How do I play The Sims

[AvianFlorescence]

This may seem like a silly question, but after on-and-offing this game like a middle-school romance, I realize I don't actually know what to do in The Sims to keep me invested. There have to be things you guys do for fun. I wish to be enlightened.

[Coffee Addict]

what you do in the sims is all up to you

do you wanna play it for the realism? livings your sims lives out day to day

do you wanna play for fun abusing occult powers turning yourself into an immortal god while raining chaos into the lives of other sims?

do you find chasing objectives fun? do you wanna focus on raising all skills to the max and finish all aspirations?

do you want to play god and make everyones lives as miserable as possible? deciding who lives and who has a date with the grim reaper?

do you wanna be a sex addict who goes around town getting everyone pregnant including santa and the easter bunny?


no one can really tell you how to play the sims because each person finds different things that makes the game enjoyable. some people dont even like playing the actual game and just enjoy making sims or building different types of lots

[lk4dalite]

i just get enough mods to make my computer sound like a jet plane and even then its boring alot of the time so idk what to tell u bro

[Xenon The Noble]

Just use your imagination and do things that you couldn't or wouldn't do in real life.

[Zekamashi]

I use mods to make the game hard but that clearly isn't enough so I followed someone else advice. I made a backstory for my sim and play it out. It relies heavily on my imagination and creativeness or else the game falls flat.

My sim dreams of becoming a successful painter but life is hard and bills need to be paid. In order for me to make sure it is a challenge for her to achieve her dreams, i used SNB Bills mod to increase the utility cost up by 500% and property tax to 30%. My sim will need to balance work and life or even sacrifice many days just to pay the bills. I added Littlemssam's slower painting and Kuttoe's career overhaul to nerf income.

I use negative traits like materialistic or gloomy. Putting negative traits makes the game play a bit different and makes my sim feel more real. I have meaningful stories mod to make moods stick a bit longer and harder to manipulate so when my sim feels sad, she will be sad for a much longer time. I have Littlemssam's laundry day overhaul and Kuttoe's bust the dust mod to add realism but tuned to be less annoying.

I look for other more mods when i feel like I need to achieve something. I do like building and decorating so I have other ways to have fun. Try to immerse yourself in the life your sims are having. Make weird, intriguing or funny screenshots and share them or just for yourself.

[Xautos]

The Sims is a sandbox type game, there are no set goals. So you have to create your own goals and make your own stories for your sims. That's the long and the short of it.

[Flight Red50]

You can also go into the scenarios section which might give you some more structure to your gameplay

[larry_roberts]

https://thesimarchitect.com/how-to-play-the-sims-4-introduction-the-basics/

[Xenon The Noble]

If the lore is defectible (changes) what good is it?

[Ani Blade]

As many people are saying, it's sort of up to the player.
Some people love doing legacy challenges or other sorts of challenges (kind of like scenarios, but someone in the community has come up with a list of rules to abide by). TS2 had a SUPER extensive apocalypse challenge. I'll be curious to see the TS4 version when we eventually get zombies (they were mentioned in an interview as being a when not if, for anyone who is about to tell me that will never happen).

It also depends on what DLC you have. Many people love farming games, and we can have decent farms now in TS4 (and lot 51's free roam mod means no stupid barns taking up far too much space for a single animal).
A lot of people create stories for their sims as they play and turn this game into a Rom Com or drama, etc

There's also achievements in game, which are exclusive to each save. Some of those achievements are easy. Some of them are insane, and I want to know what sadist decided to add the 100 generations achievement to the game...

A lot of aspirations do give you some starting direction on what to do, and as some have mentioned, you can also try starting with a scenario. I think the most basic one is to simply earn 1 million simoleons.

What are other simulation/rpg type games you play? You could try and pull from that until you have a better idea of what sort of simmer you are.

