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Designing Character Traits in The Sims 3

5/5/2013

71 Comments

 
A Hopeless Romantic Trait Sim
A Hopeless Romantic Sim
An Evil Trait Sim - Hans Gruber from Die Hard
An Evil Sim
A Great Kisser Trait Sim
A Great Kisser
In The Sims 3, we made many additions and improvements to the lovable and quirky beings we call Sims. By far, my favorite of those is our character traits system, and I know I’m not alone – it has captured the hearts and minds of our players, too – often even more than our largest feature: the seamless, living neighborhood. So I wanted to describe the thinking that led us to the traits design, and some of the interesting choices and observations we made along the way.

Personality in The Sims and The Sims 2

First, a little background. In The Sims and The Sims 2, personalities were chosen on a ten-point scale along five different personality characteristics:
The Sims personality scale
The Sims
 
The Sims 2 personality scale
The Sims 2
In The Sims, personality affected the choices a Sim made on their own, affected rates of skill gain, and also altered the speed a Sim’s needs would deplete. For example, a Sim with a high playful score would have their fun drop quickly, causing the Sim to do more fun things than normal.

In The Sims 2, we expanded the system to add special behaviors for specific ranges of personality. The 0-3 range was considered “low” and 8-10 points was considered “high.” Both came with unique animations and interactions for the Sims. Anything in between (4-7 points) was considered neutral, and usually did not have any special animations or interactions. For  example:
  • Sloppy Sims (0-3 points) would create puddles when taking showers, make objects dirty more quickly, and could eat from the trash.
  • Neat Sims (8-10 points) could get fun by cleaning objects, and could even clean objects that weren’t yet visibly dirty, causing those objects to take much longer to get dirty.
  • In Between (4-7 points) didn’t have special animations or interactions. They only had varying need decays, skill rates, and autonomy behaviors. 
All personalities worked this way. As you can see, we bundled the special content toward the extremes.

Inspiration and Philosophy for Traits

The problem we found as we were implementing personalities on The Sims 2 was that we couldn’t reasonably create enough special animation and interaction content to make each notch of the 0-10 scale feel interesting.

Additionally, players didn’t understand that there would only be a nominal difference between, say, a 2-point and a 3-point Sloppy Sim, but a huge difference between a 3-point Sloppy Sim and a 4-point Sloppy Sim. We didn’t make that clear in the UI, so players had to learn this from strategy guides and Sims wikis.

Around the time we began designing The Sims 3, I’d been reading a lot about screenwriting, and noticed that in screenplays, characters often have a few glaringly distinct traits. There’s no fuzziness about them:
  • Tyler Durden: Stylish. Leader. Unrestrained. Monster. Rebel.
  • Han Solo: Laid Back. Arrogant. Jealous. Street Smart. Rebel.
  • Hermione: Friendly. Know-it-all. Mudblood.
  • Patrick Bateman: Clean. Ritualistic. Egotistical. Obsessed with Business Cards. Murderer. 
  • The Dude: Stoner. Low Key. Loves White Russians.
  • Marry Poppins: Excellent Nanny. Flies. Sings. Has Magic Bag.
We used this approach as inspiration on The Sims 3, and developed a philosophy of doing away with the continuous aspect of personality. Instead, we wanted to take the extremes from The Sims 2 and package that fun content into discrete bundles of behavior, which we dubbed Traits.

A Friendly Trait Sim
A Friendly Sim (probably waving to Bella)

Scouring the Personal Ads (For Science!)

Now, how would we begin to figure out which traits we wanted? One of the first days we brainstormed traits, my boss called me into his office (Matt Brown, now of Blizzard). Quirky genius that he was, he sat me down and pointed to his monitor, which was littered with personal ads and dating websites. The idea was to see exactly how people described themselves. People said things like the following, which are from real personal ads:
  • Proud
  • Loves Poetry and Chocolate
  • Down to Earth
  • Enjoys the Outdoors
  • Passionate
  • Romantic
  • Appreciates Classical Music
  • Athletic
  • Walking the Fine Line between Human Being and Deity
  • Articulate
  • Friendly
  • Trustworthy
  • Mid-Life Crisis Sufferer
  • Non-Smoker
  • Smoking Enthusiast
  • Penchant for Whistling
  • Likes Kissing
  • Reclusive
  • Adventurous
If you play The Sims 3, you’ll notice some of these from the game with slightly altered names: Loves the Outdoors, Hopeless Romantic, Athletic, Friendly, and Loner. And although Mid Life Crisis didn’t make sense as a trait, we used it as a lifetime happiness reward which could be used to swap traits mid-game.

Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Arrested Development

Then we locked the design team in a room and made a list of the interesting characters we knew from TV, movies, and books. We filled entire whiteboards with names, then scrawled the prominent traits of those characters in any whitespace we could find. Due to the wonders of technology, I was able to dig up a piece of one of those brainstorms. I know it looks like we had an angry chimp scribbling these down, but hey… it’s hard to keep a chimp happy all the time:
A brainstorm of Character Traits for The Sims 3
One segment of a whiteboard brainstorm of characters and their prominent traits, circa 2005. (Note that there is no spatial relationship between the traits and the characters – we were cramming stuff in everywhere.)

In the end, a handful of fun traits in The Sims 3 were inspired by some of our favorite characters. Here are four:
  1. Frugal and Mooch: For both of these, we had George Costanza in mind. Remember the episode where he insists on the cheapest wedding invitations in the store, and his fiancée dies from licking the cheap toxic glue on all the envelopes? That’s Frugal right there. 

  2. Evil: Mr. Burns from The Simpsons inspired us, right down to his finger-drumming. What’s not interesting about a guy who decides to erect a giant sky-disc to block out the sun from his town?

  3. Never Nude: Later on in production, Grant Rodiek, Ryan Vaughan, and I became obsessed with the show Arrested Development, which led us to the Never Nude trait. We still think Tobias Funke is one of the funniest characters of all time. 

An Evil Trait Sim from The Sims 3
An Evil Sim, scheming about pool ladders, sharks, and laser beams.

Traits for Gameplay Systems

As we fleshed out the designs for the rest of the game, we continued to add traits that enhanced the gameplay of those systems.

