I think teen Sims might just check if there's an expensive telescope on the lot, and if there is, they roll up the abduction scholarship want. That want always goes away for me after they fulfill another one.

My Sims invariably get the jitters with espresso, but I've never seen it with coffee.

They aren't "hacked" drivers, if by "hacked" you mean some sloppy thrown-together job. The guy who writes them is a tester for ATI. And, considering the fact that I got VPU recovers before I used his drivers, and none after, it is not a problem with my computer. This happens to many, many people, on many games, with certain ATI drivers. We do not all happen to have the same computer problems that only happen to come out with certain versions of ATI's drivers . The Omega "hacked" drivers are about as "dangerous" for the computer as J.M.'s hacks are for The Sims 2. The Omega drivers are just superior to ATI drivers in every way. When ATI's drivers do not work with a game, it is not the user's fault, and not the system's fault. ATI drivers crash a lot of games: Everquest 2, Knight of the Old Republic 1 and 2, Civilization 4, just to name a few games I have had personal experience with. Whereas Omega drivers have more options and don't crash.

The site, http://www.omegadrivers.net/, isn't timing out any more either.

You could also roll back your drivers to a previous version of ATI's. But this VPU recovery thing with ATI drivers is known to happen with many games -- while it may be a computer issue sometimes, it is so incredibly common as a driver issue.

Honestly? None. People quit modding for all sorts of reasons, but I have never seen a talented modder quit merely because of people griping at him/her. If you are a truly talented and creative person, you also have an ego the size of Montana, even when you're able to conceal it under a large amount of tact. When that is based on real talent, the ego can be bruised, but never punctured.

Maxoids aren't about to quit because their wittle feewings get hurted. This is their job. You're paid to do something, you deal with the crap, especially when that crap is from consumers, not from co-workers or bosses.

This is not necessarily a cooling problem; this happens with ATI's drivers on quite a few games. I have an ATI 9600 Pro, and was having VPU recover issues with some games until I switched to Omega drivers. www.omegadrivers.net They have tons of options, work a lot better with OpenGL then ATI's drivers, and generally are much, much better.

It's a lot of abuse on the CD drive too. Copy protection stinks.

I use http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=109741&highlight=default+helaene as defaults.

They are neither shiny nor oily, and they don't make male Sims look like they're wearing makeup. For that matter, they don't make female Sims look like they're wearking makeup -- I don't wear makeup, so why should all my Sims be stuck with it?

And boobies. Can't forget the boobies. They will bring about the downfall of civilization as we know it.

Because of evidence I have read, journalistic and otherwise. I have every right to draw conclusions from that evidence. And I have worked for large companies before, for a matter of fact.

Denigrating an entire nation is so completely different than denigrating the ethical practices of one certain company, it's off the charts weird to compare the two. Denigrating a company is like denigrating the current government of a nation, if you want something to compare. And I'm perfectly happy to do that too when it's warranted.

I realize quite thoroughly how complicated the job is. "It's complicated" is not an excuse to not do it right. They aren't curing cancer. "We aren't given nearly enough time to do it right, or treated with any decency by management" IS an excuse, and it's not one anyone should have to make in any field. I don't blame the programmers. I blame the executives, who screw both programmers and consumers in their pursuit of quick cash. Quick, not long-term; their business model is bad for investors as well. Of course, anything that's bad for workers and consumers is bad for the average investor as well because it's bad for the economy, but anyway...

EA is a company with absolutely zero ethical standards. But frankly, until people stop buying their crap, nothing will change.

Oh yes they have. Check out www.civfanatics.com for examples .

All religions in Civ 4 are absolutely equal, and people still do find a ton of stuff about religion in the game to gripe about. Civ 4's player base is generally much older and more experienced than that of the Sims franchise, do you really think Maxis would be insane enough to chance the firestorm of sheeple if they put religion in the game and didn't make some particular brand of Christianity "the best"? Besides, religion fits Civ 4 perfectly as the opiate of the people. I see no point or use for it in the Sims.

It's not the "boring" part that primarily annoys me. It's the fact that they are built to be annoying. The women have screechy voices, they all have severe osteoperosis, their clothes are terrible. They were obviously built with an "old people suck" prejudice in mind, and it actually does make me angry.

None of the expansion ideas look terribly interesting. Weather would be nice, but I don't see how it could support an entire expansion pack. Same with the "back in time" stuff. Pets and kids together could be enough... but really, not thrilled with it if pets are yet another thing I'd have to take care of. Maybe I'm just saying that because my current Sim family just had twins though. Pets really aren't a bad idea, but the whining and screaming for them on the BBS has made me rather skeptical of them.

Honestly, after Nightlife, I'm happy with my game now. It's by far the best expansion imo, adding lots of new options that are actually fun without really forcing things on people. I'd rather Maxis just made an expansion with lots of new interactions and tons of new objects. No clothes necessary, they're just bad at making clothes and the community is great at it. But if an XP had at least 5 new objects in every single subcategory, like 2 new aspirations, a new career to go with each aspiration, and about, I dunno, 20 new interactions, I'd be all for it. They could throw the weather thing in there too. I have no hope that Maxis will do what I really want: fix elders.

Eww.

Even smart people learn to hide their smarts in public school in America if they want to survive. I still haven't seen Americans be any dumber than any other people on the internet. When I think back to the most stupid, most obnoxious people I've met in cyberspace, I think Africans and South Americans are the only people who have any right to feel superior. There are dumb people everywhere.

Hi, American with 142 IQ here. I have seen absolutely NO difference on the internet between  the intelligence of Americans and the intelligence of anyone else. Everyone's an ass, but some more so than others. Good job putting yourself in the "more so" category. As for civilized, it's generally not considered terribly civilized to denigrate the intelligence of the citizens of an entire country.

If EA would actually hire enough people to do the work they demand, and treat them with a minimal level of decency, we most probably wouldn't have to deal with buggy, low-grade crap like FFS (Family Fun Stuff, that is, not Flying Fish Systems.) No, J.M., I don't think sweatshops are a legitimate way to do business .

Regarding the "piracy protection" garbage: first, it doesn't work. None of it does. Stardock recently released Galactic Civilizations 2 with NO piracy protection on the CD, because that protection alienates customers, is bugged to hell, and doesn't work. Instead, you have to register the game to get special content, and that content really is high-quality. They're a small company that actually knows how to do business; Galactic Civilizations 2 sold, and is selling, incredibly well, and very many people are buying it specifically because of Stardock's great customer service attitude. It's past time for giants like EA to wake up and smell dollars they're missing because of treating customers like criminals.

Yeah, it's annoying. I plan to make some Sims have those LTWs anyway, and use a cheat to max out their aspiration meter permanently when they achieve them. It's inelegant, but oh well.

Actually, objectivism is a "philosophy" (cult imo) started by Ayn Rand. It's pretty much libertarianism taken to extremes. No one is ever unlucky, everyone started out equal, no one gets sick, no one has anything unexpected happen, etc. You deserve what you get, and how much property you own is the measure of your success and even worth as a human being.

It's often espoused by pseudo-intellectuals who think they're in any way "deep" or "practical" for ignoring what really goes on in peoples' lives and for not having any compassion whatsoever.

No no no no no. That's the only thing they're good for!

Joking, of course.

They're also good for opening pickle jars. 

(I really hope my boyfriend never sees this...)

I didn't get University until my necessary hacks were updated. No way am I playing Nightlife without them either. I can wait.