Okay, watched the second episode... Some thoughts...
1. The players definitely had a much better bead on how to go about the competition. That said, I definitely do think it would have been better in episode 1 if that episode had just been a practice round. You can tell the GameChangers are a lot more confident in presenting.
2. The stories remain the central focus of the show and the weakest part of the show. What actually constitutes as a story here? That is really, REALLY never made clear. Team Llama's story for instance - the actress becomes a vampire and then that's it? How is that resolution? What is a comparable art form? Traditionally, stories need climax and resolution. The teams are able to invent wants, but why should they need to? Why didn't the Sims itself include wants and fears?
3. I would still say the judging looks pretty weak or, at best, gimmicky. The judges need to step it up with specific criticism and I think the lack of a clear endgame only harms this. Miotke gives the most specific criticism, but that's not saying a lot.
4. What role does the designated storyteller actually play in this? I mean, Plumbella basically crafted her team's first story and xMiraMira led her team's second story. Are the storytellers really that necessary?
5. This episode hit the right stride by showing off the builds and the stylists more. More of that! Also 6 hours felt better than five hours, and I think you can see hour just 1 hour was reflected in the quality of the stories.
6. I really think the strength of this show is reflected in how the players treat each other. Keeping drama between players low and showing us artists who have rich, meaningful relationships with each other is really nourishing. See Steph0sims cry when Gnome was eliminated was really lovely. The creativity is a strength, too, and some of the story ideas had the spark of something really compelling should it have been fleshed out. The competition here is only satisfying when it takes a backseat to the creativity, and when it doesn't infringe upon the relationships between the simmers.
7. While I didn't hate this episode as much as I hated the first one, I would still say this show illuminates the major problems with the Sims 4 - the Sims 4 does not lend itself to stories well, because it does not lend itself to conflict well, and it makes showing conflict extremely difficult. If the Sims wants to be seen as a story-telling device it MUST focus on character-development (better personalities, fully fleshed out life stages, attraction systems, death and mourning revamp) and conflict (wants, fears, and realistic gameplay limitations) before moving on to anything "never-done-before" or "niche". Getting Jungle Adventure before memories? Eco Lifestyle before you can even fear the consequences of pollution? I suppose the question I have for the developers is, what stories are YOU telling?
