Fanon:Jocks family

The Jocks family is a family in SimVille.

Original MTS post
The Jocks

A few years ago, when I was picking up on The Sims 2 and really enjoying the game (And having far more time to play it), I had a rather strange obsession with sports enthusiasts, known informally in North America as "jocks". Picture a bunch of dudes and dudettes all being masters of basketball, soccer, wrestling, cycling, and what have you, and being able to keep the gears turning for hours on end. I wasn't actually so big on doing those things myself (I'm more of a casual fitness guy, not so much into sports), so creating such characters in The Sims seemed like a great way to vent out my desires to work out into a video game while enjoying the comfort of my rolling chair at home. Thus, I created a family quite appropriately titled the "Jocks".

My old, naïve self wasn't big on storylines, so like many other families created at the time, they seemed more like objects than actual characters with a story behind them to me. As time went on, however, and as I became more and more mature, I started coming up with stories based on the Sims' personalities and current situations, which you now get to read and enjoy in this forum thread (And in the fanon pages I'm writing on The Sims Wiki, which you should ). And the Jocks family was one of those families that finally received some depth, something under the surface. No longer will I create icebergs that have nothing below the waterline!

The Jocks Family




 * Harold and Lisa feel privileged to raise two young boys, and hope that they'll take up sports and fitness. Jason is happy to comply, but is Toby's quest for lust too much of a distraction?

Yes, I would never have thought about my sports-and-fitness-obsessed family being sown the seeds of a Don Lothario story, but I was sick of playing with figureheads where nothing special or problematic happened, so I decided to add some spice to my game, and when creating SimVille and recreating many of the Sims that had lived in neighbourhoods past, it felt great to be able to give this family something more than just appearances.

Anyways, the story goes: Harold and Lisa are passionate about sports, fitness, and other physically demanding activities, and feel privileged that they were able to bring two young'uns into the world. They immediately started training them up physically, hoping that one day they would take up sports and fitness later in life. While Jason, the younger son, is more than happy to join the school basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and wrestling teams simultaneously (With mom and dad cheering and hollering from the bleachers, of course), Toby isn't on par with the idea. For Toby, hooking up with the hot chicks in town is what really tickles his fancy. His parents do not approve of his lust-loving aspiration, especially when Toby's far more interested in soaking up in a hot tub than being out on the court or in the gym.



The Jocks are one of my oldest families, and they've always had the same theme: highly active parents with highly active kids. While they lived in a sizably comfortable detached lot with swimming pools, basketball courts, soccer fields, and even a military obstacle course in previous neighbourhoods, they now live in an apartment... which actually isn't so bad. They are now really truly urban Sims, and now that I have gotten rid of the suburban vibe, I seem to view them with a more favourable gaze.

The Sims

Harold Jocks




 * Harold believes that sports should be physically intensive and sweaty. Thus, he finds it silly that some consider golf and auto racing to be sports.

Harold has loved sports since he was a kid. Though he did join the school soccer and volleyball teams, he has always found it more enjoyable to play for fun rather than for points. He'd spend a lot of time practicing and honing his skills, but would be jovial and playful on the field, not caring if he won or lost, only that he was dirty and sweaty and happy enough to go home in all smiles. Harold then landed an office job after college, which ate away at his morale as deadlines and paperwork piled up, leaving him little to no time to do the things he really loved doing: playing sports. So he quit and got a job in the athletic career instead. His body is out of shape and the enthusiasm in him has waned a little, but he's confident that he'll be able to restore the glory that was his childhood in his mid-40s.



Harold is working on retraining his body, and it just so perfectly happens that young Jason is in his most malleable stage of life. Father and son have the opportunity to train together, which Harold feels is helping Jason a lot more than if he just coached him like a drill instructor. Jason gets to see that even dad has room for improvement, and not having a parent admit that they're perfect in turns entices him to believe that he's not perfect as well, and so he accepts failure more readily than a hardcore perfectionist. Harold is pleased that he didn't make the same mistake with Jason that he did with Toby, whom we'll talk about in a bit.



Lisa Jocks




 * Lisa wants to retire on a fishing boat someday. She takes delight in reeling in boatloads of fish all on her own.

