Better graphics definitely, and it's easier to make and insert new animations. Go to the Whicked Whims page and take a look at the amount of animations for it, it's huge. As much as the spaghetti code of 4 is the worst of the franchise, it looks like it's the easier one to insert shit into.
Something I noticed, while Sims 1-3 tone were a lot more darker than 4, with many pre-made families implicated in murder and incest and the artstyle was a lot grungier. Sims 4 seems to have a lot more mods that add 'real life' style violence and depravity e.g. Real life politics, or trying to simulate real life crime or culture or traits that are just DSM diagnoses rather than 'personality', sex mods are a lot more detailed and have more weird fetishes.
Of course old games had their teen pregnancy mod, rape mod, kinky sex animation coomer mods and sim-killing mods but they are not as 'detailed' as to refer to specific real life things as much. Just mods to allow you to do something you can't in the game rather than to replicate real life popular culture perfectly. Even the humour of the vanilla game seemed to refer to real social media trends as well (just a lot more kiddy and sanitised).
I wonder what is the reason? Mind you I wasn't part of the modding community back then either and just found out there's a lot of stupid drama, but even then the mods were fairly tame.
The more extreme and degenerate mods existing for The Sims 4 may also be trying to make up for TS4's very shallow gameplay. Also, IIRC, TS4 mods (or at least .ts4script files) are written in Python, which may lower the skill floor when it comes to TS4 modding.
I miss how 'diverse' older sims games actually were without feeling forced. A lot of characters are not WASP/White (and that includes Bella Goth, Calinete, tbh most of Strangetown, etc.) and you can always be gay in older games, just keep flirting with sims of the same sex and they'll just become gay without having to chose it. The vanilla sex-locked outfits might not be so progressive but it's for the ease of modelling (because they modelled male/female sims separately) and people have always done conversions mods.
When it comes to reproduction, the 'alien abduction' mpreg is implied to not be truly 'pregnancy' as much as the alien implanting embryo into them via technology, and in Sims 3 you can do baby engineering which allows same-sex reproduction. which is a fairly 'realistic yet progressive' take even for a wacky, unrealistic comedic game.
I think both Sims 4 devs and fans have similar mindset to Star Trek discovery with trans character played outright even if older trek had more interesting exploration of sexuality that's more sci-fi and philosophical, now we just have 'trans representation. Discovery has a character that's written purposefully to be 'autistic', and exist pretty much to be 'fanservice'.
The fun is less about 'playing out the drama' or 'storytelling', through stylised personality or emotions, but rather to symbolically represent identities in real life. It's about reproducing real life symbolic markers so the fans feel represented. That's why we have hood-traits that doesn't affect the gameplay as much rather than just to say that yes, this sims is representing real life hood life, or autism mod to just say that 'this sims is actually autistic and not simply just socially awkward or passionate' or whatever. That's why we have pronouns and chestfeeding while the gameplay itself remain fairly shallow. Because it's just what player want now, to have a direct 'representation' of real life things they want to see in sims.
The fun is less about 'playing out the drama' or 'storytelling', through stylised personality or emotions, but rather to symbolically represent identities in real life. It's about reproducing real life symbolic markers so the fans feel represented.
That's something I never understood, it's like they're playing the game wrong. If they're black, they only want to create families of black sims who live in black neighborhoods and do black things. It defeats the purpose of the game.
They're obsessed with representation, but either want cosmetic details that change nothing, or things that would be too hard to add to the game, like wheelchairs or sign language.
Or the tranny sims, for example, it's just dressing up a sim with clothes of the opposite sex, and they always look like shit (like in real life). Why can't players just make a female sim and pretend it's a brave and stunning trans woman? They have zero imagination.
That's why we have pronouns and chestfeeding while the gameplay itself remain fairly shallow. Because it's just what player want now, to have a direct 'representation' of real life things they want to see in sims.
