Forum Discussion
"Ivyeyed;c-17520443" wrote:"Oldeseadogge;c-17417457" wrote:"Disat3r0usB;c-17410831" wrote:
When are you guys going to let players join each others game? Like play with other players?...... I think that would be awesome!
That is an online game, which has already been shown to be unworkable in Sims format. Sims is for us to make and play our own households as we wish. The very idea that some unknown personage from no telling where with quite possibly malevolent intent could bust into my game and wreck havoc (not to mention introduce viruses and such) is utterly repugnant. There are at least 2 Sims-like games out there already, so try those if you like dangerous gaming.
I don’t understand this assumption that “multiplayer” automatically means “mmo” or “anyone can enter your game”. That’s not how? Most multiplayer works?
Like Minecraft’s single player experience is in no way damaged or interrupted by its multiplayer options. There’s a huge different between an mmo and opening my save to my roommate on LAN so we can sit next to each other on the couch and game on our laptops. It doesn’t even prevent the use of mods, as long as everyone is properly set up for it!
Animal Crossing has a robust and complete single player experience and I can go weeks without having visitors or visiting someone else, but the option is nice! Being able to visit my brothers and niblings to play during quarantine and wish on stars together.
There already exists a multiplayer mod for the Sims 4, and it’s very much restricted to only exactly the person you invite to play with you. And both the fact it exists and the downloads it has even though it’s a cobbled together mod experience is proof there is interest and demand from members of the community, so if folks would stop talking for what “the community” wants, I’d appreciate it.
Multiplayer and mmos are not the same. It would need to be done right, and I’d want the single player experience to take priority, but I have no problem with potentially inviting my roommate into my save to, for instance, work on building a pool house in the back yard while I make the kids do homework. Or in an open world game, build a house for a different family in the same neighborhood as the family I’m playing! It could be fun!
Right now we have all these convoluted ways to simulate multiplayer and competition already. Elaborate legacy challenges with points systems so complicated you need spreadsheets to keep track. Why keep score? Because we’re already competing. Speed build challenges where everyone uses a timer because you can’t actually have a head to head race.
But imagine being in the same save and each having one sim with the same amount of money. You race to see who can build their house fastest or who can make money fastest or who can get married fastest. You can CHOOSE to allow sabotage or not because you’re in the same save area playing simultaneously because you’re FRIENDS, not random strangers.
The fear of this option is, I know, a result of a deep and shared trauma among simmers. I get it. SimCity nearly killed EA. But that wasn’t multiplayer that was mandatory internet connection and there is such a huge difference. The Sims 4 doesn’t suffer because they were planning on having multiplayer, it suffers because their plans for executing that multiplayer were terrible and because they change gears so quickly they were forced to release a half-finished game. That doesn’t translate to multiplayer inherently being bad, or not good for the series.
I am begging y’all to play some games with good multiplayer grafted onto a solid singleplayer experience like Minecraft or Stardew Valley. Multiplayer can be a great time had by a few close friends or family members. Not everything is WoW.
Those games aren't the Sims, though. Not even the same exact genre so you can't compare them to see if multiplayer would be logical.
Yes, there's interest. I highly doubt enough interest to warrant the main game being a multiplayer version. I'd be fine with them making another Sims Online as a spin off. I do not want it in the main series. It would split the resources of the devs and hurt BOTH single player and multiplayer aspects.
Plus, not a single person in favor of multiplayer has ever answered any of the following questions with any amount of satisfaction on my end:
1. Two Simmers have their Sims marry and a have kid. It's a single birth. Who gets the kid by default? IE: someone has to have control from the start so it has to default to someone.
2. Two Simmers have their Sims marry in game and buy a single house and a have a family and a pooled bank account for the family. Those two Simmers have a falling out and can no longer be civil with each other. Who gets the house? What about the kids? The money?
3. How would you handle the process of Trying for a Baby while maintaining the T rating given the chat?
4. Two Simmers have their Sims marry and have kids but then one player stops playing without warning. What happens to the remaining person's Sim? What if the other player had control over the kids? How would you balance making sure the remaining player isn't stuck forever but not undoing the other player's progress?
Those questions would persist even if you keep it to invite only.
