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What makes a sim memorable?
ghilie
Posts: 243 Member
I've been playing Sims since it came out in 2000. I've probably made thousands of game saves and characters, but I remember very few. I remember my last Sims 3 family because I was very into them and then the file corrupted--I was so angry I stopped playing Sims 3.
I remember Tyler Teague from my Incel in the City play through because he was such a horrible and fun character to play. His personality was memorable. Same for Fannie Beaver, my drunken slattern; she was an absolute delight.
I remember Golly Buttersnaps from my ten generation rags to riches play through, but only because she died, leaving her daughters Poppy and Jellie to raise themselves, so she was memorable because of what happened to her.
Tell me about your most memorable sim and what you think made them memorable.
I remember Tyler Teague from my Incel in the City play through because he was such a horrible and fun character to play. His personality was memorable. Same for Fannie Beaver, my drunken slattern; she was an absolute delight.
I remember Golly Buttersnaps from my ten generation rags to riches play through, but only because she died, leaving her daughters Poppy and Jellie to raise themselves, so she was memorable because of what happened to her.
Tell me about your most memorable sim and what you think made them memorable.
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From the POV of someone who's often reading others' challenges etc- what makes others' sims memorable for me, is the little ways the players show off their personalities, especially challenge authors who add humorous bits of dialogue as well. One thing I particularly love is when challenge writers/storytellers breathe life into the pre-mades as well. I love seeing everyone's different interpretations of the same character.
As for my own sims, I think one of my more 'memorable' Sims was Gen 3 of one of my challenges, Tyler. Not memorable for any deep reasons or anything, but: The 'story' I had going for previous characters in the family got quite dark, so Ty's side of the family story ended up more light-hearted and fun, and I just imagine them in my head to be very loud and chaotic almost all the time. Ty rolled the Cat Lover trait, but their eldest son rolled Dog Lover. So I imagined the son constantly asking for a dog all of the time to the point where they probably got fed up of hearing it; in game, I left it a while before Ty gave in and eventually adopted one, and eventually warmed up to the dog. Also I had no trouble getting the other gens to find a partner, but poor Ty got rejected by about six different people before finally finding the love of their life.
(I put the screenshot of them and their son under the Spoiler cut for neatness's sake)
A female scientist, her evil criminal boss brother, her game playing techie good brother and her non noncommittal sister who started as a painter then switched to style influencer, I started playing as a group, but now each have branched off into different homes, duplexes,, and the non committal sister with some partihaus sims. All have partners or are married now, ( except the non committal sister ). This has been one of my favorite groups. The have a family club where they have family meals/get togethers to keep up on each other. And the non committal sister has a DJ in the house which is fun to play, the DJ is dating Vanessa, the actress who I am also playing in her house in Del Sol Valley.
I play rotational so I have a lot of families I like playing, and usually leave aging off….
Another favorite is my musician who moved to the city, to do gigs downstairs ( or other lot with the city living gig setup in various lots ) after work, he plays the guitar and recently piano, and I’m trying to make him famous, he dates Candy Bher.
And, then there is my painter ( who I also want to be famous ) who also moved to the city with his son and mother of his child (ex girlfriend ) On his off time he likes to paint scenes in different cities, and spend time with his son. We ( he and I )are waiting for babies to be updated before his son becomes a toddler….. lol.
Another tech guru, I just made an apartment to move into evergreen harbor. And a secret agent and astronaut I’m not sure where I want to move yet, probably an apartment in city living. A CEO that I’m not sure where I want to move either. I’m breaking this group up a bit. I hope we get another city with apartments.
Another favorite family of mine is a YA female who is now at the top of the ladder in her detective career, who also has her teenage sister and little ( child ) brother living with her since the beginning of her career ( I created the family with just the 3 of them ). Everyone had their chores around the their trailer in OA Her detective boyfriend moved in when they moved to an apartment, still not sure what new job to give him.
I also have a family with an Astronaut, his wife, and toddler daughter. The wife doesn’t really work, but she is an employee of on of the businesses another sim runs ( I thought that was cool that I could hire her ). She gardens, takes care of her daughter, and likes to have lunches ( usually at cafe’s ) with a few other ladies in her ladies society lunch club.
