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Storyline VS Freeplay

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I'm curious what sort of play style other simmers enjoy. Do you follow a storyline or do you just sort of freeplay and make it up as you go along?

I'm more of a storyline player. I enjoy planning out things like who marries who, who they date along the way, how many kids they have, if and when they marry, and so on. Some things I leave up to chance, but I always have certain sims in mind for specific stories I want to tell and how I want their life to play out. Sometimes I feel a little weird about it because I literally have notebooks filled with "town planning" so to speak.

Anyway, what's the run down in your game? How do you rule the world?

Comments

  • Skcaga6Skcaga6 Posts: 3,399 Member
    A mix of both. I like the storyline play, but I also like letting things just happen in the game. Right now my heir is a teen still several days from his birthday. His future spouse is two days away from becoming a teen. She is the daughter of his mother's best friend. As for his four brothers and sisters, they are on their own and can marry whoever they want. Lol
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  • BlueR0seBlueR0se Posts: 1,587 Member
    Both. I do rotational free play but have done more story oriented files as well.
  • HermitgirlHermitgirl Posts: 8,825 Member
    Both cause sometimes I don't feel I guess creative enough to tell a story.
    Like the sim in my picture is a young Olive Muenda.. eventually to become Olive Specter. All her husbands to be and other people that will end up in the family graveyard are there in that save game alive and kicking but I have the story mostly formulated.
    Lately I've been playing with mods though that I found .. mostly freeplay cause I'm a little tired when I get a chance to play lately.
    It fun though to let things happen even just in the story I'm wanting to make... few more twists and turns that way.
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  • CupcakeWitchCupcakeWitch Posts: 542 Member
    Both.
    I play rotational and I have goals set out for my families and how I want a story to play out but for the most part it's freeplay.

    For example, one of my families has a shy daughter but my goal for her is to date Caleb and become a vampire. But right now she's a teen and until then, its freeplay.
    In another household, I'm mainly focusing on aspirations/careers/skills. All three are tied together to have a storyline of being the best artist, richest sim, evil overload, happy family, etc. but besides that, my sims are living life as it goes by and I play with them however.

    As long as it doesn't affect the end goal, the freeplay ends up being part of my sims' storylines
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  • AfterMidnightAfterMidnight Posts: 1,020 Member
    I usually play without a storyline when I'm doing a challenge. I have a loose storyline for some of the households in my rotational save, though.
  • DrakoVongola2DrakoVongola2 Posts: 60 Member
    I usually have a basic plan for what I want my Sims to do but for the most part I just wing it
  • PsychoSimXXPsychoSimXX Posts: 4,403 Member
    edited March 2017
    A bit of both actually with TS4. I did a little in TS1 but then I would plan out which townies I wanted my Sim to meet and marry, In TS2 and TS3 I was in total control on who they were friends with and what not. TS4 I do a little of both but mostly freeplay. With the help of the MCCC mod and the use aura objects, I have high amount of drama in my game the game itself will produce. I take what the game gives me and just go with it. I never played with a same sex couple until TS4 and that was because of what the game gave me. So instead of a playing straight male I play a bi-sexual male.


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  • MasonGamerMasonGamer Posts: 8,851 Member
    I do both, usually my storylines are just big events that need to take place. But between those points is freeplay
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  • belpitabelpita Posts: 1,445 Member
    Lately, I've been doing a lot of planned stories, where I even turn off free will to be able to properly control my Sims.
    But I do have one save where I'm just leisurely letting things happen the way the Sims want them.
  • anneloes740anneloes740 Posts: 171 Member
    Both really, but leaning more towards free play :)
  • calaprfycalaprfy Posts: 3,927 Member
    I fulfil needs, whims and ensure there's money flowing into the home. Other than that I create clubs that I wish to see spawn autonomously just to make it a little more interesting when I go places.
  • Huiiie_07Huiiie_07 Posts: 1,200 Member
    I would say both, I always set "goals" for my sims and play out stories for them, but these are only small things I want them to do, everything else is freeplay.
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  • PancakesandwichPancakesandwich Posts: 2,038 Member
    It's usually a mix between both a set storyline and freeplay. I adjust the storyline every time something interesting happens on its own, like an abduction.
  • TriX0099TriX0099 Posts: 850 Member
    I play by whims, so my sims decide their own stories... sort of. Since I decide which whims to fulfill, and I always pick them according to the personalities and goals I imagine them to have. And as a way to control the population and lack of lots in my game, I do pick their partners (any sim of the same age, who is not related. If none exists, I make the partner) and move them in together, but their whims decide if and when (ok, it is always when) their relationship turns romantic, get married, have children etc.
  • hannaaj22hannaaj22 Posts: 685 Member
    I like to plan big events like marriages, divorces, children etc. But other things I just let happen and go with it. However if a big event was to happen without my doing (like an unexpected death) I would probably just roll with it and add it in to the story. I also have a notepad to keep track of my sims, as I play on rotation so sometimes I get confused if it's been a while since I played a certain family.
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  • FairyGodMotherFairyGodMother Posts: 7,406 Member
    I am not good at telling a story, but love seeing the stories on this forum!

