Romance & "cheating" in The Sims 2.
Nov. 16th, 2005 02:49 amThis is a rant about Sims 2. Yay - a rant about something other than my gall bladder! (Squeamish friends dance with glee).
Since I got Nightlife 10 days ago, I've been playing without the Romance mod. As a result, I have been experiencing great annoyance at what passes for "cheating" within the game's design.
Now, the reason I installed the Romance mod in the first place wasn't in fact so that I could have polyamorous sims without slapping occurring. It was actually because one of my cute monogamous sims cuddled his friend D on the sofa while they were watching TV, and I suddenly found "Had an affair with D" in his memory! I said "Oh my God" quite a few times, as I realised that if, indeed, that was having an affair, I have had affairs with 20 or so of my good friends, including people of incompatible sexual orientation. The Romance mod removed a lot of this silliness. Unfortunately, as NL added a lot of new dating & romance-related code, leaving in older hacks would cause badness.
Anyway. So last night I was playing Mitch & Max, my very cute gay couple. They are in a committed monogamous relationship. They live together and are engaged.
Mitch is a TV soap star. He has fans. Lots of them. They have crushes on him. One-sided. He's never even met these people before. They have a relationship with him through the TV.
Mitch & Max went on a date, where they were spotted by some of Mitch's fans. As a result, the fans threw a wobbly because they saw him "cheat" on them with his long-term partner that he lives with. He got a broken-up ring symbol above his head, and the memory "Was caught cheating with Max".
This is nothing short of fucked up! It was a CRUSH - one-sided! It's fair enough for the fans to throw a wobbly when they realise he's in reality involved with someone, but it shouldn't go down in his memories as "Was caught cheating by sim X"!! It's not cheating, damnit all to hell!
And Maxis can't see anything wrong with this. As far as they're concerned, the game is behaving correctly. What kind of world do they live in where a mad stalker can fall in love with you, and if they see you kiss your partner, you get marked as having had an affair?!!
ARGH!
Since I got Nightlife 10 days ago, I've been playing without the Romance mod. As a result, I have been experiencing great annoyance at what passes for "cheating" within the game's design.
Now, the reason I installed the Romance mod in the first place wasn't in fact so that I could have polyamorous sims without slapping occurring. It was actually because one of my cute monogamous sims cuddled his friend D on the sofa while they were watching TV, and I suddenly found "Had an affair with D" in his memory! I said "Oh my God" quite a few times, as I realised that if, indeed, that was having an affair, I have had affairs with 20 or so of my good friends, including people of incompatible sexual orientation. The Romance mod removed a lot of this silliness. Unfortunately, as NL added a lot of new dating & romance-related code, leaving in older hacks would cause badness.
Anyway. So last night I was playing Mitch & Max, my very cute gay couple. They are in a committed monogamous relationship. They live together and are engaged.
Mitch is a TV soap star. He has fans. Lots of them. They have crushes on him. One-sided. He's never even met these people before. They have a relationship with him through the TV.
Mitch & Max went on a date, where they were spotted by some of Mitch's fans. As a result, the fans threw a wobbly because they saw him "cheat" on them with his long-term partner that he lives with. He got a broken-up ring symbol above his head, and the memory "Was caught cheating with Max".
This is nothing short of fucked up! It was a CRUSH - one-sided! It's fair enough for the fans to throw a wobbly when they realise he's in reality involved with someone, but it shouldn't go down in his memories as "Was caught cheating by sim X"!! It's not cheating, damnit all to hell!
And Maxis can't see anything wrong with this. As far as they're concerned, the game is behaving correctly. What kind of world do they live in where a mad stalker can fall in love with you, and if they see you kiss your partner, you get marked as having had an affair?!!
ARGH!