#maxis sims

[lamontarte]

a friend that never leaves you

[simminginstars]

A Night in Selvadorada

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Yuto will be staying in Selvadorada for a few months as him and sav have agreed to make long distance work he wants to meet her family and let them know his intentions. One of his traits is "materialistic" so he does obsess a little over money and having new things, hence why he has put his identity into work. His close friends and partner are the only ones that get to see his softer less serious side.

[theromanticscrooge]

A Short Discussion About Classic Sims, The Nostalgic Living Dolls

Around 2004, the first iteration of The Sims was at the end of its life cycle as the biggest PC game on the market at the time and a juggernaut genre-starter (compared to the many different life sims and in-development options there are now).

'Dollhouse' was a very apt nickname for the early development days of the original Sims. The locked top-down perspective, the deliberate isometric environments with only so many perspectives a player can view their pixelated 'dolls' from, the blocky aesthetic of the 'dolls' themselves, as well as the limited interactions with the world and objects around them. These objects and environments were lovingly rendered and hold up decently well in the way a specific, careful stylization can.

Create a virtual pixel person and follow their journey through life to an (untimely) demise. The first Sims were immortal outside of tragic pool ladder accidents and getting bitten by unhappy guinea pigs among other various gruesome or hilariously cartoonish deaths.

Though, with the original Sims, the game was more about game-ifying the tight rope walk of work-life balance, if not an exercise as a vicarious 'American Dream.' The more expensive and higher-quality an item or the Sims' overall surroundings, the 'happier' they are according to how green their various needs bars are. While Sims slowly gained access to more quality of life additions beyond cushy objects, such as vacations, date venues, and furry friends, general life was such a grind that players cheated (through cheat codes, mods, or even in-game short cuts like getting their palm read) if they wanted to thoroughly explore and enjoy these new gameplay options vs just the needs balancing act. Even making and maintaining friendships was a grind. Outside NPC Sims are just as finicky as the playable ones. They just don't have as obviously visible needs indicators unless the situation is so desperate there's a flashing red thought bubble above their head.

While these Sims were engaging, whatever stories players assigned to them were woven together between the playful flavor text of in-game items or pop-up displays and the player's theater of the mind. Arguably, the more dynamic storytelling tools and mechanics so many players fell in love with started with Sims 2.

These next-generation Sims had a means of telling their god what they wanted through the slot-machine adjacent UI. For example, a fortune Sim happily reminds the player of their frivolous, extravagant shopping list with constant requests for luxury cars and the ever-more-expensive 'x' whether their current disposable income covered it or not. And don't forget the regular fourth wall breaks when a Sim looked up at that same god and complained, very vocally, about having to wash the dishes.

Also, Sims 2 has some of the most recognizable and iconic characters in the franchise. Pleasantview is especially notorious. The neighborhood Casanova Don Lothario is engaged to Cassandra Goth, the daughter of the richest man in town, Mortimer Goth. He's having an affair with Dina Caliente, a gold-digger, who is Mortimer Goth's young love interest and former sister-in-law. Not to mention, Don's also seeing Dina's twin sister Nina and neither one knows about him being involved with the other. That's just scratching the surface of the soap-operatic nonsense of Pleasantview's overall story.

Many Simmers have touched on the prompts that pop up when a player first enters the house of a pre-made Sim in one of the three playable neighborhoods from the Sims 2 base game: Pleasantview, Strangetown, or Veronaville. The prompts suggest the player invite the maid to hang out after her shift to kick off an extramarital affair or to use a gnarly-looking vacuum to suck up skill points from the nearby unwitting test subject. The prompts work in concert with whatever story this pre-made Sim or household has. It's a start to a sandbox choose-your-own adventure story as well as a unique means to introduce the player to what mechanics and chaos the game allows. Don Lothario's nonsense is a decent starting place for showcasing how many different romantic relationships a Sim could have as well as the consequences for cheating if they get caught.

There's so much attention to detail. Players glean further story details from poking around through a Sim's relationships panel, their memories, their family tree, the artfully crafted screenshots in their family's virtual scrapbook. In the classic "Bella was abducted by aliens" plotline, there's so much room for connecting the dots between the screenshot of Don and Bella on Don's condo rooftop, Don's memory of getting rejected for a make-out, the Caliente sisters having an extraterrestrial grandparent. There's enough of a story thread and parts to put together, it stirs the imagination. There's so many possibilities for what led to the game's present-day and so many different directions it could go from that present-day.

In a nutshell, the Sims 2 has the right mix of attention to detail and ambiguous, but engaging story threads that the characters and stories still captivate players 20 years later.

[desimny]

- Glowfully -

(created awhile back, updated preview, thumbnails, and added more categories to download.)

some new highlighter for your sims ! (:

It is found in facepaint of a custom thumbnail featuring this sim shown in the preview. It has 3 swatches for different opacities. It is also bgc! i hope you all like <3

also available for tattoo(upper arm), skin detail(mole,right).

you can DL it here! (sfs, noadfly, alwaysfree)

support my patreon ? <3

[ripkord-sims]

I was so enamored with @its-opheliasgarden​ 's take on the BFFs household when this post came across my dash a couple of months ago that I downloaded and put my own tweaks on them to play for awhile, and I wound up writing mini backstories about their families. Today I finally finished making them and did some family portrait shots! 

The Lees

Liberty's uncle Jason left his house to her and her friends when he left to travel the world. Now that he's back, he's temporarily moved back in with his older brother, Jordan and the rest of his family. Libby's little sister and burgeoning teen simstagram influencer Justice (you can call her Juice) thinks its great having her uncle home and loves all his wild stories from travelling, but her mom, Hannah, worries that he's a distracting influence on her already too party-focused daughter. She hopes Juice will get more serious about her studies, like Liberty was.

The Holidays

The Holiday family comes from old money, both from Roman's side and his wife, June's. They were both also only children, raised by nannies, as were their parents, and their parents before them. So it's no surprise that they're both a little emotionally stunted. What is surprising is how easy-going and free-spirited Summer turned out with the same upbringing. She does worry if she's making her parents proud, though. It's hard to tell when neither of them ever open up about anything!

The Scotts

Beverly Scott and Jerry Travis have always been one of those on-again-off-again couples that never make sense when they are together, but always seem to find their way back to each other anyway. They definitely shouldn't have had a kid together, but Travis managed to turn out all right anyway. Funny story, Travis wound up with his dad's last name for a first name because of a nurse misunderstanding Bev while she was in labor. But despite all their arguments and break ups, Trav still holds out hope his parents might be able to make it work.

[simsbymac]

Callia Maebey

Does anyone else see "Call ya maybe"??

I decided to give the weird phone girl from the main menu a makeover! She's a lot less terrifying now! 😂

@crypticsim @oydis, @arethabee, @joliebean, @goppolsme, @kamiiri, @pralinesims, @sentate

[emeraldspixels]

When even your dead relatives know this is a bad idea

[marasims]

After Dina and Mortimer's wedding, their live at the Goth mansion seemed to start up on the right foot. Even though sometimes Morty was confused seeing his new bride playing in the bath tub in her dress and high heels... And it wasn't long, before Dina was tossing her cookies. Baby Goth was on it's way!

We also celebrated little Alexander's birthday with the whole family! He grew up to a Knowledge teenager, and enjoyed the awkward board game night with his family right after growing up.

A bit later, he invited his friend Lucy Burb over, and they shared their first kiss. ♥ I have to say, they still remain my all-time favorite Maxis teen couple! Goth Round 1: https://youtu.be/G2aigydFYak