Gender politics

[Jiko]

I wonder how differently men and women play the sims. I actually feel guilty about the sims I don't play anymore. They're all alone in their house, stuck on the toilet or washing dishes or whatever, lonesome, no one ever comes over... hard to imagine men going through this kind of weird rescue/protection/maternal response. Comments, with supporting evidence please.

[person123]

Well, seeing as how I act a lot differently than other female members, I can't say that it'll help much, but I often lose interest in a family right after I finish building their houses. Sometimes it's fun playing around with CAS and Body Shop, and then building a house that matches your sims' personalities--that's why most of their bedrooms are humougous. But sometimes I can keep playing them for days, and sometimes even months. So far I haven't been able to play long enough to get more than one generation, though. I'm fickle.

[Chee-Z]

I'm pretty meticulous about my Sims, not necessarily about their homes. When I build my own house, it usually ends up being a Cracker Box...all square. But in CAS and such I have so much fun creating a Sim and then seeing where he or she goes in life. Now I've gotten so I'm breeding the original Sims I created and am seeing where the offspring take me. I have 10 Sims in college and I'm anal about who falls in love with whom. Considering that I have 3 Sim dynasties going at once...I don't want first cousins marrying each other, for example...:rolleyes:

Meanwhile, my brothers get tired of the game after a month or so; my older brother makes this wacky Sim and gets him up to the top of his career ladder, and the Sim lives in a messed-up house. My younger brother mainly builds houses. He is so meticulous in making these giant mansions that are architecturally perfect. No square houses here. Meanwhile, he "borrowed" the Sim person he had made and that I had taken over and married to one of my Sims and has been playing with him. So...I guess that ought to give a picture. :)

[Lynet]

I'm a control freak with my families (and I'm absolutely not so in real life--just a live and live sort of person :rolleyes: .) I decide where they're going to live, how they're going to live, who they're going to marry, when they have fun and when they study. Sometimes I wait a little bit to see how they're going to get along with someone new but then I take over the situation. I generally avoid conflict (though it occurs naturally on occasion.) I'm poor at house design so my houses just grow in boring ways. I'm most fascinated with seeing how babies born to my families turn out as they grow up, which is about how I felt with my own kids :p . I think my game play is very 'female.'

[surprised_by_witches]

I like designing houses, sometimes when I need a break from Sims that's all I'll do for a while. Some of my best houses grew "organically" as the sims needed more room, others were planned ahead of time. I find that angled walls and bay windows, that kind of thing, add a lot of interest to a cracker box style house. I also make a lot of houses with two-story living rooms with balconies.

I also feel guilty about neglected sims and find that it helps to have a plan in place for each family, as in, this family will function mainly as NPCs, this family will be allowed elixir, this family won't, that kind of thing.

I enjoy having sim babies but get bored sending them all through college. Once they're out they're interesting again. I haven't had any family sims in my new neighborhood but am considering having one just for fun. I like large sim families, although I know the trouble they lead to, so I try to keep the number of children per family at three or less, usually less.

I don't consider myself a typical female, but I do have my girly side ... :D

[HillsAngel]

My son actually introduced me to Sims (the original one), he bought it and I soon got very hooked. He had a neighbourhood where he only had two houses, but both were huge with 6 or 7 occupants, all adults, and he furnished them with all the luxury goods he could afford.
Me, on the other hand, I like lots of houses and families and like to create all types of families; tidy, untidy, rich, poor, childless, lots of kids. I always decide when I first create someone what course their life will take; whether they stay at the bottom of the career ladder and just spend their time having fun or work hard and get to the top; of course sometimes I change my mind or something happens and things change, but that's a woman's prerogative isn't it.
Now my son has bought me Sims 2 and he gave up playing Sims years ago, so it's all mine and I'm not sharing it with anyone. That's another woman's prerogative. :D

[Rowanstaff]

I know several people who play TS2 up here in the untamed Northlands (as well as people who play it and I talk to online :D ) and I think I've figured play styles out. While it isn't constrained by gender or age, there are several different play styles. I've seen these styles shared by both men and women, by young and old.


