With the addition of fairies in the Enchanted By Nature pack,The Sims 4has finally (mostly) caught up with everythingThe Sims 3had. While it is exciting to have all the best content from past games, this now meansThe Sims 4is heading into uncharted territory without a proven blueprint of contentfor future expansion packs to follow. This new situation means the series can add any number of new, innovative items and features, but it also opens up even more possibilities for bad content.
Before now, it’s been easy for the developers behindThe Sims 4tomake fans happy by bringing back popular content from previous games. Going forward, the developers will have to figure out what will resonate with fans without a previous example, which means listening to community feedback will be more important than ever.
I’m Happy About Fairies, But What’s Next For Sims 4?
There’s No Longer A Blueprint For The Game’s Future
Fairies are one of the best supernatural additions toThe Sims 4.Enchanted By Nature, which comes out later this summer, is not only adding fairies but an entire eco-friendly lifestyle and three brand-new neighborhoods tailored to living in harmony with nature. Magical ailments, new aspirations, and new career paths are all being added to enhance living as a fairy, whichmakes Enchanted By Nature a well-rounded expansionfocused on its new life state.
The only possible downside to fairies inThe Sims 4is that now, besides cars,there’s no more content fromThe Sims 3that needs to migrate over. Players can no longer expect any specific expansions, which puts the future of the game in question, though the game could always go back andimprove past additions, like mermaids.
Sims 4 Can Now Explore Brand-New Ideas For The Franchise, But This Might Not Be A Good Thing
New Ideas Can Be Great, But Content Might Be Split Up More Than Ever Before
Now thatThe SIms 4has gone through almost everythingThe Sims 3had,the series can go places it’s never been before. This future is both exciting and a little scary, given how many weird, or completely broken, DLC packs the game has added. The worst directionThe Sims 4can go is to only tweak what only exists, or create DLC for DLC, which the game has done in the past.
To add on to the Cats & Dogs expansion pack, the stuff pack My First Pet Stuff was released. It included new small pets like hamsters and hedgehogs, new outfits for cats and dogs, and more pet-themed decorations. This stuff pack added more content to the game, but for $10 more, on top of the $40 expansion required to play it.
In comparison,The Sims 3expansion pack, Pets,added all of this content in one pack. With this track record of splitting up content into separate, pricey, packs, it’s possible future expansions will follow the same path and parcel out similar content into different, smaller packs.
Sims 4’s Community & Feedback Is Essential
The most important thingThe Sims 4needs tokeep in focus going forward for new content is the community. Real, genuine feedback from players will be the best way to continue improvingThe Sims 4. The series has asked players to vote for their favorite ideas in past polls, including questions on what players prioritize in their own gameplay, like decorating and customizing their Sims versus molding relationships and achieving career goals.
Now that easy requests for past content are gone,collecting feedback will be essential to keeping the game on the right track. For a while, common requests will probably still be aboutThe Sims 3cars (which would be nice to have inThe Sims 4) and improvements to other expansion packs. Even Enchanted By Nature isalready receiving requestsfor better off-the-grid gameplay mechanics, including options for non-electricity-reliant cleaning tools.
