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Chef

It’s come to my attention that I needed to write an editorial. So I’ve decided to cover the social aspect of The Sims. I’m pretty sure this will be released in parts but for right now I’m just going to rant on until I have enough for a good sized article and then worry about breaking it down into sections for posting.

The most common social interactions come between two adults. Since in order to start out you have to have at least one adult sim in the household. The Sims conversation system is set up so that there are four topics for each of the three interactions (kid to kid, adult to adult, and kid to adult). The four topics for adult on adult interaction are as follows: Money- noted by a dollar bill, simoleon or burglar in the sim’s though bubble, Travel- noted by a car, airplane, or sailboat, Politics- noted by a landmark, office desk, and the bars of justice, 60's Stuff- noted by a flower, nuclear symbol, and a peace sign.

Now that you know what your adult Sims are talking about you now need to know how these affect that little relationship score that is so important to your s’s well being. As a conversation starts of your s or the s instigating the conversation will start off by selecting a topic of high interest to his or herself, if the other s is highly interested in the subject the vast majority of the time they will continue with it. If for some reason they are not interested in continuing that line of subject matter a large red X will appear over the icon. If the s you are talking to is moderately interested there is a moderate chance he or she will continue to go with the subject. However, for sims with a low interest in the subject there is only a minute chance they will continue to discuss it ( I’d say they would continue 1 of every 12-13 times in my experience). The chances are moderate that the s will change subjects but there is a slightly higher chance that the s will exit the conversation all together.

Group activities are some of the best ways to boost relationship points and also boost other facets of your s’s needs. The following activities will boost your relationship score by one from talking over an activity: Eating a group meal, watching TV, soaking in the hot tub, playing a game of chess, watching the large train set, playing with the dollhouse or pinball machine, and shooting a game of pool. There are also a few activities that don’t involve conversing and can have random relationship drops and rises. Playing basketball will result in a gain in some cases, musical instruments can result in a drop or rise based on the skill level of the player, dancing with the jukebox can lead to random relationship gains, and of course the Love bed increases the scores of the two participants. While the visiting s can leap in your pool with you there is no chance of any social gain or loss.

Well I’ve told you what group activities can get you now you can know what one on one actions can get you. Since you harness all of your energy socializing in one on one actions your relationship gain is greater but there is a chance of loss that was non existent with group activities. Talking consists of three trades of conversation each with three points up for grabs, the conversation can be cut short because of lack of interest, so a total of nine points are usually up for grabs there is a low risk of loss but this activity takes a while to get going so I would advise using this up until your score reaches 35 or higher. Believe it or not, complimenting, joking, teasing, scaring, bragging, flirting, cheering up, gift giving, and tickling all result in the same 5 point relationship gain with there best results. However I wouldn’t advise doing any other the complimenting or joking until the your score rises to the 55 mark. Hugging is one of the best ways to score points adding 7 for a good reaction. A passionate kissing results in 12 points which is best done after flirting, these two can result in the two sims falling in love. Dancing is worth 8 points and entertaining can score you four. I don’t like to use the mean actions however I do know that an attack is a loss of 10 to the loser and 5 to the winner. If your interested in a total rundown of the actions and there results you can by Prima’s official strategy guide ( I highly recommend it).

Things of course can go wrong and even very wrong. With adult interactions a s can become jealous from kissing, flirting, back rubbing, and I believe hugging between a s they love and another. So if your sims is getting buddy buddy with another s I advise keeping this out of the eye of other sims in love with your s. This is not a problem with a s that is not in love with your s (noted by the heart by the relationship score). Unfortunately, jealousy can lead to an attack, an attack can occur between two adult sims. A cloud of dust will appear as the sims lunge at each other and after a few seconds the loser is ousted and the winner struts victoriously. The strategy guide states that there is a 1 in 4 chance the losing s can leave the neighborhood for good, this only happens between family members. A visiting s will leave the house immediately after the fight but remain in the neighborhood.

Friendships require maintenance and expansion the friendship level sits at 50 for most sims however mean sims do usually require more points. A friendship allows you to move up the career ladder but it must be kept above the 50 line (or wherever the smiley face appears) by interaction, the rate of friendship lose averages 2 points a day. To advance your relationship to the next level select a romantic action for your s (I.E. hug, kiss, give back rub, or flirt). You must make sure the guest s has been fed, entertained, sat down with, talked to, and relieved bladder wise to insure a successful proposal ( a lot of work I know). After the wedding your new sims will bring over family friends they’ve made and money and kids if they are the last adults in there households. Don’t worry if your sims are not romantically inclined they can also have sims of the same sex move in with them. The move in task works almost exactly like the marriage except without the wedding and need for romantic entanglements. Of course you must remember that your household can only hold 8 people so choose your roommates wisely. One final note an adult s won’t sleep with another unless their relationship score is above 50

Until next week I’ll see you later

Chef