remember in Sims 2 when you pissed someone off they would come steal your newspaper or knock your trash can over. and of you didn't pay attention and pick the trash up you'd get roaches.... yeah. those were the days.

“Adding width without adding depth” was the best way to describe this.

when i played sims 4, i never saw any reason to leave my house. ever. when playing 2 and 3, there's actually incentive in leaving home.

I like how they put so much emphasis on the sims being ‘weird’ and ‘quirky’ yet this is one of the most blandest game out of the series

I really dislike the trait system in TS4, like 3 spots for traits? Seriously? What if I want my sim to be cat lover, dance machine vegetarian? Those 3 traits say almost nothing about sims personality. I miss traits like shy, stubborn, overemotional, proper, heavy sleeper etc and their actuall impact on the gameplay.

What I actually miss are the very, very small details - like in Sims 3 people who sleep turn around every now and then, and when they sleep in a double bed and are a couple they would randomly cuddle each other. It was really cute and gave it another layer of depth. Not just there, but such things happened everywhere but now? just gone.

I hate how they bug out everytime they eat and take 5 ingame hours to eat

Spouse died: Sad +4 Beautifully decorated: Happy +3 Needs Filled : Happy +2 Overall: Happy

The Sims 2 had the best relationship system: attractiveness traits, one-sided relationships, common interests, long and short term relationship bars, more and better interactions between sims. Sims felt more like real people back then :(

i used to play the sims 2 or the sims 3 for hours, for DAYS even. but now i play the sims 4 for a few hours and i get bored

my personal opinion is that sims 4 emphasizes aesthetics over game-play .. which is why builder sims make beautiful buildings and emphatically state that they rarely actually play the game.

How COME WHEN ONE OF MY SIMS IS IN THE FRIDGE THE OTHER SIM CANCELS THE ACTON. THEY WAITED IN THE SIMS 3 why CANT THEY WAIT NOW UGH

Sims 4 needs a GRAVEYARD so I can turn aging on for whole world and not worry about a sim dying off screen and leaving no gravestone.

Sims 1, 2, and 3 are games. Sims 4 is a product.

I remember when I only stopped playing TS3 after my eyes started hurting and would decide to let my eyes rest but not even five minutes after I’d be back at it again. I was addicted. And now I open TS4 look at the main menu, decide that it always gets boring and close it immediately.

I feel like emotions felt deeper in the Sims 2 even. Remember when something bad happened and your sim would think of it all the time and mention it in conversations as indicated by the speech bubbles...

Remember when in sims 2 if something bad happens you mostly get a memory of that bad thing? to remind you that happen and can affect the growing of your sims? Remember when in sims 3 if your kids don't grow good they get a random bad trait? Sims 4 is too perfect, anything bad happen "my dad died? who's care? the decoration in this room makes me feel playful" there's no real impact on the development of your sims, they act like anything happen, come on, sin sims 4 you cheat someone and yeah the one you cheated on dropped it's relationship with you but not the one you cheated (example: i tried to make eliza cheat on bob with my sims, but only eliza dropped her relationship with bob, my sim was still best friend with bob lol)

The fact that most of us can’t play the game without mods to enjoy it or make it more realistic, really makes it useless and unsatisfying to play

One thing messing up the game is the autonomy. Sims tend to have permanent ADHD and will not do anything for longer than a minute without moving on to something else. Another thing, sims can't eat a meal and chat without stopping to get up and hug the sim they start a conversation with and unless you are constantly feeding them things to say to the sim they're talking to, no friendship is gained.

The game is also missing lore Remember back in sims 2 where you would look in a family tree and see what went down with a family story? Maybe someones grave would be strangely placed and you would have to discover who killed them? Or the fact that the town stories used to be actually linked? Like people would be related but be seperate households? They need to make the sims have story again

I really miss sims 3 lifetime wishes like ‘gold digger’ - see the ghost of a dead spouse. So much more depth beyond even just the traits of the sim.

I forgot about the fears in TS2. Damn that’s such a simple addition that could add so much to the game...

I honestly miss having my house broken into. I loved those random events.

Reading these comments and seeing this video makes me feel like i’m less crazy for always being so bummed about the Sims 4 and constantly being nostalgic abt TS3. that game and the expansions, even though they were buggy, had me so immersed. It still had a funky little edge to it and felt relatable. The sims 4 is like, a brainwashed utopia version of sims and i’m really over it :(

I'd love one-sided relationships. For example; I have one of my sims that is supposed to be madly in love with her best friend but he's just not interested in something more than friendship. Right now that is impossible. She would try to romance him and he'll likely respond positively to her flirting. They'd both gain the romance relationship bar. Sigh...

