"muzickmage;c-16150446" wrote:
"DeservedCriticism;c-16150420" wrote:
"muzickmage;c-16150299" wrote:
Well, ok. I just spent the last 10 hours checking out the Cats and Dogs EP (my eyes are now a bit buggy... lol). And so far this is my opinion.....
Adding a dog or a cat to your family is the equivalent to having Cassandra Goth spend the weekend.... with the exception that you don't have to put a leash on Cassandra and walk her to the bathroom. (However, she'll still need a cat box in the form of a toilet)
The dog(s), and cat(s) are NPC's.... just like Cassandra. But with both (pets vs Cassandra) you can interact, and do things with.... such as play games. With the dog you can play ball. With the cat you can play laser tag. And with Cassandra, you can play video games.
Sometimes Cassandra may leave and go back to her home. Sometimes, the cat will run away. Maybe the cat goes to Cassandra's (don't know).
The dogs and cats can communicate with you if you ask them what's wrong. Plus their animations can be tell-tale signs of what they would like. Cassandra can knock on your front door to tell you she wants to visit, and she can call you on the phone and invite you to her house, or a party.
You can have relationships with your pets (become friends). You can mess around with Cassandra on the couch.
Maybe it's just me but, Cassandra seems to be much more fun than those cats and dogs.
To me this just sounds like they'll wear out their welcome.
I think most players enjoy control and the ability to make a story unfold the way they like. When the Sims disobey and don't do what we want them to, it's an annoyance. In this case, they aimed for a randomness factor instead of one allowing control, probably with the idea being that random will be more dynamic and surprising to help write the stories with you.
The problem I see is that adopting a pet is a "commitment" in the sense if you one day feel in the mood for pure control, then the pets are going to become a problem and a burden. With your Cassandra Goth example, you can always tell her to go home when you're sick of the visit, but here it's not really an option.
It's also gonna be important that the Pets are self-sufficient. In Sims 3 for example there was this weird glitch where hungry pets wouldn't eat until they were absolutely starving, and this was an annoyance because it could potentially get them taken away, depending on the status of their other needs too. If Sims 4 has a single need that acts similar (aka dog needs to sleep but refuses to do so until told) then that'll be more problematic than ever because now your sim needs to go out of their way to order them to; now it doesn't just eat into your time, but your Sim's time too.
I find it interesting to see that....before release there were concerns this pack didn't have enough. Now the pack is released and it seems the #1 complaint or concern isn't the lack of features, but rather the lack of control for pets. No ability to see needs, no family tree, no idea when they'll age up, etc etc. Kinda interesting to see one aspect overshadow everything else.
Interesting wording ... "wear out their welcome".... because that's what I think the cats and dogs are going to do long before Cassandra does. And yes, you can tell Cassandra to go home, just as well as you can transfer your cat or dog to the household your not currently using and transfer them back later. So in a sense, you can tell your pets to go home as well.
My "Cassandra" example clearly shows that an NPC offers just as much, (if not more), options, and gameplay features than both the cats and dogs. The difference..... the cats and dogs animations are new and therefore "seems" more interesting. A month from now I trust we'll be back to partying with the Goths, and not worried so much about the dog or cat at home.... (if they even still live there).
i think this is exactly how i feel about cats and dogs right now that they are just uncontorable sims who are living with you but instead of being sims they are pets. who for no fault of your own may get taken away without you knowing why or not being able to do anything about it even if you do find out why they may be taken away.
