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I think Sims is a dead franchise now (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by Buttflapper@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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After being incredibly disappointed by the release of Sims 4, I was someone holding out hope for Sims 5 that they would have realized, “Hey, people really didn't want us to do anything multiplayer in Sims 4. Maybe that means we should go back and make an actual good Sims game?” But instead, we get this awful news that Sims will be just like Fortnite, heavily monetized with its own store, basically following the model of Fallout games with creation club, in a sense. Completely the opposite of what players asked for, and crushing all of our hopes and dreams of playing a new Sims game that's just like Sims 3....

To me, this really kills the entire franchise for me. I don't think there's any hope for it, I think this is a death blow, basically an execution of the franchise and turning it into the most low value (to the consumer, mind you) dribble that they could have possibly came up with. There is nothing they could have announced that is worse than a multiplayer version of Sims with microtransactions, that's basically just Sims mobile that you can play on your PC! Sims 4 is already completely unplayable for me, because there's no content, it's just stupid packs and kids and stuff and little micro bundles. There's nothing fun about the game, and you see people streaming it, it's just building. That's all they are ever doing. Just building crap.

It's even worse that there's no competitor because it's so incredibly challenging to make a game like The Sims. Horrifically challenging, life by me was completely gutted and canceled, and that was one of the major games that people were looking forward to. There is still paralives, But they are so early access and have no release date at all. It could be 10 years from now that they finish their game or longer.

TL;DR: Sims 4 ruined by surprise multiplayer mechanics that were removed. Sims 5 canceled in place of multiplayer with microtransaction store like Fallout creation club. Barely any competitors, life by me canceled. Franchise is dead in the water

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[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's time for a new Sims. The way Cities Skylines replaced Simcity and Planet Coaster replaced Rollercoaster Tycoon. Fuck EA

[-] Laser@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago

l haven't played Planet Coaster, but my impression was it's more of a coaster builder than a theme park manager? A lot of "hardcore" players play OpenRCT 2, and for a slightly more modern take on the genre there's Parkitect. But classic RCT hasn't been replaced

[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I wouldn't know, I'm a filthy casual. Parkitect never did it for me, but Planet Coaster did. The point is nobody's making a new Rollercoaster Tycoon under that name, but that doesn't mean there aren't worthy successors from competitors.

Cities Skylines is a better example, I remember how much Sim City sucked, but Cities Skylines knocked it out of the park

[-] Laser@feddit.org 1 points 3 days ago

Skylines is ok, it never clicked for me, consider it more of a city painter than a management game... That plus Paradox' DLC policy made the game quite unattractive to me rather quickly. And it was very car-centric.

Unfortunately, I'm unaware of a serious contender.

[-] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 84 points 5 days ago

Life by You's cancelation was a big disappointment to hear. I figured if any studio had an understanding of emergent intercharacter storytelling in the way a Sims game needed, it was Paradox.

That said, Para-Lives is still in the works and looks quite promising.

There's still hope. Just not from EA.

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago

Mmhmm, Paralives looks like it’s going to take the world by storm. I’ve been following their development and they’re doing really good things.

[-] Buttflapper@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Mmhmm, Paralives looks like it’s going to take the world by storm. I’ve been following their development and they’re doing really good things.

Don't get your hopes up. It never lasts. These small indie studios create something truly insane that's so fun and incredible, and then big gaming studios like EA come in and ruin everything. A lot of people seem to forget that Maxis, developer of Sims and SimCity, used to be completely independent. EA bought them out and ruined the entire thing, now they basically don't exist anymore. Who is to say that the developers of Paralives isn't going to do the same thing? Guarantee they get a stupendous amount of money offered to them and they sell out, and they would be stupid not to. Who wouldn't sell their franchise for tens of millions and never have to work a day in their life ever again?

[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Just like ConcernedApe and Stardew, right? Redigit and Terraria?

I wouldn’t say never. A lot of these indie creators love their creation enough to not sell out.

[-] zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 9 points 5 days ago

Maxis made terrible decision after terrible decision. They had no money and ea bailed them out and redesigned sim city 3k to actually be possible on modern hardware, while allowing dollhouse to continue and turn in to the sims 1. Then Sims 2 and 3.

