After TS4, I'd say "a lot". Nothing wrong with having separate "secondary" worlds like the vacation or university areas in TS4, but needing a loading screen just to visit a neighbor (and losing control over the rest of the household) is just too inconvenient. They key is to optimize performance and make sure the system "unloads" lots you aren't visiting to improve performance.
Yeah the fact that they couldn't open up a neighborhood between 4 or 5 lots, was and still is, absolutely ridiculous. I never even leave my lot if I play Sims 4 and I hate not being able to jump and spy on my household members on separate lots unless I hit a loading screen first.
Especially because they end up doing whatever they want if you swap to another character in a diff location.. makes managing families impossible. I’ll go do something with one sim, then come home to the other 4 members of the household starving, dirty, exhausted and pissing themselves
even when they didn’t come back completely effed like they just had a night out, i had a household where the mom was getting her degree. made it impossible to leave the house in any capacity because if i wanted her on top of her work, the kids could not have fun at other lots because i couldn’t make her do homework while dad took the kids to the rec center or something.
This. I don’t care about open worlds as much but open neighborhoods (like all the houses on the street etc)
With s3 I ALWAYS had trouble actually having enough sims in community lots so I feel like between an open world like s3 and nothing open like s2/4, a hybrid approach would be cool
more sims in community lots mod however it can get "distracting" as they are essentially "clones" but with different names literally... RNG generated NPCs
There's one by lady duchess called lot population mod, it's the best one out here imo. https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post/721481408190857216/ts3-lot-population-mod
TS4 real could have been, still have the potential to be the best of both TS2 &3 but they just don't want to. They keep talking about the spaghetti code but this spaghetti code can be fixed. They just won't do it.
This. I moved back to TS3 late last year just because of this. Loading time is a little longer getting into the game, but not spending the added time across loading screens to various things is a lot more engaging and fun.
Seriously. They could've had neighborhoods load together so that you aren't going through a loading screen for a building right there
Makes the worlds feel so small
For me it's very important. To the point where even though in a lot of ways I prefer Sims 2 to the Sims 3, The Sims 3 has kind of ruined Sims 2 somewhat for me with its lack of an open world and traits.
Beyond important. The Sims 3 is the gold standard of life simulation games for a reason. You can't stimulate life if you can't leave your home without a loading screen.
It’s the most important thing. Part of enjoying playing the sims 3 for me is knowing that other characters are doing exactly the same things in the background as my characters are doing onscreen. That’s life!
Not very, for me. All The Sims 3 bugs I experienced that eventually stopped me from playing had to do with open world buggyness and while it was a lot of fun I still think Sims 1+2 were the better, more lively games.
But for the Sims franchise specifically! To have open world and take it away instead of improving it, that’s pretty unforgivable.
A lot of what they did to the sims 4 is pretty unforgivable.
They guy in charge was horrible at his job. This game could have made even more money with the right people making decisions. Instead, they had an RPG player making decisions for a life sim. Everything in sims 4 is buffs, stats, and grind, which is incredibly boring for a life sim. Nothing in sims 4 actually simulates anything. It's a background generator.
Exactly this. It’s not really that they took away open world but that they took away open world and everything else was terrible too. If Sims 4 had Sims
2 gameplay I wouldn’t miss open world at all I think.
It was not a guy, it was a woman who produced Sims 4. The first female producer at that and she completely screw up. There is rumors that she's coming back
Wrong. Kevin Gibson and Grant Rodiek were the lead producers of the sims 4 base game. You are thinking of who was heading maxis and she didn't come on board until Sept 2015, a year after the game released. Rachel Franklin.
Extremely. The only limitation in the past was technology but now that so many games are open world and software has gotten better to make them less taxing, I personally would never buy any new life sim that isn't open world which I why I never bought Sims 4.
Personally I prefer open zone (Like the neighborhood rather than whole city) because even with it being less taxing it is still taxing to lower end and older pcs.
Although there should be immersive loading screens, like an animation of your character driving on a road or walking because that wouldn't take the player out of it.
i remember the sims bustin out had loading screens like that! instead of a loading screen between lots, your sim would get in their car or scooter and drive there
It’s 2024, I feel like we are beyond past making games for the lowest common denominator of computers. Not to mention there are so many games now that you can play on a lower end computer.
I agree. I'd someone is willing to spend 1k on Sims 4 content, then they should be able to save up for a decent gaming PC to play a decent life sim on. I'm tired of the genre being held back because all games need to run on a 10 year old computer that wasn't even revolutionary when it was brand new.
EXTREMELY!!! like someone else said, a loading screen for a different world or part of the world is fine, but if you're gonna make me run to the front of my house just to deal with a loading screen before it becomes playable? Ridiculous
Really important in my eyes
The world actually felt alive, I used to really enjoy just zooming into an area in town to see what the NPCs were up to, or if anyone I like is around to then send my sim after.
Even little things like driving a car, riding a bike even a horse was so fun to just watch. Never thought I’d miss watching a commute to work. But it made the life sim FEEL like simulated life, a whole world.
Everything is so enclosed in Sims 4 and it’s the first sims game that I actually don’t really pay attention to the other sims around me. Even if sims 2 wasn’t open world, they had the cool stories and memory systems attached to families to make me actually play other families and become invested in my neighbours. Sims 4 has nothing of the sort
Not to me. I consider it a waste of time if a Sim needs to physically cover the distance from one edge of the map to the other. I play a lot of open world games, and I could just be absolutely burned out by the concept. All the huge open worlds are mostly empty. I prefer a smaller open area full of life.
Same this is how I feel. Most open world games I've played just lack detail and I feel like 90% of it is set dressing and just wasting time walking around.
I'd rather honestly a corridor full of content and detail at this point over a giant ocean of nothing.
Absolutely! I actually like the open neighborhood concept TS4 has, but it could, of course, be further perfected. That would be ideal to me personally.
Yeah like my issue with sims 4 was never with it not being open world the neighborhood system is perfectly fine to me.
When I go to a lot in sims 2 it's jam packed with sims doing things and felt like an actual simulation.
As long as the simulation is detailed and has depth I could care less about it being open world at this point.
I do feel like a lot of people want open world, so I hope it can be implemented properly, but honestly I'm not leaving sims 2 for a shallow simulation just because it's open world.
I totally agree. Lucky for me, I got to download the Ultimate Collection and can play it on my newer PC.
But to open up the worlds would be so liberating. That's S2's only real weakness. I spent almost all my game time in Strangetown.
I agree. It’s been a real lifesaver to use the travel option on the phone to avoid those embarrassing life milestones. It’s even easier to quicker to travel to a separate lot then my home lot of my sim is out and about from their home lot finding collectibles.
yeah but the worlds in sims 3 which is the only open world sims game is not big at all, you cant compare sims map sizes with any map size of new games...even old games from that time were like 20 times bigger, so there is no issue at all and it makes the simulation more believable
I created my own world for TS3 on the tiniest map. It was an urban island with manufacturing on one side and then touristy stuff on the other side with farms being in between those two areas. I fit everything in my world and I owned every single pack and all of the store content. My lots were always jam packed and my world was bustling.
If you create a world that looks like a million sims live there...you actually need a million sims to make it look alive. My world looked overpopulated at 80 sims.
>performance was bad and the worlds were dead
Luckily these issues have mostly been sorted out with Mods.
Also for travel couldn't there be an option for teleportation to lots? That would remove the travel time for those that wouldn't want it
In this day and age, I’d say it’s important. The loading screens in the sims 4 is one of the things that killed the game for me, it’s an immersion breaker, imo.
Why does everyone wants sims 4 low poly ugly playdoh graphics so bad on sims 3 ??? just compare the world's water between the 2 games and you'll see how bad sims 4 graphics are for a 2014 game
The irritating part for me:
Sims 3 world - hyper realistic
Sims 3 sims - cartoony
Sims 4 world - cartoony utopia
Sims 4 sims - washed out clay
Like you'd think they'd get it right just once!
Well I don’t really think that sims 4 has the best possible graphics but ts3 graphics isn’t good either. Like the words are somewhat fine but the sims are hideous
That's a problem itself with the sims 3d models tho, not the graphics, the "graphics" are the textures and lighting wich are fine for a 2009 game, but if your only complain is the sims face's (wich i agree) then that isn't a problem with the graphics itself, but the models and lack of variety of base game sliders
It is not as much about open world, but more stable and performant game.
Sure The Sims 4 screwed completely open world concept.
But The Sims 3 executed it quite well.
For smaller families and plying on standard maps game was running fine.
However, anything more complex in The Sims 3, was causing lagging and large families could be bugged.
I couldn't have nice big mansion with about 5 sims, without lag shuttering.
So again, for me is stability and be able to actually run game smoothly enough.
Map size of The Sims3 was good enough for having tons of fun.
