Play Style: The Nitty Gritty

[syberspunk]

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."

Foul!  I cry!  Scoundrel!  Sheister!  Where is the link to Invisigoth's profile?

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?

Well... seeing as I suck at building, and I did not get the decorating gay gene I prefer playing more so than creating.  I'm pretty crappy at the creating aspect.  I suppose I am more into the game modding and playing aspect.  Modding only because it affects my playing.  I will play for a while, and if I notice something that annoys me, which seems to be quite often, I will attempt to figure out if there is a way to change it (assuming that a mod already doesn't exist to fix the things I have issues with).

- 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?

As Pes says, a bit of column A, a bit of column B.  I focus mostly on the "stories" I'm trying to tell.  Not that I'm actually doing stories per se, since that requires effort.  In my main game, I have pretty much re-created my family, and added my close friends, and some of my sister's friends, and maybe a few friends of friends.  I play them, mostly trying to re-create their real life stories in game, as best as I can.  But of course, if certain things happen differently, like say... due to ACR or what not, well that's just how the game goes.  Hehe.

I probably mostly focus on the interactions, and I play really, really, really... slooooooooooooooowwwwly. So... in my game, I have pretty much only had one in-game birth so far.  I have yet to even get past the 1st/2nd generation of sims.

Lots/houses tend to get decorated on the fly, as a sim earns money, and/or rolls up wants for objects.  I try to make things as aesthetically pleasing as possible, but I tend to let sim's wants overrun everything else, including good taste for the sake of fulfilling wants.  Needless to say, Fortune sims tend to have the ugliest houses ever, cuz their lots tend to end up full of a lot of crap.

- 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?

It might be... if I ever get around to the next generation.  Probably the latter... but not necessarily cuz I intentionally play tons of families due to boredom.  Rather, it's cause I put so many sims of my own, in addition to all the Maxis EA playables (which I have yet to even play ), that I am kind of forced to play sims households for a certain length of time, so I can get my game to have some kind of resemblance to IRL.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

If by 'hood, you mean complete Neighborhood, including all attached sub-hoods, then it would be the latter.  I am overwhelmed by the number of playable sims I have in my game as it is.  And thanks to SaraMK's templates, I have a combined Pleasantview with Strangetown and Veronaville sub-hoods.  I have plans to further add Riverblossom Hills to my main game as well.  But I have no plans of ever creating a custom 'hood.  Again, that requires creativity that I apparently seem to be lacking.   I am even considering adding cwykes other custom hoods as subhoods, just cause I like the idea of having sims with pre-built history.

- 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?

Again, a bit of column A and a bit of column B.  I am mostly a benevolent sim-god/oversoul whatever you wanna call it.  I have a tendency, for the most part, to want to see my sims "happy" and thus, I tend to fulfill their Wants as best as possible, and attempt to achieve their respective LTWs, as long as they fall in line with my overall "master" plan, whatever that may be. lol.   Still figuring things out as I go, but some sims already have their fates pre-determined (death for some, asp failure for some, long life and happiness for others), while some sims lives are pretty much "controlled" by their wants.  Ask and they shall receive.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Mostly homebodies, but in some cases, I will have sims go to comm lots for dates, shopping, if their wants revolve around comm lotty type things, or if by whim I just feel like it.

-city/country/suburban?

I suppose I have all in my game, depending on how you classify the different 'hoods (Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, Bluewater Village, and Downtown).  If I had a preference, it would probably be Downtown/city, just cause I live in one.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Nope.  Too much effort.

- do you play with pets?

