Feedback: My thoughts on Sims 4 after 5 years and its future
I was introduced to The Sims 3 in around 2012 by my SO at the time, I knew of the series and roughly what it was about but had somehow never delved into it before. I primarily played a lot of RPGs and such but I've always had a supreme soft spot for "simulation" games, I had no idea just how much "The Sims" as a concept would be something I was into.
The Sims 3 was addicting, it looked ugly, it ran like garbage even on a decently powerful PC but I didn't care. I was hooked, building houses, designing families, giving them personalities, using mods that increased the global autonomy as a whole to be more like a living little world where they make their own choices. It was truly a beautiful, addictive mess that I sunk hundreds of hours into.
Skipping ahead to the release of Sims 4: A new game, a new engine. The loss of Open Worlds was at first startling but the more I thought about it, I realized I never really ventured too far from home anyway (Though I thought it was weird neighboring houses needed to be loaded) and the load times for me were quick enough to not really care. But the game was no longer ugly, it ran fine, it looked fine. However I realized relatively quickly that there was no real story progression, not a lot would happen over time, even with full autonomy. I felt like the potential with this game was like a puddle, wide, but about an inch deep.
After 5 years of coming and going, playing Sims 4 over and over, buying up new expansions and packs that come out with the hope that it'll... change the game in some fundamental way. I have to say that I like the Sims 4 and it has genuinely come a long way, but I don't love it. Then why play it? Because it works well and really nothing else like The Sims exists I'm afraid.
So I feel beholden to put up with the series for the sake of a type of Gameplay I can't find anywhere else. Sims doesn't have a rival franchise so what choice do I have? It's kind of a sad position to be in as a fan, I think.
I'm not one of those people that feels that the base game has to have every feature from the previous iteration, I get why can't just include everything from the start but I do think there were things that should have been there.
I'm going to try my best to articulate the point that I am trying to make, so bear with me. When new content is announced, or a new expansion, I want to be able to go "Fantastic, I can't wait to see how this new stuff expands the gameplay and how my sims interact with it". That's what I WANT to think, WANT to say. But the reality is I'm thinking "Well it's something different to look at and mess with for a few hours and maybe it'll add a little thing to do sometimes but that's it". Which is not what I want to be thinking, so what is the problem? Are the expansions bad? are the packs bad?
No, ...well look, I think some of the pack stuff feels like a "regret buy' more often than not. But I don't inherently hate the additions to the game, I think they're generally fine, could they be better or more interesting? Sure but I don't think they are the problem.
I think the foundation of Sims 4 is the problem. I could have seen myself playing Vanilla Sims 4 contently and happily, for months, and months, and months without any extra worlds or features IF the simulation aspect and the interactions between sims had more to them. Traits don't matter, they really don't, they feel mostly cosmetic with a slight emotional effect which doesn't really matter "My sim is tense for 5 minutes now because of this thing" Groundbreaking. Traits should inform so much more of their autonomous behavior than they currently do, things they're prone to doing, things they won't do (Unless you really make them). Traits combining together should theoretically cause Sims to seem like they have a personality from all the different behaviors and habits given to them by the traits.
For example. There are games that exist now that aren't The Sims but have taken what I'd call "aspects" of the Sims systems and put them in a different setting entirely, they then evolved on those aspects in a way that makes for some really profound (and dumb) interactions and behavior between AI characters that frankly just never gets old to watch. All because you never know how things in your current playthrough/save file will play out, due to the RNG element born from the possible decisions NPCs might make and the snowball effect that can be born from that.
Story progression of Sims in your town and AI talking with AI and making decisions at any given time based how they bounce off of eachother should never get boring, it just shouldn't. All because it shouldn't result in the exact same outcome everytime, unless nothing is happening in the first place, everytime.
I would love, LOVE if in the future (possibly with Sims 5), this series could build on what matters, the simulation and AI. All the "pretty" stuff like playing dress up is great and all, but I would never find myself complaining about a lack of features if I felt like my Sims were changing over time from happenstance of who they interact with and how, and the possible factors that affect what they do, traits for example being designed to affect their behavior and then being influenced by the other core traits that they have.
Imagine A Scenario
Lets say you start a new game, move your family in, you never really see the Goths, maybe you see Bella sometimes on the street or Mortimer one day, they're generally pleasant and for now nothing of note happens. Lets make another new save file, this time Mortimer happens to be in a bad mood somehow, maybe he encountered a different Sim on the street who was nasty or whatever. That then might cause him to start having problems interacting with people he would usually have no problem interacting with, which then causes him to get into a worse mood by having these relationships start grading, little by little.
Maybe at this point, you decide to go and calm him down and cheer him up, maybe he decides to calm himself down by going for a jog, who knows. Or maybe... just maybe, by chance things just get worse for ol' Mortimer because of these variables bouncing off of eachother with so many different sims, interactions and traits all being at play. Maybe this bad mood leads to him taking it out on his family as they're the ones around him the most at home. Until we started this current save file, he's in theory been a perfectly fine individual, but today has just not been his day, and this puts a strain on his family relationships, degrading them faster.
