Sims dream, and discussion about premade reluctance.

[strangetomato]

I had a dream about sims last night. I was playing the game, though of course it was more like this very large scale thing that I was observing in the dream. I think I had discovered a new premade character, possibly a university student, who was a pleasure sim and she had the LTW to "Have everyone's phone number." I think it was to be filled by meeting every sim in the game! :P I was excited to have discovered a new LTW in the game (and poor Pleasure sims need more than the two they're given). The character was a female with short black hair and pretty plain clothing. Nothing special, but I liked her. She was throwing a huge party.

Then the dream got weird and I was trying to screencap some of the odd scenes at this sim's party so I could share them. There was something about a General Buzz type character making out with a sim that looked like Bowser or a Sesame Street monster. Yeah, like I said, it got weird fast.

I've been playing through all the university characters lately, trying to get all the university premades out into the adult world for the current timeframe of S,HWC, to be replaced by the younger generation (any sims that were children or toddlers at game start). It's pretty fun, and I'm playing up the entire uberhood to be at roughly the 14 day mark (using the lot sync timer), but I'm finally feeling that reluctance some simmers mention about not wanting to play the premades because they feel it's ruining the stories and not using the "right" path for them. This usually doesn't bother me, but I tend to look at the S,HWC universe as my more or less official take on the premades, so I do feel this desire to set them all on some sort of best path for my take on things.

This is, no doubt, ridiculous. Many of these characters have at least two different paths that would be equally pleasing to me, and some of them are just complete wild cards. I've already played through a lot of it with the original versions of these hoods for my story and I liked that direction, but the second play through invariably brings new ideas and new chance happenings, ACR surprises, etc. No two plays through this game will ever be the same. That's part of what I like about it, and really, it's also part of my idea of the story universe that some rare sims are aware of the infinite versions of themselves out there, like their version of quantum physics.

Has anyone else had that feeling about the premades? I love trying different variations, but working on a complete uberhood has me feeling like I have to get this version "right."

Comments

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

and really, it's also part of my idea of the story universe that some rare sims are aware of the infinite versions of themselves out there, like their version of quantum physics.

I've thought about this exact same thing! And with TS3/TS1 thrown into the mix, there can even be universes where Bella/Morty live happily ever after.

I am definitely set in my ways for how to play the Caliente/Goth/Lothario households, but I have a lot of fun exploring with the other families.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Haha, what an awesome dream. Pleasure sims do need more love. That sounds like a terrible LTW to fulfill, though! Hopefully it wouldn't include characters like drivers and social workers!

I completely know what you mean about wanting to pick the "right" or "best" way to play the premades. That's a big reason why I keep starting over, I want to get it all PERFECT... which is completely ridiculous, since there IS no perfect, no correct way to do things. It's a bit of a dangerous obsession.

I went back and looked over a couple of the last chapters of S,HWC recently and reread that part about Kimberly (right?) being aware that there's infinite "parallell universes (simverses?)" out there. It's very clever, and very true. Makes me think of that really stupid simsecret drama about an_nas' version of Tara Kat. OH NO IT WAS ALL WRONG. But there is no wrong, dammit!

...Except maybe when people completely change their faces (usually to face 1) and skintones, I still have a bit of a problem with that. :P

[chazzhay.livejournal.com]

I have my own ideas for my uberhood and like to adopt ideas from other people. I have things like Buzz getting engaged to a young dormie and Bella returning after many long years through some strange magic. Then I add things like stuff from Fortune and Romance and S,HWC. I'm still in the early stages and can't wait until I move on a few generations. I still can't imagine a version of the hood where only the premades children exist.

[rin-sparrow.livejournal.com]

I have about 5 different über hoods on the go right now, because I want to do so many different things. I have a gender-reversed one I'm working on; One where I want to not make over their houses and just adjust furniture a bit; one where I try to get all the genetics are correct... I have so many ideas, but I just start a new hood instead of deleting an old one.
I'm also enamoured with premades right now, thus 5 über hoods:p

[thegranddewru.livejournal.com]

You know, I never thought about it but that is why I tend not to play the premade sims, I feel like I'm going to ruin the story or somehow "play them wrong". But, your right, no two games are ever going to be the same anyway, so I should just let it go.

