"telmarina;c-17480102" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-17479832" wrote:
"ButteredToast;c-17478171" wrote:
In other word, what I am saying is: the maturity/complexity of your sim depends on your creativity and involvement. This is the idea behind sandbox games. Sandbox games should not spoon-feed you stories, they should instead provide a blank canvas for YOUR stories.
Not sure that’s an argument I’d make but you did. Perhaps Sims isn’t as sandbox as people think, eh? One of the first things you do is define your Sim through one of the various personality builders each game has had. Once you’ve locked in your Sim, their “personality” “traits” “characteristics” - whatever - are you really left with a blank canvas? Sure, but at the same time no because you have a Sim with a personality that you established, who ideally should display that personality through gameplay right?
What are you left with when the personality builder is meaningless for live mode? Sims 4, which is the only game where you can go through all of that and still have a blank canvas when you start. Not because it’s a sandbox game, because it’s a poorly designed game where nothing means anything and you have to imagine mostly everything you want to happen. Some people like that, but it’s not a lack of creativity that gave Sims 4 it’s complaints; I t’s just literally a bad sequel that nearly flopped until EA mass marketed it at a reduced price.
Very well said. I don't think that it was never intended to have the 4th installment of the series be less in depth in what concerns to sims personalities and everything that is built around it in game. I think it was a failure. That's why after this years we can read in the surveys some intention on changing how traits work or on bringing consequences to the game.
It took me a very long time to enjoy playing sims 4 because i was playing as it was supposed to be, a game. Sandbox yes, but a game. Recently i started playing it by inventing storylines in my head (ok nothing new...) but also inventing the turn arounds. That is what is new. Simmers have always played with their imagination, having to imagine my play AND the consequent outcome is what is new...
The last paragraph is what I meant. Invention and imagination. Sims with trait in CAS is a starting point in a blank canvas which is his/her life.
One of my Sims completed a Strangerville challenge with a "loner" trait. Strangerville challenge requires your sims to socialize with other NPCs in order to complete it, which poses a difficulty to my Sim because after some social interactions, she would get an uncomfortable moodlet due to her loner trait. She also has a paranoid trait so she also receive something like "everyone is talking about me" moodlet. Her inner thoughts is my invention. I would imagine her emotional struggle as she has to drag herself out of her comfort zone and interact with strangers knowing that she sounds crazy (alien invasion? really?). But she loves her hometown and she wants to save it. In this case her traits do influence her storyline.
Now, the Sims 4 is not perfect. Can it be improved? Yes, definitely. I would be intrigued by new traits and how I can use them in my stories. Is it childish? That depends on your imagination. In my case, no it's not .
