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You Love Me, I Hate You: Hidden or Asymmetrical Relationships
BelloGoth
Posts: 120 Member
An interesting element to all relationships (whether they are romantic, in the family, or friendly) is that one person may feel differently about the shared relationship than the other.
In TS4, I think it would be cool to see how this could play out. While we have the friendly bar and the romantic bar, I think adding a third "hidden feelings" bar would fun to use. This bar would only include how the selected sim feels about another sim; in other words, it is not a bar that signifies a mutual relationship.
For example: Bob and Eliza Pancakes can have a full friendly bar and a full romantic bar. Bob, however, harbors a secret resentment towards Eliza that she does not know about. This, sometimes, makes Bob angry when he's around her, despite loving her. Eliza has no hidden feelings for Bob.
When Bob is in this angry mood, he can tell expose his secret feelings to Eliza. This may significantly alter their relationship.
For another example: Teenaged Mortimer and Bella are best friends and have a full friendly bar. Bella, however, has a secret crush on Mortimer from gazing at him from afar (a new interaction) or talking to him on the phone. When she's around him, she, sometimes, gets flirty.
When she gets in this flirty mood, she can expose her secret feelings to Mortimer, and he can either accept or reject it.
If you don't like how a sim secretly feels, you can have them try to talk themselves out of their feelings in the mirror, call a hotline therapist, buy a self-help book (e.g., "How to Get Over a Crush in 10 Minutes," "Learning to Let Go: Getting Over Resentment") or talk out secret feelings in a friendly way with that sim.
A new self-control skill or reward could be introduced with this. If the sim purchases the "Emotionally In Control" reward, they can do a breathing exercise that will allow them to become calm or happy whenever they want to. They will also be able to clear their hidden feelings whenever they want to on their on.
I can see this addition being used with a child resenting their parents or siblings, sims with crushes, employees secretly hating their co-workers, secretly hating a daughter-in-law and therefore criticizing them in underhanded ways, etc...
Added elements:
I feel that this has the potential to challenge the player and give them an interesting sense of moral and strategic control.
Should they keep the feelings hidden? Is it right to share those feelings? Should they be courageous and tell that sim? Should they take the initiative to get rid of those feelings for the sake of the relationship? Or are you willing to simply blow up the entire relationship by expressing yourself?
Guilt could also be added as a feeling.
In TS4, I think it would be cool to see how this could play out. While we have the friendly bar and the romantic bar, I think adding a third "hidden feelings" bar would fun to use. This bar would only include how the selected sim feels about another sim; in other words, it is not a bar that signifies a mutual relationship.
For example: Bob and Eliza Pancakes can have a full friendly bar and a full romantic bar. Bob, however, harbors a secret resentment towards Eliza that she does not know about. This, sometimes, makes Bob angry when he's around her, despite loving her. Eliza has no hidden feelings for Bob.
When Bob is in this angry mood, he can tell expose his secret feelings to Eliza. This may significantly alter their relationship.
For another example: Teenaged Mortimer and Bella are best friends and have a full friendly bar. Bella, however, has a secret crush on Mortimer from gazing at him from afar (a new interaction) or talking to him on the phone. When she's around him, she, sometimes, gets flirty.
When she gets in this flirty mood, she can expose her secret feelings to Mortimer, and he can either accept or reject it.
If you don't like how a sim secretly feels, you can have them try to talk themselves out of their feelings in the mirror, call a hotline therapist, buy a self-help book (e.g., "How to Get Over a Crush in 10 Minutes," "Learning to Let Go: Getting Over Resentment") or talk out secret feelings in a friendly way with that sim.
A new self-control skill or reward could be introduced with this. If the sim purchases the "Emotionally In Control" reward, they can do a breathing exercise that will allow them to become calm or happy whenever they want to. They will also be able to clear their hidden feelings whenever they want to on their on.
I can see this addition being used with a child resenting their parents or siblings, sims with crushes, employees secretly hating their co-workers, secretly hating a daughter-in-law and therefore criticizing them in underhanded ways, etc...
Added elements:
I feel that this has the potential to challenge the player and give them an interesting sense of moral and strategic control.
Should they keep the feelings hidden? Is it right to share those feelings? Should they be courageous and tell that sim? Should they take the initiative to get rid of those feelings for the sake of the relationship? Or are you willing to simply blow up the entire relationship by expressing yourself?