Yep.  I have a few.  Thus far, only three households have pets.  Two have dogs and a Uni lot has a parrot.  I have Maxis EA playables with pets, but I have yet to get around to playing them.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I like 'em all.  I have made a couple of townie zombies.  I have yet to get a vamp, wolf, or play an alien yet.  But I have no qualms about doing so.  It's just a silly game.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

A bit of both as well.  Ones that make my life simpler, actually playing the game, and ones that make sim life harder for my sims.   I do have InSim.  I have not yet used InTeen, but I might do it whenever I get around to restarting my legacy-ish game.  I originally had a separate account for a legacy challenge-ish type game, where I only used hacks that were essential (fixes for bugs and annoyances), but it was annoying to maintain separate hacks.  I may start over again, and use InTeen for a change of pace.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Little.  Clothes mostly.  Assuming we do not consider hacks as custom content (otherwise hacks probably outnumber everything else).  I used to want better clothing, but now, I don't care so much, since I tend to be a completist and I will buy SPs (but only when they are on sale).  And at least with those, I can (almost ) trust that the meshes and the textures are somewhat up to par with the rest of the game.  Even if they might be ugly, at least their won't be other issues (i.e. dresses that don't bend at the knee, visible seams and/or weird bumps, etc.).

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I do share my hacks.  Duh.   Other than that, I lack the skills of an artist, and thus, I do not create.

Ste

[ZiggyDoodle]

*looks all around* Is there a post thief here?

Nope; I can see them all.

Clear your cache; refresh your browser; switch over to FireFox - or install today's update if you already have Foxy.

[witch]

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."

OK
Submit 

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
Alternate between building and playing, I only create or modify sims to fit themes generally. I rarely bother changing clothes once a sim has an outfit for a life stage, although the weather in Seasons has made me a bit more flexible. The exception is the adult stage, they usually get a middle-age make-over half way through, once the kids turn adult. I don't play to the skilling, aspiration, influence or wants much, maybe a general aim for a life-time want, but mostly I play out the stories in my head and enjoy the random things that throw that off course. Building and decorating kind of go together for me, but I have many sim houses my sims have never used because they can't afford them. 

I play walls cutaway and the residents improve the home as they can afford it. I tend to stay focused quite a way out so I can all that's happening and there's usually one or two views of the lot used most commonly, I can't really be bothered swinging the camera all the time. I do use the preset camera when I remember.

- 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 wish! I really, really want to see down through the generations spawning, that was one of the most exciting things about the sims for me. Unfortunately I often; a) modify the hood so much it becomes unstable, b) put so many starter sims in I get sick of playing it, c) want to try new hood mods and get hooked on that hood. I don't think I've got past gen 3 yet. 

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
*sigh* Lots.

- 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?
Relationships, stories and interractions. Skilling is a boring chore for me and I want to have fun with the game. I hated/loathed/despised Sims Online.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Sometimes they get a brief fling in their youths, but mostly homebodies. OFB has opened up that area of gameplay for me, the aim is that all goods and services are supplied by my playables, so that provides more incentive to go and get stuff at community lots.

-city/country/suburban?
Mostly country, suburban.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Currently developing a Cyberpunk hood with all sorts of zombies, vamps, werewolves, aliens etc; plus I'm thinking about turning RiverBlossom Hills into a real 50's hood.

- do you play with pets?
Not the parrot or the womrat, some families have one or two pets. I wanted a breeding business but firstly they're difficult to sell in a shop and secondly the genetics were all messed up when Pets was released. Very disappointing.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
Harder. Well, harder for sims, easier for me, anything that helps with mindless repetitive clicking is very high in my list.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
Lots - too much of everything. Must pop in and see how JFade's Wrangler is doing. 

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Lots - www.laverwinklesims.com Look in Witch's Haunt

[Kala]

How do you play? Please include details such as:

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
creating sims, amd 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?
Even though I focus on family play, I like well decorated and furnished lots.

- 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 like watching how spawns turn out.  I like to use genetics to make sims in CAS.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I play one custome hood that is made to look like the upper middle class section of my city.

- 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?
I put an equal focus on skill building and personal relations.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
My sims are homebodies because it's easier to control them at home.

-city/country/suburban?
suburban

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Nope, just a hodge podge of different styles.

