More Awesome Than You!

I just had this thought on the way to work today - remember that preview disc, I think it came with Makin' Magic? There was one of the developers showing the way the game worked - I believe the scenario was a birthday party for Don's (?) son. I don't think he was exactly the same Don Lothario but as a teenager they showed he sure did act like him and with a Dina?

Anyway, at this party his wife, a Family Sim, had a fear of cheating (which I've never seen in mine yet, woo) and while the kid was growing up Don was making out with Dina in the house - and the wife's sister walked in, saw them, and went to tell her sister - and just telling her activated the fear of cheating and put her in desperation and the wife's sister attacked Dina - remember this?

What happened to the 'telling them about cheating' deal? Even if she had been directed to go over to her sister and it wasn't autonomous in that preview, how did she 'tell' her? Gossip? I've had a daughter congratulate her father on cheating right next to her mother and nothing happened :P Gossip about cheating is apparently supposed to affect the Sim involved if they just hear about it, at least according to the Prima guide, but we all know the guide is not exactly reality.

Did something happen to this feature, or did it never exist in that sense, or what? It was a movie, so you can watch it happening as it happens, and in the base game at that...

I vaguely remember this and wondered the same thing.  Was this the gossip action that telegraphs memories to sims?  If so, I've seen them discussing people cheating, but I've never seen a sim become angry or attack because of it.

Oh, and I have had the fear of cheating in my game before.  Have seen it a lot, actually.  :)

I have that disc somewhere and I remember exactly what you mean.

Gossip does spread (invisible) memories, so if a Sim witnesses a cheating, it can gossip with another Sim, whom then aquires the knowledge of the cheating because they are given an invisble memory, or some bogus like that.

But yeah, it was the gossip action.

I have  had it once or twice where the gossip about cheating actually did break up a relationship.

It's hard to get it to work, so I wouldn't plan on breaking up any sims via word of mouth.

Sims have so many other memories that they will gossip about first anyways...

Oh. My. God.  Did you see so & so pee himself the other day?
My grandma has roaches!
Little Timmy....yeah he grew up the other day.
Wow.....

yeah, but there was also something about a sim woman ripping off her shirt and jumping over the back of the couch to make out with her husband- I've never seen THAT in the game, either...

As I recall there were some ads that were basically animated movies, and the like, and had actions that you can't get in game, like the kids on the ceiling fan... however, this was a narration of someone playing the game itself.

I wish I got the fear of being cheated on memory. It must have to do with personality, because so far none of my Family Sims have gotten it...

I've tried to get gossip to 'alert' cheated-on Sims before because really, they can cheat in front of family members who don't go tell (and they have good relationship with) their relatives who were cheated on? Bahh. Also, with certain mods in now I'm having trouble getting a Sim to care that his lover just married his rival. May have to take them out temporarily so he'll get properly jealous - there's some times when it makes sense, and when your Family Sim high school sweetheart girlfriend has chosen her other lover to marry (thanks to higher chemistry and the fact they fell in love autonomously - it was hard to pick, though!), that's one of those times.

They probably decided that having sims actively going around telling people about cheating would make playing a Romance sims too tricky. Or it turned out to be difficult to implement. Or they ran out of time and scaled back on a lot of stuff.

I always got the impression, in the early video previews of gameplay, that the game was much more complex and detailed than it actually turned out to be. May be a perceptions issue, may be an "EA wanted to ship for the holidays" issue. (I wish the beginning of summer was the big "game release" season, rather than the holidays. That's when I have the most time.)

I've frequently had family sims display the fear of being caught cheating - often the ones who (like dear Cassandra) chase anything in pants!  As to gossip, if you check sims memories, they nearly always have an invisible memory of their partner cheating if that has happened, and it doesn't seem to bother them, any more than chatting about their spouses previous loves!  I suppose they take the view that - well, he/she may have tried to get him/her, but he/she's still here with me!

I wish that my sims would have the fear of "Cheat on X", rather than "Get caught cheating on X". I mean, they're supposed to be in love and all that, so why are they only concerned about getting caught? It irritates me sometimes, because it's not exactly loyal behaviour. "Oh what X doesn't know won't hurt him/her".

Gah, I haven't seen the fear of getting caught cheating either. And, especially in the early days of my 'hood, they sure should have! >< Perhaps I'll roll this up now that I have some generations of Sims with more extreme/varied personalities than the ones I started out with in CAS...

Wow, I get that fear all the time, and from the family Sims who have never ever cheated in the first place!  It drives me crazy, and for the precise reason moonshadow gave.  If I were a family Sim (and I am so NOT), I'd be much more worried about cheating on my spouse than getting caught for cheating.  Because, really, wouldn't that make me a Romance Sim rather than a Family Sim?

same here!

I always felt it should be - fear "catch partner cheating"

Lots of my sims have invisible memories of their partners cheating, but they never react either.  And if they've just 'cheated' with one of the woo-hoo boys or girls, the partner will actually congratulate them on it because I've seen it happen.  Then again, they congratulate people for peeing themselves, which I'm sure is a mistake ... isn't it???

