I never tried any Sims game post 1 with expansions and the weird console "port" of the sims, I don't really know how anything could change between them and later ones that could be considered an improvement. The formula seems locked in nicely in the first game, anything else seems like preference/more shit to throw on top.
I dislike how disney/frozen the later games look, the way the characters express themselves have that unappealing look of disney movies, the sims 3 everyone looks like background 7th gen characters, and the sims 2 everyone looks like tony hawk npcs. The original is a nice silly middle ground between realistic/goofy that works great
Maybe I'm missing out but I never felt I needed any more sims after the first game.
I looked it up and The Sims was basically the first non-unfinished project under EA and the title was backed under "the promise of selling expansions"
Also >The Sims was released in February 2000 to widespread success, and would become one of Maxis' core focuses until a 2006 reorganisation shifted it away from their core team
That would pretty much explain what happened to Maxis post Sims 1
Will Wright, the lead designer and creator of the series, only worked on the first one. The rest are soulless EA garbage with the exception of some of the console versions, which are basically adventure games (Castaway on PS2 comes to mind).
No worries anon, it's a myth a lot of even die hard fans of the series still believe. But Sims 2 and Sims Online were absolutely passion projects of his, that eventually were supposed to merge into the same game, but 2 got stuck in development hell for a long while and they even lost some data to an office fire. I think Wright's ideal 2 would've had better online integration but he was still proud of it and was always intervewed as its creator. Things went off the rails after a few expansions as
Sims 2 is fine actually. It was after the first few expansions when things got weird ('Stuff' packs, Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, etc.)
said, when EA started blatantly targetting women and pushing the dollhouse aspect and making the game way too easy, but vanilla Sims 2 still has a lot of appeal imo
Maxis sold out to EA to fund Sims 1, only to be cannibalized years down the line like so many devs acquired by EA
He worked on the base game for Sims 2 and the first couple of expansions. I think having an extremely solid foundation saves Sims 2 as a whole but you can see a lot of the annoying shit that would plague Sims 3 get it start in the later packs that were released for 2.
More or less the same thing that happened to Animal Crossing later on: it began to cater to normalgay women overwhelmingly, and they by and large prefer virtual inoffensive dollhouses at the expense of depth and humor.
My sisters literally broke into my room to play Sims 1 on my PC back in the day. It was always popular with girls. If anything I think it's become more niche since most girls now just play random mobile or meme shit. And with the amount of DLC needed to play current Sims, you have to be pretty hardcore about it, though honestly a lot of the ones who still play are 40 year old cat women who started with 1 or 2.
Never said the first one wasn't popular with women, just that like
It was largely a response to who was playing the game and how. They realized the vast majority of the playerbase was using it as a virtual dollhouse and molded later games around that concept.
said, EA realized that not only were most players women, but that they mostly cared for the dollhouse aspects of it rather than the sim/strategy elements, so that's what they doubled down on and they casualized the shit out of it to maximize that appeal. Again, same shit happened to AC.
I mean, you can certainly make the case that certain things about the first Sims were janky or a bit unnecessarily difficult (the main complaints here being the pathing and needs system, possibly the AI as well), but IMO they overcorrected and made it so the game basically plays itself, though it makes sense if you consider again what the focus now is. If you ask me, the biggest casualty was the atmosphere and overall art direction. They just straight up didn't try all too hard in those fronts after the first game.
It was largely a response to who was playing the game and how. They realized the vast majority of the playerbase was using it as a virtual dollhouse and molded later games around that concept.
That reminds me, I used to use this app sometimes when I realized there is no "proper" Sims game for mobile. It's called Planner5D, it's almost like The Sims but without... the Sims lol
Never said the first one wasn't popular with women, just that like [...] said, EA realized that not only were most players women, but that they mostly cared for the dollhouse aspects of it rather than the sim/strategy elements, so that's what they doubled down on and they casualized the shit out of it to maximize that appeal. Again, same shit happened to AC.
You don't like Animal Crossing? I find that it retains a lot of the charm the first two Sims games had while doing its own thing
I think people's brains scramble them together because there was a Katy Perry cover in one of the Sims 2 expansions' radio, think it was I Kissed a Girl in simlish lol
Sims 2 was when Stuff Packs started, which weren't even expansions just new items that you paid real world money for. Now it's the entire model for the series.
I never tried any Sims game post 1 with expansions and the weird console "port" of the sims, I don't really know how anything could change between them and later ones that could be considered an improvement. The formula seems locked in nicely in the first game, anything else seems like preference/more shit to throw on top.
I dislike how disney/frozen the later games look, the way the characters express themselves have that unappealing look of disney movies, the sims 3 everyone looks like background 7th gen characters, and the sims 2 everyone looks like tony hawk npcs. The original is a nice silly middle ground between realistic/goofy that works great
Maybe I'm missing out but I never felt I needed any more sims after the first game.
