Carl's take of ways for improvement.

"Uzone27;c-17273217" wrote:

"Cinebar;c-17273167" wrote:

"Uzone27;c-17273110" wrote:

"Camkat;c-17271557" wrote:

"Uzone27;c-17271349" wrote:
My first experience with the Sims ended up with my Sim being in such a catastrophic state that I couldn't get him to do anything.
To make matters worse it was my "Self Sim" (Something all Simmers do sooner or later no?)
The thing is...I didn't know anything about the Sims. I bought the game from a bargain bin. loaded and started playing.
From that perspective you might have a better appreciation for the difficulty of the game if you don't live under the hood.

This place (our beloved forum) is one massive spoiler.
The ultimate challenge would be to see someone try and figure out how this game works without any help at all.

I get that too. It happened to me in the beginning and it likely happened to most of us. Thing is, once you learn (and it doesn't take that long) there's nothing left anymore. :/ Part of the fun, at least for me is the learning and the challenge. You clearly found it a challenge at the beginning and you're still here. Making it a wee harder with some consequences wouldn't chase most away.

I get ya. This is a really tricky topic to be sure because reading these comments really drives home not only the difference in game play styles but also in semantics.
It's pretty obvious that "challenge" means different things to different people, so if I'm putting myself in a designer/developers shoes, my job would be to try and find the consensus definition (which in this case is akin to herding cats)

To be fair I would say they have done an admirable job in producing a game that's all things for everyone.
The passion that motivates a player to continue playing any game depends on it's replay value.
I do miss the grindy days of cozy one lot Simming where keeping every Sim happy and successful was the goal of the game.
Start out in the plum house and guide your Sim to the top of the social ladder.
^Thats pretty much what i remember on the back of the CD case....so when I started, those were my expectations.

When I failed miserably at it the first time I tried....my reaction was...woah...there's a lot going on under the hood of this game than I initially thought...now I'm hooked. I wanna see how deep this programming really goes.

So I tried again (My self Sim from the first attempt didn't actually die...he just entered catastrophic aspiration failure)
The second time around I was learning little tricks like not allowing a radio in the same room as a sleeping Sim, how to click on the bookcase to learn how to cook. "We notice your Sim is eating nothing but beans...try clicking on the bookcase to learn how to cook on the stove"

Hmm...yeah this game is definitely worth exploring if I'm missing stuff like that....

Once you know everything...yep..you are going to have to find new ways of exploring without making it inaccessible for anyone trying to play the game the way it was intended.

No cheats, no spoilers.
The developers never lost sight of that, much to the chagrin of people who know everything there is to know about this game and find themselves bored.

I beg to differ with your last sentence, but agree with most of your post. The developers have absolutely lost sight of the roots of this game or this franchise. When Sims can walk by dead bodies and get a boost from a cheap decor object and not even notice someone in the game is dead, it says, we didn't spend much time on making the AI as smart as we claimed.

I hear ya.
The fact that anyone is still here in spite of the radical changes that this game has undergone...and the sheer passion that people express when change is introduced fascinates me to no end.

It's why i keep coming back to the forums.
As to why I keep coming back to the Sims?
I still find it charming and creative. Take it for what it's worth.

For some, (maybe even me) the game is not the game but talking about the game is the game. I think twitter and Youtube have helped this hapen and some of us do spend more time talking (good or bad) about this game rather than playing. lol Even game changers don't actually play, they make videos about them talking about the game. I think TS4 is the only game that some spend more time talking about it rather than playing it. And I think this is all by design, it's more important to talk about something these days (social media culture) rather than actually do something. lol Even I have to admit, I get more out of talking about this game than I do playing it.