More Awesome Than You!

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.

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.

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.


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.


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.


I usually play one neighborhood at a time. Sometimes, I'll play two...Strangetown and whatever custom 'hood I have going.


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.


My Sims are mostly homebodies. I've been forcing myself to use Community lots more, again, to add interest and variety.


Suburban


Not yet, but Marhis has gotten me tempted.


Yes. I just recently installed Pets and am slowly getting into it.


I love aliens. (Laverwinkle aliens, FTW!) I've done both vampires and zombies and had fun with both. No werewolves yet.


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.


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.


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.

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

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 ;)

- I create sims the most.  Sims 2 is just a more complex version of a paper doll to me.

- lots: If I'm in it for game play then the houses are pretty sparse and walls are almost always partially down meaning if I'm close up they're down but farther away they're not. If I am trying to recreate a story I decorate fully. :)

- genetics:  I prefer being able to play the spawn game in CAS where I can decide if that's really how I want the youngings to look but I don't mind it when I'm playing a challenge.  Sometimes a characteristic I wouldn't of allowed can become a feature for that sim and I can play it up/down with makeup/hair/clothing.

- I'm pretty bad at building and tend to get irritated by the inability to move walls instead of having to tear them down and build them back up.  I prefer downloading other's work and making it my own.  I play in bursts so I have never hung onto a neighborhood that long except for when the first came out and I was tickled to pieces by my sim-real family.  When the next expansion comes I usually start over.

- relationships and interactions:  With the creation of macros, dizy's improved free will mod, and ACR I am pretty hands off unless I have a goal in mind for the sim.  I like them to build the initial relationship on their own so I know where the relationship should lead.

- comm versus home:  With Seasons I'm staying more at home.  However, I had a sim who stayed on community lots the entirety of his life and he had a blast.  I would like to do that again sometime soon.

- city/country/suburban? Suburban, but I'll do city when I eventually download all those fantastic sets of lots people have been doing.

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

- do you play with pets?  Nearly every family has to have a pet unless I feel it doesn't go well with how the family is.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?:  I've been told my play style is boring on more than one occasion.  I have had a least one of each mentioned but really to try it out and I dump them pretty quickly.

- hacks:  I used to swear by insimenator but I haven't used it since Pets came out.  It's really a mixture of both harder and easier.. harder to make it semi more realistic but easier in the tediousness part of the game.  Clicking, "go to bed," on a sim is much easier than having to stop everything and find the floor the bed is on, click it and hope the sim doesn't cancel it out or wanders off.  The added feature of them automatically queueing to go to the bathroom after waking up is a total win.

-cc:  I used to download a lot of everything but since the latest expansion packs have been such a load on my computer I mainly choose things to dress up the sim and some objects where the game is really lacking.

-my cc:  I make clothing.

DANCE, PUPPETS, DANCE.

Victory is life.

Bit of column A, bit of column B.

There can be only one.

Both. With moar fight.

Not a big fan of lot load, but a sacrifice that can be made if it will produce moar fight.

Bit of everything.

Is "Moar Fight" a theme?

Some.

Vampires aren't real people? That's news to me.

I AM AWESOME!

My stuff.

See above.

Mm, I tried my hand at lot building a few times when I was bored, but mostly I play families.

I'm bad with decorating, I must have missed out on some girl-gene that makes every girl in my middle and high school graduating classes able to write in pretty loopy handwriting, draw a perfect heart, star, or other doodle, and decorate a room tastefully. In fact, the shirt and shorts I'm wearing now don't even match. I'll put decor when I feel like it, but I play walls cutaway or down.

I'm all about the storyline, honestly I don't think a lot of sims are as fugly as people say. It's not enough to bother me.

I have a couple play hoods and a couple movie-making hoods.

It's all about the storyline for me.

I get fed up with load times, but then, my sims have to meet people a lot, so I do play community lots.

Depends on the hood. Downtowns tend to be more city. Most of my main hoods are more suburban. Riverblossom and subhoods are country.

one pic/movie hood is victorian-fantasy, and Riverblossom makes good use of the new country decor.

yup

The first zombie I made was quite on accident, the first time I used the ressurectanomitron, and it creeped me the fuck out. So I don't use them much. Aliens, a lot. Vamps, a good deal. Weres, too hard to make. Plantsims, a lot in Riverblossom

I don't like to cheat the game easier, but I don't use harderjobs or expensivenpcs either. Just make it more realistic.

A decent amount, but you'd be surprise how much I pass by to use maxis stuff instead.

I don't share. Mine are THAT bad.  Example: http://www.geocities.com/techwiz2000_2000/armor5.jpg

I love this topic!  It's so fascinating to see how other people play. 

