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Do you use imaginary friends?

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  • jillbgjillbg Posts: 4,600 Member
    I've only used them for the purpose of my story (of course). Some pics:

    ‘OK…’ Rowan takes a deep breath. ‘I’ve got an imaginary friend! It’s a ragdoll. I mean, it’s not really a ragdoll. Well, Granny gave it to me and the other day I just put it down and well, it was real!, Rowan looks expectantly at her. ‘You don’t believe me, do you?’

    ‘I’m not laughing. You didn’t say I had to believe you! C’mon, I do. Believe you… I’ve got a ragdoll too, maybe it also becomes real if I put it on the ground?’
    Taïga and Rowan run off to get their ragdolls and meet up behind the hay bales again.
    thegreywitches-53-16.jpg?w=1000&h=600

    Reverently they put their dolls on the ground.
    ‘Look! Buddy is already standing! Is he magical?’ Taïga inquires.

    ‘Wait. Look at Peaches…’

    ‘Peaches? You call your ragdoll Peaches?’

    ‘What’s wrong with Peaches? You call yours Buddy and I don’t comment on that!’

    thegreywitches-53-17.jpg?w=1000&h=600

    The children are so busy glaring at each other that they don’t notice what’s happening to Peaches. Suddenly the ragdoll is standing tall in front of them. Rowan looks triumphantly at her. ‘See? I told you!’

    ‘Wow.’ Taïga can hardly believe her eyes. Peaches is just as tall as they are, but he, or she, still looks like a ragdoll. ‘It’s uncanny… Does it move? Or talk?’
    thegreywitches-53-18.jpg?w=1000&h=600

    Nobody notices little Buddy changing position…

    ‘Yeah… He talks. Don’t you Peaches?’
    thegreywitches-53-19.jpg?w=1000&h=600

    But Peaches doesn’t have the time to say anything. Valkyria comes running and barking, and Peaches sets off in a sprint.

    ‘Wait! Valkyria! Don’t hurt him! Stay put!'
    But Valkyria doesn’t obey...
    thegreywitches-53-20.jpg?w=1000&h=600
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  • AthenaOnyxAthenaOnyx Posts: 3,921 Member
    I disabled Generations because I couldn't stand the kids constantly singing to their dolls, and once I disabled it I realized I disliked nearly everything about Generations: Rabbithole graduations, curfews, and pretty much everything but the treehouse and one hair.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    @Jillbg I must say..., you really make me reconsider (as do others who are making a plea for them). One of the things I used to not like was the puddingface, but that goes back to the time when we couldn't adjust in game sims yet. I can now. Lovely story!

    @AthenaOnyx I must confess I know where you're coming from, Generations has a lot of disappointing features and on top of that it's buggy. Couldn't miss the good things it has to offer though (which for me includes the curfew, I like consequences in this game, parents that care what their kids and teens are up to).
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  • Supersoph13Supersoph13 Posts: 647 Member
    edited March 2017
    I'm not a fan of them either. My main problem with them is the fact that everyone gets one, I don't want every child to have their own!

    The only time I properly played with them is a few years ago, when I was doing a Legacy on a tiny island (The Midnight Sun Challenge). The world only had one 10x10 lot, and no one else apart from my founder - so she married the mail carrier and then their child married the imaginary friend they got, then their children married their Imaginary Friends and so on, so forth.... for 10 generations! After that I haven't really wanted to ever see another IF ever again, haha, so if my Sims get them then they just get ignored now :lol:
    My Sim, living her best life...
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    #RagsToRiches
  • lunabellelunabelle Posts: 175 Member
    They're annoying but I like them :) I can always disable actions if I want my sim to be doing something else any way. I've only made a few of them real, and then they usually get married.
    In my most recent IF to life, the IF is in a relationship with "her" sims sister which I think is sweet
    Working on #100BabyChallenge #TwiggsLegacy
    Now up to baby number 64!
  • WonderstruckkWonderstruckk Posts: 195 Member
    Personally, I hate the imaginary friends. The only time I even remotely like them is when I have one kid, who is child age, because at least they have a friend to play with but once they age up to teenagers they're SO irritating.

    However, I did have a positive experience with one not too long ago. I turned him into a real Sim and he was quite handsome, he dated my teenage Sim and they eventually got married.
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  • jillbgjillbg Posts: 4,600 Member
    edited March 2017
    @JoAnne65 Thanks! :) The ragdolls are kind of ever present ingame when you have toddlers, but I personally love ragdolls, so they don't bother me!
    Peaches is used later, when she persuades Rowan to take an elixir that makes him grow up to a teen so he can make her real. They both go on a quest to find wonderpetal, and Taïga helps him make a potion for both ragdolls:

    They jump on a northbound train, and sleep through the night in goat smelling hay.

