General Gaming Does anyone else here play The Sims?

[Fizzzzle]

The Sims is basically a palate cleanser game for me. I play it when I get burned out on big or challenging games. 

 

I have hundreds and hundreds of hours logged on The Sims 4 since it came out. I own probably like 80% of the DLC.

 

The Sims 4 has a reputation of being buggy as shit, which it is. I just think EA doesn't give a fuck. The game has been out for almost a decade and there are still annoying bugs that have been in the game since day 1. I still play it because, well... There isn't anything else like it.

 

However, there is good news! Paradox has a Sims competitor called Life By You that is supposed to enter early access in September. There's also an indie game called Paralives that will allegedly come out at some point (it's been in development for a very long time, it's kind of one of those "I'll Believe it when I see it" games)

 

It's baffling to me that it's taken THIS LONG for someone to see what a massive cash cow life sim games can be, how horrible EA is at doing it, and thought "maybe we should get in on that."

 

Seriously, by the time Life By You comes out, The Sims 4 will have been out for 9 years and has made EA BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. The team that works exclusively on The Sims is microscopic compared to the teams that work on their sports titles and such. ROI has to be insane.

 

I'm hoping it will be a SimCity:cities skylines situation wherein the new game crushes the old one so hard that going back to it makes it basically unplayable.

[Fizzzzle]

If anyone is curious, The Sims 4 hit 33 million active users in late 2022 (probably after they made the base game free to play)

 

60% of players are female aged 18-24 who probably don't play a ton of other games.

 

It's mind bogglingly stupid that no other game dev thought "maybe we should get in on that" in decades. The original Sims game came out 23 years ago and there has never been a serious competitor for it in that entire time.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

However, there is good news! Paradox has a Sims competitor called Life By You that is supposed to enter early access in September.

 

[Fizzzzle]

15 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

You can merge it if you want, my point wasn't about the existence of Life By You but more about a discussion of life Sims in general. Up to you discretion.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

8 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

You can merge it if you want, my point wasn't about the existence of Life By You but more about a discussion of life Sims in general. Up to you discretion.

 

I just wanted to let you know that we do have a Life By You thread for posting stuff about the game.

 

I'm pretty sure I did play The Sims at some point in my gaming career, but it's been a very, very long time.

[Fizzzzle]

6 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I just wanted to let you know that we do have a Life By You thread for posting stuff about the game.

 

I'm pretty sure I did play The Sims at some point in my gaming career, but it's been a very, very long time.

Paralives, if you believe the hype, is basically a perfect version of The Sims. The development is managed by one person, and it's one of those "I'll Believe the game exists when there is a beta test" situations.

 

It's not just Life By You, it's more about how it took like 20 years for someone to take a crack at a life sim. Clearly it's a MASSIVE fucking market. I would say that maybe it wasn't until EA started pumping it DLC every month or so for people to realize it, but even the Sims 3 was a massive cash cow and that game had much more "micro" transactions (you would buy items individually, not as part of a pack)

[Keyser_Soze]

I have in the past. Too much of a time sink to play regularly.

[Fizzzzle]

4 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I have in the past. Too much of a time sink to play regularly.

That's the beauty of it. It's like a mind purge. It's something to play when I'm burned out on open world tower climbs or platforming puzzles. I just want my dude to get good marks in college.

[DPCyric]

2 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

The Sims is basically a palate cleanser game for me. I play it when I get burned out on big or challenging games. 

 

I have hundreds and hundreds of hours logged on The Sims 4 since it came out. I own probably like 80% of the DLC.

 

The Sims 4 has a reputation of being buggy as shit, which it is. I just think EA doesn't give a fuck. The game has been out for almost a decade and there are still annoying bugs that have been in the game since day 1. I still play it because, well... There isn't anything else like it.

 

However, there is good news! Paradox has a Sims competitor called Life By You that is supposed to enter early access in September. There's also an indie game called Paralives that will allegedly come out at some point (it's been in development for a very long time, it's kind of one of those "I'll Believe it when I see it" games)

 

It's baffling to me that it's taken THIS LONG for someone to see what a massive cash cow life sim games can be, how horrible EA is at doing it, and thought "maybe we should get in on that."

 

Seriously, by the time Life By You comes out, The Sims 4 will have been out for 9 years and has made EA BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. The team that works exclusively on The Sims is microscopic compared to the teams that work on their sports titles and such. ROI has to be insane.

