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"To be or not to be? That is the question."

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Simmingal made a excellent point for me to ask the members. She said she "doesn't play to be the sim, but she plays to control the sim" In my games I am the sim no matter how many sims are living with me (mostly 1wife and 1 child). So my question is are you the sim in your game or are you ACruelButLovingGod (a shot out to our member) that plays to control the sims? Hmmm!!!

Comments

  • ACruelButLovingGodACruelButLovingGod Posts: 708 Member
    Haha...thanks for the shout-out! To be fair, I don't control the sims so much as I control the story, more like a director working with actors—and I let them ad-lib and improv sometimes.
    (he/him)
    And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
    My NBA site, Pace and Space
  • Darstep0301Darstep0301 Posts: 745 Member
    Haha...thanks for the shout-out! To be fair, I don't control the sims so much as I control the story, more like a director working with actors—and I let them ad-lib and improv sometimes.

    Exactly. A director is what I envision myself as when I have to control the female sim. Hahaha
  • VeeDubVeeDub Posts: 1,862 Member
    Haha...thanks for the shout-out! To be fair, I don't control the sims so much as I control the story, more like a director working with actors—and I let them ad-lib and improv sometimes.

    This is very much like my own style. I'm the god, more a director of stories (and the numerous mini-stories or scenarios within those) than the controller of every little aspect of sims' lives.
    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. ;)
  • Darstep0301Darstep0301 Posts: 745 Member
    Thx for the comment VeeDub. I play both roles too. God and director. If you get a chance check out my discussion about guys playing the female sim role in their game.
  • BabykittyjadeBabykittyjade Posts: 4,975 Member
    edited November 2021
    I absolutely do NOT like playing myself in the sims. I live with me everyday. I want to live other lives, be other people and do other things. I enjoy playing as sims completly opposite of myself, especially male sims, doing things I'd never do. Like partying for example. Never been to a club party in my life nor would I ever attend one, but I have this party addicted sims who just loves to party the night away in the clubs. One of my favorite things to do actually. Sims 4 has the best parties 😅😅😅. Love DJ-ing.
    I don't like to think of myself as "God" since I believe there is one and only. But I play as a writer and the sims are my characters. I am telling their stories. I have a small rotational group. I have a group of main characters I've been playing immortal for years. And then every other sim is a side character. I have an antagonist or a few of them actually. And then the problems and hardships that need to be overcome to reach the end goal. Except unlike a novel this is a never ending story 🤣🤣🤣🤣 poor sims.

    That's why I want more wild, weird and quirky things In the sims. I can see me in the mirror, live with me,and clean and cook with myself everyday.
    But it's not everyday I get to be an evil vampire living amongst a clan in an underground ice cave in Mt komorebi luring in victims. 😏
    Zombies, oh please oh please give us zombies!! :'(
  • GirlFromIpanemaGirlFromIpanema Posts: 843 Member
    Welcome to the forums @Darstep0301 what an interesting topic, I always like seeing how other Simmers play.

    Quick forum tip, if you want to "shout-out" another user and have them notified about it, put an "@" symbol before the user's name. (Feel free to practise with my name if you want!)

    As to answer your question, I think I kind of do a bit of both. I never create my sim-self, but I do put a little of myself into my Sims, whether it's just a trait or the way they dress. I think that I mostly play to control the Sim but there will always be a particular Sim that is "my Sim", and all other members of the household (spouse/child etc.) are simply characters in her life that I also control, but my main Sim is my priority.

    I really like some of the comments here about being directors and writers, I think that describes the Sims very well. :smile:
  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,284 Member
    edited November 2021
    Haha...thanks for the shout-out! To be fair, I don't control the sims so much as I control the story, more like a director working with actors—and I let them ad-lib and improv sometimes.

    I control the story, too. I am not my Sim. I am Me, the writer/director. And some improvisation is okay with the supporting cast and only when my star doesn't need to focus on the task at hand. ;) (I play with autonomy on full, since it's either on full or it's off.) Just for the record, it's never off.
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
    http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
  • WorramotWorramot Posts: 52 Member
    It’s my doll house :p
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    Another "writer/director" style player here. I create characters to play with and tell stories about. I don't think of any of them as myself.

