older generations unite!

I feel much older too. I have a lot of back problems which limits the things I can do. I used to love dancing but had to give it up because of that. Took me years to accept the pain wasn't worth it. Games are pretty much my only hobby these days.

I started playing Sims 1 when I was 41. Hard to believe I'm still at it 22 years later. I was fortunate enough to participate in several Sims events over the years, and I was at the Gamescon in Germany when the Sims 4 was first announced. Some of you might remember me. I still see some familiar Sims from way back when, but unfortunately, there are not many left.

I feel the marketing collateral, pack trailers, and messaging does not speak to me. It feels juvenile to me. I feel alienated, left behind, and not at all a priority for EA.

"simmerorigin;c-18125739" wrote:
I feel the marketing collateral, pack trailers, and messaging does not speak to me. It feels juvenile to me. I feel alienated, left behind, and not at all a priority for EA.

I agree. It's become clear that with Sims 4, they are only concerned with the players who are, say, under 35. I was 40 or 41 when I first played the original Sims, and I never really felt this way about it, 2 or 3. But now, the music in the trailers, the celebrities and brands they put in the game, etc., is just not for our age bracket.

Early 30's and have been playing since the start of The Sims 1. :)

I just had a quick look at the 'meet the players' sections on the Sims 4 website & the oldest player I could find was 33. How about the 40, 50 or 60+ players get some representation as well. Last time I looked I was still part of both the female and LGBTQIA+ demographic, and I'm sure there are more female, LGBTQIA+, Bipoc and other players who are over 35 and deserve representation as well.

Early 50's. Started playing in February 2002 after visiting my best friend at the time - she got me hooked.

"SERVERFRA;c-18124453" wrote:
I'm in my early 50s also. But mostly feel I'm in my 30s. I remember back in the late 80s when my Dad bought his first computer. It was a Desktop Compu Amiga. There was no such thing as Windows & Internet back then. I remember enjoying playing the Adventures of Sinbad & the 1st Original Civilization games. They where on a volume set of 3 & half floppy disks. DVDs didn't exist yet.
And what I think of what's funny is now that I know that there was an Original Sims PC game called Sims City, I wonder why my Dad or I never, ever heard about it.
Anyways, that's my story on how I got introduced to computers & PC games. ;)

I played Sim city back in the day. It was like being a city manager, and I recall there were things like earthquakes and other natural disasters that could happen, and if the player didn't spend enough on roads, it would affect the satisfaction of the citizens, etc. It was really like an interactive ant farm, not like any real personal interaction with the people (no Sims-as-we-know-them) but a sort of managerial relationship to the citizenry as an aggregate thing.

My first home computer was an IBM AT, that was in...1986 I think. I was about the only kid at school who had one by dint of having a relative who was a senior engineer at a then-US-based tech manufacturing firm. I remember Daisywheel printers that came before Dot Matrix, and played a lot of ASCII graphic games: DND, Castle Adventure, SLEUTH, ELIZA, Hack/Rogue, starting when I was about 11.

Later on, we had EGA and CGA graphics, with COLORS! Like 8 of them! Then VGA games looked so great by comparison, then SuperVGA, and I recall RobotVGA, MinerVGA, and . I remember fondly a lot of Dos games from that era. Remember shareware like Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure?

This is making me want to go do a deep dive back into Gog games again :) or see what can still be done with Dosbox and old game files. All games back then were indie games, and they all relied on gameplay depth because what else was there? The graphics were rudimentary. Then when 3D graphics started to get good, and we had epic titles like DESCENT, Mechwarrior and others of the era that I played until the game was still going on in my mind when I went to sleep.

Then everything changed irrevocably one day when I was invited to the next house years and timezones later, where a bunch of people between late teens and early 20s were roomies, because they wanted to show me this awesome amazing new game, The Sims. I got my own, and would find hours had gone by and I didn't know where the time went. It was the gameplay, the surprises, the quirks and humor and unpredictability of it, and just enough grind factor but not too much.

The music, the perpetual perfect spring weather with daffodils and tulips growing in their little squares around the house, Bob Newbie in his food-stained grubby t-shirt cracking up in front of kiddie cartoons that sounded like the ones I grew up on. How deeply happy Bella Goth sounded, relaxing into her hot bath. The birds singing outside, the newspaper kid whistling on their way past the house. That stress-inducing sting almost like the Jaws theme, when your Sim missed work! But then came expansions and with them, flies. I hated the sound of them buzzing, and there was this bug where they'd get permanently stuck in the house.

I feel a bit nostalgic for the perfect juxtaposition of having such large chunks of time to dedicate, without consequence, to DESCENT, Mechwarrior, and later The Sims, that I did then. It was the thrill of being so immersed in a game that I didn't want to come out. I miss that feeling.

"pearlbh;c-18125776" wrote:

"simmerorigin;c-18125739" wrote:
I feel the marketing collateral, pack trailers, and messaging does not speak to me. It feels juvenile to me. I feel alienated, left behind, and not at all a priority for EA.

I agree. It's become clear that with Sims 4, they are only concerned with the players who are, say, under 35. I was 40 or 41 when I first played the original Sims, and I never really felt this way about it, 2 or 3. But now, the music in the trailers, the celebrities and brands they put in the game, etc., is just not for our age bracket.

Honestly, I doubt the marketing team is interested in anyone 30+ these days. I look blank any time a social media personality or fashion brand is mentioned as a collaborator or inspiration. I still don't know (or care) who Baby Ariel is so I ignore that sim. Sims 2 had the H&M and Ikea packs which I'd at least heard of. I rarely shop in those places, but at least they are names I'd heard of when they came out. The staff who use the forums however, definitely seem much more inclusive.