Coming from my background with video games like Skyrim, the Sims 4 community sometimes seems just plain weird.
Like I just … I think the first time I really interacted with an online gaming community was probably Skyrim, because of modding. (For reference, Skyrim came out in 2011, Sims 4 came out in 2014.) Skyrim – and most Elder Scrolls/Fallout games in general – were kind of acknowledged as being a buggy mess by the community. The single most downloaded mod for Skyrim or it's predecessor, Oblivion, was the unofficial patch. Even though there were some updates to the game, it was generally acknowledged that most of the bugs would go unfixed, and it was up to the modding community to fix them. When DLC was released, no one expected much in terms of inter-pack play, and there weren't many (any?) updates to the base game to add content from the DLCs. Vanilla gameplay for Skyrim in 2011 is very, very similar to vanilla gameplay for Skyrim in 2022.
And let me point out, real quick, that Skyrim got a graphics overhaul and was re-released in 2016, and Skyrim VR came out in 2017, and in 2021 they released the Anniversary Edition, which included creation club features (essentially monetized mods greenlit by Bethesda) but otherwise went unchanged.
Now, Sims 4 came out in 2014, three years after Skyrim, and was … not great at launch. But since then, base game updates have gotten it to pretty much where it should have been at launch, with pools, toddlers, half walls, an additional world, landscaping, story progression, etc. They've also improved base game gender settings, added sexual orientation, and pronouns. They've improved their skintones and afro-textured hair. They've added new swatches to base game items. They've added new traits, lot traits, freelance careers, nail polish, new CAS and build/buy items, CAS story mode, challenges, and more.
And that's not counting any DLCs.
And yeah, a lot of these things haven't been perfect. But Skyrim literally had dragons flying backwards and mammoths falling from the sky. Bethesda does not have anything equivalent to SimGurus, who are willing to be the face of the company to the community. They don't have anything like Answer HQ, where bugs can be reported, to the best of my knowledge. The don't have anything like the Creator Network, where community members can review DLC before its release.
So it's just … so weird to me that people have so many issues with Sims 4, and act like the SimGurus are to blame for stuff that's obviously EA's fault (packs being rushed, not doing proper QA testing, pricing, splitting content up the way they have, etc). The Sims 4 isn't perfect, but I have a lot more faith in Maxis than I do for Bethesda, because Maxis has shown that they are willing to listen to the community. They are willing to improve the base game for free. They continue to work on fixing bugs and adding content.
Compared to Skyrim, that's amazing, and I don't think people really acknowledge that.
There is merit in criticism. Criticism is where a lot of these improvements came from – the community criticized, the developers listened, and the game was improved. I do not have an issue with criticism. I do, however, have issues with nihilism. I define nihilism, in this case, as when people imply that new base game features won't be expanded on (and say that ambiguous tweets such as SimGuru George's about adding cross-pack play is a definite "no" when it's actually a wishy-washy ambiguous not-promising-or-denying statement at best/worst), say that "the sims 4 could never [insert gameplay feature here]", imply newly introduced bugs won't ever be fixed, etc., etc. Nihilism (in my understanding, at least) is the philosophy that nothing will change so it's pointless to try, and if the Sims 4 devs are anything, they're adaptable and open to change.
Yes, the new Wants and Fears system is bare-bones and buggy. This won't last forever. The bare-bones state of it was due to it being a major gameplay feature overhaul, replacing whims with wants. They basically had to rip out the old system and replace it in time for the new pack to come out. Does it have as many features as whims had yet? No. But in my brief time playing the new update (I've been swamped with school stuff), I can see why they swapped to the new system. The wants seem to be more individualized for the sim, rather than the generic "buy a bee-box", "buy a pool", "become [emotion]". Now that the system is in place, it will be easier for them to add more. They have a huge list of whims they need to go through and decide whether it's a good whim which should be converted to the wants system, or something silly like buying a 1x1 pool. They didn't have time to do that before a pack was released that used the new system, so they had to release the system in it's current bare-bones state. That does not mean it will be that way forever.
Granted, it's possible that I'm wrong, and it will stay that way – but I don't think that's the case. It's only been, what, two days since the update? I'm going to wait and see what they do with the new system. It's a better (and imo healthier) attitude than thinking the way it is is the way it will always be, and an attitude that I believe Maxis has earned the right to.
