Discussion: Reflections on Maxis Sim Shipping

[strangetomato]

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.

Comments

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

One of the things that popped out for me is that I have really mixed feelings about Vidcund Curious/Bottom Summerdream. On the one hand, I like the idea based on how you've approached it. But on the other, it kind of skeeves me, because I have such a strong image in my mind of Bottom as an innocent little girl -- and Vidcund has always seemed old before his time, to me. Not to mention, in my game he was basically asexual until he became an elder. So I see him needing Viagra to get it up to begin with. xD

The other thing that popped out was the dearth of F/F pairings. I know the poll came directly from nominations, so I'm not knocking aledstrange at all. Nor am I knocking those who nominated. I just think it's odd that there were so few F/F pairs. We see F/F in legacies all the time, so I know there's isn't a bias against it. But the Maxis pre-mades don't seem to inspire many F/F matches. I don't have any theories on why this is, I just think it's curious.

[leskuh.livejournal.com]

I kind of wish I had put in Kaylynn/Bella for an F/F pairing because I actually do like them together.

But I didn't actually nominate anything sooooo. XD

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel like I have no right to say anything because I didn't nominate either ^_^

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's too bad. I wish you had nominated, too. I'll bet you'd have come up with some interesting ones.

You're the original Johnny/Ripp simmer, afterall. Look at the huge contribution you made to the sim fandom! Think of the sexiness! XD

(Edited to correct "moninated." Though I snicker at potential meanings for that word. Something to do with the mons pubis, perhaps?)

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it till it was too late. Ah well!

LOL at the idea that I'm the original Johnny/Ripp simmer... I'm sure other people were doing that before me! I didn't even really know what sim storytelling was when that started, either. xD

LOL at moninated too. Mons + marinated... soaked in delicious juices...

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Nobody will ever convince me that you aren't the mastermind behind Johnny/Ripp. You were the first one to put it out there, at least from where I was standing. Before that, it was nothing but Johnny/Tank as far as the eye could see! XD

LOL! Yes! I think we're on to something here. The next time I plan a BBQ...

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Ah, but Simantics' implied Johnny/Tank was so much hotter than my Johnny/Ripp ever was...

"The two combatants slammed into each other with a strength that took both their breaths away. The tough young planes of their chiseled bodies slipped and slid against each other."

*sighs wistfully* It's too bad the pictures for her early stories have vanished.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You should have nominated! I think you would have added some interesting pairings, and it would have balanced out some of those WTF random slash pairings. :P (You just know I wanted to run in there and scold everyone for not taking this ship war seriously, dammit! XD)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

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

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I can certianly see that. I do think of them as having a rather large age difference. Bottom also seems really unconventional to me, like the Summerdreams as a whole, and I see her as being very mature for her age. In that sense, the idea of it as potential relationship doesn't bother me so much. I think they'd have a lot of compatibilies, despite the difference in age (and good game chemistry). And, really, it's no stranger than PT No. 9 and Jenny Smith. I think their age difference would be similar.

That's a very good point. I actually nominated one each of M/M and F/F, but it seems like even in the small amount of Maxis implied gay storylines, almost all are male (Nervous, Kent Capp, Jason Cleveland... though none of these are directly paired off another implied gay male), while the F/F pairings require the simmer to stretch it a little more (Jasmine/Zoe is all subtext, Alexandra O'Mackey... maybe). I think Circe is implied to be bisexual, and that one's a true rarity in the default settings. I quite appreciate that.

Is it just the fandom tendencies toward slash, while femme slash is a smaller, specialty market? Is it reflective of lesbian invisibility in real life? Who knows? For me, the percentage I nominated roughly reflected the percentage of gay pairings in my game, in which I tend toward reflecting real life percentages, with a slight increase. I also realize that most of my F/F pairings have one or more non-Maxis sim.

Oh, and I DO have one F/F Maxis pairing that I plan to use in my story, and unlike Chester/Tara, Alexander/Marla, and Dustin/Ginger, I really want to keep that one a surprise. I think it's a really good one.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Does the F/F pairing involve Capt'n Alexandra O'Mackey? :O (You don't have to answer that, though. ;))

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

The thing with Alexandra O'Mackey is the lady pirate angle. Which brings to mind the famous Anne Bonney and Mary Read, always my OTP of lady pirates. ^_^

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

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!

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

*curious* You can whisper it to me...

Reconstructed :P

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I had a whole long reply typed out, then accidentally closed the browser window. >_<

I do really like V/B the way you've done it, and I'm really interested to see where you take them. Your Bottom is awesome (and she's even reconciled me to the name -- no small feat!) It's just that when I consider V/B in general, outside of your story, I can't help but see Bottom as a little girl. That's probably because I have never grown her up.

I did really like her when I was playing V-Ville. I saw her as being very creative. She was, in my mind, the one who painted her family's faces (for the party they're having when you open the household). And I saw her as understanding more of the complex relationships among the teens than you'd normally give a child credit for. But she's still fixed in my mind as a little girl. Except for yours, who is like a separate entity in my mind, if that makes sense.

I agree with your theory about the Maxis implied gay storylines. Even those are very kid-glovey in the way they presented them. I didn't realize Circe is implied to be bi... is that in her default attraction settings? I've never really looked into those.

I'm intrigued (as I'm sure you meant!) by this mysterious F/F Maxis pairing... ^_^

Re: Reconstructed :P

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

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

Re: Reconstructed :P

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

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

Re: Reconstructed :P

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

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.)

Re: Reconstructed :P

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Meredith Lillard. :) Ooh, secret lovers x 2... I like this idea. Circe and Olive are some of the best female villains ever.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

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 ^_^)

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

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.