Is your playstyle more like sandbox or simulation?
Which do you prefer the most? I imagine most will say both, but pick the answer that best reflects you (how you play more, and what youd like the team to focus more on)
By simulation I mean the game giving you more challenge, day to day tasks, having to work and earn, manage chores, upkeep relationships, you handle what the game gives you and so on
By sandbox I mean you control the environment and challenges, can maniuplate the world, play more often with cheats and customization , youd like most control over relationships, work, the game gives you the tools to design everything and so on.
Well, the Sims has always been considered a life simulator. Hence the name Sims. Sandbox just means playing it without goals or restrictions. So really, everyone plays simulation, just some use and set goals, too.
Civilization series doesn't have a sandbox option that I know of? unless you're talking about cheats mods etc
It is in the sense you can play the game with no particular goal in mind and build your kingdom however you want. You can also deal with other civilizations numerous ways or ignore them. Some may be really aggressive though and you won't be able to ignore them of course... but, yeah, for the most part the game is very sand-boxy :)
"ravynwolvf;c-17983666" wrote: Well, the Sims has always been considered a life simulator. Hence the name Sims. Sandbox just means playing it without goals or restrictions. So really, everyone plays simulation, just some use and set goals, too.
I think from the answers that most people don't know what each of those actually means. Everyone that plays the sims is playing a simulation game. Everyone who plays the sims also plays with the sandbox because you're not following a linear quest unless the only thing you ever do is play strangerville and never go to the bathroom.
As I suspect, the forum is split pretty close to 50/50. Couldn't EA make a sandbox game separately and let the Sims be a simulation, like it was for decades? Or make a sandbox switch that turns off all the fun for people who use the game for storytelling purposes instead of as a game?
TL;DR: Blah blah blah longtime-player complaints and stuff
I mean, if anything, the responses to this poll have made clear what I suspected: that very few people play Strictly Dollhouse/Story or Strictly Game/Simulation. Most people play a degree of both, and had there been a "roughly even split" option, I'd bet that one would be in front by a mile. It seems to me that a lot of people want the game to handle certain things, and want other things in their control. The only variables are how much of each, and what specific things we want control over.
What frustrates me is when people who lean to one side or the other assume that the people on the other side are all (or even mostly) in the "strictly" other side, rather than there being a spectrum of both.
My playstyle is definitely a hybrid between the two binary/false-dichotomy options the poll presents, but I answered "simulation" because I generally play the game according to its rules in service of advancing whatever story I myself have already decided I want to create and tell (with the surprises coming from the game never seeming to let any plan advance without a twist.)
If I could just cheat into existence exactly what I wanted how I wanted it I'd probably get bored pretty quickly. The quirks of "playing by the rules" are what make it fun.
It’s getting cosy! ? Next person to join has to bring the biscuits. I’ll put the kettle on!
"DaWaterRat;c-17983947" wrote: I mean, if anything, the responses to this poll have made clear what I suspected: that very few people play Strictly Dollhouse/Story or Strictly Game/Simulation. Most people play a degree of both, and had there been a "roughly even split" option, I'd bet that one would be in front by a mile. It seems to me that a lot of people want the game to handle certain things, and want other things in their control. The only variables are how much of each, and what specific things we want control over.
And it makes sense that people play that way. The Sims cannot be played as a sandbox OR simulator. The Sims is both. The reason some folks think that people strictly play sand box or simulator could be because of what the vote options state:
“I play more often and I’d like the game to be designed for ”
I disagree with that bolded part because it doesn’t really make sense to me. Why did I vote? Goodness knows.
The Sims is unique in its genre. It’s a complex Life Simulating God Game. The sandbox and simulator are ONE. The sandbox is a simulation of the worlds we live in and the worlds we imagine and the sims are a simulation of the beings who live in those simulated worlds. What makes the sims as a franchise so special is the fact that we have options to control the sandbox simulator and what lives inside. If however we don’t feel like controlling it, we can choose to simply sit back and watch the simulated beings autonomously live their own lives.
In my opinion it’s not about “do you play sandbox or simulator?” It’s more about “HOW do you prefer to play with this sandbox life simulator?” Are you a watcher or a controller? Are you a world builder or a sim designer? Etc. etc. Are you everything? Etc. etc.
Just because I’m the kinda dude who wants to control a huge part of the game for story telling purposes and the likes, doesn’t mean I want that game world to be less alive -alive, as in simulated. I want my sims to behave the way it says they would behave. And more of that complex Ai please.
In real life we live in a real life “simulated sandbox” but we’re only able to control the world around us to a certain extend: change our garden, put in a lovely bird feeder (dollhouse style). Without the birds (simulation) a bird feeder makes little sense, obviously. Unless we catch the poor things and force them to eat from the bird feeder, IRL we can’t control whether a bird will even visit our feeder or not, (perhaps they noticed that the nuts are past their BB date). We cannot control the amount of birds that will visit and we have no control over birds pooping all over the bird feeder (again, simulation, because that’s how birds behave). Birds even take it further: they poop on my car. Now that’s some complex simulation. But hey, I can build a garage (dollhouse style) so the darn birds don’t come near my car. At least I can control that part..
In my opinion we just need the right balance in how Sims behave (behavioral simulation) within the time (time simulation) and space (world simulation) that we create and the amount of control we get over all these simulated aspects.
If I only wanted so called “sandbox style” I’d go to the local playground with a bucket and a spade and mess around in the sandbox for a couple of hours, much to the dismay of those parents and nannies watching over their little rascals who are also playing in the sandbox. Not sure why because I didn’t even steal their buckets, I brought my own. But anyway.
That’s why I play the sims. Because I can delete them and have the sandbox to myself.
Sandbox all the way for me. Goals to meet and consequences to fear? Yes, gladly, but they have to be set by me.
Sandbox however needs a solid simulation underneath. For example I love competitions between my sims and one interaction that would have been perfect for that is sparring. Alas, in Sims 4 sparring has no clear winner, and therefore is useless in half my games. (The other half being scripted stories where I already know who will win, so it's not a total loss.)