I have my very large family that lives by the pond in Windenburg with 2 teens, 2 children,and a baby also waiting on the baby update. They scrounge, fish, and garden to pay their bills. They may move their caravan to Henford when the new EP comes out.
There is my journalistic family elder father and YA son are writers…. Opposite branches. The Adult daughter is currently an entertainer, can’t seem to find a job she really likes, and her teenage son is a party boy. Loves going out with other teens ( club ) in my rotation. I haven’t played them in a bit. I feel like they are going to need a new home when an Expansion with cars comes out.
I have a Athletic ball player and his wife a media/ internet person that are notables and like vacationing in Sulani and Mt.K.
Another family I like a lot is my generational family there were two sets of grandparentsa, a Doctor and his wife a violinist. Their son a computer techie ( non gaming side ), and his stay at home wife, teenage daughter, and child son. The stay at home wife ( who did most of the cooking ), also had her 2 parents living there, the McGreggors, they were new to the country/ city of willow creek. Her father did all the handiness things needed and fished for the family, and his wife cleaned and tended the garden. But the McGrigors finally got their own small home in Brindleton Bay, he became a part time fisherman ( I finally found someone on the gallery who somehow unlocked many outfits so I moved him in there to get the outfit, and then back home ). He also does wood work, and they beach comb in Sulani for things to sell, and he fishes in Sulani on some of his time off for extra income, while his wife sets up a sales table on the beach and sells stuff, and she also does most of the gardening at home. They also have a hunting dog named Brittany. They will be my family to move to Henford on Bagly, where since they are Scottish, they must have originally come from…. Lol. He will still fish on the side, but they will have a farm with agriculture and animals ( which the have been waiting for ), and once in awhile I will move their grandchildren, and possibly their YA daughter and son in law in with them once in awhile for a vacation or weekend, every so often.
A few others I haven’t played in a bit are the military hero of strangerville. My sim self who gardens and does archeology and anything else she wants, my fist played sim who lives in a nice house in Windenburg….. she is my main collector. A granddaughter and Grandmother living in an apartment. A criminal father and his son also in a small apartment. A couple in an apartment, I have who are waiting on real babies to hopefully have twins ( though they don’t know it yet ). A family in Windenburg that has an elder mother and father and teenage daughter. A couple of roommates in Sulani. A father and teenage son in Windenburg, who will be moving to an apartment in evergreen harbor soon. A young family with a toddler I made for play dates, but decided to play. I also play the Landgrabbs ( they run businesses ), Goths, Callientes ( also business owners ) and have a few other premades favorited, but haven’t touched on much.
My rotation is very big, and there are some I haven’t even mentioned. Pretty much all that I have mentioned I’ve played quite a bit since many have been around since 2014, and have at one time been a big favorite and have developed personalities, and ties with other sims.
Edited for using a word I didn’t know was banned, the ban must be new as it wasn’t banned when I made the family.
For example, my merman sim Kane is gorgeous, but he has kids from five other sims (two mermaids, two island elementals, and the sim whose fiancé he drowned). He is a super sweet single dad and supports his brood solely by diving for seashells; he’ll probably raise all his grandkids, too, as the girls aren’t interested in family life, but like to reproduce.
My gardener sim Anna was shaping up to be kind of bland, but the townie I picked out for her to marry was kind of a mean guy, so she showed up to the wedding pregnant with Father Winter’s baby and fed her husband to her cowplant not long after. Her story took that particular direction because as a kid she caught a cowplant berry, so I decided that started her interest in gardening; the Father Winter thing came after she autonomously started kissing him one random Winterfest before she moved out on her own.
