Forum Discussion

SimSorcerer's avatar
3 years ago

Guilt as an Emotion

Hello again, everyone. So what are your thoughts on implementing guilt as a new emotion for our Sims to experience? This emotion can be tied to certain Personality Traits. For example, Evil Sims either receive very little amounts of guilt or none at all while Good Sims receive excessive amounts of guilt for doing anything that warrants/triggers guilt. I'm certain you can imagine what actions and incentives can evoke guilt.
So what are your thoughts on this matter? I do hope to see more emotions as well as interactions and features that will make our Sims seem more real.
  • BissenNess's avatar
    BissenNess
    Seasoned Hotshot
    "LeGardePourpre;c-18175166" wrote:
    It's a kind of embarrassment. Guilt is a subset of shame.


    Currently, sims who have the Good Manners character value feel embarrassment if they say something mean, which is sort of like a guilt mechanism. That being said, embarrassment is tied to other people's opinion of you, whereas guilt has to do with your opinion of yourself.

    I'm just concerned about adding moodlets to situations that didn't previously generate them. The emotions system is messy enough as it is. I didn't have a problem with their adding the scared mood, because they just took situations that previously were tied to the tense mood and gave them a new color and animations. What the OP is suggesting would probably add new moodlets rather than replacing old ones.

    If they add guilt and it's influenced by traits, I would strongly prefer that lack of guilt be tied to the existing Mean and Evil traits, as the OP hinted at, than have a whole new trait just to prevent guilty moodlets. Maybe if a sim has the hates kids trait they don't feel guilty about being mean to kids. I could see Good being tied to a stronger guilt moodlet if you force them to do mean interactions. Maybe they could even add a Guiltry trait that causes a person to feel guilt for no reason, sort of like Gloomy and sad, but I'm not sure that would add much interesting gameplay. For sims who have normal guilt (i.e. they feel guilty because they hurt someone), they can make the moodlet go down faster by apologizing or doing other kind interactions. For people who had the Guiltry trait they would need to call the Sadness hotline to talk about their guilt.
  • I think gurus may think it's too similar to tense and classify it as tense.

    But if guilt can become a separate emotion, I think two of the most effectiable traits can be added: Easy Guilt and Firm.

    Not only traits, but guilt is also related to doing things, such as frugal (I hope gurus can make it as a personality trait too like TS3) sims are prone to guilt when spending money even if they are evil, but firm and self-assured can mitigate this.
  • I would think there would also be a reward trait to eliminate feeling guilt. I mean, would evil Sims want the urge to apologize all the time or feel weird after "doing something good" when what they did was all part of the plan?

    Now when vampires feel guilty for drinking, they get a tense moodlet. I believe, however, that laid back negates this.
  • I think your idea is very good especially that parenthood already have a similar concept. Toddlers learn to be compassioned. Guilt is a great idea, but also should be something that would help with guilt. Maybe self forgiveness or therapy. What if the sims team would add a psychotherapy job. We have so many emotions in game, it would be very realistic that sims would feel guilty for things they have done and they would need a therapy to help them feel better. haha I love it
  • The answer, make it so certain personalities if they do certain things get an emoticon under there name that says they basically feel bad about something. but make there mood either sad, embarrassed or tense.
  • Redrogue60's avatar
    Redrogue60
    Rising Hotshot
    I have been thinking this for a long time. Human beings experience guilt and shame both deserved and underserved. It's apart of being human. Sims are little pixelated versions of humans and they should have at least have guilt as an emotion. I have been tense for a lot of reasons in my life but never once did it feel the same as when I felt guilty.
  • yea, I've thought would be nice to have guilt as emotion, especially if I have a klepto Sim who swipes something from someone and then they immediately start talking to them. :o

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