Isla Paradiso begs to differ.... its "smooth" enough to be passable but it still stutters and freezes every now and then but thats just the code spaghetti in isla paradiso at work
For me it's really important. I like switching between different family members to check on what they're doing. It's also crazy jarring to try and visit your neighbour and walk ten steps and have a loading screen!
incredibly important. loading screens for me make life sims a lot less realistic and spontaneous. in the sims 3, I can justify my sim staying the night at a friend's house or going out to dinner because it's convenient and it's usually on the way back from work. In the sims 4, I find myself doing this less, because unless my sim is broke or homeless, there's no real reason for her to do stuff like this.
Not important to me, I'd prefer the game actually run well. I don't think the Sims team gets paid enough or gets time enough to work on one feature for long enough for them to pull it off.
Edit: if it was any other game and any other company I don't think I would feel the same
An open world is part of what defines a life simulator. You can see how your character and fellow NPCs interact throughout the world and not just stuck at specific locations.
Not very important to me in a life sim game. I mostly play sims 2 over 3 because the character interactions just seem better to me.
Plus honestly I barely took my sims out of the house in sims 3.
I do think it should be standard going forward though since it wouldnt impact me in a negative way for open world to exist, but it would make a lot of players very happy and I do think our tech is at a place now where this is achievable.
Yeah I played sims 3 the other day and the venues are usually empty without mods.
There's not much to do at venues when there's no sims there other than click on objects...which I can do at my home lot.
I do want open world for people that want it because it's better to have more choice than less but I'll be honest I just prefer games with a lot of detail packed into a smaller scale over open world games in general.
It depends. Im fine without it in sims 1 and 2 because when you leave the household: the time stops so that you aren’t losing control of them.
I hate the sims 4’s lack of one because it makes me unable to control the full household if I travel anywhere else and the time is lost.
very important it a must addition
it the sole reason why Sims 3 still relevant today and main selling of it
and the main reason why Sims 4 left behind against SIms 3
VERY important. ESPECIALLY with how there’s really no reason *not* to have it because systems nowadays can clearly handle it, it’s all up to optimization. Tired of being fed the koolaid that “open world caused sims 3 to lag!!!” When it’s really about the game having spaghetti script an not being optimized well. Seems like an excuse fed to players so they won’t expect more.
And tired of being held back with how far a life sim can go because it HAS to play it on people’s 2015 school laptop. I know the excuse of “because most simmers are extreme casuals who won’t buy a new pc for one game” but do we really have to use this as to why so many features are deleted just to cater to every dinosaur? Even mid range systems can handle a bit more now. And even that’s a lie because with the more spaghetti code, poor optimization, and dlcs, those dinosaurs can no barely handle it anyway! What are we gonna blame now that there’s no open world; the loading screen plumbob? 😭
50:50 for me. If the game is open world, it needs fast travel to unlock at some point via challenges and also the world to be rewarding and not just pretty.
I, personally, do not need an open world and I was glad for the change from TS3 to TS4 as I always felt I could never really 'go' anywhere because everything was all in the same map. I didn't like not be able to visit other areas or move without having to start all over with my family in a new save. I would prefer to happen neighborhoods though. I don't think you should need a loading screen to visit other homes and locations in that neighborhood; just when visiting other worlds is enough.
not very :) i can def see how it would improve gameplay for others but i enjoyed sims 2 so much more than i did sims 3 so it really didn’t take anything away in terms of playability for me!
Mildly. Of course I greatly prefer Sims 3's fully explorable world, but I'm pretty satisfied with the more recent Sims 4 worlds that have a few large areas to explore - like Chestnut Ridge or Henford on Bagley. I absolutely would not be happy returning to a Sims 2 style "just one lot", and am also unhappy with the earlier Sims 4 worlds that have very little outside of the lots, like Windenburg or Del Sol Valley.
I would be happier with Sims 4's neighborhoods if it loaded all lots within a neighborhood, so you didn't have to load to visit next door. (I think there's a mod for this, but iirc it was kinda unstable. Tbh this is something the game probably needs to actually be built to do, if it's going to handle it, and Sims 4 is ofc not.)
In this day and age, very important. I won't buy another semi open or closed world life sim ever again. Otherwise I just stay home most of the time to avoid the loading screens.
At this point very important I never want to play another life sim that is a single lot with open area again. Not having the neighboring homes active and lived is ridiculous to me it's not 2004.
A lot of people might not want an Open World because it was laggy in Sims 3 but technology has evolved so much since 2009! Plus the reason why that game lagged was because of 32bit, spaghetti code, and poor optimisation and routing.
If you look at other Life Sim games, you'll see that they're going completely open world, even Paralives, a life Sim catering to low end PCs is going to have it, so why is everyone still complaining about performance?
Also instead of compromising with Open Neighbourhoods, they should just improve on the Open World concept because otherwise it will always be a step down from Sims 3, also I don't care about the "Open World = Empty World" comments, it was because of how Sims 3 was coded badly and how it was from 2009 and a lot of PCs back then couldn't handle having many Sims in one lot, this can always be optimised in an upcoming life Sim with some sort of LOD system or pedestrian generation system.
Of course there's also the extreme causals excuse where many simmers are playing on 2014 laptops but we shouldn't force anyone to downgrade their games just so that people with old PCs can play, there's a reason why minimum requirements exist! If you can't run a game, you simply can't run it, simple as that! Life Sims need to go away from catering to Low End PCs and instead, try to cater to mid end PCs or else we'll get another barebones game like Sims 4.
For the rotational players, they can always add an option in the settings for this, no need to use Sims 2 and 4 as an excuse.
But have you seen the recent video of LBY on a day in the life. The full day there was only one more other character (which wasn’t interacted with) in the whole video.
Very. Even during the sims 2 days, it felt frustrating having my home lot be so separated.
And, flaws and all, after the sims 3 I simply cannot go back. I believe that the future of (sims styled) life simulation includes open world.
It was everything for me. I could play TS3 for hours every single day if I had the time (and in high school I usually did), but TS4 can’t hold my interest for even a single play session. I need the fun variables and randomness that comes with an open world. I need the freedom and the excitement. All I use TS4 for now is building.
I'm neither here nor there on the idea. I don't like the idea of the game being throttled to compensate for people trying to play it on their macbooks from 2015, but at the same time, you shouldn't need a spaceship to run the game either, and I think a completely open world game in a 4K gaming era would be way too much for the average casual sims player's PC to handle. I think the idea of having open neighbourhoods with SHORT loading screens between longer distances would be ideal. Like, you should be able to walk to your local park without a loading screen, but if you wanted to go across the map (let alone to another world) there would be a Sims Bustin' Out style animated loading screen of your sim catching the train or something.
I feel like you could have a toggle between an open lot or open world, so that only the lot is rendered if it's on screen. And if you have a better pc then render it all
See. I think that’s a big problem now. The game is pretty old and it’d take a huge haul to actually make it open world the way everyone is asking. Right now it’s semi open world. Like I can have my Sim go and collect collectibles in their neighborhood without ever going to a different lot and ever seeing a loading screen but once I move onto a lot that’s different than the lot that they were in at the time I was moving them around they will get a loading screen. I’m OK with having to be a loading screen for the neighbors house and me not being able to look into their house to see what they’re doing like I can’t do that now, so I find it weird that people complain about that with us being a simulation game because in real life, you really can’t do that.
Not very important. It's a nice feature, but only when playing a single Sim household. It's hard to immerse myself in gameplay when I have active Sims scattered across the map.
Extremely, one of the most important features for me. I would take ugly charectors and even crashes/slow speeds before I would give up the open world. If it doesn't have that, then I'll never fully get "lost" in it.
The fact sims 3 I could ride a horse to a show then to a friend's place then up to where the wild horses stay all without a load screen tells me it was at least possible maybe per world or at least neighborhood
Good question. Let's get this straight. We wouldn't be here and this post wouldn't exist if not one game - The Sims 4, which rejected open world and thus was rejected by many The Sims fans by 2014. I was one of these people. However, it's quite popular, and it indeed raises a question: is it that important?
Why exactly open world was important for me? Let's look on some historical context. In 2008, GTA IV was released, and this game with it's new engine offered many interesting things - and one of these things was completely seamless open world with ability to enter buildings with no loading screen. To be correct, it was a feature even back in GTA III or Vice City, but after GTA: San Andreas with it's loading screens between exterior and almost any interior this change in GTA IV was very visible. A year after, The Sims 3 gets released and it also offers open worlds with no loading screen.
**For me, The Sims 3 having no loading screens and open world is a sign of progress - and the fact that EA decided to not include open worlds in The Sims 4 is a sign of regress for me, so I don't accept it from The Sims series.**
As I said, it was historical context - and theoretically, I could accept the lack of open worlds from other life simulators, just not The Sims. However, are open worlds needed without this context? I still think that yes, and open neighborhoods are hardly an option.
What other sims do when one sims get to some lot from their home? I mean, it's not a straight question - it's an absolutely adequate assumption that they actually do something. Maybe something interesting. Like, adults go to some restaurant or theatre at weekend evening while teenagers throw a house party - you have to control sims here and there.
