Are you a very involved parent or more laid back? Depending on how much time you invest in your kids, your parenting style could come back to haunt you in Sims 4: Parenthood. Your strong or weak character values will reflect onto your children. Get ready for sibling rivalries, time outs, chores, teenagers ‘throwing shade’ and setting curfews. Check out the trailer below, then we’ll get into some of the new previewed gameplay.
There are five different character values, each with a positive and negative outcome. The character values appear in the Simology panel when your baby becomes a toddler. When Sims age up to young adults, these character values disappear and the Sim is given traits that reflect their upbringing.
MANNERS
RESPONSIBILITY
CONFLICT RESOLUTION
EMPATHY
EMOTIONAL CONTROL
Each of the five character values can be affected positively or negatively through activities. Parents need to encourage and praise the behaviors to increase the levels. However, when kids do activities that are negatively associated with the value (especially if the parent praises them), the levels will decrease.
The Sims blog post uses manners as an example. If you want your child to have a good manners character value, you need to teach them to say “please” and “thank you” and to set the table. But you'll also have to discipline bad manners. If you don’t discipline actions like swearing and burping and farting, this will be reflected in the character value panel.
If this bad behavior is not adequately addressed by the time the Sim becomes a young adult, they’ll get the bad manners trait, which allows the sim to have social actions like pointing out flaws, or whims to swear. They may come to prefer rude actions and not do the dishes when you ask.
READ: ‘Sims 4: Parenthood’ Trailer Introduces Burping, Farting, Swearing
On the flipside, if the parent does a good job teaching manners, the young adult achieves the good manners trait, which means they will always clean up their dishes, be polite when meeting new people and never act rudely unless you direct them to. The good manners trait also allows friendships to build more quickly, and Sims with the trait will also say “excuse me” if they really really can’t hold in their fart.
There’s also another exciting aspect to character traits: Chance Cards. While we don’t know too much about them yet, these are catered to the Sim based on their trait, so you’ll have to choose stuff throughout your kid’s life. For example, a child may be ‘Feeling Forlorn’ and your response to these teachable moments will shape how well they deal with it. All of this, however, depends on the parenting skill. You’ll need to work on this by practicing with your children, looking up tips online, or asking for tips from other parents with a higher skill level.
Parenthood releases May 30. Stay tuned for more info. The Sims team will be livestreaming Parenthood this Friday on Twitch at 10:30 a.m. EST.
