Has The Sims 3 gotten too easy?

[Wai]

Just a thought. but, many games have a difficulty setting which you choose before you start play, (Easy, Normal, Hard, Excruciating or similar) which define not only starting cash, but many other aspects.  Job done.  You want easy money, quick levelling of skills, jobs etc. you got it.  You want to have to really work at the game, you got it.  Everyone is happy.

I don't think having to work out strategies to make the game more challenging yourself is the solution.

[Deklitch]

I don't think it has gotten too easy for me. If I was forever playing with that make needs static cheat then I'd find it too easy and lose interest, but I don't play with it and so I don't find it too easy.

I really disliked playing with that cheat in Metro's Haven. It took all of the fun out of it for me.

[simlover16]

 I kinda asked myself this the other day.

 When I first started playing the Sims 3, it was SOOOOOOO hard! Getting your daily check was a HUGE accomplishment for me! Now, using that Genie Lamp for 100K is nothing.

 My point is, maybe we just have adapted (lol, does that make sense?) to it. We've learned to multitask and we know what we're doing. LIKE A BOSS.

Lol.

[_Annika_]

I think it's easier because I know the game much better than when I first started. I tried the combination of the apocalypse challenge combining it with rebuilding the town. I only left a couple of rabbitholes, so I had to clear the ability to purchase property so I could then place the rest of the rabbitholes. Also Aaroc's Legacy is more fun with more achievements than Pinstar's, so that can make it more fun, too.

If you want to make things hard, you could do a 'cheapacy' - only buying the cheapest of everything, and not allowing sims to use better objects outside the home lot. Or a 'hands off' legacy, where you're only allowed to issue 3 commands per sim per day.

[saltpastillen]

I agree that the game feels much easier sometimes. But I think it's partly because I know most of the tricks now, and partly because I am so much more experienced in how the game mechanics work.

I think it all comes down to making choices (much like real life) where just going with the flow is easy but kind of boring and challenging yourself takes a lot more effort and is a lot more fun.

That being said, I love to play poor or at least less well to do sims because they are more of a challenge and succeeding with them would be more of an accomplishment. If I ever redid the ID I would give all my sims regular careers and have them retire as soon as possible, everything to minimize profit. Also, no helper sims, just to see how far I can push it.

I do own many premium items but find I like the monotony of watching my sims do all the boring stuff  I guess I'm just weird like that

[ratchie]

My first complete immortal dynasty was played with just spouses to do the work,no extra helpers,and I never used the moodlet manager.
I am in the planning stages of an immortal dynasty on the short setting. I still want to try it without using the moodlet manager but it is good to know I can if I want too.

Rachel

[SimStoryCreator]

I don't think that it has gotten any easier, necessarily - just different. The game is difficult when you first start out, because you're just learning how to work the different game. After you get used to it, the challenge becomes keeping their moods up, fulfilling their lifetime wishes, keeping up relationships, decorating to create the best vista, etc. I think that there are so many different ways to play the game, and so many challenges, that it will never really get 'too' easy.

[Janna]

I think it has become easier due to what we can get from expansion packs.  I love many of the aspects of them, but in the area of having to work to get the items you want?  Get a Midas Touch elixir and everything you touch turns to gold.  In six hours you can make a million dollars.  Maybe you don't want to use the elixir, that's okay just plunk some money from the money tree.  Getting too old to fast, your sims will die elders before your kids grow up or whatever you need to get done before then?  Simple, the Fountain of Youth will turn you back to a YA.  You want to just extend your life, not go back to YA, get some life fruit, that will do the trick. 


Many of these ways are legit, but are still quicker ways.  Create a pond in your backyard and stock it with fish that brings in the most and sit on your porch (so to say) and fish the night away. 

Live in Riverview?  Easy fishing, go to the hatchery and you don't have to worry about it, it like shooting duck in a barrel, the fish are real handy, no worry they won't be there this time. 
Be a fairy, it helps in growing the perfect garden that lets you make money fast.  Just use bloom and you don't have to wait for the plant to grow or reproduce; a wave of your hand and there they are, just harvest away.

