strangetomato | Discussion: Reflections on Maxis Sim Shipping

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Discussion: Reflections on Maxis Sim Shipping

I think the thing that really stands out for me now that I'm seriously considering my Maxis character shipping preferences is how I do not see either Dirk/Lilith or Angela/Dustin working out in the end. I never really have. Well, actually, I did have an early notion, when I first started to sim in Pleasantview, that Angela WOULD marry Dustin and live a terribly dissatisfying life of semi-poverty (Broke-style), with a criminal husband and a yard full of scary domerman pincers. (Have I mentioned my active imagination? This was way before I had any concept of sim storytelling for others. Just myself.) But now I just see Angela moving on to greener pastures, leaving Dustin to find someone else (Ginger Newson being my favourite contender at this point, given her parallel to Brandi, which is a life he knows all too well.)

I can't ever stop seeing Dirk eventually cheating on Lilith with Angela, causing a huge rift there. In my game, he always, always cheats on her, in fact. Usually with Angela, but sometimes with someone else, and often without any input from me. I don't know if he ends up with Angela, or if he eventually reconciles with Lilith, but somehow that HAS to happen for me. Lilith is all over the place for me. She nearly always gets tangled up with Don Lothario at some point in my game (*lowers voice* sometimes even while still a teen... Oh Don, you're just... yeah), and then I just see her as this amazing free spirit who maybe stays single forever. You know those amazing old ladies who were movie stars or artists or musicians, who were lovers to many famous people over the years (mostly men, but there were some exceptions, if you believe the rumours), but always stayed true to themselves and didn't settle down? Yeah, that's how I see Lilith Pleasant.

Also, Tara Kat/Chester Gieke is the nerdiest couple EVER, by far. Geeky nerds trump bookish nerds any day of the week. (That's one of mine, by the way, from my uberhood. The red hair is a bonus, but they also remind me of my cousin and her husband in an uncanny way, right down to the cat lady-ness and the too geeky/socially awkward to live hardcore videogame geek factors. I am so sold on that pairing. I've seen its proven results in RL, people! XD)

So, I'm opening the floor to other shipping chit-chat here. Please try not engage in any full-on shipping brawls, but if you feel the need to pen an impromptu shipping manifesto, then who are we to stop you? :D Go on and share your insights, amusing pairing stories from your game, and so on.

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In my game Tank and Lilith ended up together. They both had the same LTW, and it work out very nicely. Angela ended up basically failing at life. But Alexander Goth and Lucy Burb always end up getting involved at some point in my game.

Agree about Vid/Botton. I like them in S,HWC, but personally can't get over the age difference easily. I'm just too picky about ages for my own game, thought it's always fun to see pairings I would never do played, in other stories and games. :)

And I especially agree about the lack of F/F paring. I was pretty disappointed, even thought about trowing some myself, but I had already abused of 'mod's power' by adding Ripp/Johnny (plus my original nominations), because no one did!

Those two were probably my earliest taste at M/M action when I first stared playing. Johnny seemed to enjoy dancing with Ripp way too much for his bday party, and that was all I needed to see! XD Never played them as couple too seriously, though, but it was fun in college :P (That was before I even knew about LJ, so now I'm curious about your J/R shipping for what I read in other comments ^_^)

I'm with you on Cassandra/Darren. It always felt too forced. And Darren is a bit of a wet noodle, for me...

Now I want to see the kids from Cassandra/Mary Sue!

I'm sure I'm not the only perv who's done the twincest thing with Angela/Lilath... though I've never screenshotted it and written it up. *grin*

Aside from the Goth family, I'm not a big fan of PV, so in general, I just play the teen couples together until college, where usually, Dirk and Angela end up obsessed with studies, Dustin enjoys the wild side of college life, and Lilith looks for more interesting choices.(and when Ripp's around, he's one of them lol)

I never thought of Chester/Tara and now I really want to try now, but for me Vid/Cassie are the nerdiest of them all. They are just too cute, with the glasses and all :P

And YAY for ship's talk!! ^_^
Now, I'm inspired and want to get my Vid married!! <3

I didn't realize Circe is implied to be bi... is that in her default attraction settings?

Yep! :)
At least when the game just starts, Circe likes both girls and boys. ;) (It drove me nuts during my first STown game ever because I was no idea what was going on with her! rofl) Nervous, instead, dislikes girls by a lot. That household is gold! XD

Mod power abuse! Just wait till Friday's secrets! >:D

Yeah, my Johnny was much more interested in Ripp than Ophelia at that party... and then he's an adult, so he can't date her anyway. While Ripp was already an adult and fair game.

That's pretty cool! Hmmm... now I'm wondering who she'd be a good match for...

She' already has her friend :P the bartender whose name I can't remember atm XD (I think is Meredith, She's one of Circe's friends when the game starts, along with Cho ... her other secret lover?? She's just so full of surprises! :P)

Now, all the comments here are really making me feel like abusing of MOD'S to fix this lack of F/F somehow. (I can always make a quick round of nominations and do that poll in particular again.)

