Observations, thoughts and other assorted stuff.
Published on September 26, 2004 By Ravenblack In PC Gaming
I've been playing the game all last week. Mostly I've been experimenting with the body shop and the building mode. I really like building houses with diablolical layouts with this thing.

Only on Saturday (two days ago) did I really sit down and play Sims 2 as most people would play it.

I created myself and bought a two floor, one bedroom house. It didn't allow me to have a lot of stuff in it. I bought a sofa and a small table for the living room, then I installed a telephone. For the kitchen, I bought a table and some chairs. Upstairs, I bought a bed, a cupboard and a book shelf. Needing entertainment, I bought a TV, and a study table to put my pc. A couple of lights and then I began playing.

She walked around the house and approved of the computer and the bookshelf. She wanted a $650 bookshelf but we have to wait till she earns some money. Some neighbours came around and she greeted them. She was a clumsy host and forgot to serve them lunch. These rude people went into all her rooms, switched her TV on, played on her computer and ate her sandwich. (She didn't complain but I would have!) She ended up chatting up real well with this lady and this man. They talked about everything - tv, news, money...

My sim alterego has knowledge based aspirations, so we spent two 'days' looking for a suitable job in the papers. She finally got a job as a paramedic. Starts work at 7am and gets back at 2 pm. (How I wish I have hours like that!)

I don't know how people manage. The sim has to eat, go to the bathroom, take a shower, change, sleep, etc. Two weeks went on in sim world and I find myself barely coping. She's now in a bad mood because she's not having enough fun. It is all her fault. I mean, going to the bathroom takes her half an hour in sim world. (She's got some bladder.) Everything seems to take too much time. The cheap toilet and sink needs regular cleaning or else they can get clogged up. One time, she tried to fix the sink by herself but she couldn't. She began to stamp about in frustration. There was water all over the place, and so she had to mop it up. Outside, the phone was ringing. I could just imagine, "Not Now!"

She also wanted a social life but there was barely enough time for that except for a few phone calls. She did invite her friend over on her day off and they talked a lot. She keeps fishes but keeps forgetting to feed them. Tired, all she does when she gets home from work is lie down on the couch.

Things that happen at work seem rather bizarre. There was a chemical spill, and when my sim helped to clean it up, she was instead reprimanded. What she should have done is ask someone else to do it. Doesn't pay to be helpful I guess. Then the ambulance broke down, she decided to walk and was fined for negligence. I might have misread something, oh well.

It was kinda amusing. I did note some striking similarities between my sim and me.

1) When my sim was talking to a guy friend from work, whom she invited into the house, they talked mostly about gaming (symbol of control pad).

2) I find very little time for social life.

3) I do get into quite the bad mood if during the week I don't find enough time for fun - reading and playing games. That actually does happen quite a bit.

4) My sim is kinda grumpy. Sometimes she waves and points at something and I can't even see what's the problem.

Bigger differences -
I'm a better cook than my sim -- who keeps burning the toast.
I have more time on the computer.
I do not sleep quite as much.
I do not throw newspapers and bills all over the floor.

I wonder what will happen if I just leave her alone. *g*

Comments
on Sep 26, 2004
Work does take up a lot of a Sim's social life. When I usually play, I have two people. One person stays home and socializes while the other works. I try to have the working Sim to have a minimal social life, making some calls here and there. However, the social sim helps to maintain the family friends quotient.
on Sep 26, 2004
It sounds so fun (and frustrating) . . . I have been debating on whether to go ahead and buy it or not. Great post, Raven. Congrats on being featured, as well.
on Sep 26, 2004
I'll try that out, Dusk 411. Thanks. I was beginning to think maybe two sims would be easier, since one can stay at home and do all the cleaning and cooking. (hmm..)

Texas, it's amusing and makes hours fly by if you don't have a clock in front of you.

>> Congrats on being featured, as well.

Yipes! And I sort of just ranted like that. *quickly tidies up the article a bit.*
on Sep 26, 2004
I have the first Sims deluxe edition, which is fun, but I thought it was too expensive to buy all the cool expansion packs so I just have basic stuff . . . I play it from time to time (for hours at a time!), but the new one sounds harder. I'm really not a good gamer as much as I would like to be one.

In case I didn't say it before, I'm glad you're back safely from your trip. I enjoy "seeing" you around here.
on Sep 26, 2004
>> I enjoy "seeing" you around here.

Thanks! That's nice to hear.

I have the first sim and none of the expansions. I had some fun with that one and somehow it just didn't hook me in. Sims2 is definetly more challanging, I guess that's why I find it more engaging. I bet they'll make half a dozen expansions for this one too.
on Sep 27, 2004
SO much better than he original, but unfortunately, a lot more addictive...every one in the house (all 4 of us) are hooked..good, it is way too time consuming. Thank god for the money cheat
on Sep 27, 2004
The cheats are essential if you really want to quickly get down to experimenting with wicked ideas.

I left my sim alone for a bit. She did better than I expected. I guess maybe I was overly worried for nothing, she seems to be able to get herself to work on time just fine. And she would prepare something for herself if she is hungry and clean up after that. Still, I notice her aspirations fell because she just wasn't doing anything new, like trying out a new recipe or studying for a new skill or calling her friends as she should. She'd let her fishes die and the toilet go dirty. She was reduced to a 'silly goose'.

It is not hard to bring her aspiration meter back up again just by attending to their wants. The wants change very quickly, it might wise to lock it down sometimes. After I made her make a few phone calls and invited her friends over for a chat and some games, her aspirations soon rose to 'impressive intellect' (in the yellow). However, it didn't really improve her mood as quickly.

I think I might have found a bug in the process - I noticed that sometimes the Sim just cannot use the object even if it isn't blocked. It was funny, for a while my sim couldn't use the toilet and there was nothing I can do about it. I can't even remove it and reinstall it in the build mode. After a while, things seemed to be working again. (But not before my sim threw a real big tandrum in the kitchen and let herself go right there! )

I think that just about ends my experiment with myself. I'll store the lot. And then I shall be making a sim couple by this weekend to play.
on Sep 27, 2004
The game got harder with the expansions, Texas. When I played the original, the Sims got kind of boring after a while. However, I did get Hot Date, which made it much harder to get married. Whereas, in the original, getting married was almost too easy.

I have yet to play Sims 2. It won't work on the computer I have now.
on Sep 28, 2004
Hire a maid and a gardener... Order pizza when friends come over. *thinks* I recently bought the sims 2 also. I have not yet made it out of the house as, i keep having to leave my computer. If you get a maid they clean the toilet and the repairman will fix what breaks. I have to upgrade my computer
on Sep 28, 2004
Thanks for the tips, Keo Lin.