I hope I'm not out of place starting this thread, but after playing this game from the minute it was launched, reading reviews & many many threads, I thought I'd put across a theory on why it's caused a few players to give it up way too early & be disappointed, while I read in amazement as I'm loving every minute of the game.

The game is actually much more complex than it appears. The peeps are all individual, much more individual than the villagers. So, due to this, they require much more training. They will walk around doing all sorts of things you don't want them to do if you just let them. You need to praise the things you want them to do repeatedly & discourage things, good or bad, that you don't want them to do. Some of the peeps are more determined to do what they want to do, than what you want them to do, so they require even more time to train. That's part of the fun & I think one of the intentions behind the game, otherwise it would be boring with nothing to do.

Playing for a 1 hour trial really does let this game down, as you cannot ever hope to achieve this in a small time frame.

I know there are a few genuine issues some of you are having, most of which have been addressed with updates, but your families will start to function as you want them to after a day or two of training. It's not going to happen in one or two hours, so try not to get frustrated if they won't do what you want them to do shortly after starting a new family. This is one area I really wish for a slow speed, as you do spend time training the family member for them to go to college or pass over. I'm sure that with time, and patience, you can have a happy fully functioning family that you want. I've tested a few methods, and the above is what I have discovered as the best to get the most of your family. Playing five families all at one time might be too much at the start. Maybe start with one or two families and put the effort into training them, and start to see they do perform many tasks you want them to.

As has been mentioned, a lot of what was being asked for before the release of the game, day/night, parents, family trees etc has been included in the game. The villagers were almost all little robots with similar minds, and with the tick of a box in their details, they mostly performed their required task over & over, with little to no effort from the gamer player. Family members have to do multiple tasks and it's up to us to let them know which ones we want them to do.

I hope that some of the people who are disappointed, find something here helpful to make their VF game more enjoyable. And I would like to add, I'm not biased, I actually find the VV series a little boring after I've finished the puzzles. VF continues to hold my interest, as when a new generation starts, so does the training which requires me to put the effort into the game again, which I find fun.

I expect some of you to totally disagree, that's okay, as I know it's not perfect, and it's not everyones cup of tea.

I just hope that people who have purchased the game & given it away may give it another shot and enjoy it as much as many of us here are.

I see many threads on different ways to train different families, and they are great ideas, so perhaps reading some of those threads will help make your game more enjoyable too.