InZoi becomes a boring game after 10-20 hours of playing. I propose to solve this main problem. InZoi is not a replay.

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When playing InZoi, by the third generation of my dynasty, I noticed that I had already gone through all the content in the game. And it just doesn’t make sense for my Zois to leave the territory of their site.: I visited all the sites, robbed the bank (as it is now possible), collected stones, caught fish - that’s it. I have nothing else to do in the game if I think about it that way. After analyzing it, I realized the 2 main problems of the game that break almost any game with the time spent on it: For those who are too lazy to read, there will be a short description at the very bottom.:backhand_index_pointing_down:

  1. The answer to the question is: Why should I go anywhere and do anything? The first problem is that over time, it makes no sense to leave your playing area - home. As I already wrote, by the 3rd generation of my dynasty, my Zois had lost the point of leaving their site, I did everything, looked, and saved up. My Zois just walk around the house and do nothing. Some of the players are asking for the opportunity to have more than 8 Zois in the family. 8?! Since I was 3, I don’t know what to do anymore, for example: dad, mom, baby. If dad can be sent to work, even though it happens 3 times a week and the baby can be controlled or not, then my mother automatically walks around the house and does nothing. Switch the controls - nothing will change.That’s why I usually break off relationships, because I don’t need a 2nd adult Zoi at all, and even if he dies, my gameplay won’t change. I have described a part of the solution to this problem here Add famous game mechanics from The Sims 2 and 3 to InZoi. I will not list everything over again, but I will add how and why it will help partially solve this problem. First, we need to understand why we love, for example, The Sims 2 and 3, and dislike The Sims 4. One of the reasons is that the game forcibly forces us players to leave our homes. To use the world of games: to learn, to participate in it, etc. The world of the game carries the necessary functionality, which is always needed. Now the world of InZoi is more a decoration than a function. I went somewhere and used the site once. It’s boring to go there next time - there’s no point. For example: you need to cook a meal, but there are no ingredients. Like it or not, you’ll have to leave the house and go to the grocery store. Otherwise, your character will die. Also, don’t forget that for the lazy, you can order food over the phone. About the inventory: the bottom line is that you will need to think about what to take with you and what not. Many people said that they would have to run home to unload. My answer is yes! What’s the interest? I collected the entire map in 2-3 game days, a maximum of a week, and then what should I do? To sit and watch my Zoi sitting at home and doing nothing? What for? Moreover, inventory changes will add meaning, in small bags, in shoulder backpacks, in hiking bags, etc. They will become not just a useless decoration, but a functional useful object.We are promised content with the school, and this is just right for folding textbooks, notebooks, pens, etc. It is also suitable for supplements about travel and expeditions, if such is added. A bag, there’s a necessary thing.
  2. The second main problem is the answer to the question: Where to spend the accumulated money? I wrote a partial solution to this problem here [05.01.26] The Ultimate Celebrity Life (Updated) - #4 by NIck_Olay . The problem is that InZoi doesn’t have the right economics for its genre. The game does not allow you to lose all your savings very quickly. The game does not have the function of constantly spending money that needs to be spent, no matter if the player wants it or not. I built the biggest house, bought the most expensive things. I bought the most expensive cars. And then what? I have a lot of money left, so what should I spend it on? The game doesn’t offer me anything else. If they add a celebrity system, then there will be a lot more money. Yes, the game has a tax system. But that’s not enough. I believe that it is necessary to redo the economy of the game in order to force an increase in spending. The game’s economy will be excellent: 30-40% of revenue, 60-70% of expenses. This will force players to work in additional jobs, raise the importance of freelancing and hobbies related to earnings. With such an economic model, one regular job (not a business) is enough to cover the needs of the characters and there will be no rapid accumulation of family capital. There will already be a need for the available mechanics - Zoi lending. Players will be forced to take out a loan to build a house, open a business, etc. If someone wants a lot of money, there are just the mechanics of a business, making money with a hobby - this will be a necessary opportunity.

So, InZoi has two main problems that I personally encountered after 20 hours of playing: 1. The declining desire to leave your site - from home. 2. The inability to spend a lot of money all the time. In short, there is no replay value. I have already written examples of possible solutions to these problems. We need to solve them urgently, otherwise there will be nothing to do in InZoi over time and the game will die.

