Gender politics 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.
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.
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... 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.
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 .) 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 . I think my game play is very 'female.'
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 ...
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.
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 ) 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?
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 ... 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 ...
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.
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'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.
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.
I know I'm a combo Legacy/Micromanager/Parent. Though when Pascal died I wasn't too mournful since I never made him...
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!!:(
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?
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!
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? (I just wanted them to marry guys for the gene pool thing, anyway, so ... adoption it was.)
