The Sims!

[Abbayarra]

How many people play the Sims? If so, how many of the expansion packs do you have?

[Treladian]

I got the game shortly after it originally came out. A few months ago, I also picked up the Living Large through Vacation expansions packs, which helped to keep me amused for a few weeks. They may not fit the traditional definition of games, but they're still very well made software toys and what you get out of them really depends on how you approach them.

[Musi]

I remember getting The Sims, then the first expansion and Hot Date. I know we didn't get Vacation, or another one that was released.

For hours, I would sit there and torture people :twisted: making them wet themselves, or starve. My fav thing to do was to get neighbors to come to the house, then delete all the windows, doors, and everything else, but the walls (or just to enclose them in a tiny box) and wait for the end. :twisted:

(feels like loading the Sims now) Must...resist...

[Eza]

The first time I ever played this game, I played it for 8 hours straight and didn't even realize I'd been at it so long. I bought all the expansions, some of them multiple times because they were taken or lost. I *heart* the Sims. :D

[Iaiken Toransier]

Lets see, The Sims...

I played it on my sisters PC, went for about an hour, the entire time going over an inner monologue as follows:

Me: 'Hey brain, is this fun? It's been about an hour and I still can't decide.'
My brain: 'Hrm, lemme check. Do you like doing the dishes?'
Me: 'Hell no.'
Brain: 'Do you like taking out the trash and cleaning up?'
Me: 'No, but I hired a maid.'
Brain: 'Uh, you mean your sim hired a maid.'
Me: 'Oh yeah, wow this is immersive.'
Brain: 'Ok, how about sitting there while your sim watches TV, works out, sleeps, or is at work?'
Me: 'So I guess it's not fun?'
Brain: 'Addictive yes, but if you ask me, why play a game about real life and playing out your dreams on a PC when you could be working towards the same ends in real life?'
Me: 'I see, so you're answer is no?'
Brain: 'Yes. I mean, don't we play video games to escape real life?'
Me: 'Well, I do mud as an escape from reality.'
Brain: 'You mean _I_ mud.'
Me: 'Meh, mud all you want, I'm gonna buy a hot tub and throw a party.'
Brain: 'You're an idiot. I don't know why I don't just move to Aruba and leave you with a majic 8-ball.'
*step step step, door slam*
Me: 'Oh, don't be like that...'
Me: '...jerk.'


And so you have it... Brains know best, though they can be a might touchy when you question them.

[Ragorn]

I got a big craving to play the sims when it first came out, but I didn't. Emily now owns the base version and I think every expansion to date. In true form, she made me buy each consecutive expansion, played with the new features for two days, and went back to house-building with plugins she downloaded from the internet.

I played it once, built up a house, put some people in, got them jobs and so forth... but I really couldn't handle having to micromanage their pissing and trash removal schedules. My sims were always either tired or uncomfortable, and eventually I just gave up.

Then I made a big one-room house with a HD-TV, a mechanical bull, a big heart shaped vibrating bed, three new age couches, some kitchen supplies, and a star trek shower. I put two grown men and a little boy into it, and called it "Thanuk's Little Piece of Heaven."

[Treladian]

While I won't inquire about the veracity of Rag's story, it does illustrate one of the reasons I call the Sims more of a software toy than a game and where the fun of it lies.

A lot of the stuff in the game can be tedious (the social model is still a pain in the ass to deal with for me, but that could say more about my people skills than anything else), but since there's no one goal for the game, you're often free to ignore parts you don't enjoy. Even my neater sims never bothered washing their hands or brushing their teeth. People who are still enjoying the game often do so because they create their own goals that can go beyond what the game supports from a mechanical standpoint. Stuff like noticing that the plasma TV looks kind of like a high tech computer monitor and deciding to buy a crapload of them to finish up the super villain fortress one of your sims lives in, or seeing how well one can survive by not working and just creating and selling art. It's really something that tends to return the effort and imagination you put into it.

Really though, I think almost all of the Sim games, including SimCity, have been closer to software toys than games. I unleashed a pixelated Godzilla on things as often as I tried to make people happy 8)

[Musi]

but I really couldn't handle having to micromanage their pissing and trash removal schedules. My sims were always either tired or uncomfortable, and eventually I just gave up.

Then I made a big one-room house with a HD-TV, a mechanical bull, a big heart shaped vibrating bed, three new age couches, some kitchen supplies, and a star trek shower. I put two grown men and a little boy into it, and called it "Thanuk's Little Piece of Heaven."

You have the option (if I remember correctly) to have them do most things on their own, instead of micromanaging. Damn, now I'm going to have to install it (uh oh!)

And on your last thought, LOL!! :lol:

[thanuk]

Then I made a big one-room house with a HD-TV, a mechanical bull, a big heart shaped vibrating bed, three new age couches, some kitchen supplies, and a star trek shower. I put two grown men and a little boy into it, and called it "Thanuk's Little Piece of Heaven."

If the boys name is Yayaril, and the other man's name is Ragorn, and they are put into a small room with blunt weapons where they battle to the death, and I watch the battle on HDTV while riding my mechanical bull, then that is indeed my little piece of heaven. Otherwise, this is just a sick projection of Ragorn's deeply repressed homosexual tendencies.

[Ragorn]

I'm pretty sure I could take Yayaril if he were a little boy, especially if he only had bludgeoning weapons. Assassins don't get 1h blud do they?

[Eza]

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/stor ... cleID=7588

[moritheil]

less Simz0ring, more <a href=http://www.angelfire.com/in4/nomine>IN </a>playing ;)