What is The Sims 4?

I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. I’ve always described it both ways.

I'm not saying it's one or the other. I believe that I made it clear that while it's both, it seems to lean more on one than the other. Which one? Up to who you ask. Hence, the poll.

Definitely more life simulation, however, on the very easy side and poorly balanced. But the fact that it is easier to excel than fail, that the consequences aren't too bad and hardly ever occur even for a mediocre player, doesn't make the game something different.

As a sandbox/freeform player I need several mods to make Sims 4 work for me. A true sandbox game would be sandboxy without the need to introduce third party hacks.

Definitely sandbox. There's a heavy focus on "tell your own story" and using your imagination in 4. They give you a base with vague concepts and allow you to tell your own story from that, whilst in other games there was a lot more things that just happened and directed gameplay. In Sparkd they labelled their players as either storytellers, builders, or stylists and I think that's how they see their players - content is made to allow players to make their own stories, build and make sims

I think the theme is life simulation and the style is sandbox. It’s both, with the exception of Journey to Batuu, which is neither.

"babajayne;c-17928646" wrote:
I think the theme is life simulation and the style is sandbox. It’s both, with the exception of Journey to Batuu, which is neither.

Oh, that's an interesting way to look at it.

The game is supposed to be both. Sims 1, 2, and 3 were all a blend of life sim and sandbox. Sandbox only means you can play how you want without quests or linear play. The life sim part should just be about simulating life.

Sims 4 fails hard at simulating life. Easy examples of this are the walk-bys who should be at work or school show up. Someone posted a picture on Reddit the other day of a toddler assigned as a doctor. Adults call children in the game and invite them to go out. The cat calls to tell you they're sorry for your loss. Infants call to congratulate your ability to make a friend. None of those things would have ever happened in previous games. Sims 4 was designed to be a virtual chatroom with sims and houses. The game mechanics were added later and in under a year. That's why this game fails so hard to do the one job it has.

I would have voted: "Currently, Sims 4 is a virtual dollhouse" but that wasn't an option. Sims 4 was never meant to be a life simulator. They wanted it to be more like a realty TV show. What they failed to do is talk to a behaviorist of any kind which is why the interactions and reactions are not human-like. I could argue that it's too scripted to be a proper sandbox, but the scripted events are optional, even though they are a major part of the gameplay.

I will say it’s 70% building simulator and 30% life simulator.

My opinion is that the development priorities have so far been focused in the wrong places. Live mode is in desperate need of improvements but instead they just keep on adding more and more items to build mode, I hope this might change at some point in the future.

I never considered life simulator and sandbox to be opposits. The sims is both as far as I am concerned. To me it is a sandbox environment as in an environment without set goals where I can simulate virtual people's stories.