Get to Know… the Sims of Gen 5

I’m so late in writing this “Get to Know” for generation five! I became so involved in playing them that I forgot to pause and write this. Plus, part of it may have been that I simply didn’t want this generation to end. Aspen Bough has gotten inside of me–and I want her to live forever! Though I am writing this after Aspen has already met Grim and we have our new heir decided, I’ll stick this in the TOC somewhere in the middle of the gen 5 chapters, so for those of you reading this later, it will come in the right spot. And for those of you reading this on May 22, 2015, I hope you enjoy this brief look back.

Aspen Bough

Gen 5 Heir
Gloomy. Perfectionist. Geek.
Aspiration: Public Enemy

From childhood, Aspen has always been entirely Aspen–she’s so much more than the sum of her traits. Until it was clear that she would be heir, Aspen wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do in life. She was happy with her sports career, spending time with family, and exploring options. Once it was clear that she would be the heir, she embraced this role with focus and dedication.

She met two mailmen, one for herself and one for her sister, and she had two amazing and beautiful children. Aspen lived deeply, feeling life through her all the way. Aspen was player-aware: she’d look through the screen and check in with me often. I felt a friendship for her–it wasn’t like with other Sims, where I would watch them and feel fond of them because of watching them live their lives. It was more that she included me in her life, like a friend.

Skills, Aspiration, and Career: Aspen was well-rounded. She maxed cooking and fitness, and had high logic and solid mid-level skills in other areas. She didn’t actually spend a lot of time skilling: she enjoyed doing. So those skills she gained came from the activities she enjoyed. Though she completed three childhood aspirations (and would have completed four if it hadn’t been for a glitch that didn’t recognize the A she’d earned in school), she never reached level one of her adult aspiration, Public Enemy, because she could not get two Sims to dislike her. At one point, when her sister Poplar was going through a particularly mean streak, the two sisters disliked each other, but that didn’t even last a day before Aspen hugged her sister and patched up the relationship. She was a successful athlete, reaching level 8.

Greatest Strength/Greatest Flaw: I can’t really answer this question for Aspen. In fact, maybe I’ll drop this category for my overviews, for I don’t see my Sims with these types of distinctions anymore. Aspen has helped me to see each as an integrated whole.

Favorite Activities: Working out on the treadmill and using the microscope were Aspen’s two favorite activites. She also really enjoyed chatting with her family and her husband, and she loved dancing. She found great enjoyment from painting, as well, though with her busy life she didn’t find much time to paint.

Share a Secret: Aspen’s shared so much of her life through this blog, that I’m not sure she has any secrets left! Here’s one: when she went to Robinson Family’s world to meet Vern, Vern would have nothing to do with her due to her distinctive taste in fashion!

Niko

Spouse of Gen. 5 Heir
Foodie. Geek. Childish.
Aspiration: Curator (completed); Nerd Brain (Level 2)

Niko won Aspen’s heart the morning he met her with his story about a robot invasion. Fellow geeks, Niko and Aspen loved talking with each other. Cradle Rock, with an epic gaming rig, three computers, the giant microscope, the observatory, and the collections from generations past is, a geek’s paradise. Niko was able to knock off his curator aspiration quickly, thanks to Aspen’s mom, Linda, having completed a collection during her lifetime.

Niko’s the first Sim I’ve played who loved to write. I’ve played a lot of writers, and most are dedicated and committed, rolling whims to write and gaining satisfaction from it, but Niko actually had no fun-meter deterioration while playing. He could write an entire book without losing a bit of fun. He’d get so excited that he’d geek out, and then he’d plunge right back into the work!

Skills, Aspiration, and Career: Niko had mid-level skills in most areas. Like Aspen, he wasn’t so interested in skilling–he just wanted to do what interested him. Curator was a good aspiration for him, since he was a geek, and he enjoyed it. He worked as a writer, not really advancing much in his career, though he loved to write.

Favorite Activities: Using the gaming rig and microscope and writing

Greatest Strength/Greatest Flaw: Yeah, I think I’ll delete this category! At least for generation five.

Share a Secret: Niko was devoted to his younger daughter. They spent hours playing chess together, and Niko often followed her around, chatting.

Madrona Bough

Gen. 5 Spare
Cheerful. Outgoing. Self-assured.
Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

When Madrona was a child, I thought she’d be our first goofball. She had the goofy walk as a child and a mischievous look. She kept her love of mischief all through her life. As she grew older, she developed elegance and style. She’s the first Bough woman to autonomously choose the white wedding gown to be married in, and she had this sophisticated, understated fashion sense. Her out-going and self-assured traits were never dominant. She was quiet, thoughtful, friendly, and introspective. I would have loved to have kept her at Cradle Rock, but she and Lamont wanted their own lives in the mansion across the street, and our laptop was lagging miserably with a household of seven.

