was Sims 2 style supposed to be cartoony or were y’all aiming for a realistic look and was it like that just bc of technical limitations?
also why do you personally think the tone and vibe was never like that generation again? it seemed like they were going for a soap opera ish story - Answer by Michael Long (vertexnormal)
The Sims 2 was just an evolution of The Sims 1, same lead character artist. It was cartoony because we added Create A Sim that allowed for editing sims and the technology and techniques at the time were pretty limited. It was also just the art style and direction. EDIT: In general it because more cartoony because we went full 3D and texture memory was our biggest graphical constraint.
The Sims 1 was meant, or ended up, being a critique on consumer culture. It was pretty silly, but the idea of buying a bigger TV so you would be happier was kindof the point/joke. The Sims 2 lost that critique and became more about enabling people to tell the stories they wanted to tell, and people wanted/liked strange and funny stuff.
I don't think the Sims 3 really had any strong identity, the weight of the franchise just meant we all wanted to iterate on 2 and make something bigger and better.
By the time Sims 4 rolled around I think they lost the plot entirely and in some ways it was driven by it needing to make money. Mind you the people working on it love the franchise and the players, it's more of the vibe coming from new management and EA.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/s/t6J2rtUGuS
