The Sims
John and I spent most of the weekend helping set up my sister, Sheilagh, on her first computer system that can access the Internet. We faced a few snags along the way, but we're hopeful the system will be ready to go in her apartment within the next two weeks.
To initiate her new cyber-readiness we went looking for a piece of software we could buy her as a fun gift. In a department store on Friday we found a stack of cheaply-packaged deluxe versions of "The Sims".
Sheilagh's into fashion and home decorating, so we figured "The Sims" would be a natural for her. She could set up her houses and her rooms and create her little Sims guys and be quite content puttering around the Sims world. Due to continuing computer glitches we didn't get "The Sims" installed on her new computer, so we installed it on my computer, instead, so I could teach her how to play. Dangerous move.
Now, I first discovered "The Sims" a few years ago. I've never really been a gamer at heart and computer games in general have never held much appeal, but "The Sims" sucked me in and for three lost months I was playing that game a couple of hours a day. I was really attached to my little families and I loved building Sims houses from the ground up and decorating them and I aggressively worked to move my pet people up their career paths. I finally hit a wall in the game when I realized how hard it was to try to maintain enough friendships in the game consistently to continue my guys up their career paths. This was in the days before the extension packs that let you cultivate friendships in groups, etc., so I eventually lost interest and "The Sims" finally got shelved in favour of other hobbies. To this day, it's the only computer game to ever captured my imagination and my time that strongly.
It had been a few years since I'd last played "The Sims" when I sat down yesterday afternoon to teach Sheilagh how to play. Had to walk through the tutorial myself to refresh my memory, though it all came back quickly. As we suspected, Sheilagh took to the game right away, created a little guy named Damien Maple and moved him into a home and went to town with the decorating. What I -didn't- expect was how quickly both John and I got caught up in Sheilagh's new Sim world, giving advice for Damien or sitting down to play the character ourselves when she stepped away from the computer.
Within a few hours John had borrowed the game disc to set the game back up on his computer again. And now that "The Sims" is back on my computer I find myself contemplating setting up a Sims neighbourhood of my own again. Heaven help us all. And this time I do have the extension packs that would allow my Sims to socialize more and move to the top of their career path should I start playing again.
It's tempting. Oh so tempting. Still I know I have a teacher appraisal at the end of this month and it would be crazy to set a time sink like "The Sims" into motion right now. I've vowed to myself I will not set up a Sims community during April (I'll give the game disc to Sheilagh and make her take it away), though I'm now thinking it could be a fun summertime activity again :).
So, do any of you play "The Sims" or have you gone through a Sims phase? I know
baylorsr plays :). And I know at least ohiblather and bardiclug went through Sims phases that I recall. My name is Allison Durno and I'm a Simsaholic. Tell me your stories.
To initiate her new cyber-readiness we went looking for a piece of software we could buy her as a fun gift. In a department store on Friday we found a stack of cheaply-packaged deluxe versions of "The Sims".
Sheilagh's into fashion and home decorating, so we figured "The Sims" would be a natural for her. She could set up her houses and her rooms and create her little Sims guys and be quite content puttering around the Sims world. Due to continuing computer glitches we didn't get "The Sims" installed on her new computer, so we installed it on my computer, instead, so I could teach her how to play. Dangerous move.
Now, I first discovered "The Sims" a few years ago. I've never really been a gamer at heart and computer games in general have never held much appeal, but "The Sims" sucked me in and for three lost months I was playing that game a couple of hours a day. I was really attached to my little families and I loved building Sims houses from the ground up and decorating them and I aggressively worked to move my pet people up their career paths. I finally hit a wall in the game when I realized how hard it was to try to maintain enough friendships in the game consistently to continue my guys up their career paths. This was in the days before the extension packs that let you cultivate friendships in groups, etc., so I eventually lost interest and "The Sims" finally got shelved in favour of other hobbies. To this day, it's the only computer game to ever captured my imagination and my time that strongly.
It had been a few years since I'd last played "The Sims" when I sat down yesterday afternoon to teach Sheilagh how to play. Had to walk through the tutorial myself to refresh my memory, though it all came back quickly. As we suspected, Sheilagh took to the game right away, created a little guy named Damien Maple and moved him into a home and went to town with the decorating. What I -didn't- expect was how quickly both John and I got caught up in Sheilagh's new Sim world, giving advice for Damien or sitting down to play the character ourselves when she stepped away from the computer.
Within a few hours John had borrowed the game disc to set the game back up on his computer again. And now that "The Sims" is back on my computer I find myself contemplating setting up a Sims neighbourhood of my own again. Heaven help us all. And this time I do have the extension packs that would allow my Sims to socialize more and move to the top of their career path should I start playing again.
It's tempting. Oh so tempting. Still I know I have a teacher appraisal at the end of this month and it would be crazy to set a time sink like "The Sims" into motion right now. I've vowed to myself I will not set up a Sims community during April (I'll give the game disc to Sheilagh and make her take it away), though I'm now thinking it could be a fun summertime activity again :).
So, do any of you play "The Sims" or have you gone through a Sims phase? I know
baylorsr plays :). And I know at least ohiblather and bardiclug went through Sims phases that I recall. My name is Allison Durno and I'm a Simsaholic. Tell me your stories.