Cassie/Mary-Sue babies are adorbs. <3

Not that I would know this from experience or anything. >.>

~~why did i delete that hood :(~~

Aww! ^_^

They reopened that, so you can nominate them if you want to.

I think my Pleasantview shipping has been permanently altered by playing reversed gender Pleasantview. I keep seeing Lilith as Lionel and Angela as Angus. I do see what you're saying about the high school sweetheart problem. Pairings for the Pleasant twins become interesting when they or their partner have to grow and change. I really became enamored of the idea of Dustin/Dusty putting his or her past behind and making something of him/herself. If Dustin/Dusty stays with Angus/Angela, that can't happen, because the thrill for Angus/Angela is dating a bad boy/girl. I have a hard time seeing Angela changing in any way. Lilith, on the other hand, has every incentive to change. I could see her with Dirk or another totally different partner. I like her and Ripp, too.

I think forcing Don to be with any one woman is cruel, whether he is Don or Donna. I look at him and I start humming the theme to “Born Free."

I think probably the only Maxis Sim couple I truly ship is Tybalt/Mercutio. That is my Maxis OTP. Conversely, I just can't get behind Romeo/Juliette.

But I think the larger question is how one's views have been shaped by reading other people's stories. Many of the ships I voted for weren't ones I played, but were ones I read about and thought were cool. I. don't play strange town at all, and I don't have access to Desiderata Village or Belladonna Cove. This is one reason I have become such a fan of Maxis-based stories. It is like giving a lot of people identical sets of paints or of dollies and seeing how different and creative everyone can be.

EDIT: Crazy cat ladies are ALWAYS win.

Edited 2010-11-11 18:40 (UTC)

I have never had those four end up with any kind of chemistry in my games, from Nightlife onwards. Same thing goes for Romeo/Juliette, actually.

I like to have Angela fulfill her dream of being a seaboat captain and hook up with a hot Twikki island native. Tybalt/Mercutio are interesting but extremely hard to do. With the help of ACR I literally had a slap slap kiss thing going on. They end up in a poly relationship with Delilah, who helped mellow them out. I always make Alexander gay and hook up with a literal goth. Either a resurrected Fricorith or that Tricou lovechild downtownie(though he grows up into a potato-face.) And my Mary Sue secretly has a vampire fetish on which ends up making her a lot cooler in Lilith's eyes.

I've pretty much fallen in love with Dina Caliente. I know Maxis just wanted us to think of her as an evil gold digger who got rid of Bella with an evil plan, but they made some mistakes with that. For one think, Michael Bachelor wasn't a rich sim, so she either loved him or really sucks at gold digging. OR she's a victim of child grooming, I mean he was her best friend who gave her her first kiss as a teen, even though he's like thirty years older than her. (I'm actually working on a story to make their love story less squickier. There's so many inconsistencies with Michael Bachelor and his age I decided to pick and choose.) Also her torrid affair with Don Lothario never went below the neck or even to the make out stage.

However, if I want to play an evil Dina, then she's OBSESSED with Bella Goth in every way possible, so first she marries the brother and then eventually decides she wants to BE Bella, hence the abduction thing. Either way, she always helps fund Brandi's pastry business, showing she's not all bad.

I once played Romeo/Juliette all the way through college and it actually looked like those crazy kids were going to make it. (Secondary aspiration really helped with the whole romance sim thing) But then Romeo graduated before her, and the game moved him back home while she was still asleep. So even though Juliette showed no reaction to waking up naked and alone, I had her dump him the next time they ran into each other.

Since the Goths were pretty clearly based on the Addams family, I always see Bella and Mortimer as having an epic Gomez/Morticia type of love.

I once saw a VERY, uh, interesting video involving those two. There was some vengeful twin switching going on and somehow Kaylynn and the Oresha-Hoh-Var Fraternity got "involved" but in the end, they uh, were getting along GREAT. I think it got taken down though.

I'm extremely surprised that Ripp/Jill didn't show up. I've encountered quite a few hardcore shippers of that pairing!

Wow! That IS rather interesting! XD

There was a pretty intense Pleasant twin twincest prompt on

sims_anon, too. It was one of the last prompts to be filled.

No, not Alex, though I do imagine she'd be fine with a little lady action, given the right circumstances. I think she's probably very open-minded about such things.

No, my F/F pairing is... I just think it works so well. And now I really want to share and maybe even nominate it, but... Argh!

I'm a Bella/Mortimer shipper, too. To see that their love even spans several incompatible timelines (and dimensions? LOL! XD), how can anyone deny them that?

I love how wonderfully complicated it is. And the fact that it doesn't have a happy ending... or does it...? That's up to us to decide.

...had a son that looked kinda like David Duchovny.

BRB LOLing forever! XD

Totally not going to look for that. Nope.

*shifty*

Whoa, the wanting to be Bella angle is blowing my mind a little bit. I'd never looked at the situation that way, but if someone wrote something along those lines I'd read the hell out of it.

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Discussion: Reflections on Maxis Sim Shipping

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