Play Style: The Nitty Gritty
Hecubus:
Invisigoth and I were talking this evening about play style...and we realized that this discussion would make an interesting topic. Now IG suggested I start the thread, although, as she says, "since it was my idea I want you to credit me and never post it on the exchange or a paysite. And also no changing my idea, recoloring, alpha edits...And you must link back to my profile whenever you mention this idea to anyone. Including IRL."
So with that in mind....
How do you play? Please include details such as:
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
-city/country/suburban?
- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
- do you play with pets?
- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Discuss.
Orikes:
A little of this, a little of that, honestly.
When I played Sims1, I played it for about a month before I was exceptionally bored with it. Occasionally I'd reload it onto the computer when a friend would give me a new expansion or something, but for the most part it didn't really hook me. The sims themselves were so limited and there was only so much time I could spend building and decorating houses. I was curious about Sims2 when I heard it was coming out, but it wasn't until I got my new computer last year that I actually gave it a shot. That was April '06. Within a couple of weeks, I was hooked and I haven't stopped since.
For me, the big draw is the 'Legacy' factor. I like going through their life spans with one generation taking over after another. That's probably what's kept me playing where the older game bored me to tears after a while. Built into that whole shebang is the genetics issue. I get insanely and unnaturally happy whenever I end up with a dark haired sim giving birth to a baby with recessive genetics displayed. It's rather silly, but it's something I've come to enjoy in the game. That and the whole mixing of facial features.
That said, I still spend a great deal of time building houses and decorating them to my satisfaction. Because I've been playing and writing a legacy, I haven't spent much time building random unneded houses lately, but I still put a great deal of time into the various houses I have my sims in. I like figuring out tricks in getting a nice looking house that's actually playable.
Finally, I've also come to enjoy the Sims2 as a storytelling medium. It's been great fun figuring out how to get just the right expressions and gestures for the pictures I need in my legacy stories (which are far more plotty than they probably should be). With a few of the hacks out there, I've found it's fascinating playing with the different animations to get just the right look for a picture.
Neat topic, by the way.
reggikko:
Quote from: Hecubus on 2007 July 18, 01:01:49
So with that in mind....
How do you play? Please include details such as:
- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
I do a mix of those. I usually enjoy building and decorating, but sometimes it makes my brain hurt. I hadn't been playing regularly of late, until I started the MATY 'hood.
Quote
- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
I play with cutaway walls. I rarely use any money cheats. In the MATY 'hood, I've been a bit more lax on that rule. I've given Sims just enough to start in the house I want them to live in, with bare essentials. The house gets better furnished/decorated as I go along. I decorate and landscape moderately.
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- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
I am a compulsive restarter. I'm going to try to play the MATY 'hood for numerous generations. We'll see. I get bored once Sims have more money than they know what to do with, have maxed skills, etc.
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- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I usually play one neighborhood at a time. Sometimes, I'll play two...Strangetown and whatever custom 'hood I have going.
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- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
Depends on aspiration. Of late, I've been trying to keep some Sims from reaching the tops of careers to keep it a bit more interesting. I'm also trying to play in a more Sim-directed way. They only gain skills and such when they have a want.
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- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
My Sims are mostly homebodies. I've been forcing myself to use Community lots more, again, to add interest and variety.
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-city/country/suburban?
Suburban
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- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Not yet, but Marhis has gotten me tempted.
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- do you play with pets?
Yes. I just recently installed Pets and am slowly getting into it.
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- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I love aliens. (Laverwinkle aliens, FTW!) I've done both vampires and zombies and had fun with both. No werewolves yet.
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- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I use fixes and hacks that handle annoyances. I don't use cheaty hacks at all. No Insim and no Inteen. One thing that I am using is Inge's Heirloom cake so I can age Sims when I want to. For example, my new thing is that Sims will become elders when their grandchildren become adults. I feel like that is a bit more realistic.
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-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
A fair amount. Mostly building and decor stuff, clothing, hair, and genetics, ie custom skins and eyes. I used to have a lot of custom meshes, but not so much anymore.
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- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I build houses and lots. Nothing terribly fancy, but playable. To me, if a lot is pretty but a pain in the ass to play, it isn't worth it. I don't like to do a lot of camera rotation, so my lots are usually designed so that you can view the entire floor from almost any orientation. No enormous, laggy stuff, either. I have quite a few nice Starter homes up, along with 2X2 lots, and some fancier stuff.
phyllis_p:
I'm not a builder or decorator. I'm into families, making good pairings, spawning, genetics, generations. My neighborhoods used to get so bloated with spawn that I couldn't manage to play them anymore, because I like preserving a relative sense of time. (I used to be extremely anal about this, but have loosened up some). I impose strict population control measures now.
I rarely make my own hoods -- tend to stick to the Maxis hoods. I know, heresy, but I like them, and the Maxis-made Sims. I almost never create a Sim in CAS. I'm into fulfilling lifetime wants. About the only time I go to community lots is to buy phones/clothes/groceries, and for dates during courtship. I prefer Strangetown, and when I make my own neighborhoods they're always desert climate. This may be because I lived in the high desert in California and Nevada for a number of years.
I love aliens. I do the occasional vamp, but don't like them as a rule because they are immortal. I don't do zombies because they can't breed. I've never been successful in getting a werewolf, so the jury is still out on that. I occasionally allow my Sims to have pets, but I quit breeding them -- don't like to give them away, and they cause bloat.
I use very few hacks -- generally just to fix annoying/broken things in the game. I have very little custom content. I don't create things. I just play ;D
Khaki:
I've recently completely changed my play style, due to some changes in my RL situation. I used to primarily build lots, some were fancy and decorated to the nines, some where sparsely furnished, but 90% of them were in a European or French Country style. I dabbled a bit in making a couple of decorative objects, just because I wanted to have the stuff for my own lots without having to constantly copy and paste links and crap like that...
But now for the last 2 months, I've just been playing this one family, and actually got them to a 3rd generation without dying of boredom. Hopefully by the end of tonight there will be a fourth generation on it's way. But this family is still boring. I don't seem to be able to let anything bad happen. All the kids have straight A's, everybody's motives are pretty much kept in the green. It's like I can't bear to fuck up their poor sim lives, but then they just get boring... I guess the main difference with this family is that I'm only breeding with townies, so at least I get to look forward to what the genetics will spew out with each birth.
One of my biggest problems is I don't have enough hacks and stuff. I don't know what the good ones are... I have macrotastics, which I dig. I've never used the insiminator, cuz everytime I go to the download thread I get all confuzzled. What, there is like 20 versions or something... surfing through the wiki for hacks is torturous. I've been thinking of posting here asking what the good hacks are, but I have a slight fear of being ridiculed for my ignorance. :) Not that you guys do that sort of stuff. ;) ;D
Anywho, great topic. Hecubus you're a true genious for thinking of it. ;D ;)
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