No Story Progression = Easier Themed Worlds

Perhaps, but on days when you have nothing else to do...creating everything yourself can be a fun experience. Just not one I'd want to have to do every time I started the game up.

Totally OT, but you have a lovely, lovely avatar.

On topic, I'm not sure yet how I feel about this change. I always found myself getting pretty frustrated in TS3 trying to find a good match for my sim because people could marry, become involved with, etc., at will but I also tend to be more of a focused player than a rotational one so I'm not sure I want to have to keep track of everyone, if that makes sense. I definitely think I will end up changing my style of gameplay with this next game.

I've never played with story progression on. I like micromanaging lol. I hate it when sims make major decisions on their own. Besides, randomly generated sims become either too weird or too plain.

I've always been the type of simmer that enjoys watching how the Sims interact with others in their neighborhood. One of my friends that helps encourage my Sims addiction back when Sims 1 was out was the same way...we'd spend all day playing and telling each other about the actions of our own individual sims. Lord...I'm a sim nerd. *sigh*

Well it's great for people that like to Micro-Manage. However, the "Worlds" are really small in TS4 so it won't be that hard. There are only about 12 lots for families. You don't have to manage all of them. Also, there are townies, random sims that live in the town that you can interact with.

Back when I first started playing Sims 2, shortly after the game was released...I used to do everything, with the exception of creating all the fellow students for my kids that went to college in the univiersity ep. It was kinda fun...several that were living alternate lifestyles and an alien dude that was the town mack daddy. I may want to do it again with TS4...especially if the houses are limited.

I kinda feel like they made the worlds extremely smaller to allow us in creating more personalized stories. I also think they made it possible to travel between worlds to make up for the small space. It's great because we get to experience different things. Unlike in the past games where the cities were huge, everything was spaced out. It feels more personal now, imo.

^^This is what I think I'm going to try. Populate most of one neighborhood with my own created households then decide if I want to rotate through them all or just get them going and focus on one family.

It was great fun at that point and time...I'm sure it will be even moreso with TS4, when you can pick out more detailed specifications for each character's traits.

Yes, I'm really looking forward to playing with the traits, emotions, moodlets and whims. That's the main thing that has had me excited for this game since I first saw it advertised. I get so frustrated when I see people say that we already have all this stuff in TS2 and TS3 and I keep thinking that they're really missing the point that it's NOT going to be the same. I get frustrated at EA's lack of advertising but, truthfully, I'm not sure they CAN advertise it very well. How do you explain to people that sure you had moodlets in TS3 and emotions in TS2 but now they're actually going to really affect gameplay, sim interactions with each other and the environment, and how the story looks and feels while you're playing it.

Of course, I could be wrong and maybe they've missed the boat on it in TS4, as well. Maybe it isn't quite what they're claiming it will be but, based on the little bit of gameplay I've seen and the tidbits of info they've shared about emotions/moodlets, etc., I think it IS going to be as good as they're saying.

Yup...me too.

Glad there are people that are really positive. From what I've seen from the "official" forums, I thought the whole community was negative towards the game. There was so much complaining and bashing.

There are a few people over there that are still pretty positive about the game but the people who are angry with it have pretty much taken over. It's too hard anymore to post something very positive without having someone else "express their opinion" by stomping all over yours. And post a positive thread? Fuggedaboudit!