Cinematics ROCK!!!

Cinematics ROCK!!!

I finally got to see the Move in, Woo Hoo, Proposal, and Graduation Cinematics this weekend during play. Wow, I was missing a whole bunch, wasn't I? That new graphics card makes things look so much better, and just adds so much to game play. I was looking for new sims for my gals to woo hoo just so I could see the movie! LMAO!!! I even changed one's aspiration from Popularity to Romance just so she'd want to woo hoo with diffrent sims and make me happy! My Hubby even enjoied watching the cinematics, and that man hates the sims with a passion!!

On a similar note of making my Co-eds hussies just for my giggles, anyone had their sims streak yet? I laughed until I cried. There is something about a sim doing a naked hula dance and people walking by and cringing that makes me ROTF!!!!!

(Y'all, I really am a nice person in real life. I'm really more like a Family Sim in personality. But oh, how I love to play those hussy girls!!!! LMAO)

 

Streaking...

My campus has strict public nudity policies to prevent streaking. I have however seen a streaking in my hometown. And I must say this:

On a video game you can choose to have attractive people streak, but in real life you have no control and the types of people who will choose to streak may very well be the types of people you'd never want to see naked.

They should come with a surgeon general's warning label. Warning, obese, ugly people naked. May cause uncontrolled nausea or hysterical blindness.

 

I just got a new graphics card, I think the same day you did Kristalrose and I agree that the Cinematics do add to the game play. It's so nice not to have the game lag just because there are 3 sims on the lot at the same time I had actually gone a few weeks without playing because it was so frustrating for me. But now I can't wait to get University. Just as soon as the bills get caught up!!!!

 

Yikes, Rowan. If I found myself on your campus I would feel an irresistible urge to strip off (with the intention of getting away with it!) What is it about uncovered swimsuit bits that make people all righteous? Naked human flesh is not ugly; it isn't sexy either.

 

My problem with streaking...

I do have a moral dilemma when it comes to streaking (the same one I have with overt sexual exhibitionism). It is not a problem with human flesh (although we all make aesthetic judgements on what is or is not attractive in nudity) but with personal empowerment. How so?

When I choose to or choose not to be nude in my own home no one else is forced to accept my decision. No one else's local control is threatened. No one else's power is threatened.

If I chose to act in a potentially threatening, embarrassing, or offensive way in public, without warning others I take away their choice on the matter. They Will see me nude (or in the case of overt exhibitionist paraphilia, they will see me in a sexual act) whether they like it or not. I take their choice away from them and surplant their local control over their lives. And since sexual identity is one of society's core values, this loss of control has the potential to be quite harmful.

It's no moral sexual prudishness that makes me agree with anti-streaking rules (rules that can get people expeled if they are ignored) but an existential, Bouvier-ian realization. That is: I want the power to determine my life, so therefore others must as well, therefore the only way I can gain power over my life is to allow others power over theirs. I'm not sqeamish about nude people, sex, or even with the idea that some people enjoy sexual acts I do not. I'm not right wing, egocentric, or moralistic, I just believe any time one person forces another into an uncomfortable situation it is wrong, no matter how good natured the intent was.

Ya know, the road to heck is paved with such intentions.

 

Good post, Rowan. To me streaking is mostly a dead fad that belongs in its own era. It's not something that caught on in the UK to the same extent. This may be because we have slightly less astringent legal and social restrictions on public nudity. The UK's most celebrated streaks tend to occur at sports events ... the unforgettable Erica Roe at an England rugby match ... or that crazy man who appeared out of nowhere to cavort over the floating styrofoam weather map in the Albert dock on the Richard and Judy Show. Maybe S2U's inclusion of streakers is a social comment on the nature of North Amercian attitudes to nudity and sex in that the phenomenon clearly remains alive and well in that continent. In my experience banning things rarely excises them, on the contrary a ban is more likely in the long run to encourage the thing that it bans.

(I'll be getting S2U for myself tomorrow so my off-topicking will end ... )

 

Yeah, there's no chance at all that happening at my college but with some of the fine girls there you can hope .

 

When I first heard of cinematics I was intrigued and wondered what I was missing. Then I got a better video card and found out. Didn't take me long to get bored with it. Now I wish I could selectively turn them off. I mean, once you've seen the Woohoo, baby and grow up video a dozen time it gets stale. I am still holding off turning the option off in the case there some cinematics I haven't yet seen.