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

Personally, I used to worry about playing the game "right" at first a lot, but then I was constantly restarting new games too, and doing the same over and over, became tedious and boring over time, so I started experimenting with completely different scenarios in every game, even if it didn't make sense with maxis "canon".

Also, even though there's enough info about each sim/family to form an idea of their stories, there's never enough info to be completely sure about how and why things actually happened, so there isn't an absolute "right" or "wrong" in most cases.

In the case of Olive, for example. We can think that she killed everyone on her lot, and probably makes the most sense, however we only know that she's aware of the deaths because they are on her memories, but it doesn't actually say that she caused them anywhere, so the part of Olive being a Black widow/serial killer is only a theory formed by the players, but not part of canon in any way.

And is the same with probably all premade families/sims. Buzz Grunt, is another example. We can assume he hates all aliens, just for being aliens, but does he really? We only know for sure the he hates PT9, but does he hates him for being an alien, or other reasons? And what about the Curious? He seems to have a grudge with them since school, so the alien thing may have nothing to do with that. And about his kids? yes, he's strict and demanding, but characters aren't so one-tone either, so it doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't care or love his sons on his own way. (as he tends to be played in so many games/stories)

TL;DR: IMO, there's no such thing as totally right or wrong. There're clues and hints and overall ideas about each family/sim, but not enough info to form an absolute truth about any household.

[simsforaranya.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, right before falling asleep last night, I had an idea for a fascinating story using premades - though more as actors in a story than trying to play out the maxis storyline. I ended up not getting up and writing it down because I'm too afraid people won't like my "take" on the characters. *is coward*

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

I'm not really familiar with the pre-mades' storylines, but I enjoy reading S,HWC and your take on the various characters...

Anyway, I thought I'd try a new game with a few merged 'hoods and then let the characters themselves choose their paths...

[dinuriel.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm a weirdo :P I don't really "play" much any more, but when I did play the premades, I always felt compelled to mess with the seemingly-intended storylines as much as possible, and then I'd reset the hoods and mess them up in a different way. I had a few constants, though. Like, Romeo Monty is always gay in my Veronaville. And Cassandra Goth usually gets killed off pretty early (probably a Simming blasphemy, but... I never found her to be an interesting character *dodges assorted flying objects*).

But I can kind of see how people might get that reservation, maybe? There are some strong hints with some of the families, and it's not like those implications can't be turned into interesting stories. Hell, you know better than I that there are a ton of great stories out their using the premade canon as a basis, seeing as yours is one of them ;)

Actually... maybe it just seems to be the prevailing community attitude these days? I'm just speaking as an observer here (primarily a lurker in the main community), but there seem to be certain agreements in regards to particular hoods and families and Sims and that seems to make people comfortable. I had a Veronaville story that I ended up losing interest in and therefore discontinuing; I never really advertised it, but I suspect it never would have caught on anyway, since it seemed like too much of a departure for the fandom and too much of a fan-work for the original-Sim crowd. It's a tough balance.

Aaaaand I've had way too much caffeine and am probably going off on way too many tangents for one night. Sorry about that :S

An Impossible Want ...

[nonikk63.livejournal.com]

... to get the perfect hood. Too be honest I haven't been trying that hard to follow the original Maxis provided plots all. I started reading your "S,HWC" a couple of days ago and for the first time I began to see the point of sticking closer to the story. It really is an amazing take on Strangetown. But in my own way I've also had this urge to get the "perfect" hood: everything nice and tidy in an organized context (as if life were like that …) I always tend to add to many new sims because I want more diversity in the gene pool and that does not work well with my want to make the hoods into working social systems. Ultimately it always starts to feel too messy and unplayable and then I start all over again. I've mostly been playing Pleasantview and Riverblossom Hills.

