LOL I used to chuckle when my fire chief would take the engine around town. And I forgot that she had a ferrari in her inventory so then drove that all over China! As for other games it is good they are being done and I am watching them. Odds are many Simmers will try some of them, maybe me included, assuming they release, but I do not think EA is worried. For we can play more than one game and my guess is Renee will do well unless some really total mess.

For medieval sims 2, I also suggest checking out Hat Plays Sims. (Believe she's on Dreamwidth.)

Haven’t read other replies, but it could a few reasons:
- The Sims 3 players could be commenting that are more familiarized newer than with older games, so may not be aware of better Sims.
- The Sims 3 is the only game that had it, so of course everyone would miss it more than the better sims we had in two games.
- Open World is a much shiny and fancy feature, all while better sims are sophisicated and solid feature. And honestly, I could excise to a certain extent to TS3 version Sims if the game has at least Open World to make uo for an advancement. Personally, I would want everything so it counts as a Next SEQUAL. But the moment you shove force CONNECTION and MULTIPLAYER-ONLY intervention, then I’m certain you will make it FLOP HARD Or loose a good chunk of more players.

It’s kinda strange we have to choose between like “Better Sims important than open world?”. Why not strive to have more?

If I wanted a 'life simulator' with multi-player, I'd play Second Life. Seeing how I've watched way to many videos about the nonsense that goes on with that game not including all the catfishing and other bullshit like the price, no thanks.

Exactly what I'm talking about. I have no problem with having a semi-open world in a future The Sims games(Though, I would be mad if I'm not going to be able to travel my sims to other worlds, to be honest.) But as I expected, this discussion moved to "Why we should have a open world?", sadly. My goal was simply trying to learn why people wants a open world more instead of better sims. In my opinion, we should get both, not just a one.

As I posted way back when, I have never heard anyone say they would rather have an open world more than better sims. Or to put backwards, I have never seen anyone say I would rather have whatever and worse sims. Sooo ....

I think that shortly after Sims 4 launched, many players didn't realise yet that the Sims were a step back from Sims2/3 in terms of personality. You need to play for a while to realise that. You also have to have played Sims 2 or 3 to notice that. A lot of Sims 4 players never played a different Sims version. But even for them the missing open world is obvious thanks to the loading screens.

So I don't think that it is a question of wanting open world over better personalities and sims. Just that the lack of open world was more obvious.

If you ask anyone here on these forums what their dream Sims game is, it will be a combination of different The Sims versions. It will likely include open world (provided it does not require too much performance) and more interesting sims.

I remember when 4 was annouced someone made a list of 60 some things from the prior games it would not include. There are some good things but IMO is overall a dumbed down version compared to the others, and we all know of the SNAFU mess in its creation. We all want everything, but that is pretty much a fantasy as most players do not have high end hardware, and EA is looking for lots of sales and not to just sell to a few.

Your question assumes everyone who wants open world doesn't care about better sims, when my point specifically is that open world contributes to having better sims. It's not an "either or" situation.

“Open world” is probably just one easy thing to mention, but it’s not the only reason. I played 4 for a while and then I went back to 3.

I miss some of the build features from 4 like the customizable stairs and the roofs. I don’t miss that there are only a few lots you can build on and you are more restricted to lot size and location.

I missed some of the features buried in packs like slow dancing. Why should I spend money for a bunch of wedding stuff I won’t use for my Sims to slow dance? Look how long it took to get horses, at the cost of another expansion pack and we’re still waiting on cars even though we have nowhere to go in them. Sometimes these expensive expansions make me wonder if they’re thinking things through. For example, they’ve got llamas and sheep to shear for fiber and knitting and cross stitch. I think a spinning wheel would be an obvious inclusion there, but nope. Every pack released sets the CC creators into a frenzy to make missing content or fix the stuff EA releases broken. Infants wracked havoc with people’s games and were kind of anticlimactic without shelling out another $40 so you could access all the features


As for more complicated Sims, I am satisfied with the Sims I have now. My Sims 4 sims always seemed to be on the verge of a mental health crisis. They were jealous of their spouse, they were stomping around angry, they were dissatisfied with their career, they went and cried under the covers because they were depressed, etc. I don’t know about you, but I’m playing this game to distract me from reality, not because I needed more reminders that life can suck.

And sometimes I just feel like I’ve given these people enough money and I am less than thrilled with their attitude. I realize representation is important, but I feel like people said “Where are the cars?” And EA responded “Look, here are more ethnic hairs!” We said “How come we don’t have spiral stairs yet?” and EA said “Oooo! Look, scars!” Why can’t we have representation and other features? (I am aware someone made CC spiral stairs and they work well, but why didn’t EA?)

At the end of the day, the games we play are very much a personal preference. Sims 3 is mine.

Ah, gone thise days when I would watch TheSims3Loser being excited as I was for the The Sims 4, listening to him talk WHAT the Sims 4 will have, like grocery stores and bontiques getting a return with the base game, as we knew little info on the upcoming sequal so I waited to watch his vids spilling the tea on any news/info as he was trying to hide from his boss slacking off as a dishwasher Oh, how naive I was…

I mean, thinking about - the start of the game was criminally bad to like all the hopes we had just to release dumb down version of… oh ill stop here.

