#simgurugrant

For the past several days Sim Gurus Grant and Graham have both been holding daily hour-long Q&A sessions in separate forum threads on the official Sims 4 forums.  Grant has been having a morning session from 9am-10am PDT, while Graham has been holding his own afternoon session during a one hour window falling between 2pm and 4pm PDT in a separate thread.

Understand that Grant, Graham, nor any other Sim Guru is able to discuss any future unannounced content.   Nonetheless, both threads have had questions regarding the possibility of adding story progression to The Sims 4.   In both cases, the responses have been promising and strongly suggest that we may, indeed, be seeing some form of story progression.

First, was this comment from Grant during the morning session on Monday, Sept 8th:

We have some form of story progression. The engine does allow for it. Please note specifically what features you’d like. Story Progression is VERY contentious and means different things to different people. This is on us for being vague about it for years. So, YOU can all help us by telling us specifically want you want. Don’t say “we want story progression,” but instead say: We want new Sims to move in We want Sims to die

Etc.

By the way, in TS4, the neighborhood will age and new Sims will move in. There IS some story progression.

Then, there was this comment from Graham two days later during the afternoon session:

Story progression can provide some great world fiction to help things move along and give you a lot of interesting neighbors and seeing how things change organically over time.

We’ve been chatting about it internally as well and thinking about what exactly story progression is and how it would apply best to The Sims 4 if it were to be added. Obviously there were some great mods for The Sims 3 that took that entire system really in-depth as well, and point towards some of the cool possibilities it brings. I don’t know what will happen right now, but it’s something we’re thinking about.

While neither of these comments should be viewed as proof that story progression is definitely going to become a reality (or what it will entail if it does), they do indicate that the idea has not been dismissed.   Assuming the team has learned from the past, any form of story progression will likely be optional, most likely with the same on/off options we currently see with aging (Current Family, Previously Played Families, or All Others).

For those of us who miss the idea of story progression, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this becomes a reality and that they are able to deliver a solid and colorful story progression system for The Sims 4.

If you have ideas or concerns about TS4, that's the place to take them.

Note that:

For complicated reasons having to do with tax law (who knew?) Grant and the other SimGuru's can't discuss future expansions or content (until, you know, they can, and when they can, they will).

WooHoo skill removed from the game

SimGuruGraham and SimGuruGrant confirmed on Twitter today that the WooHoo skill, previously announced by gurus and in the official magazine has been removed from the game. Gurus have stated that the reason is not lack of time, but rather a decision due to uncertainty of how accepted it might be in community.

[The WooHoo skill] was cut from the game since we originally talked about it. Lots of…

Simmer Crinrict had a chance to go to SimsCamp at Gamescon, Germany. He kindly wrote in detail what he learnt about The Sims 4 emotions on his blog.

Sims 4 - Emotions

One of the biggest new features that will come with Sims 4 are emotions. Sims are no longer keeping their feelings to themselves, they show if they are happy, sad or angry. This shows in their faces as well as the way they walk. 

Grant Rodiek (SimGuruGrant) introducted us to the topic. You can get a first impression yourself by watching the second part on the official Sims 4 Gameplay Video which shows part of what we got to see too.  

SimGuruGrant

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