What makes a sim memorable?

Interesting question : ) Also I am so sorry about your TS3 save. I've had plenty of my saves corrupt in the past, to the point where TS3 became my 'just mess about and build things' game instead of me trying to raise a multi-generational family. I don't remember a lot of my TS3 sims, sadly, although I remember causing a lot of chaos in that game. It's sad about Golly too, but from a storytelling point-of-view, also an interesting way for the challenge to go.

From the POV of someone who's often reading others' challenges etc- what makes others' sims memorable for me, is the little ways the players show off their personalities, especially challenge authors who add humorous bits of dialogue as well. One thing I particularly love is when challenge writers/storytellers breathe life into the pre-mades as well. I love seeing everyone's different interpretations of the same character.

As for my own sims, I think one of my more 'memorable' Sims was Gen 3 of one of my challenges, Tyler. Not memorable for any deep reasons or anything, but: The 'story' I had going for previous characters in the family got quite dark, so Ty's side of the family story ended up more light-hearted and fun, and I just imagine them in my head to be very loud and chaotic almost all the time. Ty rolled the Cat Lover trait, but their eldest son rolled Dog Lover. So I imagined the son constantly asking for a dog all of the time to the point where they probably got fed up of hearing it; in game, I left it a while before Ty gave in and eventually adopted one, and eventually warmed up to the dog. Also I had no trouble getting the other gens to find a partner, but poor Ty got rejected by about six different people before finally finding the love of their life.
(I put the screenshot of them and their son under the Spoiler cut for neatness's sake)

The first one. This is Felicia, aka 'the prototype', and she would go on to influence who I create and how I play the game. Behind that pretty face lies a mind of pure evil, a formula I've copied many times....

https://i.imgur.com/fVVBfNK.png

Most of my very favorite sims have been around since practically the beginning of the game.

A female scientist, her evil criminal boss brother, her game playing techie good brother and her non noncommittal sister who started as a painter then switched to style influencer, I started playing as a group, but now each have branched off into different homes, duplexes,, and the non committal sister with some partihaus sims. All have partners or are married now, ( except the non committal sister ). This has been one of my favorite groups. The have a family club where they have family meals/get togethers to keep up on each other. And the non committal sister has a DJ in the house which is fun to play, the DJ is dating Vanessa, the actress who I am also playing in her house in Del Sol Valley.

I play rotational so I have a lot of families I like playing, and usually leave aging off….

Another favorite is my musician who moved to the city, to do gigs downstairs ( or other lot with the city living gig setup in various lots ) after work, he plays the guitar and recently piano, and I’m trying to make him famous, he dates Candy Bher.

And, then there is my painter ( who I also want to be famous ) who also moved to the city with his son and mother of his child (ex girlfriend ) On his off time he likes to paint scenes in different cities, and spend time with his son. We ( he and I )are waiting for babies to be updated before his son becomes a toddler….. lol.

Another tech guru, I just made an apartment to move into evergreen harbor. And a secret agent and astronaut I’m not sure where I want to move yet, probably an apartment in city living. A CEO that I’m not sure where I want to move either. I’m breaking this group up a bit. I hope we get another city with apartments.

Another favorite family of mine is a YA female who is now at the top of the ladder in her detective career, who also has her teenage sister and little ( child ) brother living with her since the beginning of her career ( I created the family with just the 3 of them ). Everyone had their chores around the their trailer in OA Her detective boyfriend moved in when they moved to an apartment, still not sure what new job to give him.

I also have a family with an Astronaut, his wife, and toddler daughter. The wife doesn’t really work, but she is an employee of on of the businesses another sim runs ( I thought that was cool that I could hire her ). She gardens, takes care of her daughter, and likes to have lunches ( usually at cafe’s ) with a few other ladies in her ladies society lunch club.

I have my very large family that lives by the pond in Windenburg with 2 teens, 2 children,and a baby also waiting on the baby update. They scrounge, fish, and garden to pay their bills. They may move their caravan to Henford when the new EP comes out.