- do you play with pets?
I just started to play pets.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I'm a real person player, but the real people can be real...umm...
 
- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I have a bunch of hacks in my game to cut down on anoyences(sp?)

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
I can't imagine my game without CC.  My CC ratio is pretty even.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create
I'm the 1,562,356,162,813th person that creates womens' clothes.  I like to play fashion designer, so I tend to create what I'd like women to wear insted of what women actualy wear.  I also recolor hair.  I'd like to recolor objects, but I'm still tramatized from Sims 1.

[Kittylynn]

How do you play? Please include details such as:

Are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I think I pretty much play families and build lots equally.  I'm really a big sucker for challenges!

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 mostly medium sized lots, moderately decorated.  I like my Sims to have a nice environment, but I don't like to clutter the lot up with too much stuff.  I like the cut-out wall, dollhouse style and try to just let my Sims live their lives, usually according to the rules of whatever challenge I happen to be playing at the moment.

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 do enjoy playing with genetics.  I am in the 6th generation of a Legacy right now and there have been a few genetic surprises.  Of course this is the first time I have played a single family for so long.

Do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I have 5 neighborhoods, 3 of them custom.  One is my short challenge hood,  One is my story telling hood, and the other is my Legacy hood which started as an apocalypse.

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?

I try to balance as much as possible.  Of course it depends on their aspirations and I randomly generate all aspirations in my game regardless of challenge or free play.

Do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

My Sims have a tendency to be a lot like me and are very much homebodies! 

City/country/suburban?

Country with some suburban, basically just like where I am in RL.  I live in a farming community at the edge of a larger suburban area.

Do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

I don't think I have any set theme.  My building and decorating style is very country and shabby chic.

Do you play with pets?

I don't play with pets too much because of lot lag.  I have started to play with them more.

Do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I play with the real people for the most part, though the odd alien, vamp and more recently plantsim are a refreshing change.
 
Hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I have the director's cut for Seasons, plus a small number of random hacks from other places.  Most of them are annoyance fixes, a few make things harder.  I do use InSim mostly in storytelling situations. 

Custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

I have tons of CC.  Mostly for the body, clothing, accessories and hair.  Some of it is my own.

And finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I do share my creations, I recolor just about anything.  I don't mesh yet, but I'm trying to learn.  I am a Featured Artist on the Spiffy Sims Forum, so that is where my recolors can be downloaded.

[Horanda]

I spend lots of time building. Not because I enjoy it particularly, with the limitations of build mode, but because I want houses where my Sims can live sensibly without the frustration of unplayable design tricks. Early on I downloaded hundreds of lots from the exchange, all occupied, some of the Sims are still in my game (yes, I know that's a VBT, but no problems so far), but not one of the houses survived the first play session. I find it easier to move a family out, bulldoze, and start over, than to renovate.

I do not decorate. If they don't need it to live, they don't need it. I don't landscape for the same reason. Planting flowers causes weeds.

I CAS Sims when I am starting a hood, then let genetics take its course. Townies and dormies are good only for the occasional fling, only playables get to add their genetics to the pool. In my first Pleasantville, Beau Broke married Meadow Thayer, who promptly became invisible, so I have stayed away from that genepool.

I have a number of custom hoods, each started with a storyline in mind. If I can't remember why I started that hood (I don't use the storyline box) then the hood gets deleted.

Free will is important, but so is less stupidity. I spend a lot of time nuking actions that are inappropriate at the time. If bladder and hygiene are equally low, who the hell takes a shower first! I can see the entire lot at most times, with walls cut away, so I can head off that stupid sim before he/she does something permanent

The Director's Cut is an automatic install for me. I use InSim because my sims WILL be happy, whether they like it or not. I did try InTeen for a while, but it borked more than it fixed, and ACR provided the functionality I was looking for. I use Monique's computer, mostly for the express delivery option. testingCheats is rarely on. The College Clock helps me get my YAs through Uni. I use very little CC, because I don't really care what things look like, as long as they work.