Skills, Aspiration, and Career: Madrona was highly skilled in cooking, humor, charisma, logic, and many other areas. She loved to skill. Like Aspen, she made little progress on her aspiration. Fulfilling the required 10 acts of mischief was done simply and autonomously, but she also didn’t fulfill the requirement of having two Sims dislike her. She chose a career in business and was accomplished in it.

Favorite Activities: Madrona loved to play chess and cook.

Greatest Strength/Greatest Flaw:

Share a Secret: Just as Aspen often rolled whims to flirt with Lamont, Madrona often rolled whims to flirt with Niko. Just something about these two mailmen, I guess!

Lamont Alley

Spouse of Gen. 5 Spare
Good. Family-oriented. Romantic
Aspiration: Master Chef

Lamont fancied Aspen originally, but once it was clear that she wanted to choose Niko for her husband, he easily shifted his affection to Madrona. I felt that Madrona was better suited for him. The two have a more traditional approach to marriage, family, fashion, and career, and so they just seemed to fit together. It was a slow-building romance, more sultry than firey, and it brought them both great happiness and satisfaction. Lamont, a true family Sim, was at Cradle Rock every single day, once he met the Boughs, even after he and Madrona moved across the street.

Favorite Activities: Lamont enjoyed cooking and talking with family.

Skills, Aspiration, and Career: Lamont had high cooking and charisma skills, and mid-level skills in other areas.

Greatest Strength/Greatest Flaw:

Share a Secret: Lamont kept a flame for Aspen throughout his life.

Poplar Bough

Gen. 5 Spare
Hot-head. Mean. Creative.
Aspiration: Computer Nerd (completed); Nerd Brain (Level 1)

Oh, I love Poplar! I would never guess that a hot-headed, mean Sim would become one of my favorites, but this just goes to show what generation five has been trying to teach me: Sims are so much more than their traits.

Like most hot-heads, Poplar would often wake up angry with a desire to smash the dollhouse. Sometimes, we’d channel that anger to a swim or a session with the punching bag, but she never found those activities as rewarding as a good doll-house-smashing session. We had less luck with effectively channeling her mean energy. I would cancel every mean interaction I noticed in her queue, but she would carry them through, anyway. As a result, she never maintained friendship with Aspen, though she and Madrona remained friends throughout Madrona’s life. She also maintained lifelong friendship with Aspen’s older daughter, Salix.

In Poplar’s elder years, she’s discovered a new side of herself. She is, for the first time in her life, genuinely and consistently happy. She paints daily, preferring the surrealist school, which has always been her chosen style. And she is building friendships with the friends of her nieces.

Favorite Activities: Smashing the dollhouse, painting, cooking, video games, and using the microscope.

Skills, Aspiration, and Career: Poplar is a skilled painter, an excellent cook, a level 10 programmer, and she has high skills in mischief, humor, logic, and several other areas. She completed her aspiration of Computer Whiz–in her younger years, she loved to program. She reached level 7 in her career in the tech field, which she didn’t enjoy due to what she called “the idiocy of the people she had to work with.” She is very happily retired, enjoying painting.

Greatest Strength/Greatest Flaw: Ok–I’ll bring this back this category for Poplar, who does have strengths and flaws. Her meanness is her greatest flaw, which compels her to act meanly towards the family members that she loves. This brings her to her greatest strength: her love of her family members which inspires her to confront this character flaw. Poplar would make an effective and compelling hero in a Shakespeare tragedy.

Share a Secret: (I would, but I’m afraid to. I am a little bit intimidated by Poplar.)

Wiener-Head Boys

Family Friends from Aspen and Madrona’s Childhood

When Aspen and Madrona were fulfilling their childhood Social Butterfly aspirations, they each met three boys at the park. We moved these boys and their families into the homes in town, and, after they started showing up to parties wearing wiener-head costume hats, they earned the name “the wiener-head boys” which stuck for life.

They came to every party at Cradle Rock, and we loved them. I had always expected that Aspen or Madrona would marry one of them, but they viewed them more like cousins or brothers–they’d grown up with these guys. During the time when Poplar rolled the Mean trait, our game must have experienced a rash of mean and evil, for most of the wiener-heads have either the mean or evil trait. This might be another reason that Aspen or Madrona didn’t see them as spouse material.

I’ll always reserve a soft spot for this crew, who showed up ready to dance to every party we held during our gen 5 years.