Life Sims - Blog Posts

Starting my nightmare legacy challenge

After watching Lilsimsie for a while and being OBSESSED with her nightmare legacy and all of the chaos which comes along with it, I've decided to start my first official nightmare legacy. Ten generations on short lifespan.

I'm using the rules from this post, so thank you to jasminesilk for making them so easy to follow.

I used the story function to make my founder sim, Lorena Havenwood who is... sigh, mean, a genius and neat. But I'd never figured to play with the mean trait so there's something.

I also got a dog! A golden retriever named Muffin who is so so sweet but also sort of a menace.

Then, as per the nightmare rules (I use the nightmare edition of the rules except for the goals since um I ain't good enough for that), I built an empty house, choosing Copperdale as a nice place to start.

Now, my sim has already romanced a literal EVIl sim so... this is gonna be great

Sooo Paralives and the Brainwashing EA has done

It's funny. Paralives launched a gameplay video that looks really good, along with some announcements. One of them being that they won't be offering paid DLC. I was watching Satch on Sims and him, plus a few other people, seem to think this is a bad move.

No shade, but it's easy to tell people who don't really game and all they play is the Sims. Like EA got yall so brainwashed that you actually think you're SUPPOSED to be getting charged for base game features.

His concern was wanting a different world to play in or different aethitics. Who said we can't get that for free? We may not know what all features Paralives are going to offer, but what rule says that they can't give us another world to play in for free? I mean literally, there are so many games that do free updates and only offer DLC if it's a niche theme that not everyone would be into, or if they're adding ADDITIONAL gameplay that has no resemblance to what's already in the game.

Only EA removes base game features just to sell them back to you later. Or expect you to buy a multitude of different DLCs that have the exact same theme or niche. Now don't mind me while I gripe on this point a little.

Growing Together and Parenthood should have been one generations themed pack.

Discover University and High School Years should have been one pack focused on education.

All of the occults (vamps, wolves, witches, ghosts, aliens, mermaids, plant people) all should have been in ONE paranormal pack.

Features from Dine Out should have been included in Get to Work. There was no need for that to be seperate DLC when they both relate to active careers.

For Rent and City Living should have been one pack.

Simple features that should not be locked behind a pay wall, and I'm not even talking weather. Like why do I have to buy DLC just for my sims to have access to a hot tub (Perfect Patio), an ice cream maker (Cool Kitchen), a popcorn maker (movie night), for them to have the ability to carve a pumpkin or have different holloween costumes, when Holloween is a holiday that comes in the base game with base game ability to trick or treat, etc. (Spooky Stuff), I have to buy Vintage Glamour just to have a butler (if anything the butler should have been in get famous along with everything in the luxury stuff pack. These are all things that should just be base game that they force you to buy DLC to have access to.

And speaking of weather, I do feel like packs like seasons, pets, laundry day, bust the dust, and my wedding stories should all be base game features. Yeah I don't care if we're used to paying for stuff like seasons and pets, things can and should change. These are all life basics, why am I paying extra?

Now I'm not all negative. There are packs that actually make sense. Get Famous makes sense. So does Island Living, Strangervile, all the vacation packs (jungle, outdoor, snowy). Hell, even Journey to Batuu made sense. Yeah, hear me out. These are all OPTIONAL packs. Stuff that not everyone is going to play with but they each bring something different to the game. Now whether any of these packs are filled to the brim with playable content, thats another story. But at least the concept makes sense.

Okay, off my soapbox and moving on.

I will forever and always use No Man's Sky as an example of a development team that chose integrity over money. That team has been releasing update after update for YEARS. Significant updates too. Updates that completely change the gameplay mechanics, adds brand new features to the game, or updates/changes the look of the game. All for free. Yes, it's normal. Not normal in the sense that these companies should be releasing broken games or not delivering on promises to begin with, but at least they weren't money-hungry assholes about it. The amount of updates that game has, quite a few could have been paid DLC and they didn't do that. Now if they started releasing DLC with specialty ships or different cosmetic features, I would have no problem paying for that cause it's optional.

Paralives knows what they're doing. As long as they are focused on making the base game everything it's supposed to be, I don't see why they couldn't sell the type of optional DLC that makes sense in the future. But I'm certainly not going to say that they're making a mistake by not having paid DLC right now.

I can definitely see them adding things like weather, a new life stage, or new clothes/build objects for free and that's dope. I'm excited about Paralives more so than Life By You. But either way, I'm just glad EA has competition in the life simulation genre now that isn't just about farming management.