    But it's an interesting question. To some degree, when I am writing, all my characters draw something from my own experiences in order to become life-like in the story. That's just part of how I do character development because it works for me. But none of them are "me".

    Prior to playing the sims (I started with sims 3, and now play mostly sims 4), I never really played many computer games. My main way of having fun, even as a kid, has always been working on creative projects such as writing stories and doing art. So that is how I naturally approached the sims games once I realized they could be used that way. Kind of like what @ACruelButLovingGod mentions, I control the story. I think of the sims as my actors, like for a movie or a play. In some cases I direct them very strictly in order to follow a certain plot point I want, and in some cases I let them improvise a lot and just run with whatever they do. It depends both on the story and the scene.
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    Seventeen & Maldusk Forum thread link
    My name on AHQ (and the upcoming sims forum) is "GlacierSnowGhost".
  • CaitxcatCaitxcat Posts: 680 Member
    I play to control the sim they are dollies in my dollhouse, although I do let them make their own decisions.
  • SweetieWright_84SweetieWright_84 Posts: 4,119 Member
    While I may be their creator, that's where my god-like control begins and ends. It always felt weird to me to be the Watcher, the one they pray to in Sims Medieval. I'm their director and observer. I look at it like an interactive tv show or something, where I make the decisions but their free to do what they choose as well. But I also look at the game as Barbie or GI Joes for those who no longer play with dolls?
    Gallery ID: SweetieWright_84--Save File Thread--Youtube Channel
  • mightyspritemightysprite Posts: 5,806 Member
    I use the game as, I guess, improvisational story-making. I have story ideas, the game does things I don't expect, I work those into the story and get more fun and interesting results than I would have come up with on my own, and repeat.

    It would give me the heebie-jeebies to play as myself. I only made a simself for as long as it took to get the (lousy) picture in my avatar.

    gen3-banner.png
  • cynciecyncie Posts: 4,547 Member
    edited November 2021
    Storyteller/director here, with input from the game. I never play a sim-self. I don't play traditional "work your way up, get married, have kids then die" or generational style games. I create main characters with a supporting cast, set them up in the life they need for my story idea, then direct those stories with the game acting as story and plot twist generator. I may identify with the main character to some extent, but that character isn't me in Sim land and isn't acting out some version of my own life.
  • babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
    edited November 2021
    Eh, I can’t say I never have, but I’ve played so many sims over the years that a very small percentage would be my simself. I’ve started legacies with a female sim who looked kinda like me, and I’ve started them with female sims that don’t look like me. I’ve started legacies with males.

    I like pairing them up with an interesting partner and seeing what their kids look like. I like when a sim develops their own personality and grows into a role that’s perfect for them. It’s nice to play a variety of sims.

    I get a sense of accomplishment with the little things and the big things. But I’m not them. I’m not their god - I’m nothing to them. They’re there to perform for me, if and when I feel like it.

    ETA: I also don’t capitalize sim, just like I don’t capitalize human or alien. I am well aware that the devs and the game capitalize it. Just wanted to point out this is conscious on my part.
    Post edited by babajayne on
  • CAPTAIN_NXR7CAPTAIN_NXR7 Posts: 4,451 Member
    edited November 2021
    Nowhere near enough, but I have about 6 different saves with 6 different versions of sim self.
    I admit I can’t get enough of myself LOL.
    • I have one in which I’m a global celebrity millionaire who owns 54 talking toilets and a rabbit.
    • I have one in which I’m a playboy 😇.
    • I have one in which I’m married with 7 kids but I don’t play with that save.
    • I have one in which I’m a sim self vampire married to my sim self spell caster.
    • I have one in which I’m a ghost toddler, just to see what that’s like.
    • I also have a designer shirt with my own face printed on it, but that’s how far I will take it beyond The Sims on these forums. You’d want to see my house.


    I’m sorry. I lied. About everything.

    I actually play writer/ director style but I’m not the lead in my own stories. In fact I don’t go anywhere near my sim self! 😂

    I’m like Steven Spielberg and my game is like Jurassic Park. It’s mayhem, but it’s epic. 😎
  • RochertRochert Posts: 168 Member
    Personally, I have never played simself, and I have never regarded myself as Sims' god.
    It's true that I sometimes control them (for example, when I make my Sims acquire skills those I believe are useful), but I think in many cases I help my Sims achieve their wishes or solve their problems instead of controlling them,
    For my cases, I'm a rather servant of my Sims than their god.

