please make the sims in sims 4 more alive

"JoAnne65;c-17199483" wrote:

"LiELF;c-17198428" wrote:
Wow. There's a lot of people in this thread taking the perception of Sims games and marketing to a whole new dramatic level. "But...think of the children!!" :D

Kids are a lot more resilient than folks are giving them credit for. Some of them actually played Sims 1 back in the day and came out just fine, lol. These days they're all playing GTA V or whatever. I think they can handle death, fire and consequences in Sims 4 and some cheesy marketing ads. It's not that deep.

Not sure what you’re referring to so maybe my response won’t adress what you mean, but being asked about personal things in your real life that didn’t go too well, provoking kids to expose people who are near to them, is not the same thing as playing a game with some political incorrect elements. I’m all for that.

It's a casting call. A casting call is completely optional. A company puts out the information for what they are looking for, and people choose to respond. Then the company interviews/auditions the responders, who all volunteer their information (often they are paid to participate), and selects people from the lot. It's the exact same process for any media, including commercials, films, TV and even radio. The fact that they put exactly what they were looking for in their casting call means that they weren't misleading, coercing or "provoking" anyone. It's actually professional and transparent. All of those "kids" are at least sixteen, and depending on the local laws, most of the time anyone under eighteen requires parental consent anyway.

Seriously, you guys are just putting this under a magnifying glass and trying to find cracks. It's getting kind of silly. Not only that, it's way off topic to this thread, so in response to that, I'll voice my support that Sims definitely need more "life" in them. And I wholeheartedly agree that Sims 2 Sims had amazing personalities and I would love if we got some of that flavor into Sims 4. Especially Fears, Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs, and the Chemistry system. Sims 4 Sims are desperate for individuality and some unpredictability. They need some systems that distinctly distinguish one from another. Something that override those annoying generic emotions.

"sweetface44;d-964075" wrote:
EA please can you make the sims more alive and fun sims 4 has basically turned into a virtual doll house only really too perfect not enough drama..

Yes, please!
Usually, there is not much drama in my game and I'm okay with that. But when I want drama and my game decides that it doesn't want drama... Argh!
I downloaded the Pleasant family and wanted Angela and Lilith to dislike each other, but every second I didn't have my eyes on them and triggered mean interactions, they would start telling jokes to each other or even hug.
Mary-Sue forbade Lilith to watch TV, but when Lilith did it anyway and Mary-Sue confronted her, they were both smiling and Lilith seemed to respond politely to her mothers suggestion, to maybe turn of the TV... It was really annoying. I wanted them to be angry. -.-

Yet another example that EA will stoop to the lowest depths to make money.

They need to deliver the advertised features that are still missing from the game.

The sims of TS4 do not have the "big personalities" they advertised, nor are they "smarter sims" as they are claimed to be, "emotions" are little more than colourful icons and "weirder stories" seems to be nothing more than some story they made up for advertising, because as far as I can tell sims like the pancake couple are like every other sim in the game... lacking in depth.

The focus has been on aesthetic and not gameplay, that is self evident. I am not trying to say they never add in detail, however the focal point (the actual sims) is completely lackluster to put it lightly, baring in mind this is 5 years after release.

"JoAnne65;c-17199482" wrote:

"darrenfroggy;c-17198362" wrote:
"Stories of creating/playing with Sims of real life family (getting back at Mom/Dad, Sibling rivalry)" <- this is the *only* mention of this whole big thing about what kinda stories they were looking for in the ad. Stories meant as anecdotes, in the section that specifically veered away from serious themes. Listed along with "Creating and pull the strings in a home filled with Drama". Which is something that Sims Let's Plays frequently thrive on. Not a huge main point like some here made it to be.

The narrative I was referring to was from comments like Cinebar's earlier in this thread:

Hey kids tell us about how you made your friends and put them in the game and 'got even with them'. That's EA's new ad.

Because no, that's not what the video was about, not even remotely. None of those kinds of stories were even *in* the video at all.

For me, the video was a testimonial from players who found that the game helped them and wanted to share that story, maybe to show others that it might help them too. I'm someone who found Sims equally helpful at a time when I needed it, so I connected with it.

If you don't like it and find it distasteful, that's your opinion. We can agree to disagree on that.

There are some here who definitely present things as facts (and thus a narrative) that are just as much an opinion and a guess as to what the intent of the video was. And as I mentioned above, it's definitely misrepresenting things when someone claims that the entire testimonial video was aimed at luring in kids who want to get even/get revenge on someone. That was my entire point.

As for what the intent of the video was? To me it was to show the amount of good impact SIms had over the years. For some, it hit the mark. For others, it clearly didn't. Would I have liked if they chose a wider variety of stories and age groups? It likely would've gotten the point across better, though I'm sure there would be some who'd still find a way to make EA into the evil overlord they think it is. (we can also only guess where this idea came from initially, which is a whole different topic altogether).

