Here's Why Simmers Feel Burned by the Lack of Toddlers and Swimming Pools in The Sims 4

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

It was recently announced that there would be two very notable features absent from The Sims 4 when it's released on September 2nd. Neither swimming pools nor the "toddler" life stage will be in the base game, and fans are incensed. 

But they're mad not just because of the omissions. What's really getting under players' skin is what those omissions imply. Here's what I mean:

The running joke surrounding this news is that pools have been the most popular way to kill off sims since the dawn of the franchise, making their exclusion practically unthinkable. Meanwhile, toddlers have been a part of the base game since The Sims 2, meaning that for most players the idea of watching a baby grown straight into being a school-age child as The Sims 1 players did is incredibly alien. Then again, babies in The Sims 1 were little more than potatoes wrapped in blankets, so it's probably safe to assume this news doesn't also mean a complete return to the old system of sim child rearing.

The thing is, most fans of the series following this news know that toddlers and pools won't be gone forever. Absolutely not. They'll both be added later, through two separate $39.99 expansions. This is even hinted at in The Sims' official blog post:

... While we recognize that some of you will be disappointed that pools and toddlers won’t be available whenThe Sims 4 Base Game launches in September, you should know that we’re building an incredibly strong foundation that is capable of fulfilling every one of your desires in the years to come.

"An incredibly strong foundation" is a pretty transparent phrase. The fact is that The Sims is easily EA's most aggressively monetized franchise and it has been for more than a decade. Between expansion packs, stuff packs, neighbourhoods, and individual items purchasable with Sim Points in The Sims Store there's easily hundreds (even thousands) of dollars worth of content with more added every month. This ensures that players can tailor and expand their game to suit their own tastes, which is good, but that experience comes with a hefty price tag that many fans openly resent... Especially when it feels like very basic content is being separated from the base game to be sold later.

The argument most commonly raised against DLC is that extra content should be included in the game because the opportunity to sell it separately and make extra money encourages developers to release less complete/fulfilling games. While I'm not a fan of the degree of nickel-and-diming seen in The Sims 3, I personally feel like The Sims base games are solid on their own, while the expansions are for the most part things that wouldn't have been included in it even in a world magically free of DLC and the like. The expansions seem to give the developers much more room to play around and experiment with new features than would be possible for a single, standalone game. That said, as far as features are concerned toddlers and pools are a far cry from the time travel and mermaids featured in later expansions for The Sims 3, so I can absolutely understand the ire.

Either way, while The Sims 4 seems like it will be taking the series in interesting directions it's evident that some things will be staying very much the same.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times, and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[terri]

that is odd, because the kids learn a lot of "skills" as toddlers, and it will be hard to raise a good sim without the toys and potty training, and talking, etc.

[Emperor Norton]

Terri @ " hard to raise a good sim without the toys and potty training, and talking, etc."

Depends on your goal Terri; an adult without potty training does have a certain amusement value.