The Sims 4 Will Toy With Your Sims' Emotions

[StewShearerOld]

The Sims 4 Will Toy With Your Sims' Emotions


Maxis showed off The Sims 4's emotion based gameplay alongside new character and home customization options.

One of the trickiest parts of being a fan of The Sims franchise is figuring out just how substantial the changes made in new iterations really are, and if they're worth abandoning the features being left behind. After all, if you love your current Sims game, why would you leave it for one that potentially changes a mechanic you enjoy? Speaking at GamesCom today however, Maxis's Rachel Franklin tried to shed light on what new elements The Sims 4 will bring to the table and why fans should be excited for its arrival.

According to Franklin, The Sims 4 will feature "emotion-based gameplay." From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can affect them. In a sequence narrated by Franklin two male Sims, vying for the attention of a female Sim, are affected both by the player's guidance and their surroundings. The two male Sims are able to manipulate each others' emotional states through in-game actions, effecting how the female Sim responds to them. Similarly, the decor of the female Sim's house has an affect on their feelings. A suggestive painting of a woman riding a rocket, for instance, amplifies the chemistry between the female Sim and her chosen suitor, leading them from friendly flirting to...other stuff.

The presentation also showed off new character and home customization options that should greatly diversify how players craft their Sims and the buildings they live in. The Sims 4 will allow players to click on specific areas of a Sim's body that they can then precisely modify to their tastes. Likewise, home building is being made easier with new drag and drop options that will allow players to relocate rooms at will if they don't like the current layout of a building. Franklin's presentation was reiterated (pretty much verbatim) by a video released by Maxis following the presentation. The Sims 4 is set for release in 2014.

Source: <a href=http://kotaku.com/the-sims-4-will-let-you-manipulate-sims-emotions-1171560282>Kotaku


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[dragongit]

Because everyone loves to pay 300 dollars for a game and all it's DLC, right? We love it so much that EA does it again, and again.

 

[Megacherv]

Will the Sims always want to be using the internet, eh?

 

[josemlopes]

Making the character creation "just like playing with clay" isnt exactly the best idea as clay is hard as fuck to master.

As for the rest of the game everyone knows that as soon as you actually start playing its just as boring as ever since all everyone does is mumble shit and piss on the floor. Just give me direct control of a character and maybe a shotgun, that will probably make The Sims actually fun instead of just a very good architect game (because that part they have actually made it very good in all their games)

 

[MiskWisk]

I wonder if we will be able to do things like this [http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-the-mysteries-of-the-mind-with-the-sims-3/] because if so, I expect these to be the new big thing on youtube.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can effect them.

Since you're a professional writer and all, I thought you should know: 'affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

The first two things I noticed in the video? The first was the 'character design' was for the first chick and how the person showed it off by immediately altering her breast size. The second was the changing of a male sim's ass size and shape.

Stay classy EA and Maxis.

 

[kajinking]

Yeah...see you in 5 years when the pets and weather are back in AGAIN and hopefully old enough to not cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Yopaz]

From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can effect them.

Since you're a professional writer and all, I thought you should know: 'affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun.

Actually effect can be used as a verb and affect can be used as a noun. Affect is just the most common one and most likely the correct one to use. I would agree that it should be affect in this case, but your reasoning behind it is a little off.

 

[lacktheknack]

But can you change their height without ruining interactions?

As far as DLC goes, I'll stay with them if they continue to include substantial expansion packs (maybe with some actual sales as time goes on), but if they keep shifting towards individual items for a few cents, I'm sticking with Sims 3.

 

[StewShearerOld]

From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can effect them.

Since you're a professional writer and all, I thought you should know: 'affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun.

Actually effect can be used as a verb and affect can be used as a noun. Affect is just the most common one and most likely the correct one to use. I would agree that it should be affect in this case, but your reasoning behind it is a little off.

Thank you both for the correction.

 

[Josh123914]

Yeah...see you in 5 years when the pets and weather are back in AGAIN and hopefully old enough to not cost an arm and a leg.

Ah, but then you remember that this is EA publishing it, and by their distorted vision DLC never depreciates in value as it gets older because it was never a physical entity, and therefore they can justify selling it to you for $60 without any DLC 5 years down the line.

Last I checked that's what's happening with Dragon Age: Origins on Origin.