Me - I am an absolute nerd about my Sims, LOL.  I have charts!  My husband laughs at me!  I play with a deck of cards for variety, which decides all kinds of things... what Sim is going to die a tragic and early death... what Sims "move away" (population control!)... oops, somebody got pregnant... somebody has a midlife crisis... how much does so-and-so really want to go to college?... family lost everything in a tragic house fire... criminals draw a card for jail risk, law enforcement and military draw a card for death risk...  I'm not kidding when I say I have charts :)

My custom neighborhood is Lakeside Heights.  I have 71 Sims, several different family lines, who I play equally in 3 day intervals, and my fourth generation kids are just starting to be born.  I've been at this neighborhood for over a year, and had another before it that I played since the beginning, and that one made it to the 6th generation before I started over.  Lakeside Heights has a downtown, Lake City (the Maxis default, remodeled), and Bluewater Village has been wiped clean and turned into a farming suburb.

I mostly build my own lots, but I do download too. 

Interactions - I'm pretty big on free will, and I almost never exit without saving.  I keep in mind that just because they want something, doesn't mean they'll get it.  I do try to keep them happy though.  I guess I'm big into realism.  Some of my Sims end up very successful, some lonely, some poor but happy, some miserable.

About half of my families have pets.  I don't play any of the vampires/werewolves/zombies etc...  Except I have one alien Sim, but I didn't really have any choice in that matter.  I'm a little irritated right now actually because I can't keep my farmer from turning into a plant Sim with all the spraying he does, but that's another discussion.

Hacks - A lot of them!  I like things that make their lives more realistic, harder, and more logical.  I have quite a bit of CC too. 

I don't share any of my creations.  I'm greedy like that.  Maybe I will someday though, because my houses are pretty cute :)

Good topic!

Definitely more of a player rather than builder.  I like to decorate my homes to a certain extent but I can't build large homes because it will cause too much lag... so I just build nice small homes.

I start a neighboorhood with a certain number of families (usually around 5 or so) and play each one equally.
I don't ever move in or have babies with townies or NPCs (alien pregnancy is ok).  After many generations, most of the playable sims will be related and it is difficult to pair them up to make babies, I like the challenge this introduces.
No aspiration rewards since it's too easy.
Tombstones stay on the lot.  After many generations, the ghosts will make things more difficult but this is also fun.

Should go without saying.. but I use a ton of Awesome hacks.  Not many objects though, and no genetics or clothing.
Basic goal when I play is to try to have each sim fulfill as many LTW as possible, with aspiration randomly determined.  Each time they fulfill a LTW though, they can change their aspiration (but still random) and start working on the next.  Keep going until I run out of sims or I get bored with the neighboorhood (I usually start over if I download a major hack or get an expansion)

- Definitely more into playing families.

- lots: usually slightly decorated, always cutaway walls: focus on interactions but with some atmosphere around.

- Generations FTW. The genetic aspect as a whole is a very important part of the family story. Recognizing the facial traits of ancestors in their grand-grand-grand-(etc.)-children is one of the features I like the most (and touching, too).

- I've played a single hood only from the very beginning: the infamous Pleasantview. When it went BFBVFS, I discovered MATY, studied the issue, then I managed to reconstruct my borked hood from scratch, with all their traits, stories, etc. Almost all my  sims have Pleasantview ancestors, playable or townie; only a few were addeeded from CAS (and not yet breeded, though).
The actual themed hood I'm playing is the first I create from scratch, and with completely different "rules". I find it a good chance to renew the game, and my "base" hood is now in sleep mode.

- I don't care almost at all of their skills, careers or LTWs. The rare cases I care is usually for story purpouses (like a gold-digger who slept with anyone able to pull strings at work, or the traditional bunch of cop pals: 1 police chief and his closer friend who takes his place when he dies - no flying morons in pantyhose, thankyouverymuch).

- My sims are mostly homebodies, because I hate the neverending lot loads. I play community lots only to have them socialize, I don't care a bit of their wants to bowling or play cards, etc. With OfB I often create "fake" community lots: just start a home business and people will randomly come to hang out.

- Suburban for residentials, and city for downtown, sometimes I mix, in the main hood, in zones.

- do you do themes? Medieval, now. I don't like aliens/cyber/space themes much.

- Pets: sometimes, just to add a feature to the story. No commands/pet jobs, some training to pee outside and not destroy the house, and I'm ok.

- aliens etc. I like them as an occasional weirdness addition, for variety. The zombie is totally boring, though. Not yet tried the werewolf.

