Poll: How do you feel about accidental deaths in the Sims 2?
Orikes:
One of the primary themes of Sims2 over Sims1 was the whole generational thing. In the original game, you had children and adults, period. There was no growing up or getting old. That pretty much killed the game for me after a month, maybe two. It got incredibly boring in a very short amount of time and pretty soon I was spending all my time building lots that were never played. With Sims2, there's suddenly this whole circle of life (cue Disney-fied music). Now I'm completely addicted to the game and have been playing for almost a full year straight (I do sleep once in a while.. oh yeah, and there's that whole work thing).
With adding old age and dying from old age, they also had to add in the accidental deaths. First off, they were in the original game, and second off, if sims could die one way, they had to have a variety of ways for them to go as well. While the accidental deaths aren't really so accidental, they do exist for a reason.
I actually think they fit with the tone of the rest of the game perfectly. Sure, they're exaggerated and a little cartoony, but honestly, if you look at the rest of the game play, it's exactly the same way. They've introduced supernatural elements in the game from the get-go (aliens) and in each expansion have added something else. Each time, it's been a little bit silly, but completely fitting with the tone of the way the base game is designed. It's all a little silly and cartoony. And personally, I love it. I like that little bit of silly thrown into the soap opera drama of living the daily lives of my sims. It's what I find to be fun. For people who don't like the way the game itself is designed, there are mods a plenty out there given an open invitation to muck with the game as much as you want. Don't like the way something works? Go change it and more power to you. It's the way the game works on its most basic level and is one of the things that lets it thrive.
I get really sick of people bitching about how stupid Maxis/EA is for doing X, Y, or Z. It seems like in some communities (this one's not as bad as others), any time there's something that a player doesn't like or wishes was different, they go on about how horrible and evil Maxis is for not thinking exactly like they do and designing it their way. Oy. Hell, in some communities, if you even give an inkling that you might like something that Maxis did, you're instantly tagged as a sheep. It's like it becomes uncool to actually *like* the game you're spending an inordinate amount of time playing.
Anyway, I'm rambling. I'm content with the way the game is right now. I generally never have accidental death except for some free roaming cow plants here or there. I'm not sure I'd want to increase the number of accidental deaths, but I sure as heck wouldn't want them to disappear either.
Diala:
The only real accidental death I had was by the pregnancy glitch, and I managed to save the mom in a plea.
I am not certain that I want more accidental death, per say, but what Soylent Sim said: more nonlethal bad stuff. Not ALL the time, but once in a while, to throw my gameplay into a loop. That is why I like the chance cards: they end up negatively sometimes. However, I don't know if I trust the game's sadorandomness enough to make these Bad Things come up only once in a while. I also wouldn't mind that these Bad Things can be increased/decreased based on how the Sim lives.
Now what I want is more townies/dormies killed. It would be hilarious if one did something stupid and got killed as a result. Not ALL the time, of course, but once in a rare while, just for immature giggles.
Moa:
My current count of death types for my main neighborhood (not counting Sims that died and were sucessfully given a second chance through Reaper pleadage):
Old Age: 8 (I allow my Sims liberal use of the Elixer of Life, with the requirement that they have to be Platinum at night to take it)
Disease: 2 (Both Sims dropped dead unexpectedly shortly after I loaded the lots - game glitches.)
Starvation: 2 (Non-playeable Uni Student dropped from starvation via piano playing - shades of the Red Shoes. Probable death of an NPC maid in one of my dorms. I didn't know he was dead until I ran across a death memory in one of my Sims memories. I assume he never got the 'time to leave' message and cleaned until he dropped, in the girls bathroom.)
Electrocution: 2 (I make my Sims repair their own appliances)
Lightning Strike: 1 (Season townie outside hottubbing in the rain. I think he may have been hit twice.)
Scared to Death by Ghosts: 2 (Families should have moved the tombstones out to the cemetary rather than leaving them about for gloating/knowledge-sim-wants-to-see-a-ghost purposes.)
Cowplant: 3 (Secret Society)
The only really "accidental" and non-glitch death (not counting the Old Age deaths) is the one townie hit by lightning. Probably I could have prevented that by shooing everybody inside when the rain hit.
I'm generally a benevolent overseer (see liberal allowances of Elixer of Life) but I like my Sims to tell me their own stories as much as possible. The few glitchy deaths definitely added memorable milestones in the history of the neighborhood. So for me, more unexpected deaths, more randomness (at one point I ran my list of Sims through a random number generator to select 10 to have babies), more unexpected 'good' but very rare events (a Sim could discover an oil well in her backyard). SimCity used to have a Disaster mode that could be turned on and off at will. That sort of thing could work nicely in context of the Sims.
Count me as one of the fans of the fantasy silliness of the game. I can't wait to give the wishing well a try. (Although I'd welcome a very nasty troll at the bottom of the well too.)
gali:
My sims get old, but NEVER die - always resurrected.
I always can restore the original hood, and choose another story line.
witch:
Quote from: Moa on 2007 March 29, 08:52:12
Count me as one of the fans of the fantasy silliness of the game. I can't wait to give the wishing well a try. (Although I'd welcome a very nasty troll at the bottom of the well too.)
There is a troll at the bottom of the well, Mrs Crumplebutt.
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