Even the one family that I play with a mostly vanilla suburban life spent their honeymoon skilling up with the help of a spellcaster in exchange for their firstborn kids. So now they have a couple of random kids adopted out to townies that they never see. And even Charlotte spends a lot of time frustrated because she has the ambitious trait but is at home with the triplets and the bonus baby (some mccc settings made it so that when they wandered upstairs on their own right after the triplets were born, little Rhea followed immediately after). Her husband is always jealous too, which is kind of fun because they’re my sweetest, most loving couple.
the way she wanted to ask my clumsy sim to be her boyfriend right after he ended up getting pregnant by aliens
even though there romance bar was almost empty the way she kept going to read parenting books
and how after she died of old age when his time came she came back as a ghost and caressed his check
little things that get me every time the sim I'm talking about is the purple one I use as my avatar
edited to add for those who don't know aliens in this game have the power to take away some discomfort
or bad feelings from other sims and take it on themselves
My favorite Sim Erik Tuuli is a very proud Sim, he always walks confident walk and he doesn't like anyone being mischievous with him, he gets very angry. His oldest kids got to know his rage when they were children and tried to trick him. He was furious. However... his dark secret has always been that he himself loves trolling the forums. He's doing it a lot when he has free time and he's very excited about it. Maybe a bit too much sometimes.
Another one of his passions is playing the violin wearing his underwear. Most times when he plays the violin, he's on his underwear, he just wakes up, walks downstairs and starts playing. His sleeping schedule is weird and it's hilarious sometimes when the rest of the family (and sometimes they even have guests) is having a dinner and suddenly I hear violin... Erik wearing his underwear is playing the violin in the living room.
He's deeply in love with his wife, Summer Holiday, they've woohoo'd autonomously several times. He also spends a lot of time with his grandkids, he can deal with toddler tantrums, but not mischief.
When I started playing with him back in 2015 he got to know Mortimer Goth who came to see Erik every day the same time. Erik is a scientist and he sat down to eat after his work and every day Mortimer knocked on the door the same time. They talked a lot and soon they became best friends. When Erik got married he didn't have time for Mortimer anymore and I feel very bad about it. He came knocking on the door religiously every day and Erik ignored him until he gave up. Erik's daughter ended up marrying Alexander Goth and I felt bad when Mortimer suddenly died. I don't even remember seeing him as an elder many times.
I remember some of my TS2 characters, but their names are escaping me... I had a sim called Julius who had fairy ears and always wore a top hat. I believe he was in the politician career. One of my sims was called Anakin Sywalker and his face was so hideous that I had to use the career reward to fix it. One of my favourites was Sylvia Von Fieant. She had a romantic aspiration, I believe Anakin Skywalker was her son actually. Sylvia was the third child of the family I first created. I also played her siblings Lemmikki and Lenni a lot and they both had kids too. Lenni married Iiris from my other played household. I'm not sure if they had more kids, but I remember twins Amy Lee and Constantine who I've also recreated in TS4.
So yeah I remember some from TS2. Then going back to TS1 it gets even harder to remember names. I have recreated three of my sims who used to live together Elena, John & Claire Flowerhill. Elena was very artistic sim, John was a police and Claire was a thief. I thought it was so funny to play them all in the same household. I believe I also had a sim called Lena or Leena who wore the blue pigtails, not sure why she popped into my mind. And of course my first sims Petteri and Maria who later also had a child whose name I don't remember.
Back to the question. From the earlier games I remember best the sims that I created first and their family lines. I also remember sims who had some sort of weird quirks. I remember sims who I played a lot or who went through big changes. Names are hard for me to remember. I think having positive or negative emotions towards a sim makes them more memorable, but I must have forgotten many great characters. For some I remember the house where they lived and the household vaguely, perhaps even some family dynamics or general idea behind them, but then I have no idea of their names or what they looked like.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
Too Good at Goodbyes forum thread
Too Good at Goodbyes blog
some times what makes a sim memorable is just plane bad luck his been struck by lighting caught on fire drowned
killed by wishing well abducted by aliens died of laughter got sun burned been haunted had people cheat on him
has done rages to riches and has maxed many skills
I do still switch it up, but the more I play with the same Sims the more endeared they are to me and the more I remember them. I could even say that I have made different versions of a main character from 2-4. Maybe even 1, too, at least once.
The ones that tend to fade from my memory are inspirations that have had their stories played out. Even long, grand stories eventually come to an end and begin to fade from your mind. I was confronted by that when I rescued some of Sims 3 saves from a ghost of PCs past. I remembered the details when checking them out, but I had a fair bit of closure with those old saves.