As a simmer that is more of a family style player, the lack of affection and emotional connection is a huge struggle. All of my sims have elaborate backstories and personalities in my head that simply do not translate in the gameplay. I know it's possible because I've been playing since TS1 but it's completely not there. I agree with a lot said in the video that would help TS4 but I truly believe that at this point it won't happen. Something as simple as adding the attraction system, more traits, and wants and fears will go a long way. We need more individuality implemented because simply every sim is the same.

Normal people: Getting married Carl: *Achieving spouse*

I also feel like they need to look into bringing back the "going grocery shopping" aspect. It's frustrating having to buy seed packs and hoping you get the right ingredients.

The thing I miss the most is the relationships between pre-made sims. I was one of those players who loved pre-made sims and their lore and how every character had unique relationships with one another. But now the neighbours don't even know each other! What's worse, family members barely know each other! Every single relationship is the same and they're all decaying so fast! It's awful! Why should I be invested in characters if they're not invested in each other?

WE NEED MEMORIES. Right now whatever I do in Sims 4 it doesn't feel impactful.

Sims 3 really got it right. Shame they abandoned so much for “loading times.” 🙄 Yeah, it was long, but I could start it and then walk away and do stuff and then come back and play the game. Now, with all the packs and expansions to make Sims 4 somewhat fun, the loading time is back to being super long except now it’s in your face constantly while playing. So much so, that it takes away more gameplay because I don’t want to take my Sim places because it interrupts the game.

Sims 4 feels like a recreational drug, all flashy and fancy, but the game leaves you empty till the next dlc/hit where you think itll be better... Then it just keeps going. You can use flavours/mods, but it's still the same substance. The older sim games feels like good food in comparison. They feel sustaining and satisfying.

Needs hobbies, interests and better autonomy too... like this guy likes chess so he does that more than other things and is happy to talk about chess to people too, which annoys those that don't like chess at all, etc. Fluid and dynamic ways to make sure not all sims get along and natural friendships form by themselves. Right now you can do whatever you want with whoever you want and so every sim is just the same and the only difference is the way they look. The difference should be in the way they behave.

I really can't stand how relationships are handled in 4, you're able to have your sims address their most hated enemies the same way as their best friend or relatives or love interests, there's no nuance, nothing to actually differentiate different relationship statuses other than a label, not to mention any "unique" interactions between sims falling flat because they share animations and relationship impacts as other interactions. My sim shouldn't be happy talking to a sim they hate just because they're in a nicely decorated room, especially if that sim has just insulted their mother and thrown a drink in their face. The new aspirations are also quite disappointing in being just tutorials, the most egregious example being the "beach bum" aspiration from Island Living. Not only is it disgustingly easy, but the reward being a trait that already exists in game, meaning that my sims who already have the carefree trait get absolutely no benefit from completing it whatsoever. Sims 2 for me is the perfect example of a game that was as challenging as it was enjoyable, as keeping a sim's aspiration meter high was often a struggle. Even failing at that could be fun, as you saw your sims have full on breakdowns leading to them making out with mops or cradling flour-sack babies, showing exactly how your failure had impacted them and challenging you to turn their situation around completely, and there is nothing like this in 4, just the same happy sims in every save no matter what. This went the other way as well, where maxing a sim's aspiration meter had TONS of benefits to special items working better (or working at all) and even getting a special death animation and tombstone, making you feel as if you _actually accomplished something_ with that sim even after they were gone. Not to mention, the animations in 2 were varied, fluid and positively delightful. Little things like sims swooning as they walk past a sim they found attractive or kids jumping on couches and playing on the fridge door just added that much more to the game, whereas in 4 all we have are a bunch of recycled animations that just get old fast. Speaking of sim kids, again, compare the ones we had in 2, who had a multitude of games to play (tag, red hands, mary mack, etc.) and special animations like the aforementioned jumping on / around random things, to the ones we have in 4 who do basically nothing and have nothing to make playing them interesting or worthwhile. We were promised smarter sims and more interesting emotions in 4, but just look at 2, where memories, interests, and emotional states towards other sims like attraction or rage made them feel like fully fleshed out beings. Now look at 4, where a painting can make the difference between an unhappy sim and a happy one, and where a conversation between a standing and a sitting sim will inevitably turn into some demented game of musical chairs. The sims are decidedly at their dumbest in 4, which alongside watching the same animations run over and over and over again and getting the same lackluster rewards for just about everything means that the game as a whole gets stale pretty quickly, even with all the new additions, and these are the issues I believe most urgently need to be addressed, as they make the game dull on a core level.

