Make-yourself-simulator vs dollhouse simulator

"NorthDakotaGamer;c-17447971" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17447914" wrote:

"NorthDakotaGamer;c-17447660" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17447447" wrote:

"NorthDakotaGamer;c-17447063" wrote:
I noticed they are taking away more of the sandbox mode in terms of gameplay. When I need to mod the game to play my sim world as I have in previous iterations that us very telling.

I have not noticed this at all. Please explain what you mean?

The forced in the pocket cell phone as soon as the toddler pops out if the bassinet is an example. Also, the sims gravitating more toward electronics for fun. I enjoy setting my game to play in a past era, you know where there is no cell phone or even computers were common place. There is furniture to fit the aesthetics of the past eras, from victorian style to 1950's style as examples. But, the gameplay for a majority of careers and the way the devs set up the phone needed for many tasks and travel. It makes it impossible to play the way I prefer without heavily modding. In other iterations, it was not as difficult to play the way I desire. If it takes me 200+ hours just to set up a game file to be somewhat playable, that is a very telling. My guess is you don't mind the sims with constant tech addiction, as it fits your playstyle.

We have had this discussion. I simply does not consider this a valid complaint for reasons I have already stated. Again, Sims 4 takes place in the modern world. The fact that you still can use the mailbox for as much things as you can is actually becoming unrealistic already.

I know the US is behind Europe (not being obnoxious, I have an American wife and have spent a lot of time in the US) like actually paying people by check still (!!!), something that stopped in Sweden around 1982 (not exaggerating). After that it was automatic bank transfers only. But even taking that in consideration... For me, as a Swede, not having a smart phone I guess is like for an American to not have a car. Virtually unheard of.

It is a valid complaint. The game has the requirement of sims using the phone or computer for everything as the main weakness and flaw.

As for your other comments, would you be surprised that some people do not even own any credit cards? I have not written a check in almost 20 years, but I also refuse to do electronic payments for almost everything. Many places add a "convenience fee" to use an electronic payment and I REFUSE to pay that. Personally I use cash or a cashier's check (printed by the bank) for most things. My debit card hardly even gets used unless I have to. There are many like me, I know even in Europe there are people like me.

I agree, I am European and don't have a credit card either and don't like how they try to force electronic payment on everyone. A year ago or so, there was even some talking about getting rid of physical money completely in the favor of electronic payment, which I just don't feel comfortable with at all. I just prefer real money instead of digital one. I also dislike things like e-books, they're just not the same as holding a real book imo. I am not even that old, I am only 19 and have friends around the same age who think the same. Then again, countries like Sweden generally have a different attitude towards these things, with things like electronic payment being much more normalized over there than in the USA or Germany.

As for the actual topic of the thread, I party agree. I also noticed a shift in the way the game has been advertised more as a create-yourself-game than a virtual dollhouse, but I feel like this already started at the very beginning of TS4. I already said it in another thread, but I feel like it's their way of catering to a bigger audience than before. Many people would say The Sims is a "girl game" because of the dollhouse aspect. I could imagine they changed their advertising to attract players of all ages and genders. There were probably many men or older people who felt like they couldn't play the game because they didn't see themselves as the intended target audience. That's just a theory though.

As for the criticism of the game being too "modern" for certain playstyles, I definitely get the complaint, and even though it doesn't really bother me, I can understand why people are upset. However, I am afraid it's too late for TS4 to catch up to those players. Even if they'll ever decide to remove the phone and give players the option to buy one manually, this wouldn't change the fact that many of the worlds and their backdrops look too modern to play in any era before the 20th century. I'd just advise those players to get TS3. It has many medieval looking custom worlds for example, which are perfect for gameplay like this. It also has more options for old-school alternatives, like newspapers, landlines etc. Let's face it, TS4 isn't made for this kind of gameplay.