I looked it up and The Sims was basically the first non-unfinished project under EA and the title was backed under "the promise of selling expansions"
Also
>The Sims was released in February 2000 to widespread success, and would become one of Maxis' core focuses until a 2006 reorganisation shifted it away from their core team
That would pretty much explain what happened to Maxis post Sims 1
Will Wright, the lead designer and creator of the series, only worked on the first one. The rest are soulless EA garbage with the exception of some of the console versions, which are basically adventure games (Castaway on PS2 comes to mind).
That's false, he worked heavily on 2 as well, there's plenty of videos on him doing press for it talking about the new additions and changes.
He legitimately had nothing to do with 3 onwards though, or the console ports, would've been busy with Spore and eventually out of Maxis entirely.
I'll admit that I was wrong and also a moron for going by the info on his wiki page.
No worries anon, it's a myth a lot of even die hard fans of the series still believe. But Sims 2 and Sims Online were absolutely passion projects of his, that eventually were supposed to merge into the same game, but 2 got stuck in development hell for a long while and they even lost some data to an office fire. I think Wright's ideal 2 would've had better online integration but he was still proud of it and was always intervewed as its creator. Things went off the rails after a few expansions as
said, when EA started blatantly targetting women and pushing the dollhouse aspect and making the game way too easy, but vanilla Sims 2 still has a lot of appeal imo
Maxis sold out to EA to fund Sims 1, only to be cannibalized years down the line like so many devs acquired by EA
He worked on the base game for Sims 2 and the first couple of expansions. I think having an extremely solid foundation saves Sims 2 as a whole but you can see a lot of the annoying shit that would plague Sims 3 get it start in the later packs that were released for 2.
>Why
Because isometric is soul and full 3D is soullless
More or less the same thing that happened to Animal Crossing later on: it began to cater to normalgay women overwhelmingly, and they by and large prefer virtual inoffensive dollhouses at the expense of depth and humor.
My sisters literally broke into my room to play Sims 1 on my PC back in the day. It was always popular with girls. If anything I think it's become more niche since most girls now just play random mobile or meme shit. And with the amount of DLC needed to play current Sims, you have to be pretty hardcore about it, though honestly a lot of the ones who still play are 40 year old cat women who started with 1 or 2.
Never said the first one wasn't popular with women, just that like
said, EA realized that not only were most players women, but that they mostly cared for the dollhouse aspects of it rather than the sim/strategy elements, so that's what they doubled down on and they casualized the shit out of it to maximize that appeal. Again, same shit happened to AC.
Looks like they were right about casualizing it because most of the player base finds it hard to go back to 1...
I mean, you can certainly make the case that certain things about the first Sims were janky or a bit unnecessarily difficult (the main complaints here being the pathing and needs system, possibly the AI as well), but IMO they overcorrected and made it so the game basically plays itself, though it makes sense if you consider again what the focus now is. If you ask me, the biggest casualty was the atmosphere and overall art direction. They just straight up didn't try all too hard in those fronts after the first game.
It was largely a response to who was playing the game and how. They realized the vast majority of the playerbase was using it as a virtual dollhouse and molded later games around that concept.
>virtual dollhouse
ive only ever played the first one and this is exactly what that one felt like too
That's because it was originally used for just architecture, they added the sims to it after they had that completed
That reminds me, I used to use this app sometimes when I realized there is no "proper" Sims game for mobile. It's called Planner5D, it's almost like The Sims but without... the Sims lol
You don't like Animal Crossing? I find that it retains a lot of the charm the first two Sims games had while doing its own thing
I love the first AC. Truthfully, I didn't play the DS one, but I played CF and it was utterly soulless, so I didn't try any more after that.
No more Will Wright. Like all maxis games they went to shit without him.
Sims 2 is fine actually. It was after the first few expansions when things got weird ('Stuff' packs, Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, etc.)
It doesn't really have a sense of style like the first game.
Katy Perry expansion was Sims 3, not the 2nd. I don't know why everyone keeps saying this
bots
Yeah that simmed a bit off
I think people's brains scramble them together because there was a Katy Perry cover in one of the Sims 2 expansions' radio, think it was I Kissed a Girl in simlish lol
It was Hot N Cold on the radio
The sex mods fix all the later games
Sims 2 had plenty of soul. Even Sims 3 had some soul left.
Sims 4 is when the soul died.
so they advertised sims 1 with a sister-on-sister incest threesome. interesting. no company would dare to do that nowadays (except porn producers)
Sims 2 was when Stuff Packs started, which weren't even expansions just new items that you paid real world money for. Now it's the entire model for the series.
well it's the charm of the time and 2d art.
the gameplay is too brutal though, it made me stressed almost
the friend requirements for career advancements sucked a big one
bro if u think sims 4 is soulless u need to see what black people have modded that game into
God I'm stupid