Without mods I wouldn't play Sims. Not because I wouldn't like it, but because the Mods are the appeal for me.
Video games in general for me get about 1-3 hours of play before being discarded, regardless of how good they are. There are only two things that ever hook me past that point: social activity or modding.
I've played MMOs for years just for the ability to stand around and babble at people, and I've had Sims and Skyrim on my PC just for the ability to fail to get them running because I've put in one too many mods again.
Tossing in a mod keeps it engaging. I actually do enjoy playing them also - but without Mods I wander off. Skyrim for example; I don't even like the gameplay and the story isn't interesting to me at all - but I still mess with it all the time because it allows me to mess with it.
Sims I like the gameplay because all the little characters are my stories (I delete all the premades that are optional), AND I get the mess with the game.
I don't mind when it breaks - that's part of the fun for me; getting it working again.
