Are Kits Worth Buying in The Sims 4?
Thoughts on the Season of Selves announcement
Earlier this year, The Sims 4 team announced the release of “kits” which are basically mini-bundles of specific themed items that are only $5. The team started out by releasing three kits right off the bat — “Bust the Dust,” “Country Kitchen,” and “Throwback Fit” — which kicked off a massive conversation amongst Simmers: Is EA taking advantage of their consumers?
Currently there are a total of five kits available for purchase, the most recent two specifically aimed at builders in The Sims. The “Courtyard Oasis” and “Industrial Loft” kits are much bigger than their predecessors and feature primarily build/buy items rather than gameplay items (like “Bust the Dust” had).
Since kits are only $5 USD a pop, I was totally on board with buying them when they were released. That is until I started seeing reviews on them. Kits felt unfinished, unwanted, and seemingly not worth even a $5 price tag. I wrote an entire article about the topic of The Sims 4 losing traction due to EA’s greed, which you can read below.
But when the “Industrial Loft” kit was announced, I was considering purchasing it. I was already in the mindset of boycotting the kits since they were receiving backlash, but this kit seemed right up the alley of my little builder heart.
I haven’t heard too many complaints about the Industrial kit, but I also haven’t heard a ton of praise for it either. In fact, the one YouTube video I watched about the kit was James Turner who went through the regular catalog and found nearly identical items to match what was found in the new Kit, which suggests that the Kits are essentially recycled items with new color swatches (which is basically a rip off). Needless to say, I wasn’t too interested in the pack after that.
Earlier this week, The Sims 4 team announced the “Season of Selves” with a confusing and practically unreadable tweet:
The slogan at the very bottom reads “Explore any of our new for any of your yous…or even try it all, all at once.” I studied English and earned my Bachelor’s degree in English language and literature. And I have absolutely no clue what that sentence is supposed to be conveying.
There’s been a lot of criticism on the announcement, partially due to the lack of proofreading on The Sims’ part, but also due to the implication that four new Kits are on their way to consumers before the end of the year. Three are alluded to be Create-a-Sim and one is a build/buy kit, but the general consensus on Twitter is that this isn’t exactly what we want.
I still have not purchased a Kit and I’ll be honest, I don’t really plan to. While $5 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, if I’m paying $5 a pop by the end of the year every available kit will add up to nearly the cost of an expansion pack. Not only that, but they are all seemingly thrown together without play-testing and often don’t work out the way it’s intended.
I love The Sims 4. It’s one of my very favorite games and I play it every weekend, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve criticism. I don’t foresee myself ever buying a Create-a-Sim kit and even for the build kits, if the creative process is just re-coloring already-existing items, I’m not interested in paying for it again.
