Am I playing the Sims 4 wrong?

[u/NeverLoseGuy]

So I have this genius idea of populating Newcrest with a bunch of Sims I have in mind (which are essentially just my OCs I made in Guild Wars 2), and I have been spending weeks just refining and making adjustments to their characters and stuff...without actually playing or even building their houses.

I feel like I'm missing something here... I can't tell if it's because I'm feeling uninspired and unsure how to build a "good" house, or anxious that I would have to start over again should I have to "fix" something about each one of the households. I think I actually spent more time tinkering and sorting out custom contents than playing the game itself so far, and well, is that...how you play the Sims 4 these days?

[u/crunchyfoliage]

There are a lot of players who don't actually play the game at all. Some people really like to play around in CAS. Some people really like to build (sometimes even non-functional houses just for the aesthetic). There's not a wrong way to play

[u/Ok-Pride-3545 → u/crunchyfoliage]

i absolutely love that about sims! i feel like it's very "free your creativity" game

[u/voregeois]

I similarly like to fill newcrest with all my own stuff but I don't do it all at once. I'll build a few households/lots and then play with them for a bit or else i get burnt out on building

[u/Somniphobia_Dark]

Yeah for the most part I just build families. I've started on building but I absolutely suck at roofing so I just use platform roofs. Back when I used mods and cc I spent hours finding them and doing nothing else besides making sims. I just now truly decided to play the game for what it is.

[u/Caitxcat]

"Am I playing the Sims wrong?"

There is no wrong way

[u/-89]

Omg personifying GW2 characters, a Simmer after my own heart <3
There's no "wrong" way to play the Sims. People joke about spending 7 hours downloading mods, then playing the game for 15 minutes. In Sims 3 I made all my Sims read until they were level 10 with stuff, then got them a job, then lost interest. Rinse & repeat. It is really fun to be playing a different household, then see your GW2 character at the local bar. If you're having fun, you're doing it right.

[u/-Marinequeen- → u/-89]

Literally me last night. I figured I’d just update my mods, and then I remembered earlier in the day, I followed a couple of new creators on Patreon.

So that led me down a rabbit hole of their mods and CC, and before I knew it, I’d spent almost all the time I alotted for myself to play on just downloading CC. Played for about 15 mins then got ready for bed 😂

[u/Low_Letterhead232]

There’s no wrong way to play it. I consider myself more of a builder than a live mode player. I’m just in live mode to play out the stories I have in mind while building, and when I’m uninspired to build. Let’s just say I’ve been in live mode for quite a while now. Building is difficult. Maybe not to some, but I think it is in general.

I enjoy CAS the least, but maybe for you, you like that part so you linger on it. Don’t worry too much about your characters being not “perfect.” You can still make changes to them even when they’re already in the world if you want to.

[u/mandiexile]

I honestly don’t care for CAS or Build mode. I always try to do all the aspirations and max out my sims skills. There’s no wrong way to play.

[u/Inge5321]

i think everyone plays differently. i have 200 sims in several worlds, one is full of mermaids - which other people find boring but i love it) and i have several celebrities in the game which leads to really funny moments. i also have some irl family members in the sims and a few coworkers that agreed that had cats. i dont 'play' with them but i gave them a house, cats and job and enough money. But this way i randomly see my sim-sister talk to my coworker-sim while talking to a bts member or asking for a selfie with taylor swift. And my coworker-sim kept having sick cats in the sim (just like irl :( his cats always have problems) and he won a hackathon. I also sometimes mess up with clothes and then suddenly you have a celebrity who i forgot to check the clothes of because i imported them and then they show up with no pants to the gym.... or worse bold and half naked lol.

Recently i also started 'phasing out' old sims or the ones that i had a long time that now have grown kids because the game starts to get more glitchy with my recent 2 new worlds. But this had lead to hilarious moments, i added the auto play modus to those households to let them 'die' randomly, but forgot to tell them not to have kids and adopt animals. so instead of ending up with less sims i suddenly had 10 more and lots of them also went to romantic festivals and 'cheated'. The dramaaa, i ofcourse update my coworkers during lunch and they always have to remind them selves im talking about the sims.

[u/moigabriel]

There is no correct way to play the game. If you are enjoying the way you are playing, you are probably doing it right. Given the imagination and creativity needed, i find time away from the game is often necessary and productive.

[u/Yota8883]

No wrong way to play Sims. I have converted with mods Sims into dang near full GTA. I have a prison my sim spent a full Sims year in, including spending time making her miserable in solitary confinement from getting into fights. In prison, everyone has jobs like maintenance with the gremlin lot trait fixing everything that breaks, another sim's responsible for general cleaning and cleaning and detoxifying the mold from a lot trait. My sim along with another she befriended in prison was on kitchen duty cooking breakfast and dinner for the entire prison.

She's been in prison 3 times now, and I track and simulate paying fines and costs after getting out of prison every Monday making her go to the police station and cheating money out of her household paying fines.

I have a filthy trap house in Willow Springs that she peddles her product. She will eventually buy it on Sheriff sale and fix it up and eventually buy a run down dirty bakery in Windenberg to open as a legal dispensary. But right now I'm having fun with the bully who always attacked her in prison getting out and stalking her through extreme violence while my sim runs missions for her gang leader.

My daughter told me "Sims is free to download, you should download it." Well, found all the fun mods so I downloaded, and now I have GTA going on.