Hate on ea all you want but Maxis fucked themselves up and ea made all of the sims possible.

[-] Pika@sh.itjust.works 9 points 5 days ago

paralives is so slow development though, and the lack of teaser releases concerns me about the quality. I have high expectations for it as well but starting to grow concerned

[-] smokebuddy@lemmy.today 5 points 3 days ago

I watched the LGR Video then saw this and it looks bleak. EA promised to update the NHL series into the new Frostbite engine and all we got was the same game with the same glitches plus a bunch of new ones and longer load times. Even now like 4 years later it's not worth playing, a total mess. A real shame Life By You got cancelled I had that on my wishlist and it looked almost finished...

I still play Sims 3 with the entire pirate pack from time to time, guess the tradition will continue for now

[-] CCMan1701A@startrek.website 2 points 3 days ago

I stopped with the NHL updates back with NHL 99 even they were basically just roster updates over NHL 97

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

There's nothing fun about the game, and you see people streaming it, it's just building. That's all they are ever doing. Just building crap.

To be fair, that's always been a reasonable description of games like Sims, Minecraft, and most other simulation style games, depending on personal preference. Maybe the fact that you're choosing to use it now means you aren't as interested in that style of game, or even video games in general, as you used to be. Maybe not, but I think it's worth considering at least.

[-] Klanky@sopuli.xyz 11 points 5 days ago

That’s how I’ve felt about The Sims since the first one. It was so boring making my Sim go to work, come home, eat, go to bed, shower, etc. I bounced off it hard and never went back. If someone likes it, good for them, but I’ve never gotten it.

[-] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

exact same. even gave away licenses that came with humble bundles.

[-] Buttflapper@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

To be fair, that’s always been a reasonable description of games like Sims

I disagree with you here. You're making it out to be that this is the extent of it, and that's not true. Sims 3 had a HUGE amount of content aside from Building. There were quests/tasks, lineages for families, hidden objectives, you could wander around your entire city/neighborhood. None of these are possible in Sims 4. Every "neighborhood" has like 5 housing plots. Some have more than that, one of the Vampire ones has literally 4 homes, you can't scroll over or have your sim walk next door and make a new friend nope. If you/others haven't played Sims 3, seriously... Go try it, try to 100% it by experiencing all it offers, especially the Future DLC. It's insane, really. Every S4 DLC by comparison is hollowed out and has like 5 things to do total. Most of the traveling ones, the university ones. They slashed the content in Sims 4 by 75% and kept the price for the DLC the EXACT same. It's criminal.

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

I'm not saying it's not possible that the Sims franchise has gotten worse. I'm just saying that lots of people would have described every Sims game in the same terms OP did. I'm also saying that your tastes and preferences can change over time. It's possible, but certainly not the only option, that these two things are more true than it is that Sims is getting worse.

[-] 474D@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Do people really feel this strongly about the Sims? I thought it's been irrelevant for like a decade

[-] HeartyOfGlass@lemm.ee 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's only been "irrelevant" because of the poor reception to Sims 4. The Sims was the first great "life sim" game, and the 3rd installment added a crazy amount of content. That's all we wanted. More stuff to decorate with and places for our Sims to explore. Nah, Sims 4 took away the variety and added paywalls and multiplayer and was just generally a poor experience.

For anyone holding out hope for #5, this is on par with Blizzard announcing their smartphone diablo game. EA killed this franchise, and yeah I'm a little sad about it.

[-] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 25 points 5 days ago

Check out Inzoi.

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 18 points 5 days ago

Steam link for the lazy

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2456740/inZOI/

[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

I have really big hopes for this game, I’m worried to be disappointed. The character creation demo seemed good.

[-] Exeous@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago

I hope creator outside character look good!

[-] Exeous@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago

I agree. I play demo creator character. Was fun! Hope game fun!

[-] HAL_9_TRILLION@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 days ago

I recently was holding out hope for a franchise that was similarly treated. I can tell you from experience that Sims 5 will make a billion dollars and they will then fire all the programmers who made it.

