Now that Christine and Freddie are engaged, Christine can use the Romantic.. > Elope With Freddie Immediately command to marry him on the spot. This is similar to how The Sims worked in its older iterations, with both Sims just swapping vows and smooches without anyone else getting in the way. This is fine if you're in a rush or are role-playing a shotgun wedding, but you will miss out on some good rewards if you do this.
Christine decides she wants an actual wedding. She can do this at any time with her phone, but be warned: the instant you choose to activate the wedding, the wedding will immediately take place. In previous versions of The Sims, you could plan ahead and figure out when you wanted weddings (and other social engagements) to take place. Not so with The Sims 4: everything always happens immediately when you give the command.
Christine learns this the hard way at first. She tests out the command at night, thinking she will just plan the wedding for the next day. Unfortunately, everyone she invites is teleported to the park in the twilight, so they're starting their âpartyâ by being extremely hungry, tired, and needing to pee.
No one is happy, and nothing has happened yet. Not a good sign since we're trying to get a solid rating for the social event.
Christine appeals to the time gods (i.e., we reload the save) and prepare a bit better. Around noon, she carefully contemplates her actions.
First, take a look at this screen as she prepares to send out the invitations for the wedding..
Although caterers, mixologists, and musicians are not necessary, they will make things more comfortable for the guests. However, they will need the right tools for their job: caterers need access to a kitchen of some sort, the mixologist needs a bar, and the musician needs any musical instrument.
Although Christine originally decided to have the wedding at the park, these requirements make her think twice. The park does not have a kitchen; it has grills, but hot dogs at a wedding is a little tacky. The park doesn't have a bar or musical instrument either, though we can buy one for the park anyway (and the cost is âfreeâ since it essentially comes out of the infinite tax dollars of the city).
Christine calls an audible and decides to have the wedding at her house. After all, the side yard has enough room to hold a wedding arch and a bar. It'll be a little cramped, but it will work. She goes into Build Mode and makes the necessary arrangements. She also bakes a cake, then interacts with it and chooses âAdd Wedding Topper,â then throws the cake in the fridge. It's a little odd to be making a cake for one's own wedding, but the cake is part of a minor wedding goal, so she prepares it now.
Next, she saves again, then activates the social planning again. She decides not to hire a musician since she doesn't have an instrument, but she does hire a mixologist and a caterer.
When you hire any of those three positions, note that you can hire someone you already know, or hire an unnamed NPC. You can also have multiple ones if absolutely necessary, though most Generation 1 Sims won't know enough guests to make that worth it. When choosing who to hire, you'll see a list of all the people your Sim knows who can qualify for that position. As you see here, the only person Christine knows who qualifies for the mixologist position is Daniel Mosley.
If Christine hires an unnamed mixologist, they're guaranteed to be skilled; Daniel may have just started and could mess everything up. However, he's free, and Christine is running out of cash, so she hires Daniel anyway. This may not be a risk you're willing to take with your own Sims, especially if you're using Generation 2 or later Sims who probably have enough money to splurge on a skilled townie.
Sims 4 Multiple Spouses
Christine finishes her plans and chooses her home lot as the site for the wedding. As with Christine and Freddie's second date, the wedding starts immediately as everyone teleports to the house. Christine changes into a special wedding dress automatically.
Any hired help goes to their stations at once: Daniel starts mixing booze, the caterer heads for the kitchen, and if a musician had been hired, they would have gone straight for an instrument.
Christine has an obvious role to play too, but unlike dates, it's usually best to get the main goal out of the way first. Because wedding starts in the afternoon, the guests are already reasonably taken care of with high need bars. It's best to do the wedding now, then worry about feeding everyone.
A wedding arch is not necessary, but it makes for a nice picturesque addition. Christine interacts with it and chooses âGet Married.â
Here, she then waits: once that command is given, everyone on the lot automatically starts heading to watch. She needs witnesses to fulfill certain minor goals of the wedding, so she waits until they gather. If there were chairs, they would sit to watch, but Christine didn't bother to buy any.
If you wish to force the issue, you can interact with the spouse-to-be, then choose âExchange Vowsâ to get the ball rolling. If you don't, as Christine chooses not to, then the betrothed will automatically do so. Vows are given, as well as smooches.
