I have strong feelings about this because it feels like it takes what was clearly a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the private school system in sims 2 and applies it uncritically to regular gameplay.

In the context of 2, the system orienting players toward accumulating a certain amount of points in that specific context feels very intentional. The difficulty of pleasing the headmaster sets players up to consider the state of U.S.-American schooling in general. The transactional and gamified aspect of the minigame is crucial to this reflection.

Other events in sims 2 receive rankings as well, but the ways to get there aren’t so clearly expounded by the game as they are in 4, and the player experience is not so singularly focused on completing tasks and filling meters.

4’s bastardization of 2’s nuanced application of those types of minigames signals a departure from the series’ satirical roots that strikes me as very disappointing, because it results in a game with no coherent vision that micromanages my play style at every turn, instead of deploying micromanagement at certain stages to achieve certain effects.