Guilt could also be added as a feeling.
- A new interaction could be "EXPRESS HIDDEN FEELING," and, depending on the active sim's mood at the time, the expression could be taken in an interesting way. What might happen if you express a hidden crush while angry vs while embarrassed (which is kind of cute to me). What happens if you express a secret jealousy while dazed? Maybe being dazed will make any expression of feelings be taken with a grain of salt. In other words, no sim will believe you know what you're saying if you express yourself while dazed.
Post edited by BelloGoth on
27
Comments
I'm glad you could understand where I was going with this! I wasn't sure that I articulate my thoughts well enough!
Exactly!!!!!!!!! I think it would be great for one sim to be in love with another and for the other to be utterly grossed out by the notion of them dating.
That's a wonderful scenario!!! I think new interactions would have to be added to the game. Like the "tell secret" interaction could be like "tell secret feeling about [choose sim from menu here]." So if both sims have a secret crush on the same sim, the sim who was told the secret would hold resentment, maybe?
I think it would be neat to be tied emotions. If sim A gets sim B so angry that sim B becomes furious (the angriest level on angry) then maybe they can get a secret resentment. If two sims are strictly platonic, one says something flirty, maybe the other can develop a secret crush...I have no idea. Maybe it'll be random!
I totally agree! I have so many sims who were treated badly by their parents while growing up or who were bullied, so the hidden resentment would allow sims to have much more complicated relationships.
A hidden jealousy would be interesting, too, especially amongst siblings or spouses or friends (especially since snobby sims can brag about their brand new possessions and family-oriented sims can boast about their famillies).
It wouldn't exactly be asymmetrical (as I titled the post), but it would allow for sims to have interesting understandings of their relationships and of themselves, since so much self-help would be involved.
*Includes self-help books as an idea*
This is a well thought out idea expanding on that. I really like the feature of them having certain emotions trigger since Sims 4 sims really like to feel. LOL
It's also really nice that it also expands on possible jealousy from children toward their siblings, or resentment to parents, etc so it's not only for romantic feelings as much would assume. Something like this being implemented in 4 would have people pay more attention to more of the little things too.
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EXACTLY! And I think that's what has always been lacking from Sims games! The intrapersonal element of a sim. By having complicated relationships with other sims and hidden feelings, they, then, have complicated feelings and relationships with themselves. Passive-aggressiveness has a huge potential to play out in never-before-seen ways!
And this has the potential to challenge the player and give them an interesting sense of moral and strategic control, too! Should they keep the feelings hidden? Is it right to share those feelings? Should they be courageous and tell that sim? Should they take the initiative to get rid of those feelings for the sake of the relationship? Or are you willing to simply blow up the entire relationship by expressing yourself?
Guilt could also be introduced in some form, too.
I'm all for this idea. Even if they refuse it at least an option to have one sided relationships. (Sim A loves / likes Sim B, but Sim B dislikes / loathes Sim A)
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I don't think that a third bar is needed as it would be hard to tackle what it would actually represent (in contrast to the other bars, and also: is that third bar a romantic or a friendship-bar?). As a somewhat slicker alternative, I've suggested to make the relationship-bars of two sims independent of each other, so that sim A can have a different perception of the relationship than sim B, both in terms of friendship and romance. This would mean that the bars represent the friendship- or love-INTEREST that your sim feels vis-a-vis another sim, NOT the quality of the actual relationship (which could be expressed by the mean of both sides' bars added together). And of course you as the player don't know about the other sim's perception.
I've also described how this would alter the effects of social interactions on the bars - e.g. a failed friendly interaction by your sim would NOT decrease your sim's friendship-interest. Mean interactions, on the other hand, would be a way to actively reduce another sim's friendship-interest in your sim.
I think the results would bear some resemblance to those of your system: Sims would usually engage each other in a friendly manner until the differences in the perception of a relationship become so big that true feelings are forced to show (mean actions, attempt to engage in romantic actions).
All of this, however, it totally utopian as sims don't feel anything for each other in SIMS 4. And this would need to be the basis of our ideas. Each sim is interchangeable to each other sim in the SIMS 4.
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I think that a third bar might be a bit confusing, though, so these hidden feelings could work like tags.
They would be visable from a drop-down menu and look + work like traits with descriptions if you hover over them.