I don't really remember any of my sims 3 sims but when I play them I still enjoy them I wish I had saved my first ones
Never had that yet in Sims 4, they are all the same regardless of traits.
In Sims 2 a glitched NPC became most memorable because any activity that got him to remove his clothes did not cause him to put clothes back on afterwards. Had to tell him to put an outfit on. Did stay perfectly censored, but the guy drove to work naked and was fine doing anything naked, no other sims saw him as naked either. He walked naked around kids.
One of my sims married him so I have no idea how he got this way.
But my most memorable Sim of my own creation was in Sims 3, a masochist named Johnny Eastwood.
He was kind of this bad boy rockstar type, I don't know his exact traits any more but he seriously acted the part.
Was one of my five starting Sims, in his house was also a mooching slob guy, a nerdy guy and a good and evil woman who I made total opposites.
Funnily enough when moving in the two women had a pleasant conversation initially, until they found out they where good and evil. They never got along again ever since.
But Johnny Eastwood kept flirting with the evil woman, who kept slapping him or even beating him up every time he tried. Sometimes he would come on to her right after she kicked his butt. Their relationship was pretty negative but he kept trying so I guess he liked pain. And he never made a pass at the good girl, so it really seemed to fit his rockstar personality.
In Sims 3 it seems the easiest of all games to make memorable Sims though, I do have a more recent one who is so much fun. She's flirty, childish, easily impressed, friendly and has a good sense of humour. Messy red hair, colourful clothes and she just goes around making friends, having fun and flirting with people. She was constantly invited for parties at university and developed a naughty reputation mainly from simply doing the stuff she was dared to do.
Now that I am playing another house hold, she quickly became friends with the ambitious diva of this house hold. Because she's easily impressed that seems to go well with a diva but she's quick to make friends with anyone.
Only people that dislike her are those who she fooled around with and see her with someone else.
Which seriously should not hurt her reputation since she is not in a relationship with anyone, but ah well. The reputation adds character.
Some examples:
My favorite Sim from TS2 was Gordon who actually started as a "test subject", someone who tried out all kinds of stupid stuff I didn't dare to do with other "more important" sims. In the end, due to so much happening to him, I grew really attached and he ceased being a disposable test subject and became my favorite.
My favorite TS4 sim is Axel because he's a combination of established roleplay (I had a pretty clear vision of what type of sim I wanted to create) AND development during the gameplay. There were some things I was planning for him but then he managed to mess it all up and I just rolled with it, my roleplay changing accordingly. He's my first TS4 sim so some things changed just because of my lack of knowledge (e.g. accidental romantic relationships) but I find that kind of stuff really memorable and funny. There have also been some lucky shenanigans. Like him trying to do his evil vampire routine by inviting himself in to feed on the residents but then also ending up saving them because at that moment they failed at cooking. Happened twice actually. His stan also ended up being a townie he actually saved from death earlier, that makes so much sense that I can't help but love it.
I also have a heavy tendency to get attached to sims who are flawed and able to cause some drama. All my favorites have some sort of negative aspect to their character. They might have a trait like evil or mean or their gameplay has some shenanigans in it. For example: I have a household of siblings, triplet boys and their older sister, and I currently find Blaze the least memorable. Keira is gloomy and has emotional control issues so she throws random tantrums. Abel is a troublemaker (mean, hot-headed) and has way too much fun with criminal career. River's traits might be all good BUT he's doing the serial romantic aspiration and has had no forethought about the heartbreak he might cause. Blaze instead is kind of just... "normal" friendly guy which makes him less memorable for me. That might change in the future depending on how his gameplay goes but for now, unlike with his siblings, I haven't truly developed a roleplay/characterization for him. With the others it somehow came more naturally because their personalities came off stronger.
My fave sims:
* Lectern Colliery is a mean-🐸🐸🐸🐸 tory. He was meant to be a crime lord, but fell out of crime and became prime minister, or at least head of state. He dresses like an Edwardian landowner, and he intended to have his underling Dooley (a snout-faced magician pickpocket) kill Count Vlad, so they could take his mansion and make it a crime HQ, but a social media influencer beat them to it, and repainted the place in all garish colours.
