Carl's Guide: A History of the Sims 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2fda9k0yc&ab_channel=Carl%27sSimGuides

What are your thoughts? Agree or disagree?
Do you consider yourself a 'castaway', why or why not?
Do you think the game is improving and going in the right direction (or is already great)?

I am happy that Carl will stick around. I agree with him and I think it's important that people make their voices heard. I don't want the sims community to turn into a silent community that will just buy packs over and over again but also ask for improvements.

I guess I am a bit of a castaway. I don't really play the game like I used to. I do feel that there is too much focus on making packs and less time spent on improving the game which Carl shows several times in the video. And I have played the game since it released in 2014, I still can't believe that we did not get firefighters until almost six years later.

I did say when I saw last month's patch notes that I will not buy anything from EA until they will fix more bugs and I am going to stand by that statement.

I still enjoy the game for me and the game was only getting better since when it first came out.

I haven't been around since Sims 4's beginning, or even near that, nor am I really vested in the series as a whole. But I do understand what it's like to lose hope in such things, as there have been other series I've followed to eventual sad ends (and some that may yet end sadly). I've only played this one for a couple of years, so obviously I do have interest in its success and possible future, but I suppose I might be lucky not to expect as much as some longer-term fans might have done.

I think I have always felt like a castaway with the Sims community and honestly don't view it as a bad thing. I like being different and I know if I ended up being like everyone else, I know something would really be wrong with me and I wasn't doing things right in my life. I think the game has gotten a lot better than when it first came out. When I first joined the Sims community negative feedback was frowned upon completely. Now it is like as long as you don't act like a monster to the Gurus, they will at least listen to feedback even if it isn't always acted upon and I think that is a much more positive communication we have now than back in 2014. Things were rough then and it seriously felt like I was walking into a version of West Side Story. When it comes to things faith always comes first in my life, then family, then friends, and my hobbies are the last of my priorities so it is like whatever happens to the Sims it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I hope that my nephews and niece can be proud to call themselves a Simmer someday. I feel like right now it is an embarrassment to admit it just because of how depressing the Sims community has gotten during the Sims 4 years especially. I think world events do play a part in that, but when it comes down to it, Sims no longer provides that escape for players anymore which isn't 100% a bad thing, Sims 4 is more for playacting rather than for just being a game for fun anymore. It has gotten too strict with rules and everything so the entire joy that made me fall in love with the Maxis franchises in the first place has been completely zapped during this version and the death of SimCity on PC.

I like the Sims 4. I can do what I want and there's not really any obstacle to overcome. I found Sims 2 to be too challenging. I didn't like the aspiration meter, the wants and fears, and the need decay was too fast. I got bored playing Sims 3. I find it boring to watch and wait while my Sim walks from one side of town to the other. The game was also very laggy and didn't run well on my computer. Sims 4 is the first Sims game where I don't need cheats to keep on top of their needs. It's easy to get promotions or do well in school, build relationships, and skill up in whatever I want my Sim to be good at. Sims 4 really suits me and my way of playing.

I prefer the way Sims 4 packs are done. It's more a pick and choose what we want. With them being more themed it's easy to know if I'll like the pack. I like that it's easy to be a mermaid in Island Living and I find the gameplay that Snowy Escape adds to be a lot of fun. It seems that what I consider to be fun, "castaways" as he called them, find to be boring. (Which is actually rude to tell someone that their fun is boring.) Island Living's main gameplay is about living on an island which I find much more interesting than taking my Sims to a beach. It really seems like no matter what people will complain and often they complain about the packs I like.

It seems to be that those who want challenge want Sims 4 to change to fill their wants and they don't seem to care that there are those of us who don't want challenge. Some can not seem to get over the fact that Sims 4 is not open world and can not handle that there are people who like that. Sims 2 provided challenge and Sims 3 provided open world. Sims 4 provides relaxing gameplay for those of us who don't like unexpected things happening. If there is a Sims 5 it will probably provide something else.

I think Sims 4 is constantly improving, they keep adding new things to it without taking away what makes Sims 4 unique. I think people should just accept the Sims 4 for what it is and play whatever iteration makes them happy. Currently there are 4 Sims games to choose from and each one offers something different to the others.

