Carl's take of ways for improvement.

And here we go again... learning skills. In the Sims 3, there are tons of different ways to learn skills, so the game doesn't get boring play through after play through. I can do the deed, take a class, go to university, read a book, listen to a tab cast, watch tv, even talk to a freaking dragon. I can't say I really wanted to repeat a career in the Sims 4 because the path was always the same, short, and boring. Nor did I want to stick with a career because game play just sort of stagnated. I have to play the Sims 3 for a heck of a long time before I get bored, but the Sims 4 runs out of things to do pretty fast. On top of that were tons of other skills in the Sims 3 that were not necessarily part of a career, like festival activities, consignment store reputation, etc.

Things I do like about the Sims 4 is gardening, cooking, and to some degree building, but it pretty much ends there, and is bogged down with so many other problems. Pretty much everything I liked about the Sims 4 was something I wished I could see in the Sims 3, like unique plants, or new objects like the bubble bar.

I usually don't post much, seeing as I can be quite a rantasaurus rex, but Carl hit the nail on the head. Somebody gets it.

@Simsalot99 that was a long but satisfying read. I love hearing about all those sims 3 scenarios! Has me cracking up. There is nothing left to say I think you covered everything lol :D
But yes the townies really bore me. If and when they finally show up on a lot they just stand around, chat, walk by over and over. I feel like they have no lives, no direction in life, no nothing. Just empty shells filling a role. It kinda bothers me but there's nothing I can do about it so I make the best of it.

I honestly believe sims 4 is only fun long term for people who have a big imagination because there are so many missing pieces you have to fill in yourself. The stories don't write themselves.

That's interesting, because I kind of find a good Sims game to be more Finnegan's Wake than mobile app. I find there is too little in the Sims 4 for my imagination to do much work and I become quickly disinterested, while when I play the Sims 3 I find almost unlimited opportunities to elaborate on what's going on. I don't really like to be the author of the story, but I do like to take part in one and sim in a world where the effect I have isn't so much me at my computer as my sim having an effect in the world. So, I typically play 3 instead of 4.

Yes and yes

@Simsalot99 I love your posts <3

Thank you. :)

Well, here's one for the road that I didn't have time for the other day. Then I'll get out of your hair. Cars. Carl mentioned cars. Cars were mentioned as expensive items to be able to spend cash on. I suppose they would be. In the Sims 4, cars wouldn't really have anywhere to go. When it's off the work, it's off into the void. There are no roads that actually go somewhere, let alone work. I don't think you'd be able to back out of the driveway with the steady stream of senior citizens and Marcus Flexes, anyway. Cars could sit and look pretty, like most of my sims do, and off into the void, only to return a short time later.

When I played the Sims 3, my car was more than a car. It was my friend (it's in my friends list.) If I had a garage band I might get a Rock Town 3000. For another Sim the Rock Town 3000 would be an big gas guzzler and I'd opt for something more clean and modern. Bikes, scooters, broomsticks, a solid gold Sim Mobile (can't get much more greedy than that.) With a custom paint job and a variety of styles for various income levels and lifestyles, vehicles added something unique to the life each sim. From taking a cab home from a party, to getting stuck in the rain on a broomstick, or heading off to work early to be on time in your argyle Jalopy (oi), they connected you to the environment. Whether a pink pickup truck or a scooter, you could choose something that suited how far you were from what you wanted to do, and how you wanted to live. You could be green and economical and choose a bike, or deck your 8 car garage out with the most expensive cars and put up a security gate. You might even ride your horse. All of these things, while unique, connected sims to their environment. They actually went somewhere. There were roads and a way there and time passed when going to work or a store, and many things to do, and transportation from a cab or carpool or something more personalized got you there. Always. There was something to do and look at other than an empty house or loading screen. Instead of going off into the void and returning, after a long night of ghost hunting I could stop and buy a couple lottery tickets at the grocery store and eat at the 24 hour diner on the way home before collapsing into bed. I could go to the bookstore, eat, go to a park, the gym, take in some music or a movie, you name it, after coming out of the rabbit hole before heading home. Vehicles did all these things. They connected sims to the open world environment. They were present everywhere you went, because they got you there. From going out to a stakeout in a Big Lemon, biking to the gym, or heading out to forge some art on The Beast. Finding parking lots crowded with Jalopies, UFO's parked in obscure island locations, selling the Bwan Speedster to get through university (you know the one... don't lie), and getting half a dozen 85k sports cars and a bbq for being a celebrity. But they still got you where you were GOING.

Cars won't fix the Sims 4. They won't bring any of that back. There isn't really anywhere to actually go. There are no roads. There is nowhere to stop along the way. Just loading screens to go to a new location and an off to work void. The speed you get there, if you get there in style doesn't matter. You could still amass some wealth, but with the size of the lots I would be skeptical of where to put them.