[Miss P.]

hello, you don't need to play to enjoy it. You can also just build/imagine some worlds, buildings etc etc. Or just farming or just do challenge or just exploring a world etc etc
You really do what you want to do ;) It is all about freedom

[AvianFlorescence]

Originally posted by Ani Blade:

As many people are saying, it's sort of up to the player.
Some people love doing legacy challenges or other sorts of challenges (kind of like scenarios, but someone in the community has come up with a list of rules to abide by). TS2 had a SUPER extensive apocalypse challenge. I'll be curious to see the TS4 version when we eventually get zombies (they were mentioned in an interview as being a when not if, for anyone who is about to tell me that will never happen).

It also depends on what DLC you have. Many people love farming games, and we can have decent farms now in TS4 (and lot 51's free roam mod means no stupid barns taking up far too much space for a single animal).
A lot of people create stories for their sims as they play and turn this game into a Rom Com or drama, etc

There's also achievements in game, which are exclusive to each save. Some of those achievements are easy. Some of them are insane, and I want to know what sadist decided to add the 100 generations achievement to the game...

A lot of aspirations do give you some starting direction on what to do, and as some have mentioned, you can also try starting with a scenario. I think the most basic one is to simply earn 1 million simoleons.

What are other simulation/rpg type games you play? You could try and pull from that until you have a better idea of what sort of simmer you are.

Kind of a wild mixture. I like games akin to Animal Crossing, but I also enjoy The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
I feel like I don't have a super active imagination, so just kind of playing the game as is feels weird and not super eventful...

[AvianFlorescence]

Originally posted by Flight Red50:

You can also go into the scenarios section which might give you some more structure to your gameplay

Probably should give those a try. Never gave them much thought before.

[James3157]

Originally posted by The Killjoy of Babylon:

This may seem like a silly question, but after on-and-offing this game like a middle-school romance, I realize I don't actually know what to do in The Sims to keep me invested. There have to be things you guys do for fun. I wish to be enlightened.

It depends on how much dlc you own. If you only have a few dlc or no dlc then you might need to use mods and perhaps cc (custom content) as well to keep it more fun and interesting in addition maybe trying out the challenge scenarios as well which you can easily find on the main menu. (Edit) If you own lots of dlc (contrary to few or none) then apparently you have not played enough with the packs yet.

[Ani Blade]

Originally posted by The Killjoy of Babylon:

Kind of a wild mixture. I like games akin to Animal Crossing, but I also enjoy The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
I feel like I don't have a super active imagination, so just kind of playing the game as is feels weird and not super eventful...

Well, if it's the newest Animal Crossing on switch (New Horizons? I should really check on my island...) then you can actually sort of mimic certain aspects on the game. I do apologise if anything I list is from a DLC and not tagged as such, I am not great at recalling what is and is not base game always.

We do have fishing, gardening, and crafting (woodworking was the first one I thought of since you can make furniture, and there's at least one mod out there that lets you craft even more in game stuff).
The Dream Home Decorator DLC does allow for a job to help redesign other sims homes, though I don't know how buggy it might be (it's on my list as one of the next things I need).

There's also in game collections. Frogs, crystals, metals, fossils, various prints from the ginormous microscope or observatory (some make for very nice wall art). Depending on what DLC's you have, there's over 30 collections now I think.

If you have the Eco Lifestyles pack (which I do personally love and I think it brings a lot in general) if gives us N.A.P's (neighbourhood action plans) which have similar vibes to town ordinances (but you can have up to four per neighourbood).
This pack also gives us wind turbines, solar panels, and dew collectors for if you want your sim to live off the grid and totally self sustain themselves (and if you have Cottage Living then there's even a lot trait to force you to grow/buy fruits and veggies in order to cook).

So there's definitely enough Animal Crossing aspects, just with the addition of actually needing to care for your character as well. I do think you should start with just one sim until you're comfortable getting into the more actual life management side of things.

[Xenon The Noble]

Start out as a poor impoverished sim who has to find rocks and daisies in order to survive.
Make it a goal to live forever and make a million simolians.