Maxis Match VS Realistic? Which do you prefer and why?

[DrewInTheSky]

I'm really into Maxis Match, but I've been using "realistic stuff" for most of the time (let's say I switched to MM about 4 years ago). I use to have lots of defaults replacement: hair, clothes, buy, builld... But then, after reading Fortune and Romance by skellington and seeing how cute her Sims were, I thought I'd have give a shot to this style.
I have to say, I appreciate the game much more now, especially because the realistic style sometimes collides way too much with the rest of the game. Moreover, I get everyday new conversions from TS3 and TS4 and at least the game is looking more or less the same everywhere. I mean, I still have to give restyle and makeovers to townies and houses, but I don't have to worry too much if I'm feeling too lazy or bored by how a townie looks.

[Morganess]

I know this is an old post, but wanted to reply anyway. Semi-realistic style has always been my cup of tea, although heaps of Maxis-match CC has me swooning! Sometimes it's just so hard to keep from downloading everything, but so far I've stayed loyal to realism.

All my eyes are currently by Jessi or recolors of her eyes (Trapping has made some, for example).

As for skins, I'm going through heaps of them at the very moment. I have some by Pooklet, Lilith, Jessi, Trapping, Ephemera etc. In the past I've been overly concerned about whether all the CC matches, and I only had Pyxis's Venice skins in for the longest time, but now I've finally opened up to any and all realistic looking skins I can dig up.

The hairs I use are anything pooklet'd I've found.

[Shaye]

I prefer semi-realism.
I remember when I first joined this site everyone was playing ULTRA-realism and it was all about the apocalypse. So much of the CC was dingy, dark and all dented up. Not my style.
And now, well, it couldn't be further from that with everything looking like a cartoon and as much as I adore it in other people's games, it's not for me. And I certainly don't want to go to all the trouble to edit the pix to look even more cartoon-like. Yes, I'm lazy.

 And I'm Old School too I guess.
I play a contemporary game and playing means more to me than the pix. But I do try to share the best pix that I can, (falling short compared to all of your fabulous pix.) But I have to stay true to my Sim Mojo and not compare too much or it steals away my joy of playing.

I will add that I adore Lilith's skin tones and couldn't play without them.
I don't like default face templates because I want my Sims to look as much as they can to the original as possible.
But custom face templates are great!  

[cdhmayhem]

 I prefer Maxis Match with a touch of semi realistic. I love how cheery the game looks. I used to be strictly realistic, LOVED Enaylas skins...still do, but most are retired to a folder I will NEVER delete, because, well , Enayla. After a life thing, I found I was needing cheerful things, and before I knew it, I was maxis match. I use Poppets eyes, also have used Keonis eyes..so hard to choose! Skintone is Lilithes, and a variety of others. If it is bright and happy, I am likely downloading it. I have everything Yanderplum has made, because I love her stuff..my neighborhood is loaded with witches inspired by her. Shastakiss for defaults on buy/build items. Mostly though, I have no hard rules..if I like it, I use it. So many amazing creators make deciding on any one thing mostly impossible for me.

[Amalia]

I'm forever semi-realistic. I love how maxis match looks in other people's games, but... it's too cartoony for my own taste. My eyes are one of CuriousB's set on Pooklet's animation-friendly sclera and my skins are an edit of one of Trapping's skin sets. I also use sexy feet whenever possible. Hairs are usually Pooklet's and Io's textures. For clothes and furniture, I tend toward maxis matchy (conversions and such) because I can't stand most photoskinned stuff. By the same token, I can't do ultra-realistic, uncanny-valley genetics (Mouseyblue and Oritasho come to mind).

[SimmerPrincess]

I love both!!!

[WebBing]

Well, I prefer realistic and shiny genetics xD
And semi realistic clothing <3

[LadyAquanine]

I prefer realistic, especially when it comes to hairs.  I love how when hair is given Pooklet textures, you can see the individual hairs on the Sim's head, and it flows similarly to real hair.  I also like realistic-looking skin and eyes on my Sims.  The cartoony look can only take you so far.  In fact, when you use the realistic eyes for a while, you look back on the original default eyes and think, "Good God those eyes look flat and glassy!"  Makeup that's shaded properly also looks nice, and then your Sim doesn't look like she put cheap house paint on her face to substitute makeup.  The male Sims in particular look hotter when you use those skins that are painted to show off their six-pack.  However, I have found that when it comes to clothes, photo-skinning actually looks less realistic compared to custom textures for the game.

[SimmerPrincess]

Well yeah, I used Poppet's edit of Lilith Feathers and Phobia's edit of Sahra's eyes as defaults.

