Thoughts on Custom Content

During the later stages of the original Sims game, I discovered the wonders of third party custom content. My favourite site was aroundthesims. My game was soon filled with hundreds and hundreds of custom items: clothing, hair, furniture. I downloaded mods and generally turned my game into whatever I wanted it to be. It was pretty wonderful.

When Sims 2 arrived I was keen to get CC into the game right away. I barely remember anything about that game now, if I'm being honest, but I know I clogged it up. I remember spending hours scouring through the downloads folder, deleting everything I didn't want.

I've been much more careful with Sims 3. At first I did have quite a lot of CC in the game, but I moved house a couple of years back and got a new PC. I now have maybe 10 pieces of third party CC in my game, and half of those are mods to help the game run a little better.

Official content is a totally different story. I have been really guilty of throwing money at the Sims Store. I've probably paid for half of the content available on there. Some of it I use often, some of it not at all. And you know what? It clogs my game up just as much as third party CC. My computer is more than capable of running the game according to its specs, but I still have to deal with issues. It is super annoying, because I've pretty much paid for a worse experience.

The reason I pick official content over third party content is a simple one; I like my game to look like all the pieces belong together. I can't stand hair with a different texture, or clothes that look like the pattern is just a copy and paste from a Google search. By the way, the Diesel Stuff Pack totally does this. The clothes looks like "real" clothes and don't fit the game at all. So annoying.

This post was inspired by a comment I've seen thrown around a lot during Sims 4 bashing threads. People complain about the way the game looks (I love it, by the way), and one thing that I hear a LOT it a variation on "The hair looks less realistic than Sims 3".

Now, there is a reason for that. The entire game looks different. There is nothing more jarring to me than when someone posts a picture of their Sim, and everything about them is CC. The skin, the eyes, the hair, the clothes, the make-up. They looks like a cross between real people and creepy dolls, and they do not fit with their surroundings at all. Some people like that, I don't.

It is really important to me that the game looks consistent, which is why I keep away from third party custom content.

How about you? Do you have much CC in your game, or do you prefer to play vanilla?