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Regarding your first point, I’ll say that I like The Sims 4 and the ability to make up my own stories without the game mechanics ruining them. In TS4, for example, I disable NPC voting on local action plans, etc.

Besides, let’s not compare a game with a 25-year history and a million add-ons to a game in development that was made available a year ago. I can see that more and more interesting things are appearing, although I think now more time should be spent on refining the game’s foundations.

As for the second point, I agree. It’s hard to jump beyond a certain spending level. In real life, rich people spend tons of money on clothes and jewelry, but in games with a CAS/CAD system it’s impossible. I won’t say what could be done because I don’t know about game design and don’t know how my ideas would relate to the game mechanics, but I’m definitely counting on adding some absurdly expensive paintings and sculptures in the future, and for example the ambition of an art collector who would want to open their own gallery and still make money from it. You could also add for celebrities doors with gold-plated handles for big money :laughing: .

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I completely understand your point, and honestly, this is a very accurate critique. It’s not just “I got bored” — you explain why the boredom happens. And the good news is that these are issues InZoi can realistically fix.

1. No real reason to leave home

I agree a lot with this. Right now, InZoi’s world feels more like a beautiful backdrop than a functional system. You visit a location once, do the activity available, and after that there’s little reason to return. The world looks great, but it doesn’t force the player to engage with it.

Your supermarket example is perfect: in The Sims 2 and 3, the world mattered because it was connected to survival and daily routines. In InZoi (and also The Sims 4), too many things can be done from home, so the house becomes the center of everything and the rest of the map feels optional.

This could be improved with mechanics like limited inventory, physical shopping, location-exclusive activities, more meaningful school systems, and dynamic events.

2. Money becomes pointless too fast

This is another big issue. Once you’ve built the best house and bought the most expensive items, money becomes meaningless. And when money stops mattering, jobs and progression stop mattering too.

InZoi needs stronger “money sinks” and a better economic balance — not to punish players, but to create constant expenses like maintenance, repairs, services, education, transportation, healthcare, hobbies, etc. Otherwise, wealth will just keep piling up with nothing meaningful to spend it on.

So yes, I agree: these two problems seriously hurt replayability. But the optimistic part is that InZoi already has a strong foundation — the world is there, the visuals are there. What it needs now is deeper systemic gameplay that makes the world useful and makes money feel meaningful again.

Right now it feels like “a beautiful life to watch,” but with changes like these, it could become “a life sim that’s genuinely fun to play.”

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More reason to leave the home

I like the idea of needing to go to the grocery store. To build on your point, I think what you eat should have a greater impact on your zois weight and overall health. They can eat ‘quick meals’ from home without needing to go to the shops but these will result in slow weight gain, and increased chances of getting sick. For any cooked meals, you need to buy ingredients from the grocery store. These promote a healthy weight (and weight loss if combined with exercise) and reduced odds of getting sick.

I also think that there should be more incentive to go to hair salons and clothing stores. Maybe make it so that players can only access hairstyles and clothing items chosen during the initial CAZ process, unless unlocked through shopping (either online or in store) or going to the hair salon.

Better experience when out of home

I think that it’s good to provide players with a reason to explore the city, but I also think that this can become a chore if the world itself is not engaging. As @NIck_Olay mentioned, once you have been to a location, you don’t feel there is much benefit in going again. I think zois need more ways to interact with their environment based on their personality or mood, and more ways to react or respond to events around them. For example, your zoi could go to the grocery store every week. One week, they see a customer yelling at the store clerk who starts to cry, your zoi walks over to comfort the store clerk. The next week, they see the store clerk drop goods as they stock the shelves; they have the opportunity to help the clerk or shoplift while the clerk is busy.

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Good evening, that’s your opinion and I respect it, but I completely disagree with you. I have 900 hours of gameplay and I still haven’t finished discovering all the possibilities this game offers us. It’s not a game to “skim through” but to explore in depth. As for cooking, for certain recipes you might be missing ingredients, so instead of going out to the grocery store, you pick up your phone, use an app where you can order gifts, meals, ingredients—so you order the ingredients you need and the package arrives right away! When they cook, you can clearly see the ingredients. Have you finished fishing? Swimming? Diving? Driving boats? Opening a business? Did you manage to make jewelry related to the stone collection, precious stones? Have you completed all the ambitions? And many other things besides. So you don’t like it, okay, I love it—maybe you picked the wrong game…

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I do have to admit that I have played for hundreds of hours. And most of that gameplay was done this year. So I’m clearly not getting bored of it. But I do understand the issue brought up in this post - an open world presents a lot of opportunities but endless opportunities can be overwhelming and sometimes it can be hard to know where to go or what to do.