    ‘We have to find some place to shower!’ Rowan sniffs his armpits.

    ‘Yes, you reek like a buck!’

    ‘Thank you… You don’t smell so nice either! And you can’t shower, so if you don’t watch your tongue I’ll just put you in a washing machine!’

    Peaches doesn’t have time to answer, as the train slows down and they have to jump off.

    thegreywitches-part02-12-35.jpg?w=1000

    ... They jump onto the slowly moving train, relieved to find the wagon once again empty. Twenty hours later they arrive in Hidden Springs after an uneventful journey. On their way into town, they stop at a gas station and Rowan washes in the bathroom. True to his word, he takes a protesting Peaches to the laundromat.

    ‘But I’m not waterproof! What if I shrink? And my colors will surely fade!’

    ‘You’re grey, Peaches. I wouldn’t worry about fading…’

    ‘That’s cheating! You can’t do this to me!’

    But Rowan just chuckles. ‘You stink, and people think it’s me…’

    He promptly stuffs Peaches into one of the huge machines, before settling on one of the chairs, closing his eyes.
    thegreywitches-part02-12-33.jpg?w=1000

    Rowan throws the flower into the air and jumps to his feet, pulling Blake up with him. He swings round and round with Blake in his arms.

    ‘You’re my good luck charm!’

    She doesn’t understand, but his merriment is contagious so she laughs nevertheless…

    Good luck charm? I’m his good luck charm! Peaches thinks, holding up the flower and if she could smile she probably would have…
    thegreywitches-part02-12-48.jpg?w=1000

    The chapter where Rowan grows up is here.

    The potion glows a fiery red, bubbling and nasty looking.

    ‘It’s time to add the wonder petal.’

    ‘Here. I’ve got two left. Do you need them both?’ Rowan hands Taïga one of the large, smelling flowers.

    Taïga takes it and wonders over its weight. The flower is really heavy…

    ‘No. One should do.’

    ‘We need to save one for Buddy!’

    ‘Don’t worry, Peaches. We’ll take care of Buddy next. Now, can you stop moving around? It’s unnerving!’
    thegreywitches-part02-14-33.jpg?w=1000

    You'll find more pictures and the whole story here.
    NymlADp.jpg
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2017
    @jillbg This proves that with a good story any feature in the game has value and charm, as long as the writer feels it and can get it across. And you certainly can. I have been planning to read your story for a rather long time now because the witch theme appeals to me a lot. Reading English just takes more energy than reading in my own language though, which is why I haven't done that yet. I want to really have time when I do. But it's definitely on my to do list here.

    p.s. the dark haired girl reminds me of Shannen Doherty by the way
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  • jillbgjillbg Posts: 4,600 Member
    @JoAnne65 The story starts out with not that much text, as in the beginning I just transferred the pictures and text from the my story pages of the old TS3 site. I'm rewriting it progressively, as I think it wasn't descriptive enough... :#
    The dark haired girl is the main character of my blog, Taïga. Yeah, could be a Young Shannen Dougherty... :D
    NymlADp.jpg
  • ShojoDaggerShojoDagger Posts: 320 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I think they went totally wrong with the IF interpretation. In my opinion it should have been an invisible kid that does naughty stuff, that would disappear at reaching teen age (what teen has an invisible friend, come on). With only an opportunity to visualise it during the period the sim is a kid (leaving out the very annoying constantly playing with the doll thing; the kid should urn that by playing with the IF a lot - in a how kids play way, play tag, things like that - and then giving them the opportunity to make the IF visible. I hate the creepy doll and it gets creepier and creepier when it grows up. A big, galumphing bag, that's what it is.

    (and not every kid should have one, it should be a 'weeeeee, my kid's got an IF!!!' kind of feature)

    @JoAnne65 First off, nice use of "galumphing". ;)
    Second, I agree with you about IFs. The first one I got in a game, it started out ok, but then I noticed that playing with the IF was all my kid would do, even to the point of neglecting his own needs. He would be filthy, exhausted & starving, but when I would send him to bathe, eat, etc. the IF would interrupt him to play with it. If that wasn't annoying/creepy enough, when I checked out the IF's traits, it had mean-spirited & evil!

    I agree with @Candyd about the "Chucky" thing. Seriously, I don't know why but it seems like IF's always get the worst traits. Actually...now that I think about, when toddlers "play" with the dolls, they mostly just punch, hit & bite the dolls a lot...maybe that's why IF's end up with bad traits...abusive toddlers! If the toddlers only "sing" to IF dolls, do the IF's get better traits? hmm...

    @jillbg Taiga does look a lot like Shannen Doherty... watch out, she might quit after the 3rd season!