I think maybe the reason they don't get all het-up about it is because there's no timeframe involved.  "Had an affair with Whoever" doesn't necessarily mean they were with their current partner at the time, they could have been cheating on someone else, because memories get passed around that are eons old.  Unless the game has a way of letting the current partner know, that may be why they don't react.

Well, I suppose if they were childhood friends, went steady from the first day the grew up to teen, lived together and wer engaged at Uni, got married on the first day back in the hood, then  they really ought to be aware that if their sim partner cheated, it was AFTER they were an item, not before!  And whereas if don informs his current partner that he did woohoo with so-an-so, if Daniel tells Mary-Sue the same thing, surely she ought to react by half-killing him?

Personally I want to know what happened to the fire breathing clan that they showed in those movies.  I was really looking forward to my sim's passing on odd traits like that.

Hrm... if I ever figure out how these things work... what kind of fears are there related to cheating?

Is it only "Get Caught Cheating" or is there an actualy fear of "Cheating" period, meaning that a sim would be afraid to cheat. That sort of makes sense... but is a strange kind of self-worrying fear. It's a bit too... introspective and self-aware.

I think that it would make sense to roll up fears of "Getting Caught Cheating" should roll up AFTER having cheated at least once...

As for Romance Sims... well they seem a lot more loose so... I think they probably don't care so much about cheating. I mean... they obviously don't care about being monogamous if they want to have several lovers... so why should they care about cheating? Maybe that should be a personality thing then... maybe if they are very nice, then they might actually care. Otherwise why should they care if they get caught? I think it makes sense that Family Sims would be more concerned about monogamy. So... in that respect, it sort of does make sense, to roll up fears of having an affair. *shrugs*

Anyways, I never really notice these things and it's been a while since I've really played. Hopefully I'll get some real play time after I've rebuilt/restored/reconfigured my machine. :P

I also remember the previews and I was also hoping to see things like the firebreathers and the naked top ripping off and jump/humping on the couch. It's too bad that wasn't real "in game" play.  ;)

Ste

It also doesn't make any sense: if a sim has a fear of doing it, and it's up to them whether to do it or not, why would they do it?

Unfortunately, the entire want thing seems decoupled from the entire action thing. You'd think, for instance, that a Romance sim with a fear of marriage, either in general or to a specific person, would bolt if anyone tried to propose to him, and thus not realize this fear unless pushed into it with a nice shotgun wedding.

Not only that, but it's odd that any Romance sim who "cheats" - ie they only have to wolf whistle another sim - and they get the "Had an Affair with" memory!  Well, I think having an affair involves a little more than wishful thinking!  How old are the people who write this program - 13? when "Have a date with" means they spend two minutes dancing together at the school disco?

My thoughts exactly...


Yah, totally, especially about the decoupling part. :P But I suppose that's what I mean by being a bit too self-aware and existentialist. It's sort of a way for the game to remind you and almost as if the sims are reminding themselves that it is indeed a game. Just how the sims will complain and wave at the user. It's as if they are aware that they are not totally in control of their fate, and thus, they are afraid of what the user/god will do with their lives. ::) I guess, this sort of plays towards the user/god in giving a false sense of A.I., as if the sims have their own thoughts and feelings. :P I guess it could also provide some direction for users who have no exact plan for certain sims; in this case, it leaves the decision, of whether to keep sims "happy" by strictly fulfilling wants or "torture" them by sticking to fulfilling fears, up to the user/god.

I think the "issue" is that many players want to think of it more as a social experiment, kind of like a virtual pet where people kind of want to have as minimal interference and direction as possible. When you play in this way, you kind of want to interpret sims' wants and fears as if these are actually related to the sim themselves, and not just random rolling based on certain stat values. I guess this is the part where your imagination comes into play. ;)

Ste

Well, if you didn't use your imagination, you might as well stick to SSX3 etc!

I had a teen downtown wolf whistle at a Romance Sim just to set his preference and was thusly "caught cheating" by his uncle, who had a crush on her. -100/-100 and he wanted to see his nephew's ghost over a whistle - and he's a Sim who's woohooed every Romance Sim I have! I fixed the memories, but left the relationship bad and explained it as rivalry between two heirs to the Neighborhood Tyrant's dynasty (which they are). I was so glad when the romancemod was updated for NL...

But it still leaves a lot to chance and the Romance Sim's particular star-sign/personality!  Pisces and Aries still get incredibly jealous, Leos usually just cheer!

Heh, both the nephew and uncle are Knowledge Sims. The Romance Sim's only role was to be whistled at while walking by... and now the uncle hates her! Stupid Sims.

Well, the romance mod won't change the reactions of any but Romance sims!  It's just unfortunate the way the game is designed that it's usually the innocent party that suffers!

Ahh, this was pre-romance-mod-update, though, heh. I'm tempted to see what happens if I do the same thing again with some different Sims, though. Maybe non-related this time, since relatives tend to get furious on someone else's behalf now. Except when they're furious at them. *grin*

I think you have to accept that you'd never get sims to act like humans in these matters!  They are sims and behave like sims! ;D