25 Years of the Sims, 11 Years of the Sims 4

By: Sadie Downing'26

In 2014, the year “The Sims 4” was released, I was turning 10 years old. In this wider community around “The Sims” franchise, that makes me astonishingly young– for the most part, Simmers, as they affectionately call themselves, seem to be in their mid-twenties to thirties currently, with the majority of them already playing “Sims” games by 2014, when they were preteens and teenagers. Because of this large age range across Simmers, feelings toward each iteration of the franchise, from 2000’s “The Sims” to the aforementioned “Sims 4,” are decidedly mixed. At least according to many of the players who have been playing since the first game, “The Sims 4” is the worst by far. As I got more involved with the wider Sims community, I was genuinely shocked to learn about this, as the Sims 4 has always been my favorite game. It’s the only video game I return to again and again, and I’ve been playing it since childhood. I have always loved creating my own characters and storylines, and in my opinion, this is the only game that has allowed me to embrace the full expanse of my creativity. 

Recently, the “The Sims” game reached its 25th anniversary, which was celebrated throughout the community with a whole month of events. First, a huge base game content drop was rolled out, adding new clothes, hair, and building items to the game. Personally, I don’t use a lot of the base game materials, but the content drop was one of the biggest in years and most of what was added was very good. Next, there was a 25-hour livestream of Sims 4 gameplay by a whole host of celebrity guests, ranging from Sims 4 Youtubers to singer Doja Cat. Because I had class the next day, I did not stay up to watch the entire livestream, but I did tune in to my favorite guests: Trixie and Katya, the hilarious Drag artists who opened the stream; Doja Cat, who created 15 of one of the most popular Sims figures, Bella Goth, and caused quite a bit of chaos; Julien Solomita, the husband of my favorite Youtuber in middle school, Jenna Marbles; and finally, Dan and Phil, who have had a recent resurgence in popularity, filling middle-school’s me’s heart with joy. Though I liked seeing all of these people play the game in their own unique ways, none of them were incredibly captivating, because each of them had an hour at the most of gameplay, and the Sims has never been a game where you can get much done in an hour. 

Besides the livestream of creators, the “Sims 4” devs ran multiple giveaways throughout the month. During the livestream, ten Logitech sets of headphones and keyboard were given away, as well as 25 packs of exclusive “Sims 25” content. Then, in the next week, a giveaway was run on the “Sims 4” Discord, where you sent in one of your favorite Sims memories and 20 winners were randomly selected. Shockingly, I was one of the winners selected; last week, I received a bundle of Sims-related goodies, including a 25th-anniversary calendar and a candle shaped like a stove (an object that frequently catches fire in the game). Finally, to cap off the month, a base game update was rolled out to everyone, fixing bugs, readjusting some of the UI, and, most importantly, introducing burglars into “The Sims 4.” 

Burglars were apparently a very important part of gameplay in the previous Sims games, especially in 2 and 3; though I never played either, I had definitely seen burglar memes floating around Sims spaces online, and burglars were one of the things people said they missed the most in “The Sims 4.” 

For many of the more negative players, missing burglars was just the tip of the iceberg for how awful “The Sims 4” supposedly is. According to what I’ve seen online, “The Sims 4” is: too complicated/not complicated enough; too expensive (the base game is free, but packs adding new content cost money, though they are by no means mandatory); shoddy and broken; less detailed than any of the previous games; and not filled with enough content in the base game. Though much of the criticism of the game is directed towards the entertainment conglomerate EA, who owns the game, which is less harmful than criticism directed towards the creators, in many online spaces you get overwhelmed with general hatred towards “The Sims 4,” though all the people who supposedly hate it still say they play it every day. I do think some things in the game could be better (for example, I still haven’t bought one of the most recent expansions because there’s a bug where it corrodes your save files and makes them unplayable, basically a Sims player’s worst nightmare), but I love “The Sims 4,” and I know I’ll keep coming back to it. The game is frequently updated and new content is always being created, and though you do have to pay for the DLCs, all the ones I’ve bought have enriched my gameplay. Again, I’ve been playing this game since I was about ten years old, and it still hasn’t gotten old for me– and I don’t think it ever will. The newest expansion pack will be released next week, and I’m sure I’ll buy it (but maybe not until it’s on sale), because in the end, I love “The Sims 4,” and I’m super excited to see what the team has created for us.