Here's another small idea... When in CAS; Elders, Vampires and Mermaids have a tendency to do actions that are quite repetitive and irritating. Elders crick their backs, vampires hiss and mermaids laugh. Now it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't do it SO DAMN MUCH but I'm trying to work on making a good looking Vampire Female and she keeps doing this irritating hissing and it just gets annoying after the 15th time. Elders are the same since they constantly crick their backs and mermaids do this giggle (however, I can simply edit him or her outside of mermaid mode so it isn't so bad). I think that EA should lower the number of times that they hiss, crick their backs and laugh while editing in CAS.

I mean even in the sims 3, the trait "over emotional" boosted positive moodlets as well as boosted negative ones :P

I remember in TS2 when one sim was mad at another, they would be SO mad they didn't even want to look at that sim for quite a while. There would be a red filter on the offending sim's portrait in the relationship panel, and every time the sim that was mad got near the other, they would have flames coming up out of their head! Lol TS2 sims might not have had a fancy emotion system, but it was clear most of the time how they were feeling and what they wanted. Imagine how much less tumultuous the Pleasant household would have been if a couple of nice paintings could fix the problems between Lilith and Angela Pleasant. It would also have been boring as all get out.

If they just updated Sims 2 gameplay with Sims 4 graphics and include a color wheel, I'd play the heck out that game.

Idea for traits: there should be one mandatory “flaw” (like more fleshed our jealous, hates children, or clumsy traits), “quirk” (like never nude, vegetarian, childish, etc), and then 3 regular traits that impact Sims lives.

I'd love for the Sims to have more interactions with their babies like play mats or strollers. Even something simple like being able to hold a baby while cooking or watching tv

Relationships are what make me stick to building and not gameplay these days, where I used to the the opposite. I spend so much time setting up relationships and storylines that when I actually go to play, I’m over it. I know there are mods I could use, and I’m not against using them - but why can’t something already exist in the game to give relationships more depth?

I wish the sims would call family members by the respective "word". Like...mother, father, big sister etc instead of " hey Aboni! Heard you become good friends with doggy!"

The problem with The Sims 4 is that The Sims 2 and 3 came before it.

The thing i like about sims 3 is that the neighbourhood is so lively it's almost like a real life. For example, if i go to any comunity lot some people would talking to each other, some people are flirting, playing music, gadget and more. Not like sims 4 where the townies are just walking around back and forth doing nothing. Also, in sims 3, each expansion pack is somehow correspond to each other( for example the transfiguration mechanic from "world adventure" using spirit from "ambitions") and not just an additional thing added into the game :/

I totally agree. I’m TS2 and TS3, I would stick with a game/Sim for a long time. I would work at their life and wants, build a family, work on their career, etc. Relationships mattered. Things they did mattered. It was challenging and fun. TS4 is all flash. It’s beautiful. Graphics are amazing. CAS is awesome (other than the missing color wheel). But there are no real genetics. All the Sims end up the same. No depth at all. And there are no preset relationships either. Family members of EA Sims don’t even know each other. Neighbors don’t know each other. It’s sad. And my child and teenaged Sims meet the same Sims over and over at school. It feels to unreal. I hope that when designing Sims 5, EA actually goes back to the Sims 2 and 3 to get some ideas on how to make a game. I feel cheated with 4. Yes, I have all packs. It’s the only way to feel like there’s something new to do. But it’s a short termed feeling. Thank you for making this and all your other videos.

I like how you’re not only ranting but offering solutions. What also bothers me when it comes to emotions is that when someone they only talked to a few times dies it makes them as sad as when someone they’re close to like their mother dies.

I remember having a family in the Sims 3 and the grandfather died randomly and the whole family was devastated for weeks. And the grandson who had the best relationship with him would still hold out to his grave from time to time even when he became an adult and inherited the house. It's little things like that that make the gameplay so fun and realistic. Like actually reminiscing and having real emotional responses that impacted your game.

