User blog:Woganhemlock/Monthly Question - May 2015

Hello again and welcome once again to this month's Monthly Question! Each month we'll be posting an opinion based question on The Sims series, and we want to hear your thoughts. Give us your opinions, ideas, complaints, or whatever else is on your mind, in relation to the question we'll ask everyone.

Additionally, we are also looking to recognize the best comments given by users; to that end, we are encouraging other users to award PlumbBobs to comments that are particularly positive for whatever reason. To give a PlumbBob to a comment, simply reply to the comment with PlumbBob.

For more in-depth information on how this feature works, or if you wish to suggest a future question, please go here!


 * This month's Question is:

'''Which is the expansion for every Sims game you enjoy the most? Would you like to see it in The Sims 4?'''

Thank you to Guguy00 for providing this month's question. As always if you have a suggestion for a future question, please leave them here.


 * Last month's Question

Last month we asked the community ''What do you think about the social media integration in the game, such as The Sims 4 and The Sims 3: Showtime? Should the feature be improved or scrapped entirely? Why?''. Below are the top responses:

Nikel23 - 6 PlumbBobs

I really love TS2, but there are some elements in TS3 that make me not want to go back to TS2.


 * 1) The skill system in TS3 is a major upgrade. You're not bound to 7 regular skills, and more skills are added in EPs! In TS2, it's so easy to maximize 7 skills, and after that, what else to do? Maximizing a skill in TS3 isn't the only goal, because there are many objectives of a skill, such as skill challenges, completing crafts, and many more. Plus, skills in TS3 have so many benefits. Handiness unlocks more upgrades, Fishing unlocks more fish, Gardening unlocks more plants, Writing unlocks more genres, etc.. Skills in TS2 don't have much impact other than increasing success rate or decreasing failure rate, such as preventing Sims from getting electrocuted while repairing electronics or losing a fight. The benefits are pretty standard.
 * 2) The career system in TS3 is much better (I'm not talking about the interactive TS3A professions)! Both series have your Sims vanish at somewhere we can't look, but at least in TS3 it actually has a physical workplace. TS3 careers also impact Sims' lives! If you work in Law Enforcement, you must write reports, earn police car, and able to apprehend burglars. If you work in Journalism, you must write reviews just like a real journalist! In TS2? What's so different between working in Adventurer and Military? Only the career rewards. And the career rewards aren't even that practical to be placed around the house.
 * 3) Story progression! Everyone ages together! In TS2, if I keep playing the same family, a whole 5 generations could be BFFs with the same kid from another family. Also, with SP, I no longer need to take care of families I don't care about. Let the system decide their fate. Of course many people prefer to take a full control of the neighborhood, but I think it's really handful and I prefer TS3 style.
 * 4) Other features that make me like TS3 more but I can live without are trait system (as opposed to personality system), moodlet system, and open world.

Mathetesalexandrou - 3 PlumbBobs

I'll choose TS3 over TS2 as a whole.

Where TS2 > TS3
 * 1) Customization: TS3 is the first Sims game that I've played seriously, and the customization level in TS3 allows for a very diverse choice of characters. While TS2 has its upside over TS3 (such as availability of chunky boots in contrast to TS3's plethora of high heels), TS2 just doesn't provide the level of customization that I want, which may be a byproduct of me being accustomed to TS3's CAS.
 * 2) Open World: This makes customizing existing neighborhoods (or making your own) all the more enjoyable, since it causes less inconvenience to enjoy the said modification to a neighborhood. I've done plenty of it in TS3, but haven't done it to TS4, although a lack of content so far may have played a part in it. Not only that, it also creates an incentive to make other sims to inhabit the neighborhood as well. Enough said.
 * 3) Robots/Craftables: I personally like me Plumbbots and Simbots more than Servos. Also, TS3's got boatloads of craftables (and TS2 has them as well, to be fair) and skills, but I personally like TS3's science, alchemy, and bot building (Invention before those) more so that I could say about TS2's robotics.


 * 1) Cheat objects and NPCs: Why can't TS3 get things like the insta-death machine or Mrs. Crumplebottom like TS2 gets?
 * 2) Default clothing/hairstyles: As mentioned above, I abhor high-heels with a passion, considering them a modern version of the Chinese foot-binding. Unfortunately, TS3's shoe department seems to be staffed by high-heel lovers, and my favorite shoes are usually CC (with some exceptions, such as the sandals) because high heels are WAY too dominant in TS3. I also don't recall ever using default hairstyle on my CAS ever since I got a plenty of them through web-surfing. TS2 on the other hand actually had default stuff that were actually good.
 * 3) The painful freezes: In TS3, Some games end up freezing that I have to manually exit out of it using task manager and lose all progress. That is horse manure, although it may have been caused by my improper usage of Sims3Pack installation.

All in all, some of TS2's proponents claim better storylines and characters, but that isn't a huge issue with me whose playstyle rarely involves the actual premade sims and more so about making storylines and characters. I'd say it is a playstyle difference. The fact that I chose TS3 over TS2 despite the said painful freezes kind of summarizes how much I value what TS3 had to offer.

As an aside, this month marks a little over one year since the introduction of this feature. I for one am pleased with the level of involvement that has been seen as a result, however, if you have any suggestions regarding how we could improve this feature, I'm always ready to hear them. Leave me a message if that is the case.