[NOTE to Moderators/Admins]
I noticed the "What is Off Topic forum NOT for?" with "Anything sim related", but the only Sims Discussions I could find are game-specific, I could not find any that are for all of them. If there is a better place for this, please let me know or feel free to move it.


I have been playing The Sims 3 for several years now (I lost count) and have been watching The Sims 4 from it's announcement up until I gave up on it a year or so after release.
In that year or so, and a bit after that, I have noticed a strong divide in people who like or prefer The Sims 4 or The Sims 3. I have also noticed that this site seems to have an active community around The Sims 1 and 2.
This makes me curious; how many people here play each game or a mix of multiple?
I only play The Sims 3 (I have never played 1 or 2 and hated 4 for more than a few reasons, none of which I will go into here, as this is not the place).
I guess one could say I am making this thread as small-scale measure of each game's popularity.

The Sims 3 was like the ultimate in terms of imagination and customization. Although TS4 was the introduction to the concept of transgender Sims, making it truly LGBT friendly, it lacks a certain customization (CASt) beyond feminine and masculine gender expression added (not to mention angering Russian sensibilities, garnering it an 18 game rating in Russia whereas it could be played by children as young as 6-7 years old in other parts of Europe). TS2 has cartoony graphics, but it was part of the charm for it's groundbreaking of fully 3D environments.

But even after all this time, I play with TS1 and see what started my obsession almost 19 years ago. Speaking as a veteran gamer since age 3 (28 years experience as of Christmas Day 2018), The Sims provided a unique experience in terms of sandbox games, God games and life sims, even setting gold standards for what such games should be for their class.

To think Nickelodeon Magazine had got me interested in this game in an interview article...funny how life does that in terms of influence.

That's a lot that comes to mind.

Thank you for such a detailed post, showing your views on all of them! I like that.
As I've said in my first post, I never played 1 or 2. The first Sims game I have played was called something along the lines of "busting out", if I remember, for the PS2. When I first discovered that Sims 3 was on Xbox, I got it and played the crap out of it (it had the customizations, oddly enough). When I got a PC and realized there was a much more epic version of it there, I ditched the Xbox (aside from the Mass Effect games; can't get enough of those) and played the PC version to no end.
That was a good 4 or 5 years ago now, I believe, and here I still am!
I recently (a year or so ago) read an article somewhere that said something about The Sims 3 being targeted and marketed to "teenage and younger girls". Me, being a 20-year-old male at the time, immediately thought "well, what a fail of marketing if it caught my attention so much!"

I just can't bring myself to enjoy The Sims 4, though, as it reminds me way too much of The Sims 3's Xbox version, which after playing the PC version, just seems like a major step back in the wrong direction in terms of improving throughout the series. I have noticed how they did blur the line between genders in The Sims 4, which I do like. I have seen some mods on this site for The Sims 3 that do somewhat the same (though, admittedly, not as well), which is one thing I do like about modding communities; they find something that really should've been in the game, and decide to make it for the game!

Was it really targeted at them? 22 Year old dude playing it for more than 10 years now (TS1, TS2 and now TS3) Not to think about the players who are 50+ or something. Maybe they should look into their actual audience and not just their ideas of the audience, but that's EA. *Insert Meja's All 'bout money*

Sims 2 has always been the game for me. I don't like Sims 3, mostly because open worlds and genetics didn't seem to work correctly... also their faces all looked the same, sure there was more customisation (in terms of clothes, furniture etc) but to be honest it really brought about a paradox of choice, I'm a simple lady, I don't need too many options - it mostly went unused. Sims 4 just felt too cartoonish and hipster for me, I couldn't get into it. Sims 2, I know my way around the game and around the modding community, that anything I want to do is possible.

Although the common demographics for the series was women and teenage girls, there are plenty of guys who play it. Its appeal boils down to controlling the people in a house and as the game was expanded with add on packs, it allowed the player to take their Sims to new places.

Moreover, in retrospect, its appeal was key to helping the gaming population invite women who were on the fence find something that appealed to the sensibilities of "I don't like gory details.", "I don't like shooting things.", "I don't like blowing up things." Or even "I don't like fighting in general" and "I'm not a WWII fan", which, unfortunately was the majority of the games at the time of the The Sims 1.

I think that with such massive appeal to such survey questions answered, it stood to reason that it had filled a hole left in the market by those who followed the formula of rhythm games, platformers, fighting games, period piece games and GTA style games, which were constantly targeted by watchdog group who attempted banning video games, which at one point The Sims 2 got caught in the crossfire and it led to the fuel to the fire that was Menace to Freedom of American Expression, Jack Thompson. Eventually, in the few years after the incident, he was disbarred for his menacing first amendment expressions and from what I can tell, he was part of the Congressional hearing on censorship of music in the 1980s.

So as far as major changes to the gaming population and multiversal worlds...The Sims dared to be different and for better or worse, changed a desperately needing customers market that sorely need diversity to survive at a make or break point in gaming to prove there is more to gaming beyond mindless stimulation.

In the nigh-on 20 years The Sims have been around, we had good and bad games, but who is asked what was best is a matter of opinion. Although The Sims 3 had delved into uncanny valley territory, it had tons of features, most notably CASt (Create A Style) was a uniquity that gave better customization.

As I'm getting older I seem to be regressing. Now I play mostly TS1 and I'm fine with that. The newer titles have some interesting gameplay concepts but they made a drastic trade off in their style and humour.

The Sims 1 is the most dark, depressing, and cynical of the series, which to me acts as a more truthful reflection of reality and life. The newer titles try too hard to be quirky and their humour is often an unbalanced mix of moments where it feels forced and then moments of it being non-existent. No consistency. I find it's easier to get lost in TS1's comical world where even using the shower is humorous affair, than it is in the quirky worlds of the 3D titles that tend to both bore and annoy the shit out of me.

TS2 just feels better? I do like both games, I just prefer TS2 over TS3. Various reasons include not needing a squillion mods to make the game run, the sims seem more alive and the world is just more fun. Ts3 sims are mildly unsettling and I don't like the colours even though the create a design thing is mega rad and the sky and water are super cool, everything just looks darker and I happen to not like it.

From what I remember TS1 was amazing, but I don't have it anymore cos somebody never gave me back my cd and I was like 9 at the time so I just got TS2 instead. Also I feel like it was super difficult, but its not like I ever read the instructions back then, and I didn't do that with TS2 either but it was more straightforward. Or I just got older and could understand things better! If I had the game though, I'd definitely try it again cos I still have Vacation and Superstar on my shelf.

I got TS1 the first summer it came out and played it fanatically till TS2 came out. I don't remember how many neighborhoods I had, but I tried to build one for every historical period I could find custom content for. I probably spent more time building neighborhoods and houses than I did playing. I also got into creating custom content, from clothing to furniture and deco, to meshes for sims. Then TS2 provided toddlers and teens and closeup viewing so that I could actually see expressions on my sims faces. I started a neighborhood that December that I still have on my computer though it has gotten so buggy that I rarely try to play it anymore. I bought TS3 and TS4 both as soon as they came out. Both of them had features that I loved, especially TS3. I got almost all the expansions for that one, but have gotten none for TS4. In both cases all the new stuff didn't make up for what was left out that TS2 had. So I always go back to TS2.

The Sims Mobile is good.