Open world totally breaks immersion for sure

"Sk8rblaze;14396771" wrote:

"JoAnne65;14396543" wrote:

"Scobre;14395502" wrote:
Sims 4 still has rabbit holes. They didn't just go away when Sims 3 ended.

In a way there are more, because most of the time you're not following all your sims. And the sims you're not controlling aren't even doing anything. At least when I send my sim to a store in 3 he's buying things or he's learning how to fish. In Sims 2 you can live the life of every sim you play because time goes back when you return to your home lot. Can't say I'm a fan of that, but at least when you want to, you can live the life of all your sims at the fullest. All of them.

Now, that maybe not important to everyone (which I get, I'm not a micromanager myself and some of my sims get more attention than others, especially in large families), but hating rabbitholes because they are rabbitholes sounds a bit artificial to me. Making something terrible out of a similar thing that's just handled differently in the different games. Magnifying the downside just for the sake of it.

I don't think it's being overly critical or anything, I really do think rabbitholes broke the immersion a ton. The whole reason why Will Wright created The Sims was to be able to actually see inside the buildings of SimCity and get a much better glimpse of those weird creatures that roamed around each city, Sims. To go full circle back to staring at buildings again just feels like it defeats the whole purpose of the franchise.

Each Sims game has its downsides, and I see nothing wrong with pointing them out. They all have their upsides too, albeit some more than others of course.

Each Sims game has it downsides, they're all equal in that respect, but somehow some Sims games are more equal than others. Because when it concerns pointing out downsides of Sims 3, the downsides are nothing less than 'horrid', 'terrible' or 'a mess'. The downsides of the other games are 'charming', or 'nostalgic', or 'mildly annoying'. That's just completely over the top, because you can't enter some buildings in the other versions either. And it's not necessary or even desirable to enter them all (see Pary's post).

I follow what you're saying about Will Wright, I was one of his very first fans actually without knowing, even before he had had the chance to develop The Sims :# I vividly remember watching my father playing SimCity, somewhere in the 90's, literally thinking: this is so cool, I love this, but I don't want to build neighborhoods and roads and industry and stuff, I want to go inside those houses. I want to know who lives there, who are those people driving in those tiny cars. Literally this:


(such a powerful trailer by the way; just as powerful as the trailer where open world was introduced imo)
That was the idea, but that idea had to be transferred into a playable game. Rabbitholes in my opinion are the most perfect solution for places where you can't follow your sim (which is exactly the same in Sims 1, 2 and 4, only there you can't see where your sim went). In fact it contributes to the immersion for me, not breaking it 'a ton'. There goes Charlie, off to school/work. Poof, and gone is Charlie, vanished into thin air. One minute he was there, the next he was gone. Where is he? We have no idea but let's hope he'll be dropped on our porch again by the end of the day.

I understand people dislike they can't follow their sims everywhere (not because I agree, I think they are overestimating the charm of following your sims constantly, but I understand it), but I really don't get why it being an actual building makes it worse. @luthienrising explained it once (and in fact I could follow that), by stating it's the frustration of being so curious what's in there and not being able to see. Even when I don't share that curiosity, ok, I get that. But why a building would break the immersion and is worse than sims vanishing is beyond me. Besides, even though I don't like sims vanishing, I can't imagine I'd ever be that passionate about it. "Sims vanishing is horrid, I hate it!" Neh, I just prefer them going somewhere, that's all.

True, they are better than nothing at all, but TS3 used them far too much IMHO. For instance, the spa, grocery store, book store, movie theater, town hall, and other rabbitholes should have (and I believe could have) been open venues.

The town hall? You mean the place that doesn't even exist in Sims 2 and 4 ;)?
All the venues you mention are only fun 'open' when there's some kind of gameplay attached to it. The library has always been open in Sims 3 and as for me, I find it utterly boring. It isn't even a real library where my sim can borrow books. The museum is open, but the art exposed there is silly and can be found in every household because it's all available in buy mode.

One example of the greatness of rabbitholes for me is the campus. It looks and feels like a real campus, thanks to the rabbithole buildings. Buildings that could have never been built like that in build mode.

(long post, sorry, I guess I felt like babbling :p )