My Sims rarely leave home, except in pursuit of their occupation. The time warp involved with community lots usually requires a fair amount of micromanagement to overcome.

[notveryawesome]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

All of the above. I really enjoy setting up new custom neighbourhoods and building/decorating lots, but I also enjoy creating sims and playing families. It mostly depends on my mood.

- 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 like my lots to be nicely decorated, and tend to play with cutaway walls (unless I'm taking photos, and then I try to have walls up, when possible), but I don't go overboard with the decorative objects unless the environment score is especially low in a particular area or room.

- 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?

Whilst I do find sim-genetics interesting, I am easily bored, so I usually don't make it past the 2nd or 3rd generation. I do play my lots/families in loose rotation (as long as the sims are in the correct lifestage when I'm done playing a particular lot, I don't really care how many days I've played it).

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

At the moment, I only play SarahMK's combined hood and a sci-fi/cyberpunk-themed hood, as well as a mostly empty testhood, though in the past I've had up to 5 custom hoods going at once, as well as the original 3 Maxis-made hoods.

- 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?

I try to balance the two. Mostly, however, it depends on the sims' aspirations. Popularity, family, and romance sims are usually more interested in building relationships, whilst fortune and knowledge sims are more interested in skilling and progressing their careers.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

My sims tend to be homebodies (as I am), but I'm slowly changing this, especially when they're at uni. Again, this depends on aspiration.

-city/country/suburban?

This depends on my mood and whether I'm playing a particular theme. My cyberhood, for example, is mostly desert and concrete, whilst the Victorian-themed hood I used to have was more rural.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Aside from the above-mentioned sci-fi/space/cyberpunk and Victorian themes, I've also done fantasy/faerietale, medieval, and Asian themes. I'm thinking of restarting the Asian theme as a subhood of one of my current neighbourhoods, as it was a lot of fun building, decorating, and populating that one.

- do you play with pets?

It depends on the family and other things happening on the lot (and how much patience I have). Home-business lots do not tend to have pets, because the combination is too hectic. Also, I generally tend to only give pets to family sims and sims with high interest in animals, though not always. Sometimes I give pets for realism (my self-sim has sim versions of my RL cats) or for storytelling purposes.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

This depends on the neighbourhood. For example, anything goes in my cyberhood, but a fantasy or medieval hood would not be allowed to have aliens, or even servos, for that matter.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

This depends. Some of my hacks make things easier, mainly to eliminate personal annoyances of mine, such as permanently-clean petfood dishes, whilst others make life harder (expensive NPCs). I use the InSim object edition. I do not use InTeen.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Everything in moderation. I currently have just over 3 GB of CC. In the past, I've had as much as 12 or 13 GB. This is mainly why I no longer have so many themed hoods. I tend to collect furnishings and Build Mode stuff, but care little for clothing or hair (unless it fits a theme).

Edit: I just remembered that I recently culled a lot of stuff from my Downloads folder, so I actually have 1.7 GB of CC, not 3 GB, as I thought.

[MattyDienhoff]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
Probably an equal measure of all four. I love building houses but I also love running and manipulating sim's lives. Sometimes I spend a lot of time in all the different households, running their lives, other times I just build and end up with empty houses scattered around the neighborhood with no one living in them.

- 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?
Um, a bit of both.

- 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?
Not really, I go from one household to the next very quickly so none of the family trees are very long yet, one or two generations at the most. I've never done a legacy.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
Lots of hoods. Along with Pleasantview, it's sub-hoods (Bluewater Village and Downtown) and Strangetown, I have a few custom neighborhoods.