    I uploaded something! (yay) My Studio
    Enjoy!
  • jillbgjillbg Posts: 4,600 Member
    @ShojoDagger Lol! :D I'll do my best to keep her... In fact, I've been playing/writing about her for over two years now, so I guess she's here to stay!
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  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I think they went totally wrong with the IF interpretation. In my opinion it should have been an invisible kid that does naughty stuff, that would disappear at reaching teen age (what teen has an invisible friend, come on). With only an opportunity to visualise it during the period the sim is a kid (leaving out the very annoying constantly playing with the doll thing; the kid should urn that by playing with the IF a lot - in a how kids play way, play tag, things like that - and then giving them the opportunity to make the IF visible. I hate the creepy doll and it gets creepier and creepier when it grows up. A big, galumphing bag, that's what it is.

    (and not every kid should have one, it should be a 'weeeeee, my kid's got an IF!!!' kind of feature)

    @JoAnne65 First off, nice use of "galumphing". ;)
    Second, I agree with you about IFs. The first one I got in a game, it started out ok, but then I noticed that playing with the IF was all my kid would do, even to the point of neglecting his own needs. He would be filthy, exhausted & starving, but when I would send him to bathe, eat, etc. the IF would interrupt him to play with it. If that wasn't annoying/creepy enough, when I checked out the IF's traits, it had mean-spirited & evil!

    I agree with @Candyd about the "Chucky" thing. Seriously, I don't know why but it seems like IF's always get the worst traits. Actually...now that I think about, when toddlers "play" with the dolls, they mostly just punch, hit & bite the dolls a lot...maybe that's why IF's end up with bad traits...abusive toddlers! If the toddlers only "sing" to IF dolls, do the IF's get better traits? hmm...

    @jillbg Taiga does look a lot like Shannen Doherty... watch out, she might quit after the 3rd season!
    Lol, I used an online dictionary for that, I'd never heard of that word :p And indeed, most of the IF's that made it to being alive had nasty traits.... And you might be on to something there concerning the reason :D
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  • KATENESSKATENESS Posts: 3,610 Member
    I think I've turned an IF real once, maaaaybe twice and I've had Gen since it came out. I normally just ignore them.

    But of course I thought about turning one real a few months ago and I couldn't remember how. I couldn't even get it to stand up and follow my little sim around. It was just always a doll they could sing to and hold and nothing else.

    Is that a glitch or am I doing something wrong?
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  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    KATENESS wrote: »
    I think I've turned an IF real once, maaaaybe twice and I've had Gen since it came out. I normally just ignore them.

    But of course I thought about turning one real a few months ago and I couldn't remember how. I couldn't even get it to stand up and follow my little sim around. It was just always a doll they could sing to and hold and nothing else.

    Is that a glitch or am I doing something wrong?

    I use a potion from the chemistry table to turn mine real. I've only done it twice. The rest of my real imaginary friends were born in game like regular sims but they have inherited the occult state from a parent.

    I found Getting them to drink the potion when in a household with too many sims in it results in a fail.
  • KATENESSKATENESS Posts: 3,610 Member
    But my IFs don't even turn into a thing that follows my sim around. Like they're not in their relationship panel. They're just a doll. How do you even get them to come "alive"?
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  • CandydCandyd Posts: 1,261 Member
    @KATENESS Some time after your toddler aged up to child, you should get a notification saying that the imaginary friend would like to explore the world around. Pull the doll out of the child's inventory and put it on the ground.
  • KATENESSKATENESS Posts: 3,610 Member
    Candyd wrote: »
    @KATENESS Some time after your toddler aged up to child, you should get a notification saying that the imaginary friend would like to explore the world around. Pull the doll out of the child's inventory and put it on the ground.

    Huh. I kinda remember seeing that a long time ago. But I don't think I've seen it recently. I wonder if I have a mod conflict or something. Weird. :/

    Thanks for helping! :)
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  • SurrealSurreal Posts: 3,241 Member
    Poor IFs - lol They're taking a real pounding. I completely understand not wanting to be bothered with them - which is why I advocate for a choice about keeping them - but I've never found them to be that much of a problem. Maybe it's because I control too much - my toddlers don't have a whole lot of time to socialize. There's skills to learn and books to read and once those are done, unless I'm doing a specific story or challenge, they are aged up. If they don't spend a lot of time playing with them, the dolls don't animate.
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    KATENESS wrote: »
    Candyd wrote: »
    @KATENESS Some time after your toddler aged up to child, you should get a notification saying that the imaginary friend would like to explore the world around. Pull the doll out of the child's inventory and put it on the ground.