There is my journalistic family elder father and YA son are writers…. Opposite branches. The Adult daughter is currently an entertainer, can’t seem to find a job she really likes, and her teenage son is a party boy. Loves going out with other teens ( club ) in my rotation. I haven’t played them in a bit. I feel like they are going to need a new home when an Expansion with cars comes out.

I have a Athletic ball player and his wife a media/ internet person that are notables and like vacationing in Sulani and Mt.K.

Another family I like a lot is my generational family there were two sets of grandparentsa, a Doctor and his wife a violinist. Their son a computer techie ( non gaming side ), and his stay at home wife, teenage daughter, and child son. The stay at home wife ( who did most of the cooking ), also had her 2 parents living there, the McGreggors, they were new to the country/ city of willow creek. Her father did all the handiness things needed and fished for the family, and his wife cleaned and tended the garden. But the McGrigors finally got their own small home in Brindleton Bay, he became a part time fisherman ( I finally found someone on the gallery who somehow unlocked many outfits so I moved him in there to get the outfit, and then back home ). He also does wood work, and they beach comb in Sulani for things to sell, and he fishes in Sulani on some of his time off for extra income, while his wife sets up a sales table on the beach and sells stuff, and she also does most of the gardening at home. They also have a hunting dog named Brittany. They will be my family to move to Henford on Bagly, where since they are Scottish, they must have originally come from…. Lol. He will still fish on the side, but they will have a farm with agriculture and animals ( which the have been waiting for ), and once in awhile I will move their grandchildren, and possibly their YA daughter and son in law in with them once in awhile for a vacation or weekend, every so often.

A few others I haven’t played in a bit are the military hero of strangerville. My sim self who gardens and does archeology and anything else she wants, my fist played sim who lives in a nice house in Windenburg….. she is my main collector. A granddaughter and Grandmother living in an apartment. A criminal father and his son also in a small apartment. A couple in an apartment, I have who are waiting on real babies to hopefully have twins ( though they don’t know it yet ). A family in Windenburg that has an elder mother and father and teenage daughter. A couple of roommates in Sulani. A father and teenage son in Windenburg, who will be moving to an apartment in evergreen harbor soon. A young family with a toddler I made for play dates, but decided to play. I also play the Landgrabbs ( they run businesses ), Goths, Callientes ( also business owners ) and have a few other premades favorited, but haven’t touched on much.

My rotation is very big, and there are some I haven’t even mentioned. Pretty much all that I have mentioned I’ve played quite a bit since many have been around since 2014, and have at one time been a big favorite and have developed personalities, and ties with other sims.

Edited for using a word I didn’t know was banned, the ban must be new as it wasn’t banned when I made the family.

My favorite and most memorable sims are ones who’ve either had a really interesting story (whether I made them that way or they developed that way) or had an interesting combination of traits. The cookie cutter happy ones are fun, but they’re much easier to let go of or stop playing. I love giving my sims negative traits - I have so many paranoid, erratic, jealous, and gloomy sims just living their best lives.

For example, my merman sim Kane is gorgeous, but he has kids from five other sims (two mermaids, two island elementals, and the sim whose fiancé he drowned). He is a super sweet single dad and supports his brood solely by diving for seashells; he’ll probably raise all his grandkids, too, as the girls aren’t interested in family life, but like to reproduce.

My gardener sim Anna was shaping up to be kind of bland, but the townie I picked out for her to marry was kind of a mean guy, so she showed up to the wedding pregnant with Father Winter’s baby and fed her husband to her cowplant not long after. Her story took that particular direction because as a kid she caught a cowplant berry, so I decided that started her interest in gardening; the Father Winter thing came after she autonomously started kissing him one random Winterfest before she moved out on her own.

Even the one family that I play with a mostly vanilla suburban life spent their honeymoon skilling up with the help of a spellcaster in exchange for their firstborn kids. So now they have a couple of random kids adopted out to townies that they never see. And even Charlotte spends a lot of time frustrated because she has the ambitious trait but is at home with the triplets and the bonus baby (some mccc settings made it so that when they wandered upstairs on their own right after the triplets were born, little Rhea followed immediately after). Her husband is always jealous too, which is kind of fun because they’re my sweetest, most loving couple.

