What is 'Realism' play for you?

For me, it's not a playstyle, but game design. Even occults would be designed "realistically" following common acceptances of their lore. It's in the details, depth, AI, etc.

So "Other," plus this:

The everyday things + realistic Sims interactions (eg a Good sim not randomly insulting other Sims)

Let me add that the game is really good at violating my realism definition. Case in point: It's the night before Christmas, my primary sim is a live-in servant in a merchant's home, his masters are asleep and he has friends over. Under no circumstances should those friends get ideas like stealing presents from under the tree. C'mon, game, even in modern settings without a headcanon'd class system that thought shouldn't occur to visitors!

I don't really go for realism. I don't want kids, have never wanted kids, I'm in my thirties so I think I know for real. I also don't like aging turned on and I don't like any kid stage other than toddler - which I despise in real life lol. I also like playing large polygamous households, and my ocd is way too severe to deal with something like that in reality, for many many reasons. Among other things. So yeh. No realism for me, thank you. :D

"mightysprite;c-18319864" wrote:
I personally regard "realism" and "the way I want to play" as two separate concepts :)

I agree 100% with you. The question 'what is realism' and 'do you like to play a realistic game' are two different questions. If sims were realism only I would have stopped playing a long time ago.

I think a lot of people interpret realism as games centered on finding a spouse, working your way up the job ladder, families, kids, and doing laundry. I never play those kinds of games. Nothing wrong with that kind of play style. I just don’t play the sims to do the same things I need to do or don’t want to do irl. If I’m going to “bust the dust” it should probably involve my non-simulated living room.

I like to let my imagination wander and play larger than life stories. Sometimes that involves occults, sometimes not. But the stories are always about extraordinary things. A group of teen brothers form a surf band to get out of work and wind up making hit records. A disillusioned artist wanders the world in an attempt to find himself and winds up finding new inspiration on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. A murder witness gets placed in the witness protection program and develops a close friendship with the agents assigned to keep him alive. A young spellcaster finds out there’s a secret in their history and goes through the Hero’s Journey to create a haven for magical creatures they call The Myst

Yes, my Sims do mundane, everyday things. There has to be that level of realism. But, their stories aren’t very realistic at all.

I did vote for the 2:nd alternative but that said, it only comes down to the actions my sims perform. I do not want any drama in my game even if it's hard when many pre-mades and townies seems to be evil or mean out of the box. (If sims dislike each other I'm however perfectly fine with it). I want my sims to do perfectly normal stuff. Sure, some things they do can be very unusual but this comes down to the way the game is made, not the game play itself. In the past I have been very found of the "occult" sims in the game. I have seen werewolfs, vampires, aliens etc.pp. as a nice addition to the game and I played them as realistic as I could. As normal sims but with a twist...or two.

Here in TS4 I do not have any "supernaturals" or anything like that because I do not own the packs. But with "the mod that simmers seems to hate" I can have anthropomorphic sims. To me it's not more"unrealistic" as say a werewolf. Or anyone turning into a plantsim if they spend to much time caring for their garden... Some of my sims also own pets, dogs that are resurrected. To bring a pet back to life can be seem as something very unusual but I only did it to check it out. It's nothing my sims do on daily basis...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52415124278_dea3edacd3_b.jpg
The anthro sim Lucilda Blance with her resurrected Canaan dog Dilbert.

If you are strictly asking me to define realism, well its everything that can happen in real life, pretty simple.
But Im by no means a realism only player.

"Atreya33;c-18319946" wrote:

I agree 100% with you. The question 'what is realism' and 'do you like to play a realistic game' are two different questions. If sims were realism only I would have stopped playing a long time ago.

Same.
I like the realistic parts of everyday life in the game, but I looove my occults and otherwise strangely weird sims.
And I enjoy playin occults living an everyday life :)

"Atreya33;c-18319946" wrote:

"mightysprite;c-18319864" wrote:
I personally regard "realism" and "the way I want to play" as two separate concepts :)

I agree 100% with you. The question 'what is realism' and 'do you like to play a realistic game' are two different questions. If sims were realism only I would have stopped playing a long time ago.

I thought it was the same for me, but outhouses are testing my patience at the moment. Whether occult or mundane, all sims have to relieve themselves, but in my historical save they have to do so in a proper distance from their dwellings. At first it was novel, but now it's just tedious. I consider either building indoor toilets or allowing Steel Bladder/Potion of Plentiful needs. The first is historically incorrect, the latter breaks my immersion. I can buy werewolves and spellcasters, but not living beings not needing to use the restroom ever. So I'm unsure what to do.

"EnkiSchmidt;c-18320612" wrote:

"Atreya33;c-18319946" wrote:

"mightysprite;c-18319864" wrote:
I personally regard "realism" and "the way I want to play" as two separate concepts :)

I agree 100% with you. The question 'what is realism' and 'do you like to play a realistic game' are two different questions. If sims were realism only I would have stopped playing a long time ago.

I thought it was the same for me, but outhouses are testing my patience at the moment. Whether occult or mundane, all sims have to relieve themselves, but in my historical save they have to do so in a proper distance from their dwellings. At first it was novel, but now it's just tedious. I consider either building indoor toilets or allowing Steel Bladder/Potion of Plentiful needs. The first is historically incorrect, the latter breaks my immersion. I can buy werewolves and spellcasters, but not living beings not needing to use the restroom ever. So I'm unsure what to do.

Have you considered a bush? I think that could count as historically accurate. There are pee bushes in get together, jungle adventure and I believe there is a third pack as well.

"Atreya33;c-18320711" wrote:

"EnkiSchmidt;c-18320612" wrote:

"Atreya33;c-18319946" wrote:

"mightysprite;c-18319864" wrote:
I personally regard "realism" and "the way I want to play" as two separate concepts :)

I agree 100% with you. The question 'what is realism' and 'do you like to play a realistic game' are two different questions. If sims were realism only I would have stopped playing a long time ago.

I thought it was the same for me, but outhouses are testing my patience at the moment. Whether occult or mundane, all sims have to relieve themselves, but in my historical save they have to do so in a proper distance from their dwellings. At first it was novel, but now it's just tedious. I consider either building indoor toilets or allowing Steel Bladder/Potion of Plentiful needs. The first is historically incorrect, the latter breaks my immersion. I can buy werewolves and spellcasters, but not living beings not needing to use the restroom ever. So I'm unsure what to do.

Have you considered a bush? I think that could count as historically accurate. There are pee bushes in get together, jungle adventure and I believe there is a third pack as well.

Sims seem to prefer the pee bushes to actual toilets if you have both on a lot. :smile: They could add some indoor CC toilet that looks like a bucket or chamber pot because no one uses the outhouse at night.