Sul-sul! Welcome to It’s a Sims Thing. If you know me, I love all things The Sims. I’ve been an avid player and fan of the Sims franchise for most of my life, from MySims to The Sims 2: Pets to The Sims 2: Castaway to The Sims 3 to The Sims 4 and even The Sims Medieval! But recently, I considered “rage quitting” The Sims. I know, I know… How can you rage quit a simulation game?
Brandy Brown, Senior Editor and Writer at CouchSoup, shared a similar experience, asking the question, “Why In The World Would Anyone Play SIMS?” When it comes to the gaming experience, we spend so much time creating sims and building their worlds, only for random disasters to strike or the occasional boredom, which leads to the constant creation of new games.
In recent years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the franchise. The reason? Well, it’s a long list that I’ve narrowed down to just a few reasons. When The Sims 4 was first released on September 2, 2014, I wanted to love it so desperately… But alas, in my mind, it couldn’t compete with The Sims 3. From the weird map view to the dreaded travel loading screen and the lack of an open world, I longed for The Sims 3 games. It’s safe to say I have plenty of qualms, 5 to be exact, with the game series, so let’s dive in!
In 2023, The Sims team at EA launched one of the most promising packs, The Sims 4: Growing Together, which included better babies and family dynamics. However, with that, we also received the dreaded stayovers… Yikes! What sounded at first like a pleasant game feature quickly became more of a pest. Kind of like when the inlaws come for a visit and just won’t leave. After release, the game feature was a bit buggy, causing visiting sims to never leave… I discovered this the hard way when I mistakenly accepted an invite without reading the associated text and immediately started the game with a random stayover I couldn’t escape! While this feature has nice sentimental features for new parents, there is a lack of execution in control. With more customizable features, such as assigning designated spaces and the option for your sims to participate in a stay over elsewhere, I think this event could have prospered.
Oh, look, cute lambs and goats! Oh, look, llamas and cows! Yes, all of these cute animals could be yours. However, they aren’t pets… They’re interactive objects! **crickets**
When The Sims 4: Horse Ranch first launched, I was elated to see not only were we gaining access to horses but also other new animals like baby sheep and goats, which seemed to be a nice playable addition for pets. However, I was disappointed to learn these weren’t playable characters that would show up in my household. Yes, I could interact and care for them, and they could live freely in the world, unlike the llamas and cows in The Sims 4: Cottage Living, but it seems weird to me that we can place them in our inventory. What happens to them? Are they immortal, or do they perish? What’s even more frustrating is that unlike The Sims 3: Pets, in which in one pack you gained access to horses, cats, and dogs, recently, the devs seem to be releasing packs that all-in-all could have been part of other packs.
When The Sims 4 first launched, the days you could easily travel throughout an open world completely disappeared. Enter the dreaded Travel loading screen. Now, if you wanted to travel to another lot/house within or outside your “neighborhood”, the blue screen would appear, which has always been an annoyance. Not only that, but there is a lack of buildable lots and smaller worlds being launched in more recent packs. While these packs feature highly detailed themes, styles, and backstories, as players, we are left with minimal amounts of lots to add to or live in. Plus, it is even more annoying that, unlike in previous Sims games, most buildings and areas aren’t an open concept, which creates a barrier within the game and negatively impacts the playability of the game. Most times, I end up just creating households and building homes, and very rarely interact with the world itself.
Ah, build mode! A wonderful place full of so many building features, such as room expansion and creating split levels. However, what seems to feature so many wonderful building tools lacks variety when it comes to design. Unlike its predecessor, The Sims 3, where most packs include interesting furniture and wall colors, players do not have full design control with the help of color wheels and textile options. Instead, we are stuck with weird color options and most often, tacky furniture designs. With so many packs and years since release, you’d think they would release a color wheel or more options for swatches. We received a color wheel to create a sim for skin tones, makeup customizations, and designing pet coat colors, so why don’t we have that in build mode?! Most players turn to custom content, such as color wheel extensions and build mode designs (i.e. furniture, wall, and flooring details), to better the creative and functional aspects of the game.
And finally. Without further ado, the primary reason for my Sims struggle is…
As someone who has purchased more packs than I probably should have, my most common qualm with the series is there are TOO many packs and add-ons for the games and not enough bug fixes. For over a year now, I have not been able to use the toggle features for customization tools in create-a-sim for skin tones and makeup. Not only that, but any time a new pack has been released as of late, the game is flooded with bugs and game errors. For instance, one pack, The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories, which I was extremely excited for, quickly became “just another pack that I purchased”. When the pack launched, none of the events or features worked properly, and alas, no weddings were held as nothing in the event worked, from exchanging vows to cutting the cake. We don’t need more packs or kits; we need more bug fixes.
While the game may feature plenty of “rage-quittable” issues, it is still a game that has a very special place in my heart. My instincts may have been to quit the game altogether, but I do feel there are plenty of features that have caught my attention.
What do you think about The Sims 4? Are you still playing, or have you given up? Let us know in the comments. We would love to hear your thoughts on the game.