By now you've been doing whatever with your Sims, living life, playing out drama, whatever you feel inclined to do and have never thought twice about Mortimer again. But you eventually find out, maybe you go into Manage World and spot the Goth Household "What the hell happened, Mortimer is Homeless? he was kicked out? They hate him now?" and for the rest of your game, you'll remember this particular instance of Mortimer as the man who self destructed and ruined his own life, maybe he dies eventually in a fit of rage or maybe things get better for him with your help, who knows. The beauty is in the fact you wouldn't know, and maybe you wouldn't care about him, but you'd have a story to tell others about your save.
And all of that yhat wouldn't even be a scripted story, that would be purely a case of eventuality because a chance encounter with a bad mood and a unlucky set of decisions by him and his traits lead to him "self destructing".
Sims as a series going forward having the possibility of having some of these wild outcomes is what would give The Sims true endless replayability and attachment to the game and the series. And hey if you like your sims quiet and placid, turn down/off autonomy, there is nothing wrong with options, but I want my Sims to be a simulation, I just want to see them carry on with their lives change over time from being in the world long enough to have all these interactions affect them and their relationships, new or old.
Because then, while I'm still thinking about the downfall of Mortimer and how amazing that way to see play out by chance. News comes out "New Expansion, Vampires" and all I would be able to think think is "Oh man, how are Vampires going to play into this nonsense? I can't wait" Could you imagine any major expansion with that sort of functionality with characters doing things and living their life influenced by their traits? It would add so much.
Alright. That was very Long winded I know, but the simulation aspect of Sims 4 and the lacking story progression has been on my mind awhile, there are mods that do try to fix it. But it's sort of "band-aid' for pretty large fundamental problem that frankly should have been something that the game was built around in the first place, I mean that just seems like a given.
Not to mention, the fact pre-existing Sims don't even have unique relationships or how setting up genealogy and stuff is so restricted and awkward in CAS (Why we don't have total freedom setting that stuff up however we want boggles my mind) and how traits kind of don't matter beyond "In my mind my sim is AMBITIOUS!!!" is just so unfortunate. So many aspects of Sims 4 had so much promise and would be genuinely great but are so dampened by this lack of "life", when that "Life" is what should be the game's strongest point.
Speaking of lack of Life, a rant on Vampires: "oooh it's 11PM better watch out for another random old man/old woman/vlad creeping up my street but quickly turning around for the 6th time this week because my Sims are still up and that's all Vampires can really do and they don't seem to think to harass anyone else or have any other interactions with them if they aren't controlled by the player"
The Sims 3 was addicting, it looked ugly, it ran like garbage even on a decently powerful PC but I didn't care. I was hooked, building houses, designing families, giving them personalities, using mods that increased the global autonomy as a whole to be more like a living little world where they make their own choices. It was truly a beautiful, addictive mess that I sunk hundreds of hours into.
Skipping ahead to the release of Sims 4: A new game, a new engine. The loss of Open Worlds was at first startling but the more I thought about it, I realized I never really ventured too far from home anyway (Though I thought it was weird neighboring houses needed to be loaded) and the load times for me were quick enough to not really care. But the game was no longer ugly, it ran fine, it looked fine. However I realized relatively quickly that there was no real story progression, not a lot would happen over time, even with full autonomy. I felt like the potential with this game was like a puddle, wide, but about an inch deep.
After 5 years of coming and going, playing Sims 4 over and over, buying up new expansions and packs that come out with the hope that it'll... change the game in some fundamental way. I have to say that I like the Sims 4 and it has genuinely come a long way, but I don't love it. Then why play it? Because it works well and really nothing else like The Sims exists I'm afraid.
So I feel beholden to put up with the series for the sake of a type of Gameplay I can't find anywhere else. Sims doesn't have a rival franchise so what choice do I have? It's kind of a sad position to be in as a fan, I think.
I'm not one of those people that feels that the base game has to have every feature from the previous iteration, I get why can't just include everything from the start but I do think there were things that should have been there.
I'm going to try my best to articulate the point that I am trying to make, so bear with me. When new content is announced, or a new expansion, I want to be able to go "Fantastic, I can't wait to see how this new stuff expands the gameplay and how my sims interact with it". That's what I WANT to think, WANT to say. But the reality is I'm thinking "Well it's something different to look at and mess with for a few hours and maybe it'll add a little thing to do sometimes but that's it". Which is not what I want to be thinking, so what is the problem? Are the expansions bad? are the packs bad?
No, ...well look, I think some of the pack stuff feels like a "regret buy' more often than not. But I don't inherently hate the additions to the game, I think they're generally fine, could they be better or more interesting? Sure but I don't think they are the problem.