- hacks: Insim is a must-have tool for in-game reparations or tweakings useful to the story purpose (like adding engagement flags to have sims marry without being in love, etc., or cleaning up borked love flags with deads and such). No inteen, mostly because it involves only a few features I would like and a ton I don't want, and no flavor pack suits my play style.
I use cheats usually only for special situations, and I like to follow rules I make my own, if I can.
E.g., in my medieval hood I motherloded the Royal family with no limits, but also lowered the Peasants budget to 0.
Other hacks are for handling annoyances, to add something funny to game (ex. ACR), or obscure crappy mods made by me to handle some features I want a special family have.

- custom content: a reasonable quote of hair and clothes, a few custom facial hair, very few makeup stuff (I stick to basics), almost no custom eyebrows (ditto), and eyes and skins I like default replacements only. Just a very few eyes and custom skins to use in special situations.
More stuff in the buy/build mode, but in the end I use mostly the same preferred ones, and it got deleted on regular basis.
 
- creations: a few mods, quite simple, that I made to handle some annoyances, and came out working enough to be shared with no (or not much) shame. My artistic side generated a couple beddings :P.
Most recently, I discover the medieval theme quite inspiring, and also the interesting world of screenshots etc.

I play with a mixture of both.  I enjoy building things.


I love this.


One, but I usually smite it soon after its creation.


I love it all.


Homebodies.


Suburban.


Nope.


Occasionally.


I do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing.


A little of both, but neither of those.


A lot, hacks, recolors.


Meshes.  Recolors.  Meshes.

I like building but I get frustrated because I don't think I'm very good at it. Mostly I will remodel Maxis homes or homes I've downloaded to fit my needs. My favorite things are to create sims and play families
I am into interactions and spawning but I like my sims' environments to look realistic. I'll decorate their home according to my perception of their economic status and style. I prefer to play with cutaway walls and when I take pictures I put the walls up.
Genetics is one of my favorite aspects of the game. I love to see how they turn out, who has Mom's nose, Dad's eyes and how it passes down through the generations. Really ugly sims (fish lips and gigantic noses) do bother me. I like a large variety in a sim's looks but if the sim looks like an ugly cariacture I'll either do plastic surgery and make the surgery genetic or kill off the sim.
I have 5 neighborhoods. Two are Maxis neighborhoods; Riverblossom Hills and Pleasantview. Three are custom neighborhoods; Sedona (my version of Strangetown), Caerdroia (my Royal Kingdom Challenge neighborhood), and Spring Valley (my Victorian Neighborhood). I deleted Maxis' Veronaville and Strangetown long ago.
I only care about skills or career levels for LTWs. Sometimes I like to make sure teens have at least one skill at 8 points for scholarships. Otherwise I'm much more into relationships and interactions.
Depends on my mood and the sim I'm playing. My Pleasure and Romance sims do a lot of socializing at community lots. My Family and Knowledge sims tend to stay home more often.
All of the above. I like variety.  ;D
Yes. I like theme neighborhoods. I mentioned above that I have an alien, medieval and Victorian neighborhood. I'm a history nut so I love to have my sims "step back in time."
Yes, some families have pets though not all of them. I do tend to give more families cats rather than dogs. It's probably because I have three of my own and am more of a cat person though I do like dogs.
I've played aliens, that's it. I'm really not into the other paranormal creatures. They don't appeal to me.  I've never made a werewolf, vampire, zombie or a plantsim. Rose & Daisy Greenman (the plantsims that came with Riverblossom Hills) were turned to human sims as soon as I was able to do so.
I use all of the awesome bugfixes and hacks to get rid of annoyances. I also couldn't live without TwoJeffs ACR and Visitor Controller. ACR is fantastic for me because I was tired of directing my sims' romantic interactions. I wanted my sims to choose who they would woohoo with and when to try for baby. It's also fun to see the messes they will get themselves into due to their romantic choices.  :D
I have lots of custom content, well over 1 G in my downloads folder. I got tired of the Maxis eyes and skintone so I found defaults I like better. For my themed neighborhoods I have a lot of historical clothing and objects. I get tired of Maxis clothes so I have some modern outfits I like too, mostly outfits from All About Style (I think I've downloaded everything she has) and some from MTS2.

I have yet to make anything though I wish I knew how. One of my other hobbies is Civil War reenacting. I make all of my clothes for myself and my family (sans husband's 1st United States Sharpshooter Uniform-my sewing machine does not like thick wool). I wish I knew how to recreate my historical clothing in pixel version for my sims. But alas my skill at virtual needlework is no where near my real life sewing skills.

