This is what Sims 4 is lacking

"Sk8rblaze;c-17413206" wrote:

Spoiler

"JoAnne65;c-17413180" wrote:

"Grynn;c-17413052" wrote:

"JoAnne65;c-17412693" wrote:

"SimAlexandria;c-17412451" wrote:
Honestly it doesn't matter if you prefer slow speed or ultra or the game play in 2 or 4 or another game. Preferring one style over another doesn't make anyone superior or more special. Just play your favourite way. That's why the choices are there.


Someone telling me 2 is the best isn't going to make me enjoy that game. If I tell someone 4 is best it won't make them like it. All of this is subjective to opinion. Saying one is better than another for gameplay clearly just won't convince someone who likes the gameplay off a diff one that it is so.

Everyone is welcome to a favourite and to state what it is and to play that one and I hope everyone has fun playing their preference cuz fun is what it should be about. Enjoy!

It doesn’t matter if you play the game on high speed and enjoy that. It doesn’t matter if you press play and go and fetch yourself a cup of coffee, read a magazine, pay some bills, cook dinner, eat dinner, watch Netflix, then return to your computer to see what your sims are up to. That’s all totally fine if that’s how you like playing the game. Play the game any way you want to, but you’ll have to appreciate that others draw the conclusion that if that’s what enjoying the game is about, it must miss certain aspects that matter to them.

This is not about not granting others their playing style. It’s about what the game should have to be enjoyable for us. And yes, opinions vary. Like, I reacted to someone who played Sims 3 on ultra speed and Sims 4 on normal speed. For me that’s the other way around. Something tells me it actually does mean I enjoy Sims 3 more and they enjoy Sims 4 more.

P.s. I must confess some details in Sims 2 made me press 3 as well. Like stepping into the car after a while, and taking away all the plates on a table after dinner, and having to go to the fridge to fetch a bottle. For me too much detail apparently can become a bit grinding. For me not every short cut means deterioration.

Watching this video the parts that hurt me most, are those where interactions with other sims are way more varied and detailed. And some of the details that don’t take time but simply look smoother, better.

I don't think that means The Sims 4 is a better game to me or anything, The Sims 4 is lacking in a variety of ways.

But credit where credit is due, the devs were smarter when it came down to gameplay decisions e how they affect the way people play the game, the problems The Sims 4 has are not because the developers can't learn or because they are take bad decisions or anything, but more due to constrains that EA has set them.

The way you play The Sims 3, it kind of sounds to me like you go out of your way to avoid the more frustrating aspects of The Sims 3.
And there are.
I've seen it plenty of times, how quickly people activate the teleport cheat in The Sims 3.

The Sims 4 solves a lot of the grind, leveling up skills is faster, there are plenty of ways to boost it and there is more variety in how to do it, usually you'll get to max just by regular usage of that skill alone; the possibility of working from home; multitasking makes it possible to take care of multiple needs at the same time...

The Sims 3 is the The Sims game that I've played for the longest time and were most attached to, that's why I have a long list of every nitty little thingy that I don't like about it.

At the end of the day, both 3 and 4 lack details. Sometimes I wonder if it's because of these missing details that things end up being perceived as "grindy" to me.

Example, buying food, in The Sims 3 your Sims go all the way to the store, when they disappear and come back with food, no fun to watch, or in The Sims 4 food just magically appears.
Compare that to The Sims 2 where Sims had the option to either go to the grocery store, where you could see the inside of it and the whole process, or you could order online and instead of food just teleporting to inventories a delivery man would actually come to your house to deliver it.

By removing details from the process and sometimes skipping it completely, both 3 and 4 over time created this idea that "only the end result of an action matters", Sims enter the elevator and just teleport outside, cars teleport to the road with Sims already inside of it instead of having animations to get out of the garage and Sims getting inside, the end result of those actions are maintained but the process itself was skipped, it's no wonder that over time people get conditioned to play at Speed 3 the whole time, and just like that The Sims becomes a game of merely making bars grow and without any soul, and the process definitely started during The Sims 3.

"The way you play The Sims 3, it kind of sounds to me like you go out of your way to avoid the more frustrating aspects of The Sims 3."

The only frustration I get from Sims 3 are and have always been its bugs, that's it. The only reason I play the game is because it grabbed me in 2009 and wouldn't let go. Sims 3 happened to me, it wasn't some decision I made. Becoming a simmer was never my intention, I was trying out the game because my daughter asked me to (it was her game). And to this day, ten years later, playing Sims 3 for me is hopping in and taking a ride. Playing just happens. The game carries me from the moment I open it to the moment I close it. That doesn't mean I never turn a blind eye or that I think the game is without flaws or shortcomings, it just means those sortcomings apparently aren't essential to me. The way they apparently are to you.

