Forum Discussion

4 years ago

Game balance vs Fun. Maxis has failed at both.

So by now with the release of the new kits and dust bunnies, I think everyone can agree TS4 is utterly broken in 2 ways.

1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.

2: EA and Maxis are more focused on bringing in new content no one asked for, neglecting good content,
refusing to fix broken content (Hello Dine Out) and are more focused on stretching upcoming content through multiple packs to charge more. Eg why wasn't the Dust mechanic included in Laundry day? Why wasn't My First Pet stuff included in Pets ect ect.

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Keep in mind in pervious games, yes you could earn a lot of money if you actually tried.

For example The Sims 3:

get an Alien and a Witch, have the Witch conjure apples.
Use Conversion Ritual on the Apple till you got any gem
Have the Alien Transmute the Gem till you get Tiberium
Use the gem cutting machine to cut it so you get a gem + dust
drop the gem + dust on the floor
and within 5 days of starting you have 4 fully grown spires each worth $40,000

The difference between TS1-3 and TS4 is you have to put in work to get a massive amount of money.
In the Sims 4 all you have to do is wait 2 in game hours till your house gets dirty (again hilariously unbalanced)
then feed dust once or twice a day and you get +$800 while you sleep. A random Omiscan treasure.
Items that cost $5k plus and within a day of doing nothing you have $40k-60k.
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I understand the need to breathe new life into Sims by adding new features and content we have never seen before.
But when the core of the game (emotions) have become more of a temporary inconvenience that you can entirely solve by toggling
a single painting or watching tv for 30 in game minutes, it just shows that the foundation of The Sims 4 has been compromised.

At this point people aren't buying new content because its fun, they are buying new content because they are so bored of what already exists.
Again, due to Maxis philosophy of continuing to create barebones content that is unbalanced and then stretching said content over 2-3 different packs.
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The Future
Maxis producers have said there are many more years of TS4 to come. So will the game improve? No.
With the introduction of kits it proves Maxis has no backbone. They are entirely at the mercy of EA with no say in what content they want to create. Is Maxis and its current employees capable of creating the best Sims game ever made right now? HeIl yes. There is absolutely no doubt about it.

However, are they currently capable of producing an amazing Sims game while being subject to EA. No. And that is the sad truth.
What we have seen from the Sims Team over these past 5 years, has shown us that under EA, Maxis is a shell of its former self.
The only hope I have left for the Sims as a Franchise and Maxis as a company is for them to self publish or for Microsoft to purchase the studio.

Until Maxis is free from EA, the future of the series and company is dark.
EA is exhausting Maxis the same way it has done to every other studio it has purchased.

The day Maxis fully turns into the next:

DreamWorks Interactive
Visceral Games
Pandemic Studios
Westwood Studios
And currently BioWare

Will be a sad one.

feedback

49 Replies

Sharooonia
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
The Sims 4 seems to be more of a story simulator than a life simulator. It's a wonderful game for those that like to use their imagination and tell stories. I've never really been a story teller. I mostly just want to play with my sims and let the game lead where their stories go. In the Sims 4 it's not that easy to play the way I like because the game never really lets anything random happen and I'm not hating because I do actually very much love the Sims 4, I play it a lot.

In the Sims 3 my sims will often let me know what they want in life with wants and fears. They will even tell me what life time goal they would like to achieve as they get older and I love this feature. It makes it feel more like I'm playing with an actual life because they essentially choose their own path. I don't always have to give them what they want but making them happy is something I very much enjoy and I love the randomness of them choosing the way their lives go.

I'm sorry if it seems like I'm doing a Sims 3 vs Sims 4 post. It's not meant to be that way. I just didn't know any other way to explain.
filipomel
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
To the OP, you make a lot of good points, but I would be careful with some of the assumptions you are making about other players when it comes to their gameplay preferences and their engagement habits with other players in the community, when you make your argument about the players it takes away from the core issue of the Sims 4. The players are not the core issue as to why the game is how it is, yes, many are very vocal, opinionated and don't know boundaries when engaging with discussions, but ultimately it's EA and the development team who are responsible here.

As for the balancing topic, I agree, when you combine many of the features that offer perks, buffs and bonuses to sims, they often stack up and become completely overpowered and unbalanced compared to the rest of the game. There are many ways to make a sims life easier in the Sims 4, with that said I would also argue that there are many ways to make a sims life more difficult as well. Ultimately it's a player driven experience, if the player wants a more easy going experience they have options for that, but if the player desires more of a challenge there are also options for that.

