I think i've gotten into the game and CC rather late and am still somewhat new to it at all. Not completely but new-ish. I have a mix though. For skins I always hated how there are only 4 skin tones (originally) but liked the skin tones and just wanted more options but had never seen any maxis match skin tones (that I realized anyway) until recently, maybe last week, I came across purplepaws geneticized skin tones and one more darker one that is originally from castaway stories. I have those now for more options, I did townify them too. I don't have any default eyes but I did recently download some more eye colors, in (mostly) realistic colors but maxis match and geneticized them all. I do have some fantasy skins and eyes too, that are whatever they are as they are ment to just be fantasy stuff. I want to make a 'hood filled with fantasy Sims. Avatars, pink Sims, rainbow sims, robots etc. I have a ton of fantasy skins and eyes to go with them lol.

Hair I also have a mix I think. I just go with what I like I don't really pay attention to if it's maxis match or not. If I like it I download it lol. Same with clothes.

I do have some carpets with more realistic textures than the maxis ones that I love, and furniture.

The mix of maxis-match and non-maxis-match stuff I have in game would probably make most simmers run away lol. I don't like the super shiny stuff though, hair or skin. That's just me there's nothing wrong with them there just too shiny for me.

Haha really? weird I think I found them while searching through semi-realistic texures, to me I'd consider them to be more on the "realistic" side.

I use both, for variety's sake

@Bigsimsfan12

Your Sims look very much like mine, and I wouldn't call them Maxis-match, either. I suppose it doesn't help that there is no set definition of "Maxis match." To me, it means that you try to make your game look not much different than what you get out of Maxis. More of a less-detailed, cartoony look. Although Maxis itself will sometimes delve into a more "realistic" look, especially with objects. Some of the wood furniture, for instance, rather obviously uses pictures of real-life furniture veneers for the textures. Some of the higher-end dining tables would be an example. I actually recolor/texture such pieces to make them look more "Maxis-match!"

Anyway, to me, once you're using more realistic eyes, with irises painted to look more realistic and with things like the lacrimal caruncle (The "pink bits" in the corner), and once you're using shinier, finely-textured hairs like those you get from Pookleted hairs, you're straying away from Maxis-match. If you're using photoskinned clothes and skins and such, you're also straying away from Maxis-match. (And some photoskinned stuff is actually very nice, IMO -- like bruno's clothes, which still look nice, IMO, to this day -- other stuff...Well, not so much. ) Not that there's anything wrong with straying from Maxis-match or not straying from Maxis-match. I mean, unless you're consciously and deliberately striving toward your game having a certain, completely cohesive aesthetic (and I'm not), I think that if you like how something looks in your game, you should use it. But then, I'm an eclectic Bohemian IRL, so what do I know?

@Gremily_

Well, thanks. I'm glad you're enjoying the plaster walls. I use them a lot, too.

To me MM clothes means hand done, careful shading and use of textures, often using Maxis later textures. No photoskinning or a very tiny amount of photoskinning that isn't obvious as photo skinning.
MM hair tends to be somewhat straw like, which is why I prefer semi realistic hair. While overly shiny is 'realistic' but really isn't as nobody has hair that shiny.
MM skin needs to be matt and not shiny.
MM eyes must not have pink corners. I think the most important part of a sim being MM vs realistic are the eyes. Eyes are the window of the soul or in this case the deciding factor on a sims Maxis Matchyness to me.

That is just my personal take on MM-semi-realistic . I like MM clothes, eyes and skin and semi realistic hair.

I like my game semi-realistic, mix-and-match is my way to go.
Some years ago all i wanted was to have a proper realistic game but i'm glad i changed my mind!
There are so many nice, geneticized & townified maxis match skin tones and eye colours out there now and i have to say, that i love them!

Maxis Match. I don't know why, but i think it was familiarity.

