College Dads This is so unfair! Today one of my sims graduated and returned home to mater and pater with her sheepskin and a diamond ring on her finger. Well there were no jobs available (that she wanted) so she took the naturalist one so she could install a cow plant on the family hacienda's front lawn ... but there's another whole long story. Anyway Saira started pining for Donte, whose ring she was wearing. (I'd actually planned to have him fall in love with another fresher and have him get caught cheating by Saira at his graduation ball ....) But no! All Saira wants to do is phone Donte so she does and he comes over for the weekend and mater and pater's four-poster saw more action than General Patton ... mostly cos pater was being sneaky with Lucy the maid. So although ma and pa are silver sims there was suddenly a wild rash of swelling tummies chez Willis. Lucy Hanby gave birth to Hannibal first and then Donte arrived back at the Willis' for a midweek break in time to witness the surprise arrival of his son, Alex. Why unfair? Well it seems that sim women may choose to have babies by college boys but not the other way around. Shame on Maxis!:bandit:
Hummm. Are you sure you haven't slipped over and started playing on my computer? The next thing you know, Lucy and Saira will be moving to the local trailer court and wearing too much green eyeshadow. I agree with you that it's not fair. I understand why a college female shouldn't concieve (because the baby is left on the Uni Lot) but a college male? He has no consequences to fathering a child!! Well, except those that we as the players place upon him.
LOL that's the beauty of sims: they're so realistic that even the clever and wealthy ones can still behave like the poor trash they claim to despise! I agree with you analysis of the no consequences fathering. In many senses I feel that this sends out entirely the wrong message regarding responsible <ahem> social behaviour and parenting. The try for baby option -- in the game -- is unfortunately tied to household size and that need never have been an issue. The game could just as easily have been set up to inform the player that Ms X is about to have her baby and that local by-laws against overcrowding mean that someone is gonna have to move out ... might be the momma, might be the GPs or an older sibling. As it is babies are only started in the building they will be born into (or by single women with space at home when they are the playable sim ... I haven't done a lot of public woohooing so I don't know too much about the options available ) Anyway. Just my opinion. I am merely expressing my surprise that Maxis' adherence to ESRB rating guidlines has led them into this sociological conundrum of cul-de-sac. It seems that a slavish devotion to a teen-rating and wholesomeness still lead to unsavory consequences and ill-conceived messages for young people concerning their adult responsibilities. (And yes I am speaking with tongue in cheek, somewhat! It ires me that the pious minorities speak in such fashion as though only they are safe from corruption and that without the trammels and limitations they demand the whole of society stands in direst danger ... yeah, right. )
The "unfairness" actually makes perfect sense: Due to the fact that time is asynchronous at university compared to the regular neighborhood, and that there is no aging, a sim which becomes pregnant on a college lot would drop out a baby that would never age (or perhaps simply remain permanently pregnant, depending on if a pregnancy controller even exists), and would not be able to leave the lot to go to a community lot at the University. Depending on where they currently live, this could potentially result in them failing due to inadequate resources on the home lot. Furthermore, upon graduation, the baby would be abandoned on the lot. Thus, a sim cannot become pregnant while in college for technical reasons: The temporal distortion prevents it. However, there are no actual reasons that prevent them from woohooing, so they could pollinate somebody who is in "normal" time just fine. So the real reason it works this way is due to temporal distortion and technical feasibility, not gender bias.
You missed my point, my fishy friend. I was mostly trying (unsuccessfully I now realise) to plead a case for male liberation by pointing up the cynical way Maxis hide behind an unholy combo of pandering to societal squeamishness concerning biology and a game structurfed in such a way that the female of the sim species holds all the boss cards in the reproduction stakes. After the woohoo bit what (virtual) earthly use is a male sim? Left to his own devices he mostly just gets in the way or else gets his face slapped a bit ... come to think of it I'm talking about real life here ... sorreeeee
Well, it certainly would make it easier to cheat to have a baby ... I don't know much about programming but it probably has to do with the fact that the mom usually can't leave the lot once she's got a sim bun in the oven. Of course, I had a Sim move to a new house not realizing she was pregnant, so maybe that theory doesn't hold water. As for male liberation, there's always alien abductions ... though I'm not sure being the one to have the baby counts as "liberation ..." Now, if you could CHOOSE which parent got pregnant, that would be something. Your turn, honey.
Hallelooya (cos I dunno how to spell it!) SBW wins the prize! Honey, there is nothing further to add. Game set and match to you!
ROTFLMAO!!!!!! I wonder where this "off topic" post is going to be moved to, becuase it has certainly went off the topic of general gameplay styles. I completely agree with you, Mirelly. The only way that a male sim has control over conception is if (a) it's his spouse or roommate, or (b) it's a female playable sim from another lot, and they are fooling around in the changing booth. There is NO WAY to get a female NPC pregnant without cheating that I know of. Trust me, I've tried. That hussy Nikki the cheerleader has "made a man" out of a large percentage of my college boys and even flirted with a female. If any NPC needs her birth control to fail, it's her. I'm banned for life, aren't I?
