Should The Sims be aimed at an older audience?

The forum members are more reserved than most simmers i run into.

I think that's solely due to the fact that we have to abide by the incredibly childish rules set out for the forums. When basic words get censored you dare not breathe wrong in case you get banned :#

I've said it before in a different thread so I'm going to post and slightly edit my reply.
I feel the sims has become waaaaay to childish, I'm not saying there needs to be content like the Extreme Violence mod or WW, just something that doesn't make the game feel so safe or watered down. Honestly, I miss the depth and challenge of the older titles, they treated the players like adults, knowing that they could tell the difference between fiction and reality, daring to challenge players to solve little mysteries within the game. I remember back in TS2 days (I was between 10 -13 when I started playing) and it felt a lot more adult and it made me feel like one of the cool kids for playing a "grown-up" game. Moving onto the sims 3, while it was somewhat toned back it could still get pretty wild in the quirky way that the sims is known for, but it still had "mature" contend for those who were slightly older, e.g: you could hire dancers for Stag/Hen parties, sims could get mega "juiced" and dance on tabletops, heck they could even get "whacked" on herbs to a certain degree. Not to mention the Sims Medieval, your sims could get into battles to the death, get supper hammered, have traits like gambler, lusty, drunkard etc, heck even in some of the speech bubbles there were actual swearwords used.
In comparison, The sims 4, just feels too safe.
Again, I'm not asking for anything explicit or raunchy, I'm just asking for depth and mystery again, something that makes me feel like I'm actually playing a game rather than watching a game play itself (which TS4 feels like half of the ruddy time.)

"GrannySims61;c-17627944" wrote:
Well, I am about as old a Simmer as you can get in this game and I still love it. However, not all packs appeal to me. Example, I will not be buying the Vampire Expansion even though the build content has good creepy stuff, just don't care for the gameplay that comes with it. Just not something I am into.

I wish more people thought like that, seriously, you can buy the vampire pack w/o fear of the vampires "invading" your personal space now because outside of the scripted first two visits, they never come around your house. All because people who wanted the "spooky" themed items complained about the main feature of the pack, so the devs listened and now the vampires are nerfed to heck and back to appease the small minority, while occult players/lovers (such as myself) are left with a life state that had the fun s-u-c-k-e-d out of them (pun intended).

"Scobre;c-17631606" wrote:

"Justin;c-17631587" wrote:
Seeing how we are getting a Star Wars pack you can’t say this game is not aimed towards a children now.

Star Wars is one of the oldest franchises compared to many other companies they have partnered with, so I doubt it. 1977 is far from being a child franchise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Trilogy

Not as old as IKEA since that was founded in 1943. But still older than Moschino which was founded in 1983.

Star Wars Fallen Order outsold Sims 4 faster too.
https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/05/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-tops-10-million-copies-sold/

Their fan base is one of the highest in the world too which makes Sims fanbase tiny in comparison:
https://blog.globalwebindex.com/chart-of-the-week/star-wars-influential-fanbase/

Maybe I should of elaborated better. Star Wars isn’t childish but the way Disney has done things hasn’t been the same as it used to be. Which is why they receive a lot of backlash from the community & don’t agree with how Disney is running Star Wars (I’m one of those people too). The sims 4 is already childish for the most part, this pack won’t be any different. Wouldn’t it be cool if we can use that lightsaber to cut off a sims arm? They will throw some dark humor like it’s previous titles? I doubt it. I just hope there’s a lot more adult theme centered around this pack .

I think that, while Star Wars obviously has a broad fan base that covers every age group, the franchise’s cross-promotion efforts and merchandising have always been targeted at kids. I have a feeling that EA is banking on a response from this very demographic with the announcement of this latest pack.

I can’t be certain of their intent, but if this is the case, and they are trying to appeal to a younger audience, I think that’s the wrong move. They should be trying to appeal to the more “mature” end of the demographic spectrum.

correct me if im wrong but other sims games werent directed necessarily for children but apprently sims 4 is? why? I always thought it was aimed at teens so I dont know why its so child friendly

It needs to be more like players over 13.
Because right now it's for ages 5 to 10.

"Remy_Geneva;c-17628901" wrote:
I agree with many posters here. What this game is lacking is conflict. Conflict comes in many forms and can't simply be whittled down to "adult themes". I think this is where a few other posters are missing the point. Having something to overcome challanges players. This game needs failure states, it doesn't need to be anything excessive. A light hearted version of failures we experience in everyday life shouldn't be a controversial thing to add to a life sim. But lets face it, this isn't really a life sim because of things like this.

Yes!

I have played a happy sim living in a perfect green neighborhood. However I need to do other things as well.

It took me some time to create a lot with an industrial footprint. I have to keep two generators and a aqua purifier running at all time in order to get the bad footprint. That gives my sims a +1 tense.

I use all the bad lot-traits.

I modded the game so that the bills would be higher thus forcing my sims to keep on crafting after work to make more simoleons.

I modded the game so that my sims need a degree at a certain point, no more easy promotions with higher salary. Zero’s mod. I am one of her patrons.

I modded the fame so that there are no happy buffs from the environment. Roburky’s mod also makes emotions less “scattered”. If things are going bad you really have to work to change things. I am a patron of Roburky.


When I wanted my sims happy I put a house on a green lot with lots of pretty flowers.

When I wanted a fail-state I worked my butt of researching mods and worked so hard to get my lovely little sims miserable.

I would be much happier with the game if it were less childish, TS4 does seem to be far more catered towards a younger audience that 1-3