Please do something with The Sims

"BeJaWa;c-16335654" wrote:

"Erpe;c-16335372" wrote:

"DragonCat159;c-16335318" wrote:
@Erpe though I think it's pretty reasonable to believe that lack of sandbox also took as a factor for having veteran players putting the game back on the shelf or never to play, and it still is a popular complaint up to now. Frustration happens when you realize what customization you loved doing isn't possible: to change/add/remove the layout of lots, to build or change apartments/skyrises. It's one of the reasons, along with what I agree on you: lack of challenges is what driven the game to be and remain shittier.

I don’t even really know what people mean when they say “lack of sandbox” because to me “sandbox” just means “without goals or challenges”? I can understand that this is what simmers maybe want if they mainly just want to build, decorate and dress up sims and just want them to act on their own a little before they make the next house and a family for that house too. But it is just not at all what I need myself!

Customization isn’t for me because I am a perfectionist when and if I do such things. I tried it a little in TS2 but soon realized that I couldn’t make sims that really looked like myself or people I know - anyway. Now I know that the reason is that EA wants to target the Sims games mainly at young teen girls who can’t be expected to have neither much patience nor artistic skills at all. So those girls would most likely just become angry with the game if all their sims looked terrible for those reasons. So the Sims games are all designed such that it is quite impossible to make ugly looking sims or sims whos eyes aren’t at the same vertical level or whos faces aren’t symmetrical even though such asymmetric faces exist in the real world. There are other limitations too. But to a perfectionist like me it isn’t satisfying at all to make sims who don’t look like I intended anyway. So I don’t waste my time trying to do it anyway. It is much better for me to just get it done in no time such that I can concentrate on other things instead :)

I see it commonly used to mean a lack of customization options.
I do think there are a lot of players that fall into a creative group (even teens)
1. builders (more freedom ans assets build buy, probably would use/like CASt, terrain tools, separate foundation heights)
2. storymakers (The group that tends to have an idea in their head and act it out through the sims, probably enjoy more open ended goals, less step by step parties and aspirations, more traits per sims that are more impactful or personality points, favorites, turn ons & offs, lasting consequences/character building, skills, possibly like occult's as well depending on their play style, basically tons of options in live mode)
3. sims creators (create a sim features, ts4 cas push pull system, CASt again, more categories for each clothing types to have full customization of outfits)

Plenty of teenage girls have artistic skill, and many also have the will to be creative, I mean the sims team markets stuff like the new cas system and was supper excited about the color options in pets, so ea recognizes these options as desired content. For those who don't want to they use the gallery and probably still like more options because they benefit from those who do create having more tools.

As for sandbox games:
They lack game goals, but that doesn't mean lacking challenge they wouldn't be very entertaining for people. I set my own goals to meet that can be just as challenging or even more so than a game defined one, therefore wanting a sandbox game does not mean wanting no challenge it just means without preset goals or challenges. I think sandbox tends to add to replay-ability personally, because sandbox games aren't nearly as linear in story progression or play options each time one plays it can be entirely different from before.
Think table top RPGs. The group chooses it's challenges. The game has challenging aspects to over come but what the players do is defined entirely by them. If they decide to just stay in the tavern/safe-house forever and not do any of the challenges they can, but many don't because they want to have fun.

Now I know some people don't like setting their own goals so obviously sandbox options wouldn't be as ideal.

The expresssion “sandbox game” seems to have changed meaning a little because it now often is seen as just meaning an open world game. But if it is open world that people miss then I think that they should say that directly instead.

I agree more with the following definition that I found:
”It's like little children in a park playing with their toys in the sand, doing whatever they want, along specific limits (the child must take into account gravity, friction a.s.o. when building something).

Likewise, a sandbox game allows the player to build whatever it pleases her, within the rules, in order to achieve a highscore or something - or maybe not, the player may play just for the sake of it ...”