Southport, which uses the "sample" terrain template and is a fairly well established coastal town. (I started this neighborhood a year ago, at least)

Portsmouth, which uses a terrain I designed in SC4, is an industrial district I'm still working on (it's still kind of empty) but there's low-income housing, a few abandoned warehouses and offices, a pawn shop, and a used car yard. And I've got plans in the works for a shipyard, among other things. I used neighborhood decorations like cooling towers and a monorail to add to the industrial atmosphere and the 'hood is built on the 'dirt' terrain which looks the part. My idea is some of the abandoned warehouses could be converted into shops by enterprising sims, so I guess you consider it a sort of urban renewal project.

Evandale, based on the "Driftwood" terrain template. The name is just a placeholder until I think of something better and this is basically just the empty spot where I've been building houses and there are only a few families living there now, but I'm planning to move some more in soon.

- 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?
A bit of both.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
They mostly stay at home but they occaisionally go out to dinner or hang out at the local pool, stuff like that.

- city/country/suburban?
All of the above.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Not really... Well, I do sometimes build castles and I built a space station of sorts once.

- do you play with pets?
Sometimes, yes.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
Most of my sims are just sims, but I get a kick out of the supernatural stuff occaisionally and I often play aliens in Strangetown.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I use InSim a fair bit.

- custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
A fair bit of furniture and a few custom cars, but mostly hacks.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I occaisionally share lots I create. Once I built a massive castle and that was well-received, I might build another one sometime soon, because I have a lot more tools to do it with now.

[Zazazu]

Yay! Gen 11 of my Alphabet family, and I've finally bred the pinnochio nose that I accidentally married in first generation out of the male line.

[Khan of Wyrms]

-are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Building lots, sub-'hoods, creating families to populate them, not so much decorating or playing, but some.  One of the best things about building is finding out just how well the lot works when played, so all lots get at least a small amount of play time.  Mostly only playing enough to get certain family members to particular career levels or certain states of existence.  (i.e. Vampire, zombie, ghost, werewolf, no plantsims yet)  I have a few families/sims that I have played quite a bit, but most are just neighborhood filler, like custom townies who own houses.  Names are key for me, for some peculiar reason.  If a sim or family has an interesting or clever name then they may get more playing time.

What I really wish for is a sort of halfway point between SC4 and TS2, where I could play from the neighborhood screen, perhaps, and all of the families could go about their business without as much micromanagement.  Maybe turn-based...oh, well...

- 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?

Decoration depends mostly on the lot and sometimes available funds, and I normally play with partial or complete cutaway.  I have shacks and trailers, and I have mansions and veritable castles, and everything in between.

- 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 can spend hours in CAS creating a family, cross-breeding and then deleting whole generations, experimenting.  If I have a really good surname I want well represented, the family will come out with the maximum number of members and often several generations down the line.  This can make somewhat large character files as the new sims carry a lot of genetic information sometimes, but eh.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I play one custom hood, Idylleville, that I started shortly after University was released.  It received an infusion of sims and lots from all three mEAxis 'hoods, but mostly from Strangetown, to get things rolling.  (Yes, in what is supposed to be a VBT sort of way, if it matters, that was 4 XP's and 2 SP's ago.)  Idylleville has five downtown, four shopping, and two university districts attached to the main 'hood, so far.  Sub-'hood terrains were reconciled with each other in SC4 so that the borders mesh and general compass-point relationships could be established, mostly for street naming and addressing lots.

- 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?

Aspiration is key to what individual sims do, although Idylleville has a preponderance of 'knowledge' sims, since it fits the general theme of the neighborhood.  Sometimes individuals break the mold, though, like one romance-sim I had created in Uni-CAS back about the time of Nightlife who had the unusual lifetime aspiration to be a 'Mad Scientist'.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Some of both but less on community lots, depending upon circumstances, although downtown and shopping sub-'hoods are mostly places for more lots and more sims to live.  Community lots are scattered throughout the realm.

-city/country/suburban? do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

City+suburban describes it best, although there are some remote locations.  Theme is modern, Lovecraftian-mystery realm...-ish, or what TS2 is.

