Thoughts on The Sims Spark'd...

"bixters;c-17572302" wrote:

"trophy;c-17572286" wrote:


Billionaire in her own mind Kim Kardashian crying because she lost an earring in the ocean, pretty cringe.

The judges appeared moved because they could relate to the contestants’ story about grieving, that to me is not cringe. Also the scene was edited, we do not know what was said to create that reaction.

I think my main issue with it is that it all feels very orchestrated and fake.
There's nothing wrong with using a video game to express your feelings, but they're hamming it up for more views and ratings. The more drama, tears and conflict they can add to the show, the more views they get. This is common with any reality show, but it feels cheap. And in my opinion the Sims should be above the cheap theatricality of Reality TV.

I am not getting any drama or conflict vibes from the trailer like say Ink Master or the Apprentice series. I think this is meant to be a feel good show, even at the end one of the contestants say “I will destroy them all” and starts laughing, kind of mocking a typical talking head you see in reality competitions.

Orchestrated and fake are the Kardashians re-enacting certain parts of their life or the usually comically “b” side storyline. Bravo’s real housewives are told what to say by producers and are given tons of free alcohol so they will act out more. Same with shows like Big Brother, you know when the beer and wine arrives the drama is coming soon.

Now there could be some conflict, the contestants who are used to running their own solo productions are now working on teams but based on the trailer I am not seeing anyone edited as a “villain”. Then again none of us know until the first episode airs anyways, we are all making assumptions.

As for Holliebb she created some fun and engaging challenges for her community and got noticed by EA. Getting hired to do what you love, no hate here. I think that is a dream for many, to make your passion or fave hobby your work.

ETA: keep seeing that the sims should not be competitive. Please correct me if I am wrong but I get the feeling many here only play a vanilla version of the game without any custom content. Ever since the original sims there are players who have been downloading cc and using the game only for building/interior design. We used to be referred to as “dollhouse players”.

Popular forums like N99 would be a place to showcase builds and there would be competitions. During the sims 2 and 3 generations there was an online fan created magazine called Living Sims that sponsored contests. One of the longest running forum competition is called Designer of the Year or more commonly known as DOTY. It is 6 weeks of some intense design challenges, designers are eliminated on a weekly basis until one winner is declared by 3 judges. I am not sure if this type of competition exists for vanilla or maxis match, it tends to be for players who love alpha or more realistic content.

Like 100 baby and generation challenges competition has always been a part of the community, EA is just trying to make it more mainstream and of course use it as a marketing tool.

I don't watch Youtubers or anything else similar, so it simply doesn't interest me.

I assume that their target audience would be my two youngest children, who do both watch and know Youtubers.
Though neither of them have ever, to my knowledge, watched someone who plays Sims on there. I couldn't even get my daughter to watch the Eco Living live stream with me and she plays Sims 4.
Watching someone play Sims is apparently just as unappealing to them as it is to me.

i do not watch youtubers or reviews and tend not to watch livestreams of the game since i prefer to see for myself and mostly play for fun and escape real life

"ApparentlyAwesome;c-17573046" wrote:

And I wish they had gone into what The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 brought to the table as well but to me any of the previous games would've been better to do this with. It wouldn't surprise me if in the show if what are supposed to be dramatic or heartbreaking scenes there are some sims just acting like regular Sims 4 sims. With a goofy expression on their face, kind of like that clip in the trailer where the sim girl starts crying and the sim in front of her is just smiling and looking in a daze. It's hard to even make serious looking sims because they always seem happy or goofy and when they are mad or sad it still looks goofy. Like your friend who's pretending you hurt their feelings but is about to crack up laughing any second. If the show absolutely had to be done I would've rather seen this done with The Sims 1 instead of The Sims 4. But I hope it's enjoyable for anyone into those types of shows.

THIS. How am I supposed to any of their "emotional" scenes seriously when I know how shallow the game actually is? They'll try and make it look like some dramatic and touching game when it's really not.

Someone compared this TV show to the Sims 3 Alice and Kev, a story about homeless Sims that got a lot of attention years ago. The reason that series worked was because traits actually mattered, and the world interacted with your sims. In the Sims 4 they don't. All the sims have the same silly emotional buffs, and most traits traits are pointless.

I wouldn't be surprised if a contestant on the show is trying to do a really touching and emotional scene, and then the sims breaks out in some stupid grin.

"bixters;c-17573109" wrote:

"ApparentlyAwesome;c-17573046" wrote:

And I wish they had gone into what The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 brought to the table as well but to me any of the previous games would've been better to do this with. It wouldn't surprise me if in the show if what are supposed to be dramatic or heartbreaking scenes there are some sims just acting like regular Sims 4 sims. With a goofy expression on their face, kind of like that clip in the trailer where the sim girl starts crying and the sim in front of her is just smiling and looking in a daze. It's hard to even make serious looking sims because they always seem happy or goofy and when they are mad or sad it still looks goofy. Like your friend who's pretending you hurt their feelings but is about to crack up laughing any second. If the show absolutely had to be done I would've rather seen this done with The Sims 1 instead of The Sims 4. But I hope it's enjoyable for anyone into those types of shows.

