Friday 27 May 2005

Pic of the day: Does this guy look like a guy? I don't think so. A boy at best, if not an undeveloped girl. But at least he doesn't look like a cow or a llama.

Of cows and Sims

Because my Sims live more exciting lives than I do... not that this says much, as I love peace and quiet.

My newest Sim, in contrast, has aspirations of popularity. It all started when I wanted to see if a Sim could live off writing novels. So why not also let the job provide meaning in his life? Popularity Sims seem especially prone to getting the "great novel" want, although money Sims also get it. So it seemed like a good idea at the time...

I started with a new university student, putting my Spanner dynasty at hold for the occasion. Since I did not base this character on anyone, I just used the random (dice) button until something not too ugly came up. I almost laughed alone when I saw the result: The most feminine and childlike looking male Sim I have ever seen. Really, I don't know why, but his face simply looks girlish. Not that Sims care about such things. I named him Nerevar, after a war hero from the game Morrowind.

College life is harder when you start with zero skills, but I still got him through with top grades and a bunch of friends. Of course it helps that one of those friends was his professor, who tended to grade him favorably after a while...

***

More disturbing, however, was the whole cow thing. I have written before about how my previous main, Maszrim Spanner, fell in love with the local cow mascot. This seemed an unlikely alliance, as the cows are mascots for a competing team and furthermore have zero niceness points. Despite this, he persevered, as I have detailed in an earlier entry, fighting a multitude of bugs and getting me more familiar with the emergency testing cheats than I ever wanted. Never again! That's what I said.

When Nerevar met the local cow mascot, who is not the same one, I was not surprised that they made friends quickly. But I also knew that they were not meant for each other. No more challenging the prejudices of the game, which evidently say that Thou shalt not have romantic relationships with mascots. (This reminds me of one of the most powerful punchlines in the wonderful online comic "Freefall": It is dubious for a doctor to have a romantic relationship with his patient. For a veterinarian, it is right out.) Consequently, I did not call the cow, much less invite her over. She, on her side, kept calling him every day until they were best friends with a 100% friendship score. OK, I can live with that. If she wants someone to talk to, that's understandable. You don't win friends and influence people by setting a lighter to the sprinkler, hitting random people with water balloons and shoving the cook around, even if it is just your job. As long as he doesn't flirt with her, we should be safe. That's what I thought.

One day the cow shows up unannounced, as she will occasionally do. But instead of doing the usual pranks, she runs up to our local hero and whistles at him. Whereupon he automagically and instantly falls in love with her. What is wrong with this picture?? I guess this was the first time a girl did that, but even so. Since that day, he has been in love, and never set his heart on anyone else. They haven't talked for weeks now, not since shortly after he graduated, but the small red heart is still there. I am not sure how long I can deny such a love... But for now, I will try! He may not know the price of forbidden love, but I do. In Sims2, that is.

***

After graduating, Nerevar bought a cheap house back in Pleasantview. Day after day passes, and he has not yet finished his first novel. You see, he has so many wants. Each day he wants to meet someone new. And Pleasantview being pretty well populated, there is hardly a day without some stranger passing in front of his house. So he will greet them, tell jokes and chat, make a light meal for them, and play chess. Thus passes the day, until he tired and dirty climbs to bed (after stepping over several empty coffee cups). The next day he wakes up wanting to be best friends with them ... and meeting someone new.

For a change, he will also get the party wish every other day or so. This is a nice one. Pleasantview is also home to an earlier creation of mine, the Itland family. (What can I say? It is kinda mandatory.) After Nerevar got to know these two, pulling the party card is like winning the lotto each time. All he has to do is find a time of day they are both off work, then invite the two of them to his house party. No one else. They will show up, raid the fridge, then entertain themselves and him relentlessly until the party is over. 2000 + 5000 aspiration points, and a bunch of influence points too, enough to get the paperboy to keep the house clean for free. ^_^

It has only been around three weeks of Sim time, but already the Itlands have begun showing up by themselves, uninvited, and proceed to perform their elaborate displays of affection in his living room and showing off their elite kicky bag skills. They are easily the best kicky bag players in the neighborhood. 8 semesters of practice can do that to you, and it doesn't hurt to be genetically identical except for the Y chromosome, I guess.

Anyway, it HAS been around 3 weeks of Sim time, where each day is like a year, and still no novel. This at least is eerily familiar. On the bright side, he has an ever wider circle of best friends, and enough aspiration points to buy all the Elixir of Life he needs for now.

As you may know, the game operates with a disturbingly short adult lifespan, 29 days/years. In this time you shall have all your kids (well, men have a chance of siring children as elders too) and tend to your career too. This just doesn't work. The secret is the Elixir of Life. Each water cooler full of elixir is enough to reverse aging by 15 days, 3 days at a time. It may sound like a cheat, but in truth is only the word of the Bible which says: "A wish fulfilled is a tree of life". In Sims2, it is intentional that those who heed their most important wishes will have a longer life than those who ignore them. So I have no qualms about using the aspiration points for this purpose, although I rarely use any of the other rewards. (Smart milk being an exception, for family Sims.)

***

Small funny details happen all the time, making me go hmm... is this a bug or a feature? For instance, Jenna the Popular Lesbian Sim (from my May 4 entry) took an instant dislike to the new ar-rival. He chased her away before their enmity could grow to truly epic proportions, and never spoke to her again. Gradually the episode faded. Then one day when he was in town shopping for groceries, he met an upbeat little black girl. This turned out to be Cara, the adopted daughter of Jenna. Since then, Cara has faithfully phoned him every day, and they are now the best of best friends. At least this one is too small to fall in love. But something else happened.

One day Nerevar had his Martian friend over, a cute but somewhat skinny girl with green skin. They were getting along well. It was dark outside. After finishing their chess game, the girl went over to the couch, while Nerevar took the phone. It was Cara as usual. What was unusual however was that while he was on the phone, Jenna came in. No ringing the door bell or anything. She just walked in and started chatting up the student girl. I of course suspected that this was a conspiracy: She must have seen the cute girl and got her daughter to call while she snuck in and made her moves.

It seems I was wrong, however. Jenna has shown up again later, always after dark, and she is now considerably more friendly. In fact, they are on their way to becoming best friends if they are not already. I can only surmise that her daughter has managed to change Jenna's mind about the newcomer. But what do I know? Perhaps it is the randomness of the reticulated splines. With Sims, you never know. And that is the best part of it.

As for never getting any novel done, I suspect the reason is the same as for the hundreds of thousands of real people: He is trying to write a novel when he has nothing else to do. If he worked on it from 9 to 5, I bet he would have churned out several by now. Unless he shapes up, I'm going to make him take a job. Work is God's punishment, you know, as seen in Genesis. Although I never thought of it as a punishment for not writing novels.