I miss how attempting to do a task you had no skill in would literally kill your sims. A sim with zero handiness skill should not be able to fix a tv

I miss: -,the small videos from TS2 when something big happened in the simmer’s life - memories from TS2 - The visit from the headmaster when wanting the kids to go to Private School

I totally agree. I wish the Sims had more emotion and feeling towards loved ones. Nobody in the household even really cares if there's a birthday. In my current household one of my child Sims has a global superstar grandfather and she can't seem to introduce herself to him because of it. He's literally in her house visiting his daughter, but doesn't know his grand daughter? That makes no sense to me. My Sims could seem to care less about interacting with their children, spouses and family members. I agree about having too much money too, it's too easy to earn money. The Sims in my current household are millionaires. They'll never spend that much money.

I would love to see the color wheel return (something EVERYONE wants) and more swimming pool interactions, like diving, holding breath contest, underwater kiss/woohoo, marco polo, etc.

I am a new player who never played the earlier versions, so I can't really compare, but even I have complains/ wishes for improved gameplay. I think a good way to see what needs to be changed is to lean back and let your Sim have an autonomous day. They should do things based on their traits, aspiration, careers, whims, their relationship to other Sims in the vicinity, and their needs. Currently, they seem to mostly act on their needs and if their needs are fine they either stand around for a long time or get a glass of water. Of course, if they would act on their whims they would buy a lot of bee boxes and musical instruments although they already own them... sigh. Not to mention all the bugs that result in actions that are repeated over and over (toddler care needs a major rework). My point is that creating your own story and micro-managing your Sim works reasonably well, but letting your Sim off the leash does not. That's a shame, because it could provide new impetus to a Sim's life story and make playing Sims 4 much more interesting.

Chemistry and Personalities is what I miss most. Also events that make the Sims exciting like burglars and npcs.

I think there should be a memory system, so if you lose a loved one it won't just be gone by the next day, it will forever be a part of the sim's history. Having occasional negative moodlets from remembering bad memories, or having fears from traumatic experiences, like a sim being unable to swim in a pool because they had a bad experience, something like that. Maybe if a sim got bad grades, they would get a negative moodlet from doing homework, and sims with good grades would get a good moodlet. Give actions some consequences that makes it more interesting to play.

I can imagine them finally deciding to add more depth to the emotions and traits (add in fears, and zodiac signs *please*) but making it an extra pack that you need to buy

The graphics are great, the game play is flat; everybody's the same, and there aren't any relationships that have depth.

Definitely the best I’ve heard the “shallowness” articulated. A+

*Aspirations should not be Tutorials* EXACTLY!

Everything about The Sims 4 feels like it was designed to be a good demo at a conference or something. All its core features are really able to be expressed in a 20 minute walk through.

Sims 2 has just got to be the best one . There was always so much going on and so many things to do that was unique to each sim depending on their personality which in turn affected their wants and fears and gave them lifetime wants. The memory system was cool . Heck that game even had the tiniest of details like hair movement . A sims 2 with open world would be perfect . And I love sims 3 but no damn teleporting into the cars again lol

What about babies they feel like items in build mode

We need hobbies, we need generations pack. I’m sick and tired of never being able to play any character that isn’t a young adult. And even that is boring as hell. Every pack is EMPTY, OVERPRICED. And then on top of that bugs that never ever get fixed.

They should take a look back at Sims2, that game had a lot of character.

The world is dead. No city no town. Its missing the big picture that the sims e open world had

I really miss the depth of a community from TS3, where other sims would make their own storylines, have kids on their own, make relationships. Open World will never be a thing in this game, but I really miss feeling like I'm a part of a big world, not that the world is a backdrop for my sims life.

