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Paralives Hub Forums General Ideas Unrequited Love

  • Unrequited Love

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    A game mechanic that has been missing from… *ahem* games of this genre…  is one of unequal relationships. Sometimes you just don’t feel the same about other people. Friendship bars are not always the same in real life. You could consider someone your best friend, but to them you’re just another person they talk to. Or what about crushes? When one person is completely in love with another that has no idea… Why should they have the same relationship score if they don’t feel the same or are completely oblivious of the other person?

    Think of the new story lines!

    – The annoying friend who’s obsessed with you that you really just don’t want to hang out with… the awkward interactions that could come from that!
    – The person who falls in love way too quickly and says “I love you” on the first date.
    – The person who has a hard time feeling close to anyone.
    – The person everyone pretends to love but secretly hates…  A “Two Faced” trait that lets you gossip.
    – Gold diggers who make the Para fall in love but don’t feel anything themselves.
    – A married couple where one Para does everything and the other Para could care less… or doesn’t love the other anymore.

    Why does everything need to be equal?

    On December 30th, 2019 @IntroverSim (now deleted) asked about ideas for superheros on twitter. How awesome would it be if you had a secret identity? Someone hates you in real life but is completely obsessed with your secret identity? What if there are online secret identities? Chat up someone online and fall in love, only to find out it’s your Para’s school bully. When identities are revealed, there’s a chance the other person could still hate you and expose your identity, or you both fall in love.

    I want OBSESSION too. That unhealthy love some people have for crushes or idols who literally could care less. Not all relationships are even or healthy.

    I know this wouldn’t be an easy thing to add, but it would definitely make the Paras feel so alive. They could have opinions and quirks outside of favorites. Sometimes you really don’t just vibe with someone.

    Aibas(Ahmed Saddig) replied 3 years, 11 months ago 7 Members · 11 Replies
  • 11 Replies
  • Some additional traits that can be affected by this:
    – Anxiety/depression: Your para THINKS everyone hates them.
    – Lazy: A lazy para could ask people to do things for them… too often… and their partner starts to dislike them if not treated with the same respect.
    – Two Faced: A para that is good at manipulating people to like them and gossips about people the’re close to.
    – Guarded: Doesn’t trust others and builds relationships slowly, with few people.
    – Clingy: WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ALONE and becomes upset when you hang out with other people. Constant messaging and checking up on you. (Has a chance of developing into “obsessive” especially as a teenager.
    – Obsessive: This para becomes obsessed with one person at a time because of some random positive interaction. They will follow you, hide outside your house, have negative interactions with paras that show interest in the person they’re obsessed with. These paras can grow out of it if you get a restraining order, do something they HATE, reject them too many times, they grow out of the phase (if it’s not their personality trait) or someone else catches their interest. They might pop by again from time to time. Oppositely, if you entertain their crush, they could idk… like explode from happiness? Sneak into your house, watch you sleep?

    Thought a bit too much about that last one and now I really want to see it in game hahaha

    Posted April 10, 2020 at 2:06 am
  • I love the idea of having unequal relationships, but at the same time I feel like sometimes I would get annoyed because I want that person to be in love with them, and if they don’t feel the same way it makes it harder, but at the same time, it does make the game more realistic. Even if they don’t feel the same way, they could always find another person that likes them haha. I think for the crushes it should be like the person is afraid to tell them they are or there could be some that are confident and tell them, but can still get rejected. Anyways, I love the idea!

    Posted April 10, 2020 at 3:09 am
  • “I think for the crushes it should be like the person is afraid to tell them they are or there could be some that are confident and tell them, but can still get rejected.”

    [/quote]

    LOVE IT!

    Yeah it might be hard if you really want your Para to be with a specific Para

    Posted April 10, 2020 at 3:52 am
  • That is such a good point; I never even thought of that! In sims, the relationship bar is kind of strange and doesn’t apply realistically.

    Maybe as the parafolk get to know each other, each of them (while they are apart or not having interactions), one of them could:
    Think about so and so
    Talk about so and so with friend (positively or negatively, like reveal crush, reveal dislike for them, reveal how nice/sweet/kind they are)
    Spread rumor (you pick the rumor)
    And if the parafolk were in school, the word could spread and now we have…reputations!

    Wow, great idea! ??

    Posted April 11, 2020 at 12:32 am
  • Maybe status wise, they could have relationship names like:

    Just friends
    Secret crush (1 likes the other)
    Secret crush (both like each other secretly)
    Friends
    Childhood friends (still friends)
    Childhood friends (practically strangers now)
    The backstabbing couple/friends
    The list can go on, they just may not be the same for the individual sims. The parafolk could declare like/dislike/status for the others they know/knew.

    Posted April 11, 2020 at 12:40 am
  • I agree, like sometimes I want to have a couple who is divorced but one of them is still hopelessly in love with the other

    Posted April 11, 2020 at 1:07 pm
  • This is strictly my personal opinion, but I’m not sure there’s a place for this level of negative relationships in a game that is not rated mature. OP wants obsession, hate, restraining orders, stalking, clingy jealousy… that’s a whole basket of vipers that’s not really suitable for a product aimed at a younger audience. Simulating unhealthy, potentially violent and harmful relationships is not something I – as an adult – would be looking for as a form of entertainment, either. I have watched videos of similar mechanics added via script mods to the Sims and it was not only frightening to see how far people were willing to go with it, but also extremely uncomfortable to witness. I understand Paralives is to be a simulation of life, but… let’s not bring into it everything that is wrong in our real, every-day life. Let the world of fantasy be just that: an escape from reality.

    Posted April 13, 2020 at 9:52 pm
  • What if instead of “crushes” we had an “attraction” mechanic where parafolk respond better to advances from those they’re attracted to and are more disappointed by rejection from these attractive people? They might also be more likely to approach attractive people autonomously. This could simulate unrequited love in a less complicated way and allow players to tell obsession etc. stories without it being a natural part of the game everyone has to contend with.

    Is this a compromise you could consider, @Calarand?

    Posted April 14, 2020 at 1:40 am
  • @Sweetchilli Absolutely! Unrequited love in general is a fun idea, it’s the OP’s detailing that I thought was very problematic. Keeping it simple and relaying on our own imagination to add complexity to the gameplay would do the trick. Players can – and should – use their own roleplaying skills to find what they want in the game without it actually simulating pathological relationships.

    The way I see it: para A falls in love with para B, but para B rejects their advances because they plan to marry para C. Para A becomes sad and can’t find much enjoyment in things that would normally be entertaining for them. It lasts for a bit, then passes, and that’s it. Meanwhile, paras B and C go on to live their lives undisturbed. No stalking and no restraining orders.

    I think my point is that no one has the right to try and force another into loving them. Allowing such relationships in games normalizes them and that can be extremely harmful for younger players who don’t have their morals and ethics fully formed yet.

    Posted April 14, 2020 at 6:21 am
  • @Calarand you speak wisdom 🙂 I agree.

    Posted April 14, 2020 at 7:13 am
  • i love all of your ideas! however, like @Calarand , i don’t think we should take it as far as obsession and stalking. however i would like one-sided attractions and maybe heartbreaks here and there, the most important thing for me is that i would like the process of forming a relationship (friendly or romantic) to be harder and more challenging, unlike some other games (the sims franchise)

    Posted April 14, 2020 at 7:13 pm

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