Lisa isn't as into sports as Harold is, but she openly encourages it, and there's another thing tucked under her belt that sports players tend to love as well: fitness. Lisa made good use of her weight room club membership in high school, and even started a few fitness clubs of her own. While Harold played for fun, Lisa played for the friends and connections. Seen as a supportive and focused fitness enthusiast, many students looked up to her as a role model as she stayed faithful to her commitments, always going to the gym and to her clubs even when homework and exams knocked at her doors. Like Harold, though, it all fell apart when she reached true adulthood, and the stress of work finally took her down. She quit her old job as a secretary and moved into the Oceanography career. Lisa loves the water, loves the ocean, and loves swimming, and her new job involves a healthy mixture of all three. Recently she's also been taking up yoga, and hopes to start a yoga club of her own someday (And to relive some fond high school memories!).



It helps too that Lisa's also into physical training, so she, Harold, and Jason get to train together. While most parents in SimNation would rather just send their kids off to basketball camp and not have to leave the comfort of their overstuffed armchair, Harold and Lisa call training time family time. That is, if Toby would join in...



Toby Jocks




 * Toby's parents had hoped he would pursue a career in sports or adventuring, but Toby's far too distracted with lust.

Despite what you might expect, Toby isn't actually a lard or anything. He's active and interested in fitness, and he does go to the gym on a regular basis. But building strength and endurance and staying physically and mentally healthy isn't high on Toby's agenda. Toby works out and "listens" to his parents for one reason: to look good for the girls at school.



Toby once tried out for the school basketball team, but the coaches rejected him as he was "far too distracted with the audience" that came to spectate. The audience, of course, included some "super HAWT" girls that Toby managed to impress. Unfortunately, he didn't impress the people that really mattered at that moment, so he came home to a disappointed mom and dad, who were not pleased to hear that Toby failed to make the team because of his "stubbornness to attraction". "Focus on your schooling and your sports," Harold told him. "Dating should come after that." But Toby wouldn't listen! All throughout middle school, Toby toyed with the whole "Let's date and have WooHoo" idea that young adolescents buy into as a normal part of growing up. While most Sims tend to grow up and mature out of it, Toby was sold on the idea of having as many loves as possible. Toby had flirted with many of the girls at school, but only one had managed to come far enough to be his first date: Carly Firebaum, who is interestingly enough also a Romance Sim!



Jason Jocks




 * Jason wants to be both a professional basketball player and a soccer player when he grows up. He dreams of being a benevolent celebrity one day.

(Not) following in his older brother's footsteps is Jason Jocks. Not only is he too young to love (in *that* sense), but he's actually into sports and fitness like his parents had hoped. He likes to take dips in the apartment swimming pool, and he makes good use of the rooftop basketball court and soccer net. Whenever mom and dad are around and available, they're training together, and Jason loves it. In short, Jason's the "perfect" child that Harold and Lisa wanted.



While Jason's following in his parents's dreams, he also has another favourite of his own: music and dance. Jason's clearly been influenced by the Newbies, and he sometimes likes listening to the music on the stereo more than he does actually exercising or playing. Still, his parents seem to have no trouble with him turning up the volume a wee bit higher than normal, so long as he's actually training.

As far as personality goes, Jason's the nicest person in his family; he generally doesn't like to get on people's nerves, and his "soft" side tends to come out a lot at school. Unlike stereotypical "aggressive football coach" parents, Harold and Lisa are quite pleased to hear that their youngest son's actually caring about people, further shunning Toby towards the sidelines.



The House

The Jocks live on the ground floor of the Teleprompter Apartments, which is the only apartment lot in the neighbourhood that I built entirely myself. It's a pretty large apartment lot with lots of amenities in the communal areas, and was intended for Sims who were making good money, wanting the comforts of life close by while still being affordable. However, most of the apartment's tenants are large families with lots of children. The Newsons and the Ottomas families all live on this apartment lot, and it can get noisy and packed. The Jocks are a simple family of four, though, so they live quite comfortably here.

All apartments in the building more or less look the same and pretty much cost the same to rent. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are all part of the same room. There are two bedrooms and a bathroom, all of which are connected via doors. Having only one bathroom can kinda suck, as is having the other bedroom being just an unlocked door away from yours. Let's hope your family gets along with each other.



