The Sims is a rather prominent IP in the world of gaming. For 23 years, players have come to these games for all kinds of fun, be it creating perfect domestic families or causing mischief and chaos to all the simulated people on their files. A new era for one of Electronic Arts' most iconic franchises is about to begin with The Sims 5, being developed as "Project Rene" internally, and it could learn from a few missteps throughout the series' history.
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For many loyal The Sims players, one game that the fifth installment should strive to be different from is The Sims 4, which is widely considered to be lackluster compared to the other three numbered entries. While The Sims has always had expansion packs, The Sims 5 should avoid locking one feature behind any post-launch content that it puts out since many fans aren't fond of needing to buy extra packs just to have access to it. That feature is tied to babies in The Sims, and more specifically, having more than one at a time.
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One of the biggest features in the series has players coming back for more is the fact that it's easy for The Sims players to create family trees. Many fans typically give themselves challenges regarding what weird or lengthy families they can create during their playtime, and one thing that makes these self-imposed goals of The Sims interesting is the 10% odds to have twins, or the mere 1% chances of having triplets, whenever a Sim gets pregnant.
However, it doesn't take much for players to understand that twins or triplets won't happen often. That isn't a bad thing as it reflects real-life odds, but if players wish to increase the chances, there's only two ways without purchasing any of The Sims 4's expansion packs. Outside of cheats (that won't work if typed out incorrectly) and buying the Fertile Trait in the Satisfaction store, any other chances to have twins or triplets are only available in the bonus content packs.
As many players aren't entirely happy that many options to help their Sims have twins or triplets are locked behind expansion packs, The Sims 5 should avoid this mistake by making it much easier for players to increase their odds. Outside of cheats, some methods may not be easily made available sinc they practically belong in content packs, such as being able to craft an Elixir of Fertility with the Herbalism skill in the Outdoor Retreat expansion.
However, there are quite a few things that would make sense in the base The Sims 5 game that could still help players who don't want to buy any future expansion packs later down the line. For instance, in the real world, being a twin or having twins occur in a family multiple times increase the chances of twin pregnancies, and some fertility treatments have led to a surprising number of triplets or more. The Sims 5 could replicate these odds by adding a multiplier for specific families with multiple sets of twins, or adding a bit of risk to base game Sims' fertility treatments with a surprise twins or triplets chance attached to it.
Of course, all of these potential features should be optional if the player wishes to have them off. Everyone enjoys playing The Sims in their own unique way, and some unexpected twins or triplets could throw a wrench into a few players' plans. Ultimately, the biggest lesson that The Sims 5 should take from The Sims 4 is that what the fourth title did for LGBT representation is wonderful, but The Sims 5 needs to do better in accessibility across the board, be it for simple features or the more important ones.
The Sims 5 is in development.
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