I think the foundation of Sims 4 is the problem. I could have seen myself playing Vanilla Sims 4 contently and happily, for months, and months, and months without any extra worlds or features IF the simulation aspect and the interactions between sims had more to them. Traits don't matter, they really don't, they feel mostly cosmetic with a slight emotional effect which doesn't really matter "My sim is tense for 5 minutes now because of this thing" Groundbreaking. Traits should inform so much more of their autonomous behavior than they currently do, things they're prone to doing, things they won't do (Unless you really make them). Traits combining together should theoretically cause Sims to seem like they have a personality from all the different behaviors and habits given to them by the traits.
For example. There are games that exist now that aren't The Sims but have taken what I'd call "aspects" of the Sims systems and put them in a different setting entirely, they then evolved on those aspects in a way that makes for some really profound (and dumb) interactions and behavior between AI characters that frankly just never gets old to watch. All because you never know how things in your current playthrough/save file will play out, due to the RNG element born from the possible decisions NPCs might make and the snowball effect that can be born from that.
Story progression of Sims in your town and AI talking with AI and making decisions at any given time based how they bounce off of eachother should never get boring, it just shouldn't. All because it shouldn't result in the exact same outcome everytime, unless nothing is happening in the first place, everytime.
I would love, LOVE if in the future (possibly with Sims 5), this series could build on what matters, the simulation and AI. All the "pretty" stuff like playing dress up is great and all, but I would never find myself complaining about a lack of features if I felt like my Sims were changing over time from happenstance of who they interact with and how, and the possible factors that affect what they do, traits for example being designed to affect their behavior and then being influenced by the other core traits that they have.
Imagine A Scenario
Lets say you start a new game, move your family in, you never really see the Goths, maybe you see Bella sometimes on the street or Mortimer one day, they're generally pleasant and for now nothing of note happens. Lets make another new save file, this time Mortimer happens to be in a bad mood somehow, maybe he encountered a different Sim on the street who was nasty or whatever. That then might cause him to start having problems interacting with people he would usually have no problem interacting with, which then causes him to get into a worse mood by having these relationships start grading, little by little.
Maybe at this point, you decide to go and calm him down and cheer him up, maybe he decides to calm himself down by going for a jog, who knows. Or maybe... just maybe, by chance things just get worse for ol' Mortimer because of these variables bouncing off of eachother with so many different sims, interactions and traits all being at play. Maybe this bad mood leads to him taking it out on his family as they're the ones around him the most at home. Until we started this current save file, he's in theory been a perfectly fine individual, but today has just not been his day, and this puts a strain on his family relationships, degrading them faster.
By now you've been doing whatever with your Sims, living life, playing out drama, whatever you feel inclined to do and have never thought twice about Mortimer again. But you eventually find out, maybe you go into Manage World and spot the Goth Household "What the hell happened, Mortimer is Homeless? he was kicked out? They hate him now?" and for the rest of your game, you'll remember this particular instance of Mortimer as the man who self destructed and ruined his own life, maybe he dies eventually in a fit of rage or maybe things get better for him with your help, who knows. The beauty is in the fact you wouldn't know, and maybe you wouldn't care about him, but you'd have a story to tell others about your save.
And all of that yhat wouldn't even be a scripted story, that would be purely a case of eventuality because a chance encounter with a bad mood and a unlucky set of decisions by him and his traits lead to him "self destructing".
Sims as a series going forward having the possibility of having some of these wild outcomes is what would give The Sims true endless replayability and attachment to the game and the series. And hey if you like your sims quiet and placid, turn down/off autonomy, there is nothing wrong with options, but I want my Sims to be a simulation, I just want to see them carry on with their lives change over time from being in the world long enough to have all these interactions affect them and their relationships, new or old.
Because then, while I'm still thinking about the downfall of Mortimer and how amazing that way to see play out by chance. News comes out "New Expansion, Vampires" and all I would be able to think think is "Oh man, how are Vampires going to play into this nonsense? I can't wait" Could you imagine any major expansion with that sort of functionality with characters doing things and living their life influenced by their traits? It would add so much.
Alright. That was very Long winded I know, but the simulation aspect of Sims 4 and the lacking story progression has been on my mind awhile, there are mods that do try to fix it. But it's sort of "band-aid' for pretty large fundamental problem that frankly should have been something that the game was built around in the first place, I mean that just seems like a given.
Not to mention, the fact pre-existing Sims don't even have unique relationships or how setting up genealogy and stuff is so restricted and awkward in CAS (Why we don't have total freedom setting that stuff up however we want boggles my mind) and how traits kind of don't matter beyond "In my mind my sim is AMBITIOUS!!!" is just so unfortunate. So many aspects of Sims 4 had so much promise and would be genuinely great but are so dampened by this lack of "life", when that "Life" is what should be the game's strongest point.
Speaking of lack of Life, a rant on Vampires: "oooh it's 11PM better watch out for another random old man/old woman/vlad creeping up my street but quickly turning around for the 6th time this week because my Sims are still up and that's all Vampires can really do and they don't seem to think to harass anyone else or have any other interactions with them if they aren't controlled by the player"