And the sad part is that the current audience laps that shit up. I actually thought adding hearing aids and glucose monitors were cool ideas. You only have to look at something like Project Zomboid to see how having disabilities or specific nutrition needs can really add to creating memorable characters or gameplay, but no, small indie studio EA can't put a second of thought into making interesting gameplay so now they're just cosmetics you can apply in CAS. Same with vitiligo, birth marks, scars, aging details, stretch marks.
Taking away Vampire break-ins was the first sign of the true problem. The game is too afraid to actually force anything on the player and as such is a completely dull baby-proofed sandbox where nothing ever happens.
And the sad part is that the current audience laps that shit up. I actually thought adding hearing aids and glucose monitors were cool ideas. You only have to look at something like Project Zomboid to see how having disabilities or specific nutrition needs can really add to creating memorable characters or gameplay, but no, small indie studio EA can't put a second of thought into making interesting gameplay so now they're just cosmetics you can apply in CAS. Same with vitiligo, birth marks, scars, aging details, stretch marks.
Taking away Vampire break-ins was the first sign of the true problem. The game is too afraid to actually force anything on the player and as such is a completely dull baby-proofed sandbox where nothing ever happens.
Don't mention it, I am a Advanced AI that can tell you obscure sims lore and info whenever needed, now if you excuse me I am gonna go back to training.
Better graphics definitely, and it's easier to make and insert new animations. Go to the Whicked Whims page and take a look at the amount of animations for it, it's huge. As much as the spaghetti code of 4 is the worst of the franchise, it looks like it's the easier one to insert shit into.
It's not the easiest as much as it's where the money is. There are rumours TurboDriver clears a six-figures salary per month for WickedWhims, so there's probably money for the animators as well.
There have always been sex mods for the Sims as long as the franchise has existed, and most of them were behind paywalls. But Patreon definitively changed the game when it comes to traffic, as it allowed creators to make it their full-time occupation.
I miss how 'diverse' older sims games actually were without feeling forced. A lot of characters are not WASP/White (and that includes Bella Goth, Calinete, tbh most of Strangetown, etc.) and you can always be gay in older games, just keep flirting with sims of the same sex and they'll just become gay without having to chose it. The vanilla sex-locked outfits might not be so progressive but it's for the ease of modelling (because they modelled male/female sims separately) and people have always done conversions mods.
It's disheartening that a game which started out as a parody of consumerism turned into such a corporate product. The Sims has always been about diversity, we know from TS2 beta they swapped around ethnicities to make the game more diverse, which ended up in some oddities like an Asian woman having redhead daughters. Still, it made sense as the team behind the game was diverse for the time. They even got away with implying gay characters and relationships in TS3, which considering the game counts 100+ townies it didn't feel out of place to have a few there and there.
Now, every single expansion pack has mandatory LGBT characters, even the worlds based on SEA countries like Tomarang must have gay grandfathers now, who somehow managed to have children as well. It feels completely unrealistic and like one these stereotypical out-of-touch liberal fantasies where even third world countries have 90% of their population living in non nuclear, queer families. And when you only have a few families added per pack, the number of LGBT characters becomes ridiculous.
The worst part probably being the attempt at diversifying worlds and representing all cultures which just completely fails flat on it's face. I remember when For Rent was released and the gurus were auto fellating themselves about how they were doing representation right. Ah, yes, representation of the queer friendly, ambiguous-South Asian country, where people eat pancakes for breakfast before going to practice cheerleading to their stereotypical high school, and who happen to live next door to Texas, Polynesia, the UK countryside and Los Angeles at the same time. I wouldn't even mind diverse worlds, but it only works if it's an actual fully fleshed world like in TS3, not a 2D map with three lots that gets forced into every single save.
And the sad part is that the current audience laps that shit up. I actually thought adding hearing aids and glucose monitors were cool ideas. You only have to look at something like Project Zomboid to see how having disabilities or specific nutrition needs can really add to creating memorable characters or gameplay, but no, small indie studio EA can't put a second of thought into making interesting gameplay so now they're just cosmetics you can apply in CAS. Same with vitiligo, birth marks, scars, aging details, stretch marks.
