How are you feeling about the sims 4 and its current state ?

I still enjoy it. In order to enjoy it I admit I've had to mod a little and add in cc cas and bb to just get a change in look or scenery but it isn't heavily modded, i believe i have 3 that effect gameplay and 2 that tweak annoyances.. I don't think the game can expand much further beyond what it is without more update and patch issues, glitches and bugs so I'm a little skeptical about its stability

I would love to see music/ bands be a thing and I'm not sure why get famous didn't include this but I would love to see more for musical sims and this career branch which... it's lacking. It's like more personality traits. I feel like I'm constantly making the same sims and those would be nice.

I feel like I'm not going to spend more money on it until I see wants and fears improved and more bug fixes.

I haven't played my game after I unfortunately updated it with the HSY patch. I heard it could be better now, but I haven't had time to play now and don't want to spend my freetime testing whether my game works or not, so I guess I'm having a Sims 4 break. I enjoyed my game fine before this patch. I'm worried about the bugs and incomplete wants and fears.

For the future I'm waiting for bug fixes, features that are already in the game (such as wants and fears, lifestyles etc) to be improved and fixed, overall pack integration and pack refreshes. The game could be much better if more effort was put in the already existing features.

I'd especially love to see mermaid refresh (that gives mermaids more to do and special animations or features), kids (and toddlers) to be able to use magic/be touched by magic, games for kids and childish sims, swimmable waters in old worlds and like more to do and stuff to interact with outside lots in neighbourhoods.

I only discovered TS4 at the start of the pandemic, and have not played any previous Sims game. Right away, I got hooked and had soon bought all the packs. Since then, I've played TS4 more than any other game and have continued buying all the packs. Being able to build houses, style sims and create stories just really appealed to me, especially since I found the game when looking for interior design software. So I think that's why the extremely lacklustre so-called gameplay didn't bother me so much at first, but I've grown increasingly frustrated with how this game often feels like an animated, prettified, poorly structured spreadsheet. Pixel graphic games by single developers on Steam can do it better if you look only at the core gameplay mechanics.

At this point, I really feel Maxis are forced to add to a game they are no longer interested in and that really can't support all the addons. Because TS4 has a large customer base ready to pay for content with minimal gameplay - an attractive proposal for EA as gameplay development is much more unpredictable. And yet still, the game breaks, over and over, because the foundation was clearly built to support an entirely different sort of game. With this recent update, I can no longer play as my game keeps resetting progress randomly. And what is a game where you can make no progress? Useless, that's what.

What I really want next:

I'm ready for a good sized music and bands pack.

I'm still waiting for more clothing for male sims. I mean long pants that are not high waters or cropped in any way, no bell bottoms, flairs, droopy drawers or ripped up. I want slim leg, straight leg, dress slacks, jeans, casual dress. I want suits, causal dress, shirts tucked in. I want hip, elegant, casual dressy, casual and masculine styles without slobbiness.

I'm so over bell bottoms, flairs, droopy drawers, cropped and high water pants, super low rise pants, half untucked shirts and those weird wide cropped sleeves for male and female sims. I'd also like to find tops and bottoms that go together, some of the color combos are hard to pair or don't match anything.

I'm just a bit underwhelmed by what they choose not to do for some of their packs.
Like High School Years. I do feel the pack has added something useful to the teen life-stage to make teens feel more like teens, but these oversights?:

-The game seems to prioritize random homeless townies over sims that live in the worlds.
-You can't set school uniforms for everyday and active wear.
-There is no jogging way-points that make use of the track behind the school.
-The bleachers are not usable for hangout spots, and most of the school property is just set dressing.
-You can't form groups and clubs at the school, not even during after school hours.
-You can't cancel Wants without buying a potion, and so far, they seem to make the game more annoying than fun.
-Sneak out feature only usable when invited out, and not integrated with Parenthood game play.
-Career Day event has little to do with learning about possible careers for your sims, what they need for those careers, nor has integration with Discover University.
-Small worlds, Copperdale could use another section with five more lots.
-Also beautiful worlds that are just set dressing with nothing interesting happening in these between spaces.
-Bugs, bugs, bugs

Thankfully modders are stepping in with solutions.