I have my opinions, you have yours. All I was trying to clear up is the misrepresentation of the casting call and the resulting video, since they somehow snowballed into something it definitely wasn't.

https://i.postimg.cc/0QV7MqMf/Young-Simmers-Only.jpg
On the right.

@JoAnne65 Curses, so THAT'S why they didn't accept my story of how I made myself as a cult leader in Sims 2 who fed his children to a cowplant so he can live forever which eventually made me a better person.

"DoodlyDoofus;c-17201240" wrote:

"JoAnne65;c-17199482" wrote:

"darrenfroggy;c-17198362" wrote:
"Stories of creating/playing with Sims of real life family (getting back at Mom/Dad, Sibling rivalry)" <- this is the *only* mention of this whole big thing about what kinda stories they were looking for in the ad. Stories meant as anecdotes, in the section that specifically veered away from serious themes. Listed along with "Creating and pull the strings in a home filled with Drama". Which is something that Sims Let's Plays frequently thrive on. Not a huge main point like some here made it to be.

The narrative I was referring to was from comments like Cinebar's earlier in this thread:

Hey kids tell us about how you made your friends and put them in the game and 'got even with them'. That's EA's new ad.

Because no, that's not what the video was about, not even remotely. None of those kinds of stories were even *in* the video at all.

For me, the video was a testimonial from players who found that the game helped them and wanted to share that story, maybe to show others that it might help them too. I'm someone who found Sims equally helpful at a time when I needed it, so I connected with it.

If you don't like it and find it distasteful, that's your opinion. We can agree to disagree on that.

There are some here who definitely present things as facts (and thus a narrative) that are just as much an opinion and a guess as to what the intent of the video was. And as I mentioned above, it's definitely misrepresenting things when someone claims that the entire testimonial video was aimed at luring in kids who want to get even/get revenge on someone. That was my entire point.

As for what the intent of the video was? To me it was to show the amount of good impact SIms had over the years. For some, it hit the mark. For others, it clearly didn't. Would I have liked if they chose a wider variety of stories and age groups? It likely would've gotten the point across better, though I'm sure there would be some who'd still find a way to make EA into the evil overlord they think it is. (we can also only guess where this idea came from initially, which is a whole different topic altogether).

I have my opinions, you have yours. All I was trying to clear up is the misrepresentation of the casting call and the resulting video, since they somehow snowballed into something it definitely wasn't.

https://i.postimg.cc/0QV7MqMf/Young-Simmers-Only.jpg
On the right.

@JoAnne65 Curses, so THAT'S why they didn't accept my story of how I made myself as a cult leader in Sims 2 who fed his children to a cowplant so he can live forever which eventually made me a better person.

Lol!

"JoAnne65;c-17198188" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17197874" wrote:

"simgirl1010;c-17197847" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17197705" wrote:

"simgirl1010;c-17197553" wrote:

"Cinebar;c-17197519" wrote:
[

The difference between my moral compass and EA's? Hey kids tell us about how you made your friends and put them in the game and 'got even with them'. That's EA's new ad.

My moral compass, no, I have never made anyone I know in real life to put in game to get even with them. Even I have my principles. Now, who has the moral highground?

It never ceases to amaze me how some can totally misrepresent things to suit their own narrative. The purpose of the new ad is to reach out to those who may be dealing with challenges and allow those players to feel comfortable with whatever scenario that brings them pain in real life. Not to exact revenge on anyone.

Video games are not a healthy substitute for therapy. I don’t care how much comfort someone gets from a video game, that doesn’t enable the studio developing the game to prey on those traumas in order to sell copies of their game. It’s amazing how marketing can make predatory ads like that appear normal. It’s advertising a bad message that this is more than a video game but also some sort of therapeutic thing. Hardly a stance this studio should be peddling to kids (who more often than not vastly exaggerate their “trauma”).

I wasn't commenting on the effectiveness of video games as therapy. Just that the purpose of the ad was not to entice players to play in order to seek revenge on their adversaries.

Well she does have a point about “getting revenge” or whatever being explicitly part of the casting call. Hard to deny that.

The video itself is to entice people to buy this game because it will help their problems. That’s the message they are sending. Not “hey this game is so much fun!” Instead it’s along the lines of “I was bullied, I did not fit in, I was different and Sims fixed that”. I don’t care what they were trying to do, because what they actually did was make an ad in incredibly poor taste that’s ONLY purpose is to manipulate emotionally fragile people and especially kids into thinking this game will make them happy and fix their self-proclaimed terrible lives. Terrible message to send!

And I can’t help strongly agreeing with this.

I second this statement with an award-winning gold medal.

"Freechheit;c-17200273" wrote:

"sweetface44;d-964075" wrote:
EA please can you make the sims more alive and fun sims 4 has basically turned into a virtual doll house only really too perfect not enough drama..

