Island Living Appreciation

Eeeek! I still have to have a turtle hatching event!

I like it as well. I can understand some of the criticisms, and I do think they left stuff out / reused stuff they just shouldn't have BUT ... I am having a blast with this pack.

I love that together with off the grid I can finally play truly tribal sims. #TribalLiving #IslandLiving :D

https://i.imgur.com/4d3dRUt.png

"Beardedgeek;c-17134754" wrote:

"EnjoyfulSimmer;c-17134742" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17134209" wrote:
You're not the minority.
But unhappy players spend more time on forums than happy players because happy players are busy playing.
That's true for every game.

Nah...theres a lot of underwhelmed people over on reddit too. This pack is just for looks and new pretty clothing and cute furniture. Little gameplay was added @Beardedgeek

Ah yes, unless you count all the gameplay you don't care about and therefore pretend isn't there since you want a carbon copy of all the older games.

And btw, you did not disprove my point: Complainers will always believe they are the majority, because they have the time to complain and only sees other complainers. Be it Mass Effect 3, Fallout 4, Skyrim, Sims 4 or any other game.

There are only two games since the invention of the Internet Forum where I truly believe the complainers ARE a majority: Sim City, and Fallout 76.

I still like Simcity even though it didn’t do well. I just don’t like the lot sizes.

I love the pack! Love the new items, the improvement to mermaids from TS3, the island graphics, it's all so very beautiful. Of course there are things here and there, but overall I love it. Easily a favourite pack. I'm also one of those minority that prefers this lot system to the open world. It took forever to load in TS3, was super glitchy and needed mods, and some worlds were practically unplayable. In TS4, I find it so much easier to travel with my sims family! I much prefer the click and load to the "taxi/swim/walk for three minutes and oh, we lost the toddlers!" Plus, you can visit other worlds. I also find that with this system, there is more diversity in the world types. TS3, save for a few exceptions like Isla Paradiso, any new worlds introduced were pretty much the same just laid out differently. In TS4, Strangerville is a desert town, Forgotten Hollow is a dark and foggy goth town, Brindleton Bay by the pier...the all have different atmosphere. Lot traits are amazing. I just like this system better, I can play at max graphics and it doesn't take forever to load. I used to read a book while playing TS3 and couldn't even play with decent graphics.

I think the reason that there's lots of complaints is multifold:

1) There is no ceiling on good content. There will always be something any game could have done better, something else they could have added. There is no such thing as absolute perfection, and even more impossible is absolute perfection for absolutely everyone. The more people play any game, especially multiple iterations, the more they want to hit that ceiling, but it doesn't exist. This couples with the fact that limitations exist (including maintaining a teen rating to be buyable by a whole demographic!). You have hardware of CPU's, bug glitche...the more you add the harder it is to make run smoothly, the more it costs them to make and the more they have to charge us. It's not an excuse to put out bad content, but it's a reality. They are a business that exists to make money and they have to balance all of this. Games should actually cost more than what they charge, that's why DLC has become such a big thing.

2) Game fatigue. Sometimes, you're really just bored with a style of game, especially if you typically only play a few. It's likely that they aren't just disappointed, they're just bored of a life simulation game and need to take break and broden their gaming repertoire. They look back at previous iterations with rose-coloured glasses because when they were playing it back then, it was still newer and exciting on the whole. If they had TS3 content released now, they would likely be just as tired of it. Yes, games have to be innovative and introduce new things, but you also can't re-invent the wheel. A first-person shooter is a first-person shooter. An MMO is an MMO. A life simulator is a life simulator. There's only so much that can be done to make it "new", and if you've been playing it for four+ years, you're likely a little fatigued weather you realize it or not.

3) Player Skill improvement. The more you play a game, the better you get at it. You are naturally going to be a better player than you were one expansion pack ago, two ago, a whole iteration ago... you will accomplish things faster, you will understand basic mechanics better. In terms of the sims, you are better at completing aspirations, of finding secrets, of exploring maps... they can't scale a game to the difficulty of the oldest players. They need to be able to introduce new buyers and players. There is also a cap to how difficult/different they can make it. The great thing about the sims though, is that it lends itself well to challenges, there are lots of user mods. A common complaint is that some modders do stuff as fast as the employees, but the game is supposed to run this way. Its supposed to be customizable and allow you to run multiple stories and scenarios. It allows for these mods precisely because as you become a better player, you're just going to do things faster and exhaust content quicker.

4) Growing gaming culture. Gaming culture has exploded for the last decade. People make a living now off of playing games, we have entire communities in forums. We have better technology and more acceptance. As gaming culture has grown so has gamer identity. There are way more types of games, and people have started to better identify and find their particular gamer tastes. We already know it in the sims: people who play almost exclusively for building or CAS, or challenges, occult players, storytellers, realistic players.... Because there are so many ways to play, and it's only growing, its harder to hit and satisfy every type of player. You just can't do it. So yes, many people will be disappointed and they have a right to be. Their personal tastes aren't being met. But some peoples are. Neither of us is right or wrong.

I dont begrudge people who are upset, I get it. We all have play styles and individual tastes and have a right to share them. I do think though, as players, we also need to evaluate it. Is part of my dissatisfaction game fatigue? Am I getting better at the game? If I am this dissatisfied, why am I still buying these expansions on release? Why am I still playing? Should I look at mods, or do a challenge to push myself out of my comfort zone, or take a break? Or should I stop supporting and giving my dollar to better force EA to pay attention to my needs? Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk XD

@Zussage I completely agree about the game fatigue. I sometimes wonder if some of the players who are dissatisfied by TS4 have just out grown the sims. Not that there is an age limit, I’m almost 30 and still play and love it ?