I like semi-realistic since it matches with hair better (As in, halfway between Maxis and all the realistic content). Honestly I would prefer everything to be semi-realistic since Maxis hairs clash hard with more realistic skintones, and Maxis skintones clash hard with the realistic hair.

Plus, "realistic" hair is WAY too shiny I swear to god.

Yeah "realistic" hair looks totally wrong to me. Really uncanny valley stuff. My favourite is Remi-like textures. To me they look soft and nice to touch while being detailed enough to avoid the "melted crayon" look of a lot of the base game hairs when playing in high quality.

I guess when I talk about realistic, I mean photoskinned, and I don't like photoskinned (apart from sometimes when it works, as in the example of some wood textures.)

I remember way back, somebody described the popular skin tones at the time as looking like "oiled hams". Oiled hams is totally the kind of skin tone I avoid

Also as someone else mentioned, I prefer my sims to look like real people, not like they just stepped out of a magazine.

I'm quite liking those that Nysha linked me to yesterday, Lilith's edit of Remi's textures. Trouble is I love hairs and use loads of them, so I have no where near enough that look like that. So my hair collection is a mish mash of MM, semi MM and realistic. If it shines like a cars headlights I'll end up getting rid of it because it will bug me how it looks with my MM skin, but if it looks like a straw bed or is very yellow that will also bug me and I'll get rid of it and everything else just has to live together.

I don't really mind whether its Maxis match or realistic as long as it looks nice, and doesn't kill my computer or game. But in the end, I always end up getting rid of my downloads with exception to the mods that just need to be there; because for some reason, I like my game most the way it was made

When it comes to hairs, Jo's method is exactly my method. Too shiny/plastic-helmet-looking, out it goes. Too straw-like, out it goes. If it's that awful Maxis blond(e) color, out it goes. What's left gets to stay, and they have to learn how to like each other.

I have occasional vague notions of getting off my arse and trying to recolor/retexture those hairs that I have that are a bit too much on the flat side for my tastes but that I haven't found a non-godawful-shiny version of...but then I wimp out because I just really suck at hair.

least I'm not the only one.

@iCad OT, last night I went outside to check the weather and nearly ran into this huge Night Orb Weavers web. I thought you would love it. I thought momentarily about having my dh come kill it, but thought better of it since if it stays outside and I don't see it during the day, figured we could have an uneasy truce. Seriously it creeped me out though. DH and the kids had a look too, it was building an enormous web from my washing line to the shed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austra...b_weaver_spider The thing is so large I could see if from the back deck. One very large very well feed spider. Erk, that's made me go all funny talking about it!

You? An uneasy truce with a SPIDER? YOU?!! My God, am I rubbing off on you? That's awesome, though. I'd've sat and watched her build her web. Orb weavers are awesome to observe when they're actively building...

But yes! With Sim hairs, you're not the only one. I've tried, really tried, to figure out how to recolor them. I mean, I can do them using existing textures that are out there, but the thing is that I have to be difficult and want something sort of in between the existing textures. But when I've tried to make my own...Well, the results haven't been impressive, I'm afraid. If I wanted it badly enough, I suppose I'd work harder at it. But I guess I'm OK with my odd mish-mash of hair textures in my game. I mean, it's not like everyone in the real world has the same hair texture, right? RIGHT?! Yeah, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

So long as she doesn't show her face in the day. The idea of killing it made me feel guilty. The web has to stretch at least 5 meters or more. DH and the kids watched her build awhile, but we were all kind of creeped out. It was HUGE. :/

If you ever work out hairs and start uploading I will be downloading.

A 5 meter web? *big, sparkly eyes* Bet she's one who takes on birds. God, I really do need to get a house down there. *sigh* Hubby can surf his brain out, and I can ogle the spiders and other vicious critters. Anyway, I doubt you'll see her. Orb weavers move around a lot. Build a web, catch stuff and eat it, eat the web, move somewhere else, build a web, catch stuff and eat it, eat the web, move somewhere else...Lather, rinse, repeat. Such is the life of an orb-weaver.

