This will sound like a complaint that's over a decade old, because, well, it is, but I do miss Fears from The Sims 2 in The Sims 3. It gave some tangible failure states, and seeing a Sim just freak out or go crazy because life was feeding them their worst fears was fun. Sims 3 was just too... "nice".
Sims 4 looks like it's going to be "nice", too, as randomized deaths seem to have been drastically reduced. I do kind of want the lethality of The Sims 2 back, maybe as a Hard Mode or something, because playing Sims that have perfect lives gets old after the first few ones.
No, you're actually making a good point, I think there's been a clear change over the course of the series in how they want you to approach the game.
TLDR:
Sims 1: We're not taking any of this seriously.
Sims 2: We're not taking any of this seriously, but you can if you want to.
Sims 3: We're going to pretend we're not taking this seriously, but we desperately want you to, because then you will spend more money.
Sims 4: LOOK HOW WE'RE NOT TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY! BUY THINGS!
The original Sims, for example, wasn't just ridiculously different from anything that had come before, but it was also quirky in all the right places (which was one of Maxis' defining characteristics in their heyday). The strangeness of a "people simulator" plus that trademark Maxis sense of humor gave the game a ton of personality. You could have your Sims wet themselves and die in weird ways because the developers didn't take the game too seriously. It was just a neat, charming thing to play with.
The Sims 2 basically took the core of the Sims and allowed players to put their personal fingerprints all over it. They realized that people were using The Sims to tell stories, so they gave players tools and control methodologies that allowed for deeper customization and storytelling. It didn't take itself seriously either, but it gave you the tools to do so if you wanted (this is an important point). This is where the Sims really became more than just a game and turned into a sort of sub-culture where people wrote fanfiction and made movies about their Sims. The expansions added more and more tools to the game, but the real show here was the modding community, which makes sense considering the game took on a heavy personalized angle.
The Sims 3 is where EA realized two things;
- All of those tables, chairs, lamps, shirts, hairstyles and toys that modders made were potential micro transactions, and
- People stick with the games for a long time because they become engrossed with their Sims.
The end result was a game that tried to pretend it wasn't taking itself seriously, but
totally wanted you to because the longer you played and the more you wanted to tell stories with your Sims, the more likely you are to buy things for them. You had more space to play in, better customization tools and social media integration because all of those things create a deeper connection. The personality became entirely superficial at this point (Llama references because "LOL, Maxis has a thing with llamas, amirite?") because they wanted you to be deadly serious about your Sims because that was what kept you hooked and they would like it oh so very much if you would buy something cool for your Sim too.
From the look of Sims 4, they're trying to have their cake and eat it too. They want you to take it seriously so that you keep playing, but they've cut out as much of the customization as possible because they want to sell it back to you piecemeal, without realizing that the customization is the reason people connect with and take their Sims seriously. That Create-a-Sim feels powerful but everything else feels like a hatchet job is especially telling, because they want you to be pulled in by the
potential of your Sims but things that they can sell you like clothes, furniture, etc. are suspiciously absent. The lack of Create-a-Style means they can sell you 10 different colored scarves instead of one. The same with building; there are lots of cool new features that suggest a ton of potential, but all of the meat is behind a pay wall.
Basically, they're trying to sell you The Best Sims Ever (someday); "Imagine when they finally add create-a-style to this!" or "Imagine how cool it will be when they add pools with these awesome building tools!", because all of those things
are coming and gee whiz, won't it be cool when they do... but at a price.
It also really speaks to the way the Sims 4 is being sold, with an over-emphasis on meme-like strangeness and antics, almost like they're basically pushing the Sims 4 as this crazy storytelling device where anything can happen and you can totally put it on Youtube. More than ever they want you to consider the Sims an extension of yourself, your creativity and your personality (at the expense of the game and, eventually, your wallet).
), but you're still very limited with what you can do here.