Forum:Disease in The Sims series

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I considered writing a blog post about this idea, but I felt like a forum thread would be a little more interactive.

I've played The Sims since 2000, but recently I've become somewhat bored with the game, especially The Sims 3. I have fun creating families and having them live out their lives, have children, etc. But after 14 years following this formula, it begins to be repetitive. At this point, the game presents no challenges to me; given enough time and willpower, anything is achievable for any Sim. When all your Sims are destined to be successful, that seems to remove a lot of the challenge out of the game.

So then I wondered, what would it be like if there were an aspect of the game that added an additional challenge. What if Sims could catch diseases? What if Sims could die from these diseases? What if these diseases were incurable?

There has been sickness and disease in the series before, but it was never something that couldn't be fixed by a couple days of bed rest or a bowl of grandma's comfort soup. My experience with illness in The Sims 2 makes me think of it as more of a nuisance than an actual game challenge. There are no cancers, no heart diseases, no diabetes, no birth defects, and no handicaps. The Sims, health-wise, are always perfect all the time, and if not, the fix for their ails is redundantly simple.

I can understand why this aspect is not in the game. Maxis is in the business of making a game where players can control every minute aspect of a Sim's life. Adding a random factor like disease to the game takes away the aspect of control from the player.

On the other hand, they could implement a method by which Sims can be resurrected (they've done it plenty of times before) if they were to catch a disease that the player didn't want them to have. Or perhaps there's a disease - like cancer - that affects multiple Sims in the world, but one of the player's Sims can join a scientific career and discover a cure for it, allowing the player to improve the lives of all their Sims through a gameplay challenge.

The bottom line, from my perspective, is that playing with perfect and always-healthy Sims is too predicable and dull. I think that taking a little bit of control from the players might not be a bad thing. What do you think - is this a crazy idea? --- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 05:51, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

I totally agree. The same routine goes on throughout the generations of my Sims and I would like to see it introduced in The Sims 4. Joey.eyeball (talk) 06:16, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps like with the weather, supernatural and other aspects, these sicknesses can be 'turned off' from the game, if players complain about not having enough control over the Sims. Not like we don't have enough anyway!

I would love to see illness implemented into the game. Because The Sims is meant to be a life simulator, I would enjoy to have as many aspects of life in the game that mimick real life without it being too gruesome and generally keeping a T for Teen rating. Perhaps Sims that drink nectar or have a bad mood during pregnancy could have their baby/babies suffer from birth defects, or maybe a random event at school causes children and teens to break a bone. This will not only give a negative moodlet, it could hinder those Sims from being able to do certain tasks, mimicking real life a lot more accurately, I believe. ~ Waikikamukow (Anyone wanna chat?) 10:58, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

Personally, I'm not too fond of the idea of disease. There was once a plague in my neighborhood when one of my customers in my home business caught cold. From the way how disease is spread in The Sims 2, it left a "sickness tile", which could cause other customers to catch cold without having to interact with the sick customer. As a result, almost the entire population of the neighborhood caught cold. It was such a terrible nuisance I had to serve grandma's comfort soup every time a new customer arrives in my business.

I'm not really uninterested in this idea. I just want diseases to add some challenges to my Sims, but not obstacles, especially if the disease is a permanent disability. Sometimes I tried to make elders in my game use walking cane because it looked neat, and then removed the cane shortly because I found it was more a nuisance than something to be enjoyed. They walked really slow, and I could even remove the cane at any time, and they could walk perfectly! I hate that walking cane was an option instead of necessity, because it would be an obstacle, not a challenge! I would really love it better if, for example, elders had the chance to require a walking cane to walk properly, and the chance increases as they age; and that elders with high Athletic skill in their younger age would reduce the probability of the need of the cane. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 12:48, January 8, 2014 (UTC)

As irritating as the incident you described would be, it's pretty realistic if you think about it. The thing that always bugged me about TS2 illnesses was how they would tend to progress or not go away unless you proactively treat them, versus a real-life cold which simply takes care of itself over time (with some discomfort along the way). If that were implemented, along with perhaps a "can't get sick for x amount of time" flag added to Sims that have recently gotten over something, then the TS2 illness system would be ideal, IMO.

I like your idea of having to use the cane as you age; that would be an incentive for players to keep their Sims healthy and fit while they're young. -- LostInRiverview ^{talk ~ blog} 01:35, January 9, 2014 (UTC)

Honestly, when you think of it, most features from Generations actually act as "punishment" instead of rewarding features. Namely, Imaginary Friend for toddlers (toddlers seem to be portrayed to not have enough attention from the family that they need an imaginary friend to keep them occupied!), punishment for children, mood swing for teens, "bridezilla" bad bachelorette party for the bride, midlife crisis for adults, and the walking cane for elders. If you don't tend their lives well, you'll get what you deserve.

I'd also love it more if diseases in TS2 required more complex treatment. That "sleep and relax for the whole day" trick is pretty unrealistic. It made me agitated too when I directed my Sims to just relax and wait. Just how long should I wait until I know he's well? If I didn't look after him, he'd get up and do other stupid things. Nikel _{Talk – Vote!} 18:36, January 9, 2014 (UTC)