strangetomato | Maxis Taste Dare No. 26

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Maxis Taste Dare No. 26

Is anyone else thinking about participating in Maxis Taste Dare No. 26: Second Chances? The idea of this one appeals to me, though I'm struggling with who to focus on. My recent playing of the entire uberhood has given pretty much everyone a chance, though I guess the point of the exercise would be to find something more to like in a character that you're not too fond of. So maybe Gunnar Roque? Haha. But disliking Gunnar is a fanon tradition, right? I sort of like him the way he is, in a love to hate sort of way.

I think part of what I'm struggling with is that some of my unfavourites actually get quite a lot of attention from other simmers, and I think this is a significant factor in my dislike of them. I honestly don't get it and I resist giving them any more of the spotlight. (Come on, admit it. I know I'm not alone in this.) Ajay Loner comes immediately to mind, with his boring Face One (or very slight variation, if you insist) and lack of storyline (beyond counting grains of sand for fun in his bio) and relationships, and yet he's pretty much universally adored in the fandom. I guess in the spirit of the dare, I should definitely give him a ~~second~~ ~~third~~ fourth chance. Or maybe I can keep digging for someone I truly ignore entirely. I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now.

Then there's the issue of my computer refusing to start up at all, so playing is sort of out for the next little while, and I can't even access any of my files until I either get it repaired again (throwing good money at bad?) or the new computer arrives. I finally ordered a new one, but I need to wait a few weeks for it to get here.

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I'm not jumping the bandwagon. Though, if I had to choose someone, it would probably be Goths. I don't know why, though. It's probably because they've always been "my brother's" family, even in the first game. I don't really dislike them, just like I don't dislike any other family/sim. It's more as if I'm afraid of playing them.

I chose the Tinkers. It's not that I dislike them, but the brief says "least favourite", not "most hated" and I've never played (or wanted to play) the Tinkers that much so they seemed like the idea candidates.

Making over their house is a challenge, though... not being allowed to change the walls! Bluewater Village homes are quite large and that's not my style but it's comin along quite well!

And I have no strong opinions on Ajay! :P

I thought it's a very interesting challenge and I'd love to see what others come up with... But as for picking a sim/some sims myself, I don't know, because like you, I've played all the pre-made families and given them all a chance already. And well... even Trent Traveller has grown on me now!

I wouldn't mind seeing what you'd do with Ajay Loner, though. Haha. I feel pretty neutral about him, myself.

I could do a lot makeover... But I know which lot is my least favourite (some horrible thing in Desiderata Valley), and the thought of making that over without changing the walls or adding windows (there's like, three) makes me twitch. :P

No? It seems like a lot of fun, but if you already play most households it might be hard to find a suitable sim to play for it. That's sort of my problem, too. I don't think there is actually a household I haven't played at all.

It's interesting that you chose the Goths, because they're such a popular family. I'm like you, though, and never played them in Sims 1. I started with Sims 2 for them. It'd actually be really fun to go back and see what they were like in the first game.

I don't actively dislike many sims, either. (Even that Gunnar thing is a sort of in-joke in my corner of the fandom.) Maybe that's why it's hard to pick one for this challenge. Even Ajay and his ilk are just sort of boring to me and my reaction is more of a disbelief at all the fanfare.

The Tinkers are a good choice, I think. They seem to be ignored by most simmers, so it works well all around. It took me many years to get around to trying them out. And there's something about their house (maybe the layout and size, like you said) that makes that lot a little cumbersome to play. I've really come to like Melody after playing her, and I love running the toy store (though it's way back there in the back of the lot).

Not being one for participating in house makeovers, I wonder about the rule to keep the existing walls. I guess that's meant to mke it more challenging or to keep it more recognizable? I can see that, but even in real life renovations people add and remove walls and windows, etc. don't they? For the huge rooms, you could divide them up in other ways, and go for a sort of open concept look.

Haha! Are my opinions of him strong? I'd classify them as "agreesively neutral" when it comes down to it. :P

My favorites from Sims 1 were Newbies and then Claire from Old Town. In Sims 2, it's the Veronaville bunch.

My biggest impression from Goths in first game is when my brother managed to get Bella abducted. And that in itself makes me uncomfortable to even think of playing them. I guess that's another reason why I would choose that particular family. If just their storyline was different...

Trent Traveller? (wasn't he one who you never really enjoyed so much)

For truly abandoned folks, I'd go for University pre-mades (not for LaFT, of course). There are so many of them they all kind of blend together. And you wouldn't have to bother with a house makeover if you did some of them (just slap them in a dorm together).

Yeah, that's exactly where I am with it. And haha! I forgot about Trent. Again, he's like Gunnar. I find him pretty unbearable as a character if you take your cues from his wardrobe (all Xtreme sports and such) but I enjoy playing him that way. I like most sims as they are, even the negative things. And with Trent, like most sims, I've played him quite a bit.

I don't actively dislike Ajay either (well I don't really like the look of Face One on males in general, but other than that...), but I don't see him as having any sort of major story relevance or anything really special going on. He's just sort of forgettable to me.

In S,HWC, I tried to jazz him up with crazy curly hair and glasses and he's a lawyer (so will likely find some story purpose in that career), and I see him as having some sort of Aboriginal background, most likely (the Curiouses, too). So in that sense, I think I've already given him a pretty good chance to be interesting. I suppose it could be fun to play around with him again, though.

That's too bad that you can't pop a window or two in there. Can you at least change the style of the windows? There's some good weird lots in Strangetown that would be fun to work with, like that one with the little tunnel down the middle. And funny, it's the one I always put Ajay in (again, to make it more interesting for me). I think Nervous lived there once, also.

