I
t became clear that my optimal Sims
4 playstyle was forcing me down
dubious moral paths (again) when
I (very deliberately) sat Residency
of the Heart’s director under the
flirty painting (that the famous artist
flatmate created for this very purpose).
Was I woohooing my way to better
acting roles? I mean, no, because I
only needed to get flirty and flirt with
someone four times to ‘research’ the
flirty emotion for my new gig. The fact
that I also had to invite the director
over, to improve job performance,
almost seems like a coincidence.
The Get Famous expansion pack links
together mutually supportive content,
both new and old, perfectly. You don’t
need to pursue the new, active acting
career; you can become famous by
doing practically anything. In fact, I
spent some time gardening, then flower
arranging, and recording this with a
drone. Then I learned how to edit the
videos to an excellent quality with the
media production skill, releasing them
in line with viewership trends. See? It’s
not all creepy.
I mean, clearly I’m being more creepy
than the game is trying to be. When
I tried to stream footage of a sim in
the shower, for example, the drone
inconspicuously turned itself off. I
wanted to see if nudity would make
gathering fame points more efficient.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to
be a benefit to streaming anything in
particular, even events like celebrity
weddings, which, of course, means
you have to stream all the bloody time.
Here is my sim, practicing acting in
the mirror for ten hours, eating a cake,
watering the plants, patting the dog.
I now understand why real life
streamers get so stressed about being
constantly available. And, after all that
effort, I didn’t even win any awards
at the Starlight Accolades. It’s also
incredibly difficult to capture ‘good
deeds’, like comforting someone when
they’re sad, on stream, to improve your
public reputation. I may have achieved
a decent level of fame, but everyone
hated me. Interestingly, I tended to
become more hated as a result of the
new career wildcards that require the
kinds of job performance sacrifices I’m
not willing to make.Inowunderstandwhy
real life streamers get
so stressed about being
constantly available.
This is the crux of why Get Famous,
despite my inability to instantly Get
Famous by Getting Naked, exceeds my
expectations. The original iteration, The
Sims Superstar, was never fully reprised
in Sims 2 and 3, largely because it
completely changed the game, and in
ways that players didn’t necessarily
want to be forced into. Townies got split
into Somebodies and Anybodies, half of
whom wouldn’t talk to you unless you
neglected literally every other aspect of
the game to become Somebody.
Yes, there’s pressure to constantly
build fame points in The Sims 4,
because they deteriorate, but fame is
integrated into a surprising number
of other game mechanics. As well as
developing any skill you like, while
streaming, and recording special videos
about whichever emotional state you’re
in, the quirk system provides both
powerful buffs and debuffs via game
interactions. Unlike almost anything
else in The Sims, quirks are assigned
automatically, based on what your
famous sim does most of the time and
would like to keep doing.
One of my famous Sims got theMEGHANN O’NEILL
If Meghann O’Neill
deserves to be
famous for anything,
in real life, it’s how
many grapes she can
throw into her mouth
in a row before one
hits the floor. She
hasn’t choked to
death yet, either.I’m gonna live forever
Assuming I can figure out how to sneak past the bouncer at the
Starlight Accolades and snatch an award.Refined Palate quirk, because she was
cooking excellent meals. This was easy
to manage because she could already
cook excellent meals and they’d give
her a hefty +3 happy moodlet. The
actor developed a more difficult quirk
to manage; Vain Street. Sure, admiring
herself in mirrors gave her a +2
confident moodlet, but not admiring
herself made her tense. In addition to
this, superseding +2 confident with any
other emotion is difficult.
By far the best thing about Get
Famous is that it makes the game
more difficult. Usually, I’d play the
expansion’s new career, then get bored.
But fame is an additional challenge,
especially when up to four quirks
come into play. The Sims 4 has always
championed a self-directed approach,
but it’s silly to choose the personality
traits that are counterproductive.
What’s next for my household of
starlets? Well, the actor is having a
baby. No, not with the director. That
was too weird, even for me, though it
would have been convenient. I moved
in a younger guy whose role is to make
babies and edit the videos my artist,
flower-arranger and actor make. He’s
support crew. He also reads the many
fan letters than get delivered to the
mailbox. It’s ironic that Get Famous has
re-sparked my interest in The Sims 4,
when Superstar killed the original game
for me. It’s challenging and weird – two
of my favourite things.W OPINION: GEN XX