There are still a few more things I want for the game like Bands, a modeling career, Hotels/Casinos/B&B, Burglars, and Fairies,
but I also want the game to end so I can fully mod it, and even make mods myself, without them being constantly broken by monthly patches.

I love the game, when it works. The recent deluge of bugs has dampened my desire to play it though. As for what I want next, not really sure. I have all I think of as must haves, so anything else is just icing on the cake, but if it continues with the massive bugs each time, I am ready for it to be done.

I'm kind of devastated, actually. I have not updated the last patch, which had things I specifically asked for, because suddenly the devs decided that Sims needed to use their phones more obsessively. This will completely nuke my enjoyment of the game. I hated the phone use before and it literally had me on the edge of my patience as it was, but this bomb that was dropped has done it in for me and I'm really upset about it. I've wanted a way to turn phones off for almost 8 years now. I hate it in real life and I hate it in my game.

Like many people, I play The Sims to escape real life. I like to create my own weird world, full of Occults and Gods and strange people and a mix of eras and timelines. I rarely use any of the tech gameplay, and computers are usually locked up, only put in game for brief use or not used at all. But I could never do that with phones because the game wasn't designed with options for it. It was always a race to cancel a phone action before a Sim could gain a new phone-related skill and it was frustrating. But I dealt with it because I love the Occults so much and they have been my favorite of any of the Sims series. But all these years later, after getting so much awesome content that I love, after just dropping Werewolves that I was ridiculously excited for and only got to play twice, the game has become something I don't want to play. I just don't want phone tech like that. I don't care how trivial that might sound to some people, it absolutely bothers me. Even if limited to teens, it would bother me, I love playing teens. And I haven't use mods in years because I barely have time to play my game as it is, I don't have time to take them out and update every single month. Plus, mods can be unreliable.

So my game just sits there, not updated, and I don't even know if I want to play offline because the Gallery is one of my favorite things. I can't build very well and I usually browse for the awesome builds other people make, to put in my game. At this point, I'm just trying to decide if I'm done for good or not. Sims 4 has finally chosen its path and its players and that's just not me.

The post-HSY apocalypse shocked me. It's been widely reported on by various news outlets as well. And it makes me wonder how things are at office right now. It really shouldn't have happened, like Sheepiling wrote. It's the first expansion pack I haven't bought and also the first time I rendered the game unplayable.

Bugs have always been a part of games. They can be annoying, very funny - they can be exploits - they can lead to speedruns. I don't mind bugs generally speaking. To emphasize it again, its part and parcel of enjoying a game - modern or old. But this is something else...

I am also feeling very discouraged and disappointed. I was very excited about the new gameplay and looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately, I did update my game, so am very afraid of playing now and ruining my saves. I only went in to my build save to finish a lot, so am hoping the bug didn't affect the game saves I actually play. I agree @ LiELF with your opinion about phone use. I was already annoyed with how obsessed Sims were with their phones and am not looking forward to seeing how bad it is now in game. It was hard enough before to make sure your sim followed through with actions because they get sidetracked by computer, phone, etc all the time and drop the action you give them. Becomes more difficult if playing more than one sim. I still want to play, and I want to be able to continue with my current gameplay and a new game to try out the new pack. But I am so worried my saves with be ruined as others have been with all the bugs. Hopefully they will fix them soon so we can all play again and maybe be able to enjoy it. My fingers are crossed that they will fix it soon, but I am worried about how future packs will be now, as this it the second time a pack was released with game breaking bugs. Don't think I will be buying a pack as soon as released anymore.

I was having fun playing my storylines before the last two updates. I stopped playing in live mood and moved into building. The last patch is said to have fixed some major bugs so i guess i am ready to jump back into playing with my sims again. As for future content, i would love to see them add some sort of world editor. It is not about adding more lots for me, i just want to edit the surrounding areas without mods. That would be a big game changer.