What makes a Sim memorable? Impression and attachment. And amount of personality you are willing to put into them. Otherwise they are just dolls.

the little things my alien sim is always trying to take away other sims bad feelings all on her own
the way she wanted to ask my clumsy sim to be her boyfriend right after he ended up getting pregnant by aliens
even though there romance bar was almost empty the way she kept going to read parenting books
and how after she died of old age when his time came she came back as a ghost and caressed his check
little things that get me every time the sim I'm talking about is the purple one I use as my avatar
edited to add for those who don't know aliens in this game have the power to take away some discomfort
or bad feelings from other sims and take it on themselves

I think Sims with strong personalities are memorable. I don't care about what they look like, it's all about the personality and their expressions while they're doing their things.

My favorite Sim Erik Tuuli is a very proud Sim, he always walks confident walk and he doesn't like anyone being mischievous with him, he gets very angry. His oldest kids got to know his rage when they were children and tried to trick him. He was furious. However... his dark secret has always been that he himself loves trolling the forums. He's doing it a lot when he has free time and he's very excited about it. Maybe a bit too much sometimes.

Another one of his passions is playing the violin wearing his underwear. Most times when he plays the violin, he's on his underwear, he just wakes up, walks downstairs and starts playing. His sleeping schedule is weird and it's hilarious sometimes when the rest of the family (and sometimes they even have guests) is having a dinner and suddenly I hear violin... Erik wearing his underwear is playing the violin in the living room.
He's deeply in love with his wife, Summer Holiday, they've woohoo'd autonomously several times. He also spends a lot of time with his grandkids, he can deal with toddler tantrums, but not mischief.

When I started playing with him back in 2015 he got to know Mortimer Goth who came to see Erik every day the same time. Erik is a scientist and he sat down to eat after his work and every day Mortimer knocked on the door the same time. They talked a lot and soon they became best friends. When Erik got married he didn't have time for Mortimer anymore and I feel very bad about it. He came knocking on the door religiously every day and Erik ignored him until he gave up. Erik's daughter ended up marrying Alexander Goth and I felt bad when Mortimer suddenly died. I don't even remember seeing him as an elder many times.

One way to make a sim memorable is to write a story about them. I have always played rotationally, aging on and have had sooo many characters. I think I remember most of my TS4 sims, so going to look back further.

I remember some of my TS2 characters, but their names are escaping me... I had a sim called Julius who had fairy ears and always wore a top hat. I believe he was in the politician career. One of my sims was called Anakin Sywalker and his face was so hideous that I had to use the career reward to fix it. One of my favourites was Sylvia Von Fieant. She had a romantic aspiration, I believe Anakin Skywalker was her son actually. Sylvia was the third child of the family I first created. I also played her siblings Lemmikki and Lenni a lot and they both had kids too. Lenni married Iiris from my other played household. I'm not sure if they had more kids, but I remember twins Amy Lee and Constantine who I've also recreated in TS4.

So yeah I remember some from TS2. Then going back to TS1 it gets even harder to remember names. I have recreated three of my sims who used to live together Elena, John & Claire Flowerhill. Elena was very artistic sim, John was a police and Claire was a thief. I thought it was so funny to play them all in the same household. I believe I also had a sim called Lena or Leena who wore the blue pigtails, not sure why she popped into my mind. And of course my first sims Petteri and Maria who later also had a child whose name I don't remember.

Back to the question. From the earlier games I remember best the sims that I created first and their family lines. I also remember sims who had some sort of weird quirks. I remember sims who I played a lot or who went through big changes. Names are hard for me to remember. I think having positive or negative emotions towards a sim makes them more memorable, but I must have forgotten many great characters. For some I remember the house where they lived and the household vaguely, perhaps even some family dynamics or general idea behind them, but then I have no idea of their names or what they looked like.

I can safely say most of my sims are memorable to me. I always give my sims personality or some kind of story so they firmly wedge their way into my mind.

my favorite sim is one I named jhonathen he has the clumsy and unflurty trait and is family oriented
some times what makes a sim memorable is just plane bad luck his been struck by lighting caught on fire drowned
killed by wishing well abducted by aliens died of laughter got sun burned been haunted had people cheat on him
has done rages to riches and has maxed many skills