For example I loved Kingdom Hearts as a teen and was so excited for KH3. I really didn’t like it, though. I realized that maybe I was just being nostalgic and that maybe it’s just not my cup of tea anymore. Doesn’t make it a bad game, I just didn’t enjoy it. Not the case with every sims player of course, I’m not trying to speak for everyone who is disappointed.

Back on topic, of course there are things I wish were different with Island Living. There’s some missed opportunities and as you said, there can always be more. It could always be better. But I still love it for what it is. It makes me excited for the direction TS4 is going, the worlds are getting better and better with a real sense of community and culture and I just love it ?

@LaurenLoser16 for sure! There's nothing wrong with letting go and saying "this just isn't for me anymore".

I absolutely LOVE the CAS items. I bundled it with vampires and I have a half vampire family in forgotten hollow (the youngest is gonna be a rebel and become a mermaid) and like, my goth vampires are all in Island Living clothes XD. The jewellery, the rompers... the black and red stuff still suit the vampires in my opinion. I may never use any other clothing again!

And the culture and vibrancy is so true. They may not be open world like TS3, but Sulani is so unique, with it's own quirks, culture and people. It does make me excited, as I find each new world has it's own tone, and makes it so much more rich and immersive for story telling because the setting basically becomes it's own character. They really out-did it with Sulani, it's one of the best constructed worlds thus far.

Being A simmer since 2000, I enjoy the game a lot I played The Sims one, two and now 4. The Sims 3 well my computer wasn't the best and I had a full-time job plus I was still enjoying Sims2. I wasn't even a gamer in 2000 I saw The Sims in a magazine and it piqued my interest and I've been hooked ever since.

"EnjoyfulSimmer;c-17134742" wrote:
Little gameplay was added @Beardedgeek

I agree with a lot of the others, this depends on your playstyle. I play families mostly and I develop hobbies, likes, dislikes and interests with my sims through the use of traits, skills and clubs. I enjoy being able to do simple things, like take a family out to the beach. When you play the game that way, there is more gameplay added:

https://i.imgur.com/9vPM7d5.png

The only real point of criticism for me is the disappointing cave discovering experience. It's just not satisfying to have that be a rabbit hole. Doesn't add anything, except that you can apparently find collectibles. But it's so frustrating to read about how they discovered a lagoon or whatever and not be able to see it and explore there :( But for the rest I really like it. Yes, you can't take much of the pack into other worlds, but it's more like a liveable vacation pack anyway. However, if I'm really honest, I also don't really understand what the considerations are for classifying something as game pack or expansion pack. Maybe it's more of a game pack than an expansion pack, that could very well be true, but I do think it's worth the money.

I love it. I just got the Island to the third tier for all of the effects, and I love that my sim can impact the environment in that way. It's kind of similar to Strangeville's storyline, except it doesn't really guide you through it (which I thought was fun, as I had to explore a lot more). I'm still trying to figure out the events on the mainland, so far I've had a cultural bonfire/bbq, a fishing event (with a vendor to make seafood dishes out of your fresh catch) and the turtle hatching event. I've heard there are more, so I moved my sims to the mainland (Ohan'Ali Town) to try to catch them, b/c they don't give a notice that they're happening (except the turtle event). I just noticed that they give a buff from participating that boosts happiness for 1-2 hours ("Part of the Community).

https://i.imgur.com/QzsCGWV.png
https://i.imgur.com/BzVVazt.png

https://i.imgur.com/xXmLE6y.png

I'm still digging into the content. I love my sim's modified jetski (blaring summer strut with light effects and handlebar streamers) and her dolphin bff helps manage the social need a lot easier. I'm still getting used to the increased "community" mechanics, with people randomly coming by with food and whatnot, which seems a lot more frequent and diverse than in other worlds (with exception to city living).

https://i.imgur.com/bArZyC2.png
https://i.imgur.com/PhD20zl.png


I still want to try an off the grid scenario, and set up a caldera base camp for that purpose.. I just haven't gotten to that yet. :D

https://i.imgur.com/vocmZqq.png

https://i.imgur.com/UuCpkh1.png
https://i.imgur.com/2nFn1jU.png

I literally don't want to visit any other worlds right now.

"MissyHissy;c-17134324" wrote:

@Beardedgeek - Good to know I'm not in a minority ~ it seemed like everybody was bitterly complaining about every pack coming out, which seems a shame since I do know a lot of people who do enjoy and appreciate what we have got. It's lovely to know.

Honestly, people have complained about literally every pack. And they'll complain about all of the future packs, too. They won't adjust their expectations or accept that it's okay to leave the game and come back (and it's probably for the better that it's not the sort of thing that people spend hours upon hours every day playing). The game is still a sandbox, so expecting it to create stories for us can only go so far.

I'm content with it because I don't set my expectations based on prior versions of the franchise, because 4-5 years later, we know that the packs will be different and that they won't include everything that was in TS2 or TS3. Expecting otherwise is just going to lead to disappointment. In some ways, TS4 has improved on TS3 (I can't even get TS3 to run, so there's that) and in others, it lacks some of the features and details. When new packs come out, I just let myself be excited as opposed to looking for everything wrong with it (like Seasons EP and snow depth). Then I play it for a week or so, release a bunch of builds, and then I play when the mood strikes me (which is pretty sporadic).

I get the impression people are expecting too much for what the franchise has proven capable of, and they want a game with more depth than what is basically a sandbox version of playing with dolls. It is as interesting as you make it.