In defense of ‘The Sims 4’

Fringuelli:

I, unlike many players of the “Sims” games, hopped on the bandwagon pretty late.

The numbers on my Electronic Arts account might make you think I have been playing “The Sims” for years, since I have racked up more than 300 hours playing the game, but in reality, I have not even had the game downloaded for a full year.

My first time playing “The Sims” was after my family won an iPad in a raffle. My sister and I downloaded the free mobile version of “The Sims.” The limited version of the game meant less customization, fewer functions, and altogether less fun.

We deleted the app pretty quickly.

Flash forward nearly 10 years later, and I realized that “The Sims 4” was free — and available on Mac computers.

Once I downloaded the game, I got the satisfaction the mobile version lacked. It was everything I had hoped “The Sims” would be.

The graphics, though not lifelike, are enough to get me immersed in the lives of the silly little digital people I control.

At the end of the day, that is the point: losing myself in the game.

I play “The Sims” not because I have a memory of the crunchy, harsh graphics of the 2000s. I don’t long for certain functions in the earlier games because I never played them.

I play “The Sims” because right now, I can control things in the game that I cannot control in my own life. You will not find me buying a giant mansion, becoming a secret agent, or risking my life fixing an oven in the real world. But in “The Sims 4,” I can do all that and more with little to no consequence.

And when there are consequences, they sure are funny.

Picture my shock when I find one of my sims trying to repair a radio while standing in a puddle of water, only for him to be electrocuted and die. When pleading with the Grim Reaper to spare him failed, I turned to a trick: reloading the game and trying again. The sim returned to the broken radio and puddle, and he swiftly got zapped and died again. So I reloaded the game again — and gave up on the radio.

Electrocute me once, shame on you. Electrocute me twice, shame on me.

There is also the side of “The Sims” that lets me live out my fantasy of being an architect. In the real world, I have to bear witness to McMansions with gorgeous front facades and a hodgepodge of asymmetrically placed windows on the other three sides.

In “The Sims,” though, I can channel my frustration into something a scintilla more productive. I can make houses the way they should be: with symmetrical windows and shutters that make sense.

I also get to see the creativity of people who are somehow more into “The Sims” than I am and all the custom features that they create — often for free — for other users. From in-game furniture to whole new modified gameplay features, these people are way more creative and technically advanced than I am.

What my enjoyment of “The Sims 4” boils down to is the essence of the “Sims” franchise. I get to simulate a life that is more grand, more chaotic, and more outrageous than my own. It is an opportunity to focus on stuff that truly does not matter.

In a world that demands our attention at every waking moment, I know when I fire up “The Sims 4” that I can spend a while obsessing over decorating a kitchen, getting my sim that promotion, or trying to figure out why all the babies and toddlers look so weird.

I can get back to my real-world issues later, just let me marry Eliza Pancakes first.

The problem with ‘The Sims 4’

Valente:

“The Sims” franchise holds a very special place in my heart. The original was released in 2000, but I didn’t learn about it until 2001, when I would watch my older brother play on the family PC. To my young eyes, it was one of the coolest games I had ever seen. You get to create your own person, build your home, and control what they do in their day-to-day lives. It was like creating your own sitcom or movie. Although my parents did not allow me to play it for quite a while due to some of the violence and adult themes in it, that didn’t stop me from waking up an hour or two before everyone else in the house and sneaking to the computer to get my “Sims” fulfillment. After some convincing, my parents allowed me to play the game without having to go behind their backs. (Eventually, I was caught when the computer froze and my dad came downstairs before I could unplug the machine).

A memory I hold dear is my birthday in 2003 when my now-late grandfather gifted me “The Sims: Makin’ Magic.” I’m sure I found it especially cool because Harry Potter was quite the rage at the time and I was a superfan of the franchise.

In 2004, “The Sims 2” was released into the world. I can’t fathom how many hours I spent playing the game, and how much money my parents spent buying different expansion packs during the following five years of the game’s life. Although “The Sims” was quite innovative for the time, as it was really the first life-simulation game, “The Sims 2” further expanded the genre and you could tell the team that put the game together put a lot of work into it.

With the success of “The Sims 2,” Electronic Arts had to follow up with something big. In 2009, “The Sims 3” was released, and it was just that. Although I found the sims themselves to be ugly, even back then, the team took what was great about the first two games and built upon it. I was impressed with the innovation and advancements that EA had made.

Now, I don’t want to say I hate “The Sims 4,” but I’m not the biggest fan. When it was announced in 2014, I was thrilled by the prospect. With how much the games had grown and built upon themselves with each title, I was excited to see what EA would bring to the table. At the time, I was a junior in high school. I was only working during the weekends at McDonald’s and I wasn’t making that much money, but I decided to splurge and buy the Digital Deluxe Edition of “The Sims 4” out of pure excitement.

On release day at 12 a.m., I excitedly started my computer and opened up the game for the first time. I created my sim, built them a snazzy house, and began to play. Ten minutes into the game, I was sitting there and wondering… What is this? It felt lifeless, dull, and uninspiring. I exited the game and forgot that it even existed for the next three years.

Does the game look pretty? That’s subjective, but I believe so. Did they improve in some areas, like sim customization and lot-building? Sure. But the game was a big downgrade when it came to gameplay and overall entertainment. “The Sims 4” feels like a mix of the first “Sims” and “The Sims 2,” but without the charm and personality. I love those two games and go back to play them from time to time, but I don’t want the newest and latest game in the franchise to feel like it was released almost 20 years ago. A lot of long-time “Sims” players felt the same way and decided to stop playing the game altogether.

A lot of new players might enjoy “The Sims 4”, but a lot of them never got to experience the previous “Sims” titles, as EA does not make them easy to access. I feel if they were able to play them, they would realize how much of a downgrade “The Sims 4” truly is. I’m sure EA doesn’t care that much since the company knows a lot of “Sims” players are dedicated and won’t leave the franchise behind, instead hoping it improves. Not only that, but EA essentially has a monopoly on the life-simulation genre, as there is little to no competition to be had.

I still hold out hope that the “Sims” franchise will return to its glory — if not for the fans, than for the competition. One game in particular that is set to release in the near future is “Paralives,” a life-simulation game that has a lot of “Sims” fans wondering if it is time to leave the series behind. Perhaps a little competition will drive some innovation, and less laziness, to keep fans on the side of “The Sims.” Only time will tell.

The post It’s all Simlish to me appeared first on Itemlive.

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