Shameless, obligatory reblog after The Ratchet Reading Room™ blew up today!

Dear Laura Miele,

I read your recent interview with VentureBeat where you discussed the future of The Sims.  As a long-time player of the series, I have concerns.

Firstly, there is no reason to ignore the elephant in the room.  The Sims 4 was originally built to be multi-player, but with the flop of SimCity 2013 (a multi-player simulation game) TS4 got a quick makeover.  While I could go on about the flaws of TS4 from its core to the stacks of micro-transaction packs built on a broken foundation, I will put aside those particular criticisms for a larger discussion.

The Sims is a life simulation game.  While you state that “Play with Life” is The Sims’s brand, I remember when it was about creating.  Create worlds. Create families.  Create chaos.  Create stories.  Create life. 

The Sims 4 has taken the franchise down a much different path.  While we can still create our sims, we cannot create the worlds they live in or even place lots.  We must purchase new packs for more locations.  We find linear action/adventure storylines implemented into packs like Strangerville or Star Wars: Journey to Batuu.  While I am a fan of sims lore, I find these particular packs irksome as they shift The Sims from life simulation to RPG.

It became a theme with almost every TS4 pack, especially those like Island Living and Eco Lifestyle–though less RPG–but more goal oriented to “saving the world” or in Snowy Escape “climb the mountain.”  A pattern like this is something I do not want repeated in the next generation of The Sims.

While I have seen many SimGurus argue that The Sims have a variety of players (which is true) and they want to appease players who want point-and-click adventures, it takes away resources and opportunities to expand the sandbox, which is the foundation of every life simulation game.

There are endless action/adventure RPG games, many made by EA.  There are few life simulation games and only one highly successful, The Sims.

While I know your interview addressed the future of The Sims and not TS4, I wanted to begin the conversation with those points as I now move to the future of the franchise.

The Sims has always been rated T for Teen, but lately a great many players have noticed the focus drifting ever closer to E for Everyone, which means including children as a base customer.  I understand EA sees an opportunity for sales, but making a life simulation game appropriate for children will limit TS5 in game play and intricacy as every aspect of the game will have to be easy enough for a five-year-old to understand.  

As an adult, this would be a major turn-off and opens to a more pressing problem I have seen questioned across the community here on Tumblr, forums, and Twitter.  The idea of making the next game compatible across all platforms, including mobile.  While I agree Xbox and PlayStation’s consoles are completely able to run a game such as The Sims, I would not want the game dumbed down for mobile.  It would mean a simple, depthless game–an issue that already disappoints customers of TS4.

Again, I understand EA wants to reach as many consumers as possible. You are a company that wants to make a profit and sees an opportunity to make more sales.  Making the game for children and mobile, may reach new customers, but it will ultimately lose a vast majority of players who desire a sequel that brings back that excitement like when we watched the trailer for Sims 2.

And you think the way to do that is to re-introduce multi-player, like The Sims Online?  You stated you believe the “social connection” is what is missing in the franchise.  I can tell you that is untrue.  Simmers are probably the most vocal gamers I know.  We have already made the “social connection” through the mediums we have chosen.  

While I know there are already people reading this–you may be included–that think, “just make online optional,” I must insist on the single player experience.

If you create Sims 5 to be like Roblox or Second Life, it will extremely limit the core of the game.  It will transition the game from life simulation to MMORPG.  While I cannot say “no one wants that,” I can confirm as a long-time player and one that knows thousands of other players, we do not want that.  

We do not want The Sims turned into IMVU and Second Life, which are glorified chat-rooms with an avatar and a marketplace to buy virtual, pixelated CAS items.  It is already an issue–of paid content–faced daily in our community.  I suggest EA not fan those flames.

We do not want the game to be centered around socializing as it is in TS4.  We want depth.  Memories.  Chaos.  Consequences.  And maybe an alien abduction every now and then?

I want to reaffirm that The Sims is a life simulation game.  A sandbox game where you play God and build worlds, houses, and manipulate lives of simulated people.  I do not see why you would feel the need to compete with Roblox or Second Life or Fortnite.  None of those games give the player the same experience as The Sims.  