As we designed Fishing Skill, we added the Angler trait – these Sims are natural fishers and have lots of fun while fishing. When designing Gardening Skill, we added Green Thumb – these Sims are great at gardening, and can even revive dead plants. And as we developed the food system, we added Vegetarian – these Sims get special versions of recipes, like Tofu Dogs, and they enjoy longer lives… but be careful: force them to eat, and they’ll start throwing up (players always enjoy new ways to torture their Sims!).
A Green Thumb Trait Sim
A Green Thumb

Trait Controversies

Then, there were some traits that were hard to agree upon. Do we want them? Do they fit the “Sims” style? Do they provide enough value? Here are the stories of three troubling traits:

Clumsy. These Sims drop food, trip over their feet, tumble into pools, and generally lack coordination. The trouble with Clumsy was that it had no gameplay value. Some designers wondered why anyone would pick a trait that had no benefits. On the other hand, the argument was that Clumsy would be worth it just for the humor and storytelling aspects. In the end, we shipped it, and many players loved it, often saying that they themselves were clumsy, and so they felt a special attachment to it.
Kleptomaniac. These Sims have the ability to steal objects when nobody is looking. We knew the gameplay for this trait could be fun, but had a hard time agreeing on whether it had a home in the Sims universe. Sure, we’ve had burglars before. But was it okay to give players the control to steal things with their Sims? We typically avoid dark subjects. In the end, we shipped this trait with the fiction that these Sims couldn’t help it. They weren’t bad people, they just needed to steal. And players couldn't tell them what to steal -- you could only tell them to Swipe Something, and they would grab something random in the room... it could be a stereo, it could be a painting, or it could be a used toilet! We also gave them the ability to return stolen items to make amends with the victim. Kleptomaniac ended up being an incredibly successful trait that helped tell some interesting stories and create funny conflicts.

Excitable.  These Sims were in the same boat as Clumsy. All they did was get super-excited often, without gameplay benefit. But it was so much fun to have your Sims get excited about everyday things as mundane as checking the mail. (Excitable is actually my favorite trait.)

An Excitable Sim
An excitable Sim! It’s so exciting!

The Great Merge

Eventually, we had a list of over 100 traits. Far too many. It would have been an overwhelming list for new players to wade through, and also too much to implement. First, we ruthlessly cut the weakest traits. That left us with traits that we liked, but many of them didn’t have enough gameplay, or were too similar. This led us to “The Great Merge,” where we combined a lot of our proposed traits into fewer, stronger traits with more gameplay. This eventually got us to The Sims 3’s shipping set of 63 traits.

For example:
  • Scientific + Genius + Gifted --> Genius
  • Angelic + Good --> Good
  • Bully + Mean --> Mean
  • Creative + Artistic --> Artistic
  • Confident + Brave --> Confident
A Genius Sim
A Genius Sim doing some calculus in the air.
 

Five Traits, Period.

We limit each Sim to a maximum of 5 traits. Early in pre-production, this wasn’t the case. We originally had a system where each trait had a point value, and the player had points to spend. Positive traits cost points, but negative traits returned points as an incentive to pick them, thereby allowing players to choose many traits as long as they balanced negatives with positives. But we quickly realized this approach was far too geeky and inhuman for a Sims game.

Next, we tried removing the points, and just letting players pick to their heart’s content. And that’s just what people tended to do – pick lots of traits. There’s a reason movie characters only have a few big traits – too many and it waters down their identity. We found the same thing happening in our prototype. Ultimately, we settled on a maximum of 5 as a number that was still large enough to give virtually unlimited interesting combinations, yet was small enough that each trait felt like a meaningful choice.

Also, it’s easy for players to remember 5 traits, as opposed to 7 or 10 or more. When a player can remember a Sim’s traits easily, they are more likely to change their play style in accordance with those traits – e.g. My Sim is a Virtuoso, I should practice guitar today or play in the park for tips! That’s the kind of trait-based motivation we want to see!

We settled on this number even before production. You can see the space is limited to 5 trait slots in this screenshot of our 2D prototype. Testing these variations in our prototype saved us plenty of UI re-work we would have had to do if we’d learned these lessons later in production:
A Sims 3 prototype of Create a Sim with Traits
Our Sims 3 “Living World” Prototype, with the Create-A-Sim screen showing our 5-trait limit. This prototype helped us learn the right approaches to features like traits early on while the lessons were cheap, rather than later in production when they would be expensive.
And in the final game, it looks like this:
The Sims 3 traits in Create a Sim
 

Looks Trump Character during Creation

We wanted to emphasize character, so we considered having traits as the very first part of Sim creation, even before the appearance of the Sim. It was a well-intentioned, but ultimately doomed idea.

We quickly learned that most players don’t even think about the internal character of their Sims until they can see the visual character. If we gave them a random Sim and opened up the traits panel, they wouldn’t pay attention to the traits – they’d feel like they needed to change the look of that Sim first.

In the end, we ordered Create-A-Sim from the most prominent physical characteristics to the least (first gender, weight, & skin tone; then hair; then face & makeup; then clothing) followed by traits. It’s interesting to note that the hair step is even before face; this is because hair makes such a huge difference in visually defining a Sim – more than setting any aspect of a Sim’s face (especially from a larger viewing distance).

The Most Popular Traits

Here are the top 4 traits:
  1. Friendly
  2. Athletic
  3. Great Kisser
  4. Family Oriented
A whopping 8% of created Sims have the Friendly trait -- yes, 8% is a considered high when there are 63+ traits to choose from, and not all Sims leave Create-A-Sim with 5 traits (younger ages get fewer). Almost as many Sims have Athletic, Great Kisser, or Family Oriented. I love the uplifting message this sends about our Simmers – our community idealizes  positive, wholesome qualities in humanity! (With a little smooching tossed in.)
A Family Oriented Trait Sim
A Family-Oriented Sim, gazing at her family.
We learned a strong lesson from seeing Great Kisser in the top 3. This was one of the traits surrounded by controversy about whether it had enough gameplay value to warrant its existence. All it did was give your Sims better chances of having their kisses go well with other Sims. It’s not actually a big advantage. In the world of strategy gaming, this would be a poor choice. However, Sims games don’t find their places in players’ hearts because of the strategy – instead, it’s all about the creativity, fiction, and storytelling power – and this is why Great Kisser is so popular.

Players are mostly picking traits based on the fictional character they are trying to make and not focusing on gameplay benefits as often.  
In other words, they’re picking the words that best describe themselves, their ideal selves, or the people they are trying to make. Great Kisser sounds awesome. Traits don’t have to have large benefits (or dev time sunk into them), but rather, they need to appeal to a player’s imaginations and aspirations first.

A Case for Negative Traits

Here are the 4 least popular traits:
  1. Unflirty
  2. Technophobe
  3. Loser
  4. Hydrophobic
It’s no surprise that the negative traits were the least popular. Unflirty was chosen less than 0.25% of the time. After seeing this data, I often get the question about whether we should have not had negative traits. After all, what was their use if so few people pick them?

There are a few good reasons. First, they are necessary to create a diverse and challenging set of personalities for the NPCs in the town. If everyone was easy to flirt with, what fun would that be? So there’s the occasional Unflirty Sim to throw a wrench in things.

Second, they can be useful in describing people we know and want to make.

Third, it allows advanced players to create more interesting challenges. Try the Legacy Challenge with a Sim who Dislikes Children, is a Loner, and Insane!