Yes, please!
Usually, there is not much drama in my game and I'm okay with that. But when I want drama and my game decides that it doesn't want drama... Argh!
I downloaded the Pleasant family and wanted Angela and Lilith to dislike each other, but every second I didn't have my eyes on them and triggered mean interactions, they would start telling jokes to each other or even hug.
Mary-Sue forbade Lilith to watch TV, but when Lilith did it anyway and Mary-Sue confronted her, they were both smiling and Lilith seemed to respond politely to her mothers suggestion, to maybe turn of the TV... It was really annoying. I wanted them to be angry. -.-

I couldn't agree with you more @Freechheit . I have a Sims 3 canon timeline going on and I still haven't seen the Altos and Landgraabs autonomously fight in public. Even though I've legit made them enemies in-game and their club "fights" each other. shrugs

"Hestia;c-17201427" wrote:

"Freechheit;c-17200273" wrote:

"sweetface44;d-964075" wrote:
EA please can you make the sims more alive and fun sims 4 has basically turned into a virtual doll house only really too perfect not enough drama..

Yes, please!
Usually, there is not much drama in my game and I'm okay with that. But when I want drama and my game decides that it doesn't want drama... Argh!
I downloaded the Pleasant family and wanted Angela and Lilith to dislike each other, but every second I didn't have my eyes on them and triggered mean interactions, they would start telling jokes to each other or even hug.
Mary-Sue forbade Lilith to watch TV, but when Lilith did it anyway and Mary-Sue confronted her, they were both smiling and Lilith seemed to respond politely to her mothers suggestion, to maybe turn of the TV... It was really annoying. I wanted them to be angry. -.-

I couldn't agree with you more @Freechheit . I have a Sims 3 canon timeline going on and I still haven't seen the Altos and Landgraabs autonomously fight in public. Even though I've legit made them enemies in-game and their club "fights" each other. shrugs

When I played Sims 2, at one point a woman knocked on my sims’ door and she was quite unpleasant (a character thing, bad mood, I don’t know). I went along with it and made my sim join in the insults, so it became a fight (a very funny one by the way). When the woman left, she threatened to spread the word in public that my sim was an awful person and she’d notice the consequences. A day later my sim got a call: the woman was offering to make it up again. So I agreed and they had a conversation and the relationship indeed improved. It’s a kind of mechanic Sims 4 most definitely doesn’t have, but neither does Sims 3. In Sims 3 it does matter if they make an enemy, but the game will completely leave it up to the player what to do with it (or ignore it, which is only impossible when they meet somewhere). I liked it when the game (Sims 2) actively tried to influence things, yet still allowing me to make the decisions where it came to the outcome.

They'll may make them alive once pigs start flying.... on once sciences create said experimental serum for animals as success, it certaintly won't happen before TS4 ending (2020-2022)

"SimChi;c-17196268" wrote:
Completely agree that this game is toxic, and definitely not for kids/teens- or some adults. This goes beyond no consequences for cheating (destroying/breaking the trust of a partner). The whole toxic idea that things like fires/killing sims is "funny" is reflective of some serious unhealthy mentality. I have had rl experience with someone who had 75% of their body burned in an accident and I watched that person lose his vitality, life, happiness, ability to work (or even care for himself), as well as watching him suffer for almost a full year in the burn ward- where he endured torturous pain (which sedation would barely help), as well as numerous (painful) skin grafts, risk of infection, and baths where the nurses literally scrubbed his burnt skin from him (to let the fluid leak). To him (the now deceased burn victim), and many others who have endured rl trauma, people (making the game, or playing it) finding 'burning sims to death' for "entertainment" is disgusting and insulting.

People should really think about things like that. The same goes for the "funny random assaults" in Windenburg (which was added intentionally- for "amusement").

Where do you get this generalizing idea that players who kill virtual characters for/or experiencing pleasure from misfortune in games are mentally unhealthy? Factual source, other than brainwashing media who message the deception that video games is pinnacle problem of shootings?

Sorry for what the person has through go, though I'm quite not sure why you like to make correlation to Sims? What you described isn't even depicted in the game. And you'd be surprised to hear, how many simmers who find pleasure in vicious Sim-killing are normal functional human beings, If you bother to ask them how they react and feel to people, like actual people, that have died or got seriously damage from tradegies you're descriping.

"SimChi;c-17197544" wrote:
My statement stands, as does the attempt to try and educate people about how people (such as my friend who died from a serious fire) feel about the simmers (and EA) laughing about burning sims, and, worse yet, doing it for fun.

Well, with no disrespect, but I think you should reconsider what people you should educate and lecture. Hint: those who do act upon harm and attidute towards misfortunate of actual people, not those who mistreat pixels :) All your spreading is false misconception and perhaps is what got you into assumption that said simmers (who you don't know well in person) are psychopaths just in real life purely because how they play characters in a video game setting. Sims are not identical beings as human, despite resembling and acting similar to one to an extent.