Sims Four Live Mode is Lacking

"Sk8rblaze;c-16608897" wrote:
It’s because it lacks design as an actual game.

The Sims was always a game (especially the first one) where you had to be very particular in how you strategized playing. Planning, budgeting, and the possibility of something randomly going wrong were constantly on your mind. It was truly designed as a strategic life simulation.

Now, it’s too focused on aesthetic. The developers literally call new objects that ONLY have new animations tied to them as new gameplay. How is gameplay watching my Sim do something that has little effect on the game itself?

Additionally, the systems in the game, such as collecting and gardening, feel useless because the designers seemingly don’t know how to make them interesting, fun, and relevant.

In another life simulation game, called Animal Crossing, collecting is one of the core parts of its gameplay. You donate whatever you collect to the museum or you can sell it for money, however, a completed section of the museum grants a very special golden version of the tool you used for collection (e.g golden net for bugs). In Stardew Valley, crafting is a core element of the game. And unlike The Sims 4, crafting in Stardew Valley actually has a purpose; crafting better gardening tools for instance makes gardening faster.

In The Sims 4, the design of things like collecting and such are so incredibly weak. Tell me why would I want to collect My Sims figurines or snow globes over and over in The Sims??? Why would I want to bother spending time collecting bugs when time flow in this game is so limiting, and my Sim would make more of a profit doing other things? Mind you — it goes further than this. I haven’t even delved into how poorly designed emotions, traits, whims, aspirations, etc. are.

This is what happens when you hire a base game producer that primarily designed Facebook games and not PC simulation or RPG games.

Ex. Act. Ly. I've been strictly a simmer for years, but currently I'm playing Animal Crossing and exactly what you say has crossed my mind. How come (and I'm in fact also looking at Sims 3 in that respect) I find things like collecting and fishing so addictive in AC and a bore in Sims. It's because in AC they found the perfect balance between making it rewarding (it's fun to walk through your museum and watch everything you collected over time and it's great to catch bugs/fish you know will make a lot of money), being not too hard and not too easy (I'm not ashamed of the trademark casual player, I am and proud/quite satisfied to be) and on top of that they added gameplay to the collecting/fishing itself. The action. Catching bugs or fish isn't based on luck, it's totally up to the player. Same with growing flowers and digging weeds. The way they've done it would perfectly fit and be fun in a Sims game.