Your Thoughts on Phobias

Masters_In_Simology

So basically, my sims have been dropping like flies recently. One of which was killed in a kitchen fire, and I am pretty sure his daughter was in the area. That's when it hit me, wouldn't this affect her later in life? I don't know if they ever did this before, and my instinct says I am not the first to think of this, but has The Sims ever tried to include a Phobia system?

My thinking is that created adult sims could have random phobias attached to their personalities at creation (with possible back stories), while younger sims could acquire phobias over time. Possible phobias could include: fear of fire, fear of water, fear of dogs, fear of winter (seriously, a few snowflakes and my mother turns into Monk) ... . Along the same lines, a possible skill could be added for Phobia Conquest and possibly a Therapist career path.

I was curious to see how anyone else felt about this.

MasonGamer

It has been thought of multiple times.

My concern is, I need to be able to chose, or control, what my character becomes afraid of. I know what my sims are, and what they will come to fear, and how they will over come it. I can't afford the game to shape my characters into something they're not.

Maybe connected to not being able to fulfill Aspirations, but I don't think they should be connected to personality traits.

Bagoas77

It would be interesting if some sort of phobia trait or "nightmare" very-bad-day, scarred-for-lift scenario unlocked for a sim if a particular set of random chain of events (perhaps individualized per each sim) occurred.

ghjdied

Why not make it a trait sims can gain through gameplay, but can easily get rid of via the phone, cheats, or specific actions. For instance, a Sim gains the pyrophobia trait after catching fire three times with in a certain time frame. They never go near lit camp fires, fireplaces, or any sort of flame because of it, and pass out during an actual fire. There could even be a fearful emotional state to accompany any type of phobia:

Hydrophobia- from being very uncomfortable and trapped in a pool for hours or witnessing another sim drown.
Achluophobia- from being locked in a dark room of a day straight.
Agoraphobia- from being embarrassed or mortified several times in a row (without death).
Zoophobia- from constant negative interactions with cat or dogs or being bit.
Pyrophobia- from catching fire three times in a short span of time (without death) or witnessing another sim die by fire.
Technophobia- from being shocked several times (without death), or witnessing another sim die from electrocution.
Fear of Vampires- from being attacked by a vampire three times in a short time frame.
Fear of Aliens- from constantly being abdupted by aliens.

Stuff like that. Sims can have unique interactions and reactions depending on their phobia and they can have any number of phobias at once or none at all. You can get rid of them by using the phone to go to a two hour therapy session to delete one or all phobias for a selected since, or turn off the option for phobias in the game options menu.

ElfEnchantress

I personally like the perks and weaknesses that came with vampires. I think that would be a fantastic way to approach sims in general. A lot like in medieval. It would be nice if you could pick an aspiration (with trait) three base traits, then one flaw and one fear. (Favorite food, music, and colors like in the sims 3 would be nice too)

Jordan061102

I love your thread & your idea of phobias. Anyway, at this point I like anything that is related to better personalities & reactions.

storyy

Love this idea! Could work similarly to celebrity quirks from GF, or perhaps even able to assign in CAS. I have mentioned this in a couple other threads, but I loved how in The Sims Medieval, you had to choose a fatal flaw in addition to the positive character traits. That'd be a cool way to do it too!

QueenMercy

Only we could just choose them. I’d be really annoying if a Black Widow sim became afraid of water because that’s how you got rid of her husbands, for example.

BridgetKV

Everyone's afraid of something. Sims should be too.

awlchick

Great Idea.

meowcatmeowkitty

Support, especially if there was a fear emotion to go along with it.