*sigh* If I ever work out hairs, hell will probably freeze over. It's something that crosses my mind when I see a Sim in my game with hair that's a little more Maxis-y than I like. I kind of make a vague note to look up its mesh and search for a not-too-shiny Pooklet of it, but that just doesn't seem to come to pass often. Or when it does, all I can find is a too-shiny Pooklet of it. So then I start thinking, "You know, you should take a stab at texturing," but then I remember when I took stabs at it before and the horrors that resulted, and then I start thinking, "You know, that Maxis-y texture isn't SO bad..." Yup, such is the process of my brain.

The worst shiny hair is black. Other colours and the shinyness is at least the same general colour, but the shiny parts on black always come out white.

@iCad I found something you might find amusing.

Lilith's re-Remi textures are my fave now. In addition to Lilith herself, I also recommend Keoni, vimpse, enjoyingmypain, Veranka, and YPlum for more hairs in her texture. And maybe, eventually, me, if I can get myself to start posting the defaults I've been retexturing with Lilith textures and the hodge-podge MM colors I selected. (Many are done-ish, but the prospect of taking good preview pictures and making sure I'm crediting the right creator(s) - gah! I'm putting so much time into it, but it bugs me SO MUCH when I try to set hair per outfit, and I find styles that I can imagine as styled from the same haircut, but the colors don't match. So, I'm making it match. I think iCad will relate. )

I have to disagree on the eyes with sclera not being MM, though. I am using defaults of Ferd's, and they have a tiny bit of pink sclera on the corners. However, they are still cartoony, and look great in a MM game.

That doesn't have pink corners, not the way realistic eyes do. That has the faintest bit of shading which I don't think can even be seen at all angles, so yes those are MM eyes. The Lion eyes I have, have a bit of shading.

Semi realistic..I think. Since people assume realistic CC are badly photoskinned craps, but I rarely encounter those now. Blegh.
I can use anything MM except the eyes, gosh, I can't stand those thing, I know some people favor them but it seems, you know, no offense to the creators, but, they look poorly made for me. I just avoid those thing. Because it's looks way to cartoony for my style, I guess.
But matte hair texture ala Sims 3 MM is overused in my game lol, they are not straw like and yet not shiny and the texture is juuuust right.

When I first started with Sims 2 I just threw anything in my game, I didn't even know of the term Maxis match, but now I've grown a bit picky. With the Sims themselves like eyes, hairs, clothes, skin etc. I'm definitely maxis match. However with furniture I'm a bit a both. I really don't care as long as it looks good.

Maxis-Match all the way. Although I must admit, I use quite a broad definition of Maxis-Match :P

Those Lilith textures are so tempting... I use Poppet's hairs now and although I like her colors/selection of meshes the textures are somewhat flat. But I'm afraid that once I start, I won't have time to finish all the other stuff I want to do :P

It's been 2 months since I reinstalled my game and I haven't even run the actual game yet (just Bodyshop) because I'm STILL trying to decide on CC to make my future townies pretty. Curse my extreme indecisiveness
In my old game I went more for realism, but my custom 'hoods are based on Mobile Suit Gundam and the Suikoden game series, and have you ever tried to make realistic-looking characters when your references are anime-style? The only one I'm remotely satisfied with is my M'Quve sim, but I worked hardest on him for obvious reasons
I guess you could describe my preferences as semi-realism. I've discovered a lot of wonderful CC by talented creators recently, both realistic and MM, and it isn't easy to find a balance. I love Pooklet's hair textures but some people make them too shiny (I especially dislike light browns with a white shine). I definitely go for more realistic eyes, but I'm having a hard time deciding on skins.

Time to go fire up Bodyshop again and go through the 3000 or so items in the "Temp" subfolder of my downloads

Maxis. Having realistic looking sims, though it looks great for pictures, just seems weird with gameplay when the sims are complaining about trivial things lmao