I don’t know for sure why inZOI receives so much hate/ has such strong opinions against it.
Maybe it’s beause of AI first or because it’s not the Sims or for other reasons?
(If you have a hunch, maybe share it in the comments?)
Do you think inZOI should work on its Reputation?
Looking at the player count shows that whatever they tried over the last updates, players are less and less interested to even take a look.
TMI:
I also experienced this on my little blog.
I’ve started my small Sims 3 and 4 tumblr over 12 years ago, with mutuals that liked my stuff for many years.
In my best days, I had around 60 notes on a post, before I left (to start my inZOI tumblr) around 30-40.
Before I stopped (and also after, for updates) posting about the Sims, I posted that my OC’s are moving to inZOI and linked to the new blog, but only a handful of my long-time followers followed me there.
On the inZOI tumblr, the notes decreased to ~ 10-15 per post.
Even though it’s the same stuff as always. The same OC’s, the same old stories - just in inZOI.
~ 2/3 of the likes on the inZOI tumblr come from other inZOI blogs and only ~ 1/3 from my old mutuals.
So for me it’s quite understandable why content creators have to get lured in with goodies to create inZOI content, seemingly it’s a risk to post about inZOI ö.Ö’
(I might also be wrong about this )
Should inZOI try to work on its reputation?
No, that’s wasted time, haters gonna hate
Yes, they should try to find out why inZOI receives so much hate and do sth about it
Honestly I find Inzoi the best life simulator. Of course, there’s only Sims and still Paralaves being in development, not really much games for life simulator, right? But Sims are very greedy, that’s why I dont buy and play Sims.
I was waiting for Paralives but suddenly Inzoi has been released and I lost interest for following Paralives.
But still, there are a lot of bugs. For me its not a big deal until YOU CANT EVEN START THE GAME WITH A NEW FAMILY DAMN
Yes I already complained recently but its the biggest damn problem, you really cant play Inzoi and its very frustrating. The devs are busy with Christmas update. For whom, can I ask? Half of players cant start a new game with new Zoi or Zois, most of them like me didnt play for some time. Who do you think will appreciate the newest update? The smallest part of the community, but what about us who are stuck because the game is crushing when you created a family and try to move in the city.
Two weeks ago when I entered the game, there was the same problem with creating.
There will be no good reputation for ignoring the BIGGEST problem in the game.
Honestly, I don’t think things are as bad as they seem. The main problem right now is that many players simply can’t get into the game and properly experience it. Optimization issues, bugs, and crashes are the key things that frustrate absolutely all players in any game.
Personally, at the moment Inzoi feels much better to me than The Sims, and I think that for players to give truly objective feedback, we need to wait at least 1–2 years until the game becomes more stable.
Once they fix most of the bugs and develop a solid, well-polished base game, that’s when it would make sense to launch large-scale and aggressive marketing again, so players can clearly see how the game was before and how it improved afterward.
IMO there are a lot of very different reasons for the hate inZOI has received since launch in March. I’ve been a big fan and supporter ever since seeing the first screenshots but I’ll try to put my love for the game aside in this post.
General issues with inZOI:
Unreal Engine 5 as major foundation mistake (-> according to gamer opinions, UE5’s system requirements are way too high while “current gen” engine limitations mostly still remain = doesn’t elevate the game)
Bad Performance, mainly due to bugs (->lagging, crashes, unusually high system requirements, unstable builds)
Unclear future monetization plans (-> even before the Cahaya DLC release but especially after, players fear that Krafton will choose a heavily monetized dlc-policy, comparable to genre competitor EA)
2025 Roadmap fail (-> after launch in March, the devs tried to stick to an official roadmap which turned out to be too ambitious; the roadmap hadn’t been changed or adjusted but completely abolished ever since → possible save could be a new one for 2026, which devs have promised a while ago but hasn’t been published yet = lack of communication)
Missing gameplay depth (-> in March, the game released in early access and many players still have no idea which issues should be expected during such an early development stage = this point is mostly based on critique due to an “unfair” comparison with The Sims franchise, but we’ll go there in a minute…)
Lack of content (-> “not enough” of: items in CAZ, objects in build mode, careers without being rabbitholes, residential lots, lots in general, interactions, etc.)
AI issues (-> general concerns about AI usage, AI support and everything that comes with it)
Publisher Krafton (-> there’s been quite a lot of backlash for Krafton over the year, not only for inZOI but for other games, which definitely hurt all games that “belong to them”)
Life-Simulation genre: The Sims vs. inZOI
(comparing an early access game to a franchise of 25 years is always wrong IMO, but here are the main issues, I guess)
Social Interactions (-> Sims 4 offers rich social mechanics & personality-driven interactions in general)
NPC behavior (-> while inZOI’s NPCs behave strange and inconsistently, Sims 4’s have real routines and are more predictable)
Emotional Engagement (-> Zois feel soulless and detached, Sims express emotions more clearly and memorably)
Gameplay Variety (-> Sims 4 offers a wide range of careers, hobbies and worlds while inZOI lacks all of it)
UI & Usability (-> polished, familiar and established interface in Sims 4)
Tone & Identity (-> Sims 4 has a strong franchise identity known for its humor)
→ These are only a few of the major issues I came across since March. I didn’t list things such as Replay Value, Mod Support, Content Volume & Technical Stability because those rely solely on 25 years of the Sims and IMO have no purpose in this comparison.