If I had never played Sims 3, I just might like Sims 4 better than I do. In Sims 3 (I have over 7500 hours in that one and I'm not a builder), there was so much time, effort and thought put into the actions, reactions and animations of the Sims that just about the time I thought I had seen it all, the Sims would surprise me. They were highly entertaining and hilarious at times. Hidden animations that would appear just when you least expected it. It appears that in the Sims 4, there wasn't nearly the time and effort put into all the various actions and reactions that a Sim would and could have in any given situation. Take for instance the bowling animations from Sims 3 and Sims 4. In the beginning, they knew they were terrible and would feel pretty good about knocking over just a couple of pins. But as they progressed, they knew they could do better and those couple of pins would cause a small temper tantrum. And I certainly miss the victory dances when they got a strike. It was also a surprise to me that my Sim maxed bowling in two trips to the lanes. The personalities in the Sims 4 are so much different than those in Sims 3. Maybe it's because there are only 3 and as you said, they don't make much of a difference. In Sims 3, picking those traits was a major factor in creating a Sim. What you picked definitely played a factor in how your Sim acted. I had one Sim in Sims 3 that I created that seemed to have a mind of his own. He would do things that seemed calculating and intelligent. I have never had that experience with a Sim like that yet in Sims 4. I miss that spontaneity in Sims 4. The Sims don't make me laugh nearly as much and really have never taken me much by surprise. In fact, some of their responses are just predictable and lackluster. And then there's that whole standing/sitting thing you mentioned during conversations. So Annoying. And while we're on the subject of annoying... going for a drink when their hunger is green, washing their hands every chance they get, racing to a computer to "Browse Web" if they aren't washing their hands. And speaking of computers, where's the "Play Chess" option on video games? Do I really have to have a chess board in every house I live in? Which brings me to the packs. There are so many things in the Sims 3 that were given to us that we have to buy in Sims 4. What's up with that? The art style is a lot different. In Sims 3 each little leaf on the trees would shimmer in the wind, in Sims 4 whole parts of trees sway back and forth instead. I actually used the clocks on the walls to tell time instead of having to look down at the game clock because the clocks on the wall worked, but not in Sims 4. The shine on a Sims hair in the Sims 3 actually had a lot to do with the placement of light in the room. I DO like the CAS in Sims 4 and I DO like the faster loading times. In Sims 3, I could start the game, go off and make a sandwich, chat a bit with the roommate, let the dog out (and then back in again) and still have to wait for it to finish loading. What has made this game bearable are Mods. Sure I had Mods in the Sims 3 but I didn't rely on them as heavily as I do in the Sims 4 to make the game interesting. Call me old fashioned, but when one thing is replaced by another, I expect it to be better. I expected Sims 4 to be a cross, blend and the best of Sims 2/Sims 3 and maybe even Sims Medieval. If they want us to be interested in Sims 5, they need to do better than this.

Sims 4 was the first time I ever used mods to actually change the gameplay. I've added mods in the past for new things or to expand upon something in the game , like vampires and giving them more things they could do. Despite heavily modding Sims 4 I still only play it in bursts before going back to sims 3. Of course there is the common complaint of no open world, and I could live with that if the neighborhoods were a self contained mini world rather than me constantly having to wait for loading screens when going next door to hang out with my neighbor. Pretty much your video hit the nail on the head. There just isn't enough game play for me to stay interested past that burst.

My biggest continuing peeve is inventories. I would love to be able to organize inventories in some meaningful way so that I don't have to look so hard to find stuff. If we could have something like "folders" to put things in - or could even just organize household and personal inventories, by type, alphabetically, or something, so we can more easily and rapidly get to the specific thing we want to use. Dammit, I *know* I've got garlic in my inventory somewhere, but I can't FIND it! You know what I mean! :-)

When I play TS4, it reminds me too often that I'm just clicking buttons for animations and graphics. I miss the personal touches of TS2 mainly. How traits changed the way they walked (when your shy sims would just shuffle about like their in danger), and interacted with other sims/the world. Seeing their thought bubbles (like someone they dislike in flames lol) without it taking up an 'action/command' tile. Random sims stealing your newspaper. Leaving a flaming bag of dog poop at doors. Burglars!

“The sims 4 is literally a sandbox” sums up the whole thing

Oh, my new favorite bug is where the sims act as if they're hungry and continuously make food but never eat it.

This video is level-headed and obviously a lot of thought went into it. I also like your narration (Sims youtubers often tend to speak really fast for some reason?). 10 / 10 would commiserate again.

There's even an extremely basic element to the Sims that's missing from TS4. Thought bubbles. In TS3, thought bubbles containing an image would constantly appear over your Sim's head, signaling what that Sim was thinking about at that moment. Because we lack that system in TS4, it further contributes to Sims feeling the same because you can't tell what they're thinking.

Okay, I love The Sims 4, but most of all I miss the impactful individuality the Sims have in The Sims 2. I mean in that game Sims have... - aspirations (a lot more life-changing than the ones in TS4) - secondary aspirations (they go alongside the main aspiration!) - wants & fears that influenced their aspiration bar (which shows how they feel about their life at the moment!) - memories (you can always go back and see what happened in their lifes and sometimes they even think about those events!) - hobbies (they even have a "one true hobby"!) - a reputation system - interests (determining how well they can hold conversations with other Sims with a different set of interests!) - an influence bar (depending on how popular your Sim is, they can influence other people to do things!) - a great personality system instead of traits (personality could even slightly be altered by their older relatives while growing up!) - chemistry (based on your Sims' zodiac sign + 3 physical or mental traits they like or dislike in another Sim!) - while there aren't officially "emotions" in TS2, they would randomly cry and sigh quite a while after a Sims' death making them still feel more impactful than in TS4 There's so much that makes one Sim different from another. It's sad to see how in The Sims 4 there's so much less... And I know TS4 has a few of these things, but they feel a lot less impactful since everything is solved with traits and moodlets.

