hard for our sims.

Cheer: This seems to be a bit random in this list here. You might as well have listed more hobbies that didn't make it into upcoming community vote stuff pack. Or in my case, instead of this idea I would prefer actual team sports play for the sim 4. I mean we do have a basketball hoop and a soccer ball, but sims can basically only play hoop or do some fancy footwork to keep the soccer ball up. There's isn't any actual sports play where one team of sims goes up against another team of sims. Which is quite weak considering EA is well know for its sport games. I'm not opposed to adding something cheer leading related game play to the sims 4, but without sports teams to cheer on what's the point? It got a méh vote from me.

Heists: Similar to cheer. Where does this idea come from in relation to most of the other concepts on this list? Is this about finally adding a burglar to the game, but with a twist that you can play one now? What artifacts do we need to plunder that we can't already in Selvadorada? Would this mean the various museums in our worlds suddenly become more useful as you can now rob them? Would this concept allow us to play sims that can break into other sims' houses and steal their earthly possessions? (which is nothing we can't already do with the kleptomaniac trait). Again, not opposed, but a méh vote from me.

Modern Love and Romance: I immediately put the highest vote on this one. More ways to love and make love. At least that's my interpretation. The description for this reads ' From love at first sight to digital dating, discover a wide variety of relationship types for your Sims. Explore their desires, taste and preference. Take them on a journey to discover what works for them.' I'm really surprised this is being considered, or my idea of this concept isn't what whoever put it in this list has for it. What I'm reading here is sex woohoo toys, BSM dungeons, sex woohoo positions, threesomes, foursomes, sex woohoo gathering of many sims (edit: the single word for this gets censored :/), polygamy, prostitution career, fetishes, and way more sexy outfits, underwear, and lingerie (including for men, and no, that doesn't come with lace). It would also be nice if the bodies for adult male sims got an upgrade so they aren't anatomically incorrect Ken dolls anymore. Roughly 50% of the world population has a perfectly normal and important organ on their crotch that is not properly represented in this game. It's about time our sims are able to show a bulge in their pants that's seize adjustable in CAS similar to female sims' size adjustable breasts. Whoever said 'Size matter not' didn't get any in over 900 years. Obviously I assume much of this would still be censored with that distortion effect sims get when they're naked.

Bands: This one also got the highest vote from me. I don't know if I would play with any band related game play a lot myself, but it seems a bit of a no-brainer to me to add this to the game. In fact I think it should already have been out there. It's an often requested feature and makes sense with a lot of game play already available in the game, what with the musician career, singing skill, and all the musical instruments available. Would need a drum set though.

Culinary Quest: I'm not sure what to make of this. Did whoever made this list not know about the Dine Out game pack. The description for this idea pretty much reads as the cooking career we already have in the game. I don't mind the team expanding it with more recipes, and for our sims to get preferences, like their favorite and least favorite food, or different tastes for each dish, more specific moodlets and effects for each dish and drink, and maybe for some of our sims to have allergies to certain dishes or ingredients. Based on the description for this idea, I don't really see what this adds to the game that isn't already there. Nearly the lowest vote for me here.

American High School: Another highest vote for me. I was really disappointed with Discover University as it turned out to be a third rendition of just university (and still with rabbit holes). I had hoped the pack would encompass more of the education system, like maybe, The Sims 4 Get Schooled, including kindergarten, elementary school, high school, and college. So the concept for a high school is another no-brainer here, and would make game play with teens more distinctive. It would of course be best if it came with functional class rooms and active teacher careers (Discover University should be upgraded with those too).

Shopping Malls: The highest vote for me here as well. For in-game immersion I like my sims to have to go out and shop for their earthly possessions. Of course CAS and build and buy mode should remain available but I would really like if clothing were objects in a sims inventory and/or personal wardrobe, that they have to get their consumer goods themselves, and for them to have to do actual grocery shopping instead of everything magically available in their fridges. Of course a retail system is already available, but it's very limited, the magnolia promenade is a very small map with only three lots, hardly a shopping center, and the maps from the other worlds aren't really suitable either. There are definitely not enough large lots available. Obviously this concept would require more mannequins allowed on a lot and the addition of pet and toddler mannequins.