Making a story about RBH was an attempt to create something that I would like to go on playing, and it was successful, so I decided to do the same thing with Pleasantview. As soon as the thought was there, my imagination got into overdrive and for a couple of weeks I worked like crazy on it. It has been lying dormant since the beginning of this summer though, due to RL and energy issues. I really should try not to play at all for a couple of months and just read instead, that used to feel more than ok before. Well, like I could stay away from the game … :P But anyway, I don't feel that I have enough focus to work with the story right now, and I don't want to make crap of it, so it will lay dormant until I feel up to it. After reading "S,HWC" (I still have a couple of chapters left) I do regret some major changes I've made with Pleasantview, but I'm kind of overwhelmed right now and I guess my own imagination will recover. ;)

Right now I have other things on my mind. I had to start from scratch once more because today my game broke. At first I thought it was the hood that was corrupted, but changing that to an un-played version didn't work, as didn't removing all my CC – hacks and everything. I decided to make a clean start and un-installed the game. I then re-installed right away of course, but I will take this opportunity also to go through my enormous Downloads folder. I tend to get these download frenzies where I act like a shark that smells blood in the water: gobble, gobble, no brain at all. So I have like a zillion downloads, haphazard organized (if at all) and not half a clue where I got it all. Time to do something about it. That is a task that will take me a while – and take some effort … :p The Pleasantview story has a backup though that I will get back to eventually. When I started writing my take on RBH I didn't have a blog of my own, and I had the feeling that my audience wouldn't endure a darker kind of story, so everything is a little too nice, well adjusted and mainstreamy for my liking. With Pleasantview I intend to get a little bolder.

A little bit off topic ...

[nonikk63.livejournal.com]

... my previous post was, that is. I was too caught up in my own thoughts and still reading S,HWC.

I enjoy playing the premades, but I never found it the least interesting to continue the underlying plot. Instead I've always let them take alternate routes. When I opened the game for the first time, I didn't catch anything at all and really messed everything up. No one was to recognize any more. After that first time though, I've roughly followed their personalities and existing ties to each other, but still tweaked the story a lot. It felt to boring not to do so. S, HWC is the first story I've read that follows the given conditions and still surprises. It gave me a lot to think about, and I started thinking about my own reluctance to follow in Maxis' footstep, so to speak.

I've started a story about Pleasantville, that I still intend to write the way I originally meant to, but I've really given it some serious thought now and had to work my way through some sudden regrets. I found myself wishing that I had tried to follow the script a little closer. Most of all perhaps, I regretted bulldozing the whole of Pleasantville and build my own. But I'll get over that and get back to my original idea.

I do feel the urge now though to play a hood following the given conditions. Strangetown feels very tempting now, but I haven't played much of Veronaville either and the other pre-made hoods I hardly know at all. An überhood would be too much to take on for me – I still need to familiarize myself with the all the hoods separately. No need to say that I still have so much to learn about S2 that I feel completely disinterested in S3. (Apart from that I like the graphics in S2 better. I find the mild watercolour/cartoony quality so much easier on the eye. Not to speak of the sims themselves. But that is off topic too.)

The RBH I've been playing for my story got corrupted the other day, so I decided to start that one over from the beginning instead of going back to an old backup. There I won't be following the original settings much though, I am turning the hood more or less upside down again. I will for example add the townie Ingmar Backman to the hood from the start and make him the husband of Catherine Viejo (I got the feeling while I was playing it the last time, that he and Catherine had been married earlier and was happily divorced and still friends). That gives me the opportunity to add a daughter with Catherine's looks, because I love to play with the genetics. That is also what bothers me the most with playing the premades – I want a little more genetic diversity.

Another difficulty I find in sticking to the plot is, that it makes so much more fun to play around a little with the generations. In RBH this time, I think I will send Cleo and Patricia away to college for starters. Everything gets un out of sync and so new opportunities arise.

To follow the story line, turn to pg 12. To let the characters play it themselves, turn to pg 15...

[(Anonymous)]

Long-time lurker here and just wanted to say I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your "take" on Strangetown!

And what a crazy dream!! Bowser . . . LOL! I can see the (modified cow) Uni mesh now!

