Tuesday 21 September 2004

Pic of the day: Our young newlyweds emerge after a night with their first woohoo. The woohoo symbol over their head will sometimes appear in thought bubbles and even in conversations.

Woohoo: Sims in love

The sims have always been able to marry and have kids. From Hot Date onward, romance and friendship became two different things (although they can also be combined). Sims2 gets even closer to the real thing.

The sims have a wide range of actions to create and maintain friendship and romance. At least my sims have. The promotional videos last year indicated that sims may have fewer alternatives if they had a tough childhood that left them emotionally stunted. I haven't tried this. Besides, all my sims are very nice, which probably helps too.

As their guardian angel, you can pressure a sim into doing something to another; but you can never pressure a sim to accept anything. Also, depending on circumstances, some options may not show up even though the sim has them. So all sim interactions are consensual.

***

As before, sims have different personality types depending on how many points you put into each character trait. As before, these personalities are grouped into 12 zodiac signs for compatibility check. I suspect there is variations even within these, but certain types are naturally more attracted to each other. And sadly some are naturally repelled by each other. To form a friendship against the grain of natural antipathy is possible but takes a lot more work. It seems that each star sign is naturally fond of two other signs (and their own?) but one of them does not return the feeling. And "shy" sims are likely to get upset over public displays of affection, even though you as their angel can push them to do the same things themselves. This can lead to much fun, but I leave that as an exercise for the reader...

When seeking romance, you should seek a partner that naturally likes your sim. This is most important for first love, which can make a difference in a young sim's social development. A successful First Kiss can catapult you right into platinum mode for quite a while! Beside the star signs, ambitions also play a role. Family and romance seekers are both highly receptive to flirting when single; romance seekers continue that way even if they are otherwise engaged. Indeed, one life ambition of a romance sim is to have woohoo with at least 3 different sims (not at the same time you perverts). If you can help them achieve this they will be exceedingly happy. A family sim may prioritize playing chess with her grand-uncle.

Now that you found a target and have verified that they like you, it's time for common sense. Try playing "red hands", a non-erotic game that involves lots of hand-to-hand contact. Not only is it great fun for the sims, it's a good test before you move to the flirt tools. Caress may be enough to make two singles fall in love. From here, you may proceed clockwise with the flirt options, then move on to kiss.

Once two sims are mutually in love, engagement becomes an option. I am not sure if you can skip this and marry directly, but why do that? For a family sim engagement is a big event with great mood-lifting potential. Conversely, having an engagement rejected can make them dejected. The next big event is of course marriage, which can be a very private thing or a big event with a party. The party version will give a lot more aspiration points to a family sim, but shy sims may freak out and leave.

Marriage is certainly not a requirement for various bed-related activities, the second-to-last being the legendary "Woohoo". The first woohoo is a life event for any sim, and if it was their aspiration it will give a nice pot of points. All sorts of sims can have the woohoo aspiration when they have built up their expectations, for instance with "Make Out". Well, except teenage sims. They can mack on each other, but never get the woohoo option or the last of the line, "Try for baby". So much for realism, yea.

Sims2 is rated "teen", but it is pretty instructive. Only when you actually choose Woohoo do the sims disappear under the covers, which move wildly for a while followed by small fireworks.

***

My sims have of course taken the route that is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior and Smith's Friends: Friendship, romance, engagement, moderate macking, marriage and finally Woohoo. Tonight I'll try for baby, since they now both have a high-value baby ambition that I've locked. It should net them 8000 AP each if successful, enough to stay young for a couple days extra.

The traditional approach (if that word may be used about something so uncommon) is certainly not the only option. You can now ask your fiancee to move in with you. In fact, you may have a co-ed roomie even if you're just friends, but be warned that some Sims will make moves on their own. (If you want gay or lesbian couples, however, you need to push them at first. And of course there cannot possibly be "Try for baby" – the Sims are not idiots after all! I believe they can adopt though. I'm not interested enough to try.)

Moving in is such a dramatic thing to do. Why don't you first ask them to stay the night? It's a fairly innocent thing and you're not likely to lose aspiration points if they say no. (Check your fears display, but I have never seen it.) It's not like anything needs to happen just because you stay the night. Then again, it's not like anything needs to NOT happen either ... but I take no responsibility. On your head be it.

More about consequences next time, God willing, working title "Sims2: Oh baby!!

Live long and prosper!