I noticed from blogs and other discussion groups that most heavy Sims 2 players are hitting the wall and putting the game down the past week. This weekend I decided that after 80+ hours of game play that it was time to put the game down. I did all that I wanted to do. I was half way through my 5th generation.
A few thoughts. Maxis made the game easier and more addicting. There were a lot more “carrorts just out of reach” that kept me interested than in the first. However I do feel I did less in Sims 2. The Sims are easier to please and take care of themselves a bit too much. Out side of building the house, you have to tell a Sim to train children, order food, get a job, and to woohoo to make children. Thats pretty much it. Spent a lot of time watching. There was very little challange. In the Sims you had to stay on top of things, micromanage if you will, just to keep your sims from peeing themselves on a regular basies. The was challange, more meaty game play. The Sims 2 there was no challange. Sure there was more behavor and wacky laugh out loud things that would happen but I would get the feeling I was watching a screen saver at times.
Huh. That almost makes me want to buy the Sims 2. I hate, hate, hated the level of micromanagement needed in the first Sims.
The Mrs. has left it alone for a while (she’s abandoned most of her gaming because of a desire to finally finish that book…) mostly because she found the aspiration points and goals too repetitive and confining. She said that, though she enjoys the game a lot, the Sims were not different enough in their aspirations to make her suspend disbelief. All the family oriented Sims wanted the same things, all the wealth Sims the same things, etc. She never got the sense that these were “her” characters - at least not to the same extent that she did in the original.
Once she saw all the stages of life and varieties of personalities, she had no aching desire to go back.
Troy
You know thats on par of saying you hated the amount of shooting in Doom and hoped the next one has much less.
“The Mrs”, huh, Troy? Yeah, sure, okay, we’ll pretend we’re talking about your wife. I’m not ashamed to admit how much time I sank into The Sims 2. Okay, maybe I’m ashamed of how much time, but I’m not ashamed that I played it.
Having said that, I sorta hit a wall after a while, too. I was having a great time doing some Animal Crossing style character crossover with one of my buddies, but he went and married my main sim, so now I can’t play her without futzing around with his sim, which I have no desire to do because his sim is an asshole.
So I’ve been hanging fire waiting for third party content, but there doesn’t seem to be much beyond new eye shadow and blouses and crap like that.
-TomThe difference is in Sims 1 you have the expansions with pets, dating, parties, vacations… lots more content and downloads. It’ll be interesting to see how they add to Sims 2 with expansions… would like to see more goal oriented/scenario type gameplay…like the console versions.
etc
I like to think that I’m asking for less monster closets.
I had fun with the first Sims but only when I wasn’t making it pee, cook, clean the house and when it wasn’t at work. That was like 3/4 of the game though.
I had an equivalent but opposite problem. The wall I hit was of lack of things to do. I could spend time satisfying needs, achieving aspirations, pushing my Sims up the promotion/skills ladder, and building houses. Satisfying needs is boring if you manage it and nonexistent if your Sims manage it. Aspirations are far too easy. Promotions and skills are harder, but really only get you money to help with house-building. So at the end of my time in the game, I could only really entertain myself by building nice houses that my Sims couldn’t even move in to. When Evil Genius came along, it just swept Sims 2 right out of my gaming time.
I think its funny how people say they spend 80+ hours playing the game, but then they hit a wall and set the game aside.
What percent of your game purchases do you guys play 80+ hours? I’m betting its under 20%. If so, then more than 80% of the time you “hit a wall” before you did with Sims 2.
“Lack of content” isn’t true. Its more like “We wish there was more content to continue the fun”.
I must admit that setting Sims 2 aside (which occurred for me after maybe 120 hours of play, although I’ll go back to it a bit later) is more painful for me than most. This is a special game and ranks way up there among the greatest games I’ve played.
We Gerbils just have to eat the next food nugget given to us, which I guess will be the Urbs, coming this holiday season.
I’ve never bought an expansion pack to any game, and my policy will be well tested here.
Not to imply anything about the Urbz, but wait for reviews.
Agreed.
Wait till the expansion packs arrive people ! I bet the original pre-exp Sims didn’t last 80+ hours of play. :wink:
I think this quote from a blog sums up what is happening nicely
“More on trajectory, the beginning/middle/end of a story. Suppose you had a book that never ended. Would you say, “Great! I never have to buy another book again.” I’m guessing not. I’m guessing you’d get bored of that book. Whatever it is that makes that book what it is - the characters, themes, whatever - you’d get sick of eventually. And you’d stop reading. And you’d be a bit dissatisfied that the book never resolved. And your last impression of the book would be that it was boring. And that’s a problem with The Sims: at some point, you just lose interest”
Now to be fair, in similar games of the genre, I am sometimes hitting a 200 or 300 hour mark.
I think its funny how people say they spend 80+ hours playing the game, but then they hit a wall and set the game aside.
What percent of your game purchases do you guys play 80+ hours? I’m betting its under 20%. If so, then more than 80% of the time you “hit a wall” before you did with Sims 2.
Which invalidates the first statement how?
When I played Hearts of Iron for 80 hours, I stopped because I conquered the world. When I played Baldur’s Gate 2 for 80 hours, the wall that I hit was that whole “ending” thing.
It helps when games have some sort of natural ending point to wrap things up and disconnect you from the game. With The Sims 2, there’s no natural ending point, you just keep going and going and going and going and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
I actually did read such a book, or at least a series of them. It’s called The Wheel of Time, and written by a man who does not know how to fucking shut up. All of this guy’s guesses are correct. Anyone who’s read it can back me up on this point. And they all apply to The Sims 2.
The whole “simulation” aspect of the Sims pissed me off after a while. There should be some cheat where you can make needs decay really slowly to let the player concentrate on slappings and unwanted romantic advancements. Also Sims could do with a union; making barely enough a day to buy a horrible sofa might be realistic but I don’t want to work for a virtual month just to buy a shitty computer to see who hasn’t emailed.
Still I got my monies worth and it’s the sort of game you can rediscover all over again after lying a few months dormant.
The Wheel of Time series is the single most disappointing fantasy series in the history of writing.
The Sims 2 isn’t that bad.
:D
It seems to me that if you insist on comparing a sandbox toy to a book, you pretty much get what you deserve.
Me, I still like toys. I like books too. Some videogames are comparable to the first; some are comparable to the second.
The Sims has always been a toy. It’s a pretty good toy. Lousy book, sure, but I never screamed at my sandbox to have a goddamn point when I was a kid, either.
I haven’t read any Wheel of Time books, but that’s because the author was kind enough to warn me in advance by calling them “Wheel of Time”.
yeah, you gotta read between the lines on that series title. Where most people see Wheel of Time, I see “DUDE, I AM TRYING REALLY HARD TO COME UP WITH A COOL TITLE. I ALSO LIKE WHEELS.”
I was too young at the time to know any better.