I love the wants and fears system from the sims 2...it adds depth....not to mention attraction....makes it a little harder to find someone for them to marry XD

I play the sims since Sims 1. I really miss the humour. Also I want to make a character and a story. I feel like in the sims 4 it is about completing tasks and it doesn't make much difference if I took care of my relationships. It feels like the team cares less then it used to be. I used to feel that the makers had fun developing the game, now it feels like it is about making money.

Other than what you mentioned, I really miss actual genetics. In the sims 2 there were recessive genes and it was so much fun. A kid could inherit the eye color from the grandparents, for example, and some features like a big nose or particular shapes could be inherited over multiple generations. I also miss unrequited relationships.

I miss the memories: good and bad...i also miss when the horoscopes were involved. I miss watching the babies grow from baby to toddler to kid to teen to young adult- adult- elder. I miss when all the task appearing at the top... sims 4 has gotten technically better but the heart of it isnt there

I want Sims 2 gameplay with Sims 4 emotion system and Sims 3 open world.

Is anyone going to talk about how irritating it is when sims use the bathroom sink to wash dishes instead of the kitchen sink??? like ITS COMMON SENSE

I went back to playing the sims 3 recentley and it made me realize how much I missed aspects of the game. Sims 4 has great UI and building. Its also easier to load and use mods. But the sims 3 was just more interesting to play and I miss that. When I loaded up my ts3 game a burglar stole my fridge and my witch sim caught a chair on fire. The spontaneity led to better gameplay. It seems like the sims team took a step back. I hope they learn from their mistakes if they make the sims 5.

What I found amazing is that gameplay SHOULD be the main feature of a game! Not gimmicks or graphics or number of objects! Thats why The Sims 4 is absolutely the worst of the series! #EAListen

I recently downloaded the island living pack when it was half off and I explored the new island for 10 minutes and was bored, but did get some cool clothes for my sims. That's about it

I think one of the core problems is exactly how sims interact with one another. As was said in the video, there's no lasting effects to anything you do; no sense of accomplishment for your sim or others around it. They have no focus; no particular goal, and the situations they find themselves in doesn't seems to affect them as much as it did in previous games. The issue, is the sense that everything is easily fixable for your sim. It shouldn't be like that.

I really miss the meaningful interactions we had in sims 3, like asking your partner’s parents for daughter/son’s hands, and having a positive moodlet about it

It's their formula for optimizing profit. It's like the execs just aren't fans of the game. They probably also do crappy market research. I mean, if some of the decision makers watched you and a couple other YT channels, they could vastly improve this within the next quarter.

i agree with all of the things you said!! it's honestly so upsetting that they've let this game go so downhill. i hope to god they don't make a sims 5 - especially not with all the issues we have now. *1.* ea is money hungry - tons of stuff they've asked us to pay for _should_ have been implemented into the base game in the first place (seasons, animals, laundry, etc.) i said this with sims 3 as well. we shouldn't have to pay for every day things like this when this game is literally a simulation game. *2.* i was able to play sims 2 & sims 3 w/o mods (bc i didn't know how to download them then,, but the point still stands) for HOURS every day but now if i even tried to play sims 4 w/o mods and cc,, i wouldn't last longer than ten mins without getting bored (seriously even with mods i still find myself getting bored) and this _shouldn't_ be an issue at all *3.* this ties into the first point, but the price difference for a sims 3 expansion pack and a sims 4 expansion pack are insane (example: sims 3 seasons cost $20 but sims 4 seasons costs $40... that's insane) *4.* i _hate_ that sims 4 isn't open world. i hate that my sim trying to visit her neighbor's house leads to a loading screen when you can literally see the house right next door.. IT'S ANNOYING *5.* i commend anyone who can play with the same family for a long period of time... i find myself growing bored of a family after a short period of time, i'm lucky if i can even make it to the third generation without wanting to make a new game. i didn't have that issue in ts2 and ts3. *6.* ts3 and ts2 were a challenge, they were fun and i enjoyed building their lives from scratch, and i didn't want to use cheats and mods to speed things up. that's not how it is for ts4. *7.* i miss the sims 2 wants and fears system, i think that was so great. *8.* i miss being able to choose favorite foods, favorite color, and the horoscope option they had in the sims 3. i loved how it felt like we could add more personality to our sims with this *9.* the careers, like you mentioned, can get so repetitive. i've noticed that the ones in get to work especially have been super repetitive. i still play them because it's one of the only things i still sort of enjoy about ts4 but the promotion requirements should not be so easy... most of the time doctors are only required to treat three sims to get promoted... i wish they had made the promotion and job tasks for challenging. i know complaining or stating my opinions won't make a damn difference because EA only cares about making money but i can't help but feel frustrated by watching the game i enjoyed *so much* as a kid go downhill. it's just sad.

