Why does everyone hate city living?

It's a pack not intended for die hard fans, and that's why most die hard fans don't like it.
It doesn't contain any gameplay that die hard fans want, and is more a collection of new types of gameplay, loosely connected to the City.

It's funny, because outside of this forum, it's considered the best. Both by critics, and the general fans. I follow several Facebook groups, and City Living is the one pack people recommend when people post polls, or people ask which pack to get, the majority of people say City Living.

Also, most of the "die hard" players on here, appreciate Get Together, while most people in the groups don't think much of it.


What the fans who are die hard enough to join the official forums want, vs the fans who just enjoy the Sims and like sharing their stuff with others want, are two separate things.

Most of the casual players want packs that offer a large variety of ideas, and most of the complaints on here are that people want packs with more depth, less variety.

City Living, in essence, is the definition of variety over depth. I think it's a great pack, but I also notice it just contains a little bit of everything and there isn't much point to it. It just fills out the game, and provides more to do.

Casual gamers want more to do. The die hard fans want different concepts.

I like it, sort of, or parts of it. Im in love with the spice district, but I dont really like the rest of the city. I love the ethnic aspect, but the sims the game spawns has been kind of odd since I got it, its not the etcnic diversity I mind, but when face, name and clothing are all from different cultures it just seems silly and not believable. I usually ignore the premaids, but having to live so close with some of them has made me very fond of a few of them. Jesminder Bheeda is always my bestie when I play CL.

I love CL! Have not had the time to play lately, so maybe there was a patch messing things up a bit, but so far I had no lag.

I wish installation would included restaurants and regular bar venues when Dine Out is already installed, and a few stores when Get To Work is installed. Because those are some natural city venues/activities. Hm, maybe there exist venue replacements that I didn't check yet. I built my own restaurant though. Then finding there are way too few community lots. You need to choose between either karaoke, restaurant or shopping - although you want all of them - because what is a city without such venues?

"Jestina;15604380" wrote:
My major issue with it at the moment is that it spawns too many Asian sims. By the second generation of my game, just about all the spawned sims are Asian or Arabic.

I really hope they fix this soon.

"Jestina;15604380" wrote:
My major issue with it at the moment is that it spawns too many Asian sims. By the second generation of my game, just about all the spawned sims are Asian or Arabic.

This is one of my bug bears.

Other issues:
I love apartments in the sims 2 and 3 (although I do prefer 2) and I was excited about the apartments in city living. Even though I was frustrated that we couldn't build our own. What frustrates me about CL apartments is they aren't an improvement over the sims 2 and really they should be. Neighbours in CL are ALWAYS loud and annoying. There doesn't seem to be any real rhyme or reason to it. They also have no boundaries. My sim has a bad relationship with her neighbours and their bad are full red but it doesn't stop the neighbours barging in to my sims apartment and hanging out for hours. My sim is mean to them and slaps them and throws drinks on them but they still insist on hanging on and they thank my sim for the nice time when they leave.

I miss the landlord. I know there is a landlord in the sims 4 but he doesn't seem as useful as the sims 2 land lords. The sims 2 landlords were there on the lot during the day, if something broke you could have the land lord fix it. I don't see that option with the sims 4 landlords they only appear to fix certain things.

I hate the fake city back drops. Yes it's pretty but its style over substance. It was this element that forced me firmly back over to the sims 3. At least when they look out their apartment windows, the buildings they can see are actual lots they can visit. It's functional pretty.

The city itself just seems empty. In terms of community lots we get another gym and another bar. Where are the shops? Where is the cinema? I was really disappointed by the festivals. They don't bring anything new to the table. Go into space? My sim can do that at home. Hack things? Again an existing activity. The spice festival I hoped we would have eating competitions back but it's nothing like the eating contests before.

The game just feels lack lustre. I hate to say it but it does. I am just disappointed I fell for the hype.

I don't hate it, it's just.. boring I guess for me personally. The clothing is nice and furniture however that doesn't give me gameplay. It's a new place to live, but they do the same thing. Festivals get boring really quickly, because there's not too much to do even if it seems like that and the lag is insane. I guess it would make more of an impact if we could build our own apartments. Because it provides more gameplay. You could make a motel, or a low urban type of apartment where poor sims live. Or very small narrow boxes next to eachother or huge lofts. This way your gameplay gets bigger with more story to tell. The price is really high for this pack so I bought it when it was 50% off and I still find it lackluster. I even find the Spa day pack more fun. So the fact that an actual 20.- pack is more worth than a 40.- pack is a bit odd in my eyes.

Not to mention, just because someone doesn't like a certain pack doesn't mean they hate it. Hate is a strong thing, i'm pretty certain people just dislike the pack and I agree with them. I'm happy there are people who like it though, it's obviously a mixed thing.

I like the challenge of living in a small space. I don't like or I should say really dislike the huge apartments, one there Huge, and when I try to play in them my screen jumps unless I'm right in there, after I tried, I don't play them. I don't mind the festivals but mainly I only use them to get stuff, the geek festival, I get my geek sims high in gaming and hacking so they can win the computer. the romance festival to renew vows or marry, and each festival to harvest the plants.
I like the backdrop, but wish there was more low level, family with balconies apartments. and I don't like all the wasted space in the posh district. I think there is a lot of potential but at the moment its lacking.