[-] Xenny@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

New sims game? This is the first I'm hearing of it. A complaint thread on Lemmy. Game's DOA

[-] RabbitMix@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 days ago

no, that's the problem, there won't be a new Sims game. Sims 4 has been a zombie of a Sims game since it came out 10 years ago and EA just announced that they're more than happy to let it's corpse shuffle around for the foreseeable future, rather than make a Sims 5 that people actually like.

[-] Xenny@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Oh I thought we all agreed that the Sims 4 was trash and that we would stick with the Sims 3 forever

[-] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 15 points 5 days ago

Do people still play The Sims 4? I bought it like 7 years ago, played it once, got bored, and never picked it up again. I saw gameplay once of the Sims 3 and was genuinely surprised by how many more features it had.

[-] burgersc12@mander.xyz 7 points 5 days ago

But did you buy the hundreds of expansions to bring it to feature parity with Sims 3? Only costs like $1065 for all of them! So cheap /s

[-] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The Build Mode features in 4 are pretty good if you're into virtual dollhouse building, and there's a ton of custom content for it (as long as you're on PC).

Live Mode is not very good, but it's functional enough to play dolls in the houses you built if you're willing to do all the story writing to make up for sims not having very interesting personalities/desires/autonomy.

[-] Buttflapper@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Do people still play The Sims 4?

Yes, it's widely streamed on Twitch, most of them are just chicks doing house builds. It's pretty much a PC game version of HGTV to build homes with absurd amounts of customization. Most of them don't even play the game, they just give themselves tons of money and build a "dream home" like some Ikea home builder simulator. Which is fair, btw, I just want to say that... Completely ok if they like that, not to bash them. But it's not really playing the full extent of the game, building a family and a career and life simulating.

[-] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

When I did play I would build relationships with people before locking them in my house until they died and then steal all their assets

[-] Exeous@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago

I play sims 1/2/3 only look at 4 because it free.

[-] emuspawn@orbiting.observer 8 points 4 days ago

Will Wright! We need you, now more than ever! We need simulation games! We need llamas! We need a great vision of weird fun you can have! Will Wright is.....Will Wright is apparently busy with an AI powered game that looks extremely vaporware. ~Nooooo........~

[-] Tattorack@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

Isn't Sims 2 still the most robust and fleshed out Sims out there?

[-] Cagi@lemmy.ca 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Relative to its time, yes, but Sims 3 is peak Sims. It improved on 2 in every way, but the thing they did the best and left out of 4 was the create a style tool, which allows you to make any surface any texture and colour you like. You could have a wooden sweater and metal carpet. No limits. You could make uncanny replicas of most homes, furnishings and all.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I think 3 was, I guess it's subjective though.

Maybe the base game of 2 had more features or something, and with 3 you needed add-ons

[-] yamanii@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Look forward to Inzoi, I think it launches next year, they released the character creator to try it.

[-] squid_slime@lemm.ee 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It lost its charm after sims 3.

[-] Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I love the type of gameplay that the Sims (specifically building and character creation, other stuff is boring af) has but it sucks so much to play because it's so limited unless you spend thousands on all the dlc. I am a game dev (well, I call myself that but I've never released anything cuz I'm too busy with finishing up college rn) and I really want to make a life sim game one day. I've seen plenty of indie life sims fail unfortunately, but I'm still going to try anyways. I have a few ideas I haven't seen anyone else do. So many of these games fail that I'm not afraid to try something a bit crazy and hope it sticks.

[-] bsides@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

It makes money so it’s not dead. People using it and playing it are the reason. It would only flop if people weren’t giving them tons of money. It’s the hard truth one’s got to acknowledge.

[-] Mango@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Why is nobody competing with them? It doesn't seem like a hard type of game to make, and they're doing such a terrible job that it should be easy to compete with them.

Who's got a Sims alternative?

[-] deus@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

The fact that there aren't many alternatives likely means that making a Sims-like game isn't as simple as it looks. That being said, there are a bunch of life sims under developement right now (probably because EA is doing a terrible job) such as Paralives, Inzoi and Alterlife.

[-] Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Just a heads up, Alterlife likely never got off the ground. They mocked up a demo video with store assets 3 years ago, but were never heard from again. I still have it on my wishlist, but my hopes are not up, lol.