 

But surely there's a contradiction there? You say that you don't want to inhibit people's freedom in any way, but use this as a justification for inhibiting their freedom (to go naked). I understand you are talking about 'freedom from' rather than 'freedom to' here, but surely to be truely free, the two must go hand in hand? I realise that in some situations they conflict - A's exercising of their freedom to be naked may conflict with B's freedom from uncomfortable situations - but I think in this case it is possible to promote A's freedom over B's, because B's discomfort is a direct result of the denial of A's (or anyone's) freedom to be naked. The prohibition of nudity has made it taboo, and the transgressing of this taboo is what causes discomfort. So instead of reinforcing the taboo, why not work to destroy it, to truly prevent the possiblity of the sight of the human body causing humans discomfort?

Though, saying that, steaking is not a way to achieve this: streaking affirms the taboo by highlighting it and, works within the structures of prohibition rather than destroying them. Nudity, to dispense with taboo, should become normal, not a scandalous novelty.

So we agree, really.

 

Like that fella who hiked the length of Britain last summer armed only with a backpack and a boots, Zooty? Mind you he did get arrested a lot. (That link is perfectly 'decent' BTW ) Apparently this sort thing also goes in California ... now who'd've thought that!

 

Rowan: Awsome Post!!! I am always reminded when I visit here, as opposed to so many other message board in the Sims Community and others on the 'net, that here is a variety of well-educated, deep-thinking, and creative people that are very worthy of respect I'm just glad y'all let me hang with ya!


Now, let me say this: I agree with you whole heartilly about streaking in real life. Exactly as you said, streaking or other forms of public exhibitionism, such as "flashing" is an act of control and power. The exhibitionist wants to force others to (A) give them attention and (B) force them to react. What really horrifies me is the thought that someone may do this in front of one of my children!! I try very hard to control what they take in, to protect them from things that might frighten them or confuse them or shock them. And, darn it, when you try to teach a young child that she must wear clothes in public and someone streaks by her, she wonders why she can't do it to! j/k

As to streaking in the game: The game is a release. None of us would do many of the things in real life that we do on the game. It is entertainment and fantasy, pure and simple. People who wall sims up to watch them die are not murderers. People who have sims that have multiple partners are not promiscuous, and people who enjoy watching their sims streak are not streakers. I am sitting here at this computer in my own living room (got off work early to take a child to the dentitst, we're now back) fully clothed. I even have socks on! But I think it is funny in the game. And I think that now that I have done it a few time, the funny will wear off and I won't do it as much.

 

Yeah, sort of . Am I alone in thinking that it's sad that the human body is so taboo that it's only ever publicly seen in acts of exibitionism? I mean, I'm not a naturist or anything, and I don't really want to be. But I was brought up with a fairly lax attitude towards nudity - noone in my house ever bothered to hide themselves from each other when they were 'indecent,' which was very convenient, if nothing else. I wonder, if people weren't obliged to cover themselves when it wasn't necessary (i.e. cold or whatever), maybe people wouldn't have so many anxieties about their bodies? The only naked, or semi-naked, bodies we seem to see in public are pictures of airbrushed supermodels, whose real bodies have been so distorted by computer enhancing that they don't reflect any reality about the human body at all.

At the moment, nudity is used in an almost aggressive way: it's associated with flashers, and streakers, and porn - the body belongs to a sort of seedy underclass of perverts and weirdos. I can see why you worry about the effect it would have on your children, Kristal, and why Rowan frowns on streaking. At the moment, because of the taboo, nudity is dirty and scary and potentially traumatic for everyone involved. But do you think our bodies are really, intrinsically shameful, and really need to be covered up?

 

And while we are on that subject, have you wondered why Maxis created a censor blur, even though the sims are no more detailed than your average Ken or Barbie doll, yet have programmed animations on at least 5 ways of dying. Maxis is just reflecting current biases but it makes you wonder about priorities. Nudity is shameful (just look at the fuss they made about Janet Jackson ) but it's okay to show people blown up, hacked apart or beaten to death. I don't know about you, but I think I would rather have my kids (if i had any) see a naked breast over someone dying violently. The former is natural whereas the latter is traumatizing.

Young kids couldn't care less about nudity, their own or anyone else. Even a flasher wouldn't induce more than curiosity, if it wasn't for the reaction of adults around them.