Given that most careers are at home or have you staring at your empty home for a while in the Sims 4, I found that something I missed was the variety of things going on at home that was present in the Sims 3. I played many Sims 3 games working from home, but they were never boring. The plethora of magical gnomes, which did some pretty interesting things (Bucktooth Butternut, Sgnomeman Bittertrotter, Abracadabra, Evil Mr. Gnome, Gnome of the Darned, the Troglodyte gnome posing in front of technology with his club raised), people passing by or peeping in my windows (from vicious gossip to hearing the chime that someone got a crush on my sim and wanted to get to know them better,) zombies (kicking the gnomes,) wild animals, and aliens ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night all gave some activity, and even opportunities to socialize (you know, when you put the bowl of cat food down beside the garbage can so you can pet the racoon.) I seldom have my sims watch tv, but I almost always put a tv down for the gnomes. There really was a lot going on (even weather wise), more if you did things like garden or plant herbs, which gave you even more ways to interact with the environment. And unless you didn't bother to talk to even one person, the sim would regularly be invited to parties - no loading screen required.

And while there were many careers from home in the Sims 3, as there are some in the Sims 4, in the Sims 3 you could choose if you sold a painting off the easel, or sold your gardening, etc, through your inventory, or head out to the consignment store, sell them at the grocery store, etc. You could even use the rugs if you wanted to. There was the choice to get out and do more than look at the four walls all the time, even for careers that were from home. So, instead of selling the the next painting at home and starting all over again as in the Sims 4, you had the chance to make a little extra money by putting in a little extra effort by using the consignment store. You could build a reputation at the store, build a relationship with the employee (who holds your financial well being in their hands,) meet other sims there, irresponsibly go drop your first consignment payday for your less than masterful paintings on a tattoo on the way home and not make your 22 simoleons bills that week and have the repo man take your alarm system so you get robbed later in the week (keep the good stuff at the back of the house.)

So, home life in the Sims 3 could be a flurry of activity, even if you lived alone. You could welcome it and even place objects to enhance it, or shake your fist at it and kick and sell the gnomes, shutter the windows, build a big fence, and put up a privacy gate. There were also opportunities to bring your at home careers out into the world to make extra cash, socialize, and do things - or not. You could be a total and complete shut if if you wanted, or get out there, and it gave some variety to the game play, along with traits (some traits have a sim like to stay home and not be around people and be very uncomfortable in a crowded place or meeting someone new, while others will have your sim soak up the sunshine on the commute and adore socializing while quickly tiring of being alone at home. These factors alone can totally change what it's like to have your sim crawl out the door after staying up several nights painting for a trip to the consignment store. Whether it's liberating or anxiety laden for this sim to take the extra step out into public to sell their wares vs be in the comfort of their home in their element. Introverts and extroverts.) When I play the Sims 4, it's paint, sell, paint sell. No reason to move until the sim needs their motives filled, which is pretty repetitive. I think a more interesting home life is something that could have been present more in the Sims 4, even without needing to go out to do something (and sit through a loading screen.) For me, the home life is pretty uneventful unless people come over and leave glasses of water lying around all over the place for me to clean up, which makes me kind of mad at all my friends so I wish they would stop coming over.

@ApparentlyAwesome I agree, and thank you :) I keep hoping the Sims 5 will be an improvement, too. I find it very hard to get a couple hundred hours into the Sims 4, but easy to get a couple thousand hours into the Sims 3. It has been years, and I still haven't gotten through absolutely everything, and still don't run short of ideas to try out in the game. I hope something comes along to build upon what is great about the Sims. I'm just not so sure the Sims 4 is the place where that's going to happen. The Sims 4 is what it is, and when I played it I didn't expect it to be the Sims 3, and I tried... a lot... but it just doesn't get there. The math of how much more complex traits alone were in the Sims 3 speaks for itself. No idealization required. More numbers, more complexity. Saying the Sims 4 is the most complex Sims ever is really, truly a lie. It was even marketed as more complex, with more complex emotions and relationships than ever before. Numbers don't lie, though, and the complexity compared to what was available before was pretty rinky. Being that is what sets the Sims 4 apart the most from previous titles is the LACK of complexity, marketing it as more complex is kind of weird.

Amazing video, thank you very much for linking it. Carl really put a name on a lots of issues that bug the Sims community. I kept exclaiming YES like every five minutes of his analysis!

@Simsalot99 - Thank you so much for your detailed comments! I've never really played The Sims 3 - only the base game for the couple of hours before I got tired of the open world and the unappealing (to me) visuals. Your enthusiastic comments made me want to buy TS3 and all its expansions right away! While I keep hearing that TS3 had a lot of issues as well, it seems that it was so much more complex and fun than TS4 currently is. (not that I don't have fun while playing TS4, it's just that it's a bit frustrating - it could be so much more than it actually is!)