Ranked my choices turned out like this:


On the list for possible locales I choose the following ranking:


The Greek Islands were an immediate number one before even finishing reading all the other options. I may be Western European, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see locales based on the rest of the world. Chinese Countryside is a close second. I'd be very interested to see Maxis make that. These locales shouldn't have to be something we have to chose between. It'd be nice if Maxis just made some extra maps for their free updates based on different locales in the world for all the different world wide consumers of their products to both feel at home in the sims 4 based on familiar and recognizable surroundings and to explore and learn about other cultures through the way they are interpreted by team Maxis in the game. Also, as a side note, if there was an option for a Japanese City, then that would have been my number one choice.

I can be a bit more brief on the next question as pretty much all options got high votes. People have been asking for these things for many years. Some of these should be optional setting for players to toggle depending on their play style but it's a bit silly that with modern technology and programming the sims in the game can still feel so hollow and generic. It should by now be possible to add personalities, memories, generation play, likes, dislikes, turn ons, turn offs, interests, any number of CAS traits that a player thinks is appropriate for their creation, and making individual sims more distinct in how they react and interact in the worlds and with other sims.



The answer to question number six is also easy: all of them. Just because I am only allowed up to three choices doesn't mean I don't want any of the others, or want less of the others than the choices I made.
For hair I would like more variants of the same hairdo. For instance a hairdo that comes with a braid or ponytail, I would like to have that same hairdo with the braid or ponytail undone (or vice versa). When creating a sim with such hair I often find it difficult to find another hairdo that's similar enough in length, and volume (or does or doesn't have matching bangs or other details) for and outfit category where someone might typically wear their hair differently. Another example is the ymHair_EP04WavyHawkDetail from Cats & Dogs which has about 5 additional variants. I would like to see more of that. And of course more hair colors. I can't believe my own hair color (dark blonde) isn't even in the game.
Shoes, lots of shoes, especially sneakers, the choices are so limited. Even more so specifically for male sims since you opened up nearly all their shoes as feminine to female sims, regardless of there not being anything feminine about those loafers and boots.
When I make a bunch of sims or many families, I constantly end up having different sims wear the same model bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and rings because there aren't enough different options for these, especially for less outlandish more basic looking jewelry, while jewelry is supposed to be a very personal and often unique choice. The game is also severely lacking in wedding ring choices, glove choices, mittens, purses, bags, backpacks, leggings for men, ankle socks, no-show socks, sheer socks, walking canes, masks, electronic body wear gadgets, anklets, scarfs, piercings (studs, but no rings, and then only on the face?), earrings/piercings in only one ear, and accessories in general for children and toddlers.
Honorable mention on tops and full outfits: we need more outdoor winter clothes.


Create a sim doesn't need as many new categories as are listed in question number seven. Prosthetics is an obvious one we should have and would indeed be new to the sims franchise. And we're long overdue for body hair. But the dual eye color should be an integrated option in the eye color category we already have. And I've chosen other because I believe that the remaining options in this list can be filed under one category: Body Skin Details. Stretch marks, scars, burns, and vitiligo can all go here as well as moles, freckles, sagging elderly skin, veins, bruises, body paint, and supernatural/occult patterns (scales, feathers, weird color patterns, etc).


For question eight, again, just because I listed young adults and adults last doesn't mean I don't want, or want less CAS items for these life stages. I want lots more, however, the other three life stages are vastly lacking in options compared to the adults. (also, where have the teens gone?)


Almost done with the wall of text I felt compelled to write because the survey, unlike the previous one, didn't allow us to elaborate on our choices. The choices to the last question are similar to the ones from question number eight. I would like to see more game play for life stages that have very little specifically for them compared to young adults and adults, but again, not at the cost of no additional game play for these two adult stages.