I often see people saying that the Sims 4 is too easy, and I guess I somewhat agree, but the Sims 4 has a variety of features that can replicate "difficulty settings", things like lot traits, NAP's, Eco Footprint, and now things like Tiny Homes and Haunted Houses, can all contribute to a more challenging experience if that's what the player desires. As for making money, I am aware of the easy methods of obtaining money, so I simply avoid them. Just because a game play option is available to me doesn't mean I am obligated to use it or engage with it, sometimes certain gameplay features just don't make sense in the scenarios I like to play.

But this is all based on my experience with the Sims 4, there's plenty of room for improvement of course, but with what's already available I find that there are many ways to manipulate my personal game play experience, to make it more challenging, easy, random, spontaneous, etc. it's all a matter of me the player utilizing what's available instead of waiting around for things to happen on their own. Sims 4's original slogan was 'You Rule,' and it seems they kept true to that phrase to some degree.
NationalPokedex
4 years ago
I do personally agree that the game is unbalanced and leans towards too easy for what I want in a game. I try to find ways to make the game harder for myself while also giving the character a long term goal.

(OP, while I think a lot of your overall points are valid, general sweeping statements of “content no one asked for” and your assumptions for why people buy the game, etc., as support for your argument, well those don’t tend to go over well around here).

@Sharonia You basically summed up one of my main issues with the game as well. I really like having a Wants/Fears system.
greydonn
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Wants and fears weren't in Sims 3.

Anyway...eh, I disagree. Maybe I'll make a full post of points I disagree with but when it comes down to it, I think we just want different things out of a game and that's fine.
NationalPokedex
4 years ago
"greydonn;c-17852574" wrote:
Wants and fears weren't in Sims 3.

Anyway...eh, I disagree. Maybe I'll make a full post of points I disagree with but when it comes down to it, I think we just want different things out of a game and that's fine.

I can’t speak for Sharonia, but I was referring to the system in TS2.
netney52
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Ok I’ll bite i’m so fed up with these thread of how shit certain simmers find the game. How do you earn $100,000 in 2 days in sims 4 as I’ve never been able to achieve it? Please tell me how easy this is to achieve as the game is so boring and easy I must be missing something. The arguments are getting boring to listen to now.
greydonn
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"netney52;c-17852607" wrote:
Ok I’ll bite i’m so fed up with these thread of how ❤️❤️❤️❤️ certain simmers find the game. How do you earn $100,000 in 2 days in sims 4 as I’ve never been able to achieve it? Please tell me how easy this is to achieve as the game is so boring and easy I must be missing something. The arguments are getting boring to listen to now.

You could...uhhh....win the lottery I guess? I mean it's possible to earn 100,000 in 2 days if you have enough money trees, but that's not a low effort thing to do without cheating/mods. And I've only ever had 1 Sim that I've played win the lottery before in Sims 4, so that's not really viable either.
PixelsaurusWrex
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"netney52;c-17852607" wrote:
Ok I’ll bite i’m so fed up with these thread of how ❤️❤️❤️❤️ certain simmers find the game. How do you earn $100,000 in 2 days in sims 4 as I’ve never been able to achieve it? Please tell me how easy this is to achieve as the game is so boring and easy I must be missing something. The arguments are getting boring to listen to now.

Dust bunnies. I never even interacted with them and I made 127k in one night. It didn't happen with the first family I played with after the pack released, but when I switched houses, there was already a dust bunny there and it immediately was adding funds and objects to the family inventory.
Colton141414
Seasoned Rookie
4 years ago
The Sims 4 is one of the best games ever made and has outsold the previous Sims games. o:)
marea_a_moon
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.

I dont think of this as a bad thing since it is a sandbox after all so if someone wants their sim to get rich fast it is good that there is a way to do that without cheats. I think it would be an issue if everything was this easy but it doesnt seem so to me so far. My sim worked in a freelancing career and did not get rich quickly, i dont know about other types of careers though since i dont play with those.

I feel like a lot of times it is optional how easy or hard you want to make things but it does seem forced a few times like with dust bunnies giving your sims money with no option to opt out from that.
"netney52;c-17852607" wrote:
Ok I’ll bite i’m so fed up with these thread of how ❤️❤️❤️❤️ certain simmers find the game. How do you earn $100,000 in 2 days in sims 4 as I’ve never been able to achieve it? Please tell me how easy this is to achieve as the game is so boring and easy I must be missing something. The arguments are getting boring to listen to now.

I get that reading the same points over and over can get boring but those types of threads arent all made by the same user, and many people dont visit here all the time so they wont know if something was talked about already.