It's a happy moment for everyone involved.. except for the player, because of this pop-up box that causes an unexpected problem:
If you say âOKâ on that screen, you will immediately terminate the wedding. It's nothing that crashes the game or causes any other seriously awful bug. However, this terminates the wedding and you will not be rewarded for doing it. Make no mistake: stakes are high to get the precious gold medal for doing it right.
Note that if you elope, or if you don't care, then clicking âOKâ here doesn't matter; if the two Sims already live together, the pop-up box won't appear at all. We'll address Managing Households in a separate page, but suffice to say, you can manage households any time. The Sims 4 no longer requires spouses to be living under the same roof, and there is no harm in letting them have separate addresses for the moment.
So instead, Christine says âCancel,â and the wedding continues, even though that seems like odd and unintuitive terminology. With the main goal complete, Christine starts to work on the minor goals, such as grabbing a drink from the bar and getting some food from the caterer. She also pulls out her cake from the fridge, and the AI is smart enough that the other Sims do not attempt to eat it. Christine cuts the cake and eats the first slice, thus fulfilling a minor goal, and then her guests decide to dig in as well.
The wedding goes well, and Christine achieves a gold medal. Because of this, she gets almost a thousand simoleons' worth of free household appliances and décor in her family inventory! At the end of the wedding, everyone goes home.. including the groom. Christine didn't marry Freddie just so they could live on opposite sides of the planet, but we'll take care of that in the next section. Christine ends the night by selling the bar and the wedding arch to recoup a little of the cash she spent; hopefully, she won't need the wedding arch again.
Marriage in The Sims 4, like the previous iterations, does not confer any specific, special status changes. Spouses take on a little more jealousy if their significant others engage in romantic activity with others, compared to the jealousy they felt during mere dating. Also, as previously mentioned, married Sims do not necessarily need to live in the same roof. Children can be conceived and raised when both parents are separated and regardless of their relationship, if any.
Sims can marry other Sims of the same gender. Divorce can happen, but otherwise, Sims can only marry one other Sim at a time. Also, unlike previous iterations of the franchise, no one's name is changed after a marriage. Christine National remains Christine National. If she wanted to change her name, she would interact with a dresser and choose 'Plan Outfit.' She could then change her name in the top-left corner, similar to the interface as it appeared in Create a Sim.
Comments
A Pollination Technician is a member of an alien civilization, who can be referred to as any member of the crew of the UFOs that abduct Sims stargazing through a telescope at night. A Pollination Technician is the other parent to alien-Sim hybrid babies caused by abduction. They can impregnate male Sims with advanced technology.
Each neighborhood has its own Pollination Technician. The Pollination Technician does not actually exist as a Sim in the game, but only as a set of DNA that is passed on to alien-Sim hybrid children. Unless mods are used, a neighborhood only has one Pollination Technician; by default, all alien-Sim hybrids in a neighborhood that were born through alien abduction are either half or full siblings.
The numbered PollinationTechnicians in Pleasantview and Strangetown are part of pre-created families, and are separate from the NPC Pollination Technician.
When a Sim is impregnated by a Pollination Technician after being abducted, the Pollination Technician will be anonymous, but will appear in the hybrid child's family tree.
The Pollination Technician can be removed from the family tree of an alien-Sim hybrid toddler or child if that hybrid toddler or child is taken away by the Social Worker and later adopted. When this happens, the Technician and the birth father will both be replaced by the members of the adopting couple. Also, programs such as SimPE can be used to remove the Pollination Technician from the family tree.
The Pollination Technician will never appear as deceased in a Sim's family tree. In every neighborhood, he has no age bar. The only exception being Strangetown where he is an adult. A mod that unlocks the hidden alien face template the Pollination Technician uses can be downloaded here. Note that the ears of the default template are normal sized, as the Pollination Technician's ears are customized.
In the Swedish and Norwegian translation of the game, the Pollination Technician has the number 11 at the end of his name, named as Pollineringstekniker 11. In the Finnish translation of the game he has number 12 at the end of his name, as Hedelmöitysteknikko numero 12.
Warning
Do not attempt to add Pollination Technician to a household, or try to turn him into a supernatural creature, such as a vampire or a werewolf. Doing so can cause game corruption, fixed only by uninstalling and reinstalling the game.
PersonalityEdit
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Marriage A Sim can propose to another Sim, depending on their relationship. If the other Sim accepts, the two Sims will get married.