Stop limiting the sandbox.  Embrace it.  Expand it for a better generation.  

Sincerely, MDP

for those who haven’t been following me in @gonerilcapp​, which is where i spend most of my time now, I’ve been writing the sequel to Escaping Nowhere titled Back to Nowhere. 

synopsis: sharing your house with two of your closest friends sounds like a dream come true, but is it really what it’s cracked up to be?

story index under the cut.

Keep reading

The weight of the world.

Friendly reminder that this blog is pro-choice and if you don’t think a woman should have full control of her own body, then kindly unfollow me right now and go to hell

PLEASE REBLOG

I’ve created a google doc so we can keep track of everyone’s discord, twitter, and/or wordpress so everyone can check the doc and see where their favourite simblrs are going in case this tumblr thing doesn’t clear up. In the google doc, feel free to comment your username, discord, twitter, and/or wordpress and I’ll add you into the doc!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_65UqhshhHsdGDLapVXkuf9mB7lbJgAKlOhZBhSg2Nc/edit?usp=sharing

I think it would be best if we make an individual place to see all simblrs, similar to the doc for WMS recolours and such. So please reblog this so we can get the word out

Gonna tag in here at some point, but if anyone wants to connect on discord I’d love to (I just lurk the discords for ts2 and the Jessa channel)

simorous-me#9651

Tumblrpocalypse, the Sims community, and where to go

So, for producers of adult Sims content on Tumblr, it’s probably fair to say that things are…not great right now. It sucks. It’s infuriating. It’s scary.

We’d like to take this opportunity to remind people that the wonderful and devilishly handsome people behind MTS also run SexySims, which is devoted to, you guessed it, creating and sharing adult content for TS2, TS3 and TS4.

We also run Sim File Share, the latest and greatest place to host your Sims files, including adult content.

And what makes MTS, SexySims and Sims File Share so special?

We own our own servers

That’s right, adult content hosted on SexySims and Sims File Share isn’t going anywhere. We are not beholden to the App store, corporate stakeholders, overzealous server owners, or anyone else but ourselves and the community.

So we can promise you that 18+ content on SexySims will always be safe, because it is literally what the site was built for. Do you need somewhere secure and non-censorious to stick your 18+ Sims files, no questions asked, no moderation, while you figure out your next home? Sims File Share will keep everything safe. Want to share your 18+ content on a site which is moderated for quality and that isn’t going to ban adult content? SexySims can be your home. Female-presenting nipples and all!

If adult content isn’t your jam but you want somewhere to post Sims pics and stories that won’t be flagged by some ridiculous algorithm, check out the MTS forums. No algorithms here, just good old fashioned human moderators who can tell a nipple from a hat.

And on all of our sites, including MTS, we can promise that LGBTQIA+ content will always be welcome for the same reasons we can promise that adult content is safe on SexySims and Sims File Share. We own the servers. We’re not letting anyone’s bigotry take us down.

So while there are other places to go, we hope you’ll consider joining us. At least for a little while.

Love

The MTS team

P.S. We’re going to continue posting on Tumblr for now, unless the Sims fandom here dies enough to make it not worth the effort. But even if that day comes, you all know where to find us!

Mod the Sims

This was the single funniest thing I have ever seen a president do.

I’M STILL LAUGHING.

I will never not reblog this.

Let’s all take a moment to remember that Obama actually fucking did this omg 

I need some humour today.

I miss him.

I’m about to have a fun afternoon.

So my trainer’s bf cheated on her. She broke up with him. He’s holding her stuff hostage until she agrees to talk with him. Which she refuses.

She trains; for free mind you; three college linebackers, a college wrestler, two martial artists, a body builder, and… wait for it…. a Navy seal. We’re gonna go get her shit for her.

This should make for an interesting story.

So everyone who commented on this being like the avengers, you are absolutely right. That’s what all of us had in our heads as we were rolling over to dude’s house. But I’m very proud to say, this ended without violence.