 

[Covarr]

Hey Maxis, you remember how online was a bad decision for SimCity? Well it would actually work very well in a The Sims game (as long as it's optional). Let people run shops downtown, let them sell custom items, let them advertise in the paper and hire new employees to work additional shifts (so the store can stay open more hours). There's a lot of potential here, if you are willing to try, as long as it isn't mandatory.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Roofstone]

As for the rest of the game everyone knows that as soon as you actually start playing its just as boring as ever

Really now? I had no idea. What I do now is that I have enjoyed every single sims so far, in fact I rather love them. ^^
Not everyone finds your boring to be "their" boring, my friend.

OT: Looking forward to this, new create-a-sim seems a bit hard to master, but looks rather fun and interesting. Also looking forward to seeing the emotion thing play out.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can effect them.

Since you're a professional writer and all, I thought you should know: 'affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun.

Actually effect can be used as a verb and affect can be used as a noun. Affect is just the most common one and most likely the correct one to use. I would agree that it should be affect in this case, but your reasoning behind it is a little off.

Well sure, you can "effect a change" or "display emotional affect", but that's just complicating the issue. IMO, both of those meanings sound very stuffy and prim and I'd avoid using them casually anyway.

 

[Clovus]

Yeah...see you in 5 years when the pets and weather are back in AGAIN and hopefully old enough to not cost an arm and a leg.

Ah, but then you remember that this is EA publishing it, and by their distorted vision DLC never depreciates in value as it gets older because it was never a physical entity, and therefore they can justify selling it to you for $60 without any DLC 5 years down the line.

Last I checked that's what's happening with Dragon Age: Origins on Origin.

Companies don't determine pricing based on what they can 'justify'. Otherwise they'd set new games prices to $100 because "games cost a lot to make". They base prices on what they feel the market will bare. The Sims has always been pricey, and the DLC stays pricey, because people buy a ton of it. The Sims basically has it's own totally weird niche market. It probably wouldn't make sense for EA to do big sales on it. I've always enjoyed The Sims base games, but I've never bought any expansions or DLC. The idea that I can't buy "The Sims 3 Complete" for like $10 is completely bonkers. But that probably indicates that they're continuing to see good sales numbers at the current pricing.

I've seen DA:O on very deep discounts for years. I'm pretty sure I've seen it on sale on Origin even. I could see EA's reasoning here to. Like, they're considering Origin their "big fan" storefront. People who really want the games and don't bother even looking around for sale. In the meantime, you can find a lot of the games available for cheap on various other services. So they're able to find those customers that way.

OT: I thought that character creater looked pretty awesome. It's about time they took a hint from Spore's creature creator (Spore was extremely flawed, but that creator is still one of the best ever). The gameplay did little for me though. When The Sims first came out, I liked the more "procedurally generated" feel of it. I want the Sims themselves to do crazy things and have weird personalities. I just want to play as a weird Greek God/decorator. But that gameplay was more aimed at the "dollhouse" type player. It just seemed like the player was pretty much directing everything. Graphically the game is definitely disappointing looking, but you can't blame EA for making sure this will run on the widest range of computers possible.

 

[Yopaz]

From what was shown during her presentation, this would seem to mean broadening the complexity of a Sim's emotions and what can effect them.

Since you're a professional writer and all, I thought you should know: 'affect' is a verb, 'effect' is a noun.

Actually effect can be used as a verb and affect can be used as a noun. Affect is just the most common one and most likely the correct one to use. I would agree that it should be affect in this case, but your reasoning behind it is a little off.

Well sure, you can "effect a change" or "display emotional affect", but that's just complicating the issue. IMO, both of those meanings sound very stuffy and prim and I'd avoid using them casually anyway.

No arguments there, I just thought your original statement was a little too simplified, but you're right that as a rule of the thumb we should make the verb/noun division. No need to complicate it when affect is likely the word we want to use in that way anyway.

 

[josemlopes]

As for the rest of the game everyone knows that as soon as you actually start playing its just as boring as ever

Really now? I had no idea. What I do now is that I have enjoyed every single sims so far, in fact I rather love them. ^^
Not everyone finds your boring to be "their" boring, my friend.

OT: Looking forward to this, new create-a-sim seems a bit hard to master, but looks rather fun and interesting. Also looking forward to seeing the emotion thing play out.

I guess I exagerated but its still well know that a lot of players (not all) mostly dig the house building stuff.

For me what bugs me is the lack of control of my characters and how all you is force them to do stuff (its like you are fighting against their will). Its like you create a path and they create theirs and instead of the result being a path in the middle you just jump around from one to the other.

I would much rather have direct control of a character and the others being themselfs.

But like you said some people like it the way it is but I would like to at least see that as an option of a gamemode where the character I choose has no automatic decisions.