A wedding party. The SimsEdit
In The Sims, any two opposite-sex adults can get married. Either Sim can propose, but the proposer must be at home to do it. Whether the other Sim accepts or not depends on their mood or the relationship between the two Sims. If the other Sim accepts, however, both Sims will change into their formal clothes and share what's either a dance or a polite kiss, and the proposing Sim will be charged §1000. Sims who don't have §1000 can still marry; they'll be charged half of whatever funds they have. The Sim who was proposed to will take on the family name of the other Sim and move in with them.
Since there are no defined family ties or family relationships in The Sims, the option to get married is not available to Sims who already live together. Players can stage marriage ceremonies between Sims who live together, but the 'Propose.. Marriage' interaction won't be available because they're already considered part of the same family.
Couples can ask one another to 'Move In' if they do not already live together. Whether the other Sim accepts depends on their mood, their relationship, and the quality of the other Sim's house. The Sim who moves in will take on the family name of the Sim who proposed, even if the two are simply good friends. (This is unavoidable, as Sims in The Sims do not, properly speaking, have surnames.)
Marriage in The Sims is an event, not a condition. So, while Sims cannot get a divorce, a Sim who has married into one family can marry out of it and into another family. If the partner of the Sim who is changing households has a relationship with the proposer, that relationship will drop. Also, if the relationship between two Sims in a family is low enough, they can choose the Attack option and fight each other. Which Sim wins depends on their Body skill. The Sim who loses may choose to move out, and if they do, they will never be seen in the game again.
The Sims 2Edit
When two Sims who are adults or elders are in love, they can first get engaged, and then marry. Young adult Sims can get engaged, but cannot marry while they are at college. If Bon Voyage or later is installed, Sims can marry while on a community lot. With the addition of family ties and family relationships, marriage becomes a condition as well as an event, so Sims who are living in the same household can marry. If the Sims are not already living together, the Sim being proposed to will move in with the Sim who proposed as soon as the wedding ceremony is over. For both engagement and marriage, either Sim can propose.
Regardless of how the marriage is initiated, and regardless of the gender(s) of the Sims getting married, the Sim who initiates the marriage is the Sim whose last name both parties to the marriage will take. However, a program such as SimPE can edit one or both Sims' last names. Also, a mod at Mod The Sims allows the player to have the Sims keep their last names, or to decide which Sim's last name the couple will use.
There are two ways in which engaged Sims can get married, and both can be used with or without a wedding party. The first, and most basic way, is with the 'Propose.. Marriage' interaction, in which the two Sims exchange vows and kiss to signify their marriage. Unlike marriage in The Sims, this is free, and the Sims do not change clothes. It is also possible for two Sims to get married under a wedding arch. To do this, select one, click on the arch, and select 'Get Married'; the selected Sim is considered to be the one who proposed marriage. Unlike the simple 'Propose.. Marriage' interaction, when Sims marry under a wedding arch, they will change into their formal clothes, and there will be a short scene of the Sims exchanging rings, with any other Sims who are present clapping in the background. There is no charge for the marriage, but the arch costs §900.
Sims can also get married by having a wedding party. A wedding party is basically like a normal party, except that the Sims are expected to get married before the party ends. The wedding arch may or may not be used. Other differences between normal parties and wedding parties are that every guest will be in their formal clothes, and any invited guests will show up, even if they have a low relationship with the inviting Sim.
Joined UnionEdit
Marriages between two Sims of the same sex are referred to as 'Joined Unions' in The Sims 2, although engagement is still engagement, and a wedding party is still called a wedding party. While the names of the Sim-to-Sim and wedding arch interactions for marriage are different ('Propose.. Joined Union' and 'Join Union') for same-sex couples, the interactions themselves are the same. If the Sims do not already live together, the Sim being proposed to will move in with the Sim who proposed, and unless a mod is used, the Sim who initiates the union is the Sim whose last name both parties will take.
Joined unions provide fewer aspiration points than marriage. However, a hack available at www.simbology.com allows same-sex partners to enter marriages with the same titles, wants and fears as with opposite-sex partners: Same Sex Mods
Being left at the altarEdit
There is a chance that a Sim getting married could get 'left at the altar', even though Sim weddings do not involve altars. When this happens, one Sim will hesitate while the marriage is taking place, and then run away, leaving the other Sim behind. This could happen if one of the Sims is having an affair or has a fear of marrying their partner. It might also happen if the two Sims don't have a strong enough relationship, or if the Sim being proposed to has low needs (and thus in a bad mood). The Sim who was left behind will have a lowered relationship with the other Sim, and if Nightlife is installed, will be furious at them.
