Teens are boring

I agree, I played a house with three teens for a while. It was kinda boring. Maybe if they did a teen pack to flesh them out a little, they've lost a lot from Sims 3. I loved watching them learn to drive! hahaha.

I feel like, by the time I get a teen, I've already maxed out manners, empathy, responsibility and conflict resolution. The only things left to do is hit up the emotional control, raise some skills and get them to do some homework.

In that sense, yes, they can be quite boring and I often find myself wishing they'd just grow up already.

They're just like adults except they want to lock doors and go to school... I don't have Parenthood because I have no interest in making my sims life more difficult though.

While I agree that there are a lack of gameplay features for teens, you can still make them feel unique with the tools already at your disposal. I've have a whole host of delinquent teens who party late into the night, disrespect their parents and other sims, and skip or do badly at school. The possibilities are there, if only you can - yes, I'm going to say it - use your imagination and creativity.

I feel sorry for you that you've yet to level up your creativity skill IRL. Must be really tough.

We could have some of the past things back, like teens sneaking out at night with their friends/partners, prom, and throwing wild teen parties while the adults are away.

Parenthood improved teens but I agree they are still lacking.

I strongly disagree that if you think this you must have no imagination. In real life I’m a writer, I have plenty of imagination but my imagination and dare I say it is stifled in this game which is why I struggle with it as a story telling platform.

I had a teen who because I gave him the Mischief Aspiration the game gave him lots of mischief whims, all fine. Some of them targeted towards his Mum which I went with. I figured rebellious teen striking out at his Mum. His mum would get angry but as soon as the mischief interaction finished she would initiate friendly conversation. That limits my story telling and limits me I feel. I spent days fulfilling his whims to be mischievous to his mum and it took until the day before he aged to adulthood for the relationship bar to go red and for them to get the “disliked” marker. I’m guessing I was supposed to imagine that their relationship was difficult and certainly with all the mischief and mean interactions it should have been but it wasn’t.
During his teen years my sim (the same one) went through a rebellious stage.

Great! I thought. The reality of this rebellious stage was a weird zombie shuffle and lots of autonomous friendly interactions and hugs every time he saw his family members. The phase said he was supposed to challenge authority and not want to do his homework. But clearly no one told him as in between being super nice to his family, he automatically did his homework and extra credit and maintained his A grade in school and filled his responsibility bar to the top. I’m guessing I’m supposed to use my imagination there too and imagine he was being this smart ass, cheeky teen that needed a firm hand.

I had him break his curfew. Other than a text from his Mother at 11pm, my sim strolled in at 4:30 in the morning to find his Mum dancing in the living room. She didn’t even look up or react to her teenage son breaking his curfew. He walked into the room with a bowl of cereal and started watching the kids network, no harm no foul. Was I meant to imagine that she was unhappy her son had been disobedient and stayed out till the small hours? I know, I know, I’m meant to cancel her dance interaction and have her “parent him” but the truth is I don’t really see the point other than to grind the character value bar one way or another. My sim didn’t care that her kid stayed out all night. Had I not made her react she wouldn’t have given a monkeys. And the second the parenting interaction I choose her to use has ran, it’s back to one of them spamming friendly interactions on the other. To me that is limiting. That’s ruining the story I may want to tell. What if I don’t want them to be best buds until I say otherwise? What if I want her to be so annoyed by the presence of her son one of them walks away? They start being mean to each other? I don’t want to have to imagine that scenario and currently I do have to.

Teens need more to do for sure. The only thing separating my teens from adults and children is the friendly interactions like show off selfie, obsess about band etc. But these interactions don’t have any significant game play. I want to see my teens be able to have sleepovers, to go to after school activities, to have prom and graduate. I want to see them care about school (or not care) and to see them wanting to have their first relationship, first kiss with x. I want them to want to hang out with their friends and I wish their mood swings actually had a significant impact on their lives and relationships. I want them to sneak out and at the very least get a whim for it. All my teens want is to research vampires, buy a pool, buy a dishwasher, go for a jog, do push ups, buy a puppet theatre and watch the culture network. Which is the same whim list pretty much every sim of any age above toddler gets. I want them to behave like teens that isn’t pushed by me. I don’t want to have to pretend that my teens are something they are not basically.