Re: the topic at hand, I found myself having that same "must be right" OCD affecting my desire to play the premade hoods, particularly PV. It got worse after the uberhoods were introduced--seemed harder to keep the story lines going in the direction they were "supposed to." ACR can really throw some curve balls! It got to the point that I wouldn't play the story hoods because I'd just screw it up and hate it.

But I've found that by keeping a "clean" copy of each hood tucked safely away somewhere, I can always reload and start from scratch again later . . . now I sit back, turn on all the hacks and mods and let randomness rule. It's a bit like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, but I let the sims decide where the game is going to go. I've ended up with some awesome stories!

Inevitably, however, I get bored by about the third generation and have to load up a fresh start. Ha! :)

I'm always amazed that even though they're bits of coding, some of them do seem to have their own personalities and desires. Some characters play the same role over and over, and others switch it up. Are they following a script, or did they find the path that worked for them in the simverse? Are the ones that change from time to time still trying to find their way or just having fun?

I've always wondered about Dina. She has sooo many background bits that could take her story just about anywhere, but she's always viewed as this evil scheming gold-digger. In every version of PV I've played, she goes after Morty with a vengeance (her rolls, not mine) and settles into family life almost immediately. It's pretty mutual from Morty's end, too. Even without secondary aspiration set Dina rolls wants for babies, playing with family members, etc. (Maybe my game is confused.) How did she go from a happily married woman in love with her (late) husband to a poor money-grubbing widow living with her sister vehemently chasing after the one rich, available man in town . . . who, btw (following the story lines/family trees), is her former brother-in-law and also grieving for a lost love? I suspect there are several secrets Michael took to his, uh, urn, that we are not privy to! My take is Dina was left to pick up the pieces however best she could, and found a sympathetic heart in Morty.

In my game Cassandra almost always ends up with Darren at some point and they have a zillion kids, usually all girls and every one of them gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Nina and Don usually have a set of twins together, and roll constant wants to flirt or woohoo with each other specifically--I usually move them in together to save play time. Adult Beau Broke somehow ALWAYS ends up meeting and immediately falling for Emily Lillard (one of the dressed-for-bowling employed townies; can't find her on a character's list tho), they make lots of money and babies and live happily ever after every. single. time.

I think my computer reads too many romance novels while I'm at work.

[intense-beare.livejournal.com]

ha! Bowser...I have recurring dreams where either I'm speaking Simlish and no one else understands me, or everyone speaks simlish but without the speech bubbles so i don't know what's going on. I have other dreams where my motives bar increases or decreases depending on what I'm doing and I check mine and my friends relationship bars to make sure we aren't furious with each other. Freaky.

Btw, I've been reading your journal and SHWC for a long time and I only just finished reading so I just thought I should come out of the lurking closet and reveal myself to tell you how amazing your story is. I love how you managed to keep the story interesting while sticking to the original storyline. For all my maxis-made neighbourhoods (minus Veronaville) I have to take my Sims completely out of context in order to keep me interested. I'm currently playing a plague-stricken Pleasantview and I messed around with all the "love" relations in Strangetown but even those neighbourhoods can't surpass my gen y attention span

Hi and a HUGE thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! First of all GREAT STORY! well done. I've very much enjoyed rediscovering your characters (saw them first YEARS ago). Reading through during a period when I was low, in a way I know is quite familiar to you, the continuation of the stories was very helpful!

One thing that does make me sad, and it's in the nature of EA's stinking lousy lack of bug-checking, is how many stories wind up with - game broke, can't continue. Including my own.

Good luck with your new computer too! Whether or no you continue with the stories, I'm sure you will do good stuff with the new machine. TS3, while still horribly buggy, is fun too - lots of new interactions, though maybe less good for story telling.

And now back on topic - I like playing the premades, and have done so many times. I did have a MegaHood for some time and that was great. To have so many premades to play with! I do enjoy premades and I actually use other people's self-Sims in my playing game, rather than Sims I make myself. Mostly. Simply because they are DIFFERENT. I've a tendency to make pretty much the same personality again and again. And I use a ROS at times too. I do know what you mean, I feel as if I want to get them "right" too.