The sims 2 memory system, photo albums, and cinematic videos for important moments in their lives was my favorite part of the game. There was so much depth and you could tell that the creators actually cared about what game they were releasing.

I forgot about whims and they turned them off and I didn't even notice. We need hobbies there is nothing to do this game as been out for five years I've done the same hobbies over and over. Everything is based off of emotions and its boring. All of the sims feel the same. I miss the favorites just little differences with the sims. Everything just feels too save and happy.

My issues: - traits don't matter or affect gameplay in any way - wants used to direct gameplay and were tied to traits. They also had more significant implications (I.e. non committal Sims wanting divorces or flirty Sims wanting multiple partners) - betrayals don't matter. You can cheat on a spouse and be back at 100% by the end of the day - children have nothing to do, no real family interaction I could go on... but it's honestly so exhausting.

I also don’t like how you can literally become friends with almost any Sim. I’d like to interact with a sim and have it be difficult to have a relationship with them

The main reason I play the Sims is to see my characters and my stories being played out in front of me, so please do not say that story makers are enjoying the game, at least not as a group. Many writers and story makers quit the Sims series or went back to the second or third games to do what they love. Sure, other groups have been falling off, but other than fancy camera options, the Sims 4 has not done much of anything for those wishing to flesh out a story in the game. The removal of traits as something of substance and also the poor sim AI are very real reasons why these types of players have grown frustrated and tired of the game. I think that modding should also be brought up when talking about a game such as this. No simmer wants to have to download mods just to fix their broken game and then go ahead and update the game and have to stop playing for a month just so the mods update again so the game will work. When Nraas started modding the Sims 3 we could count on their power to play the game through the bugs, but we could also trust the developers not to break every single aspect of how the game works from the AI to the UI to the loading screens when they came out with a pack or update. There were definitely a few times where the game did extinguish certain other aspects of mods but at the cost of new game play mechanics such as interactable oceans. What sims lack is a sense of originality and personality, just as you said. In my Sims 3 save I can look at all 200 of my sims in the six generations of the family, yes, even the twins and triplets, and the set of 8, and differentiate each and everyone of them even if by a single trait or phenotypic difference. They all stand out. Traits were a way of guiding players and establishing an understanding of a sim, but now they just act as a charade. I don't want a trait system that uses the happiness "meter" in the game as if they combined the traits and the happiness meter into one thing; I want the sims to seem different from each other, and I think that is what a lot of us want too.

Also I wonder why relaxing in bed was cut from the base game.

I would totally buy a “personality pack” with stronger emotions, longer lasting emotions, more traits and more times traits become relevant.

