Well, let's see. I'm mostly African with a bit of European (Spanish and/or Portuguese). One of my parents is dark-skinned and the other light-skinned. I grew up mostly around dark-skinned people but my family is mixed with all kinds of Ethnicities and skin tones. Such as African, Spanish/Portuguese, Irish, Native-American, Italian...those are the ones that I know of. So when it comes to Sim creation I tend to go for diversity because I admire the differences but also the similarities and I think it's beautiful.
Here are some examples of the Sims I created, born in-game or adopted.
They have so many kids, mostly boys so I decided to have them adopt a girl. And because generated Sims all look the same with usually the same presets set at 0, I change up the genetics except eye/hair/skin color and weight. Though I think I will darken her hair color actually. So they have an unique look from other Sims. Of course, I temporary aged her up to a young adult so I could see what she would look like at that point. I tried using presets I rarely use and didn't change much if anything at all.
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
I play with a legacy challenge, so I'm not consistently creating Sims in CAS and starting new saves for me to be able to compare a bunch of different Sims to. I am a blond, white, woman, and the founder of my legacy was also a blonde, white, female sim. So perhaps there is a subconscious draw to create Sims that are similar to yourself.
I do put in an effort to be diverse with Sims that are married into my legacy fam (usually premade townies), and having a diverse group of family friends for them as well, however I will not lie, I do tend to be drawn to medium~light skin tones when I'm playing with realistic sims. I also love playing with occults so green/blue/purple/etc. skin tones on townies immediately draw me to them. However, personality (or character design that implies a personality, b/c Sims 4 isn't the greatest with that) will always be the winning factor for me. If a POC sim has the most adorable character design in a pack (like Nalani Mahi'ai) then that sim is the one that's getting married into my legacy when I buy that EP.
I made my Simself in Sims 2, way back in 2005 and gave her her own name and backstory. My hair is blond now, not red, but that's what color it was when I made her. I kept her around for years before I accidentally lost her.
Since her, I've always started new games with a red headed, blue eyed female Sim. Usually a vampire, so they can hang around for their descendants. After that, I just go with the flow and end up with whatever I end up with. I don't make any Sims beyond that first one.
I have seen a progression in the type of sims and families I play with. When I was younger I used to play with white sims - probably because they looked like me and because my country weren't as multicultural back then. But today I tend to play with mixed races. I just love the children of a black and white couple! Before I also only played with singles, but now I like to play with families - mostly because I am curious what the children might look like. Sadly I always get ugly children - the sim I play right now might be the only pretty kid I have ever have gotten. Therefor her parents are to have their third child now
Edit: adding image of my typical (and current) sim; a mixed race young woman and a picture of her and her sister
I'm a brown gay girl, so those type of sims are the ones that I naturally become the most invested in. Generally, I would say my most played households are single either cis female or trans sims, of any ethnicity, sometimes they create families and I continue playing those families' future generations, so it becomes more diverse.
My favourite households right now are: a lesbian couple running a dog day care, a conventional mixed family with convential jobs, another lesbian couple who run a group home for lgbt+ youth, and a single mom with 2 kids trying to make it in the city working as a salarywoman and who is trying to find a male partner on a dating app.
For some reason, it is still a challenge for me to play households with a single cis straight male sim... I usually end up asking myself: "what do guys do?" while my sim stands in the back yard for two hours. But I try to change that, for example by starting a challenge with a male sim or if it's the son of a family I play, I move him out and involve him in a very juicy dramatic story so that I want to keep coming back to him. I would say it's getting better.
I have sims of all races. I tend only to play female gender though. (I like the clothes.)
I tend to play characters based on past characters in other games I played. I played Star Wars Galaxies and had a blue skinned Twi'lek with lekku and a brown skinned Zabrak with horns. I recreated them here - easy to do with the Star Wars components. I did create two Rodan themed characters but while the skin tones are right they don't look quite right without the antennae.
My created Sims are generally of Eastern European extraction—lots of Russian, Finnish, and Baltic names with skin tones and looks to match.
Most of my later-generation Sims are the product of those CAS Europeans and the various NPCs they meet and mate with. Since I'm white myself (dad's French-Canadian going back centuries, mom's the daughter of a Boston-Irish father and a French-from-France mother), this does tend to introduce bias into which NPCs get to join the gene pool since traits I generally find attractive in real life tend to reflect in the Sims I choose, but there's been a fair bit of East Asian and South Asian (the former thanks in large part to Discover University and Snowy Escape, the latter a result of City Living) as well introduced into the mix.
