How do you keep your game play entertaining?

I focus a lot on community matters. I have a working Council, and 5 years elections, even political parties (not played very detailed though - but I made a system involving the N.A.P.s. I also have nobility and 225 year of history for most of those families. On my website I have a profile page for all my 300-400 sims, all connected through a huge interactive family tree. I probably could have listed few more aspects, but main point is that I can play in so many different ways, it will never get boring. Whenever I need a serious break, I can work on builds or historical portraits, to fill some of those gaps. And if I want to close the game completely, I can add features to the script for my site/blog. In a way it has become way more than a game :)

Sometimes when I'm really bored, I just go into CAS for pre-made families or families I've already made, give them a sibling, parent, or child, and then play off of those family dynamics.

First, I play in my own save. It's not finished yet, but I have some good lots and a pool of decent townies, so I don't have to start from scratch.
Second, a ton of mods. I can't enjoy the game without a few essential mods, and others are making the game more fun.
Usually I'm a Rags to Riches player, I start with zero simoleons and enjoy watching my sim suffer without a house. But it became repetitive, so recently I've started a normal family. I've realized that rushed gameplay and an urge to complete everything make me bored, so I've decided to chill. My sims don't have to be ideal with a dozen completed aspirations.
Also, I've set some rules, or habits, for my sims. I try to make them act more like normal people. Choose conversation topics that makes sense (and not “ask about day” ten times in a row), brush their teeth in the morning, buy or make normal presents for Winterfest, not gift random stuff from their inventory, etc. I randomize toddlers' traits and choose regular traits based on that (fussy toddler can be mean or hot-headed, wild can be active, charmer — outgoing, silly — goofball, angelic — good, clingy — idk, insider, maybe, and for my independent toddler I've decided to pick an independent reward trait later). I choose kids' aspirations also based on what toddler skill they had developed first. Something like that.

"Simmerville;c-17738042" wrote:
I focus a lot on community matters. I have a working Council, and 5 years elections, even political parties (not played very detailed though - but I made a system involving the N.A.P.s. I also have nobility and 225 year of history for most of those families. On my website I have a profile page for all my 300-400 sims, all connected through a huge interactive family tree. I probably could have listed few more aspects, but main point is that I can play in so many different ways, it will never get boring. Whenever I need a serious break, I can work on builds or historical portraits, to fill some of those gaps. And if I want to close the game completely, I can add features to the script for my site/blog. In a way it has become way more than a game :)

I have to thank you for sharing your playstyle. I've tried to play in rotation because some time ago i read your experience about playing the game more centered in a community than in a family or a sim. I was blocked, playing legacies and getting bored too often. It has changed the game for me. I now honestly think that we get the most out of sims 4 playing in rotation.

"Ellupelluellu;c-17737356" wrote:
I am a very slow player, I bought ROM at release.. and only now have my first spell caster, Mona.

This is so interesting. I'm the exact opposite. I always dive in the new content immediately and I try to rush through everything in the new pack. I'm curious how you haven't created a spellcaster all this time? Maybe you are not into occults?

I find rotational play the most engaging. I play multiple branches of the same original family, and each branch lives in a different world and is focused somewhat on the content of a specific pack. So I'm not doing the same thing with any two households, and even though there may be similarities in core behavior they all have different careers, aspirations and different hobby activities in their homes. They all celebrate the same holidays, but each one looks different with the vampire family vs the spellcaster family vs the wealthy city family vs the country living family vs the eco warriors, etc. Basically variety is my recipe for not getting bored.

"kostasmpi;c-17738982" wrote:

"Ellupelluellu;c-17737356" wrote:
I am a very slow player, I bought ROM at release.. and only now have my first spell caster, Mona.

This is so interesting. I'm the exact opposite. I always dive in the new content immediately and I try to rush through everything in the new pack. I'm curious how you haven't created a spellcaster all this time? Maybe you are not into occults?

Many players play slow. I haven't made a spellcaster either and I do like occults. Why would we want to rush through new content? Many people like to explore the game at their own pace, implementing new content when they feel it's time or it fits in with their story.

"telmarina;c-17738570" wrote:
I have to thank you for sharing your playstyle. I've tried to play in rotation because some time ago i read your experience about playing the game more centered in a community than in a family or a sim. I was blocked, playing legacies and getting bored too often. It has changed the game for me. I now honestly think that we get the most out of sims 4 playing in rotation.

Yay, thanks! So good to contribute in a way :)

"Ellupelluellu;c-17737356" wrote:
I am a very slow player, I bought ROM at release.. and only now have my first spell caster, Mona.

I'm a slow player, too. My population grows only 3-4 sim years during a full RL year, and I have yet not visited Sixam, as I wanted very much to do ever since the GTW release :) New skills takes forever to build as I play most houses for just a couple days at a time, meaning I have no well skilled ECO sims, and not a single sim is skilled enough to knit a toy yet :) Good thing is that the list of things to look forward to is growing :)

I do a few things I guess to keep myself interested. I have anywhere between 4 to 8 families that I rotate between so if I get bored with one I can go check in on another. I also prefer larger families with a bit of a range in ages to keep things interesting. I guess that makes me a bit of a family oriented player. I also have stories going on between the households for drama haha.

I also frequently am building new community lots for my sims to visit. I'll keep rebuilding and rearranging lots until I'm too happy with it to bulldoze and start over (I'm pretty satisfied with my Brindleton Bay). I also make a lot of my community lots multi functional so there's more for my sims to do (like a restaurant/cafe with a little music stage, a cafe with a roller rink (that I change to an ice rink in the winter), a rooftop nightclub with a pool and hot tubs, a mall with food stalls and movie theater, or even just dual restaurants on the same lot).

I also like to make creative lots like turning a bar into a movie theater since it takes advantage of the TV and bar food (that I pretend is a concession stand) requirements, and I've made my restaurants specific so like I have a little pizza place, an ice cream place, seafood, italian, etc. that are either casual or formal. I have a nice romantic rooftop restaurant in San Myshuno that I rebuilt like 20 times until I got it right.

And sometimes just to make the townies less painful to look at I'll go in and edit the ones I see around town the most. It makes the worlds so much more tolerable and even exciting when I see NPCs walking by that I actually made myself and like and might actually want my sims to go talk to them. I started doing this for University because I couldn't take it with the townies anymore and it honestly kinda changed the game for me. It's annoying to go in and do a bunch of make overs but for me at least in the end it was worth it.

Honestly though I would probably go out more often on the game if I didn't have loading screens between lots. I miss the open maps