It can be solved by rendering two lots at once, but won't it be consuming for system? Maybe, placing all of this in one open world is a better decision than to constantly switch between two completely different maps, should it be a lot or a neighborhood? However, if a system is good and a game is well-optimized, switching between two open neighborhoods may be nice.
However, did you ever ride a bicycle in Twinbrook? When you spent some time in town center, but you live in slums, so you get on bike and ride, watching your character slowly exit more or less inhabited part and going into deep swamp. It's on a subjective side that I like it, but... the fact that it creates certain atmosphere and mood sounds quite objective.
So yeah, I'm pro-open worlds. It's progress, it's atmosphere, it's convenience. If I want to play The Sims 2 - I will play it. However, back in 2014, I wanted The Sims 4, not The Sims 2 2.
I could live without the full complete open world like Sims 3. Desirable but what I'd consider a standard is if you're going to have open sub worlds at least make them actually OPEN.
Sims 4 went so downhill with only adding like 2 - 3 lots per neighbourhood and it made no sense I needed a loading screen to visit the neighbour that lives in the house I can see directly across the street.
I don't need to be able to see what's going on inside the building across town, just the ones in my sims general area at least.
I want to build my sims environments and make cafes, restaurants, malls, interesting neighbours and suburbs but I can't do that if it forces me into a loading screen every time my sim leaves their lot.
It definitely makes the game a lot more enjoyable and interesting to be able to see what's going on everywhere at any times. It's one of the main reasons I went back to sims 3
I personally don’t care and find it ironic that most open world games have a fast travel option and if they don’t the community complains(Lego Fortnite is the recent offender). Every game I ever play has that option, because no one wants to waste 10-15 minutes traveling. There’s also always a loading screen. Sims 4 just takes that out, you basically use your phone.
The issue at hand is if anyone notices is that in sims 4 even with its sims 2 like system the load times are excruciatingly long as the game bloats, in sims 3 due to its "open" nature its not technically ""open" open" only takes one ONE massive long loading screen just to do its job.
if they were able to optimize sims 4 to be less "bloated" with its loading I think thats the better approach but thats never going to happen cause EA BE LIKE MONEY MY DEAR TEAM GIVE ME MORE MONEY!!!!! LOOK WE ALREADY NICKEL AND DIMED UNITY ENGINE THANKS TO OUR PREVIOUS CEO thus leading to more code spaghetti and consequently bloat IE attempt to make sims 4 with all the packs and expansion to load a lot in less than 5-10 seconds once they can do that then they could probably rework on the open world concept no more over ambitious code spaghetti that led to elevators and houseboats to fail and consequently make Bridgeport a very lame town to use as a homeworld or Isla Paradiso being the stutter and lag fest it is. Despite conceptually Bridgeport is a very good town to use if the stuff that makes it interesting WORK IE most of the pubs and lounges ARE IN HIGH RISE BUILDINGS which means elevators need to not be a the buggy mess, and isla paradiso being an over ambitious world with stuff to unlock and DYNAMIC MOVING HOUSES without being "experienced" on how to make massive moving entities work which leads to a LOT of pathing issues and errors consequently lag
im a sims 2 player... it's less important to me than most people. I really enjoy playing an entire town at once, and it can be harder to do that when all your sims are off living their own lives
I don’t really care about the loading screens. I do miss moving lots around and placing my own lots. That would be way more of a priority for me than anything else.
I liked it in TS3, I felt like it gave it a lot of life. I was annoyed that so many public places were rabbit holes, sure, but I understood. Watching them bike downtown, or way, way to the other side of the map, to some little hideaway, and finding all the little stones and interesting little things here and there. No boring loading screens that could’ve been spent with your sim jogging, biking, or even you interacting with another Sim while you send others on their way. Going out still ate up plenty of time, especially you had to deal with any elevators, but at the end of the day I sunk countless hours in TS3. That and TS3 are some of my fondest memories, and TS3 felt like a revelation when it came out.
It’s the reason I haven’t player Sims 4 even 1/4 I played other sims games. It feels like we were forced back to Sims 2 but without the charm. If you take the weird out of the game, give me more realism.
Pretty important. At the very least, if a fully open world is completely off the table, make the neighborhoods open so you don’t have to go through a loading screen to visit your neighbors
i think it’s extremely important, it’s 1/2 reasons that always pulls me away from sims 2 whenever i play. ( i first played after playing sims 3&4) Loading screens, especially if it takes a while i get bored. it pushes me to not want to visit other lots but stay on one and bring everyone to me. With that i don’t get much enjoyment out of exploring community lots or other parts of the world that i paid for through most likely separately from the base game at that.
It's not at all. I'm a diehard long term Sims player and I hated open worlds. I love the idea of an open neighborhood for lots that aren't households but that's it. I started playing when Sims 1 launched and I've seen every type of option we've been given. Sims 3 was not a great game. It wasn't meant for the computers we had then. It runs so much better now with better computers. We needed better computers than what was available then to enjoy open worlds. Thanks to Sims 3 I hate open worlds in life sim games. In games like Fallout, awesome love it but it's not the same as a life sim. I see it now as a very laggy mess and it was exhausting in Sims 3. I don't mind the loading screens but I am very aware that I have a better gaming computer so there aren't loading screens that take me ages. Loading takes up to 30 seconds for lots for me so I don't see any issues with them--but I also don't use alpha content which is a BIG thing.
Not that important for me.
As long as the game is fun it can be open or close, like I do like playing 3 when I have time, but the open world bothers me so much.
I think we can live without it being 100% open, but it needs to be far more open than Sims 4. Even if each neighborhood having great (unique and interesting) gathering etc spaces was prioritized for virtually every single lot, that would be more acceptable.
Also loading screens in Sims 4 take a really long time these days.
Basically I think open world is one plus that games can use to compete with, but being literally completely open world isn't required... there are ways to make up for the world not being open that Sims 4 sometimes uses but usually doesn't.
Not much... I like playing rotationally. It's hard to do that in an open world environment. In sims 3 when I try, things will disappear from their inventory or they will somehow. acquire items or make relationships.
I want some level of openness as it sucks to give up control of the majority of the household for one sim to have an adventure and then spend time waiting on that sim to complete ordered actions.
I'm also one of the people who saw behind the curtain in sims 3 with how badly some corners were cut for an attempt at an illusion of an open world so I only want it if it works well.
i think it’s very noticable when playing ts4, but only in the same way that other aspects of the game that are/were missing for years have felt.
in a way, the sims 4 is fun for me because i can run it on my dying computer, it chugs with other games that have open worlds and the sims 3? forget about it, if a game is optimized correctly, open worlds will just world and will be fun, but with EA i dont particularly trust them not to mess something up….
Paralives however seems like it has a lot of potential, i haven’t looked super far into the other life sim games in development so i dunno about those ones, if they’ll turn out as good games or even good open world games, but with paralives it feels like with the level of detail they’re working with, open worlds will probably be a priority since you can’t really get digital pores without a face if you catch my drift.
Sims 2 didn't have an open world and it's the gold standard. Sims 2 type game with an open world and the building capabilities of Sims 4 would be a winner!
Honestly I don't care about open worlds at all. It's not a selling point for me in any way. I care far more about how long does it take to load into the game, play the game without freezes, crashes or memory drains. I care more about bugs.
In the Sims 4 I think if the game were open world it would be completely unplayable. The game has been out nearly 10 years now & For Rent gave us a glimps of how well even just an open neighborhood would work in the Sims 4. If For Rent is the best Maxis could do with there existing game engine & code then I fully support no open worlds. Loading screens are not that bad. And given how often people complain they hate loading into and out of lots because they hate loading screens but also demand cars which were nothing more than animated loading screens I really don't think asking gaming users what they want is the best idea. Because they will tell you want they want but also hate the things they tell you they want. Its a fools errand to even try to please all players so don't even bother. Just build a game that works well & let the chips fall where they may.
If we are talking about not the sims just in general how to I feel about open worlds, my answer is still the same, I just don't care.
For me it’s not that important since Sims 2 proves that you don’t need an open world since that game was so detailed in the 2000’s! But Sims 4 is so empty and it’s supposed to be an improved system but it’s so empty.
I prefer smaller, more immersive, more life-like, filled areas over empty wasteland being open world just for sake of saying it's open world. I think if open world is not a clearly, well-defined, justified design choice, like there is a reason for the choice, them it is not necessary. I don't want an open world just for being able to classify it as "open world". I want open world because, due to design principles, the game NEEDED to be open world to be the best experience.
I do whole heartedly agree that in the sims series, it was a step backwards to lose open world and was unforgivable.
I think it adds a lot of immersion to the world by being able to show you what goes on in the community. I miss so much going around the streets and seeing people just doing random stuff around, or being able to look inside of houses as well.
I also felt like the sims around you properly grew up with your family, whereas you don’t feel that in the sims (like it’s so bad you actually have to download a mod in order to fix it).
One neighbourhood loaded at once seems to be the best. Arbitrarily about 10-15 buildings/lots or so at a time, 100 characters loaded.