 

I'm hoping it will be a SimCity:cities skylines situation wherein the new game crushes the old one so hard that going back to it makes it basically unplayable.

 

I played it for an hour or two at my cousins house and decided for the betterment of my time management I would never buy it.

[Phaseknox]

I played the fuck out of The Sims Bustin’ Out back in the day, it’s still the best Sims game IMO. I also played a lot of The Sims 3, but not nearly as much as Bustin’ Out because it’s not as good. I also own The Urbz: Sims in the City (Xbox) and The Sims 4 (PS4), but I haven’t played them yet.

 

I can’t believe how many add-on content packs that there are for The Sims 4, and how expensive that they are. The PS Store has The Sims 4 for free which I assume is to get people hooked on it so that they will buy a lot of the add-on content packs.

[Keyser_Soze]

8 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I can’t believe how many add-on expansions that there are for The Sims 4, and how expensive that they are. The PS Store has The Sims 4 for free which I assume is to get people hooked on it so that they will buy a lot of the add-on expansions.

 

It went free to play so the stuff packs are probably the primary driving force for sales now. It's a great turnaround for the game since at launch there were so many missing things.

[Fizzzzle]

It's also important to remember that a majority of people who play The Sims pretty much only play the Sims. So $80-$100/year to play the game doesn't seem like that big of a price if that's literally the only game you play.

 

It's the same thing as games like SoulCalibur or Dead or Alive that have a DLC list that now costs $1000 if you want everything. A good chunk of people who play those games do not regularly play other games.

[Nokra]

I do remember playing it way back when (early 2000s). Funnily enough I recall it being one of those games that you wouldn't necessarily admit to playing back then, because it wasn't for "hArDcoRe gAmeRz"  I do remember enjoying it at the time though.

[Fizzzzle]

2 hours ago, Nokra said:

I do remember playing it way back when (early 2000s). Funnily enough I recall it being one of those games that you wouldn't necessarily admit to playing back then, because it wasn't for "hArDcoRe gAmeRz"  I do remember enjoying it at the time though.

That still is the case

 

Any time something is popular with young females, it is customary for males to trash it entirely. Fun fact: Young women are basically the taste-makers of our entire culture. There's a common thread among internet nerds that whatever 19 year old girls like in terms of games/movies/music has no value, when in fact the things that 19 year old girls like pretty much always decides the direction of pop culture.

[Mr.Vic20]

Oddly, while I've never actually played a single Sims game, over the years I've enjoyed many a gaming article about various glitches, "projects", and other mad cap antics that have resulted because of the sims. So, uh, keep playing and thanks! 

[Derek]

I never spent much time with The Sims. I do recall playing one of them, for a short while, with a 'nude' patch installed, unless I'm thinking of another game. 

 

I was probably more into Sim City. Spent quite a bit of time with Sim City 2000 (or 3000?). 

[Biggie]

I’ve never played any Sims game ever

[XxEvil AshxX]

I used to love The Sims before they pulled out the ability to create your own content and decided to sell it to you in tiny overpriced packages instead. The Sims 2 was wonderful.

[Kamusha]

Not regularly, but sometimes. I played the fuck out of the first game back in the day - there was truly nothing else like it. These days I feel like I get most of my "life sim" fix from games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley.

[GameDadGrant]

Maaaaann…we are ALL playing The Sims. Because we are all sims and we are living in a computer simulation right now and people don’t even realize it…!!!

[Remarkableriots]

10 hours ago, Kamusha said:

Not regularly, but sometimes. I played the fuck out of the first game back in the day - there was truly nothing else like it. These days I feel like I get most of my "life sim" fix from games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley.

I think the same thing for Harvest Moon.

[best3444]

13 hours ago, Biggie said:

I’ve never played any Sims game ever

 

[BloodyHell]

Tried it as part of a free trial at one time. I quickly learned I had no interest in it.

[Fizzzzle]

On 5/5/2023 at 7:38 AM, Kamusha said:

Not regularly, but sometimes. I played the fuck out of the first game back in the day - there was truly nothing else like it. These days I feel like I get most of my "life sim" fix from games like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley.

I've played so much Stardew Valley that I think I honestly just can't get anything from it anymore. I've actually been trying to find something that's a substitute for it. especially if it leans into the fishing. Fishing was my absolute favorite part of Stardew Valley.

 

Of course I'm probably going to play the shit out of Haunted Chocolatier when it comes out.