What is The Sims 4?
I believe one of the problems of The Sims 4 (and probably the franchise, in general) now is that it's already 7 years old, but it still hasn't fully decided whether it's a life simulation game (with r...
Forum Discussion
It’s a build simulator first and a safe space where we can all learn and grow second. (A Guru used the safe space analogy not me)
Sims 2 manages to balance life sim/sandbox perfectly. All of the previous sims games achieve a better balance. But they knew what they were and weren’t quite so woke and focused on looking good for shareholders.
Sims 4 is not a sandbox because it has checklists. So many checklists. It’s also without any significant consequence so it’s a very poor life simulator. The Sims has always been a game that has recognised players will explore failure states. The Sims Creator Will Wright acknowledged this- but the sims 4 fights you if you try and do anything negative. Anything perceived as negative is immediately squashed. I had a sim who recently cheated on his wife with five different women in front of her. One of whom was her sister. On paper it said she was mad as she had a negative sentiment but she was rolling whims to have more babies with him and she was automatically flirting with him. Her “anger” was always overridden by happy or inspired moodlets.
I had to imagine she was angry at him and force her to fight with him. I don’t have to do that in the previous games. A life sim should be about all different parts of life, not just sunshine and rainbows and happiness all the time.
Sims 2 manages to balance life sim/sandbox perfectly. All of the previous sims games achieve a better balance. But they knew what they were and weren’t quite so woke and focused on looking good for shareholders.
Sims 4 is not a sandbox because it has checklists. So many checklists. It’s also without any significant consequence so it’s a very poor life simulator. The Sims has always been a game that has recognised players will explore failure states. The Sims Creator Will Wright acknowledged this- but the sims 4 fights you if you try and do anything negative. Anything perceived as negative is immediately squashed. I had a sim who recently cheated on his wife with five different women in front of her. One of whom was her sister. On paper it said she was mad as she had a negative sentiment but she was rolling whims to have more babies with him and she was automatically flirting with him. Her “anger” was always overridden by happy or inspired moodlets.
I had to imagine she was angry at him and force her to fight with him. I don’t have to do that in the previous games. A life sim should be about all different parts of life, not just sunshine and rainbows and happiness all the time.