I also find that there are some locations that do feel somewhat useless unless you are running them as a business. For example, running a hair salon is fun but if I’m not running the hair salon as a business, I have no real reason to go - especially when I consider that I’m not likely to get the haircut I really want. At the moment, hair salons and clothing stores feel somewhat shallow because you have to imagine there is an actual need for them, instead of that need being real.

I’d love to see an option to restrict access to new clothing items or hair styles unless going through the hair salons or clothing stores. I think this would need to be optional as I do think some players would hate this and find it to be a chore. But personally, I would love it.

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You could add a desire to visit such a shop/salon and use their services. Besides, since there’s an ambition for a criminal, there could be an ambition for a shopaholic or someone obsessively caring about their appearance, but it would need to be thought through carefully so it’s not too boring. There would probably need to be some other interactions that don’t exist yet. Maybe it could somehow be combined with the ability to spend large amounts of money?

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Good. Your ideas are good too. Forcing Zoi to go to the gym to lose weight is a great idea in terms of getting the characters to leave their precinct. I would also like to add to the account of the barbershop that one of the possible reasons for the mandatory exit from the house, I wrote here Let’s add the meaning of the barbershop. - You already know about this.

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I don’t think you understand what I mean. If you take the gist out of my post, then my most important questions to InZoi are:

  1. What should I do next?
  2. Why would I do that?

I’ve been playing InZoi since its beginning and I know what to do and how to do it. And yes, I’ve looked at everything. In fact, the only thing that is diverse, but bores me personally, is the skill of collecting - fishing, jewelry, gardening. Of course, it’s not fast to collect everything, but it’s not difficult. Only for jewelry, I played for one generation purely as a jeweler. Gardening and fishing can be played for 1 generation with 2 Zois. Just so that they don’t sit at home and mess around, at least leave their precinct.
I’m not going to lie, I haven’t opened all kinds of businesses, but it’s not necessary to understand that nothing happens anymore. You run your business, you get paid, you improve, and then everything happens over and over again, until there’s just nothing left to improve. You’re saving up a lot of money without being able to spend it, because you’ve already bought everything. What should I do next? To open a new business and everything will be the same again. Why do this? Play in order to play? I think it’s stupid.

What you are describing here is all “one-time” activities. As I wrote in the post, yes, it’s all there, but it’s quickly learned and implemented. There is simply no point in doing this the second time, since there will be nothing new or changes. So your 900 hours of gaming is nothing to talk about. Since I’m sure that half of them are just pointless running from one point to another.
No, of course, everyone plays differently and you can play however you want. But I’m sure sooner or later you’ll run into the same problem as me. Although you can now start asking the two questions to InZoi that I wrote above.:index_pointing_up: I am sure that InZoi will not give you an answer to them now. Just like me.

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for point 2, i’m thinking of those incremental games like cookie clicker where every time you buy an upgrade to produce more cookies, the price of that upgrade goes up. maybe inzoi could do something similar, so paying bills wouldn’t cost the same for a rich zoi as it would for a poor zoi. prices could scale based on your income level or on how many times you’ve bought an item

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Yes. This is also an interesting thought. I will allow myself to expand it a little.

  1. Add a tax on excess profits for those who earn a lot, for example: more than 10,000 meow per week, the tax will be increased x2 or x3 times.
  2. Add a system of inflation and deflation of money to the economy of the game. To make it more expensive or cheaper to “play”.
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For money –

An economy slider that scales prices of everything up or down would be fun. Imagine setting this to x4 and suddenly a starter house costs you 100k (forcing you into a loan). Food start costing 50mew per zoi, etc.
Also interests for taking a house loan is only 1% payable every 2 days.
If we could adjust that to say 5-10%? Suddenly that 100k loan you took is very very hard to pay back.

Salaries remained the same since the game’s inception (I think they increased them in April 2025 update, on game’s EA release) but it was necessary as getting a job was not enough to pay for food and rent. So I do not think the job’s salaries are an issue.

Painting gives far to much money, especially at higher skill levels. There’s a mod already for “balanced painting” or something that does just that, balances it. I’ve tried it and I keep it installed, but it caps the price of the best paintings to about 2k when selling on pocket market.