The Free-Willer - This player loves the "ant farm" aspect of TS2. Watching from a distance he or she lets the Sims try and survive on their own with little to no interference. Some of these characters refuse to do ANYTHING in live mode, only saving and using build mode.
The Griefer - The character treats his Sims like an ant hill, kicking them over to watch them scurry. This is the player that gets upset at the number of times it takes to electracute a Sim and just love a falling sattelite.
The Mogul - The player love big money, big houses, and expensive toys. All of his Sims live like Daddy Warbucks and want for nothing. This player loves nothing more than breaking ground on yet another outlandish mansion.
The Builder - The player doesn't actually play TS2, he or she just builds stuf: Sims, Houses, new objects, hacks, whatever. Some builders fufill this need by DLing everything thay cannot make themselves. After hours of split level, dummy wall, circular stairwell building and genetic manipulation of a 7 member family this player plays for 30 minutes and goes back out into neighborhood mode to start again.
The Micro-Manager - I know this player very well; I am one. This player loves taking care of every detail of a Sims life. No decision is too small; no conversation too small to stop or start. Free-will is a foriegn concept to these Sims; they are puppets of the great and powerful Oz. Bow, kneel before Zod! ... Sorry, I get carried away sometimes. Ahem, where was I?
The Director - The Director views his or her Sims as actors in their own personal soap opera or drama film. While the player is more than happy to let the Sims do some things, relationships, plutonic and romantic, are carefully managed to make the Sims life more interesting. Friendships, affairs, fights, influence abuse, and arguments are the cornerstones of the player's experience.
The Conceptulizer - Sounds like and Aspiration reward, don't it? Theis player is similar to the Builder and the Director in play style, he or she is concerned mainly with make Sims and neighborhoods that fit inside certain concepts. 1852 Victorian Spain, far future sci-fi, the Care Bear villiage, and others ideas, each elaborate and detailed, are the Conceptulizer's passion. At least until the next large concept takes hold... Ok, there you go. My accessment of play styles. Any others you can think of?

[DuzzyGirl]

Great way to summarize us! :D I think I'm a combination Micro-manager/Director.

[person123]

I'm definately a combo-Griefer/Director.

[Shintoga]

I am definitely a combo of micro-manager and director; I'm a Sims 2 control freak! :D

[surprised_by_witches]

I'm mostly a Director, but have been guilty of micro-managing on occasion. I just hate it when they make stupid decisions, like playing pool when they clearly need to pee ... :D

You forgot a type, though: The Parent. This Sim takes to heart the happiness as well as the misfortunes of his or her sims and does their best to make sure every sim achieves their heart's desire. This player takes a parental view of sims and has a hard time when they die.

I've been this type on occasion, as well ...

[Kristalrose]

Okay, I'm a Director/Parent combination. Most of the time I am playing my Simmies like they are either Soap Opera actors or Reality TV "stars". But, there are some sims that I get attatched to, and those I try very hard to make them happy, and mourn their passing.

[zydeco]

I wonder how differently men and women play the sims. Knowing that there are exceptions to every rule blah blah blah, I think that men and women play all computer games differently. I'm actually surprised so many men play. I can understand those that enjoy building or manipulating the computer code. I've noticed many retired men play, though. Perhaps it provides a small world to control now that they don't run a business. My son liked the initial novelty but became bored with it quickly. He will roll his eyes watching me pick out details for my sims or houses. "Who cares what shade of blue carpet you pick? It's taken you an hour to decorate that one room!" To him, it's the game equivalent of a "chick flick". I found it equally interesting trying to share TS1 with my then 19 year old daughter. We had huge arguments over downloads. She liked gastly goth stuff and thought my taste boring! LOL! I would have a general plan and think in the long term and she liked immediacy, chaos and drama. I don't know if that's a difference in age or personality type.

I actually feel guilty about the sims I don't play anymore. They're all alone in their house, stuck on the toilet or washing dishes or whatever, lonesome, no one ever comes over... hard to imagine men going through this kind of weird rescue/protection/maternal response. I've wondered if they are relieved when I don't pick them to play! lol I'm sure they are relieved that aren't forced to flirt, unclog a toilet, or read a level 8 mechanical book. ;)

What a fun list, rowanstaff! I'm definitely a conceptualizer/micro-manager.
I think that's why I wasn't thrilled with TS2 at first. I had no way to play as a builder of themed worlds.