I hope this helps to show why the negative feedback seems overwhelmingly strong for inZOI players, storytellers, etc. sometimes. Maybe some of you didn’t know or think about some of it so this might’ve shed some light on it.
The development roadmap is a personal pain point for me, and I’m sure for many others as well, haha. I would really love for it to be released, so we can see that the existing problems in the game are actually being fixed instead of them constantly adding more and more new content.
They seem to struggle hard with the new Roadmap, mid September in the Q&A on reddit, Kjun promised a new Raodmap ‘very soon’ - that’s over 3 months ago now.
I believe a large portion of Inzoi’s target audience is made up of people who play or have played The Sims at some point in their lives, in one or more of its versions. True enthusiasts of the pure Life Simulator genre, in which The Sims had practically no competitors until now.
The exceptional graphics certainly attracted a lot of people at the beginning, most of whom hoped they could smoothly transition from The Sims to Inzoi and play it the same way, with many features—not immediately, but in a short time. And they were deeply disappointed.
I hadn’t played The Sims in years and Inzoi was love at first sight for me, despite all the reduced features compared to what I’d want from a Life Simulator. I’m playing it (over 900 hours) and I’m willing to wait for it to improve, while I believe many have set it aside waiting for improvements.
The game’s problems are the ones mentioned by HeinziDerHeld.
For me, the ones that weigh most heavily are the bugs. I would prefer a slower development path for the game but with fewer bugs, and absolutely inadequate mod management. The community was pushing very hard for the release of this feature, but I have to say that for me it would almost be better not to have it than to have it as unstable as it is now. But I imagine that needed to be tested too.
So the reason people continue to play at this moment is because they really care about this game and want to help solve its problems. I hope everyone else returns when the game is more complete and has fewer issues.
Unpopular opinion from someone new to the genre who never cared or touched “The Sims” for more than 20min to “try it” more than 10 years ago….
The game was better before the June update.
it had less content, absolutely correct. But all the content worked.
After the may update, the relationships with family members and other zoi was fixed and game was very enjoyable.
Zois had schedules events at parks and other spots. And that was enough for me? occasional event on top was cool.
Skills leveled mostly at a good pace, maybe a tad too quick tho but beside that? zoi lived 80-90 days so it was fine.
Needs depletion/recuperation was perfect (at least in the 96min), it’s still borked now.
Age groups were MUCH better defined. Much closer to real life with a generation being 23 days.
Animations felt smoother overall (tho been improved a lot in the last 4 months)
The UI was FAR more beautiful than the large blocky one we have now, and it seems to be getting worse.
Less “lead you by the nose” events. Now you get solicited often by random npc for training and other pastimes. Some are late night and zois are tired… I feel that’s hit or miss. Personal preferences.
Actions would not get cancelled. Ie: watch TV, someone wants to talk or toddler throws a fit, action cancelled. Try to eat, action cancelled, try to run on the treadmill, action cancelled and so on.
You had karma which was minor but was removed.
You had enneagrams which were super fun, but now feel void and less important. Characteristics seems to have far more control overall… this is hard to explain, but somehow it felt better and had more impact with urges and relationships ? Maybe it’s just me.
.
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Now we had really nice things since June. I like the new emotions (which worked with the old slim emotion bar, by the way), then we got Cahaya and more stuff, lots of really COOL and NICE stuff. But the core game feels worse off than it was more than 6 months ago now.
Maybe I’m just the only one that feels like this. And if so that’s fine.
But the game feels off, and in many regards, if we could keep farming, cahaya, the new seasonal stuff, the new improved emotions, but go back to the stability and other cool things that were changed “just because” of pre-0.20 ? I’d take it without a second thought.
Hard to put feelings into words, never was very good with that (hence my legendary blocks of texts when I open-up… Sorry. I’m trying.
Should InZoi try to do something about it’s reputation?
Maybe. Haters will hate no matter what, and see inzoi as a threat to their beloved Sims.
Jut putting a good product should generate more sales and more player-to-player goodwill.
I still recommend this game to my friends when they ask. Even tho it has some serious growing pains and as stated some things felt better months ago than they do now.
Fix it properly and ppl will return.
Keep experimenting and changing things just because and tacking new stuff over with ducktape? Not gonna end well. Return to the core vision, and do it quickly… That’s my advise.