And as much as possible, we tried to add benefits to the negative traits in case players decided to check them out. For example, an Unlucky Sim may burn her home down more often and get the short stick in life, but if she dies by accident or malpractice, the Grim Reaper will feel sorry for the poor Sim and resurrect her.

A Lost Trait

We couldn’t implement every trait we wanted, so I thought I'd share one of my favorites from that cut list. It's the Colorblind trait, which I thought would be super-neat (and educational). The idea is that the player would have been able to pick a type of colorblindness for their Sim, and then when that Sim was selected, the game would use a shader to render the screen as if through colorblind eyes. Similar to this website that renders any web page (like Google) as a colorblind person would see them. A new way to see through your Sims' eyes!

A Final Word on Traits

Character Traits ended up being a very fun, easily extensible system that we’ve had a great time supplementing with each expansion. (Even before The Sims 3 released, the concept of traits as an evolution of character was exciting enough that it inspired The Sims 2 team’s pet-personality system for The Sims 2 Pets.)
A Vegetarian Sim with her trusty eggplant
A Vegetarian with her trusty eggplant.
The movement from an analog personality system to discrete bundles of behavior gave us and players a creative toolbox to make millions of inspiring, deep, dramatic, and entertaining characters. 

And they are The Sims.
▪
 
71 Comments
Mark
5/9/2013 06:56:51 am

Hi, thanks for this wonderful article! It was a great look into the development of one of my favourite features of TS3. Are you working on the recently announced Sims 4?

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/10/2013 11:15:05 am

Hi Mark, thanks for reading! Yes, I have recently been contributing to The Sims 4, although the project had been going on for a while before I arrived. I can't say more than that, though : )

Reply
Petar link
5/9/2013 08:17:12 am

Very interesting post. I never really knew how much traits have impact to the Sims' evolution.

Reply
rkalanu
5/9/2013 11:15:47 am

Thanks for this post. Traits are one of the strongest features of the Sims 3, but after extended gameplay, they're a bit disappointing--- as you note with the Great Kisser trait, they're more about your perception of the sim than they're about the sim's behavior, interactions with other sims, or gameplay. I really liked the Sims 2 system much better; if only it was expanded to handle different trait extremes. You don't have to have animations and gameplay for the intermediate trait levels; you could have some for the extremes, and ramp up probabilities that sims will display them on either end. Better yet, you could have sims drift on the scale based on the sim's actions and experiences, the way pet traits drift.

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/10/2013 11:31:02 am

Hmm, I'd like to know more about your disappointment in the long-term. Is it with all traits, or specific ones? Is it that they don't have enough behavior associated with them?

I used the Great Kisser trait as an example because it's one of the least functional traits, but also super popular. There are certainly traits that have tons of functionality, like Computer Whiz, Klepto, or Green Thumb.

But overall, you are correct, when compared to TS2, any given trait might have less animation and new interaction associated with it. That's one of the challenges of having so many character aspects -- we need to spread the animation content more thinly across it. We certainly would have loaded all the traits with tons of animation if we could, but our resources have limits.

I like your suggestions, by the way. Thanks for sharing!

Reply
Process Denied
5/13/2013 04:21:17 am

I would think a combination of Sims 2 and Sims 3 traits would be interesting. If you had a slider for the traits. For example, if you have a flirty sim and is also family-oriented. You could slide it low for flirty and maybe the sim would flirt, but once the sim was married, they would stop because the slider is heavier on family- oriented and lighter on flirty. The same could go for the opposite, and the sim would desire to marry but they would probably be a cheater.

Reply
Temesha
5/9/2013 11:39:06 am

Ray, thank you so much for sharing this insight. The thing that has kept me in love with the The Sims franchise for thirteen years is that I love watching how their personalities drive how they interact with the others and the world around them.

As a programmer and geek, I loved reading about how the design of the trait system evolved.

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/10/2013 11:32:29 am

Thanks, Temesha -- the personalities are really the the heart of the Sims!

Reply
peter
5/10/2013 01:00:44 am

This is a nice article Ray. I am split on the trait vs personality of the sims. On the one hand, there is more difference between the extremes of the personalities in the sims 2, but on the other hand there are way more traits.

Maybe if you could find a way to combine some of them. For example, you could have the basic personality be on a scale sims 2 style, (shy-outgoing, mean-nice, serious-playful, lazy-active, and sloppy-neat.) which affect your sims more dramatically (such as special talking animations for shy people they did in the sims 2). Then your sims could choose and additional 4-5 traits to further enhance your sims. (Neurotic, great kisser, hydrophobic, technophobe, great gardener, computer whiz)

This would be really great because everyone in a way has some form of the big 5 personalities.

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/10/2013 11:45:26 am

Hi Peter,

Yes, that's a good point about the "Big 5" personalities. It's interesting to think about a hybrid system that has some Sims 2 style personality axes -- particularly for the bits of character that are polar -- but then lets you add traits on top of them.

Reply
doren
5/16/2013 07:29:28 am

Interesting article. I think pretty much the same as Peter and because I looked at the personalities in Sims 2 as representing the big 5, I sometimes miss a more "global" character for the sims in 3. There are a number of traits - like "never nude" - I never choose because they represent only a minor detail (and in the case of never nude a stupid one). A trait with a wider range - like "prudish" - would have been more interesting. Hydrophobic may have some initial humour but if you have only five traits you can choose - really? You know that the fun aspect will wear off quickly and it is nothing you will find in real life very often.
All EPs added additional traits but although I have all of them, I still find myself scanning through the list and eventually picking the same traits as always. A lot of them only give certain advantages but don't do much for character building.

With regard to the bad traits, I even remove some of them from the townies, because I find them too extreme. The relationship drop from negative interactions is so heavy that a grumpy sim - a trait I would choose under different circumstances - is more or less condemned to a life without friends.

Anyway, I think that having a global personality to start with would probably make it more likely that a player chooses a minor trait, because it is an additional detail, not something which completely defines that sim.

Absimiliard
5/10/2013 06:09:21 am

Good read.

Personally, I miss the complexity and nuance of the previous systems (especially when it comes to relationships being reduced to a single value). Like peter, I think a combination approach would be better.

The original Sims personality scales correlate closely with the "Big Five" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits) except for Active which has no direct partner in the B5 and there was no personality scale for Neuroticism.

If I had my druthers, the personality scales would be brought back as they were with the addition of a Neuroticism scale. The user would adjust these scales ad their output would determine traits. By that, I mean if everything was at 5 there would be no traits listed. If I dragged the neat slider to say 7 or above the Neat Trait would appear. Interesting combos could occur if for example: Playful > 7, Nice < 4 = Sarcastic.

The scales would still be the primary driver for code-based interaction (so someone could be sarcastic sometimes if they didn't have the trait) but it would allow for the user to see the personality highlights.