When a Sim is left at the altar during a wedding party, those who attend will have a lowered relationship with the Sim that left the other at the altar. The closer the attendees are to the Sim who was left at the altar, the more they will dislike the other Sim.
The Sims 3Edit
Sims who are in an exclusive relationship can propose marriage to their other half and become engaged.
The Sims 3: Generations provides extensive new features when it comes to proposals and marriage. Before proposing, the player has the option to let their Sim ask one parent for permission to marry their child. The engaged Sims can have the opportunity to throw a bachelor(ette) party, where a skimpy-outfitted dancer shows up to dance. Children are not allowed to be invited to the party but children who live in the household where the party will take place may stay. They can then either have a 'Private Wedding' by marrying on the spot or a wedding party, which can either be done at home or on a community lot. Other features in marriage include wedding arches, where Sims can opt to get married under, and wedding cakes, which is a lot similar to the birthday cake except the newlywed couple cuts the cake together instead of blowing candles. After a marriage, both Sims will also be granted vacation time from work, to provide a honeymoon.
When Sims wed, the last name taken by the couple will be that of the Sim who proposed. If the Sim who was proposed to already has children who are teens or younger, they will take on their new step-parent's name, even if they are not in the household. For example, if a single mother marries another man, her children will receive their new step-father's name, if he was the one who proposed. The same rule applies to newlyweds who had children together before marrying; while they originally take their mother's name, their future last name depends on which parent proposes. It's important to note that a Sim's last name can be changed via an interaction performed by the Sim in question at the City Hall.
Oct 19, 2018 - Soul Calibur 6's Main Story Mode, known as the Soul Chronicle, will re-tell. Alike battle for the fabled swords: The Soul Edge and Soul Calibur. Chronicles of the Sword has a spiritual successor known as Libra of Soul from Soulcalibur VI, but with some major playable characters are now involved in that. Soul calibur 6 chronicles of the sword. For SoulCalibur VI on the PlayStation 4, a GameFAQs message board topic. Man chronicles was SO much fun, I have no idea why they ever. Yeah I loved that mode, it's why SC3 was so good to me. Not only introducing create a character but giving you a mode built around using your. Oct 20, 2018 - Now we get on to the first proper stage. A mock battle against Abelia, who shows up a lot in this story. The map is a small area so two units can.
If the player wishes for a Sim couple to get married, the player first must build up their relationship until they are in love, and have a romantic interest. Then after they have a full relationship bar, the action 'Propose Going Steady', under the romantic section, will become available. Sims will then become boyfriend and girlfriend. Eventually, they can opt to marry.
When a couple (whatever gender combination it may be) consisting of two Sims who have their separate offspring that are in a romantic relationship with the other, after marrying, their children still see each other as Boyfriend/Girlfriend, but cannot perform romantic acts on one another as they are now step-siblings. They can only perform romantic acts when their parent/step-parent dies or their parents divorce. Though if a couple are already married when their parents marry each other, they can perform all romantic interactions.
Also note that in The Sims 3, unlike in The Sims 2, there's no distinction between same and opposite-sex marriages. The amount of Lifetime Happiness is the same for both kinds of couples when they go steady, get engaged, and finally get married. Further, in the family tree of same-sex couples it shows their spouse as either their husband or wife, the same as it does for opposite-sex couples.
Life StatesEdit
In The Sims 3, Sims can marry every life state available. However, some of the life states will not be available for marriage unless the player takes some necessary steps.
Throwing a wedding party Edit
In The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, a wedding party can be held by selecting 'Throw Wedding Party' on the phone. This is basically like a normal party, except that the Sims are expected to get married. The wedding arch[TS2][TS3G] may or may not be used.
There is a limited number of Sims who can be invited to a wedding party. In The Sims 2, players don't need to invite the bride or the groom to the party if they don't live together, because they will automatically come by themselves. Invited Sims will arrive in Formal wear. When the marriage takes place, both Sims switch into wedding attire (Formal wear) and head beneath the wedding arch.[TS2] Guests will gather around, and the Sims exchange vows and kiss to signify their marriage.