[Rowanstaff]

You forgot a type, though: The Parent. This Sim takes to heart the happiness as well as the misfortunes of his or her sims and does their best to make sure every sim achieves their heart's desire. This player takes a parental view of sims and has a hard time when they die.

I've been this type on occasion, as well ... If I could edit my post I would add this one to the list.

8. The Parent - This Sim [player] takes to heart the happiness as well as the misfortunes of his or her Sims and does their best to make sure every sim achieves their heart's desire. This player takes a parental view of sims and has a hard time when they die. (thanks to surprised_by_witches).
In retropsect I might also add the following, although it might be considered a sub-Director.
9. The Legacy - This Sims player is not concerned about any one Sim, but a bloodline of generations. Watching a family grow from single digits to fill a whole neighborhood, or watching a lot grow from a single bedroom shanty to a mansion housing 4 generations is the player's crowning achievement.

[Chee-Z]

I know I'm a combo Legacy/Micromanager/Parent. :D Though when Pascal died I wasn't too mournful since I never made him...:confused:

[kuponutty]

I'm starting to be a Legacy, but right now I'm very much of a Parent/Micro-Manager.

[Kristalrose]

Hummm. Very interesting, Rowan. I think I would be a Legacy Player, if I could keep myself from screwing up my game every few months!!:(

[surprised_by_witches]

Hey, I'm a Legacy player right now too ... that's my goal, to have as many gens as I can and I love it when the houses grow along with the sim's fortunes ...

Good add, Rowan. This is fun.

So I'm a Legacy/Director, occasional Parent/Micromanager ... How schizo can you get?

[HelloKit]

I'm probably a combination Micromanager/Director. I actually have a sort of algorithm I play to (and really that's how I do everything in my life... I guess I'm like a robot or something, lol)... but I make mistakes in my own algorithm all the time, so there is an element of spontaneity/randomness in there. And part of my "algorithm" does include a Sim's own aspirational goals, so chaos and drama does ensue from time to time, especially when a family Sim suddenly can't think about anything else but cheating on their spouse!

And on that note, anyone who says Sims never initiate romantic relationships on their own is dead wrong. I have Sims roll wants all the time for romantic interactions with other Sims with whom no prior romantic relationship exists... and if left to their own devices with free will on, they often will act on those wants. I've even seen it happen between guests at a party, who weren't even under my control!

[surprised_by_witches]

Heh. No kidding. I turned my back for a second on two sorority girls and they started kissing like mad.

I also had a pair of roommates I was trying to find husbands for fall in love with each other. No matter how I tried to interest them in other people they kept thinking of each other, and I thought, who am I to stand in the way of true sim love? :D (I just wanted them to marry guys for the gene pool thing, anyway, so ... adoption it was.)

[kuponutty]

For some reason I've only gotten up to the second gen. My goal now is to get up to the 5th generation. Anyone been able to do that? I bet its pretty easy, but visitors keep taking the babies...

[Kristalrose]

Kupo, have you downloaded the official patch from thesims2.com? That fixed the babynapping problem.

[surprised_by_witches]

I haven't gotten past the third gen yet, but I used to play so many characters that I didn't have time. Now I'm going for depth rather than breadth and fully expect to get to my goal of 8 gens, provided the game doesn't crash ...

[Rowanstaff]

Good add, Rowan. This is fun.Thanks. It's an idea I've had rolling around in my noodle for awhile.

[kuponutty]

Kupo, have you downloaded the official patch from thesims2.com? That fixed the babynapping problem.

Can you download things without the registration code? I lost mine. :o

[suitemichelle]

go to: http://www.thesims2.com/ back in the support area there are steps you can follow to retrieve lost reg. #'s. If you haven't already, join that site and you will be able to download the patch for ts2. but if you already have ts2u installed then that patch was supposed to be included with that expansion.

services like # retrieval are why it's important to registar your game. It also cuts down on bootlegging.

[J. M. Pescado]

I rule with an iron fist and meticulously maintain everything. However, I feel nothing when a sim dies. To me, it's just one more milestone in the lifecycle of a sim: be born, grow up, max out all skills, hit permanent platinum, spawn, die. Sims, like people, die. Sometimes I help them to die.

[suitemichelle]

Why doesn't that surprise me?