I appreciate that there are some traits that could not be met by this model (Dog Person, Great Kisser) so maybe this is where separate traits would come in. Personally I'd reintroduce the interests from the Sims 2 to determine a lot of these.

Reply
Broccoli
5/10/2013 05:27:12 pm

I'm astonished that Loser is one of the least popular traits! Personally, it's one of my favorites. Admittedly, I virtually never choose hydrophobic or technophobe, although my Sims have ended up in relationships with Sims with those traits, so they're still valuable even if players don't choose them for their own Sims!

Reply
Broccoli
5/10/2013 05:30:08 pm

Oh and one more thing - I wish there was trait that was the opposite of Genius, sometimes the Sims I make are supposed to be rather dim, but the closest trait there is is Absent-minded. I can't wait to find out how you guys handle personality in the Sims 4!

Reply
Process Denied
5/13/2013 04:27:16 am

I agree. Absent minded makes me think it should be coupled with genius to make an Einstein type character. We really need dimwitted. I really think you all did well with insane. I love how Dory(?) goes around with the wrong clothing on.

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Lina
5/16/2013 05:14:27 am

Stupid is a hidden trait - it's definitely there though.

Nate
5/11/2013 12:54:14 am

I like the trait system a lot! It's just that as more expansions came out, it seemed like traits has less of an impact.. Like in Seasons, I feel like Loving the cold or loving the heat can't really define a Sim... Instead there should have been another favorite category added for favorite season.. Also, Nurturing from Generations and Family Oriented were to similar... Instead of adding a whole new trait, all the benefits of the Nurturing trait should have just been added to family oriented. Anyway, I hope that The Sims 4 will have a mix of the Sims 2 personality system with aspirations and everything, along with traits. And we should have a TON my favorite options to choose from instead of just favorite color, food, and music... And I hope fears will come back!!!! Not just wants!!!!!

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/11/2013 04:46:15 am

Hi Nate, you're hitting on one of the biggest challenges with developing traits hand-in-hand with expansion packs. @SimGuruGraham was just pointing this out to me the other day. Traits that are added in an expansion pack are often only suited to that particular expansion, so there's a lot of gameplay they don't fit well with. On top of that, it's hard to go back and update every single trait to work with all the new expansion content -- in fact, it's an insurmountable task given time and resource constraints on the team, so we have to pick and choose which traits to update each pack. It has been a good learning experience, and I think we want to look for traits that can be more generally applicable in the future.

Good point about having a favorite season. And I'm glad you like the favorites! You can see in the prototype screenshot that I was originally aiming for a lot more. I would love more of them, myself!

Reply
Yrrats
5/11/2013 09:34:17 am

I prefer the Sims 3 traits system, because I totally agrree with the philosophy that it also works that way in books and screenplays. Have to say that I never choose a nasty one, because I like to benefit from the traits. So I usually choose traits that will help my Sims developing certain skills. And I just don't like my Sims to look vile or grumpy, that too;-)

Maybe a suggestion for Sim 4: to make it more difficult for a Sim to reach a certain level in a skill without having the supporting trait. So: a non-natural born cook will never make it to the Five-Star Chef level and a Sim that isn't a virtuoso can never reach the highest level in the musical career. It's more realistic I think if there are some limitations without certain traits and will make you choose the traits very carefully.

And it would also be a bit more natural if Sims with certain traits could never fall in love with each other. I know opposites attract, so you shouldn't rule it completely out, but it would be nice to play with that a little. It's much to easy now to start relationships I think, your whole town could fall in love with each other if you want them to;-)

Hope my English was a bit understandable (I'm Dutch). I'm very much addicted to the game and I'm looking forward to the next extention. And very curious what Sims 4 will bring us.

Reply
Ray Mazza link
5/11/2013 10:07:04 am

Hello, Yrrats! Your English was perfectly understandable. Thank you for your thoughts. I agree that it can often be too easy to form a relationship -- sometimes it only takes a couple hours to marry someone. The Unflirty Sims and Mean Spirited Sims do make it a bit harder. It's an interesting suggestion about requiring traits to reach high skill. It would make those traits more meaningful for sure, but might be too limiting if you play a Sim for a long time and want them to master multiple skills (though you could work around that by using lifetime happiness points to change traits). Definitely something to think about! Food for thought.

Reply
Yrrats
5/12/2013 06:55:44 am

Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that I really like it that we can earn extra traits for our Sims now since University. And my children urged me to add that Hermione is a mudblood, not a half-blood;-)

Spotted Sixam
5/11/2013 09:59:50 am

I loved this blog post. Thanks so much for sharing it! This kind of nuts-and-bolts deep thought is part of why I love the Sims 3. I've gotten out my old Sims 1 game off and on to play, and it's just astonishing how far the game's come in the years since TS1 came out. I wish the traits gave more to the Sims in terms of benefits or slaps, but as it is, they're adorable. And they shape the Sim's wishes and desires so much. An Evil Sim really has a very different game experience than a Good one.

My faves: Savvy Sculptor, which you've *GOT* to have if you plan to sculpt at all because otherwise you destroy most of the sculptures you try to make and it vastly expands the types of sculptures you can get; Loves the Outdoors, since my Sims are always outside and it's a valuable boost, and Hopeless Romantic, because I LOVE the interactions! Irresistible and Avant Garde are becoming favorites very quickly too. My husband likes Lucky, Athletic, and Disciplined -- maybe because he's a lifelong martial artist! And the animal lover traits are so cute. Artistic/Virtuoso is very useful; I like Neat too for Sims that are designed to keep house. Just overall, very cool to customize to get the kind of Sim "life" you want to play. I remember when I finally watched Arrested Development a few months ago and realized just where "Never Nude" came from--made me laugh! Brilliant little Easter eggs like that are what keep me playing. You guys rock. Now that I know TS4 won't be an always-on/social game, I'm beginning to get excited to think about what you're planning there for traits and how Sims get designed. You're so right about hair defining a Sim--I tend to go there first myself.

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Kitty
5/11/2013 09:46:20 pm

I saw the link to this post on snootysims, and I'm very glad I've read it - it's always interesting to hear about how things were developed, and I suppose now that Sims 3 is coming to an end you have an opportunity to talk about them?

Someone has found a way to reactivate (or introduce? I'm not quite sure) the Stupid trait, which I actually like even though it's quite a disadvantage in game. I can see why you didn't include it, but it's a pity that Absent-Minded is set up as the opposite of Genius because I know lots of Absent-Minded Geniuses - they tend to go together in my experience!