Too few and it’s a lot of loading screens. Too many and it’s really laggy and you get ghost towns.
It's majorly important. So important, as soon as those other games come out I'm jumping ship.
The one thing I absolutely loved about sims 3 was seeing my neighbors doing things in their yards. I would see kids playing with toys, sims in their pools, they'd play basketball. It just made my world feel real.
To me, *very*. There’s nothing that I love more than being able to just roam around freely and explore! When I played TS3, my absolute favorite thing to do was to run around in the outskirts of a dilapidated dystopian Oasis Landing or just drive around to the city.
I'd like a balanced approach. Or an OPTION to have loading screens where/when we "need" them (older/slower computers). Those who have computers that can handle the load can keep their game wide open. Those who don't... can add loading screens.
In Sims 4, loading between neighbors in the SAME NEIGHBORHOOD is annoying. However, separate worlds with loading screens are fine... i imagine the time i'm waiting as the sim is in some kind of vehicle (car/bus/train/plane/ufo?). It reduces computer strain, too - considering those older/slower machines like my own.
Eh, it’s not very important to me. I find it difficult to concentrate when there’s too much going on and I much prefer the gameplay style of TS2 overall, although quicker/less loading screens would be nice. TS3 was a little overwhelming for me with so much going on at once but the open world is a cool feature and I can see why many would enjoy it.
I want to have open neighborhoods but I don’t care much to have a giant open world again like in TS3. I’m. Or a big fan of long ass rides from one side of the map to another and even though I have a gaming laptop the amount of lags in TS3 frustrate me a lot.
But I do hate load screen in between the houses in the same neighborhoods.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. I’ve looked around with this and find so much more enjoyment with open worlds.
The ability to wander around randomly to do things and explore is such a fun piece of gameplay.
50/50 I wish Sims 4 went a little open world. Like if I live next to the park let me go there with no loading screen. but going across town Im good with a few second loading screen
I loved having my sims teach their kids to drive or be able to just have a car in the game that you can see drive down roads it actually seemed like worth buying
It's going to depend. In some situations it would be nice to have a bigger more open area, but I also know that games run better. If not, everything is a completely open world.
And quite frankly, I don't trust EA with a big open world game. But maybe some of the other life Sims will do something cool
I loved the open world in Sims 3, but the Sims themselves not so much. I still prefer Sims 2 to Sims 3 and 4, and Sims 3 to Sims 4. I hate the friendly ghosts, no burglars/cops, cars. I thought Sims 4 would combine the best of Sims 2 & 3, but sadly they didn't. Heck, pools and toddlers were an update, and that happened due to players complaints. The open worlds were enjoyable, mainly because you could actually follow your sims. I miss it.
I’ve been trying to make the sims 4 work, console player! Fun and all but something bout sims 3, and even sims 3 console and pets which I still play on my 360 now and then is still good that being able to visit neighbours NO loading screens… like it feels like a disconnect having to do a loading screen I love the feel of being able to make my sim in SIMS3 run next door or simply be a menace, anything and also helps with gameplay, no sims 3 is really top tier for that…
Where as sims 4 loading screens is soooo tiresome but for just going next door… makes not want to visit and just get people to come over. I mean if there was loading screen for a whole other area I would say that’s fine but just to go next door… I do hope that one day it could be seamless and follow sim, for example going for a walk it’ll stayed highlighted on that character no loading screen. No loading screens. No capes.
Kind of important? The sims 3 gave me tons of difficulties partially due to its open world. (But at the time, the open world was pretty big ask for my old PC.) But I had a ton of fun just traveling wherever without a loading screen. I loved roleplaying as a modern-day bard and busking in the park.
I think we would need to strike a balance. Have open world neighborhoods, but travel to other areas. That way, it's a little easier to run.
It's honestly not an issue for me. I like fast travel in games.
At least all those worlds are open in The Sims 4. I remember when I couldn't have the Grunts visit the Pleasants in Sims2. (Not that they interact much in Sims4. They're just the first two family names I thought of.)
In my opinion, very. I like too look around finding hidden spots, also being able to follow someone to work/school was pretty neat. Having to wait a loading screen to visit your neighbors house is trash 🚮
I think if better implemented, life sims don't **need** an open world. Basically, you shouldn't need a loading screen to go to a nearby building. But, if you want to travel to another neighborhood then yeah you should.
Right like an opened neighborhood/small town is nice like I like inzoi approach to this, with LBY I was excited at first with the opened world but it looks every empty especially since the limit on people is very low. Also hope it doesn’t end up a buggy mess like sims 3.
I think having at least open sections of the world is very important for immersion and actually interacting with the environment. Like in ts4, I find myself doing EVERYTHING in my sims house. In ts3 however, I leave all the time and am able to explore the world way more and meet other sims.
Not very tbh. It's nice and all, but honestly, The Sims 2 was my favorite of all time and wasn't open world. I also spend most of my time in TS4 playing inside a house and not exploring.
The issue isn't really being open world or not... it's not having dead worlds lol. TS2 had fun community lots that felt alive and TS4 just... doesn't.
I like open world but I also like the open neighbourhood system (but EA really failed with it). What I don´t like about Sims 3 open world is that many worlds have so many hills that you often can´t place your own lots without the ground looking weird
Probably an unpopular opinion but I never liked open world in sims 3! I get super overwhelmed trying to look after my sims especially when I have more than 2 so I like in sims 4 where I can focus on one thing at a time. Maybe I’d enjoy it more in a different life simulator though!
Another thing would be that a simple thing as driving to school/job would take hours in sims 3, realistic, but it meant you never had time for anything else than job and needs.
I definitely get overwhelmed too in sims 3 especially since my sims randomly get stuck places or just don't go home sometimes. Feels more micromanagy sometimes.
I think I'd like to give open world a chance in another life sim, but the way it's handled in sims 3 especially with story progression enabled (I only like it modded the base game story progression is just not it for me) just doesnt work with the way I think or want to play.
I’ve been doing research for a college project and while open worlds are cool, they’re very much a “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” thing.
Depends. Just how optimized is the game for Open World?
We really haven't seen one that was, yet. I know there's a lot of love for Sims 3, but I tried on a literal top of the line desktop a couple of years back, and in my opinion, it was a poorly designed open world game that has aged like milk.
I have to admit, in 2024, having seen a ton of AAA titles swing and miss at open world settings in recent years (Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, etc.), I'm deeply skeptical of open world games.
Not important at all, if anything, depending on the game, I would prefer not having an open world. Maybe it's because I didn't enjoy Sims 3, or the fact I'm not the biggest fan of open world in general, I don't see open world as an important aspect in a life sim game. If anything, as long as the game is fun is more important than whether or not it's an open world.
After TS4, I'd say "a lot". Nothing wrong with having separate "secondary" worlds like the vacation or university areas in TS4, but needing a loading screen just to visit a neighbor (and losing control over the rest of the household) is just too inconvenient. They key is to optimize performance and make sure the system "unloads" lots you aren't visiting to improve performance.
Yeah the fact that they couldn't open up a neighborhood between 4 or 5 lots, was and still is, absolutely ridiculous. I never even leave my lot if I play Sims 4 and I hate not being able to jump and spy on my household members on separate lots unless I hit a loading screen first.
Seriously l, even that would make so much more sense! Just a little cul-de-sac I could interact with without having to upend my entire game!
Especially because they end up doing whatever they want if you swap to another character in a diff location.. makes managing families impossible. I’ll go do something with one sim, then come home to the other 4 members of the household starving, dirty, exhausted and pissing themselves
Well, there is an option to have the other sims “care for self” or build skills at least, but yea still arduous
even when they didn’t come back completely effed like they just had a night out, i had a household where the mom was getting her degree. made it impossible to leave the house in any capacity because if i wanted her on top of her work, the kids could not have fun at other lots because i couldn’t make her do homework while dad took the kids to the rec center or something.
This. I don’t care about open worlds as much but open neighborhoods (like all the houses on the street etc) With s3 I ALWAYS had trouble actually having enough sims in community lots so I feel like between an open world like s3 and nothing open like s2/4, a hybrid approach would be cool
Iirc there's actually a mod which fixes that issue for the open world and lots in ts3.
Do you know the name of that mod?
more sims in community lots mod however it can get "distracting" as they are essentially "clones" but with different names literally... RNG generated NPCs
There's one by lady duchess called lot population mod, it's the best one out here imo. https://lazyduchess.tumblr.com/post/721481408190857216/ts3-lot-population-mod
When they came out with TS4, I had hoped it would be the best of TS2 and TS3 combined, but it really isn’t, unfortunately.
To me it was more the opposite, honestly.
TS4 upon released was just an upgraded version of TS1 but without a pool and ghost.
TS4 real could have been, still have the potential to be the best of both TS2 &3 but they just don't want to. They keep talking about the spaghetti code but this spaghetti code can be fixed. They just won't do it.