"MidnightAura;c-16263211" wrote:
I had him break his curfew. Other than a text from his Mother at 11pm, my sim strolled in at 4:30 in the morning to find his Mum dancing in the living room. She didn’t even look up or react to her teenage son breaking his curfew. He walked into the room with a bowl of cereal and started watching the kids network, no harm no foul. Was I meant to imagine that she was unhappy her son had been disobedient and stayed out till the small hours? I know, I know, I’m meant to cancel her dance interaction and have her “parent him” but the truth is I don’t really see the point other than to grind the character value bar one way or another. My sim didn’t care that her kid stayed out all night. Had I not made her react she wouldn’t have given a monkeys.

Yup, that's one of the worst things about parenthood - curfew. I mean, what's the point if no one really cares?

Although I find that IF they see them, they do often go there to say something about curfew, but 90% of the time they don't and I like you will not put in the effort to force a reaction :)

"SimTrippy;c-16263225" wrote:

"MidnightAura;c-16263211" wrote:
I had him break his curfew. Other than a text from his Mother at 11pm, my sim strolled in at 4:30 in the morning to find his Mum dancing in the living room. She didn’t even look up or react to her teenage son breaking his curfew. He walked into the room with a bowl of cereal and started watching the kids network, no harm no foul. Was I meant to imagine that she was unhappy her son had been disobedient and stayed out till the small hours? I know, I know, I’m meant to cancel her dance interaction and have her “parent him” but the truth is I don’t really see the point other than to grind the character value bar one way or another. My sim didn’t care that her kid stayed out all night. Had I not made her react she wouldn’t have given a monkeys.

Yup, that's one of the worst things about parenthood - curfew. I mean, what's the point if no one really cares?

Although I find that IF they see them, they do often go there to say something about curfew, but 90% of the time they don't and I like you will not put in the effort to force a reaction :)

Exactly. It's one of the reasons I love the sims 2. Teens that sneak out have to make sure they aren't caught as their parents do care and will call them on it. (As I imagine most parents would) I mean even if you want to play the story of a parent that doesn't care you can cancel the interaction or keep the parent occupied if they aren't sleeping so they don't notice little Albert sneaking in at breakfast time.

"NorthDakotaGamer;c-16263248" wrote:
The game is meant to be played as you want them to react. Of course, leaving the Sims to automously react is not going to give the response you may want. When I play, telling the story, I direct the reactions I think should occur. I do this by using my own imagination.

I'm with you, I have been around the forums a while and this topic comes up all the time. While I conceede that Sims 4 could be improved, having a lack of imagination is the underlying reason that anyone would be bored with Sims 4.

I've played sims 2 and 3 as well now, but I prefer sims 4 to them, although those games do have those own charms and are enjoyable as well.

"sunblond;c-16263288" wrote:

"NorthDakotaGamer;c-16263248" wrote:
The game is meant to be played as you want them to react. Of course, leaving the Sims to automously react is not going to give the response you may want. When I play, telling the story, I direct the reactions I think should occur. I do this by using my own imagination.

I'm with you, I have been around the forums a while and this topic comes up all the time. While I conceede that Sims 4 could be improved, having a lack of imagination is the reason for this thread topic in the first place.

Disagree completely. I have had the biggest imagination ever since I was a kid. So much so that I can get lost in my thoughts of just making up random stories and stuff like that. But even as someone with huge imagination, Sims 4 has many moments that upset me because the sims are not reacting as they should. The curfew example is one of them. There really isn't a consequence to it with the parents and so forth. The "rebellious phase" is barely a blip on the radar and I notice nothing that different. This is a game mechanic that needs fixed and it's not a problem with the players' imaginations that need fixed. This is a life simulator and it should aim to accurately portray life, including its messy moments, in a better way. This mainly comes down the game's reactions, traits, and phases not functioning as well as they could.