Date Posted: 1st Aug 2024 at 12:47 PM
Views: 124
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Aspirations are the part of a sim which drives them and motivates them, the part of them which denotes what they care about, what their fears are, and what they don't care about. In human psychology, I would say that the closest thing to aspiration is probably the Enneagram, although aspiration is a bit more blatant about certain desires.
Since I struggled to understand some of the aspirations (Romance, Popularity and Pleasure in particular) and I kept trying to quantify what they really were supposed to represent and/or how they would manifest in gameplay, I decided to investigate. I really thought about each one and what it could mean. I looked at people I saw out and about, and groups of people, and tried to pick out different aspirations among real people that I know. I also used a very helpful chart at C. Syde's website to look at all the wants and fears which roll (or don't roll) for different aspirations, to see what these aspirations actually mean in gameplay.
If all aspirations appear equally, then each primary aspiration represents 16.6667% of people.
If you count secondary aspirations, discounting cheese, which I choose to be a rare option, then it's 33.333% of all people which have this aspiration.
Therefore, I am running with a rough calculation that each primary aspiration represents the 85th+ centile of that trait, and including secondaries, the aspiration represents the 67th+ centile of that trait. Which means that you don't NEED to be a family sim to want children, but if the strength of you wanting children is average or less than average, then you probably aren't a family sim.
Due to the character limit, I had to split this into two posts. I'll start with Family, Fortune, and Knowledge.
Family was easy for me - this represents broodiness. IRL, some people have a very strong internal drive to have children some day. They might know this from a very young age. (This was definitely me, by the way!) It can't necessarily be explained WHAT exactly they want or expect from having children, they just know, absolutely, this is an experience that I want to have in my life. Whereas many people feel more ambiguous, say they will decide later, feel worried about the responsibility, or know for sure that they definitely do not want to have children at all. So I think that family aspiration represents the 15-30% of people who definitely want to have children.
The wants and fears research uncovered a different side of Family sims, which was perhaps obvious to everyone except me - they are extremely caring and responsible. Many of their wants relate to caring for others, especially family members, and about living up to family expectations. They also had some unexpected wants like caring for a garden and wanting to cook, a lot. They tend to fear bad things happening to their family, or anything which implicates them in having failed at some responsibility. Most of their pet-related wants are about being a responsible pet owner - teaching commands, etc. It helped me see what teenage Family sims would be motivated by - pleasing their parents, and playing a responsible role in the family by helping out at home.
Fortune was easy for me. Some people are very motivated by money, whether that is because they like what it brings for them, or whether that is because they are afraid of destitution. So that's basically it, although it is less "Moneybags, muahahahaha I can swim in my billions of simoleons!" and more about financial security, and what money represents in terms of purchasing power, opportunity, or even power over others. Fortune represents the 15-30% of people who are very clear that money talks.
The wants and fears are interesting. They are, of course, pleased by anything which will make them money, whether that is through their own hard work or somebody else's. In fact, their wants relating to children, pets and friends only seem to relate to money reasons. They are much less likely to roll wants for things which might be seen as "time wasting" or frivolous, although they do like to spend their money on luxury things which benefit them. They are more likely than other aspirations to want to be generous with money, in terms of they like giving gifts, giving tips, and buying things for others. They very much fear insolvency, but also, they fear being irresponsible or damage being caused as a result of lack of preparation. This aspiration, when you look at the wants and fears, comes across as being extremely disciplined, principled and driven.
Knowledge was also simple. They are pretty much your classic geeks, or more intelligent than average. They are curious. They ask why where others don't. They thirst for knowledge and will seek it wherever they can. They are much less aware of or interested in social norms, rules, or approval of others. I would place myself in this category, even though at some point, I would have put that secondary into Popularity, I changed my view on this (I will explain in part 2!) Although Knowledge sims are often represented as being introverts, I don't know that they necessarily are. I think it's just more that they are less interested in what other sims think of them than any of the other aspirations.
Knowledge wants are some of the most obvious because they differ so much from other aspirations' wants. All other aspirations tend to fear things related to the supernatural, whereas Knowledge sims crave this. They also want to skill and have wants relating to education or training (e.g. pets, children), and they tend to have wants relating to doing good in the world generally, like wants relating to the environment, or jobs like Medicine.
To be continued, the next 3 aspirations in part two.
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