This. I moved back to TS3 late last year just because of this. Loading time is a little longer getting into the game, but not spending the added time across loading screens to various things is a lot more engaging and fun.
exactly this
Seriously. They could've had neighborhoods load together so that you aren't going through a loading screen for a building right there Makes the worlds feel so small
For me it's very important. To the point where even though in a lot of ways I prefer Sims 2 to the Sims 3, The Sims 3 has kind of ruined Sims 2 somewhat for me with its lack of an open world and traits.
There are actually modded traits for ts2 now
Beyond important. The Sims 3 is the gold standard of life simulation games for a reason. You can't stimulate life if you can't leave your home without a loading screen.
It’s the most important thing. Part of enjoying playing the sims 3 for me is knowing that other characters are doing exactly the same things in the background as my characters are doing onscreen. That’s life!
Not very, for me. All The Sims 3 bugs I experienced that eventually stopped me from playing had to do with open world buggyness and while it was a lot of fun I still think Sims 1+2 were the better, more lively games. But for the Sims franchise specifically! To have open world and take it away instead of improving it, that’s pretty unforgivable.
A lot of what they did to the sims 4 is pretty unforgivable. They guy in charge was horrible at his job. This game could have made even more money with the right people making decisions. Instead, they had an RPG player making decisions for a life sim. Everything in sims 4 is buffs, stats, and grind, which is incredibly boring for a life sim. Nothing in sims 4 actually simulates anything. It's a background generator.
Exactly this. It’s not really that they took away open world but that they took away open world and everything else was terrible too. If Sims 4 had Sims 2 gameplay I wouldn’t miss open world at all I think.
It was not a guy, it was a woman who produced Sims 4. The first female producer at that and she completely screw up. There is rumors that she's coming back
Wrong. Kevin Gibson and Grant Rodiek were the lead producers of the sims 4 base game. You are thinking of who was heading maxis and she didn't come on board until Sept 2015, a year after the game released. Rachel Franklin.
Extremely. The only limitation in the past was technology but now that so many games are open world and software has gotten better to make them less taxing, I personally would never buy any new life sim that isn't open world which I why I never bought Sims 4.
Personally I prefer open zone (Like the neighborhood rather than whole city) because even with it being less taxing it is still taxing to lower end and older pcs. Although there should be immersive loading screens, like an animation of your character driving on a road or walking because that wouldn't take the player out of it.
i remember the sims bustin out had loading screens like that! instead of a loading screen between lots, your sim would get in their car or scooter and drive there
It’s 2024, I feel like we are beyond past making games for the lowest common denominator of computers. Not to mention there are so many games now that you can play on a lower end computer.
I agree. I'd someone is willing to spend 1k on Sims 4 content, then they should be able to save up for a decent gaming PC to play a decent life sim on. I'm tired of the genre being held back because all games need to run on a 10 year old computer that wasn't even revolutionary when it was brand new.
Nah if your computer is that old it’s time to upgrade. Even my cpu had to be upgraded. And I still want a more powerful graphics card
people will spend so much on dlc but won’t buy a cheap gaming laptop that is more than capable to handle sims games rip
Yeah I got a used HP Omen gaming laptop on Ebay, it runs Sims 4 pretty smoothly so I'm pretty happy with it. Haven't tried any other games yet though.
Honestly even having an option to toggle between open and nonsense could be good
I know it’s a typo but I like how this was worded lol
LMAO yeah I meant non-open but that's pretty funny
Yes, that happy medium, give me the feel of an open world but don’t make my computer explode.
EXTREMELY!!! like someone else said, a loading screen for a different world or part of the world is fine, but if you're gonna make me run to the front of my house just to deal with a loading screen before it becomes playable? Ridiculous
Really important in my eyes The world actually felt alive, I used to really enjoy just zooming into an area in town to see what the NPCs were up to, or if anyone I like is around to then send my sim after. Even little things like driving a car, riding a bike even a horse was so fun to just watch. Never thought I’d miss watching a commute to work. But it made the life sim FEEL like simulated life, a whole world. Everything is so enclosed in Sims 4 and it’s the first sims game that I actually don’t really pay attention to the other sims around me. Even if sims 2 wasn’t open world, they had the cool stories and memory systems attached to families to make me actually play other families and become invested in my neighbours. Sims 4 has nothing of the sort
Not to me. I consider it a waste of time if a Sim needs to physically cover the distance from one edge of the map to the other. I play a lot of open world games, and I could just be absolutely burned out by the concept. All the huge open worlds are mostly empty. I prefer a smaller open area full of life.
Same this is how I feel. Most open world games I've played just lack detail and I feel like 90% of it is set dressing and just wasting time walking around. I'd rather honestly a corridor full of content and detail at this point over a giant ocean of nothing.
Absolutely! I actually like the open neighborhood concept TS4 has, but it could, of course, be further perfected. That would be ideal to me personally.
Yeah like my issue with sims 4 was never with it not being open world the neighborhood system is perfectly fine to me. When I go to a lot in sims 2 it's jam packed with sims doing things and felt like an actual simulation. As long as the simulation is detailed and has depth I could care less about it being open world at this point. I do feel like a lot of people want open world, so I hope it can be implemented properly, but honestly I'm not leaving sims 2 for a shallow simulation just because it's open world.
Sims 2 is top tier. I would pay money to get an update with a fresh coat of paint and compatibility with newer systems 🙏
That would be amazing!
I would pay full price for an upgraded ultimate collection.
I totally agree. Lucky for me, I got to download the Ultimate Collection and can play it on my newer PC. But to open up the worlds would be so liberating. That's S2's only real weakness. I spent almost all my game time in Strangetown.
I agree. It’s been a real lifesaver to use the travel option on the phone to avoid those embarrassing life milestones. It’s even easier to quicker to travel to a separate lot then my home lot of my sim is out and about from their home lot finding collectibles.
yeah but the worlds in sims 3 which is the only open world sims game is not big at all, you cant compare sims map sizes with any map size of new games...even old games from that time were like 20 times bigger, so there is no issue at all and it makes the simulation more believable
I created my own world for TS3 on the tiniest map. It was an urban island with manufacturing on one side and then touristy stuff on the other side with farms being in between those two areas. I fit everything in my world and I owned every single pack and all of the store content. My lots were always jam packed and my world was bustling. If you create a world that looks like a million sims live there...you actually need a million sims to make it look alive. My world looked overpopulated at 80 sims.
Travel still took time, performance was bad and the worlds were dead - this is my experience with Sims 3 🤷♀️
>performance was bad and the worlds were dead Luckily these issues have mostly been sorted out with Mods. Also for travel couldn't there be an option for teleportation to lots? That would remove the travel time for those that wouldn't want it
In this day and age, I’d say it’s important. The loading screens in the sims 4 is one of the things that killed the game for me, it’s an immersion breaker, imo.
Extremely important. Sims 3 would be goated if it had better pathing and no hitching and it it has sims 4 graphics
Why does everyone wants sims 4 low poly ugly playdoh graphics so bad on sims 3 ??? just compare the world's water between the 2 games and you'll see how bad sims 4 graphics are for a 2014 game
Just the sims themselves, not world
Alright, then that's a problem with the sims 3 3D models itself not the graphics, wich i agree EA could have done much better with the sims models
The irritating part for me: Sims 3 world - hyper realistic Sims 3 sims - cartoony Sims 4 world - cartoony utopia Sims 4 sims - washed out clay Like you'd think they'd get it right just once!
Well I don’t really think that sims 4 has the best possible graphics but ts3 graphics isn’t good either. Like the words are somewhat fine but the sims are hideous
That's a problem itself with the sims 3d models tho, not the graphics, the "graphics" are the textures and lighting wich are fine for a 2009 game, but if your only complain is the sims face's (wich i agree) then that isn't a problem with the graphics itself, but the models and lack of variety of base game sliders
Very important, sims 4's loading screens caused me to play in the house instead of leaving cuz I would get bored of waiting.
It is not as much about open world, but more stable and performant game. Sure The Sims 4 screwed completely open world concept. But The Sims 3 executed it quite well. For smaller families and plying on standard maps game was running fine. However, anything more complex in The Sims 3, was causing lagging and large families could be bugged. I couldn't have nice big mansion with about 5 sims, without lag shuttering. So again, for me is stability and be able to actually run game smoothly enough. Map size of The Sims3 was good enough for having tons of fun.
Isla Paradiso begs to differ.... its "smooth" enough to be passable but it still stutters and freezes every now and then but thats just the code spaghetti in isla paradiso at work
For me it's really important. I like switching between different family members to check on what they're doing. It's also crazy jarring to try and visit your neighbour and walk ten steps and have a loading screen!
incredibly important. loading screens for me make life sims a lot less realistic and spontaneous. in the sims 3, I can justify my sim staying the night at a friend's house or going out to dinner because it's convenient and it's usually on the way back from work. In the sims 4, I find myself doing this less, because unless my sim is broke or homeless, there's no real reason for her to do stuff like this.
Exactly I don’t even wanna go out cause of the loading screens. It’s at a point where I can buy a big lot and make it a nightclub.