I really don't feel bad about using the kaching money cheat or even the $50,000 one once at the beginning of a game.  But the Midas Touch and the Fountain of Youth, I felt as if I was cheating in using that in a project game. 

Hunting up gems and metals, flowers, seeds you have to work at it to make the money, get out and run around, get dirty, hot, tired and the "I need to go pee!", those are legitimate methods.  That makes it a real earning method, not drinking an elixir and in just a few minutes of play time you are a millionaire. 

That to me has made it easier.  I haven't tried any of the dynasties or challenges, as they do look to difficult to me, too restricted, but in regular game play, even in a project story, it can become too easy. 
I am going to set my own limits as I do a project story.  Not everyone has the SN that really lets you get rich quick without breaking a sweat.  WA makes it easier, but you have to run around and collect the items, so that it still work. 

 

[SimGnome]

I agree the game has gotten much easier and I think the main reason is we the players have gotten smarter knowing the tricks and best ways of doing things now.

For challenges now I tend to play the poorer families or my favorite Homeless Sims.  You can learn more about Homeless Sims at the SimGnome blog if interested. [Link removed - Pam]  I also like spotlighting some of the more interesting townie families in the various worlds which has also been fun to do while also learning more about them.

[RaAnana]

Lately I've been creating technology-free Sims, or houses without electricity, based on historical or fictional characters to give myself a challenge.  It's easier to put these sims in Monte Vista or Dragon Valley or Midnight Hollow, since they sort of "fit" the ambience of the towns.  I currently have a Leonardo daVinci in Monte Vista.  I can't figure out yet how to go without a refrigerator or a phone (I don't think it's possible to not have a phone), but so far, I've created two households without any electric gadgets or technology.  All of the lighting is candle or fireplace. Also, no cars or taxis, only bicycles for transportation.   There are quite a few skills that don't require technology, and I'll let them watch TV at a friend's house if it's on.  It's too bad sims need a computer to write, although I'm tempted to let them use the ones at the library, especially my daVinci, since I think in his life he would have appreciated our own inventions/discoveries. 

I was born pre-everyone has a computer (yes I'm one of those older people who loves sims) and got sort of tired of all the ways technology made my sims lives too easy and I was getting a bit bored.  I don't even let them upgrade the sprinklers.  Make them work for their skills!

[simlover16]

Maybe we all get adjusted to doing things a certain way everytime. Example A: I usually create a sim/s or family whatever of my choice, give them the "swimming in cash" (get 50,000 household funds)  LTW, get them into some type of rabbit-hole career, and build up happiness points to get that genie lamp LTR. Usually expand the family whilst all the doing and I guess it becomes easy. I read an article on my mobile device in the Sims magazine for newsstand for iPhones. It was about getting the last drop out of sims 3 before sims 4 comes out. In other words, playing the game to its fullest. They asked questions like, "have you explored all new options in expansion packs you own?", "got involved in all careers possible?", "completed every lifetime wish?", "used every lifetime reward?" Things like that. So, it really made me think. I've had ambitions for almost a year and I probably haven't explored even half of the new careers! Sad, isn't it? The only expansion I've probably fully explored or close to it is probably late night, generations, seasons, and maybe island paradise. But now that I think about it, there's things I probably haven't done. So, maybe we should just step out and get every last drop out of sims 3 before sims 4.

[Luna]

I agree. With so many expansions the game has gotten too easy especially for people who bought store items that make their life easier. So, that why playing without any cheat and do something that can gain easy money is recommendable for me.

I’m currently doing a project that this forum provides; I surprised how hard my founder is starting without any money. It’s not that hard really, because in 2 weeks she already can build her own home and I did that just with her stylish job and do little painting without any gems or rock that can make such a hefty amount of money.

Oh, and move in character, they also give us free money. But, in my situation I use cheat to eliminate them all. Gain free money just make my game so much easier and that will make me never appreciate how hard to gain something.