The apartment mailbox is located indoors, so no need to go outside in the rain to pay the bills. Of course, this also means that walkbys will walk inside the apartment in order to do their lip flaps and stuff.



There are two vending machines and two elevators that lead up to the upper floors.



There are two stairwells as well, for those who don't want to buy a StairMaster. One on the south side of the building...



...and the other on the north side.



The ground floor is also home to a nice playground...



...a large public bathroom with showers and changing booths...



...and a spacious swimming pool with a diving board and a slide.



The second floor has a store that sells, among other things, groceries! Now you can easily restock your fridge even if Hurricane Irma is raging outside!



The communal area here also has an education career bookcase, available at no additional charge. Some vending machines and couches help facilitate the development of knowledge.



The third floor has no apartments, but is a spacious communal floor with a restaurant...



...pool tables and dartboards...



...a gym...



...and a basketball and soccer net.



To make things even better, this building includes an array of solar panels on the roof, which greatly cut down on the bills the tenants have to pay. With SimVille receiving no shortage of sunshine year-round, a better question would be: Why aren't solar panels on more buildings around here?!?!



A brief glimpse of life in the Walker family

5am riiiiise and shiiiiine!





Harold and Lisa go out for early morning jogs. Mornings in SimVille can be a bit cool, but a good run warms them up.



Jason goes for a dip in the pool.



And Toby... er, Toby?



Hmm, guess he's still asleep. Very well!

Harold and Lisa get back and they prepare some breakfast for the family.



So Toby gets up at 5:45. Okay, fair enough; can't really call him a sleepyhead for that.



The Jocks have a neat point deficiency, though not as serious as the Urbans. Still, mealtimes are productive, albeit messy. Good thing Sims don't have to wipe tables!



Everyone currently starts work/school at 9AM, which means at 8AM they all pretty much leave at the same time. Jason gets on the school bus first:



Harold and Lisa share the same carpool.



Toby just casually strolls out, taking his time. He boards the bus in a very nonchalant way.



A Mr. Eric Rodriguez is the landlord for this lot, not Beth Love. He drops in at 9am to maintain the grounds.



1pm rolls around, and high school lets out for the day. Toby doesn't get off at his stop, though; he's going somewhere else after school. Probably found another cheerleader to hook up with. We're instead going to focus on Harold and Jason, who both get home at 3pm. Father and son make good use of the sports opportunities on the roof of their apartment.





Lisa gets home at 4pm. Looks like she got promoted to Dive Master today!



The trio train together, like they normally do. It's their idea of "family time", and it bonds just as well as playing a nice board game together.



It's a warm SimVille evening today, perfect for going out! The three head out for an evening jog together.



Still no Toby when they get back. The Jocks make dinner in his absence.







There's Toby! He comes home solo, but it seems likely that he went out with, uh, "friends" today. Gee, I wonder who they are. Toby doesn't talk about it; he just slips into his usual spot at the table. 'Least he's not late for dinner.





All Day I Dream About Sports...



Early bedtimes are important for someone like Jason. And a full day of activity means that there's no "I'm not tired!" whining, because Jason's definitely tired.



Harold and Lisa cool off with a few games of chess.



They retire to the hay early as well.



Toby's more of a night owl, but he has nowhere to go at this time of night; his dad knows when he's been out ballin' during the wee hours when Toby's too groggy and tired to wake up before 6. 5:45's already a hard enough target to accomplish. Tonight he spends a quiet evening in the gym, which is almost always empty at this time of day.







Lemon-lime soda goes down refreshingly well after a fine workout.





Midnight is his average bedtime, but hey, it could've been a lot worse.



Conclusion

If you get past the whole spiel about stereotypes, you'll see that the Jocks are like any other family, with their own set of problems. Harold and Lisa look favourably upon their youngest son, while they seem very much disconnected with Toby. Are they concerned with such a frosty relationship, or have they pretty much just given up on Toby and let him loose? As for Jason, he seems like the "perfect" child, but he has his own flaws as well: his constant pursuit to please his parents and to do well in sports and fitness leaves him little time for other pursuits. The whole family is messy and their apartment—especially their bathroom—is always dirty. There may be worse families out there, yes, but the Jocks have some serious cleaning up to do, not just in terms of the filthy shower-tub and toilet, but also with their relationships with each other.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more! Original post