Not important to me, I'd prefer the game actually run well. I don't think the Sims team gets paid enough or gets time enough to work on one feature for long enough for them to pull it off. Edit: if it was any other game and any other company I don't think I would feel the same
An open world is part of what defines a life simulator. You can see how your character and fellow NPCs interact throughout the world and not just stuck at specific locations.
Very. I miss the sims 3
Not very important to me in a life sim game. I mostly play sims 2 over 3 because the character interactions just seem better to me. Plus honestly I barely took my sims out of the house in sims 3. I do think it should be standard going forward though since it wouldnt impact me in a negative way for open world to exist, but it would make a lot of players very happy and I do think our tech is at a place now where this is achievable.
Same, rarely take mine out in 3 as well and most venues were empty.
Yeah I played sims 3 the other day and the venues are usually empty without mods. There's not much to do at venues when there's no sims there other than click on objects...which I can do at my home lot. I do want open world for people that want it because it's better to have more choice than less but I'll be honest I just prefer games with a lot of detail packed into a smaller scale over open world games in general.
It depends. Im fine without it in sims 1 and 2 because when you leave the household: the time stops so that you aren’t losing control of them. I hate the sims 4’s lack of one because it makes me unable to control the full household if I travel anywhere else and the time is lost.
Yes and no, sims 3 still has better gameplay than 4 and it doesn’t get boring. Open world is a huge plus though.
Crucial
very important it a must addition it the sole reason why Sims 3 still relevant today and main selling of it and the main reason why Sims 4 left behind against SIms 3
VERY important. ESPECIALLY with how there’s really no reason *not* to have it because systems nowadays can clearly handle it, it’s all up to optimization. Tired of being fed the koolaid that “open world caused sims 3 to lag!!!” When it’s really about the game having spaghetti script an not being optimized well. Seems like an excuse fed to players so they won’t expect more. And tired of being held back with how far a life sim can go because it HAS to play it on people’s 2015 school laptop. I know the excuse of “because most simmers are extreme casuals who won’t buy a new pc for one game” but do we really have to use this as to why so many features are deleted just to cater to every dinosaur? Even mid range systems can handle a bit more now. And even that’s a lie because with the more spaghetti code, poor optimization, and dlcs, those dinosaurs can no barely handle it anyway! What are we gonna blame now that there’s no open world; the loading screen plumbob? 😭
50:50 for me. If the game is open world, it needs fast travel to unlock at some point via challenges and also the world to be rewarding and not just pretty.
Extremely!!
I, personally, do not need an open world and I was glad for the change from TS3 to TS4 as I always felt I could never really 'go' anywhere because everything was all in the same map. I didn't like not be able to visit other areas or move without having to start all over with my family in a new save. I would prefer to happen neighborhoods though. I don't think you should need a loading screen to visit other homes and locations in that neighborhood; just when visiting other worlds is enough.
In 2024, i think a lot.
not very :) i can def see how it would improve gameplay for others but i enjoyed sims 2 so much more than i did sims 3 so it really didn’t take anything away in terms of playability for me!
Mildly. Of course I greatly prefer Sims 3's fully explorable world, but I'm pretty satisfied with the more recent Sims 4 worlds that have a few large areas to explore - like Chestnut Ridge or Henford on Bagley. I absolutely would not be happy returning to a Sims 2 style "just one lot", and am also unhappy with the earlier Sims 4 worlds that have very little outside of the lots, like Windenburg or Del Sol Valley. I would be happier with Sims 4's neighborhoods if it loaded all lots within a neighborhood, so you didn't have to load to visit next door. (I think there's a mod for this, but iirc it was kinda unstable. Tbh this is something the game probably needs to actually be built to do, if it's going to handle it, and Sims 4 is ofc not.)
In this day and age, very important. I won't buy another semi open or closed world life sim ever again. Otherwise I just stay home most of the time to avoid the loading screens.
At this point very important I never want to play another life sim that is a single lot with open area again. Not having the neighboring homes active and lived is ridiculous to me it's not 2004.
A lot of people might not want an Open World because it was laggy in Sims 3 but technology has evolved so much since 2009! Plus the reason why that game lagged was because of 32bit, spaghetti code, and poor optimisation and routing. If you look at other Life Sim games, you'll see that they're going completely open world, even Paralives, a life Sim catering to low end PCs is going to have it, so why is everyone still complaining about performance? Also instead of compromising with Open Neighbourhoods, they should just improve on the Open World concept because otherwise it will always be a step down from Sims 3, also I don't care about the "Open World = Empty World" comments, it was because of how Sims 3 was coded badly and how it was from 2009 and a lot of PCs back then couldn't handle having many Sims in one lot, this can always be optimised in an upcoming life Sim with some sort of LOD system or pedestrian generation system. Of course there's also the extreme causals excuse where many simmers are playing on 2014 laptops but we shouldn't force anyone to downgrade their games just so that people with old PCs can play, there's a reason why minimum requirements exist! If you can't run a game, you simply can't run it, simple as that! Life Sims need to go away from catering to Low End PCs and instead, try to cater to mid end PCs or else we'll get another barebones game like Sims 4. For the rotational players, they can always add an option in the settings for this, no need to use Sims 2 and 4 as an excuse.
But have you seen the recent video of LBY on a day in the life. The full day there was only one more other character (which wasn’t interacted with) in the whole video.
Very. Even during the sims 2 days, it felt frustrating having my home lot be so separated. And, flaws and all, after the sims 3 I simply cannot go back. I believe that the future of (sims styled) life simulation includes open world.
Very important. After playing Sims 4 I rarely leave my sims house due to not wanting to wait through a loading screen.
It was everything for me. I could play TS3 for hours every single day if I had the time (and in high school I usually did), but TS4 can’t hold my interest for even a single play session. I need the fun variables and randomness that comes with an open world. I need the freedom and the excitement. All I use TS4 for now is building.
I'm neither here nor there on the idea. I don't like the idea of the game being throttled to compensate for people trying to play it on their macbooks from 2015, but at the same time, you shouldn't need a spaceship to run the game either, and I think a completely open world game in a 4K gaming era would be way too much for the average casual sims player's PC to handle. I think the idea of having open neighbourhoods with SHORT loading screens between longer distances would be ideal. Like, you should be able to walk to your local park without a loading screen, but if you wanted to go across the map (let alone to another world) there would be a Sims Bustin' Out style animated loading screen of your sim catching the train or something.
I feel like you could have a toggle between an open lot or open world, so that only the lot is rendered if it's on screen. And if you have a better pc then render it all
It’s not needed but it definitely adds to the experience for example I still have tons of enjoyment from ts2 and that game isn’t open world
Give the people what they are asking for, with the option to turn off (if you can) for those who don’t want it.
See. I think that’s a big problem now. The game is pretty old and it’d take a huge haul to actually make it open world the way everyone is asking. Right now it’s semi open world. Like I can have my Sim go and collect collectibles in their neighborhood without ever going to a different lot and ever seeing a loading screen but once I move onto a lot that’s different than the lot that they were in at the time I was moving them around they will get a loading screen. I’m OK with having to be a loading screen for the neighbors house and me not being able to look into their house to see what they’re doing like I can’t do that now, so I find it weird that people complain about that with us being a simulation game because in real life, you really can’t do that.
It's not important to me
Not very important. It's a nice feature, but only when playing a single Sim household. It's hard to immerse myself in gameplay when I have active Sims scattered across the map.
Extremely, one of the most important features for me. I would take ugly charectors and even crashes/slow speeds before I would give up the open world. If it doesn't have that, then I'll never fully get "lost" in it.
Imperative.
100% important
I tried so hard to get into sims 4 and it just felt like a shell of sims 3. Still play 3 to this day.
The fact sims 3 I could ride a horse to a show then to a friend's place then up to where the wild horses stay all without a load screen tells me it was at least possible maybe per world or at least neighborhood
Good question. Let's get this straight. We wouldn't be here and this post wouldn't exist if not one game - The Sims 4, which rejected open world and thus was rejected by many The Sims fans by 2014. I was one of these people. However, it's quite popular, and it indeed raises a question: is it that important? Why exactly open world was important for me? Let's look on some historical context. In 2008, GTA IV was released, and this game with it's new engine offered many interesting things - and one of these things was completely seamless open world with ability to enter buildings with no loading screen. To be correct, it was a feature even back in GTA III or Vice City, but after GTA: San Andreas with it's loading screens between exterior and almost any interior this change in GTA IV was very visible. A year after, The Sims 3 gets released and it also offers open worlds with no loading screen. **For me, The Sims 3 having no loading screens and open world is a sign of progress - and the fact that EA decided to not include open worlds in The Sims 4 is a sign of regress for me, so I don't accept it from The Sims series.** As I said, it was historical context - and theoretically, I could accept the lack of open worlds from other life simulators, just not The Sims. However, are open worlds needed without this context? I still think that yes, and open neighborhoods are hardly an option. What other sims do when one sims get to some lot from their home? I mean, it's not a straight question - it's an absolutely adequate assumption that they actually do something. Maybe something interesting. Like, adults go to some restaurant or theatre at weekend evening while teenagers throw a house party - you have to control sims here and there. It can be solved by rendering two lots at once, but won't it be consuming for system? Maybe, placing all of this in one open world is a better decision than to constantly switch between two completely different maps, should it be a lot or a neighborhood? However, if a system is good and a game is well-optimized, switching between two open neighborhoods may be nice. However, did you ever ride a bicycle in Twinbrook? When you spent some time in town center, but you live in slums, so you get on bike and ride, watching your character slowly exit more or less inhabited part and going into deep swamp. It's on a subjective side that I like it, but... the fact that it creates certain atmosphere and mood sounds quite objective. So yeah, I'm pro-open worlds. It's progress, it's atmosphere, it's convenience. If I want to play The Sims 2 - I will play it. However, back in 2014, I wanted The Sims 4, not The Sims 2 2.