One thing distinctly missing from my world is an LGBT+ presence; as a cisgendered heterosexual I just don't relate to that experience, so it doesn't really show up in my game.
(he/him)
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
Let's see, I play a LOT of female sims, as I am female. I see sims the same way I see humans, as one race, but I play a lot of different ethnicities - though I don't stick to any stereotypes or "norms" or anything like that. A large part of my sims are white and an even larger number are redheaded because that's how I roll. I think all colors, shapes and sizes are beautiful in their own ways.
Though, is it just me, or does the new S4 darker tones look very orangey? I know brown is a derivative of orange, but come on. My darker sims shouldn't look like they went to the same self-tanning place Trump goes to...
I like playing multiple sims, of both sexes and multiple genders. In fact, I like playing households of 3-5 people at a time more than playing single sims. Then when one sim is doing something time-consuming or has a que of multiple tasks, I can operate other sims.
Comments
Here are some examples of the Sims I created, born in-game or adopted.
They have so many kids, mostly boys so I decided to have them adopt a girl. And because generated Sims all look the same with usually the same presets set at 0, I change up the genetics except eye/hair/skin color and weight. Though I think I will darken her hair color actually. So they have an unique look from other Sims. Of course, I temporary aged her up to a young adult so I could see what she would look like at that point. I tried using presets I rarely use and didn't change much if anything at all.
The male Sim is not mine and can be downloaded here from SimGuruKitty: https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8385207
[\spoiler]
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
I do put in an effort to be diverse with Sims that are married into my legacy fam (usually premade townies), and having a diverse group of family friends for them as well, however I will not lie, I do tend to be drawn to medium~light skin tones when I'm playing with realistic sims. I also love playing with occults so green/blue/purple/etc. skin tones on townies immediately draw me to them. However, personality (or character design that implies a personality, b/c Sims 4 isn't the greatest with that) will always be the winning factor for me. If a POC sim has the most adorable character design in a pack (like Nalani Mahi'ai) then that sim is the one that's getting married into my legacy when I buy that EP.
Since her, I've always started new games with a red headed, blue eyed female Sim. Usually a vampire, so they can hang around for their descendants. After that, I just go with the flow and end up with whatever I end up with. I don't make any Sims beyond that first one.
My favourite households right now are: a lesbian couple running a dog day care, a conventional mixed family with convential jobs, another lesbian couple who run a group home for lgbt+ youth, and a single mom with 2 kids trying to make it in the city working as a salarywoman and who is trying to find a male partner on a dating app.
For some reason, it is still a challenge for me to play households with a single cis straight male sim... I usually end up asking myself: "what do guys do?" while my sim stands in the back yard for two hours. But I try to change that, for example by starting a challenge with a male sim or if it's the son of a family I play, I move him out and involve him in a very juicy dramatic story so that I want to keep coming back to him. I would say it's getting better.
I tend to play characters based on past characters in other games I played. I played Star Wars Galaxies and had a blue skinned Twi'lek with lekku and a brown skinned Zabrak with horns. I recreated them here - easy to do with the Star Wars components. I did create two Rodan themed characters but while the skin tones are right they don't look quite right without the antennae.
Most of my later-generation Sims are the product of those CAS Europeans and the various NPCs they meet and mate with. Since I'm white myself (dad's French-Canadian going back centuries, mom's the daughter of a Boston-Irish father and a French-from-France mother), this does tend to introduce bias into which NPCs get to join the gene pool since traits I generally find attractive in real life tend to reflect in the Sims I choose, but there's been a fair bit of East Asian and South Asian (the former thanks in large part to Discover University and Snowy Escape, the latter a result of City Living) as well introduced into the mix.
One thing distinctly missing from my world is an LGBT+ presence; as a cisgendered heterosexual I just don't relate to that experience, so it doesn't really show up in my game.
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
Though, is it just me, or does the new S4 darker tones look very orangey? I know brown is a derivative of orange, but come on. My darker sims shouldn't look like they went to the same self-tanning place Trump goes to...
My Families Via PlumTree App