What do players mean by "gameplay"?
This is one of the most common terms I see around on this forum, and it also seems to be one of the main complaints consistently made against ts4. However, I can't quite wrap my head around that compl...
Forum Discussion
You know it when you see it. :) I won't go into what I think it is, everyone else has done a fine job. But why TS2 is lauded as one of the best pc games, ever, is because it is much more intricate than TS4 or even TS3. Some may disagree and say players are just projecting their own feelings onto a game. Possible, but the AI is ten times better in ways hard to explain. Since you brought up TS2 I will give you an example that happened years ago in my game.
A Sim who had divorced my Sim was a real cad. (I suppose I made him that way but he did a lot of stuff on his own). He broke off the marriage but it was he who was upset. True, this could just be random the game picked him to be the one to have a sad memory about the break up but TS2 players don't believe that since there is an attraction system, it is highly likely he was upset by it.
Moving his ex wife, to a different house and her first night out ( a match made by the gypsy which is always a good one) after she moved out. Sims don't do walk bys late at night like they can randomly do in TS4. It's not how TS2 works. Walk bys in TS2 are at particular times and one or two and hours apart, and never late at night.
I allowed this Sim to kiss her date good night on the porch. Who strolled by at that moment? Her ex husband. He stood there and watched them, and he wasn't very happy about it. My Sim finally went to the sidewalk to speak to him but it was too late, it was time for him to go on his way since all Sims will leave a property around 2:00 A.M. in TS2.
I understand it's mechanics, but him showing up (had not walked by any other night) on the very night, her first night she decides to have a real date with someone new, tells me, TS2 is a deeper game when it's not TS2's normal generator of Sims situations for walk bys and or at the time they do walk by. And it was more than just walking by to read a paper, it was to see what she was doing.
If you never make Sims unhappy in the series you will never see how intricate they are built. But that is a mild example of why TS2 is lauded above the rest. It took the player's story in a new and different direction to think the ex actually still cared enough to come by her new home at the right time to see her moving on with her life. Projecting my own thoughts onto the game? yes, but the gameplay is there to believe it, and no happy, happy, big grin on faces.
ETA: Able to suspend my disbelief. It matters.
A Sim who had divorced my Sim was a real cad. (I suppose I made him that way but he did a lot of stuff on his own). He broke off the marriage but it was he who was upset. True, this could just be random the game picked him to be the one to have a sad memory about the break up but TS2 players don't believe that since there is an attraction system, it is highly likely he was upset by it.
Moving his ex wife, to a different house and her first night out ( a match made by the gypsy which is always a good one) after she moved out. Sims don't do walk bys late at night like they can randomly do in TS4. It's not how TS2 works. Walk bys in TS2 are at particular times and one or two and hours apart, and never late at night.
I allowed this Sim to kiss her date good night on the porch. Who strolled by at that moment? Her ex husband. He stood there and watched them, and he wasn't very happy about it. My Sim finally went to the sidewalk to speak to him but it was too late, it was time for him to go on his way since all Sims will leave a property around 2:00 A.M. in TS2.
I understand it's mechanics, but him showing up (had not walked by any other night) on the very night, her first night she decides to have a real date with someone new, tells me, TS2 is a deeper game when it's not TS2's normal generator of Sims situations for walk bys and or at the time they do walk by. And it was more than just walking by to read a paper, it was to see what she was doing.
If you never make Sims unhappy in the series you will never see how intricate they are built. But that is a mild example of why TS2 is lauded above the rest. It took the player's story in a new and different direction to think the ex actually still cared enough to come by her new home at the right time to see her moving on with her life. Projecting my own thoughts onto the game? yes, but the gameplay is there to believe it, and no happy, happy, big grin on faces.
ETA: Able to suspend my disbelief. It matters.