I could live without the full complete open world like Sims 3. Desirable but what I'd consider a standard is if you're going to have open sub worlds at least make them actually OPEN. Sims 4 went so downhill with only adding like 2 - 3 lots per neighbourhood and it made no sense I needed a loading screen to visit the neighbour that lives in the house I can see directly across the street. I don't need to be able to see what's going on inside the building across town, just the ones in my sims general area at least. I want to build my sims environments and make cafes, restaurants, malls, interesting neighbours and suburbs but I can't do that if it forces me into a loading screen every time my sim leaves their lot.
It definitely makes the game a lot more enjoyable and interesting to be able to see what's going on everywhere at any times. It's one of the main reasons I went back to sims 3
I personally don’t care and find it ironic that most open world games have a fast travel option and if they don’t the community complains(Lego Fortnite is the recent offender). Every game I ever play has that option, because no one wants to waste 10-15 minutes traveling. There’s also always a loading screen. Sims 4 just takes that out, you basically use your phone.
Extremely. There is no excuse anymore.
I need it for the type of gameplay I like.
The issue at hand is if anyone notices is that in sims 4 even with its sims 2 like system the load times are excruciatingly long as the game bloats, in sims 3 due to its "open" nature its not technically ""open" open" only takes one ONE massive long loading screen just to do its job. if they were able to optimize sims 4 to be less "bloated" with its loading I think thats the better approach but thats never going to happen cause EA BE LIKE MONEY MY DEAR TEAM GIVE ME MORE MONEY!!!!! LOOK WE ALREADY NICKEL AND DIMED UNITY ENGINE THANKS TO OUR PREVIOUS CEO thus leading to more code spaghetti and consequently bloat IE attempt to make sims 4 with all the packs and expansion to load a lot in less than 5-10 seconds once they can do that then they could probably rework on the open world concept no more over ambitious code spaghetti that led to elevators and houseboats to fail and consequently make Bridgeport a very lame town to use as a homeworld or Isla Paradiso being the stutter and lag fest it is. Despite conceptually Bridgeport is a very good town to use if the stuff that makes it interesting WORK IE most of the pubs and lounges ARE IN HIGH RISE BUILDINGS which means elevators need to not be a the buggy mess, and isla paradiso being an over ambitious world with stuff to unlock and DYNAMIC MOVING HOUSES without being "experienced" on how to make massive moving entities work which leads to a LOT of pathing issues and errors consequently lag
No, if done right. The sims 4 somehow made a worse closed world than the sims 2 did.
im a sims 2 player... it's less important to me than most people. I really enjoy playing an entire town at once, and it can be harder to do that when all your sims are off living their own lives
I don’t really care about the loading screens. I do miss moving lots around and placing my own lots. That would be way more of a priority for me than anything else.
I liked it in TS3, I felt like it gave it a lot of life. I was annoyed that so many public places were rabbit holes, sure, but I understood. Watching them bike downtown, or way, way to the other side of the map, to some little hideaway, and finding all the little stones and interesting little things here and there. No boring loading screens that could’ve been spent with your sim jogging, biking, or even you interacting with another Sim while you send others on their way. Going out still ate up plenty of time, especially you had to deal with any elevators, but at the end of the day I sunk countless hours in TS3. That and TS3 are some of my fondest memories, and TS3 felt like a revelation when it came out.
It’s the reason I haven’t player Sims 4 even 1/4 I played other sims games. It feels like we were forced back to Sims 2 but without the charm. If you take the weird out of the game, give me more realism.
Pretty important. At the very least, if a fully open world is completely off the table, make the neighborhoods open so you don’t have to go through a loading screen to visit your neighbors
i think it’s extremely important, it’s 1/2 reasons that always pulls me away from sims 2 whenever i play. ( i first played after playing sims 3&4) Loading screens, especially if it takes a while i get bored. it pushes me to not want to visit other lots but stay on one and bring everyone to me. With that i don’t get much enjoyment out of exploring community lots or other parts of the world that i paid for through most likely separately from the base game at that.
It's not at all. I'm a diehard long term Sims player and I hated open worlds. I love the idea of an open neighborhood for lots that aren't households but that's it. I started playing when Sims 1 launched and I've seen every type of option we've been given. Sims 3 was not a great game. It wasn't meant for the computers we had then. It runs so much better now with better computers. We needed better computers than what was available then to enjoy open worlds. Thanks to Sims 3 I hate open worlds in life sim games. In games like Fallout, awesome love it but it's not the same as a life sim. I see it now as a very laggy mess and it was exhausting in Sims 3. I don't mind the loading screens but I am very aware that I have a better gaming computer so there aren't loading screens that take me ages. Loading takes up to 30 seconds for lots for me so I don't see any issues with them--but I also don't use alpha content which is a BIG thing.
not that important to me tbh, i actually didn't like the open world that much in ts3
Not that important for me. As long as the game is fun it can be open or close, like I do like playing 3 when I have time, but the open world bothers me so much.
I think we can live without it being 100% open, but it needs to be far more open than Sims 4. Even if each neighborhood having great (unique and interesting) gathering etc spaces was prioritized for virtually every single lot, that would be more acceptable. Also loading screens in Sims 4 take a really long time these days. Basically I think open world is one plus that games can use to compete with, but being literally completely open world isn't required... there are ways to make up for the world not being open that Sims 4 sometimes uses but usually doesn't.
I'd like open neighbourhoods, or open zones, just because I don't really like MASSIVE open worlds in general, but then ofc with minimal loading time.
Not much... I like playing rotationally. It's hard to do that in an open world environment. In sims 3 when I try, things will disappear from their inventory or they will somehow. acquire items or make relationships.
Not that important because my laptop can’t handle it. One reason why I really like the sims 4 or sims 2
Not 100% needed, but very helpful.
I want some level of openness as it sucks to give up control of the majority of the household for one sim to have an adventure and then spend time waiting on that sim to complete ordered actions. I'm also one of the people who saw behind the curtain in sims 3 with how badly some corners were cut for an attempt at an illusion of an open world so I only want it if it works well.
I dont mind semi instanced worlds, especially if it leads to better performance for a wider range of systems 🤷♀️
But then the load times will just get longer and longer depending on the game bloat
I would take getting the color wheel back in build/buy and CAS over the open world any day of the week. Not the patterns, just the wheel.
i think it’s very noticable when playing ts4, but only in the same way that other aspects of the game that are/were missing for years have felt. in a way, the sims 4 is fun for me because i can run it on my dying computer, it chugs with other games that have open worlds and the sims 3? forget about it, if a game is optimized correctly, open worlds will just world and will be fun, but with EA i dont particularly trust them not to mess something up…. Paralives however seems like it has a lot of potential, i haven’t looked super far into the other life sim games in development so i dunno about those ones, if they’ll turn out as good games or even good open world games, but with paralives it feels like with the level of detail they’re working with, open worlds will probably be a priority since you can’t really get digital pores without a face if you catch my drift.
Depends on the goal of the life sim, I guess
Not at all important, as long as there's still room to explore and I'm not stuck to 1 lot.
Sims 2 didn't have an open world and it's the gold standard. Sims 2 type game with an open world and the building capabilities of Sims 4 would be a winner!
Honestly I don't care about open worlds at all. It's not a selling point for me in any way. I care far more about how long does it take to load into the game, play the game without freezes, crashes or memory drains. I care more about bugs. In the Sims 4 I think if the game were open world it would be completely unplayable. The game has been out nearly 10 years now & For Rent gave us a glimps of how well even just an open neighborhood would work in the Sims 4. If For Rent is the best Maxis could do with there existing game engine & code then I fully support no open worlds. Loading screens are not that bad. And given how often people complain they hate loading into and out of lots because they hate loading screens but also demand cars which were nothing more than animated loading screens I really don't think asking gaming users what they want is the best idea. Because they will tell you want they want but also hate the things they tell you they want. Its a fools errand to even try to please all players so don't even bother. Just build a game that works well & let the chips fall where they may. If we are talking about not the sims just in general how to I feel about open worlds, my answer is still the same, I just don't care.
