Do you find the Sims 4 challenging?

The game play is not challenging really at all, but when you spent almost 7 hours on a build and your game freezes...that right there is a challenge :wink:

I do wish the game were more challenging, but like @Stormkeep said, there are ways to create challenge, especially by, well, playing challenges :) I have been doing this recently and it's been a lot of fun. I've also been having a lot of fun with the creative aspect recently, in particular, building.

I think more than challenging per say, is that I wish the game was more unpredictable. More potential outcomes -- that could be mitigated if necessary but create a sense of curiosity in how the game/story will unfold.

I think I may have kicked this off with my comments in another thread yesterday haha. o:)

Anyway, I don’t find it challenging, but I think that’s part of TS4’s charm. It’s not in competition with “challenging” games. It’s a whole separate deal. Part of the reason I derive enjoyment out of TS4 is its chill nature.

With that said I’d like it if it wasn’t so easy to fly up the career ladder and max out relationships in one conversation.

It's as challenging as you can make it out to be since it'll definitely vary by different players. :)

I think back to the first sims game and I wouldn't call it challenging as 'frustrating' would be a good word for it, since this is a sandbox style game. What I tend to find challenging is when it takes me more than multiple tries to defeat a boss in whatever game I may have played or using some strategy. Don't think I've ever found a challenge in any sims game. Think the only thing that comes to mind game mechanic wise is trying to maintain relationships in the first and second games, which I tended to struggle with since relationships dropped so easily. :#

Might have my sim start off with 0$ or 500 and see how things go there. Decided to not have a computer for my sim as she was only able to afford a tablet, so she goes to the library to use the computer to write her books.

I recreated the Brokes from sims 2. Didn't give any lot traits to the house, wouldn't let any of them gain extra money from non career activities and it was a real challenge. It felt like I was playing the sims 2 again.

Sims 4 is incredibly easy. Like so easy it’s basically a T rated children’s game in my opinion. I don’t consider any of the games inherently challenging, but 1-3 all require more input from the player to keep your sims needs met, and to make their life successful, or even just ordinary.

Sims 4 is automated to the point where Sims can basically care for themselves. They might not do it perfectly, but you will never find yourself with a dead Sim because you didn’t give them enough attention. You can leave your game for a few hours and when you return it won’t be much different. The time management aspect that required you to remain engaged with the game has been replaced with a less involved story telling design. Your job as the player isn’t necessarily to make sure your sims are successful in the fundamental ways (needs met) but instead to make their life successful in the material sense through performing a lot of leisure actions and actions that really have no purpose in the game at large other than to be visually entertaining for the player.

There really isn't a challenge to this game unless you try to play it outside your comfort zone, like the 99 baby challenge. I play this game to relax for a few hours at a time, and it's quite entertaining.

I think the building aspect is challenging. It might just be my play style. But I get bored of my houses quickly, and I always want to build something more unique and better. Getting around the building constraints of TS4 and floor planning can definitely give me a headache at times...

No, and not in a good way. There are occasions when it is for me, but they're either a) of my own making or b) when I have extremely large households. Even then, once I learned to manage everyone I didn't bat an eye.

I like a lot of the things in Sims 4 (CAS, BB, toddlers, seasons). I also dislike a lot of things, and the lack of challenge is one of them. I feel needs are easy to keep high, skills easy to learn, relationships easy to make, emotions/traits easy to override or change. Most jobs and aspirations are not difficult for me either. It wouldn't bother me as much if there were some sort of stakes or consequences in the game, but I've yet to have an accidental death, an alien pregnancy, a chance card firing or demotion, etc. Where's the realism?

I don't want bad things to happen necessarily but if it's just happy and easy all the time it gets boring for me. "Variety is the spice of life" and all that.

ETA: I think it would be cool to have a "difficulty level" to suit different player's needs. The higher the difficulty, the more random events, bad things, and the harder needs are to keep high.

"Stormkeep;c-16931245" wrote:
Entertaining and fun...absolutely, but challenging...not even remotely.

TS2 could be quite challenging, but in TS4 it is actually difficult to not be filthy rich before the end of even generation 1and everything that can kill your sims gives you the opportunity to avoid or counter it relatively easily (particularly in comparison to past sims games). Random "bad stuff" is also nearly non-existent in TS4 and where it does exist is, again, relatively easy to either avoid or counter.

I honestly cannot recall the last time there was any occurrence in my TS4 game that felt even a tiny bit challenging, which is why I voted never. The closest would probably be when my household had 3 toddlers and a baby at the same time...but that wasn't really challenging...just sometimes frantic. lol
The lack of built-in challenge is just a compelling reason to play following any of the many challenge rule-sets though. Choosing to follow a challenge rule set adds challenge to the game that doesn't exist by default.

I think perhaps, this is a good thing though. Sims players play for a variety of reasons and there's a whole cross-section of the community that doesn't particularly want the game to be challenging. They want to tell their own stories, not have the game block their attempts by inserting challenge that doesn't fit the stories they are trying to tell. For players who do want inherent challenge, challenge-rulesets can be used to provide what they want.

This so much - I don't want someone else's rules imposed on my game. I have certain 'rules' that I stick to that make it as challenging as I want. I'm not a social person, so I never liked having to do social things in the game (I used mods to get around that), and I'm not interested in juggling household finances (been there, done that in my younger days). I'm more interested in parenting and completing aspirations, collecting stuff and gardening. (Right now, I'm obsessed with getting a potato. I had to wait a whole year for winter to roll around again, but we're going to get that potato.)