I think it would be interesting if instead of having just some pairs of opposites, there were a few traits that fitted in to a scale. For example you could have Mean - that likes finds other sims accidents funny perhaps and likes to tease other sims, but isn't that bad - and Nasty - that finds all sorts of misfortunes to other sims hilarious, enjoys (autonomously?) using mean interactions to other sims, has a small penalty for friendly interactions but still reacts appropriately to sims dying - and then Evil - that gets a big penalty for friendly interactions apart from perhaps with other Nasty/Evil sims, autonomously uses all sorts of mean interactions, wants to see lots of sims dead but doesn't get any negative moodlets for sims dying and lots of positive moodlets for unhappy sims. And then the other side could have Friendly / Kind or Generous / Angelic? With bonuses for friendly interactions, more the further you are up the scale, but then react worse to other people being mean and Angelic sims would get very upset if surrounding sims were upset. And each sim could only have one trait on the scale (with five traits total - I think that's good).

And then you could have another set for Romance from Asexual (or Aromantic? Is that a word?) through to a sim like the romance sims from TS2, and one for Sociability from Loner through to Charismatic/Schmoozer, and maybe Active in some way and some kind of Intelligence possibly.

Then you could have some more odd traits that relate to skills, and probably Clumsy as I love Clumsy too.

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Kitty
5/12/2013 11:31:47 am

I've was thinking about this some more last night, so I thought I'd add some more to my comments.

I think the trait system is a big improvement on the previous points version because it allows you to create characters that not only display a much greater range of characteristics but it also lets you set which values are important/different. Rather than setting a scale for each pair of values Grouchy/Nice or Serious/Playful etc, you can say that the important thing about this character is that he has a Good Sense of Humour and Loves the Outdoors. And, as you have explained, the eleven point scale (including 0) was really a three point scale.

However, if you look at fictional characters or indeed real people there is a lot of variation in traits. To go with the Harry Potter example, Draco Malfoy for example is fairly horrible to everyone he doesn't like, and finds the suffering of various other character funny (like the Evil trait in TS3), but he isn't nearly as bad as Lord Voldemort who will happily murder his own followers if he thinks it's a good idea. Doctor Who is a bit socially inept, but not as much as Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

So, a scale for at least some traits would be good – but if the scale is too fine then there won’t be any appreciable difference between the values, and anyway would be far too time consuming for everyone concerned. Three levels is usually a good division (people like threes for some reason), so mild, moderate and extreme versions of traits seems (in my opinion, others no doubt think differently) an idea to consider. It also might allow some similar traits to be combined and give some otherwise slightly useless traits a more interesting effect. To make the gameplay more even, the extreme traits would have to come with disadvantages (which also makes a challenge) and would probably have to be restricted so that only a few if any random sims met would have them.

The following are some of my ideas:
(mild) Mean: Sims find the accidents of others funny. They enjoy using mild Mean interactions autonomously (c.f. Mean-Spirited)
(moderate) Nasty: Sims find misfortunes of others amusing and use all Mean interactions autonomously. They like causing accidents to others (c.f. Evil, Mean-Spirited)
(extreme) Evil: all previous plus they find the deaths of others positive and want to see any other sims dead (c.f. Evil, various villains)
(mild) Friendly: Sims gain a boost to friendly interactions (c.f. Friendly)
(moderate) Good: previous plus sims can Brighten Day of other sims and donate money to charities, but react more strongly to Mean interactions (c.f. Good)
(extreme) Angelic: all previous plus sims can give money or food to others sims they think might need it. But they get negative moodlets if surrounding sims are unhappy.
(mild) Hopeless Romantic: Sims enjoy all things romantic and get a boost to using romance socials (c.f. Hopeless Romantic)
(moderate) Flirty: Previous plus get extra moodlet for romantic socials? And can use mild flirty interactions autonomously. Might want to flirt with other sims when in a relationship (c.f. Flirty, Great Kisser?)
(extreme) Casanova(?): all previous plus sims always want more romantic relationships. Definitely need special moodlets (c.f. TS2 Romance Aspiration, Casanova reputation)
(mild) Romantically Inept: When either sim has this trait, romance interactions sometimes don’t register as romance. Also sometimes doesn’t recognise that their partner is cheating on them.
(moderate) Unflirty: Previous plus sims won’t use or accept romantic interactions with anyone not a good friend, but won’t break up with their partner except under extreme provacation. (c.f. Unflirty)
(extreme) Aromantic: Sims will not use or accept romantic interactions with anyone ever (various fictional characters. Imagine the challenges this sim could give you!)
(mild) Tidy: Sims will autonomously tidy up after themselves (c.f. Neat)
(moderate) Perfectionist: Previous plus sims won’t use dirty objects, will take longer to do everything but will do it better (c.f. Neat, Perfectionist)
(extreme) Neurotic: all previous plus sims worry about leaving things dirty and/or on and will frequently get bad moodlets about things. (c.f. Neat, Neurotic)
(mild) Confident: Sims are more likely to get both positive and negative bonuses at work (c.f. Ambitious a bit)
(moderate) Brave: Previous plus will deal with burglars/ fires/ sims in labour rather than panicking. (c.f. Brave)
(extreme) Adrenalin junkie: all previous plus sims will always want to do something new and exciting and get upset if they haven’t. (c.f. Daredevil, Ambitious)
(mild) Risk Averse: Sims are less likely to get both positive and negative bonuses at work
(moderate) Coward: Previous plus sims faint at sight of danger and are afraid of the dark and heights? (c.f. Coward)
(extreme) ??
(mild) Socially Inept: Sims can and sometimes do use t

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Kitty
5/12/2013 02:09:23 pm

It got cut off - I really did type too much! This is the rest.


(mild) Socially Inept: Sims can and sometimes do use the wrong interaction (c.f. Inappropriate)
(moderate) Shy: Previous plus Sims don’t like being with strangers and get smaller relationship gain from interacting with them. Get bonus for being with friends (c.f. Shy)
(extreme) Loner: Previous plus Sims really prefer being alone and get upset if there are other sims and very upset if there are lots of other sims around, particularly strangers. Social need never goes down as they are happy alone (c.f. Loner)
(mild) Charismatic: Sims are quicker to learn the Charisma skill (c.f. Charismatic)
(moderate) Schmoozer: Previous plus sims have extra friendly interactions that are more likely to succeed. Sims lose Social need faster. (c.f. Schmoozer)
(extreme) Social Butterfly: all previous plus sims get very upset if the haven’t socialist recently and need to socialise (c.f. Social Butterfly, TS2 Popularity Aspiration)

Not all traits can be divided up like that appropriately (Unlucky/Lucky for example), but I think it would give more opportunities for sims to show their personalities.

Sorry that’s so long.