ETA: now got curious to check if he still does youtube, so I did just now. And oh boy, the first few is the type of vents I like On the same page length.

That's actually sad. it seems like Maxis/Eletronic Arts or whatsoever are literally just caring about how much money they are willing to gain; personally, I really liked how Ts3 open-world worked, like it was pretty nice playing it but the sims itself were way different than ts2 sims, which is the one I'm more used to.
And now in Ts4 I was so pissed off cause last year I bought the game in the 'deluxe' package, after years waiting to buy it and others ep's... and one month later, it becomes free; I was SO freaking mad!!! cause in my country games are not exaclty the thing you would call "cheap" and I was so excited that I finally bought it cause I was feeling "outdated" with only having Ts2 and 3, anyways.
Now, with that Project Rene thing I just feel it's a complete mess up, and also a disrespect with all those players who are experienced with The Sims...
like, it's pretty obvious what is going to happen, they are just literally aiming to gain money with it and consequently the public istelf it's the young ones like those 12, 13s.
and that's just make me feel sad because it feels like it lost all of it's meaning, and actually pretty quick. I don't know, it's just weird and messed up.

I think you are totally correct. The world has changed and the market has changed since 1-4 releases. They are making a game that will appeal to the younger than most of us crowd and which they hope will make them the most $$$$ as possible. If things like an open world, I doubt that will come but may be wrong, or better sims, however we define that, fit in it will be done. If no, and more likely IMO no, no. It will be a shallow nickle and dime version designed to be played the most on phones. 4 may look more good in some ways than it does now in comparison to what is to come.

To answer the original question, because 'better' Sims are supposed to be a given. Therefore, open world without loading screens should be a given. (Expected on both counts).

It was stated by Maxis devs that open world was not possible for TS4 because of multitasking and so called 'better' Sims. So, they went with loading screens since these Sims were supposed to be so much better, smarter, quirkier. more emotional blah, blah, blah. But at the sacrifice of open world what did the game offer? Sims with the same skills, desires, trait overlaps, less personality than even the TS2 Sims way back twenty years ago.

Loading screens, breaking immersion, Sims that all act and behave the very same as someone with one trait and one skill as the other. All Sims getting a mean streak as soon as you start playing them. Mischief. Boring! Even good Sims getting a mischief buff/ points/trait/skills. I use that example to explain how little thought was put into individual personalities and traits. There are hundreds of other examples of how Maxis didn't take any more time developing personalities in TS4 as they did with actual conversations between Sims based on interest or personalities. Very few Sims actually talk about anything of interest of their traits and or their personalities unless the player commands them to do so. Shallow.

No memories of what happened five minutes ago, without an object to bring on a mood. Such as an angry painting. How is that better than actual memory systems and or even a long lasting moodlet? Granted, moodlets, popups and texts (TS3 and TS4) are not my idea of deep game play, it's why I still consider TS2 the standard of Sims' personalities of all the games.

I don't think people prefer open world of better Sims, but after twenty some years we expect both.

I remember reading many posts at Sims VIP when 4 was in the pipeline, and there was a rather obnoxios IMO poster who was so pro 4 and so debating with everyone people asked her if she worked for EA a few times and was in effect a plant there? I cannot recall if she was the one or not, but someone said there would be loading screens, and that person was totally mocked for saying it. Oh my, and alas we have them.

As said above, many/most simmers think after all this time we should have good sims and no loading screens.

I sometimes like to think that in a situation like that, that there are people who are afraid to 'jinx' it. Somehow believing that mentioning something negative like loading screens, make it actually happen. As if the developers see it suggested and then just implement it out of spite. And so they try to bully negative people into silence to prevent it from becoming reality

Most Sims players want both things. They want an open world, because gameplay becomes more immersive and you can simulate an entire town realistically at once, and they want better Sims because the game is a LIFE simulation at the end of the day. Both the macro and the micro are extremely important.

It's just that most people would point out the lack of open world in The Sims 4 because it's an objective fact. On the other hand, whether Sims are better in 3 or 4 is more debatable. As someone who's been playing The Sims since 2000, I can tell you right now that Sims are far better in 2 and 3, and even 1 in some specific case, than in 4. But someone people would claim that Sims in previous games didn't have "emotions" even though they always did, they just didn't have a HUGE label telling them what emotion the Sim was feeling. Same with multitasking. Sims were able to multitask in different ways in all games, but multitasking was generally autonomous in previous games, while in The Sims 4 you can queue specific actions. Traits are objectively better in The Sims 3 (just compare bookworm in TS3 and TS4), but it's very difficult for some players to understand and visualize these differences.

A good sequel to The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 would incorporate and optimize what made these two games great: both the open world and immersive experience and the unique personalities and complex AI. The Sims 4 fails in both areas, but the easiest one to point out without having to go into detail is the lack of an open world.