Highlights
- The Sims 4’s ability for users to create their own content and mods has greatly contributed to its long lifespan.
- The Better Exceptions mod by TwistedMexi helps players manage malfunctioning mods more easily with clear error reports.
- Incorporating the Better Exceptions mod into The Sims 5 would make modding smoother, encourage players to purchase monetized mods, and ensure a better overall gaming experience.
As EA and Maxis’ The Sims 4 prepares to enter into its ninth year it’s impossible to understate how much the ability of users to create their own content and mods for the game has contributed to its impressive lifespan. From adding custom houses and characters to making changes to some core gameplay systems, mods let players customize the popular life simulator in almost any way imaginable. With rumors suggesting that The Sims 5 will add the ability to monetize these sorts of player creations, EA and Maxis should incorporate one popular The Sims 4 mod into the game to give players a smooth, seamless experience no matter how they choose to play.
Created by modder TwistedMexi, the Better Exceptions mod for The Sims 4 gives players a quick and easy way to spot and manage malfunctioning mods. Rather than giving users a general error message when a mod fails to load or conflicts with other mods, as happens with the base game, Better Exceptions gives players an easy-to-read error report that makes troubleshooting far less tedious. By adding this functionality directly into the game, EA and Maxis would make it easier for players to manage their mountain of potentially monetized mods and help ensure that The Sims 5 revolutionizes simulation games in the same way as its predecessors.
The Sims 5 Needs to Give Players a Straightforward Way to Spot Malfunctioning Mods
While installing mods for The Sims 4 allows players to tailor the game to their tastes, depending on which mods players choose, they can quickly run into conflicts. This can result in players encountering in-game problems or even cause the game to be unable to launch altogether. To avoid these sorts of issues with The Sims 5, particularly if the rumors of monetized mods and other user-generated content prove to be true, players will need a simple way to identify problems, so they can get back into the game.
One bad experience with a crash-prone mod could make players hesitant to purchase more in the future, so it’s important that modding The Sims 5 is a smooth and straightforward process. Making the Better Exceptions mod one of the built-in features in The Sims 5 would make it easier for players to troubleshoot these sorts of problematic mods and potentially increase the likelihood of less technically adept players buying into monetized mods in the first place. Adding this sort of quick and easy troubleshooting functionality into the core game may also give players more peace of mind when determining which mods to spend their hard-earned money on.
Gamers May Hold Monetized Mods in The Sims 5 to a Higher Standard
Just as gamers have come to expect that Skyrim and Fallout 4 mods downloaded from Bethesda’s Creation Club will function properly, the same will likely hold true for The Sims 5’s paid mods. This gives EA and Maxis an incentive to make sure these mods work as expected, rather than leaving players to try to troubleshoot problems on their own. If paired with a robust rating system, Better Exceptions would make it easy for The Sims 5 players to spot and avoid mods that could potentially break their game.
If rumors that The Sims 5 will be free-to-play are true, its success will depend on players being willing to pay for mods and other user-generated content. Building Better Exceptions into the game wouldn’t be enough on its own to sell every gamer on this new business model, but it would eliminate some of the worries of spending a small fortune on mods only to be unable to launch the game due to a conflicting or otherwise broken add-on.
By incorporating Better Exceptions into The Sims 5, or simply emulating its features, EA and Maxis can ensure that buggy mods won’t lead to frustration for paying players. Letting gamers spend their time managing their Sims rather than troubleshooting crashes would make sure The Sims 5 is a worthwhile addition to the franchise and help it stand out from its potential rival life simulator Life By You.
The Sims 5 is in development.