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Ray Mazza link
5/15/2013 04:16:48 pm

Wow, Kitty, thanks for your tome of thoughts on traits! I like that you listed out tons of examples, that definitely communicates your idea! Sorry my blog comment system chopped your post short ; )

Lisa
5/12/2013 02:20:46 am

I like the sims 3 traits and I try to work at different combos to keep it interesting. At the moment I have a hopeless romantic but she is also unflirty. I'm hoping this will be a combo where I have a sim who wants love but at the same time she isn't going to be easy. I've also used unflirty as well as grumpy on another sim to help keep her from being approachable but not mean. The only trait I feel a bit mean giving is loser.

I also enjoy some of the animations that these traits have like evil, insane and grumpy.

The only thing is I think is that traits like cooking, fishing etc are more interests. No one is a born cook or fisherman. Perhaps instead of having these as traits these should be just skills and a sims personality e.g love or hate nature would dictate how good a fisherman or gardener the sim would be.

Just one other thing I know this isn't trait related but in Sims 4 when a criminal is asked about their job. Wouldn't it be more realistic to have them say they are a bookkeeper or something rather than a criminal. This has always bothered me.

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Process Denied
5/13/2013 04:43:25 am

Maybe the traits like natural cook and angler should be hidden traits that a sim will earn while mastering the skill. It is something earned and not given.

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Lisa
5/14/2013 03:39:42 am

That would be a good idea, it will give the player more to aim for and maybe when the sim masters their skills that is when they will cook food perfectly or grow perfect plants.

I'm not sure if I was clear about the traits impacting skills. I have a sim who hates nature, on a whim I decided he must grow his own food but he is learning how to garden at the same speed as other sims. The hate nature trait should make it harder for him to learn gardening because he hates plants etc and should have more negative mood bars attached to it as well.

I just think having these traits made it to easy to learn skills.

Ray Mazza
5/12/2013 07:54:24 am

Oh, haha, yes -- your kids have the Genius trait ; ) I will have to fix that! Thank you!

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egliuutia
5/13/2013 03:37:45 am

Thank you for the interesting article.
As it was said the sims in Sims2 had 5 traits in the 3 point scale. I didn't affect the gameplay very much, but I liked all the hidden aspects like the sloppy sim would dirty the things more or he could pee in the bushes :)
However in the Sims3 there are 63 traits, but most of them are in 1 point scale. I'd really like to see less traits but with more variations in gameplay.
Thus said, my most favorite traits are the hidden ones. Like the children of a military sim would salute or the kids of a firefighter could burn stuff. And then came World Adventures with all the cultural traits...:) I loved trying to creat a sim with the most cultural traits.
I'm sorry to say but hidden traits was the only challenge in forming the sim's personality. In other way, it was too easy, it's like if the sim had great babyhood/childhood etc., you could just pick any wanted traits. Well, some traits you are borne with, and some traits you learn in life, for example, the more you flirt, the better you get, or sth like that.
Well, I'm a player who makes her sims to procreate and then plays generation after generation after generation...:) I just like to see some inheritance going in the trait system as well.

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Ray Mazza link
5/15/2013 04:13:17 pm

Hmm, yes, like I said, it was definitely a consideration whether we wanted to make players take some negatives, or if they should be able to make any personality they wanted, even if it's all positive. I think more of an emphasis on generational trait progression could have been an improvement.

As for the hidden traits, those were very cool. I'm glad you like them. I love that a firefighter had a chance of having a kid with either the Pyromaniac trait *or* the Fireproof trait.

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Yrrats
5/16/2013 05:30:03 am

To be honest I prefer my own fantasy in the game to gameplay where traits are concerned. My family is called Kobayne (after Kurt Cobain, 18th generation at the moment), which means every child is born a virtuoso, I simply organize that myself. I wouldn't like it actually if the game would decide too much for me. Same with the degrees within the traits. I like it when a malicious character turns out to be a life saver in the end, and the illustrious Hidden Springs townie Liam O'Dourke (clumsy, good, hopeless romantic) turned out to be a murderer in generation 12;-) I do like the idea though to save some traits your Sim has to earn by certain behaviour, like the animals. And I like the hidden traits as well.

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Annedoe@hotmail.com
5/15/2013 11:18:50 am

Not related to traits. But I do agree a hybrid of Sims 3 and 1st two games. And also the business of making it harder for a Sim to grow food if they're hate the outdoors.

Any chance of EA/Sims team changing their minds about adding disablties to Sims or is it a ten foot pole thing?

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Ray Mazza link
5/15/2013 04:07:09 pm

That's an interesting question. Disabilities in The Sims could be fun and/or meaningful if we handled them carefully. Those ideas have come up. The hardest part about disabilities is that most of them would require tons of new animation and scripting -- maybe 10x what some other feature would cost. For example, if we wanted to have a wheelchair-bound Sim, we would have to make new animations for all of the touching social interactions (kiss, hug, greet, slap, fight, etc), new bathe animations, new bed get-ins, new ways to interact where other Sims would use chairs, and so on. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it would probably require an expansion that has disabilities or health as a major component so that we'd be able to justify spending all the extra time there. Perhaps minor disabilities would be more feasible to implement. As a player, I'd personally love to see that kind of thing in The Sims!

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Tina
5/17/2013 03:48:19 pm

It would add such an element to story telling to have someone with crutches or an arm sling/cast, etc. I love it when I hear a cough and realize it was my Sim.

Anne
5/19/2013 01:27:30 pm

I understand how difficult it would be to implanted, but it would be nice to make being disabled a normal part of life' in something like the sims. There's been a lot of flame wars about it on the fourm..which excartly the same strong vocal point: those who don't want it vs. those who do want it.

I'm glad one person who works on the sims does think that. The last time I asked an EA employee (via the forum) they said it was "too depressing" thing (which I think stinks, since being disabled is almost the norm today)

Anne
5/15/2013 11:49:31 am

Why was the colourblind trait removed was it a)didn't want to offend colourblind people, b)didn't see the need for the graphic when there weren't simliar graphics or c)other?

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Ray Mazza link
5/15/2013 03:57:59 pm

That's a good question. The answer is (C) - Other: One of the main challenges we have making games is limited resources. The Colorblind trait would have required a decent amount of engineering time (different than gameplay scripting, which was more abundant and what most of the other traits required). So we had to weight the cost of implementing Colorblind against the cost of implementing other important features. For example, we might have asked ourselves, "Do we want the Colorblind trait, or do we want pools?" It was hard to justify Colorblind when weighed against any of our engine tasks, which were all more significant impact on the game. But that said, sometimes we find ourselves with a little extra engine time here and there and we get to toss in something smaller but more fun... we just didn't find that time for Colorblind.