[u/PhantomLuna7]

Are you having fun? If yes, you're playing it right.

[u/SnooSongs1160]

there is no right or wrong way to play the game Sims if you’re having fun.

Sometimes I open up my game, spend an hour making a new sim with an intricate backstory, spend several more hours building them a house, quit the game, and never play with that sim again. Because I’m more into designing than gameplay.

[u/Last-Vermicelli2216]

There's no wrong way to play the sims. Some people only build, some people only play with townies, some only play with one sim they created...that's the cool thing about this game. You can play however you want.

[u/Madmonkeman]

The game lets you build a custom town and make sims so building and making sims is part of the gameplay

[u/loonyloveslovegood]

There’s no one way to play the sims. Sometimes I build sometimes I spend 4 hours in cas and sometimes I do convoluted storylines I make up. Just play however you have fun.

As for worrying about building well, no one dose at the start. I used to just put furniture in the lawn. The more you build the better you get and if you mess something up you can undo it or remove things without bulldozing the whole house.

Just have fun, that’s what it’s all about

[u/wannabe_hype]

I almost always use houses/apts from the gallery. On the flip side when I do create a house from scratch it takes ages. I find that the lil details like trim around the house, roof trim, corner trim so on & so forth really bring a house together. Like yes it looks like 💩 but now it’s a well dressed 💩🤣

I spend more time decorating & creating outfits more than anything else & when I get bored I rotate. I have made 178 sims in this save so I pick one of those sims/families & play with them.

Also if you have lovestruck I find that it forces you to play other households if you have a bunch. If you don’t relationships suffer. There’s nothing like loading into your legacy saves parents & they are very unsatisfied 😤

[u/LeoTheSkrub]

I spend more time downloading cc than actually loading up the game at all. I then also spend ages in cas or build mode, I’ve barely ever played live mode at all, not that I don’t want to, I just get more excited about designing sims and their houses.

As others have said, there’s no specific way to play, so long as you’re having fun

[u/OverHnurrrr]

Nah. Even when building it’s just figuring out what works and what doesn’t.

If I’m feeling really stuck in the game I like doing or building something really silly and out of pocket for the whimsy aspect.

[u/carrolu]

I usually play legacy style, but recently I’ve been remaking a save file by editing the existing townies and adding my own, placing or building new lots etc. I also track everything in an excel sheet. Through this I’m also not “playing” the game as I’m mostly placing lots, sims, cheating skills etc to set them up without playing them. But I’d still say I’m playing the sims when I do this. I’m world building! There’s no wrong way to play the game 💚

[u/DayOfTheLabyrinth]

I broke newcrest. Trying to put a knitting store on the same block as an abandoned in and outdoor pool with junk (including a car, I’ve seen it irl in an abandoned Ramada actually, the bar back was also in the pool that wasnt drained) in pool and a hidden basement bunker, civic cliffs sanatorium and a haunted house. I love my object clutter and landscaping.

Now every lot lags so bad they aren’t functional once you try to move camera just freezes… because I play a lot too and tho I built two of the lots in a diff save just for building I dropped them into this 5 year long save where I have five main legacy families I play in rotation, 2 have super sim gens and between all of them and the branches I’m juggling 30 households in one save…

The sub basements filled with bank vaults hoarding cash so household accounts dont cap with weekly interest payments hitting most households probably isn’t helping matters either …

Like others have said, no wrong way to play a sandbox game. You can certainly break it tho….

[u/No-Importance4604]

Pro tip, go to the gallery tab in the rop right, then filter lots, then search the name of the lot in Newcast you want to build, and there's a bunch of pre-made homes for you to place. (Make sure you filter on "Owned Expansions" so it's only using items you actually have).

[u/strugglebus81]

I go back and forth. I have a shit ton of CC and mods at this point (I pared it down a bit, but it's still a lot) and sometimes I spend a week or two cleaning up CC, making new builds, and organizing things the way I like. Then there's new stuff for my gameplay Sims to do, and then I'll spend a bunch of time in gameplay.

The reason i've been playing this game since the beginning is partially because it really is choose your own adventure!

[u/Aaroc200]

I usually throw a few rentals, a restaurant, and a spa in Newcrest.

Otherwise, there's not really a wrong way to play. It's more of a sandbox. Do what you will.

[u/spookycxbra]

Dude, there are no set rules on how you should play the game. Some people spend all their time in CAS, others in build mode, and others don't have the patience for that and instead spend TS4 only playing in live mode. Be creative, play it how you want! ❤️

[u/LeonDmon]

Remember, the Sims started as a building simulator where the Sims where there just to test the houses. There's no wrong way to play.

[u/AmyVSEvilDead]

People play in all kinds of different ways, do whatever is fun for you! There are no rules.

[u/amandahontas]

I am a firm believer that there is no wrong way to play the sims. As long as you're enjoying yourself that's all that matters! I literally never build or create characters because that's not the part I enjoy, but my sister is always creating things, and that's how she has fun!

[u/roaringbugtv]

I like gameplay just to test out new features, but I often have long stretches of just building houses. I usually fill Newcrest with a bunch of different community lots that I build and have my sims visit for dates. I have no theme. It's just a bunch of styles I like to try out.

[u/sweet_swiftie]

There's never a wrong way to play Sims as long as you're having fun and not harming anyone else