Lectern Colliery's favourite habit is whirlwind romances resulting in pregnancies. He'll turn up at the door, woo you, bed you, and never come back to meet the resulting child. (I do not endorse this, but it suits him. There are two generations of Colliery-Goths in my game). My current fave, Azo King is doing the same in reverse, raising a brood of famous folk's lovechildren.
* Rutger Bubble is a short, immensely plump, green-skinned gardener. He only wears bright yellow, with a propensity for jumpsuits and broad-brimmed hats. He's a well-beloved celebrity (not really famous *for* anything, just famous in general). He knows everyone, and everyone knows him. He lives in a small, futuristic house with a big garden with his magical husband (every home should have one). I rarely play him, but often befriend him.
I think for me:
1: Flaws
2: Story
3: Unexpected things happening
The pretty, happy, successful Sims come and go and I play a lot of them (maybe we all do) but it’s the ones that grow and change that stick with me.
I remember in one save, Bella and Mortimer Goth died while unplayed and Alexander (by this point a YA) became a vampire. I made Alexander into a really dark, traumatised villain and had him cause the death of his sister.
In another save I had a rich, elder woman called Alexis Devere, who was a snobby spellcaster. She founded a spellcaster club and would often turn up to lots and duplicate herself using magic. This would often glitch and cause the duplicates to become permanent townies so I’d have a whole horde of Alexis Devere’s (with different first names) showing up all over the place. Even though I didn’t play her much that unexpected twist made her stick out.
Back when I played TS3/2/1 I used to make a lot of characters based on people from TV shows so they weren’t as memorable because they were not original.
and some more random events that always makes me like a sim more
I regularly start a new family or save because I have a new story in my head. most of these are easy to leave behind and start over, but once I reach a certain point, I get attached to them and don't want to loose them. Usually at this point I have reached something like a family tree with a few generations, or completed a few aspirations, or earned a university degree.
Well, I play a Very Long Complicated Story, that starts in a Medieval Fantasy, and continues into todays world.
If I broke the Eras into 3, Ancient Roman/Dark Ages/Renaissance, Enlightenment/Industrial Revolution, and The Last Century 1920-2021.
In the Ancient Roman/Dark Ages/Renaissance Era:
King Henry & Queen Cora of House Halcyon
Lord Kaegan & Lady Vivian of House Charmont
Lord Daerick of House Charmont & Lord Vincent of House Hoggarth.
These Would have to be top 6 Main Characters, and OTPs of this part of the story.
There wouldn't be a story without these 6 Sims, But they are only one-half of the founding characters in my game, but they kick off the adventure, and build my fantasy Kingdom to what it is.
In the Enlightenment/Industrial Revolution Era:
Lord Adam and Lady Diane Jordan
Lord Graham and Lady Helena Montgomery
Lord Stephan and Lady Regina DuVal
Lord Oliver and Lady Evelynn Bourbon
Lord Carlos and Lady Maria Navarro
Lord Leon and His Little Sister Lady Amara Dior
These 12 characters are responsible for founding my other world/City, and setting the stage for what's to come.
they are the second-half of my founding characters.
In the The Last Century 1920-2021:
Mason King (Kaegan and Vivian Charmont (Maternal Grandson, Sorcerer)
Tyrion Jordon (Henry and Cora Halcyon (Maternal Grandson) + Adam and Diane Jordon (Paternal Grandson (Werewolves)))
Aria Dior (Amara Dior's GrandDaughter, Huntress)
Garrett Hogan (Vincent Hoggarth and Daerick Charmont, half-Daemon(Vampire-Sorcerer/Pawn/Son)))
Rochelle Navarro (Hoggarth and Navarro Affair Child)
Are the last generation in my story, and their life is in line back to the first and second list of my sims
it's everyone's relationship that creates this great battle between them, unknowing their grandparents that started the fight long before they were born.
My Mood:
If one of my sims does become less memorable, i spend time going back, changing and adjusting to keep them fresh in my mind.