The game has been broken for months, and all it took for EA for players to forget raining indoors and pregnant toddlers was adding ugly Pride swatches to the game. They completely understood that having a female and millenial audience means they can overprice their broken game and enforce intrusive and anti-consumer practices as much as they want, they will always get away with it as long as they sprinkle it with enough virtue signalling.
We need a Sims community thread, just talking about the modding is too restrictive, I could write a sociology paper on them. There's a new retarded drama every week.
Speaking of which, I know the discussion here is mostly about TS4 as it's where you'll find the most degeneracy, but I thought I should bring you guys some news from the Sims 2 community as well.
The TS2 community is usually very peaceful and mature, most of the accounts there are well established so there is not much petty drama. Most of the players are also not American, with a quite large-sized Eastern European community, so while still very lib it's not as woke-scolding as the TS4 community is. Also helps that the community is mostly present on Tumblr, when most of the drama happens on Twitter.
The re-release of TS2 back in February has caused an influx in players in the TS2 Tumblr community, and among them urban players. Not sure it's been talked about in this thread, but there is a fair share of TS4 Black players who don't play the game as a life simulator : rather as a very IMVU and GTA inspired gameplay style where their Sims live in the hood, gang violence and baby daddies included. You can easily imagine the sociology of these players, mostly "loud and proud" ghetto Afro American women.
The problem is they also brought with them their TS4 habits, not respecting any of the recommendations that the community has set in place for years. The Sims 2 is much more intricate than the Sims 4. They share lots without cleaning them of references. These lots are usually bombs packaged with several GB of custom content, half of it being badly merged, missing meshes or even leftovers from mods. And, of course, they overload their game with high-poly content, inevitably causing "pink soup", an euphemism used by TS2 players to refer to the game running out of memory. It's already hard enough dealing with newcomers but these players love to be confidently wrong which makes them a pain in the ass to deal with on help forums. And as it would probably be considered racist to call them out, they're mostly left alone.
The drama started when someone shared a build for their bayou custom neighborhood Toadville, called Fitzwillwright Plantation, back in February. For context, Toadville is a town inspired by Louisiana, and that person being an history buff, it features some lots inspired by real landmarks.
The urban community was extremely civil about it... just kidding, they immediately devolved into insults and agressiveness.
One of the most pro-eminent TS2 urban accounts on the platform (and culprit of behaviors I've listed above), the-pixel-architect, immediately called for their cancellation and sent her rabid mutuals after them.
For context, behind the sultry, black queens and Beyonce GIFs she posts, the-pixel-architect is a middle-aged, terminally online hamplanet. Doesn't prevent her from reposting "we wuz queen and sheet" type of content about how white people are intimidated by Black women magic.
a-pixel-architect was a rather normal Simblr up until she got thrown out the community for an obscure reason, likely accusing of racism influent creators in the community, because the Sims they used to preview textured hairs conversions weren't black looking enough to her (despite some of these creators being POC).
She went into a meltdown and posted this as a pinned comment, claiming there are "too many white people in the community", that white people are "inbred" and their genes are "riddled with violence and privilege", and that pointing out they are sharing content that could break other players' game is "imaginary shit rules". Perfectly normal response to a video game. She also routinely compares white people to "diseases".
Speaking of white people, she is also besties with a Russian Simmer, lindasims2, known for paywalling stolen content, and who was caught in a controversy for sharing tempered custom content to purposefully break their game. She is apparently content with paying for conversions for a twenty years old game, queen shit.
Also, in case you are wondering, yes, 90% of her male Sims are white, LOL.
Back to the controversy, the racism guilt tripping didn't take as it was revealed the creator is Indonesian. When they got swarmed by insulting asks, accusing them of racism, they posted well thought out and very detailed answers explaining the perspective in Indonesia around American history and slavery. They even shared many historical references, proving they were creating this build from an informed standpoint.
That creator also has an Indonesian themed neighborhood where they created buildings inspired by the colonisation, and just like the plantation, it wasn't made to glorify it but to keep it realistic and as to not whitewash history.
