The Sims 4 Growing Together: Social Compatibility!

Likes and dislikes determine social compatibility!

Social compatibility is a new feature coming with The Sims 4 Growing Together expansion pack. This feature was mentioned briefly before in previous promotional material for the pack but the gameplay trailer has given us a more in-depth look into how social compatibility works! We also saw some new likes and dislikes in the trailer!

So let's get right to it and break down social compatibility in The Sims 4 Growing Together!

The Sims 4 Growing Together: Social Compatibility

Social compatibility is a bit like the chemistry system from The Sims 2 Nightlife, except it's not exclusively romantic. All Sims can be either socially compatible or socially incompatible with each other in The Sims 4 Growing Together. We think this is a great concept because unlike the chemistry system, social compatibility has an impact on friendships and family relationships as well as romantic relationships! It's much more far-reaching and encompasses many different types of relationships.

So what determines whether Sims are socially compatible or socially incompatible in Growing Together? It all comes down to their preferences! In other words, their likes and dislikes. Sims who have common interests will be socially compatible. Sims with nothing in common and Sims with opposing interests are more likely to be socially incompatible. This compatibility informs the way those Sims interact with each other. Indeed, this means interactions between individual Sims are going to be more personalized in Growing Together. Sims won't interact the same way with everyone anymore. This is actually huge for the franchise!

The gameplay trailer for Growing Together showcased this by comparing a relationship between a child and his grandfather, and the grandfather with his son-in-law. The grandfather had a lot of common interests with his grandson, so they were socially compatible and got along really well. However, the grandfather and his son-in-law had a lot of interests that conflicted with each other, so they were socially incompatible, making a lot of their interactions negative.

New Likes and Dislikes

It's worth mentioning that we also caught a glimpse of some new likes and dislikes in the Growing Together trailer, but we're not 100% what they are. One icon featured the famous thinking statue and another showed a boxing glove coming out of a jack-in-the-box.

Want more info on The Sims 4 Growing Together? Check out our full category!