[surprised_by_witches]

Yes, to quote Disney, "I'm about to have a heart attack and die from not surprise."

For me, it depends on the sim. If I intended for them to grow old and die it doesn't bother me. Ghosts can be fun. I have one dead couple that's a real scream ... ha ha

Others I become more attached to, and haven't allowed to die as of yet. But I know that eventually they will ... I'm not sure I'll be so blase about that.

[Chee-Z]

I was "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! :eek: " when Aerith Curious died from her brother-in-law's ghost scaring her. I never thought I'd be attached to a Sim like that, because when Pascal died, I just recorded it. :rolleyes: Not sure how I'd do letting the Lockhart sisters die...I've had them for a really long time. :(

[Rowanstaff]

I rule with an iron fist and meticulously maintain everything. However, I feel nothing when a sim dies. To me, it's just one more milestone in the lifecycle of a sim: be born, grow up, max out all skills, hit permanent platinum, spawn, die. Sims, like people, die. Sometimes I help them to die.JMP, you make me oh so happy I'm not one of your Sims.

[HillsAngel]

I rule with an iron fist and meticulously maintain everything. However, I feel nothing when a sim dies. To me, it's just one more milestone in the lifecycle of a sim: be born, grow up, max out all skills, hit permanent platinum, spawn, die. Sims, like people, die. Sometimes I help them to die.


I agree. The sims are there for my enjoyment, not theirs. I decide from the birth of a family how their lives will proceed; if they marry/cohabit; how many children they have; whether they try to get to the top of the career ladder or just earn enough to get by. If I'm fed up with a sim I arrange for them to die. In fact I look forward to the elder sims dying because it's always useful for the younger sims who benefit.:D

[surprised_by_witches]

There have been a few sims I've tried to help along ... I bought them all sorts of shiny machines and didn't let them learn any mechanical skills. But even though they got fried a few times they refused to die, and got so many mechanical points that eventually repairing things became a breeze ... Oh, well.

And even though I had a sim watch clouds every day for a week it stubbornly refused to drop a satellite on him.

I like that the game can be unpredictable like that ... :D

Of course, there is always the direct route. Remove the fridge or the pool ladder, have them use the re-energizer when they're green or lower ... I've gotten a few ghosts that way. :p

[kuponutty]

The only sims I leave to die are townies. Otherwise, I'll just keep making my own sims drink the elixer of life. I raised them since Create-a-family screen!

[Rowanstaff]

I never help a Sim die. To date I've only had two deaths that occured while I was in "active control". One was while i was learning; the other the result of the jump bug (oh thank god they fixed it). Any other time a Sims died it was because I was doing something else--like watching TV or getting a soda--while my Sims ran headlong into death.

My name is Rowanstaff, and I'm a pedantic Micro-manager.

[HelloKit]

Any other time a Sims died it was because I was doing something else--like watching TV or getting a soda--while my Sims ran headlong into death.
Yikes! I would never leave my Sims unattended without pausing the game! :laugh:

[Rowanstaff]

Yikes! I would never leave my Sims unattended without pausing the game! :laugh:Yeah I usually don't, it's been a rare event, but it has happened.

[kuponutty]

My brother complains that I spend more time pausing the game than playing it! I hate to leave them alone.

[Kristalrose]

I never help a Sim die. To date I've only had two deaths that occured while I was in "active control". One was while i was learning; the other the result of the jump bug (oh thank god they fixed it). Any other time a Sims died it was because I was doing something else--like watching TV or getting a soda--while my Sims ran headlong into death.

My name is Rowanstaff, and I'm a pedantic Micro-manager.

Well, I have been known to murder a sim from time to time. :D But, my favorites I pamper and let them grow old gracefully and go off to Heaven with the Hula Girl Angels. LOL

But last night I was playing my "Me" house. Rose, my self-sim, was pregnant with her 1st baby. She was having a terrible time of it, too, always hungry and tired, Hubby Jack working nights at the hospital or obsessively painting. I had the television on in the background and got interested in a show, so I sent Rose to the bathroom, shower, and breakfast, left Jack happilly painting, turned the sound on the computer down,and then turned around to watch the end of the segment. When comercial came on, I turned around and noticed that Jack was now alone in the house, and there was an urn in the kitchen next to a plate of pancakes. :rolleyes: Needless to say I exited without saving, and Jack and Rose are now the proud parents of baby Edward. :)

[kuponutty]

And all this time I was calling you Kristal in guess who's next! Which one do you prefer? Rose or Kristal? Sorry for calling you the wrong thing. Am I just dumb or what?