I'm totally doing this dare, but I'm stumped as to who I'm going to choose. Every family has had their chance with me, really. I enjoy the challenge of making boring sims interesting.

Though I do find, even after several incarnations and tries, that Ajay Loner is very, very dull. Don't know if he's my least favourite, but he just doesn't stick out in any way.

It really sounds like a fun dare. If I have time, I'd totally pick the Ottomas Family. I really can't stand them, and such a large, poor family will definitely be a challenge for me.

I found having Trent's lifestyle backfiring on him was very satisfying... :D Now I feel kinda sorry for him!

That's right, I'd almost forgotten about your Ajay (you'll have to forgive me, it's been while since I read your older chapters). I like the idea of him and the Curiouses having an Aboriginal background, their look sort of fits. Well... not Vidcund and Jenny, but, yeah.

Ooh, I've made over that weird house in Strangetown at least twice. But I never posted them, apparently. I take like fifteen bazillion pictures of my game and only like five of them end up on my journal, it seems. :P Never tried making it over without changing the inside walls, though... It'd fit Nervous, I think!

The little yellow house in Strangetown is Ajay's house, to me. I always move him in there. Funny, that. The Singles I've sometimes moved into the weird "tunnel" house, sometimes into that empty lot (and built 'em a house). Anyway, better stop before I start telling you where I like to put all the other bin families. :P

Hm. I could do Chaz Whippler, I never liked his useless, Benjamin Long-clone face.

Haha, the Ottomases are pretty much my favourite. :D

Yeah, I thought the rules for the home makeover were a little odd, but its quite unusual in any Sim challenge to not touch the walls at all, so it's actually quite refreshing and means you get to play around with the massive, unusually-shaped Maxis rooms. I did add walls to allow for built in wardrobes, but I'm guessing that's not against the rules (well, I don't imagine it is, at least!)

The weirdest thing, for me, was the Tinker's home gym. I never put a whole gym room in my Sims' houses but the challenge is kind of about preserving each home the way its built by Maxis so the Tinkers "haz jim" I guess :P Stephen and Wanda are heavy anyway so I'm sure it'll come in handy!

I think I will have to actually set up a toy store for them after the challenge. It's typical Maxis they don't already own one when you load Bluewater.

I'd love to see someone doing Gunnar, because it would be awesome to see less popular sims popping up in the entries, but it's totally about your personal opinion. It doesn't matter if the sim is popular between other simmers or not.

What like W says is right, tho, this is not about disliking sims (it's actually awesome to see everyone struggling to pick one for that same reason), but there's always that one sim or household, we simply don't enjoy playing as much, for whatever reason.

I'm personally going with Jessica Peterson because, imo, she's boring as heck, so I'm looking for something fun to do with her.

As for the walls (to respond to a few of your replies all at once), it's mainly because it wouldn't be much a challenge if you could put down all the walls and start from scratch, imo, but it's also because it's hard to find a balance when making rules for challenge like this without complicating them too much.

In other challenges the rules are more open, but in this one I though it would be interesting to leave it simple and see what people could do with the limitations. (And jic, you can replace all windows and doors so you can change style and size.)

Sorry this turned out really long, but if you have any other doubt or concern just ask. :)

My least fave family, and the one I'll probably use for this challenge are the Roths. To be fair, I've never played them before, but I've always thought having a parralel of the Goth family was just really pointless, and frankly I thought it was kind of lazy. So I kind of ignore that they exist at all in my premade head canon.

I kind of agree with you about Ajay... He doesn't really come across as interesting, just "attractive.". But I know how you've played Gunnar, it would actually be neat to see what you come up with him for a second chance. :D

That's an awesome idea. I may even go with that instead of Peterson, like I was thinking. A few of those uni guys look so bleh at first sight, but, you never know, they may surprise us.

I did add walls to allow for built in wardrobes
I always forget adding little details like that, but those wardwrobes need the walls to be placed, so it doesn't matter.

As for the rooms, the building rules are about construction only, the use each room has doesn't matter either. You don't have to use the room as a gym, it can be anything else. And remember you can build in the yard too (as long as it's not a direct extension to the house) and the Tinkers have a huge yard. They could easily have a home business (I tend to assume that's the reason they don't own a comm lot, actually)

I'm really excited to see what you're doing with them! :)

Jessica's a good one. I never know what to do with her, either! Probably because she's a stereotype I don't much enjoy.

Oh... and this probably really belongs in the challenge thread, not here, but when you say size of windows and doors, does that include how many tiles they take up (I could change a 1-tile window to a 3-tile window)?

What's the stereotype? I see a little of both "gold digger" and "trailer trash" in her game portrayal but neither really fits her story completely. I think the most significant thing about her was her refusal to have children, and choosing to go from riches to rags to stick to her childfree ways. That's sort of interesting.

One of the least favorite things for me is to run a business, so I will probably do something with Bluewater. Maybe the Jacquet's bakery?

OOoo. Good example of other simmers' influence. Gilbert Jacquet's been given so much personality in other peoples' stories that he wouldn't be a blank slate for me.

If you want a business challenge, you might like to try Florence Delarosa. She's got an at-home business, and those are a PITA because of the coding (guests think they're customers, customers think they're guests, nobody's happy.)

True enough. I guess it's those two, neither of which I especially care for, in combination that sort of makes me feel... meh about her. But the leaving because she doesn't want children is an interesting angle, I agree. One that's unusal for EAxis too (there's... a lot of female Family sims).

Yes, you can. That way you can add more light, but the base of the room remains mostly the same. You can also move them a couple of tiles to the sides to give more space to bigger widows and better use of light. Same with doors.

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Maxis Taste Dare No. 26

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