Are your sims Practically Perfect or Fatally Flawed?

I randomize, then pick and choose which would go well with the sim in mind. When a baby is born I will choose a trait from the parents and randomize the other trait - then it's whatever from then on :)

Nobody likes having their simselves in my games... ;P My friend ended up as a pirate, my husband was searching in the trashcan on his own for no reason and I ended up having a bad date with Goopy to finally marry an elder vampire. Also, my toddlers often grow up badly and end up with evil traits or don't like to go outside. But it's funny! Perfect sims are... Zzzzzzz in my opinion.

I like giving sims 2 or sometimes 3 bad traits, sometime negative traits introduces lot of diversity in term of sims personalities and gameplay

I give my sims all the good traits they need to succeed at whatever I have in mind for them. But that doesn't always take five traits, especially for some self-employment jobs. So I fill out their traits with whatever will fit the story I have in my head. Sometimes I use traits that are normally considered negatives, like Snob or Neurotic, but that create a more interesting personality or fit with a sim's overall arc.

I rarely use outright "bad" traits (Coward, Loser, that kind of thing), unless I'm trying to make a point, and then only for sims I'm done playing with or random townies who'll never be active. But it is amusing to watch those sims behave badly from a distance, as long as I don't have to deal with the consequences myself.

I tend to give most of my sims a mixture of good and bad traits, with the exception of Simself who tends to get every possible advantage that the Watcher can give him and his wife River McIrish (who usually gets the EA default that was given to her). I don't play my real life wife's simself, because I tend to throw monkey wrenches into my sims' lives just for gits and shiggles so thus River McIrish became my wife's surrogate-self (mainly because well...my wife is of Irish descent...and well, McIrish... :smirk:). :D For the additional university and social climbing traits for River, I'll generally give her natural cook and green-thumb so that she can help Simself grow an exceptional garden when she's not busy painting and selling commissioned artwork for a huge profit. :greed:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BKb_7nLVLZw/XIYJEO1MJnI/AAAAAAAAe4s/LuUz9CGstlsMaqJGjfZUY9UexN-E6LE9gCLcBGAs/s1600/EA_RivervsMyRiver.jpg
:mrgreen:

There are a few traits I will not use, like evil and irresistible because I don't play that way. Daredevil as it is pointless and think it is silly watching them eat dirt. Not really a daredevil act to me. Most of the traits go along with what the sim wants in life and if the goals in life change then I adjust the traits as well. I don't consider it cheating, we all change somewhat as life goes on so our sims should too.

In my legacies for S3 I don't pick! I counted how many traits there are to potentially give to a sim at each life stage, and every time a sim is born or ages up, I have Siri select a random number, and that is the trait I give my sim :smile:

It makes for fun play because I don't control who they are essentially.. but I go along with their randomized traits to create interesting generational stories. So fun!

Whatever fits! But mostly the ones I find to be more effective for gameplay; some of the traits are just jokes, intentional or not!

So almost always charismatic and friendly because they really further any social interactions, with highly skilled charisma of course, and ambitious for the extra LTR-points and 'over-emotional' for the great enhancement of any mood, that leads to the same; then traits that further any plan for the sims life, favourites being artistic, bookworm, green thumb; and the two extra from UL I use for fun, cute and weird choices like 'brooding' for which all the idles are adorable, 'clumsy' for the cute way they trip and then look around them, 'excitable' and 'loves the outdoors' for the moodlets as well as idles - they "woo!" and enjoy the rain! My new favorite is 'unstable', mainly not having it figured out yet.

I never randomise, those aspects are randomised enough in the game in my opinion, but constantly change traits with the Brain Enhancing Machine (UL).

Once, playing the Pertridges in Hidden Springs, I played 'evil' and 'mean-spirited'-sims - but have never picked those traits myself, that kind of crude gameplay bores me, especially when the sims do things autonomously; 'irresistible' and 'flirty' creates so much more drama! If 'inappropriate' did not lead to autonomously being mean I would pick it more often - great trait in my own completely impartial opinion..

I try and make my sims realistic, except for my main sim in any given world, who is perfect ;)

For a long time I would only give my sims nice traits like friendly, family oriented, easily impressed, excitable, charismatic etc. There's nothing wrong with those traits but I prefer randomising them now as it forces me to consider traits that I wouldn't before. I play for realism and we are all imperfect so I figure that sims should be too. It's made me enjoy the game in a new light and my sims feel more charming to me now.