Late to the party but here are a few: * Moodlets - Negative ones should not decay at full speed while overwritten by positive ones. If my sim looses her spouse she should not "solve" her sadness with a cup of coffee and some nice decor boosts. Either I try to go on as normal with some speed loss from random sobbing and some interactions locked out or I use things like that cup of coffee to temporarily get into a happy state to deal with some specific thing knowing I'm delaying dealing with the sadness or I help my sim work through the sadness with the actions unlocked by being sad. I might invite a friend over for a good crying session or send my sim to talk to a therapist. * Traits - For the inevitable Sims 5 sometime in the future I wish they split the traits system into two. One focused on the emotions focused ones. Take a page out of the original Sims 1 and let me set my sims affinity for them like the characteristics in the first game on a scale of 0 to 10. Maybe I want the current level of angry favoring that Hotheaded gives today, that's a 7 (with non trait sims being at 3), or maybe I want a sim with real anger issues so I crank it up to 10. Then I go over to the other one with character traits that are personality based; things like Kleptomaniac or Vegetarian; or a new one to add a failure risk to a specific negative emotion. In my anger issues sim example I'd pick Angry for it and have a risk of instead of calming down, and reduce the timer on the angry moodlets, increase it as your sim telling my sim to calm down does not make her less angry it does in fact just make her more angry. Would let you pick one negative trait that a sim is unable to handle. I could have another sim with the same anger related character trait but the lowest possible Anger affinity but once he gets angry he does not let up for a sleeping giant archetype. Or I could pick Sad instead for a melancholic sim or Tense if I wanted to focus a playthrough on a sim dealing with work/life stress and balance. It would need the non/slow decaying moodlets to work but it would let players take an emotion and have it "go to 11". With different negative emotions working differently in what they lock out or open up it also opens up for more playthroughs and playstyles as a sim would deal with being overly Uncomfortable differently to how they'd have to deal with constant Boredom or an Embarrassment they keep digging deeper. * Relationships - Very on point. One thing that could be added to the game without having to wait for a sequel would be to give us a bunch of progression trees for relationship types. Special Someone - for sims who gain more from dates, interactions with boy/girl-friends and even more from spouses. Party Animal/Social Butterfly - for sims that gain more from meeting new people, more from performing group interactions for the first time (less than three or similar in hidden skills) and so on. Loner - for the sim that isn't a people person. Slower social decay, more gain from non-face to face interactions such as chatting online. Perhaps even unlocking socializing with inanimate objects like plants, beachballs or that perfectly crafted marble statue. Animal lover - Pets interaction focused. Caregiver - As above but for children, possibly teens. Don't want to call it child lover for obvious reasons. etc. etc. can easily be expanded around supernatural states or even activities and the clubs system for a tree that let's your sim give while in their element and just want to hang around with his Bros at the gym or having tea with the other club members of the murder mystery club. * Whims - I'd love to inject some personality choice to it and either let my sim be spontaneous with the current quick fire options for small rewards or a focused goal oriented sim that gets three choices, with two going away by discarding them or starting progression in one, similar to pre-work tasks based on traits, skills, mood etc (but not occupation as there is a system for that already). Giving me a day long tasklist that I can choose to perform for a mid size reward. Something in between the immediate current whims and the long term aspirations. * Money - What is needed isn't just more expensive items but more money sinks. At all levels. Let me buy a round for everyone in the bar to celebrate my promotion or flaunt my wealth or just to gain fame. Give me the option to improve my television by upgrading it by buying a cable or streaming service subscription and bump up my bills. Let my Geek sim subscribe to the Llama-man comic. Mechanically each issue could be the same or taken from a small pool of possible uses but all it really needs to do is iterate the issue number once per week and boom we have a new collectible. One day I might be able to buy that 50 000 simoleon pristine issue 1 copy too as a crown jewel to my collection. Cleaning service and the butler/maid are a good start when it comes to moneysinks but there needs to be more and ones that add either flavor or interactions. Let my sim bid on unknown storage containers, Storage Wars style, and get a bunch of garbage not worth what I had to bid against other sims but with a small chance of getting a more valueable item or furniture piece or even, at even lower odds, a career restricted item. Pretty much a lootbox fueled by ingame money only.

In the sims 3 I was interested in there wishes and moodlets because they where unique. Vampires got different moods from drinking out of different supernaturals for example. Getting friends took work, getting a promotion was actually meaningful.

One simple thing that I miss the Most was the "diary", that stored all milestones and happenstance in the sim life... like first kiss, first day of work etc... it was your sim memory and how he grew... life story is so empty now...

Sims 4 manages to spark my imagination and then kill it as soon as I start playing. I’ve tried and I’ve tried to become engrossed by the game like I was with sims 3, but I just can’t. The way the game is just makes it impossible.

The sims 3 has the best traits system (That I have seen). It has 5 categories of trait and there were plenty of traits in there, especially from the base game. Many of these traits effect social interactions, what they do with objects, what short term aspirations they get, and even effect how fast they learn skills.

I get bored so easily with the Sims 4. Sims 3 I've never had the same issue, in fact I just started a new family. I still have several families in Sims 3, one thats stranded on an island, another who went to university and now travels the world, a supernatural family who deals with all things odd and the newest one a simple farming family in Appaloosa Plains. The two games feel different, almost like they are two completely different games which should not be the case if Sims 4 is the next step and because of that I've been able to stick with it.