I love sims 4 (and i have loved all the other iterations at it's time). Atm it has provided me thousands of hours of entertaiment. So, i'm not a castaway at all.

But... i bought it at release, found it lacking a lot, left it and only started playing it again in 2019, when it was much more complete. I am never tired of saying i won't buy sims 5 at release, i'll never buy any sims game at release again... that trust is def gone.

I agree with Carl in what concerns to depth. For instance, fizzy drinks vs nectar making... i loved nectar making, creating recipes with several fruits/plants, having the nectar get old in the basement to sell it for very good money... fizzy drinks are very linear and it was a bit of a disapointment to me. There are other things in sims 4 lacking the depth i would like/expect, like traits, relationships, aspirations and others...

In what concerns to challenge, i'm fine with sims 4. My attention span has decreased a lot, so i don't want to play an idea/skill or whatever for an eternity. I love that i can get to higher levels fast and move on to other goals. I feel like i play in many more different ways than i did in the other iterations, where i would often give up. When i do want a challenge, i have hundreds of player's made challenges to try or i can set up my own. I know that some want more in game challenge but i prefer to set my challenges and the game provides me with the ability to go through features in a fast way. My attention span thanks a lot :)

What are your thoughts? Agree or disagree?
• Big yes. Everything was spot on for me. It seems like Carl and LGR have a similar mindset to me when playing so I usually agree.
Do you consider yourself a 'castaway', why or why not?
•Yes. I gave up playing or buying dlc a lot sooner than Carl did lol. TS4 is not designe for me.
Do you think the game is improving and going in the right
direction (or is already great)?
I think its getting better, but not for my playstyle. Like the video said its still insanely popular, but there are just different people playing and enjoying it now. Its not designed for my kind of simming. The direction is right for those simmers. The direction for my simming? Completely wrong.

I have gotten hours of enjoyment out of 4, but it came at the cost of heavily twisting my playstyle and it is not the "old reliable" game it used to be for me. Originally, if I did not want to play anything else, I still wanted to play the Sims. 4, not so much. It isn't unusual for me to not play for long periods (be it content droughts or occasionally game breaking bugs). Yet even I cannot dispute my playtime after 7 years.

4 has definitely improved, but any sort of expectation for some big base game overhaul has not ever really been there. Plus all my favorite packs from the other iterations felt woefully underserved in 4. So to say I have never been jaded or frustrated would be a lie as well. It all boils down to shame. A shame that 4 was not anything like the potential that had been seen for it. A shame still being extended.

Yes, I have had fun with 4 and will continue to do so, but because of it... I cannot imagine 4 will be a game I long to return to after it ends. Regardless of whether I purchased 5 or parted ways with the series, when if you had asked me when 1, 2, or 3 ended, I would have thought it obvious that I would have purchased 5, 6, 7 or anything else Sims.

I agree with Carl and I was a castaway. I bought this game at release and tried really hard to get into it. It just didn't have the simple gameplay that I needed to make it enjoyable. Simple things like making sure sims who should be at work or school are not roaming the neighborhood when they shouldn't. Or grown ups requesting that my child sim meet them at the bar during school hours. That stuff was weird and immersion-breaking. So I forgot about this game for the past 4 years and continued playing 2 and 3. Also became a patreon for Paralives in that time and got excited that sims would have a competitor. What brought me back to the sims was Snowy Escape and that paralives released a video showing their Para removing his shoes and then the sims added that feature. So I came back to give the sims a go again. So far, I still feel like the gameplay is severely lacking. To this day, every single sim acts exactly the same way. The traits do nothing to distinguish them. And they all accept any social interaction and smile constantly. Now with the dust kit, they're constantly inspired and there's no way to change their mood. Mods were absolutely necessary. But now, an update is coming in a few days and I don't know if this version is worth the trouble of going to update every single mod.

So far, I'm having fun, but I am spending most of my time in build/buy mode and CAS. And to be honest, I am a builder and even that is losing its charm.