[Mirelly]

Re leaving the game without pausing ... some of the funniest situations I have had my sims get themselves into have been when I rushed away from the puter to answer the door, rescue bird from cat etc. etc. and miss-hit the pause key. I once had several days pass and when I returned a lot of furniture had been repo'd, a baby had been born and was already a toddler, a teen had reached top of a career and due to a failure of dishwasherage the whole family was trying to wash dishes in a bathroom sink while a horde of buzzy flies ... errrr ... flew around.

[babewithbrains_14]

My brother complains that I spend more time pausing the game than playing it! I hate to leave them alone.

Same here, but not about the brother bit. I'm an only child.

[Kristalrose]

And all this time I was calling you Kristal in guess who's next! Which one do you prefer? Rose or Kristal? Sorry for calling you the wrong thing. Am I just dumb or what?


No, Kupo, Kristal's the right answer. ;)

You didn't read my pittiful Sim's names and make the connection? I named them after characters from my favorite movie. :)

[suitemichelle]

cute hairstyle on her.... where did you get it????

[Kristalrose]

cute hairstyle on her.... where did you get it????

Janna made it. It's here on her site: http://www.simsconnection.com

[suitemichelle]

Neat site! thanx

[kuponutty]

Is pregnancy hard? I found the pregnancy and babys easy to handle. Toddlers are the ones I hate. But maybe its easy because I made Lara (the mother) a stay-at-home mom and Andy (the father) quit his military job. Oh well, he'll get an athletics job when the twins are kids.

[suitemichelle]

Do you mean in the game... or in real life?

[kuponutty]

Of course in the game!!!

[babewithbrains_14]

LMAO! Michelle, so sorry. It's just really, really funny! :D

[Kristalrose]

LMAO!! Michelle, I was going to ask her the same question!!

[suitemichelle]

When you're a parent for real you'll find juggling job and baby can be handled without quitting your job. However having Merola64 (http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/forumdisplay.php?f=77) 's multipainting sure helps. It's too bad we don't have one in real life.

[person123]

Yeah, there are a lot of things in TS2 that I find myself wishing for in real life. I often find my sub-conscious trying to pause real life and think things over for a second before resuming normal speed, LOL.

[HillsAngel]

Is pregnancy hard?

It can be so easy that you don't even notice and the mother can keep going to work and having a social life without any real effort, and then it can be a near death experience where you just have to devote all your time to the pregnant sim as she starts by throwing up in the loo continually and then goes on to having an enormous appetite which keeps needing replenishment plus no energy and a big hygiene problem. I have had a sim die in these circumstances and had to get her partner to beg the grim reaper which luckily worked. The thing is you'll never know until you try and it's so much more satisfying when you've had to work hard to get someone through it. :p

[Sylla]

Gees, I have found real life pregnancy easier than some of my sims pregnancys'( I never had morning sickness and I swear I was never THAT hungry :D ), mind you I think I could have tolerated 3 days only pretty well!

[Kristalrose]

Well, I spent my 1st trimester with all three of my babies alternating between the couch and the bathroom!! I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. LOL

I have Sims that are the same way, and I have sims that never have any nausea, much less morning sickness. And if they have a lot of morning sickness, they gain a ton of cleaning points because I always make them clean up after themselves! ;)

I wish we had a merola's painting in real life, too. And a money cheat! ;)

[surprised_by_witches]

Yep, a money cheat would come in handy.

Pregnancy for me was a near-death experience, which is why I have only one child. You never know what you're going to get, in real life or the Sims. Fortunately, I have a wonderful child who is everything I could have ever wished for.

I've had sims nearly die and others go to work their first day. I've found once they start showing they won't leave the house. I had one sim who was so bad off I put a bed in the yard and had the Chinese food delivered to her. She ate it and passed out in the bed. Her needs were constantly in the red and her family worried about her a lot (she and her husband lived with the in-laws).

