The topic of "realism" often comes up in various discussions, but it's not always clear what's meant by that term unless we happen to remember previous posts we've read by other individual simmers. Some mean "like real life" while others mean something closer to "lifelike, but fictionalized." There are also various other flavors of "realism" and it's easy to see how the meanings could be blurred or misunderstood without some kind of context. So that makes me curious to know how others see it in relation to how we each play our versions of the game.
I understand that many simmers have more than one save in which you may use different play styles (I know I do). Please choose one according to your favorite way of playing, or simply choose your most common way, if you prefer.
Note: Please read the descriptions of the poll options
before choosing one. Also, the poll and discussion is
not intended to imply that any choice is "better" or "worse" than any other, even if we don't understand or like any given play style other than our own. The use of or preference not to use mods and/or cheats to aid you in achieving your goals is irrelevant for the purposes of the poll.
Please share details in comments, if you'd like. I'd like to read them!
Realistic (Real life context) -- This would mean that you play as closely to real life as you can possibly do within the limits of of the game. It also means that you don't have any occult life states in your game. Sims age, live, and die (from any cause) the same as real people do.
Realistic (Fictional context) -- This could mean a good deal like real life but that not
everything is necessarily like real life. It could be based on or inspired by various realistic fictional works or it could reflect your own personal ideal worldview (how you wish real life/the real world could be). It means a low probability of most occult life states in your game, but not that they're strictly forbidden. Sims
probably age and/or die (from any cause) in your game.
Semi-realistic (Fictional context mixed with real life) -- This could mean your gameplay is based on or inspired by fictional works (including your own) but is somewhat like real life inasmuch as the fiction's reality is at least somewhat similar to real life. Occult life states may or may not exist in your game, depending on the fiction itself. Sims may or may not age and/or die (from any cause) in your game.
Unrealistic (Real life context) -- This could mean a primarily real-life basis but that your sims live idealistic lives in ideal worlds. You may or may not have occult life states in your game, and your sims likely never age or die (from any cause).
Unrealistic (Fictional context) -- This could mean based on or inspired by fictional works (including your own) which is very or completely
unlike real life. You would likely have in your game whatever the fiction allows.
Anything goes!-- Definitions? Rules? Reality? Phhht, who needs 'em.
Other -- Anything that might not fit in the previous categories. Please share details, if you like.
FYI: Just because you can see my signature, don't assume that I can see yours.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
Comments
That's a good point. Unfortunately I wouldn't have had enough room for the extra poll choices that would've required. This isn't meant to be scientific, anyway; just a matter of curiosity.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
I’m not sure which poll option to pick because I’m kind a mix between the Realistic option and the Unrealistic with real life context simply because they don’t die of aging.
I'm not too fussed about keeping things super realistic, though. For example, if my scientist sim gets abducted by aliens and gets pregnant, I roll with it. I've actually played a household where the father was abducted six times. Only two of those resulted in pregnancy though. That was one of my favorite households to play.
I guess it all depends really on what the game throws at me.
I play mostly spellcasters, who have day jobs, go to school, occasionally venture to Selvadorada to explore temples and help find artifacts (Excavating in Jungle adventure is pretty realistic, from what I've seen. The temples themselves less so) and sometimes have lunch with Vampires.
In 3 i play an unrealistic game, kind of a True Blood reality, where occults and humans know about the existence of each others and all species confraternize in a harmonious way (well, sometimes... 😈).
It sounds like your choice would fit under the first Realistic one. I may have worded the options a bit badly, as I didn't mean that they have to die of old age. I've now edited the top post to make the descriptions clearer on that point.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
Sims don't age, everything happens in a perpetual state of "the year was 204x". Sims also cannot die from random occurences like emotions or falling during mountain expeditions, but I feel oblidged to work the near-deaths in as crippling/harrowing experiences. My sims have to face consequences, although more often these result from my own scenarios ("Employee evaluation time, dear simmies!") than from ingame ones ("Stupid chance card, you never happened.").
I definitely don't use cheats or potions or money trees or anything that would not be available in real life. Most of my sims have ordinary jobs, they cannot progress in their careers past a certain level unless they have the appropriate degree, they have to actually go shopping for things like groceries, etc.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
Fantasy has always been my favorite genre of books (both for reading and for writing) ever since I found out about it when I was a kid (for a few years in elementary school, if it didn't at least have a dragon or a wizard on the cover, I would completely refuse to read it ), so I think this is not surprising at all.
Edit: Additional thought on "realism" for me... Sometimes I say I want some particular aspect of the game to be more "realistic" but what I generally mean is I want more detail in how the animations look, or for sims' emotional reactions to things to seem more in line with how real people would react. I don't mean that I want less fantasy stuff.
The best way I can explain it is that things like alien abductions and vampire visits can happen and I do not care. I do not tend to miss them when they do not, but do not care when they do. Magic could happen all over the world and I would not bat an eye.
On the other hand, I am a control freak, so randomly turning Sims into spellcasters and vampires is a huge no. However, so long as my sims are not changed by random mechanics when my back is turned, I am usually good. (This includes story progression. Hated that in 3.) The only exception I can really think of is Batuu. If that were to leak, I would be rather annoyed. Then again, my Sims constantly drinking blue milk has not drove me crazy yet.
I don't cheat money or relationships but I do use mods to create a world that I enjoy playing more, sims can be or do whatever they want and stay young (or old...) forever.
If I would describe my world it would probably be, kinda like real life but also a bit like a dream.
Occults are more rare amongst the humans in my game. Or hidden with human forms.
My stories are always of my own fiction but deeply based on the real life hardships of reality.
Except for the rich famous royals in my game, every other sim has to make ends meet and struggle to get through life. It could be surviving off the grid in a broken Sulani village, or teens taking care of younger siblings after their parents death, or a cast out alien struggling to raise orphans.
Sims staying in a haunted abandoned house with nowhere else to go during an apocalypse.
So I'm pretty flexible and I'm not against any type of playstyle. To be honest if we had more elements of fantasy I would love to set up an awesome totally unrealistic storyline. But using what we have its mainly realistic and/or family stuff. And even the occults we do have seem more like humans with a bit of power. Plus they are non invasive. You wouldn't even know they exist in the game.
I tried to set up an occultish fantasy world but it just didn't work. We don't have a fantasy world and everything looks too suburban or just "normal" we don't have any fantasy b/b or not much I can think of and any kind of fantasy build just looks "off" in such a normal world with occults walking around in disguise.
Sure I could undisguise all of the occults but then the problem becomes that when I switch families and my sims are chilling at a restaurant, here comes a monstrous looking sim with blood on it's face and scars everywhere, or a weird looking alien talking to everyone and dancing like everything is totally normal😂😂😂 if sims could be afraid of undisguised occults or occults could act less silly and human I would enjoy the fantasy aspect much more.
I sometimes feel like people mistake realistic family play for wanting more things for kids, teens and babies. Because almost everything in this game is realistic/family. We just have lacking life states.
anyway not debating anybody just sharing my thoughts😌
EDIT: Probably meant natural, if it were absolutely real, sims would not have so much achievements... Do still follow most real things, and a lot of what happens, is this way in reality. Maybe I meant fictional context, because sims get to be famous chefs if they want!
My gameplay is more of a "romanticised" version of real life so my sims are usually attractive, live in nice places and focus a lot on relationships and romance and achieving things. And aging is always off, I don't want my sims growing old. Sometimes I'll age up kids when I'm ready but that's all. As for occults, there's occult sims in my game but and sometimes my sims will be occults as an extension to them, but supernatural storylines is never really the focus of my game