A wedding party is scored like a normal party. How well it scores depends on how much the guests are enjoying the party. If players can keep all the guests happy until the end of the party, it will become a great wedding party, and the married Sims will get a good memory about it.[TS2] Otherwise, players can have a horrible wedding party if the guests are not enjoying it, or if the marriage is unsuccessful. If the player wants a wedding party to end well, it is in their best interest to invest in party objects, such as a stereo and buffet table, and ensure that everyone is in a good mood.
If the wedding party is successful, a limo will come for the newlyweds to take them on their honeymoon. While they are on their honeymoon, their need bars will have a significant increase. If Bon Voyage is installed, the player can arrange for the Sims to have an actual honeymoon trip.
Interestingly, in The Sims 2, if the wedding party takes place with many family members around, and there is music playing, the bride may experience a want to dance with her father after the ceremony and the 'first dance' with her husband.[citation needed]
Divorce Edit
Contrary to popular belief, it is possible for marriages in the Sims' world to end in ways other than death in The Sims 2.
If two married Sims have their relationship with each other fall enough, such as through witnessing an affair, one Sim can kick the other to the curb. To have the couple get a divorce, choose whichever Sim will do the breaking up, click the other spouse, and select 'Break Up'. This option will only appear if the active Sim's relationship is low enough with their spouse; however, this option is always available in The Sims 3. The divorcee will then flee the lot and reappear in the Family bin in the neighborhood screen. They do not have the option of have taking any children they had or of remaining in the house. If the player wants them to stay in the house after the divorce, they will have to be moved back in.
In The Sims 3, the player will never see the word 'Divorce' in the game unless it is a wish during a Mid-Life Crisis, or a memory if The Sims 3: Generations is installed. However, the 'Break Up' option will almost always be available. When the 'divorcer' divorces the 'divorcee', they will still live together, however either Sim may have a wish to move out. Their relationship may drop into the red zone, depending on how good their relationship is the moment they break up (a full relationship after the divorce will still make the relationship be in the green zone), however the divorcee will experience more emotional turmoil, and will receive a large Lifetime Happiness drop as well as a moodlet for being betrayed/broken up with. This moodlet will last for days. If the divorced couple has children, the divorce will affect them badly too. If the player wishes to avoid this, it is best if the divorcer is a normal Sim while the divorcee is someone with the 'Commitment Issues' trait so that there will be no hard feelings for either, except when it comes to the children.
In The Sims 3: Late Night, if the married Sims have relatively high celebrity status, if the rumors begin to float about the divorce, it can be considered a public disgrace, but not many would react negatively to it.
In The Sims 3: Generations, if a Sim catches their spouse cheating (doing anything under the Romantic category with another Sim), their relationship will go down and it will take at least five days for the Sim to make the negative moodlet disappear. If the cheating is constant, the Sim can sometimes involuntarily (as the player cannot cancel the action) divorce the cheater on the spot.
In The Sims 4, there is a 'divorce' option under the 'mean' option for a married Sim to his / her spouse, instead of the 'break up' option. Toddlers and children will become sad if they witness their parents getting divorced. Sims who catch their spouses cheating will get the Very Angry moodlet, and divorced Sims will get the Very Sad moodlet.
Avoiding DivorceEdit
To avoid divorce, it's necessary to wait for their fury with each other to subside or, in The Sims 2: Apartment Life, have them perform the interaction called 'Repair Relationship With..' which will have the two Sims attempt to deal with their marital problems. In The Sims 3, if one's charisma is high enough, the Sim can use the smooth recovery interaction to try to repair the relationship.
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The Sims series has always been much more progressive than it often gets credit for, despite its fairly tame image. Even from the original Sims game, released way back in 2000, it already catered for non-normative relationships. Whereas many game franchises are, for some reason, still finding the idea of non-heterosexual gaming characters unthinkable, every sim is technically bisexual, something which has been expanded on throughout the sequels. The most recent release, The Sims 4, has taken this progression of sexuality further. In previous incarnations there was a fairly strict monogamy system, in which sims would become jealous and hate one another when discovering the object of their affection was âwoohooâ-ing with another. If The Sims can be turned into a reflection of life, then obviously this is not particularly useful if you want your sim to be polyamorous, or even date around before committing. Like its predecessors, The Sims 4 has pushed forward to reflect what are usually brushed off as âalternative relationshipsâ.