Don't forget necrophobia- fear of ghosts, skeletons, tombstones, urns and maybe vampires too: from negative interactions with those creatures. Sims with this phobia do NOT like Spooky Day or most of the stuff in the Spooky stuff pack.

friendlysimmers

no thank you clearly something i do not went to see in game

stilljustme2

ghjdied wrote: »

Why not make it a trait sims can gain through gameplay, but can easily get rid of via the phone, cheats, or specific actions. For instance, a Sim gains the pyrophobia trait after catching fire three times with in a certain time frame. They never go near lit camp fires, fireplaces, or any sort of flame because of it, and pass out during an actual fire. There could even be a fearful emotional state to accompany any type of phobia:

Hydrophobia- from being very uncomfortable and trapped in a pool for hours or witnessing another sim drown.
Achluophobia- from being locked in a dark room of a day straight.
Agoraphobia- from being embarrassed or mortified several times in a row (without death).
Zoophobia- from constant negative interactions with cat or dogs or being bit.
Pyrophobia- from catching fire three times in a short span of time (without death) or witnessing another sim die by fire.
Technophobia- from being shocked several times (without death), or witnessing another sim die from electrocution.
Fear of Vampires- from being attacked by a vampire three times in a short time frame.
Fear of Aliens- from constantly being abdupted by aliens.

Stuff like that. Sims can have unique interactions and reactions depending on their phobia and they can have any number of phobias at once or none at all. You can get rid of them by using the phone to go to a two hour therapy session to delete one or all phobias for a selected since, or turn off the option for phobias in the game options menu.

That:’s quite similar to the Quirks system in GF; maybe they could tweak it and add the feature, then you either buy the potion like with the quirks or go to an off-screen psychologist for “treatment (for a suitable fee of course.

Becka28

@stilljustme2 or perhaps call the phobia hotline - similar to the sadness hotline for temporary relief of phobia

stilljustme2

Becka28 wrote: »

@stilljustme2 or perhaps call the phobia hotline - similar to the sadness hotline for temporary relief of phobia

That would be great for temporary relief -- potion or psychologist visit for a permanent removal. For those who want to create Sims with phobias without going through the work of triggering them, they could be traits that show up with the non-personality traits (like the Parenthood traits or the aspiration reward traits) and can use cheats or mods to assign to a Sim when you place him/her in the game. (I do that a lot with Sims I make in CAS but I don't plan on actively playing, especially Parenthood traits for the YA+ Sims I make.)

annaliese39

I also love this idea, but I would want it to be optional and controllable, at least to an extent - perhaps similar to our fame quirks system.

CaityTrina

I like the idea but would rather something similar to the fear system from 2. Fears are generated at random different events, like a fear for losing a recently married partner or say they fell over on a ice rink they'd roll a fear for falling when they're neat it again. Kinda like the sims 4 quirks system with sims 2 fears but they aren't always as extreme as a full on phobia.

ChadSims2

I only want to see something like this if they add a fear emotion tense does not cut it for me. Sure if my Sim fears vampires just thinking of them might make them tense but if a vampire entered the room fear is a must.

GrumpyGlowfish

While phobias sound good in theory, I severely doubt the game's ability to implement them properly, especially if they're anything like fame quirks. All my celebrities end up having the "Refined Palate" quirk because with them getting better at cooking over time, it becomes impossible to avoid, if they're actors or have any jobs that require charisma, there is no way around "Vain Street", and "Emotion Bomb" requires sims to become very X only once. Once. I can already see everyone being afraid of fire and water because of the one kitchen fire they witnessed and the one time they spent five seconds too many in the pool thanks to simulation lag stopping them from getting out when I told them to.

If there's going to be phobias, I want to be able to choose them myself in CAS. If they're triggered by something happening in the game, that something has to be extreme, like seeing a loved one die by fire / drowning / whatever (like someone suggested), and there should be ways to overcome them without the lazy solution of just buying a magic potion from the rewards store. Phobias also have to be connected to traits to make any kind of sense, I can't see an unflirty, child-hating loner developing a fear of dying alone just because they're nearing the elder stage without a significant other or children of their own, while a family-loving or outgoing sim would be more prone to that kind of fear. My unflirty loner simself actually ignores all the traditions that come with Love Day, proving that the developers are perfectly capable of taking such things into account.

But all of this is way too much to be patched in, and at the moment I feel there's too little in the game for sims to be afraid of anyway, so maybe a new pack dedicated to sims' fears could solve this problem. This would also be a perfect opportunity to bring back burglars and natural disasters, and to introduce a therapist career as well as a therapy mechanic for affected sims.

... And now I should stop before I start longing for yet another pack I'll probably never have...