THIS. How am I supposed to any of their "emotional" scenes seriously when I know how shallow the game actually is? They'll try and make it look like some dramatic and touching game when it's really not.

Someone compared this TV show to the Sims 3 Alice and Kev, a story about homeless Sims that got a lot of attention years ago. The reason that series worked was because traits actually mattered, and the world interacted with your sims. In the Sims 4 they don't. All the sims have the same silly emotional buffs, and most traits traits are pointless.

I wouldn't be surprised if a contestant on the show is trying to do a really touching and emotional scene, and then the sims breaks out in some stupid grin.

How are viewers supposed to connect with the sims if they are expendable characters, just there to tell a story? Puppeteers take more care of their puppets, simmers make threads on ways to kill off their sims. :lol:

"bixters;c-17573109" wrote:

"ApparentlyAwesome;c-17573046" wrote:

And I wish they had gone into what The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 brought to the table as well but to me any of the previous games would've been better to do this with. It wouldn't surprise me if in the show if what are supposed to be dramatic or heartbreaking scenes there are some sims just acting like regular Sims 4 sims. With a goofy expression on their face, kind of like that clip in the trailer where the sim girl starts crying and the sim in front of her is just smiling and looking in a daze. It's hard to even make serious looking sims because they always seem happy or goofy and when they are mad or sad it still looks goofy. Like your friend who's pretending you hurt their feelings but is about to crack up laughing any second. If the show absolutely had to be done I would've rather seen this done with The Sims 1 instead of The Sims 4. But I hope it's enjoyable for anyone into those types of shows.

THIS. How am I supposed to any of their "emotional" scenes seriously when I know how shallow the game actually is? They'll try and make it look like some dramatic and touching game when it's really not.

Someone compared this TV show to the Sims 3 Alice and Kev, a story about homeless Sims that got a lot of attention years ago. The reason that series worked was because traits actually mattered, and the world interacted with your sims. In the Sims 4 they don't. All the sims have the same silly emotional buffs, and most traits traits are pointless.

I wouldn't be surprised if a contestant on the show is trying to do a really touching and emotional scene, and then the sims breaks out in some stupid grin.

That was me. The first post mentioning Alice and Kev was more to do with this story being a possible influence on the challenges. I mentioned Sims 4 limitations, that gameplay was lacking however I was curious to see how the contestants create within the game and challenge restrictions. Second time you said who cries over the Sims, I mentioned the series in response to your post and was thinking overall and not specific to the current version.

If it's pure storytelling then cheating emotional buffs to get the desired image is easy. But this isn't a machinima showcase and I also don't know who asked for this show.

The entire idea of a sims reality show is foolish. The Sims doesn't need a TV show, nor does this look in any way shape or form appealing. The resources used to make this show could and should have gone to the actual game which is currently a broken, buggy mess lacking deep gameplay.

And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous competitive aspect. This isn't Pokemon, Fortnite, Mario Party, or Dance Revolution. This is The Sims. The Sims isn't in any UNIVERSE even close to a competitive game. Why do the higher ups want it to be? This whole thing reeks of EA trying to make the game hip and trendy with the teens.

"ListentoToppDogg;c-17573781" wrote:
The entire idea of a sims reality show is foolish. The Sims doesn't need a TV show, nor does this look in any way shape or form appealing. The resources used to make this show could and should have gone to the actual game which is currently a broken, buggy mess lacking deep gameplay.

And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous competitive aspect. This isn't Pokemon, Fortnite, Mario Party, or Dance Revolution. This is The Sims. The Sims isn't in any UNIVERSE even close to a competitive game. Why do the higher ups want it to be? This whole thing reeks of EA trying to make the game hip and trendy with the teens.

The Sims will be whatever the higher-ups want it to be. Whether you choose to hang around or not is your choice. And as teens are their target demographic of course they try to appeal to them.

"simgirl1010;c-17573802" wrote:

"ListentoToppDogg;c-17573781" wrote:
The entire idea of a sims reality show is foolish. The Sims doesn't need a TV show, nor does this look in any way shape or form appealing. The resources used to make this show could and should have gone to the actual game which is currently a broken, buggy mess lacking deep gameplay.

And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous competitive aspect. This isn't Pokemon, Fortnite, Mario Party, or Dance Revolution. This is The Sims. The Sims isn't in any UNIVERSE even close to a competitive game. Why do the higher ups want it to be? This whole thing reeks of EA trying to make the game hip and trendy with the teens.

The Sims will be whatever the higher-ups want it to be. Whether you choose to hang around or not is your choice. And as teens are their target demographic of course they try to appeal to them.

I don't even think teens would like this show. My nephew is a teen and honestly he rather watch Youtube than go on TBS. TBS is more of an old people's network.