Arrival:

So the super friends all jumped into one of the linebacker’s explorer and headed over to dude’s house. Ok the squad: you all know me, but the other martial artist is a little wirey hapkido guy, the linebackers are all giants (an estimated combined weight of I’d say 750-800lbs), the wrestler looks like an escaped gorilla, then the navy seal looks like your average guy but something about him is unsettling. Really unsettling. Unfortunately, the body builder had to work. Anyway, we send the Hapkido guy and the wrestler to the door first and dude answers, screams at them, and then slams the door in their face. Then the giant linebackers head over and they ring the door bell again. Lo and behold, he was much more polite, but still denied access. Finally, me and the seal join the fray. I casually make my way towards the front of the group, but the seal decides to CLIMB THE BANISTER. We all just turned and started at him completely shocked when dude answers the door. He looks at this weird mismatched group of relatively threatening individuals and one guy perched on his banister like batman. He was like “FINE. Go take what you’re looking for.”

Retrieval:

So we’re all walking through the house gathering what we think are her things and putting them into two boxes. Mind you. We are completely guessing. We didn’t even tell her we were coming, therefore we had no list of items.The only one really being productive was Hapkido, who was legitimately looking for stuff. The linebackers were just randomly picking up furniture, turning it over, and putting it back down. Just showing off how strong they were. In case the numbers game wasn’t enough, I guess they were letting him know they could break him if they wanted to. The seal was just shadowing dude in his own house. Walking behind him, not saying much, just being creepy. Then there’s me. Who was causing general mischief…. He said to take what I was looking for, that’s what I was looking for. Ahaha and the wrestler made a fricken sandwich. Because “you guys look like you have it under control, and I’m a sucker for egg salad.” We were in and out in 15 minutes.

Delivery:

So the autobots rolled out and headed towards homegirl’s spot. She was conveniently outside when we rolled up. We got out and she was like, how do you all even know each other. The truth is, we don’t. She sent us all an email once and didn’t blind copy us all. She vented to all of us about dude holding onto her stuff and we started emailing and that was that. We told her that we went to see her ex. “OMG what did you say to him?” Nothing. We’re not messenger boys. We’re delivery boys. And we gave her her boxes of stuff. She went through the first box and said that was most of her stuff. Then she got to my box and asked “Wtf is all that shit.” So I explained that I took all the batteries out of his remote controls, his deodorant, the light bulb out of his master closet, every pair of dress socks that I could find, the laces out of his running shoes, and all the toilet paper in the house. The guys just looked at me and kind of nodded like they were impressed. She then unexpectedly started CRYING and thanked us. So you have this group of meat heads all standing awkwardly with this weeping trainer. It was quiet for a second when the seal was like “So…. chipoltle?” And we all got burrito bowls.

What a great day.

This is literally the most beautiful and thrilling tale. Start to finish.

I am almost in tears I am laughing so hard. This is beautiful. I can’t believe you took all the toilet paper. I’m dying. Help. It sounds like the start of a joke: two martial artists, a wrestler, two linebackers and a Navy Seal walk into a Chipotle.

I have reblogged this a dozen times and I will reblog it a dozen more.

This needs reblogging. I’ve read this before, but it’s still priceless.

I don’t reblog this amazing piece of human cooperation, assume I’m dead

reblogging this for no other reason than the comedy.

The story index is up and running! :)

Holy moly - it’s up and running!

Does anyone have any idea why this happens? I was feeling inspired so I wanted to make some edits to my vacation lots. Some hotels I opened spawned the Bell Hop and Housekeeping guy right away, no questions asked. I can’t change the zoning with sims on the lot for fear of corrupting my game. I really want to just bulldoze these lots and start all over, but I’m worried doing so will probably just corrupt my game again.

Any thoughts/ideas on what causes this and how to fix it?

PS: It only does this with some hotels, regardless of whether or not I have had my sims vacation there or not. I’ll put the other screenshots under the cut for reference.

Keep reading

Still searching for a solution for this.

A great reminder. I needed this.

Any idea where I can find this?

I’m re-building and re-decorating some of my lots, this will come in very handy!

PS: Image does not belong to me. I googled it, and it originated from this post on Mod the Sims. @modthesimsinfo

Found! Thanks, @ekrubynaffit ; and to everyone else who liked & reblogged this. You are all awesome!!!!!

Can I just say - I love this community!