The Growing Together expansion pack has truly deepened Sims' personal preferences when it comes to making connections in The Sims 4. The Likes and Dislikes many has been expanded once again, and players can now decide what type of conversation topics a Sim prefers to engage in and which one they'll pass on.
This guide will list all available conversation topic preferences in The Sims 4, and it'll also explain how much it influences compatibility and the ability to become friends with other Sims.
Available Conversation Topics
The social interactions menu has been modified, and now instead of having to press More Choices a complete of times, it's been divided into several categories. These categories match perfectly with the new conversation topics in the Likes and Dislikes section of the Create-a-Sim menu. When making a Sim in Create-a-Sim, players can select which conversation topics they like and which ones they dislike. Here are all available conversation topics:
- Affection
- Arguments
- Complaints
- Compliments
- Deception
- Deep Thoughts
- Discussing Hobbies
- Discussing Interests
- Flirtation
- Gossip
- Jokes
- Malicious Interactions
- Physical Intimacy
- Potty Humor
- Pranks
- Silly Behavior
- Small Talk
- Stories
When a Sim doesn't like a type of conversation topic, whenever a social interaction from that menu is used, it will have a much smaller chance of being successful. For example, if a Sim doesn't enjoy jokes, telling them a Knock-Knock joke will very likely be unsuccessful and lower the friendship bar between the two.
Just like Self Discovery traits and other Likes and Dislikes, Sims might start enjoying a certain conversation topic as they have positive experiences with it throughout their lives.
Conversation Topics And Compatibility
The compatibility system was added to The Sims 4 to make relationships between household members and friends much more realistic. And many players might just wonder how much conversation topic preferences count towards the compatibility between two Sims.
Conversation topic preferences don't influence the compatibility between Sims at all. Sims may have the same conversation topic preference and still have awful compatibility, and they might have the exact opposite preferences and have great compatibility. Compatibility is influenced by traits and Sim characteristic preferences.
It can be very difficult to communicate with a Sim that has opposite conversation topic preferences. Even though two Sims might have Amazing Compatibility, if they disagree on these social preferences when trying to talk to each other, all interactions might keep failing and make it impossible for them to build a strong friendship. So, arguably, it can be just as important as compatibility.
The Sims 4 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.