Upcoming EP: High School

"Thetford;c-18122183" wrote:

"Onverser;c-18121720" wrote:

"haneul;c-18121175" wrote:
I kind of hope not... The ordering of the EPs in the survey is weird and devoting two EPs to school seems like overkill. A teen-focused pack would be nice, but not something just about high school.

Same, it seems like what most people want from this pack is not active school (which is probably 90% of what this pack will be) but more activities for teens. I don't think that many people will actually use active schools often but it's just a way of buffing up the pack so they can continue to extend generations further and further rather than just one pack...

This is what I've always thought whenever the idea of a school pack ever came up. Whenever anyone says why they wanted it, it was for social activities like proms, cliques and sports teams. Stuff we see in all the films and shows set in high school. You know what we hardly in these films and shows? Them learning in class.

People talk as if this will be the teenage equivalent of university, but don't see the obvious difference. There is very little academic content in any of the university packs. In the Sims 2 version, all you could do was attend an off lot class, study, and write a term paper - very little academic content at all. The focus of gameplay was always on campus life as a student. Dorms, frats, parties. Living a completely domestic situation than normal.

3 and 4 don't have much more academic content, and arguably, the academic aspects of those game detract from the fun of those packs. Were the open classes from 3 really that interesting?

In addition, university learning is more student self driven with limited contact hours with your lecturer/professor, whereas in high school. High school on the other hand is very instructor/teacher led almost exclusively. It would take away the active gameplay away from the player and gives it to an NPC. Think in the active careers we already have, your SIM is always in the lead, the other sims are set dressing (except when you need the NPC doctor in the medical career to diagnose your patients you performed tests on and she decided to go home early).

The game also has a flat limit on 20 Sims in a neighborhood active at once. This limit large gatherings and how "immersive" your classes would be. Are we like getting a one room schoolhouse like we are on some frontier?

The only way they could make high school fun and player driven is by making it not like high school at all.

The equivalent of a university pack for teenagers therefore isn't high school, but things they do OUTSIDE of high school. Think video arcades, skateparks, pizza parlours, comic book stores, malls etc. Places where teens hang out. Or you know, did.

You put this well into words! Exactly what I wanted to express. There are SO MANY things they could literally do with this theme that isn't about 24/7 homework. The school portion is only a small part of what highschool could be about. Highschool drama, bullying, crushes, sports, and so much more, along with everything mentioned in the survey.