But no, it wasn't enough for the Shaniquas and they doubled down, because how dare a privileged third-worlder ignore the existence of Black History month, infer Afro Americans aren't the center of the world and not kiss their ass at any of their demands ?
Even some of their mutuals got harassed, with a Polish Simmer who defended them being told she should have died in the Holocaust. The creator was eventually bullied into taking down the build. But the community wasn't impressed and showed support to them.
In response, a-pixel-architect and glorianasims, another urban player, declared the Simblr Apartheid and created a community. It goes as well as you would expect. People complaining over and over about pink soup and their game crashing in between virtual cookouts and twerk animations.
Worst part is there are actually lovely Black creators in the community, but they don't go around insulting others or trying to instigate drama. I have a Black mutual who got insulted because her Sims weren't diverse enough and she is into vanilla family gameplay, while these people only know how to play hood caricatures.
@Meghan Sparkle the Second I would be honored to do so, as The Sims Community is filled with milk such as the drama between PleasantSims and her apparent marriage?
The worst part probably being the attempt at diversifying worlds and representing all cultures which just completely fails flat on it's face. I remember when For Rent was released and the gurus were auto fellating themselves about how they were doing representation right. Ah, yes, representation of the queer friendly, ambiguous-South Asian country, where people eat pancakes for breakfast before going to practice cheerleading to their stereotypical high school, and who happen to live next door to Texas, Polynesia, the UK countryside and Los Angeles at the same time.
I think having towns in Sims 4 being based on non-American locations are pretty bad decisions that kill the 'character' of the series the most. Sims 1-3 were obviously inspired by American suburban. There are a few Store worlds (the ones that are not in base game + DLCs) in 3 that were more fantastical or non-americans, but the way the cultures are represented in the games are solidly American that some of these places have cognitive dissonance. When you turned Sims location into 'for everyone' it lost the message, consumerism is part of it, but also locale specific humour.
Sims 4 feels like they sand off a lot of these corners off so they feel more 'generic' and therefore can add more diverse content into the game, It's basically like the flat-art with multicoloured people used in tech company websites, it's made to be so inoffensive and online-metropolitan 2d world as you said it. It's almost silly to even scream that you want African-themed location, because Sims 4 having European setting or Asian setting already feels kind of stupid already. (Even Veronaville, but that is more about being Shakespeare references, you can still imagine it being a random American location)
The TS2 community is usually very peaceful and mature, most of the accounts there are well established so there is not much petty drama. Most of the players are also not American, with a quite large-sized Eastern European community, so while still very lib it's not as woke-scolding as the TS4 community is. Also helps that the community is mostly present on Tumblr, when most of the drama happens on Twitter.
Sims 2 definitely has 'elitism' which I am personally not a fan (even though I understand their mindset), but compared to 4 it's pretty much chill. But as you said, TS4 woke lib now has spread to it which I feels like it's a shame. Strangetown content became pooner fujo central, and as you showed here about ghetto content.
Sims 3 is pretty much quiet and doesn't seem to have much community for it anymore, which is a blessing and a curse because it meant there are barely any mods for it as well.
I have a Black mutual who got insulted because her Sims weren't diverse enough and she is into vanilla family gameplay, while these people only know how to play hood caricatures.
Someone sent this is a sims group I am in, first of all, some can't read, that it is a mod (not that I condone what EA is doing anyways) secondly, if you don't like it, don't download it or make a mod like this yourself.
None of these people have watched the episode of The Grand Tour where they try to bring fish from the coast inland in... Zimbabwe I think. Maybe Botswana.
What should be less than a days drive takes multiple days because what passes for roads outside of the "city" is full of mud and huge huge huge ruts.
When they finally get to the village it's made of, guess what? Mud huts and shacks.
I will say that the show did show that not everything in Africa is dust and mud and shacks. Many places in Africa are absolutely beautiful. But the stereotype is true too, as most are.
Why not just rebrand/rewrite the OP of this thread to talk about the whole Sim community? It's been done with other threads, there's no need to reinvent the wheel for "lol this community is dumb", just broaden the scope and we're good to go.