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Anne
5/19/2013 01:22:54 pm

of course there also is D option that if you had included it there would have been 'fools" who would complain about 'something wrong with the colours'

Ray Mazza link
5/19/2013 03:48:37 pm

Hi Anne -- hehe, yes, that's true! That reminds me of how one of the most common customer service calls for The Sims was that the language was wrong and that they couldn't understand what the Sims were saying to each other : p. Lots of people thought they got a French version of the game by accident! Customer service had to explain that the Sims have their own language that nobody can understand ; )

Jacob
5/16/2013 06:21:32 am

Thanks for writing this, I found this really interesting. I personally love choosing traits for Sims I make, it gives me a chance to create a character whereas in the previous Sim games it I had to use my imagination to differentiate the practically same acting Sims.

One thing I wish there was to improve the traits system along with a slider like system is the ability for traits to change over time (Character Development). An example would be a Sim starting off as extremely shy eventually making the Sim do more social interactions the Sim will become less shy.

The traits I love giving my Sims the most are Friendly, Childish, Shy, Clumsy, and
Insane.

The traits I almost never give are Hydrophobic, No Sense of Humor (I would give this more if it didn't make socialization almost impossible), Gatherer, and Technophobe.

Traits I wish there were are Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Paranoid, Calm/Relaxed, Cheerful, Gamer, and Modest.

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Ray Mazza
5/18/2013 03:12:11 am

I know! I also love when my Sim sneezes. It's such a simple touch, but so humanizing.

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Anne
5/20/2013 05:10:43 am

Hear are some ideas I had for example of disabltiy related ideas gardening for wheelchair users. Have garden boxes at wheelchair height.

animals:
Service Animals
Guide dogs-blind, hearing, wheelchair
Little Monkeys-wheelchair
pony-blind and maybe wheelchair?

In the base game a blind sim could call a rabbithole centre and ask for a service sim to help them get to places until pets come into the picture.

If there are dolphins, if there are something like autistic Sims, could swim with dolphins in the sea

disabled sims can ride horses for therapy

Associated with service animals
non-disabled sims could train, guide dogs if they want too.



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Anne
5/22/2013 04:30:05 am

Could we get a poll on the EA forums about whether or not to included Disablties in future sim games?

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Ray Mazza link
5/24/2013 02:31:36 pm

That's the sort of thing that we might do if we were heavily considering it for a pack in the very near future. If it's just a more general poll, then we'd be worried it might disappoint players if it took years before we eventually did it. However, I had a conversation with some other SimGurus at lunch about this, and the general opinion was that including disabilities could be good if (1) it didn't use all our animation budget and (2) it was something players could opt into. There was one SimGuru who disagreed though, who thought it was too serious an issue. It was certainly an interesting conversation.

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Anne
5/22/2013 12:07:48 pm

Sorry for all my questions/comments on here. But I was wondering is it not allowed due to rating to not have any 'problems' with sims' pregancies?

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Ray Mazza link
5/24/2013 02:35:03 pm

Rating might be affected by that. But we've never considered giving Sims problems with their pregnancies because it's a situation that's too sad and it would be randomly forced onto players (unless we tied it to, say, alcohol or something, but even then, it's just too serious for The Sims).

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SeaShel
5/24/2013 06:13:21 am

Ray, I thoroughly enjoyed this post, and getting a peek into the vision of trait development!

Particularly the association between proven trait combinations (Constanza, Solo, Funke) and our Sims. How inspiring! Put into the hands of an attentive storyteller, traits can elicit powerful emotions (who can ever forget Alice and Kev?), while the Sims newbie (ha!) can still throw it all up in the air and see how it all falls into place.

Thank you for the kind of background that helps us understand and play our Sims better.

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Anne
5/26/2013 06:17:24 am

Dreamsong1968 (a simmer on the forums) said "Please pass my thanks to the Simguru for discussing the issues regarding this in such a sensitive (and practical!) way. "

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Ray Mazza link
5/26/2013 07:10:39 am

Thank you, Anne, for passing on those kind words from Dreamsong1968. It's much appreciated!

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Anne
5/27/2013 02:31:52 am

I noticed something that the Health EP would have to be like 2-3 EPs before Pets, so that Maxis/Sims team are able to incorporate Service animals into the Pets EP

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Rain
5/27/2013 11:41:59 am

I really wish the colorblind one went into play, its really cool. I would call myself artistic, childish, charismatic, mooch and virtuoso. I am getting Sims 3 University in the summer and i am looking forward to it!

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Anne doe
5/29/2013 02:44:01 am

an ideas of opt-out of having disabled sims:

1)have two check boxes in options
a)create a disabled sim
b)*NPC disabled sims (even personally if one did check this. If your sim married a NPC disabled sim , wouldn't that mean you need to modify your sims house to accomadte them?)

If you don't check either of these options you don't have to worry about disabled sims.

Alternative idea:
if a simmer is playing a disabled sim, and gets sick of playing them. (Sims 4 will likely have the open world too) They could have the sim go to either the science lab or the hopstial and get some kind of medication to become undisabled. Or a witch to get a potion.

*the NPC disabled sims came from another simmer.. But personally why I put it in brackets above if your playable sim married a disabled NPC wouldn't that mean your sim;'s house has to be modify for the disabled sim, now playable?

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Anne
5/31/2013 11:37:13 am

Is disablties allowed to be disccused on the officals because some people believe it could raises the rating to an M like teen pregancy and murder (those later things could, but not disablties)

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Ray Mazza link
6/7/2013 04:00:24 pm

Hi Anne, it's all right if you discuss disabilities on TheSims3.com forums as long as you keep the subject matter T for Teen. In other words, treat the topic with respect, don't get morbid, and there should be no problems. (If it does get out of hand, then the moderators would have to lock or warn.)

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Anne
6/9/2013 04:33:23 am

I and others think on the Sims 4 fourm there should be a list of Mature topics which can't be disccused because there's been problems with people not knowing what's "Mature stuff" vs. Teen rated stuff and people attacking people who ask them to edit the post. Since if there's list, it might cause less conflict.

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Anne
6/10/2013 05:31:14 am

Is there a way to explaing why EA likes its "Teen" rating. How if it was to included Teen pregnacy and other M rated topics, it could loose sales?

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Anne
6/17/2013 03:28:43 am

I don't know if you know of a doll called "Baby-Think it Over".

Basically its a doll simulator which teaches teens (mostly 16 year olds) whats its like to take care of a baby and how its not 'fun'. Well I and another person wonder if that might raise the rating? So if it does, maybe the alternative option is have it for the YA sim group (either at a community centre or in Uni EP for sims 4.

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S. Flyte
7/7/2013 06:45:23 am

Its strange, my favourite traits to push onto my sims happen to be the 'least' favourite ones! I try not to create sims that I've already played over and over again when I was eleven on TS1 & TS2 and the traits function helped that mission phenomenally!

I think actually would've liked a list of a hundred traits (even if only to hit the randomise button and see what you got), and the colourblind idea is fantastic... oddly, I was thinking about disabled sims a while back. I'm genuinely surprised the modding community hasn't put something together for that..

