"SimsLovinLycan;c-17255253" wrote:
Most of what has been released so far over the course of the game's lifespan so far is actually very usable for family play. You can take the kids out bowling, you can simulate the grind of doing the wash, "Paranthood" introduced a system where the actions of the parents can have a bigger impact on how the kids turn out, most packs have at least a few pieces of clothing and furniture for Children, and so-on.
In terms of interactions and activities, kids are still lacking non-object play interactions and are still too restricted in their instrument choices before they become Teens (Children only get violins, pianos, and pipe organs, and Toddlers can't even tunelessly fram on the piano...which they should be able to do, because anyone who has ever put a preschooler in a room with a piano or similar instrument knows it's only a matter of time before they crawl or climb their way up to those keys and start messing around), Teens can't throw a proper wild party with the parents away because there's no way besides sending them to work to make sure the parents leave the house and STAY left long enough for the party to actually HAPPEN, and Elders just get tired from everything.
However, I love how Children and Toddlers are more independent and playable this time around. I'm happy that the overzealous social worker who would take your kid away for just leaving them home alone for a few hours is gone and Children can get cereal and sandwiches by themselves, because now I can play a family with busy working parents and latchkey kids without the game punishing me for not playing the "right" kind of family (where I grew up, it wasn't uncommon for kids in late elementary school to come home to an empty house and handle themselves just fine until their parents got home later that evening or for parents who worked overnight to leave their kids home alone sleeping). I'm happy that Toddlers can do more, get into more, aren't affected by environmental Happy moodlets, and aren't stuck sleeping in cribs anymore, because they were virtually devoid of all personality, individuality, or fun back in TS2 and TS3 with how painfully little they could do and how far they went with the sanitized "Babydoll" stuff. There's still a ways to go to really get those younger ages fully fleshed out, but they're better than they were in terms of versatility and playability. Teens? Eh, they feel the same as ever to me, sorry.
Speaking of lifestages that feel exactly the same to me, Babies. TS2, TS3, TS4...they're all the same! They do NOTHING!! They just lay there, cry when they need stuff, and look like Baby Alive dolls all day!! Stuck to the crib? They did nothing when you could take them OUT of the crib!!! They didn't crawl, or roll over on their bellies and scoot on the floor, or grab random stuff from nowhere and put it in their mouths (if you watch real infants, after about a month or two old, they're always finding SOMETHING to put in their mouths), or exhibit any form of personality or individual temperament whatsoever!! THEY'RE ALL EXACTLY THE SAME AND THEY'RE DULL AS DIRT!!! I don't see the attraction to dragging Babies around the house to do nothing interesting, putting them in a stroller to do nothing interesting, sloshing them around in a sink real quick while they do nothing interesting, changing them on a table while they do nothing interesting (Not even a comedy pee jet? Come ON!!)...you get my point. Babies didn't do anything anyway, so it makes no difference to me whether you can tote them around or if they're stuck to the crib...because they still do NOTHING. The only way I'd be down with taking them out of the crib is if they actually invested some time and resources into putting some life and personality into Babies instead of making them static toys with dull idol animations. Otherwise, there's really no point. (If you haven't noticed, my biggest complaints about Babies and Toddlers all boil down to, "Small children are no props. Small children are not toys. They're people with personalities and wills and fears and hang-ups and habits and thoughts of their own, and I HATE when they're treated like cutesy dollbabies for the grown sims to play with! Cut that plum out and make them DO STUFF!!")
Elders...yeah, they get tired too easy. I mean, yeah, when you're old everything doesn't work exactly the same, but Jack Lalanne was 97 when he died and was more fit than most 30-somethings in his 70's because he took great care of himself. Some people have a nanna who can't run around for more than 10 minutes without getting winded and needing to take a breather, others have that nanna who runs marathons and dunks on 20-year-old bros on the basketball court like she's still in college. I'd like a range of fitness for older sims that's selectable in CAS so I can have ether, "Oh, pick it up, Sonny! You're playing like you're 102!!" granny or "Wait, wait, Nanna needs a sit-down..." granny. The fact that Elder sims all get run down so fast is the main reason why I don't really play with them.
But, overall, compared to TS2 and TS3, I feel like TS4's family gameplay is actually an improvement in many regards, mainly because of the improvements made to Toddlers and Children and the fact that I can play a more diverse range of family structures without the game silently chastising me for not playing the old "ideal" 50's-style nuclear family. Now, I can play families that reflect my lived experiences and the experiences of people in the community where I grew up instead of being forced to play a mid-20th century T.V. propaganda myth because of useless nannies and overzealous social workers.
...Just my 2 cents...
You made some good points. Especially the one about the babies. It would be great if that had a progression the same way that toddlers do.
It's nice that kids are more independent. However, when the kid is out past midnight, up in the club, and the parents don't show any real concern until the kid finally gets home... Naaaah. I liked TS2 when the parents came looking for their kids.