    Huh. I kinda remember seeing that a long time ago. But I don't think I've seen it recently. I wonder if I have a mod conflict or something. Weird. :/

    Thanks for helping! :)

    Once you place them on the floor they'll start walking around when they're ready to. Get your sim to talk to them and become friends with them before it will drink the potion to become real.
  • SimplyJenSimplyJen Posts: 14,823 Member
    edited March 2017
    dreamerz13 wrote: »
    I hate those plum things so much. They're extremely creepy and I always have the weirdest most unsettling issues with them. I try very hard to avoid them. I had them modded out at one point even, I really need to find that mod again (it was one of the mods I couldn't recover from my old laptop, that's the only reason I don't still have it). I actually get angry whenever I get the message "aunt susie has sent sally a special toy" or whatever the heck that message is.
    If you already have the NRaas mod Retuner, you can turn them off that way.
    http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Members'+Retuner+Settings#

    i7-13700K • 16GB • RTX 4070
    S3 simblr: http://simplysimming.tumblr.com/
    S4 simblr: http://simlogic.tumblr.com/
  • OilbasedoleanderOilbasedoleander Posts: 2,967 Member
    I actually enjoyed the imaginary friends. Was a fun concept for sure and gave the toddlers and kids some substance in TS3.

    I don't know if anyone else experienced this but when my sims kids were talking or playing with their imaginary friends, the mom would walk by and do the "koo koo" crazy maneuver. The one where you spin your pointer finger towards your temple. The parent literally called the child sim crazy, it was hysterical.

    Glad I caught that moment would have never known parents or adults would react that way. I know TS3 gets crap for "unresponsive putty faced sims" but you just have to pay attention, because there are reactions that can be so subtle but awesome.
  • ShojoDaggerShojoDagger Posts: 320 Member
    edited March 2017
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Lol, I used an online dictionary for that, I'd never heard of that word :p And indeed, most of the IF's that made it to being alive had nasty traits.... And you might be on to something there concerning the reason :D

    @JoAnne65 A lot of people haven't heard of it!
    It was invented by Lewis Carroll in his poem "Jabberwocky", and it describes perfectly that stupid bouncy walk IFs have.

    Carroll coined a lot of phrases actually, most of them "portmanteaus", blends of two or more words, such as chortle which is chuckle+snort.
    Chortle is probably the most well known & most commonly used, as well as the most commonly mis-used.
    Like if someone says they "snortled" when they "snorted & chortled" at the same time... you can inform them that they aren't being clever, their world blend is redundant & that chortle by itself describes what they did. :|
    And that scene in Pixar's "Brave" where Elinor says "Princesses do nae chortle!" is anachronous, since the word didn't exist in medieval times. (but I forgive Pixar for that mistake, since it's the correct word for the scene & it is only a cartoon after all)

    Oh, and although Carroll didn't invent the word "portmanteau" (a type of suitcase that opens into two sections), he did coin the usage of portmanteau as a term for blended words ("You see, it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed into one word."), and portmanteau itself is a blended word!

    So..uh... trying to steer back onto topic...

    I think I'm going to test my theory by having a toddler only sing to their IF doll & see if it turns out more "well adjusted". I might also have a toddler only play with their doll as well, see if it turns out extra nasty. I have twins in one of my games that got IF dolls, so that'd be a perfect experiment.

    edit: @TadOlson I found that mod on MTS, thanks! If it works, IFs will be much less annoying to me.
    Post edited by ShojoDagger on
    I uploaded something! (yay) My Studio
    Enjoy!
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    @ShojoDagger Thanks for that background story!! You're sharing this with a youth librarian here, very interested in etymology and on top of that with Alice in Wonderland as one of her favourite books for children, so this really falls on fertile ground. This is one of the reasons by the way why it's always preferable to try and read books in their original language, because many things lose their power and wit when translated. Problem is that as a foreigner you'll often miss the deeper layers of words like that (I just googled and three translaters actually did an attempt to translate the poem to Dutch, but 'galumphing' didn't find its way in any of them). It's really funny by the way this site (it's Dutch) chose that word to translate the word I went for ;)

    Anyway, your post is my little jewel of the day, thanks ;)
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  • cwaddellcwaddell Posts: 4,960 Member
    AthenaOnyx wrote: »
    I disabled Generations because I couldn't stand the kids constantly singing to their dolls, and once I disabled it I realized I disliked nearly everything about Generations: Rabbithole graduations, curfews, and pretty much everything but the treehouse and one hair.

    I totally agree about Generations and IFs. If my game was updated to 1.69 I'd probably play with Gen disabled too. My game is at level 1.67 and although I played for awhile on my new system without installing Generations I have put it back in. But I do have some mods to take care of the most annoying "features".

    From Generations I like the kids' clothes, one adult female skirt, the inheritance reward and a trait or two. Most of the other stuff I don't use, have modded out or can tolerate.

    But I can't stand the IFs so they do not exist in my game.
  • jillbgjillbg Posts: 4,600 Member
    @ShojoDagger ... and motel and smog... turducken??? :p
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