Maybe in the future it would be an interesting idea, after all.. disabilities are becoming very well documented and I almost feel that not including them is alienating a whole portion of players. Aside from that, I feel like as the fanbase has gotten older (and I'm sure a large portion of them have been growing up with the series like I have) we should be expecting a more 'adult' game.. even if it was released as an almost different game like movies are released with an uncut version and a family-friendly version.

A mixture of GTA and Sims would probably kill any freetime I had left though..

Mind you, I'm just happy to get a game that is actually fairly smart and intuitive.. beats Disney Princess Diamond Quest. @_@

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Ray Mazza link
7/7/2013 11:00:39 am

Hehe, thank you : ) Our fan base is certainly growing up with us, but we also like to still be friendly to the younger generations that are just picking up games and need something wholesome but smart and fun to play.

That said, I'd love a game that's a cross between GTA and The Sims. But that would definitely be a different game than what we'd call "The Sims." Still, I want to play that game! : )

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Triston
1/18/2014 02:57:38 pm

Huh. I use Unflirty quite often, actually (well, a lot more than 0.25% of the time, anyway). And I love clumsy, it can be adorable!

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jesper a.
3/21/2014 11:21:51 pm

Very late reply, but:

"It’s interesting to note that the hair step is even before face; this is because hair makes such a huge difference in visually defining a Sim – more than setting any aspect of a Sim’s face (especially from a larger viewing distance)."

So why's there so few "normal" hairstyles? There's a shitload of fancy ones that no serious person would wear at work and a handful of everyday styles.

I'm a guy with a basic ponytail and there's nothing that looks even remotely close in any of the expansions / stuff packs or the premium store. :o

...and yeah, the color blindness filter totally should have been in the game.

Interesting post btw. :)

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Ray link
3/24/2014 01:52:07 am

Hair is tough :/

We did have a ponytail for men that launched with base game, but it was long and had a droopy part in front. But there are so many different ways to combine a ponytail with the rest of your hair (and so many different ways to wear the ponytail itself) that you begin to see the challenge with hair. There are so many permutations to normal hairstyles that it's impossible to cover them all.

Hair is probably the most time consuming and high-skill parts of a Sim / Outfit to create for modelers. That limited how many people we could have working on hair, although if I could have materialized hair from my fingertips (eew?) I'd have put 10x as many in there.

I agree about wanting more normal hairstyles overall and we should have kept a closer eye on it. Sometimes your process runs away and then you turn around and one of the first hairstyles in your game is a mullet ; ) But seriously, another big problem is that there are so, so many hairstyles that we would consider "normal" that it's impossible to cover them all. Almost everyone I know has a "normal" hairstyle, but still their hair is unique in a slight way, and if you don't have exactly that in the game, it feels like you're left out. Just plain, long hair can have so many different variations -- different lengths, in front of the shoulders, in back of the shoulders, split, parted, bangs, straight cut at bottom, natural at bottom, etc. And it's hard to create a system like that out of pieces that looks good. I'm looking forward to the day when smartphones with 3D cameras can just beam your hairstyle into the game : )

Also, I love the hairstyles the community makes. Like Peggy for example: http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=TS3_Hair_Gallery/Female_Hair/Peggy

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Rebekah
5/4/2014 07:38:39 am

Well, since we're talking about hair, I'm okay with most of the hairstyles in the game and the Store adds a lot more. My complaint is about hair TYPES. What was really lacking the Sims 3 was long hair--not necessarily Crystal Gale length, but it would be nice if my Sim could have hair that went down to her butt or even mid-back. There were only a select few hairstyles like this. Same also goes for curly hair. I would have liked to see Shirley Temple-like curls or perhaps long luxurious curls a la Andie MacDowell. More hairstyles for blacks would have been nice too. I had to pretend that most of my black Sims had their hair relaxed. I would have like to put a nappy 'for on my Sims once in a while. Granted, the African set in the store helped with this but, IMO, this option (all of them, actually) should have been in the game from the get-go. I am hoping we have better options in the Sims 4.

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Anne
5/15/2014 02:42:05 pm

Could breastfeeding raise the rating in the Sims 4? When you already have a woohoo skill coming? The only way I can see breastfeeding rasing the rating is if men could do it. But only at least babies and maybe toddlers?

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Ray link
5/15/2014 03:14:03 pm

Hi Anne! The Sims Medieval had breastfeeding, and its rating was T : ) I don't know if you ever saw it in Medieval, but it was a really nice touch to be able to do that. And for the record, I think men breastfeeding would be funny ; ) But I have no idea what *that* would do to the rating.

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jesper a
5/22/2014 05:23:06 pm

You peeps scare me! O_o;

...and no CAS in Sims 4?! *cry*

swamiji selvam siddhar link
5/15/2014 07:11:57 pm

nice posts

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anne
5/24/2014 10:35:17 am

I should have been a bit more cleary on what I meant by men breastfeeding. I meant men drinking from the woman's breast. I would find it humorous if men could breast feed alien babies (I think it would be 100% in the Sims humour style.

PS. You guys really need to talk to your currently Sims 3 moderators (or whoever deals with the bans/reports) and also your future Sims 4 moderators that breastfeeding isn't a bannable offense.

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Regina
11/1/2017 02:28:48 am

Hi!

I was just curious about what other traits did not make the cut, but were unique like the 'Colorblind' trait? (It sounded really cool, by the way!)

I play Crusader Kings 2 as well as Rimworld, and they have some pretty funky traits as well. CK2 has disfigured, bastard, attractive and Rimworld has prosthophile, creeping breathing, gay, misogynist as well as a kind of system/ group of traits that vary in intensity (spectrum traits), like one of the above people said. For instance, there's 'drug desire' traits which 'affect a colonist's likelihood to consume drugs' and then there's chemical fascination, chemical interest and teetotaler.

It would be cool if in Sims 4 or Sims 5 if there were different traits for different things - for instance, one slot for 'sexuality' and the options could be 'homosexual', 'bisexual', 'asexual', 'heterosexual', 'pansexual' or 'other'. Or else, you could have a chart or a spectrum. And, you would be able to turn this slot on/ off if you want, so it doesn't add to game play or limit it, if you don't want it to. But for those that want it, it could be really fun to play about with. Furthermore, this could add traits like 'homophobic' and 'biphobic' and they could just get really scared of anyone who isn't heterosexual - like when cowardly sims in Sims 3 get really scared of Bonehilda when she does her cleaning. I do understand that this might cause controversy though. Then, like in Sims 3, there could be five other slots for personality.

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    Ray Mazza Author and Game Designer

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    I make stuff up. Creator of Merge Dragons. 10 Year vet of Maxis as Lead Designer & Creative Director on The Sims, turned indie. Now all things Merge with Gram Games! Also, a self-proclaimed mental-neurosurgeon.

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