I decided that she, like me, would have only one kid after that!!

[zydeco]

Parts of sim pregnancy are very well done. I always grin at the 3rd day waddle. I remember it well. I felt like the michelin tire man. :( The fact that no two sims pregnancies are exactly alike reflects real life. Both of mine were very different. The one thing they should have included were specific food cravings...not just hunger. It should roll up wants of a grilled cheese or Chinese takeout all across the board. I lived on Mexican food my first pregnancy. El Chico's and Taco Bell knew me by first name by the time I delivered. My daughter still prefers Mexican food to all others. I lived on sweet rolls my second pregnancy. Everything else made me nauseus. Krispy Kreme was my second home. My husband got so tired of making a midnight run that he'd buy a dozen on the way home from work. My son still has a terrible sweet tooth. Since sims find that dirty diapers "smell bad" and people fart all the time they should have made bad smells trigger puking. It took very little to trigger that response in me while pregnant. :p

[surprised_by_witches]

LMAO Zy. I should have given birth to an eggroll. I agree about smells. That, and brushing your teeth while pregnant. That can get tricky.

Hey, that would be cool. Sims being required to brush their teeth ... :D

[Lynet]

The original game had teeth brushing. They'd even open the medicine cabinet. It was cute. I was disappointed that it didn't work in Sims2.

[WereBear]

The original game had teeth brushing. They'd even open the medicine cabinet. It was cute. I was disappointed that it didn't work in Sims2.

Same here. I've noticed that the bathroom sinks have pretty much been downgraded to a decorative item also. In Sims1 my unltra-neat sims (the ones that get all happy when you tell them to clean something) were very OCD about handwashing after visiting the toilet or even after getting their hands dirty with food, gardening, or bathroom scrubbing. I've yet to see one of my Sims2 characters wash their hands on free will. If they brought back tooth brushing they could make the neatniks OCD about that also (after every meal, after bathing, random 500 pt toothbrushing wants.) Or alternatly have sloppy sims get toothaches and yuckmouth from bad oral hygien! ;)

[Lynet]

Or alternatly have sloppy sims get toothaches and yuckmouth from bad oral hygien! ;)

:D And have to go to the dentist. I hope the next expansion pack about jobs has doctor's offices, nurses and dentists. Since we have excercise machines now it isn't a far stretch to dental chair antics.

[surprised_by_witches]

I have had sims wash their hands spontaneously. If they have a high neatness score and you teach them to do it, I've noticed that some of them wash their hands after using the toilet, every time.

Other, slobbier, sims still need a push. :D

My daughter figured out that if they don't wash their hands they get sick. Who says the sims doesn't teach anything?

[kuponutty]

They do need a medicine cabinet for TS2! I miss how the kids would pull out a stool, just like when kids try and look through a telescope. I've never seen a sim in TS2 that washes their hands after going to the toilet. Well, only once when the sim had red hygiene.

[surprised_by_witches]

You need to teach them, and some of them still won't do it.

[Rowanstaff]

We need a training leash for our Sims, like the beasts in Black and White. Then training would be so much easier.:p

[surprised_by_witches]

Bad dog! I said kick the gnome, not cheer insanely over your good grades ... (I'm so looking forward to that particular feature fix ...) Good dog. Feed the baby the bottle from the fridge, not the stanky one on the floor.

[Kristalrose]

ROTFLMAO!!!!


Bad Vampire Doggy!! You can't go swimming at noon!! (cancel swimming, click on "go to bed" in his coffin) "Go lay down, doggie!!" Swimmng icon comes up in action quey) Bad doggie! I said go lay down! (click on coffin, cancel swimming again.) Don't just stand there! Your needs are dropping, go lay. . . well, here comes Grimmy. Never mind. :(

[Mirelly]

Well ... IRL my friend is expecting twins right now and she is as big as a house and she is still only 14 weeks in ... I keep teasing her that she is probably carrying a whole soccer team! :p

[surprised_by_witches]

My friend's wife is at 33 weeks with identical twin boys. Haven't seen her recently, but at 5 months she looked like 9 ... poor thing. She's tiny, and the only place they have to go is straight out.

They're hoping to hold on for two more weeks or so ... keep your fingers crossed. Bigger babies are healthier babies ...