    In a sense, my playstyle may be similar to yours, @ACruelButLovingGod: Sometimes a director of their drama, sometimes an author of their story.
    But in other sense, I am neither a director nor a writer because I don't intentionally make my sims life dramatic. Sadly, I have no talent to do that.

    Do you think this can be another "To be or Not to be" question, @Darstep0301? :D
    Learn as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were to die today.
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  • SERVERFRASERVERFRA Posts: 7,108 Member
    I've sort of made a sim self with my personal traits & skills. But got so bored with playing me. Lol :D
    However, I did manage to come very close to the look of my real life home. ;)
  • SindocatSindocat Posts: 5,622 Member
    I am a benevolent but stern Watcher, directing my sims to be their best selves.
  • DoodlyDoofusDoodlyDoofus Posts: 1,177 Member
    Never made a "Simself", at most made Sims with the same name as me, sometimes the same(ish) hair and clothing styles. But I've never played Sims to play "me". My Sims are my Sims.

    I JUST DETERMINE HOW THEY'RE GOING TO DIE.
  • viola-illyriaviola-illyria Posts: 182 Member
    I take on the role of The Watcher. I've not made a simself since the first game,

    Also, I don't think "to be or not to be" is the right question to be asking here.
  • Mstybl95Mstybl95 Posts: 5,883 Member
    I am god to my sims. I rarely intervene when bad things happen. I don't play favorites. I am not cruel. I love my simizens very much and carry them over into many different games.
  • MoonlightGrahamMoonlightGraham Posts: 884 Member
    In a simming career that is very short compared to many of yours--no more than a year on The Sims, and only a few months on Sims 3 and 4--I'm finding it most fun to be a cross between writer, director, and lead actor. I seem to switch from role to role depending on what might be more enjoyable at the moment.

    I probably spend way too much of my gaming time creating Sim-worlds and populating them with interesting Sims. Some of them are completely imaginary, but I've also created Sim-versions of real people whose stories I find interesting. They're often people who died young. I enjoy bringing them back to life in my Simworld. When I do this, I turn aging off, so they're not taken from my world unless I decide it's time.

    I'll sometimes evict a premade household if I want to place another family in their house, but I won't delete them. I'll sometimes change a premade's character; I've decreed that Nancy Landgraab pursued her art career, rather than turning to a life of white-collar crime.

    I usually choose one of my creations as my active Sim. None of them are truly Sim-selves, although I'll occasionally create a Sim with some of my characteristics. I don't play them actively, but it's fun to have my Sims interact with them. My current favorite Sim is good friends with one of them.
    Exie hay, cavero, veebo marz viremzico.
    Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
    Yevsas mairzeemo!
  • RouensimsRouensims Posts: 4,858 Member
    I am my Sims, even though I have 400 of them!
    Ooh Be Gah!! Whipna Choba-Dog? Whipna Choba-Dog!! :smiley:
  • RouensimsRouensims Posts: 4,858 Member
    babajayne wrote: »
    ETA: I also don’t capitalize sim, just like I don’t capitalize human or alien. I am well aware that the devs and the game capitalize it. Just wanted to point out this is conscious on my part.

    Interesting comment! I always capitalize Sims, even though most people don’t, because I think of them more like a different nationality (like Spanish) than a different life form, I guess.
    Ooh Be Gah!! Whipna Choba-Dog? Whipna Choba-Dog!! :smiley:
  • GirlFromIpanemaGirlFromIpanema Posts: 843 Member
    Rouensims wrote: »
    babajayne wrote: »
    ETA: I also don’t capitalize sim, just like I don’t capitalize human or alien. I am well aware that the devs and the game capitalize it. Just wanted to point out this is conscious on my part.

    Interesting comment! I always capitalize Sims, even though most people don’t, because I think of them more like a different nationality (like Spanish) than a different life form, I guess.

    It is interesting. I always capitalise Sim/Sims too. I know I capitalise "The Sims" as it's a title but I don't know why I am compelled to capitalise the word "Sim" when talking about my individual characters.

    I'd be interested in a poll to see what everyone else does, just for the sake of curiosity.
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