The Sims 3/Socializing in The Sims 3 era

Socializing in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval is different from The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories. This article will show you about socializing in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval.

Socializing panel
Every time socializing occurs in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, a box on the top left or bottom-left will appear. The box contains the relationship, the relationship status and how the Sim is feeling about you.

Here are some examples of what is shown in the image.

The Short-Term Context is displayed below the relationship. As you can see, it says "Wogan thinks Morrigan is OK" meaning that they are in the OK STC. Socials like to flirt and argue, this will put the STC to Flirty and Impolite, respectively. You can notice that Wogan is Morrigan's Husband and their relationship bar is about half.

Beta Socializing box
In the beta version of The Sims 3, the box originally said "Sim's name is friendly which would also be examples like "Cornelia is flirty" and "Nick is impolite" but this was changed to Sim 1 thinks Sims 2 is being Friendly (IE, "Gunther thinks Cornelia is being flirty" and "Nancy thinks Nick is being impolite" respectively in the final version.

Social Types
There are 5 social types in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval. The types are Friendly, Funny, Romantic, Mean and Fight. Each type has a commodity associated with it, here is the list of Commodities associated with the type.

Not all social types will change the short-term context to that STC. For example, Talk About Computers (A friendly social) may change the STC to Boring when it is used on a Technophobe.


 * Friendly: The common social type in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval. These socials are commonly used by Friendly Sims. Examples of Friendly socials include Chat and Gossip.
 * Funny: The social type that is funny as its name implies. Examples of Funny socials include Make Silly Face and Tell Inside Joke
 * Romantic: The social type where you make love. Examples of Romantic socials include Flirt, Kiss and Flirtatious Joke.
 * Mean: The common negative social type in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval, commonly used by Mean Spirited Sims. Examples of Mean socials include Argue, Scare and Insult.
 * Fight: The social type related to attacking, more powerful than Mean. Fight socials are not available until the Sim has a negative relationship. Examples of Fight socials include Fight!/Beat Up and Slap.

Traits
Traits in The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval can effect what socials will and will not work. Traits like Dislikes Children effect socials used on Teen through Elder when a Child uses a social on that Sim. Unflirty decreases the effectiveness of Romance socials because traits can conflict with each other.

Repeat limits
The Sims 3 and The Sims Medieval now have social limits. If the limit is exceeded, a message will appear (Depends if the which game it is).

Social effectiveness
The effectiveness of a social is determined by traits, short-term context, the relationship and how many times it was used. Socials that are not effective on a Sim with that trait (Such as using Talk About Computers on a Technophobe Sim) will cause relationship to decrease and change the Commodity to Boring.

Most socials have a repeat limit which the Short-Term Context will either be changed to Boring (Non-Mean Socials) or Very Angry (Mean Socials).