"DeservedCriticism;15604401" wrote:
I would ask the same question of why people like it. From everything I've seen....

-Apartments seem annoying rather than interesting. An apartment is just a house with obnoxious neighbors that never go away, as well as an extra obstacle that keeps your sims from sleeping. I don't like when my Sims constantly have to spray the monster under the bed, so why would I like constantly banging on the neighbor's door? Why would I enjoy if my neighbors can just walk in on short notice and act like my home is their home? There's a reason it's called "my home" and a reason doors have locks, but apparently in San Myshuno, these concepts don't exist. Enjoy neighbors barging in to drink your water and leave dirty dishes.

-Festivals are recycled content, save for the Flea Market. A 20% success rate is terrible. I really don't see the purpose of going to a festival to do things my Sim can do at home, especially when one of them is notorious for making married sims cheat on their spouse. The rewards for visiting are ugly T-shirts you'd probably never wear again. Woohoo~

-Why are the food recipes a selling point? I don't care what my Sims eat, especially since I'm personally not a fan of the calories system. That system just means my sims have to work out regularly, which is obnoxious for some. I just cook Fish Tacos and other 0 calorie meals all day. But oh boy, now there's new recipes that...don't really do anything special, but apparently I'm supposed to be really excited about that new texture my sim interacts with.

-The new careers seem pretty bad. The BEST earning career is actually mediocre in the grand scope of things. ~9k a week is about the average pay amongst Sims careers, and the best paying one is just below that. I actually like low-paying careers for a bit more realism, but I think it's important to have variety and a nice mix of low income and high. The best earner seems to be internet celeb, though that requires excess work in your off-time, otherwise it's mediocre; similar in concept to the writer or painter careers where the cash is more to do with a skill than with the career earnings. More importantly, the career rewards are....non-existent. I saw the career rooms posted as images online....man those are sad. They're all base-game furniture with 1-2 new items, meanwhile the other careers can fill an entire room with unique furniture.

-UGLY clothing. Some of those I saw I had no idea what they were even supposed to be. The clothing is like the Sims team made it a goal to make "noisy" clothing as a theme. They definitely succeeded...

-Extremely boring city. Go compare Windenburg and San Myshuno. Windenburg for example has a huge neighborhood connecting some commercial lots to the start homes. If you walk around, you can see plazas with Sims playing chess amongst some greenery, some select locations to paint with an easel set up, a plaza with a fountain, some statues, etc etc. If you go to Diskothek Pan Europa I believe it was, then you can again see fountains and statues and lots of nice stuff you don't really see anywhere else.....now go back to San Myshuno. What do you get? Four lots encircled around a central plaza, with one commercial lot per neighborhood. Wowowowowowowowow how exciting! It's absolutely mind-numbing to me that they built an expansion pack that focuses on a location, and the location itself is the most dull they've ever produced because every single neighborhood has a recycled layout with nothing special.

-Again, why should I buy this? What exactly is the selling point? Where's the must-have feature? I know I buy Get to Work for the careers, I know I buy Get Together for the clubs....but why should I buy City Living? Certainly it's not that bland location. Certainly it's not the festivals that recycle base game content. Certainly it's not for the careers with far less detail and depth than Get to Work's careers. Certainly it's not just for the food or clothes....but what the heck is left!? Oh right, the Singing skill, and I refuse to believe one skill is worth $40.

even though I partly like CL. I totally agree with this simmer.
when my sims live in the city they no longer have neighbours, because of the constant night time noise and constant "That smells good can I come in" and the want to give apartment keys, which I stopped after about two weeks of playing CL. constant drinks of water, eating my food and using my loo.
the festivals I rarely go to anymore.
In my save at this time CL is empty, and in one real time week of play I've taken sims there once.

"MrMonty96;15604405" wrote:
Because City Living disappointed. People had their hopes up high but they were disappointed with the amount of features limited to San Myshuno and so was I. It was just disappointing, not bad but disappointing.

Maybe that's they key sentence? :smiley: My expectations were low from the beginning, I'm not that much into city life. Then again I found myself liking what they put together. It's not my favourite pack, but I love the variety it adds (surroundings, sims, apartment communities, festivals, lot traits) :smile:

"luimistelija;15604678" wrote:

"MrMonty96;15604405" wrote:
Because City Living disappointed. People had their hopes up high but they were disappointed with the amount of features limited to San Myshuno and so was I. It was just disappointing, not bad but disappointing.

Maybe that's they key sentence? :smiley: My expectations were low from the beginning, I'm not that much into city life. Then again I found myself liking what they put together. It's not my favourite pack, but I love the variety it adds (surroundings, sims, apartment communities, festivals, lot traits) :smile:

I'd say it played a role, but isn't the sole cause. If expectations were low, that wasn't going to change that festivals just recycle base game content and pretend it's "new" because you can win a lousy T-shirt, but I'm sure the expectations being high has played a role in how vocal and adamant people are about criticizing this one. Personally I really do feel like it may be their worst expansion they've ever produced, but all the same, of course it bites harder when people waited a year just to see disappointment.