Currently, The Sims 4 community is seeing a lot of negativity, mostly as a result of the recent Eco Lifestyle expansion pack announcement. Many players feel that the theme, which was first touted back in 2017 as part of a Stuff Pack vote, has no place being an expansion pack.
This is mostly because elements of environmental living are already in The Sims 4. Seasons brought a gardening overhaul for all, Island Living introduced a changing world affected by your actions as well as the off-the-grid lot trait, while Tiny Living introduced reduced bills for smaller houses. For many, it seems that this is plenty of rustic and eco-conscious gameplay and they are quite happy to stop here.
However, the bigger question remains, will players ever be happy with the game?
The Current State Of The Sims 4
The Sims 4 is unique at this point, being the longest-running game in the franchise. It’s also one of the most heavily criticized with sims traits, consequences of player’s actions, and the depth of the base game especially, often being questioned. For many players, the game is perceived as lacking compared to past titles in the franchise.
Simmers also report bugs and issues, some of which have been unfixed for a long time, such as sims scooting from one side of the bed to the other and their insatiable thirst, resulting in a desire to constantly get water from sinks. There are also complaints about the emotions system, which gets very messy once sims have racked up a few buffs from completing aspirations.
With all these common issues in the base game, many feel focus needs to be shifted towards enhancing what we have, rather than adding something new.
What Critics Want
The biggest calls are for things like cars, enhancements to babies, and an open world (spoiler: that last one will never happen, frequently confirmed by various devs). However, there are also desires for the team to change the emotion system, add depth to traits, and to use the facilities we have in-game, such as allowing sick sims to go to the hospital, or allowing players to call the police if a fight breaks out.
There are also understandable desires to see issues addressed, bugs fixed and much-loved features, such as burglars, return. However, for some players it seems that they simply want to see The Sims 2 or The Sims 3 recreated again, holding up past games in the franchise as a yardstick to measure The Sims 4 against.
Why Expectations Won’t Meet Reality
The Sims 4 isn’t The Sims, nor is it The Sims 2 or 3. It is its own game, coded uniquely, and sometimes players need to be reminded of that. For those who claim that EA has ruined the game, it’s also worth mentioning that Maxis has been part of EA since 1997, meaning they have been involved in every single Sims game and were, in fact, responsible for increasing the budget of the original.
This statement seemed to confuse many critics when pointed out on Twitter by exCM for The Sims 4, Kate Olmstead. Something else people seem to forget is that The Sims 3 is still available to buy and play and these days you can actually run it.
Right now the community sentiment is tough to break down. There are many genuine, valid, and legitimate issues with the game, and even EA Game Changers, often considered to be the game’s biggest fans, have been pointing out these flaws. People are starting to see more bugs and issues and in many ways, that’s to be expected.
PCs are complex and there are so many combinations of hardware these days that the risk of incompatibility issues is increased with every piece of new content. Unexpected reactions between content are also likely to increase. Another problem is that sometimes a fix will simply break something else. A perfect game is never going to happen, not when it’s ever-evolving.
Development Cycles And Details
The Sims 4 is a huge and complex beast, it’s also created by a company who have staff members to pay and rent to find. As such, each aspect of a pack will likely be measured in terms of development time to make sure its creation is realistic. The problem from an end-user perspective is that this time can look very uneven.
Game packs, a concept only introduced with The Sims 4, have muddied the waters and this may be one of the causes of players feeling like Expansions aren’t grand enough. The team has managed to cram huge amounts into Game Packs, with Parenthood and Vampires all feeling especially crammed with new ways to play. When the bar is so high an Expansion can feel flat in comparison.
The Sims 4 is also far more complex than previous versions of the franchise, with animations, in particular, being far more detailed and as such far more time-consuming. All of these aspects of the game’s development have added up to make Simmers feel like they are being short-changed, while devs may feel that they can never do enough.
The Future
The fact is that the game will never meet everyone’s expectations. It is, at its core, a sandbox game and all players use the sandbox in different ways. Some like to be guided by pack content, others like to push the game’s boundaries to see what they can do and some simply build. Gamers with different play styles will have different issues with the game and that’s to be expected. It’s also realistic.
If The Sims 5 came out tomorrow it may solve some of the issues but it won’t solve them all. Unless EA has a real-life money tree we don’t know about, then offering all the content many feel “should be free” and “is essential” is never going to happen.
You’ll never get all your desires met so express your opinions respectfully, play if you want to, and don’t if you’re bored. To make your feelings known buy new packs only if you love them and leave them on the shelf if you’re not interested. Just remember that the team will never be able to please everyone, they are only human after all, a fact that should be remembered when interacting with them.
NEXT: Sims 4: A Complete Guide To Making Money