A little look at The Simsâ history definitely demonstrates that this isnât particularly new for the series. In the original game, sims could be directed equally easily to have a crush on and fall in love with other sims of either gender. Compare this with the controversy that Nintendo garnered with Tomodachi Life, and you have a stark difference between the two very similar games. In Tomodachi Life, released in 2014, you are encouraged to create an online âselfâ, and can pursue romantic relationships and marriages with others who have done the same. That is, as long as youâre straight. Nintendo maintained that they were trying to avoid a political statement by not allowing gay marriage within the game, although evidently inadvertently did the opposite, as The Sims have continually proven that this is not an issue for a life simulation game.
Itâs no secret that that the 1950s stereotype of a gender normative heterosexual couple with a few kids on the side is no longer the most prominent family unit, nor is it the most desirable. While non-heterosexuality is by no means a norm, over the past few years it has become infinitely more accepted than ever before, at least in the western world. Sexual fluidity seems to be much more commonplace, in that people who may generally identify as heterosexual or homosexual can accept that there may be a point where they fall for someone of a gender that they may not necessarily have expected. A similar phenomena is happening with polyamory. Whilst many people have been, and are, open to dating several people at once, usually this kind of behaviour is stereotypically limited to young blokes who shag around. However, the act of having more than one fulfilling and emotional relationship simultaneously â with the others in the relationship in full knowledge of this â is slowly becoming more and more common, and more and more accepted (emphasis on slowly).
The acceptance of âalternativeâ relationships, and particularly bisexual and homosexual relationships, within video games has been a rocky road. Bizarrely there still seems to be some residual belief that only white heterosexual boys play video games, despite consistent and vehement opposition to this assumption, and so for some LGBTQ gamers it has felt like an uphill struggle. In recent years though, increasing numbers of games â both RPG and life simulation â that have started to include same-sex relationships. These relationships are treated as a non-issue, and are always an optional extra (as in, the player could choose to engage in a heterosexual relationship instead, if they wished to engage in a romantic relationship at all).
One could argue the point that, whilst The Sims does have the option to contradict the heterosexual and monogamous ânormâ, compulsory heterosexuality is present throughout the games as a standard. The families that you meet in-game are all heterosexual bar one, so unless the player themselves decides that their sim isnât going to maintain this ânormâ then you wouldnât really have contact with someone obviously non-heterosexual. This doesnât seem to be advanced in The Sims 4, despite Russia taking umbrage with this particular incarnation of the game above any others. However, this latest game does now have a mod that allows same-sex couples to biologically reproduce, when they were only able to adopt previously. While there still seems to be a fair amount of ground to be covered when it comes to homosexual relationships being part of the ânormâ, as well as how The Sims games represent non-cisgendered people, this is definitely a good platform to start with.
Out of all of the games, The Sims 2 probably furthered this idea that in-game homosexuality is not an issue most by allowing both heterosexual and homosexual couples to marry or enter into joined unions. In addition to this, in The Sims 2 package files, which were accessible via a cheat, you could see whether each individual sim had a preference for men, women, or no real preference at all. This made the game a much more authentic experience in terms of a simâs autonomous personality, and made it almost as much of a trait as the personalities you could assign. While all the non-playable sims present as heterosexual (in that they arenât in pre-programmed homosexual relationships), this showed that the player then would be in contact with a non-heterosexual sim without knowing it (much like in life). That being said, if you wanted a sim to sleep with â sorry, âwoohooâ with â anyone of any gender, you still could enforce it with a few jokes and flirts, regardless of built-in sexual preference.
Making this kind of fluid attraction is one thing, but The Sims 4 has now taken this a step further. In a move that makes the Sim world even truer to life, The Sims 4 has changed the relationship dynamic of compulsory monogamy that was implemented in the previous games. In the past three incarnations, if your sim had any kind of romantic attachment to another sim then they would become extremely upset if they saw said sim involved in romantic behaviour with any other sim. This would mean that their previous relationship with the original sim was often damaged almost beyond repair. However, now there is the relationship status of âlovebirdsâ. The sims are not in a formal relationship, and if their other romantic activities are witnessed then there is only a minor jealousy penalty. There is also a reward trait for the serial lover aspiration that a sim will never make another sim jealous, so if you want to make a fairly serious Don Juan then you now have the freedom to do so.