    I just play and whatever happens, happens :D
  • AvaSims4080AvaSims4080 Posts: 810 Member
    I enjoy planning it all beforehand, to avoid any confusion or unwanted drama along the way. Sometimes if there's an affair, I tend to just see what happens with that and not plan where it will go!
  • RedDestiny92RedDestiny92 Posts: 7,820 Member
    I usually play on rotation and decide for each family, though if I stick to one family I still do when adding on, I had one short legacy but I stayed so the two eldest could get married and had to come up with something for their husbands. It's fun to go that way have goals or follow something that I have planned, depends on how the family or pair is to my imagination.
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  • luthienrisingluthienrising Posts: 37,617 Member
    I usually play where I have kind of an idea of where a Sim's story is going but with a corner of my eye on whims that might appeal as a redirection, and with autonomy on so I can roll with that as well. Now and then I'll set a firm goal instead but I've been doing that only in my celebrity save where if achieving that goal gets boring I can just redirect my camera to some other amusing thing going on, like watching Marilyn Monroe play basketball or Drake sell super spicy food to John Watson and Bella Goth.
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  • ChampandGirlieChampandGirlie Posts: 2,482 Member
    Before coming onto this board, I never thought much about my playing style but I'm pretty consistent. I've realized that I'm a "story/imaginative" player. I am kind of free-form in approach but I don't do freeplay. By that, I mean that I never just leave my game on and let the sims do whatever but I develop the plot as a go. I have some general ideas of what will happen, but I typically change that on the fly.

    All of the sims in my rotation have different personalities so that helps to influence what decisions they make, but I'm actively deciding what that is. I mean, if my sim is hanging out on a Saturday AM and autonomously decides to play blicblock, I'll probably go with that but I'm generally directing the flow of the game. I don't base it all on whims either, though sometimes I satisfy those. I don't always focus on achieving aspirations either.

    Free-form, self-directed, rotational story play - the game elements are pretty much suggestions that I can use while developing whatever is happening
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  • catitude5catitude5 Posts: 2,537 Member
    It's my own personal soap opera. Who's cheaten who, who's being true, who don't even care anymore.
  • FairyGodMotherFairyGodMother Posts: 7,406 Member
    catitude5 wrote: »
    It's my own personal soap opera. Who's cheaten who, who's being true, who don't even care anymore.

    Now thats a song right there!
    Who's cheaten who, who's being true, who don't even care anymore./quote]
  • ratsrbestratsrbest Posts: 579 Member
    edited March 2017
    In Sims 1 and 2 I could quite happily play large or small households made up of single Sims or family groups.

    Largely due to the open neighbourhood in Sims 3 I found I preferred to play solo Sims and that's my preference for Sims 4, too. I've only been playing Sims 4 since early February so I've had a period of just finding out what the game will do.

    Now I'm having to think a bit more carefully about what I want to do. But, I've done all the stuff I'm really interested in :(

    My preferred way of playing is to start out with some sort of plan but be open to any good wheezes that present themselves. Caleb's helped me out in that respect, I can pretty much rely on him to turn up on any of my Sims' doorsteps and follow up with invitations to go out, for instance.

    In Sims 2 there were a number of ways to amuse myself when an 'ordinary' game wouldn't quite hit the spot. I could resurrect the Tricous or do a rather gruesome cull of the less than pleasing to the eye townies. I think Sims 4 might be a bit wholesome for me o:)
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  • Dreamie209Dreamie209 Posts: 3,165 Member
    I love to play in the form of freeplay <3. I do like to sometimes play out a story every now and them. But to me, there's nothing like having no idea where the family/neighbors are going to do/go next.

    Especially going around the neighborhood and be like "Omg! She married him?! They're super opposite! :o " or "Whoa..wow they got a divorce? I'm surprised. :'( " And even when in rare moments where sims who hate children randomly become parents and watch them pull their hair out of their heads :lol:.

    I also find it interesting when I randomly notice that a certain sim is gay or lesbian in my game. It's not exactly the fact that their like that, I think it's more or less the fact that they just naturally/randomly became into that preference. It also switches any story I had planned a bit and makes things a bit more interesting so that I truly don't know what's going on and let my sims be them, without truly making them do it <3.

    I think what makes me so thrilled by this way of play is possibly because...well it's similar to life itself. When I plan a story, I know what's going to happen at very second..and for me It sometimes feels like spoilers :lol:. So I decided to play blindly so I'm excited to play it every day.

    In TS4 all of this randomness is thanks to the MC <3. I dunno how I would be able to play on this level of fun without that mod <3.
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  • aprilroseaprilrose Posts: 1,832 Member
    Storyline. Every sim in my game has a storyline, I plan out everything from birth to death for each of my sims. It's how I've always played since Sims 1.
    Simming for 19 years!
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