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Years ago I had the Sims, and I liked it very much. I used to play on a laptop in bed, before going to sleep...yes, I know that makes me a dork.
The highlight of my Sims gaming was when one of my main characters fell in love with another marginal character I'd created, who lived in the neighborhood. They were both women. I loved playing my lesbian Sims character the best, until the day she asked her girlfriend to move into the house with her. (There were husbands involved, but they didn't seem to mind.) So the girlfriend came walking down the street to "move in", and then the game realized what it had done and froze, completely. Over and over I reverted to a previously saved game, watched my Sims girl walk down the sidewalk to her lady love's house, and over and over the game jammed right at the same point.
The game lost a little of its luster after that; I could create new stories but never find out where that particular one would ever go. Then I switched around computers (PC to Mac, or something) and never bothered to buy the new Sims for the new one.
Now there's a new updated version of the Sims, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zophine mentions playing it, and all of a sudden, I want my little imaginary world all over again. I start to think fondly of old games; one big house in particular, full of people that I tried to manage (keeping as many adults as possible in one household for maximum money-earning potential, running a little virtual sweatshop) where one character was so disagreeable and caused so much strife (not to mention being a lazy bum who wouldn't ever catch his carpool) that I murdered him. I did it by building a swimming pool, luring him into it, and then deleting the ladder when he was in there, swimming around. He swam and swam and swam until he died.
I miss that game.
But I also know I don't have time in my life for any of that.
One reviewer on Amazon puts it well: "This game makes you forget that you yourself have needs -- to go to the bathroom, go to work, go to sleep, to eat something. I can play this game all day long and not care about the time gone. It's mind boggiling how fast six hours can go by."
I want it so badly. I put in my Amazon cart and hovered over "place order" with my mouse. But I have too much to do, projects to finish, things to create. If I get The Sims2, I probably will lose the next six months of my life, and my life is too good right now to risk any of that.
But still, I am happy to note that in the new version, same-sex relationships are perfectly acceptable. It makes me glad to think that in the digital alternate universe, my lesbian characters went on to live happily ever after.
The highlight of my Sims gaming was when one of my main characters fell in love with another marginal character I'd created, who lived in the neighborhood. They were both women. I loved playing my lesbian Sims character the best, until the day she asked her girlfriend to move into the house with her. (There were husbands involved, but they didn't seem to mind.) So the girlfriend came walking down the street to "move in", and then the game realized what it had done and froze, completely. Over and over I reverted to a previously saved game, watched my Sims girl walk down the sidewalk to her lady love's house, and over and over the game jammed right at the same point.
The game lost a little of its luster after that; I could create new stories but never find out where that particular one would ever go. Then I switched around computers (PC to Mac, or something) and never bothered to buy the new Sims for the new one.
Now there's a new updated version of the Sims, and
zophine mentions playing it, and all of a sudden, I want my little imaginary world all over again. I start to think fondly of old games; one big house in particular, full of people that I tried to manage (keeping as many adults as possible in one household for maximum money-earning potential, running a little virtual sweatshop) where one character was so disagreeable and caused so much strife (not to mention being a lazy bum who wouldn't ever catch his carpool) that I murdered him. I did it by building a swimming pool, luring him into it, and then deleting the ladder when he was in there, swimming around. He swam and swam and swam until he died. I miss that game.
But I also know I don't have time in my life for any of that.
One reviewer on Amazon puts it well: "This game makes you forget that you yourself have needs -- to go to the bathroom, go to work, go to sleep, to eat something. I can play this game all day long and not care about the time gone. It's mind boggiling how fast six hours can go by."
I want it so badly. I put in my Amazon cart and hovered over "place order" with my mouse. But I have too much to do, projects to finish, things to create. If I get The Sims2, I probably will lose the next six months of my life, and my life is too good right now to risk any of that.
But still, I am happy to note that in the new version, same-sex relationships are perfectly acceptable. It makes me glad to think that in the digital alternate universe, my lesbian characters went on to live happily ever after.
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However, my character has been flirting with everyone, and now has a girlfriend (who lives with a guy, not sure of the relationship there but may lead to trouble...). So now maybe it is possible for gay relationships on the Sims? I mean it's 2009 you'd think they'd be a little more open minded by now.
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I found a neat blog yesterday about the game, actually. A woman set up two characters, a father and daughter, as homeless. She basically lets the game "autopilot" them through life while she chronicles their adventures getting by. It's really a really neat exercise, like "Nickel and Dimed" in game form. The site is http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/.
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Also, you could have gay relationships in the first one - my first character, an indie-looking guy called Matt Primus, turned out to be gay and the evil bloke from down the street abandoned his family to move in with him. I think you might just have had a buggy version of the game.
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But it does make me feel enviously sulky to know that your guys could move in together, when my girls could not. Maybe your guys lived in virtual Vermont.
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i stopped playing.
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when his girlfriend caught on fire he ran around in circles with his hands over his ears.
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That's not to say it forces you into doing things any particular way. Many times it's more fun to make things difficult for your characters. Like the one lady who is using it to tell the ongoing story of a homeless family. Or odd couples like
(I did that on my first & second generation just to remove money as an issue so I could fuck around with the third generation. Come to think of it, I'm inadvertently recreating the depression & baby boomer demographics in miniature.)
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I loved that game... it is a massive time suck and if we still had windows I would be playing it now. XD I love those kinds of games.
One of my sims also burnt down the house but killed himself instead. Then I set his widow to mourn every so often and after a while she died. Pretty sad!
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Then they got a message from the local science lab (where mom works, incidentally) mentioning that they were working on resurrection technology. They took his ashes down, and he came back... as a ghost. He got to help raise his grandkid. Unfortunately, he also delighted in frightening the crap out of the other family members when he got bored.
Then the middle daughter became an expert chef and discovered a recipe for "ambrosia". It required fruit from experimental seeds mom brought home from the science lab, and fish caught near the graveyard around midnight. Ghost dad ate the resulting confection, and... was resurrected.
They're all happily living together now. All pretty much ageless now because if you're not dead, ambrosia keeps you young. Mom, dad, three girls, and grandkid, in the great little Arts & Crafts house I built for them. (The sperm donor of grandson was selected for his looks, and isn't in the picture.)
Oldest daughter is a world-renowned author, beginning with "Ponies are Great" in elementary school, and continuing through science fiction epics "2001: A Pony Odyssey" and "Pony Trek: The Wrath of Flicka". Middle daughter is a chef and astronaut, and youngest daughter is a guitar-playing folk rocker with a Prius. (Really. Toyota is advertising in the game by offering it for free download.) Her goal in life right now is to move in with her girlfriend, but I want to get her to the top of her career first and send her off with a nice nest egg.
Have I mentioned that toddlers in the game are insanely cute?
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It just rocks too much.
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I remember playing Sim City and trying to build Old Detroit, ala Robocop. I like open-ended games.
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(I don't think I've played anything since SimCity back in the 80s on my cousins' PC. I remember there being a Godzilla-like creature. Not much at the individual people level.)
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Was it by the third date? If not, then maybe Sims crashed because it attempted an unrealistic portrayal of lesbians.
:) :) :)
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It's odd, but both of the female characters I've made are attracted to other females. Do you suppose that says something about me? *grin*
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