Other games that allow the player to pursue romantic relationships often have a similar monogamy remit to the other Sim games, in that your character can only have romantic relations with one other person. In The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, you have a huge selection of characters (male and female) that you can marry â but thatâs all you can do. If you decide to commit to another character in game then youâre committing for life. Of course, if you change your mind you can kill off your beloved, but that can be a little awkward, especially if theyâve grown into a particularly powerful follower.
Fable 2 is one exception to this rule. You can romance anyone and everyone to your heartâs content with kisses, dates, and a bit of thrusting. Outside of being hounded by lovesick villagers wherever you go, there is no penalty for this kind of polyamory. BioWare also recently announced plans for both polyamorous and asexual relationships, and the possibility that in-game relationships could fail. They stated that the only thing in their way was scripting, and so it seems like this could be a very real possibility in the next generation of games.
This kind of dynamic affords the player a lot more freedom. As in life, relationships are not always clean cut, and whilst there may be small amounts of jealousy if someone you sort-of dated gets with someone else at a party, itâs not going to entirely destroy the friendship between you. Sims can still only have one spouse, but it is possible to have multiple other partners without the world ending. This makes for a much more realistic experience and, letâs be honest, is great for the vicarious living which is exactly what games like The Sims are for. Whatâs the point of living a lavish life of fast cars and elaborate mansions if you end up getting a tongue-lashing and your bins periodically kicked over because you flirted with somebody in front of someone you forgot your sim had âwoohooâ-ed with? Itâs this vicarious living that is also so important for life simulators like The Sims. The game provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ exploration, and potentially polyamory exploration, without fear of discovery from internet or Netflix history, or being caught somewhere or with something that could attract gossip and could potentially be quite dangerous.
The Sims has shown again and again that gaming doesnât have to be behind the cultural norm. Where Tomodachi Life felt that allowing a same-sex relationship in a life simulator would be a political statement, The Sims takes it as an unspoken option. No sim has to engage in homosexual behaviour, but the option is there. Now, with The Sims 4, no sim has to have multiple partners, but the option is there. This is in no way an attack on Tomodachi Life (or other games like it): Nintendo and EA come from different places with different cultural norms, and so it makes sense that their development and sense of these relationships may be different. However The Sims has consistently (and quietly) maintained a progressive movement in terms of sexuality. The genders may still be binary and the identities still quite restrictive, but The Sims is definitely in the lead with video games â and most other mainstream media â in terms of progress and acceptance for relationships that donât necessarily conform to either heterosexuality or monogamy.
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Mods allow players to add nearly anything they want to The Sims 4âand this includes stuff that could be considered to be on the more on the taboo side of things.
Under normal circumstances, you can only pursue certain types of relationships with certain people. If a sim is related to another sim, they can't romance each otherâand they definitely can't marry each other, for example. Another rule: teens can't become pregnant. But just because the game is designed a certain way doesn't mean players don't want to toy with certain simulations anyway, regardless of how socially acceptable they'd be in real life.
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That's where a number of curious mods by BIlly Rand come in. Rand is a modder who specializes in 'forbidden' types of modsâduring the last couple of days, he's uploaded videos which showcase teen pregnancy, incest and even polygamy in The Sims 4:
The thing that's the most curious to me about this is that while previous mods allowed nearly anyone to become pregnant, teen pregnancy was specifically left out. But now there is a mod specifically for teen pregnancyâas if to say, people who want this feature need to make the deliberate choice. It makes sense in a wayâpeople will have varying levels of comfort around the idea, even if teen pregnancy is a thing in real lifeâbut it's still sort of weird to think about. If nothing else, it's fascinating to see the ways in which players will subvert the game's original design.
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While mods such as these were common in previous Sims games, they're only now starting to surface for The Sims 4. Previously, things such as incest were indeed possible in The Sims 4..but only if the game glitched out (and even then, the 'feature' seemed to make people upset or grossed them outâwhich tells me that these new mods certainly won't be for everyone).
I suspect this is but the tip of the iceberg, when it comes to modding The Sims 4. Partially because previous Sims games had even 'wilder' mods, and partially because even just this specific modder developed even more taboo-like mods, such as one that allowed players to simulate a miscarriage in The Sims 3.
How long until we see a similar mod for The Sims 4, you think?
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