Travelling and the open world are most definitely not among those flaws. I never teleport. Though, indeed, you can. Which makes this whole "oh I hate travelling" argument sort of futile because when you use teleport, travelling in Sims 3 actually is faster than in Sims 1, 2 and 4 (because there's no loading screen and because you can pick any spot where you want your sim to travel). Do I ? Well, this was me playing today:

https://i.imgur.com/obJZ2YS.png

https://i.imgur.com/J832knk.png

And this was me playing last week:

https://i.imgur.com/me3EyVN.png

https://i.imgur.com/IMSCyiz.png

So no, I don't. Never. The guy's a drifter (with a dog). And nothing's more fun to me than playing a drifter in Sims 3 who has to walk everywhere. Though, as you notice, he did 'hire' a car for now because he's a drifter by choice, not because he's poor. And he is because I enjoy that so much (I hadn't realized scuba diving would be so rewarding when I did that with him first).

Levelling up skills is a grind you say. In a boring game yes, it is. But not in a game where you do a million things, skilling up your sims in multiple ways without even noticing they are. Till the notification pops up: your sim reached level 6 in athletics! Ah, yeah, that's right. I was scuba diving/diving into wells while exploring tombs/swimming/playing golf/playing soccer etc. Instead of running on a treadmill or reading a book, waiting. I don't play the game waiting for my sim to get skilled, they just do while playing their life. Because actually there are less ways to build up skills in Sims 4, not more.

I don't care my sim disappears in a rabbithole when buying food or books. It does matter to me they at least have to go to one, an actual building, instead of getting it through a fridge or a book shelf. I don't mind about short cuts as such, but Sims 4 for me went overboard with them. I do regret the riding school is a rabbithole, and prom, and restaurants (though I would mind less if the terrace would work properly, the fact they don't sit together is a bigger problem for me). When I say my sims hardly visit rabbitholes that's not because I avoid them, it's because there are a ton of open venues I rather go to with them. I don't send my sim somewhere when they don't need to go there. I can buy kelp for my mermaid to eat, I can also scuba dive and harvest it myself.

"...both 3 and 4 over time created this idea that "only the end result of an action matters"

That sounds rather contradictionary, considering "I've seen it plenty of times, how quickly people activate the teleport cheat in The Sims 3". What is it, is travelling and taking your time - the journey - a downside or an upside? For me it's indeed the journey that counts, not where I'm heading, but accoring to you the journey's "going out of my way to avoid the more frustrating aspects of The Sims 3". Sims 3 never gives me the impression only the end result matters. Sometimes I never even finish it. The game's actually all about taking your time and do what you like. Actually, when you consider 'leveling up skills is faster' an improvement, that goal must matter more to you than it does to me.

"cars teleport to the road with Sims already inside of it."

No. Your sim walks to the sidewalk, the car appears (empty), they open it with a remote key and only thén do they teleport into it. Indeed less detail, but then you get to drive and that is a detail none of the other games have and I love it. I wouldn't skip that part for the world.

https://i.imgur.com/SeFHJMv.png

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l512/Jo-Anne2/Zwerver/Zwerver_478_zpsx2mgkwa3.png

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l512/Jo-Anne2/Album4/Saul_028_zpsc7d72a19.png

Great post and screenshots.

It would seem that most Simmers actually want all sorts of complications in their game, and many of the ones that were simplified. For instance, on so many occasions I've seen people ask for The Sims 2's grocery system back, where your Sim actually has to travel to the store and back for groceries, or order on the phone, instead of the magical poofing groceries. And how about laundry, one of the most requested features and best selling stuff packs? Lots of players want more responsibilities to fill their Sims' days up.

Also that is a difference in playing style (though I do prefer my sim has to really go to a store to get it; if they order on the phone I'd at least want to see someone delivering it, that would be fine by me). I think I might be less interested in 'daily routine' stuff for my sims? Considering how I play? Right now a guy who inherited a houseboat, went scuba diving, discovered islands, met a mermaid, turned into one, then became a drifter with a dog and yesterday he tried to befriend a unicorn. I don't plan most of that, it happens. I just really don't miss the fact I can't go shopping with him. Though actually I did do that to some extent, when I made him buy his furniture in a mall I had built myself and made him do his laundry there, that was fun. But for me that's an on-the-side thing, not what the game's about. I've never had a problem to fill my sims' days and my sim doesn't have a washing machine. I think Sims 2 indeed has more of a 'domestic' approach and will appeal to simmers who like doing that the most?