I have zero problem with nudity, except for the fact that a lifetime of exposition to airbrushed models has given me a major complex. So I'm not about to streak any time soon



.

 

I think that it is the context in which the nudity is presented that makes it "dirty". My male baby (12 months) and my young daughter (5 years old) frequently bathe together. They see each other naked. My daughter frequently comments and questions why her brothers parts are diffrent from her own. Yet I don't see anything wrong with it. They are small children. Seeing that boys and girls are diffrent is a part of life. There is nothing sexual about it. Another example: We all know that breasts are dirty, think of Janet Jackson. Now, I breastfed my kids, but I never did it in a way that showed any skin. I never did it in a resturaunt or a store or a shopping mall. I did do it in a park once, but only away from everyone else, covered with a blanket, and only because I didn't want to feed my baby in a dirty public restroom!! Now, because of my job, I am on our local Breastfeeding Task Force, that educates new mothers on the advantages of bresatfeeding. At a recent community event I sat up my table with breastfeeding handouts and give-aways. Nothing had a breast on it. There were some cartoon pictures of mothers nursing their babies, but they looked like they were just holding the baby unless you read the text. Two children, about 7 or 8 years old, came over and wanted my kid "give away" which was bubbles and pencils. Their grandmother snatched them away and yelled at me, saying that breastfeeding was "dirty" and I didn't need to have that stuff exhibited in a public place!!! Again, there were no topless women, no babies actually being breastfed, no nipples, nothing dirty!!!!! I wanted to slap that woman because attitudes like hers is why so many young parents do not choose to breastfeed, and why taxpayer pay more than 10 cents per oz for formula for poor families!!

 

I'm consisistantly suprised by this board, who would have thought that a game could bring out such a highly intelligent and diverse group of people together? You know, most people would look at the sims and think just another game, yet it can bring about the most interesting of conversations, opinions can be expressed without the fear of flaming
(mostly) and more often than not, I go away with something to think about.

Anyway, with that said, I'm now going to continue with the debate of breastfeeding in public....

Last year we had our first series of My Restaurant Rules, for those of you who may not know of the show, the contestants get given a trashed out shop and have to turn it into a thriving, self relient restaurant, public votes them out one at a time, last one standing gets to keep the restaurant. Unfortunately, one of the contestants asked one of his patraons to go to another room to breastfeed her baby, she very nicely declined the offer and departed from the premisis, most unfortunate for him, she was also a highly popular radio personality. Lets just say he didn't win the show....

I breastfed all my children, if they were hungry, I fed them, weather it was in public or not, I did not "show" anything indecent, like Kristalrose, I kept myself well covered, but I was not concerned about my location as long as it was clean. No one ever challenged my right to breastfeed in public, and most often I would recieve smiles of incouragement from those that walked by me. I was a young mother and it gave me the courage to continue feeding my child rather that giving in and getting the socially more acceptable formula.

Right, now to tie this in, was I denying others the right not to see me feed my child? Well, at some point in life, we need to prioritize, my childs needs came before anyone elses, and fortunately I didn't see any 'no breastfeeding' signs posted any where!

We all make our choices, and we pay the consequenses for them too, but that doesn't mean the choice has been taken away. Surely if you don't want to see a streaker, then don't look, if you don't want to kill your sim in cruel and unusual ways, let them die of old age.

One last note.... I love this board, it is an absolute pleasure to visit here...

 

How much does a new video card cost? I REALLY want to see the little videos!!!!!! Plus, it's really slow. Will it also raise the amount of people to invite to partys?

 

It depends on what you need for your computer. Mine was a little over $100, and we didn't get top of the line, which can run close to $300. Yes, it helps gameplay ALOT, and it does help raise the # of sims you can have on a lot. Mine went from 2 to 5.

 

upgranding your CPU and Motherboard can make a HUGE difference too. I went from being slow/choppy with more than 3 sims on the lot to being able to have a family of 5 with 8 guests and still have the game run nicely.

 

Further to the above answers. Remember the Maxis advice from the system requirments regarding video crads: the more memory the better
I'm using a GeForce FX5600 256MB and it copes pretty well thanks more to the massive amount of memory than its speed. That card is now no longer available but look around and buy as much as possible ... make every buck count ... and remember that prices always come down when the newer stuff hits the market; the patient shopper gets the bargains.