So Sims 4 is a young adult simulator ?

"Sk8rblaze;c-17445252" wrote:
...I’m more concerned with what is fun in a life simulator, rather than what is true to life verbatim. Giving every Sim a smartphone that they’re glued to is not fun. Sure, it may be true to life, but does it make for a challenging, fun, interactive game?

Exactly. Sure, a lot of things in the modern world are done more and more online, even through the little computer in your pocket that companies still insist on calling a "phone" (even through people barely even talk to each other through the things anymore unless their facetiming...). However, there are still a lot of people who still do things the old-fashioned way when it's an option (or, because it's their only option, in the case of the millions of low-income Americans who don't have a bank account because they don't have the ability to afford the fees for a checking account or to keep the minimum balance in reserve in the account to get free checking and don't have access to a credit union in their area). My parents still pay their bills by money order through the mail because they don't trust online bill paying. There are still people who get a physical newspaper delivered to their door, and even my 31-year-old sister still sends her tax return through the mail instead of doing it online for security reasons. I'm 33, and I still prefer to get my movies and anime on DVD when I can, because you never know when a streaming service will take something down and owning your own copy ensures that you really can watch what you want when you want to at your own pace and revisit it anytime. I also prefer physical books to ebooks, because I enjoy the weight of the book and the texture and smell of the paper as I read (plus, you don't have to worry about battery life...).

Really, the phone should be something that we can at least turn off. I mean, the constant calls and texts from friends and acquaintances are so annoying! Why is everyone so irritatingly social in this game? Was TS4 designed by a bunch of extreme extroverts or what?! So much unnecessary chit-chat through the freaking phone!!! I wanna bash it with a hammer!! (And, yes, I always silence it...but it doesn't stop the constant calls from happening!! It just stops the sound of the thing ringing and stops it from forcing you out of fast forward mode when you get a call. I want to turn the stupid piece of garbage OFF!!! I mean, I even hate phones in real life because of how rude people are with how they time trivial calls about nothing and the stupid robocalls from every company and scammer on the planet...and wrong number calls , and the way the phone constantly bugs you in this game is like...AAAAARGHHH!!!)

As for the neglect for the Child stage, it's definitely one of TS4's bigger weaknesses. On the one hand, I appreciate that now Child sims can make microwave meals and I can play a household with a single working parent and a latchkey kid without the stupid social worker showing up just because the kid doesn't have "proper adult supervision" for a few hours (that was always really unrealistic to me, considering that Child sims in all the games look about 10, and a 10-year-old is more than capable of being left home alone for a few hours without burning the house down or drinking bleach or whatever people think an unattended child will do to kill their fool self without an adult to stare over their shoulder every minute of the day). On the other hand, I miss Children being able to play Tag and Cops and Robbers, I hate that when they "pretend" together that they just sit still and talk instead of doing something, and the poor water ballon and snowball fights in "Seasons" really hurt the gameplay experience with Child sims even more because of how lifeless and laggy they are. TS4 is a mixed bag for Child sims, since on the one hand they are finally realistically independent for how old they look, but on the other they also took a lot of basic interactions and gameplay from them (they can't even use the easel anymore and have to settle for that craft table instead).

The Sims in general has never done kids under 15 very well. There are always those few things they completely mess up...