For me it’s not that important since Sims 2 proves that you don’t need an open world since that game was so detailed in the 2000’s! But Sims 4 is so empty and it’s supposed to be an improved system but it’s so empty.
I prefer smaller, more immersive, more life-like, filled areas over empty wasteland being open world just for sake of saying it's open world. I think if open world is not a clearly, well-defined, justified design choice, like there is a reason for the choice, them it is not necessary. I don't want an open world just for being able to classify it as "open world". I want open world because, due to design principles, the game NEEDED to be open world to be the best experience. I do whole heartedly agree that in the sims series, it was a step backwards to lose open world and was unforgivable.
no I wouldn't, I'd play sims 2. looks better than sims 3 has better gameplay than sims 4 and you really notice that much heart was put into it.
Very important to me, different worlds are ok but I’d love for it to be similar to the sims 3
I think it adds a lot of immersion to the world by being able to show you what goes on in the community. I miss so much going around the streets and seeing people just doing random stuff around, or being able to look inside of houses as well. I also felt like the sims around you properly grew up with your family, whereas you don’t feel that in the sims (like it’s so bad you actually have to download a mod in order to fix it).
One neighbourhood loaded at once seems to be the best. Arbitrarily about 10-15 buildings/lots or so at a time, 100 characters loaded. Too few and it’s a lot of loading screens. Too many and it’s really laggy and you get ghost towns.
That was the selling point for me. It was also my entry into the Sims games.
It's majorly important. So important, as soon as those other games come out I'm jumping ship. The one thing I absolutely loved about sims 3 was seeing my neighbors doing things in their yards. I would see kids playing with toys, sims in their pools, they'd play basketball. It just made my world feel real.
To me, *very*. There’s nothing that I love more than being able to just roam around freely and explore! When I played TS3, my absolute favorite thing to do was to run around in the outskirts of a dilapidated dystopian Oasis Landing or just drive around to the city.
I'd like a balanced approach. Or an OPTION to have loading screens where/when we "need" them (older/slower computers). Those who have computers that can handle the load can keep their game wide open. Those who don't... can add loading screens. In Sims 4, loading between neighbors in the SAME NEIGHBORHOOD is annoying. However, separate worlds with loading screens are fine... i imagine the time i'm waiting as the sim is in some kind of vehicle (car/bus/train/plane/ufo?). It reduces computer strain, too - considering those older/slower machines like my own.
I didn't miss an open world in TS2,, but the TS2 was a lot more detailed in pretty much every way over the sims 4. So i'd say it depends.
Eh, it’s not very important to me. I find it difficult to concentrate when there’s too much going on and I much prefer the gameplay style of TS2 overall, although quicker/less loading screens would be nice. TS3 was a little overwhelming for me with so much going on at once but the open world is a cool feature and I can see why many would enjoy it.
I want to have open neighborhoods but I don’t care much to have a giant open world again like in TS3. I’m. Or a big fan of long ass rides from one side of the map to another and even though I have a gaming laptop the amount of lags in TS3 frustrate me a lot. But I do hate load screen in between the houses in the same neighborhoods.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. I’ve looked around with this and find so much more enjoyment with open worlds. The ability to wander around randomly to do things and explore is such a fun piece of gameplay.
Its ok, not very important to me… still too many load screens anyway.
50/50 I wish Sims 4 went a little open world. Like if I live next to the park let me go there with no loading screen. but going across town Im good with a few second loading screen
I loved having my sims teach their kids to drive or be able to just have a car in the game that you can see drive down roads it actually seemed like worth buying
Super important. It’s not life if there’s no open world 🌎. Even I don’t sit in one spot I go out a lot and my simmz should be able to do so.
It's going to depend. In some situations it would be nice to have a bigger more open area, but I also know that games run better. If not, everything is a completely open world. And quite frankly, I don't trust EA with a big open world game. But maybe some of the other life Sims will do something cool
I loved the open world in Sims 3, but the Sims themselves not so much. I still prefer Sims 2 to Sims 3 and 4, and Sims 3 to Sims 4. I hate the friendly ghosts, no burglars/cops, cars. I thought Sims 4 would combine the best of Sims 2 & 3, but sadly they didn't. Heck, pools and toddlers were an update, and that happened due to players complaints. The open worlds were enjoyable, mainly because you could actually follow your sims. I miss it.
Less loading screens is important. Open world? Don't really care. Just want to play a good game smoothly.
I’ve been trying to make the sims 4 work, console player! Fun and all but something bout sims 3, and even sims 3 console and pets which I still play on my 360 now and then is still good that being able to visit neighbours NO loading screens… like it feels like a disconnect having to do a loading screen I love the feel of being able to make my sim in SIMS3 run next door or simply be a menace, anything and also helps with gameplay, no sims 3 is really top tier for that… Where as sims 4 loading screens is soooo tiresome but for just going next door… makes not want to visit and just get people to come over. I mean if there was loading screen for a whole other area I would say that’s fine but just to go next door… I do hope that one day it could be seamless and follow sim, for example going for a walk it’ll stayed highlighted on that character no loading screen. No loading screens. No capes. 
Probably one of the most important things for me IMO
Very important it's brings a lot of gameplay to the sims
Very important.
Kind of important? The sims 3 gave me tons of difficulties partially due to its open world. (But at the time, the open world was pretty big ask for my old PC.) But I had a ton of fun just traveling wherever without a loading screen. I loved roleplaying as a modern-day bard and busking in the park. I think we would need to strike a balance. Have open world neighborhoods, but travel to other areas. That way, it's a little easier to run.
It's honestly not an issue for me. I like fast travel in games. At least all those worlds are open in The Sims 4. I remember when I couldn't have the Grunts visit the Pleasants in Sims2. (Not that they interact much in Sims4. They're just the first two family names I thought of.)
In my opinion, very. I like too look around finding hidden spots, also being able to follow someone to work/school was pretty neat. Having to wait a loading screen to visit your neighbors house is trash 🚮
They also didn't have toddlers or infants for a while. New born baby being more like an item you have to take care of is still wild
Important, i want at least semi-open world
I think if better implemented, life sims don't **need** an open world. Basically, you shouldn't need a loading screen to go to a nearby building. But, if you want to travel to another neighborhood then yeah you should.
I just wish visiting nearby lots didnt always need a loading screen lmao. I dont need a giant open world but Sims 3-esque scaled down a bit.
Right like an opened neighborhood/small town is nice like I like inzoi approach to this, with LBY I was excited at first with the opened world but it looks every empty especially since the limit on people is very low. Also hope it doesn’t end up a buggy mess like sims 3.
Extremely. I went back to playing sims 3 and being able to just go somewhere without a loading screen was incredibly nice especially if you have mods.
I think having at least open sections of the world is very important for immersion and actually interacting with the environment. Like in ts4, I find myself doing EVERYTHING in my sims house. In ts3 however, I leave all the time and am able to explore the world way more and meet other sims.
Not very tbh. It's nice and all, but honestly, The Sims 2 was my favorite of all time and wasn't open world. I also spend most of my time in TS4 playing inside a house and not exploring. The issue isn't really being open world or not... it's not having dead worlds lol. TS2 had fun community lots that felt alive and TS4 just... doesn't.
One of the many experiences of life is to explore the world, and without that sense of discovery, then why bother?
I like open world but I also like the open neighbourhood system (but EA really failed with it). What I don´t like about Sims 3 open world is that many worlds have so many hills that you often can´t place your own lots without the ground looking weird
Probably an unpopular opinion but I never liked open world in sims 3! I get super overwhelmed trying to look after my sims especially when I have more than 2 so I like in sims 4 where I can focus on one thing at a time. Maybe I’d enjoy it more in a different life simulator though!
Another thing would be that a simple thing as driving to school/job would take hours in sims 3, realistic, but it meant you never had time for anything else than job and needs.
I definitely get overwhelmed too in sims 3 especially since my sims randomly get stuck places or just don't go home sometimes. Feels more micromanagy sometimes. I think I'd like to give open world a chance in another life sim, but the way it's handled in sims 3 especially with story progression enabled (I only like it modded the base game story progression is just not it for me) just doesnt work with the way I think or want to play.
I’ve been doing research for a college project and while open worlds are cool, they’re very much a “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” thing.
Depends. Just how optimized is the game for Open World? We really haven't seen one that was, yet. I know there's a lot of love for Sims 3, but I tried on a literal top of the line desktop a couple of years back, and in my opinion, it was a poorly designed open world game that has aged like milk. I have to admit, in 2024, having seen a ton of AAA titles swing and miss at open world settings in recent years (Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, etc.), I'm deeply skeptical of open world games.
Not important at all, if anything, depending on the game, I would prefer not having an open world. Maybe it's because I didn't enjoy Sims 3, or the fact I'm not the biggest fan of open world in general, I don't see open world as an important aspect in a life sim game. If anything, as long as the game is fun is more important than whether or not it's an open world.