2024 was an eventful yr for The Sims 4, if solely as a result of we obtained affirmation that The Sims 5 isn’t coming. As a substitute, we’ve been promised a perpetual, live-service-esque model of the sport we’ve recognized and beloved for a decade. This yr, we additionally obtained a brand new death-themed growth, which is ironic seeing as all this stay service stuff is killing my love for the sport.
I’ve been a Sims fan lengthy sufficient to have seen the franchise at its worst. I’m an apologist for all of the unusual console spinoffs, together with The Urbz and The Sims 2 Castaway. I’ve been round lengthy sufficient to know that, when The Sims 4 got here out, it felt like a hole model of its former self, with its most detailed customization options gutted, seemingly within the identify of promoting (someway) much more expansions.
EA has by no means hidden its extra money-hungry habits. Oddly sufficient, although, the worst factor about this new period of always-online updates has been the freebies. In Could 2024, The Sims 4 launched the primary of a brand new collection of stay ‘events’. ‘Happy at Home’ rewarded you with free equipment, family objects, and even traits once you logged in persistently sufficient. Sounds neat, proper?
Bolstered by this primary run, The Sims 4 launched a second occasion to our digital dollhouses. Reaper’s Rewards was much more interactive than its predecessor, because it requested you to finish a collection of small duties to unlock some freebies. Catch some fish, plant just a few timber, and also you’ll earn some trad goth denims. Flirt with the Grim Reaper, and also you’ll unlock a brand new tattoo. You get the image.
For me, occasions like these are fully antithetical to how and why I play The Sims. The tip objective was at all times to create, to not receive.
I’m right here to design the charming indifferent three-bed of my desires and transfer in a Sim that appears precisely like me, solely with entry to infinite cash. I’m right here to hand-rear the proper cult chief from beginning, then watch his group collapse a number of generations later after they flip to vampirism. I’m right here to maximise the productiveness of an formidable center supervisor and see how shortly they will attain the highest stage of their enterprise profession if they’ve WooHoo each single day.
Within the Sims, I’m grasp of my very own area. I’m the storyteller, the artist, and the inside designer. I’ve whole energy over life and dying, happiness and despair. I’m all-powerful.
So you may think about my dismay when an outdoor power turned up and handed me a banal weekly guidelines to carry out.
After I performed with dolls as a baby, my mom didn’t lean over my shoulder and ask me to make these dolls do laundry. Nobody else had the precise to micromanage my non-public narratives – which is strictly what these latest occasions are doing.
Alright, lots of the advised quests have been menial. Stopping to ask a neighbor about Ambrosia or cooking one thing completely different for dinner wouldn’t disrupt the cinematic universe I painstakingly created. I might even select to disregard the sport’s requests.
Besides, if I did that, the sport by no means stopped reminding me. The guidelines completely lived within the top-left nook of the display, in the identical place the place in-game occasions like Love Day and Lottery Day normally seem. These seasonal actions will be closed should you don’t wish to participate, however this wasn’t a privilege that Reaper’s Rewards allowed. You can decrease the occasions field, however it by no means really went away – and it could re-open itself any time you switched management to a unique Sim.
The occasion proved much more disruptive by introducing new glitches to the sport. Many gamers who truly needed to interact with Reaper’s Rewards reported that it was extraordinarily buggy. You couldn’t full the quests in case your Sims existed on sure tons, for instance – which was by no means clearly communicated as a part of the occasion.
One Redditor shared an anecdote the place buyer help beneficial that they begin a completely new save in the event that they wish to take part with occasions like Reaper’s Rewards. That takes this new stay occasion from irritating micromanaging to totally dictating the way in which we play.
As somebody who selected to not interact with Reaper’s Rewards, I didn’t personally see its quite a few UI points. I did see a rise in minor bugs in the remainder of my recreation, nonetheless. Sims stretching to uncommon heights, floating infants, all types of minor oddities that shouldn’t be.
Reaper’s Rewards mercifully ended on November 19, just a few weeks after the Life and Demise growth pack was launched. Ultimately, I might benefit from the Sims 4’s macabre new taste at my very own tempo. I might dive deep into the effectively of Gothic inside design and discover new kooky profession paths, reminiscent of endeavor or working as a literal Grim Reaper.
That peace lasted for 2 weeks. On December 3, a brand new Christmas-themed occasion kicked off. A recent replace to the sport launched a brand new, unavoidable guidelines of festive busywork. Glitches as soon as once more started to rear their ugly head.
I’m not so aggrieved with these new occasions that I’ll cease enjoying the Sims 4 perpetually. I’ve spent 20 years of my life with the franchise, and it’ll take some critically heinous adjustments to sever that bond. Nonetheless, these occasions really feel like the primary rumbles of a storm but to come back.
Login bonuses and reward-driven goals reek of the FOMO-driven enterprise mannequin utilized by microtransaction-heavy free-to-play video games. The rewards stay free for now, however they may simply be the carrot that comes earlier than the stick.
I bear in mind the early 2000s, when every copy of The Sims got here with a code that meant it might solely be downloaded as soon as, stopping followers from shopping for copies second-hand. I’m totally conscious that the present iteration of The Sims expects you to pay over $1,000 if you wish to entry all obtainable expansions. I’ve a lot love for The Sims, however I’ve by no means beloved the way in which it’s monetized. I haven’t a lot religion that, in the long run, these occasions will pan out within the participant’s favor.
Whereas the Life and Demise growth might have introduced new life to The Sims 4’s enterprise mannequin, I’m involved it could possibly be the dying of my love for the sport. This Christmas, I’m asking Father Winter for the optimism I don’t presently really feel. Please, ensure that this new strategy gained’t be the change that pushes me over the sting.