DISCLAIMER: Not everyone want their game to be hard mode, heck some ppl install salaries x10 and painting values x10 mods even now. But I understand the need both ways.

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i support your idea. it would also be useful to choose how much money we start with, or to have easy, medium, hard, and free play modes that would modify the prices of everything in the game except our salaries

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I like this idea. I understand that some people want the challenge but I have enjoyed not using the money cheat like I always do in the sims

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First off, the suggestions in this post sound very lovely and I can’t wait to see which ones make it into the game in the future :smiley:

Just like @Aria169, I don’t struggle to have fun and enjoy things currently implemented. After nearly 1000 hours since Early Access launch day, inZOI fills my day with joy 24/7. Reading your comment stating “So your 900 hours of gaming is nothing to talk about” physically hurt me tbh. Even though I don’t want to believe that it was your intention, it feels like you’re diminishing the fun and enjoyment other players get from the game. While I appreciate all your valuable input throughout the various threads in this forum, I just want to add my opinion here because of the wording of the thread title and everything mentioned before.

Life-Sim games, namely Sims 1-4, inZOI and Paralives (because there truly aren’t any other games in this specific genre atm), give players with varieties of gameplay styles a place to have fun and enjoy themselves. With Create-, Build- and Live-Mode together in one place, players can decide to focus mainly on one of those modes or switch, depending on their mood or storytelling preferences. All of these three games, despite their differences, give players freedom, maybe even some directions, but never purpose. And to me, it sounds like, you’re searching for a purpose in inZOI that was never intended to be included in these games.

For example, yes some of the Sims games (not all) offer grocery shopping once the fridge is empty. I enjoyed that too. This is what I mean by “giving directions”, because now the players are presented a few options: Call delivery person to bring new food or go shopping yourself. A lovely mechanic indeed.
In inZOI this mechanic is actually already implemented too. Looking at the numerous meal options in the fridge, there are quite a few dishes which need special ingredients (tomato, banana, pumpkin, etc.), otherwise you can’t cook them. InZOI offers players even more options here than Sims: 1. order the meal via your phone via app, 2. order the ingredients for the meal via app and cook the meal at home, 3. buy the ingredients from a stall nearby and cook the meal at home, 4. grow the crops in your own garden and cook the meal at home.

This is one example showing how a one year old, modern game offers more variety than a 26 year old franchise, where the latest installment is already more than 10 years post release. I don’t mean to diminish the Sims franchise in any way, because it is still dear to my heart and always will be. All I’m asking is for you to understand that everyone of us has a rather limited perception when it comes to how we play such games. There are numerous other ways to do so and all of them are awesome. But to critize or anticipate how the journey or path of other players’ will unfold is clearly not in our power. If we are done with a life-sim game after 10-20 hours, it’s fine. If we’re not, also fine. If we want to get more out of it, there’s plenty of ways.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Sorry it’s gotten so long, but I mostly keep my gameplay style thoughts to myself, so it kind of bubbled over a little bit. I think it fits quite well in this thread, so thanks for creating it.

Lots of love to anyone who read through this <3 Have a great day!

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I think one of the recently emerged topics here, where the possibility of customizing inflation and the cost of items is mentioned (unfortunately, I can’t find it quickly to give you a link), could quite reasonably give us a good compromise.

For those of us for whom excess money is not a problem, nor is there a strict need to “have a clear game objective,” we can perfectly well continue playing in the current version. Plus, as I suggested, we can set ourselves individual “challenges” if the developers decide to implement such functionality in the near future.

And those who want the gameplay to proceed normally, but still find it more challenging, will be able to set either a very high cost for absolutely everything in the game from the very beginning, or progressively increase it so that each successive generation has to actively earn money, since all the money earned by their ancestors would rapidly lose value.

A quite reasonable option, it seems to me.

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You have the right to do this. Everyone finds something different in these games. I’m an old-school guy, I played mostly The Sims 1,2 (The Sims 3 is not so active anymore), Der Planer, The Movies, etc. old economic games. They made me think, which is why I personally like going back there (as I said - replayability). For now, there are The Sims 4 and Paralyves for easy and carefree livesim. I would like at least one game based on the principle of “old school gamedev” - where there is nothing superfluous and you are not playing the game, but the game itself is playing with you.

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