Here are a few ideas for interactions that might rouse hidden feelings:
- Romantic interactions:
# gaze at
(can be done from afar; the subject sim is not aware of the interaction, but a sim can get caught staring and will then get an embarresed buff)
# think of ... dreamily
(available when clicking on self sim)
# obsess over ...
(available when clicking on self sim and once a crush is developed)
# daydream about ...
(click on self sim; might result in many emotions like sad, flirty, confident or tense)
# plan future with ...
(sim gets a buff with a crazy face)
# stalk ...
(available on phone, tablet, computer, the subject sim and the subject sim's house; the last two will make the sim hide behind bushes like TS3's detectives) (if caught, the subject sim will get the "Creep" tag for your sim and won't want to socialize for a time)
# pretend to share interests
(can result in your sim being caught lying and a relationship decrease, or the sim inviting your sim out more)
# make subtle move
(might result in positive romantic progress or non-risky rejection)
-Mean interactions:
# plot downfall of ...
(click on self sim; will make a sim get wishes to do things like steal the sim's lover, bad-mouth them etc.)
# shut off
(self sim option; makes sim bored for the duration of the conversation and buffs like "can you stop talking?")
# spread rumours about ...
(will make other sims dislike the subject sim, or dislike you for being mean)
# think about how annoying ... is
(self sim option; makes sim angry or tense)
# innuendo
(hidden insults toward a sim; other sims might laugh or think you're rude)
# make sarcastic comment
(results in confident "I'm a genius" or tense "annoyed" buff)
# envy ...
(makes sim sad or angry about things they don't have; causes jealousy tag)
# hit insecurities
(makes the other sim sad)
# imagine zapping with freeze ray
(lol enough said)
# tell embarassing story about ...
(will make subject sim embarassed)
-Friendship interactions:
# daydream about being friends with ...
(might make a sim sad, happy or confident and get wishes to befriend subject sim)
# admire ...
(self sim option; can make a sim get a random crush or wish to befriend subject sim)
Possible hidden feeling tags:
-Admired
(makes sim want to be around subject; embarrassed when he/she does something stupid and confident or very happy when complimented by sim)
-Crush
(makes sim nervous and tense, confident or flirty around sim, according to personality; embarrassed very easily and has extra romantic interactions and will autonomously stalk subject sim)
-Jealous
(makes sim randomly angry about things in their everyday lives, like seeing a TV and getting "Why don't I have a TV like that" buffs, or seeing them kiss someone and getting buffs like "I want to be in a relationship" or whatevs.)
-Secretely dislike
(makes sim think mean things about subject sim and autonomously be sarcastic or shut off)
-Secretely despise
(makes sim want to ruin subject sim's life by autonomously plotting and getting wishes to spread rumours, steal spouses etc.)
-Love
(sim will want to settle down with subject and be around subject all the time; if it is not mutual, the subject might get freaked out)
-Creep
(sim will find subject a weirdo and doesn't want to interact with subject; gets tense in subject's presence)
-Ooh
(sim is intruiged by subject and wants to get to know them and become friends or romantically involved;
-Fear
(sim is scared of subject and avoids subject at all costs; has special "hide" interaction that will make the sim run away; tense in subject's presence)
Getting to know a sim will influence hidden feelings. A sim might get a "dislike" tag for a conflicting trait or a random "ooh" tag when traits compliment each other.
A simmer cannot manually set any hidden feelings, but they are affected by certain interactions like described above, but sims can also randomly get hidden feelings towards other sims without player interference. Simmers can, however, help sims get over them like the self-help books that the OP described.
Other sims also have hidden feelings and this affects their interactions and acceptance of certain socials.
Sims can confess their hidden feelings or be confessed to, as well as ask sims about their or other sims' feelings toward them and possibly find out about the hidden feelings of subject sims.
I reaaaaaaally hope this can be done, because it would be AWESOME and make social gameplay really deep!!
The tags basically function as temporary traits, so it can be done, and the team is doing cool things like lot traits so I think they might really consider this!
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When i rotate households, I have my sims interact with each other. As I was building their relationships, I noticed, one he saw her as a Best Friend, and had half of the romance bar filled. However when I rotated, the other sim saw him as just Good Friends, and had a lower to No romance.
So the idea of Sims viewing each other differently is already there.
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