- do you play with pets?

Occasionally, but I find they are generally too needy and too stupid and not enough fun.  Mostly for lonely sims or lots with just a few other residents.  Normally never more than eight characters on a lot, sims+pets.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

Definitely do vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing.  Without them I might not even be playing still, and I always want/need more.  I also have daemons, devils, faeries, and Olde Ones.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? Inteen?

I use just a few hacks/mods, and almost none that make the game easier, with the exception of Smonaff's 'jealousy check' for the non-committed.  I have a few JMP mods, a few TJ mods, a couple of Smonaff mods, and the 'non-awesome (TM)' Hack Which Must Not Be Named.  Generally, I view game annoyances as part of the playing of the game and I would not generally want anything to make the game any easier than it already is.   

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

I own a sizable collection of skins, hairs, and genetics, since this is not an area that I play around with much at all.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I don't typically share, since I don't normally make anything except lots and sims.  My 'hoods are largely unique terrain and lots are mostly uneven, plus I don't usually make sims in Bodyshop, so not much opportunity there, either.  I do look forward to more building contests here, and will likely contribute in this manner in the future.

[jolrei]

Yay! Gen 11 of my Alphabet family, and I've finally bred the pinnochio nose that I accidentally married in first generation out of the male line.

Such patience!  Very admirable.  I had a pinocchio nose combined with weak chin in my first hood.  This went on through gen 4 and actually got worse.  Satellites fell from heaven and destroyed the family utterly, causing massive emotional stress for the last playable standing in that family (he had married in).  Shortly after this the hood went foooom, but I felt sorry enough for the Sim that I cloned him and put the clone in my new hood so he could have a better chance at a happy life.

Now that I'm a bit wiser, I am less cavalier about my destructive techniques and may just try to exercise patience to let Sim genetics take their course.  If I get "British royalty" again, I may just live with it.

[ingeli]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

This varies with mood.

- 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 want my lots to be themed, and to fit in the story. They must also be playable. Sometimes I put a LOT of time into decorating, and sometimes I just want the story to go on, so I give the simmies the necessary stuff, and put deco in while I am playing. I like playing OFB so I also let them buy deco stuff by themselves.

- 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 LOVE this aspect of the game. This is a natural follow up on the games I played when I was a child, creating endless family trees of royalty, or rich families, or just some story I was working on.. sims are ideal for this! I even use some family names I remember from those games, hehe. Back in the days, I used paper dolls and drawing to illustrate.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I never play the maxis hoods, only if I have to test something. I have made a couple of custom hoods, my main project is my medieval hood, which I just restarted this week. Now with emptier grounds, hopefully less bugged and better! I also grew tired of the terrains. Once in a while I get tired of the old times and long for my HUGE collection of modern stuff, and then I fire up my special OTHER sims2version, with all the modern downloads. I have a Science Fiction themed hood there.

- 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?

Hmm.. one day, when my sims deveope into more modern times, they will think about careers. Now they are mostly into farmin and breeding and social stuff.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Since seasons, more homebound. But I like community lots, when I remember them, lol.

-city/country/suburban?

A village, and a medieval town.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Yes, medieval and SF.

- do you play with pets?

Yes. But I dont have patience with training, tg for christianlovs pet trainer object.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

Hmm.. I dont play with the plant sims. Aliens are not in contact with my medieval sims, they will maybe turn up in the future. I have had werewolves, which I treated like a serious disease for the sim that was hit. Vamps feel more victorian, I may do that with time.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

All hacks I feel improves the game. Maty, of course, Inteen because the teens married back in medieval times, and Insim now when I am restarting the hood, as I salvaged some old sims from the old hood and need them to be in the right age and such.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

LOTS. Hair. Objects. Everything medieval I can find, and also collecting other periods stuff.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I wish I could. I envy the hack creators. I have tried a little tiny bit, enough to have the uttermost respect for you all and your awesomeness.