[Veronaville Quilting Bee]

I used to be a solid MM player, but I find myself experimenting with a style between MM and Semi-Realistic (especially with eyes). Personally I prefer the matte textures of Poppet and Remi, but discovering AlfredAskew's animation-friendly sclera helped me see semi-realism in a new light (the only thing hindering me from experimenting with that style are the Black Blobs of Doom).

Clothing and objects I mostly have those that use game textures and object add-ons (and some Holy Simoly stuff)

[scrambledegg]

When my old hard-drive crashed and I had to rebuild my CC collection, I decided to experiment with Maxis match as I wanted to keep my CC to a minimum. I downloaded Simgaroop and Remi hair defaults, and Leh's eyes, but they really weren't my cup of tea (although they were still lovely). I'm forever drawn to semi-realism, although nowadays I'm more flexible in the interest of minimising my CC.

I've been seeing a rise in ultra-realistic clothing and objects recently, and I find something deeply unsettling about it. I play the Sims to take a break from real life, and I suppose seeing CC that tries to emulate real life in-game is sacrilegious to me. Whilst I can never be totally Maxis Match, I've realised now how much I cherish the essence of the Sims franchise, and all the silliness and charm that comes with it. Preserving that charm is something that I always have in the back of my mind when I'm downloading CC.

As such, I like my sims looking semi-realistic (but blockfeet ftw), whilst I prefer my objects/buy mode content to be true to the game. I'm a huge fan of Marvel Ann's aesthetic when it comes to sims !

[SadoAlice]

Lately I've been leaning somewhere between the two since I play a historical game. Most of the content available for the Regency/Victorian/Edwardian era is Semirealistic (think older sites like AAS, random web blogs, and Cupcakeyy's lovely regency dresses), though a lot of the newer stuff is Maxis Match, like Skell's stuff, Yandereplum's stuff, and MDPthatsme's stuff.
I use Almighty Hat's hairs almost exclusively, with a few exceptions from this site, but only IO's and Pooklet's colors (with the exception of a few TSR hairs) and I plan to use the 'addon' set posted for the 'My Muse' theme once it garners more attention from hair recolorists, too.
I prefer to use realistic skins and eyes whether the clothes are maxis match or not, though, and I use both realistic and maxis match furniture and build items. I try not to make the lots too confusing though, and try to use things that are somewhat on the same color scheme /theme no matter what style they're in, and it kinda works.

[hannahbelle]

I lean a little more to maxis match... I like when everything looks a little more matte. Super shiny hairs bug me and feel out of place. It's a game so I just want everything to blend in better. That said, I also don't like the look of the base game... The eyes are terrible in my opinion, and the hair is so... blugh... Everything just looks kind of graying and odd. So I like everything to blend in and look similar but also more stylish and saturated.

[BlueCat]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't care for shiny skins, don't want super shiny hair, but I don't want matte either.  I was just pointed toward Zeusar's hair textures, and Amalia's are a nice middle ground for me. They have the highlights I want without the shininess.  For eyes, I don't mind more realistic ones as long as they are on a more maxis-like sclera. Actually, I LOVE Radio Gnome Invisible's Solar Eyes.

I don't mind maxis match in clothing, and I don't like photoskinned anything.

For make-up, I prefer more shine on the lips than matte. I guess I"m more realistic there, or at least semi-realistic.

Not a fan of anything color-filled, either.

I love looking at both styles on Simblr, though.

[Mrs_MQuve]

Wow, the last time I posted in this thread was 6 years ago. My style hasn't changed TOO much - I still use the same defaults for eyes and skin, and I've been faithfully using Io's edit of Pooklet's V3 textures for straight hair and am quite content with that. However, I decided to get rid of a fair amount of CC in favor of a more eccentric aesthetic, and in addition to that I removed a lot of things that I felt were too Maxis Match for my tastes. I love detailed textures and bold colors and am really digging distressed/lightly grungy objects right now, especially distressed wood.

I love 3t2 conversions, and they fit great in my game. Sometimes the wood textures aren't to my liking, and the clothing colors tend to be kind of drab (because they're the default colors and were meant to be used with Create-A-Style). But the meshes are fantastic and I have lots of project opportunities. 4t2 conversions, on the other hand, are hit or miss. I have a lot of 4t2 clothing, especially for M, but again, many of them need more texture detail for me. I hate the plastic look of 4t2 objects, but some of them look great with a retexture. Wall deco and a few small objects are the exception.

The funny thing is, even though I am firmly in the semi-realistic camp, I prefer Simlish text in my game. I'm not sure why - I guess because it's a fantasy world to me, and the sims SPEAK Simlish, so it makes logical sense in my brain? Also, I love Maxis add-ons for the objects I actually like and use.