Personally, I’m still willing to give Inzoi some time, because I think Kjun’s team is currently mainly focused on technical issues, and technical problems do indeed require a lot of time to solve.
I think a lot of Inzoi fans misunderstand why people don’t like the game. I see a lot of talk about bugs & such but I’m gonna be so real, most people who do not like the game have not played long enough to even encounter those bugs. I’m an avid Sims player (specifically The Sims 2 & The Sims 4) & I have many friends that play TS4 but would never give Inzoi a chance. The problem that I hear most often is that people don’t like the graphics (“uncanny valley” gets thrown around a lot), how “soulless” the game feels, that there’s not much to do & the use of AI. Some of these things will be fixed as the game matures & gets updated, but some are core features of the game that people may never get over.
I think rather than trying to focus on “fixing” its reputations, the devs need to focus on making Inzoi the best that it could possibly be. Most people that hate the game are never going to be won over, so why spend time trying to convince them, y’know? (I also think players need to focus on enjoying the game for what it is & playing with new updates as they come out, rather than worrying about what people who will never be fans of the game think.)
The Sims is a money sink, and they’re not even doing what us players asked for, so that is reason enough not to pay for their game.
Now here’s Krafton coming out with this new game and even if we can’t enjoy the game during this earl access because they still need too fix bugs and develop the game itself, I am well pleased with buying it, the faces are not perfect by any means especially the unmovable weird creases on the other sides of the eyes, but there are some base model’s that don’t have those creases and we can create pretty realistic looking people, build mode is wonky, but it is working and I believe the devs will improve that before final release.
inZOI does not need to worry about reputation, if they make the game playable (fixing all bugs) they will be known enough, they sold over 1 million copies within the first week of early access, no telling how many they have sold by now, there is less activity on Canvas, seems a lot of players are not playing and/or creating right now, but hey the game is not over.
No, I think I should just continue to work mainly on the basic features and characteristics, and in the meantime expand a little bit of the rest but without overdoing it. In short, it would be better to do less but do it well, I believe that only this way can it have real success. At the moment I’m among the players who no longer use the gameplay mode precisely because it’s objectively messy. In the meantime I’m having fun with the other modes.
The Development History of The Sims 3
It is widely known that The Sims 3 was developed over a period of approximately 3 to 4 years.
Development Initiation & Planning: Development of The Sims 3 began in the mid-2000s, and its existence was officially confirmed by EA in November 2006.
Release Date: The game was officially released on June 2, 2009.
Development Duration: Since the planning stages existed prior to the 2006 announcement, it is estimated to have taken at least 3 years, or approximately 4 years if the initial conceptualization phase is included.
Special Considerations: Unlike its predecessor, The Sims 3 introduced an “Open World” system. It is well-documented that technical implementation and optimization for this system required a significant amount of time.
Note: It is generally accepted that the actual development cycle spanned from the release of The Sims 2 in 2004 until the launch of The Sims 3 on June 2, 2009.
(This part of the above has the help of Google.)
And it took four more years from the release of the Sims 3 original to the release of its last expansion, ‘Into the Future’. Sims 3 took 8 years to complete all the content of the game. Rome wasn’t built in a day.I personally think it’s too much to ask INZOI developers to come up with the all-inclusive result of SIMS3 in a short time. I think this anxiety will be relieved when INZOI is fully created. It’s only a matter of time. As long as the INZOI developers make the game right.
“I think INZOI developers are doing open-book testing, but the subject of open-book testing has too much content.”
If INZOI developers benchmark the details of the Sims 2, the high degrees of freedom of the Sims 3, and the architectural convenience of the Sims 4, the future of INZOI will be bright.
I think the very short development time of inZOI (they started in early 2023) and the fact they are still rushing through development is one of the biggest mistakes they’ve made.
And the fact they are even proud of it means it won’t change.
(More below)
We already experience how weak the core of the inZOI is.
Every new update/hotfix brings new unexpected bugs and crashes (sometimes totally unrelated) and since they are busy with a lot of other things, bugs barely get acknowledged or fixed these days.
In the next update only 7 bugs get fixed (according to Kjun’s post → here).
I really wonder how small the bug fixing team is and if they are working full time on fixing the bugs?
The following are no major bugs and seem quite easy to fix.
I guess that’s what one developer can manage in one day or even less.
Many players expect more from a complex, multilayered game like a life simulation.
But the devs seem to focus mainly on a sit-and-watch-the chaos-unfold experience strategy rather than offering more depth.
Let-the-game-run-on-autopilot is easier and faster to achieve than implementing interlinked features that reach deeper and offer a better simulation.
I also think it’s a mistake to solely focus on discord feedback.
The community there is very different from here, so I’d still prefer they’d collect feedback directly from all players in the game lobby.
If you want to vote for such a feature, poll is → here (scroll a bit down)
The wishlist post about polls for all players is → here (if you want to share your opinion/ideas)
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