- I'm mostly about playing families with stories

- My houses usually end up as "big box with stuff in it" designes.  I try to be more creative than that, but they usually end up boring boxes.  I rarely download houses as most of the ones I find are just cute building tricks that are completely unplayable in an actual game.  I've played around with trying to build houses from real architectural plans and that's been a bit more interesting.

- For me it isn't so much genetics as it is family history.  I like seeing how the generations mature, who ends up with whom.  However I have yet to play a neighborhood past the 3rd generation

- I always play one hood, all lots time synched, until I install new EPs.  Then I completely uninstall and reinstall from scratch, starting a new neighborhood.  My first hood was the base game, next was Uni, third added NL and OFB, and I'm just gearing up for Pets and Seasons, playing a test neighborhood as I install hacks in bunches.  Once the game is stable, I'll create a new hood as my real one.

- I'm very results oriented and I've had to push myself away from the "skill constantly, reach the top of the career, get all the badges" because that becomes a grind.  I try to balance skilling and promotions with relations and family.

- I play a few community lots only as owned businesses.  I've never seen the point of taking my sims to lots since I can do pretty much everything at home.

- Suburban.  My latest game I'll probably not even create a downtown, just lump everything together in the main hood.  The only real reason for a downtown (for me anyhow) is Grand Vampires and I can just make a sim a vampire if I really want one.

- I occasionally try themes on a lot, but not a neighborhood.  Themes usually come from having to find some excuse to use the godawful Maxis clothing or hairdos, sometimes from custom content.

- I just got Pets but I doubt I'll have one in every household.  Just a scattering here and there.

- I like having about 10% of my population as aliens for variety.  I'm experimenting with my first test werewolf now but I doubt I'll have many.  My problem with vampires, zombies, and servos is the immortality.  They become too static.  My plan for the new neighborhood is to have a 10% chance of every sim death to return as a vampire or zombie.  I had an idea of using servos as townies, hiring them to manage my multigenerational stores.  I age my townies so it's annoying to have to keep retraining managers as the old ones die.

- hacks: My last game had just over 200 hacks, mostly MATY and my own.  In my current one I'm up to 164 and still have a few more to go.  It's interesting how many of my previous hacks I'm not bothering to install because things aren't annoying me too much.  Yet.

- custom content: I'm increasingly frustrated with CC because of things like unbinned hair, underwear classed as everyday, tile floors priced at $1 per square, and so on.  I'm being very picky this time and pre-processing everything myself so it shows up right in the game.  I'm also decustomizing many things so the townies can use them.

- I make hacks, mostly for my own use.  I have a few up on MTS2 but I find the support side of it annoying.  I have several dozen in my own game and a to do list of about a zillion.  Like many modders, I'd rather play than mod so I don't accomplish as much as I would like.  I also *gasp* dare to modify awesome hacks to appeal to my own tastes.

Yay, a questionnaire! (Is it weird that I kind of enjoy online ones? o.O)

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

Well, since I like to play families, create lots of generations, I have to build lots for them. So, I do a bit of both. I can get quite into building houses/lots, though.

- 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?

A bit of both. I always like to have nice, fully decorated homes, and I play with the walls up. I like the spawns to have somewhere nice to live. :P

- 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 suppose so. I don't do ugly sims, and I do like to see what the genetics have formed for a sim (or malformed. :P)

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

I like to try and stay in the same 'hood, if possible. I'll only begin a new one if the previous one becomes overcrowded/bugged.

- 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 prefer relationsips. I don't really care for the careers (except to see what they are and the outfits. etc). But, for sims who want to climb the career ladder, I usually do so. And they've usually gained all needed skills even before they're teens (no kids, you can't play, you stay here and gain skills, you useless sprogs!)

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

I only really go to community lots for outings and dates, which don't happen too often. They don't even buy food now that Seasons has more or less eliminated that need.

-city/country/suburban?

Usually, my 'hoods are a surburban bliss.

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

No. Although, I wouldn't mind trying either Victorian or 50's.

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

Sort of, I like the animals. But they can get a little annoying after a while (aswell as the fact that there's more pixels to keep from dying).

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

If I'm doing a story, I'll do the supernatural stuff. But for the most part, I prefer the game to be realistic.

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

Bit of both; I don't really do mood hacks, since it would get very boring after a while. I use InTeen because I sometimes like my sims to start spawning young, and because of the miscarriage aspect. Although, I find it bizarre that they react worse to a miscarriage than to a death.

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

I have a shitload of content; I've made certain to limit myself. I think I have more Bodyshop items than I do objects, but I'm not entirely sure.

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

I've considered uploading my lots; but I haven't got around to it, not even sure if I even want to, to be honest.

Personally, I'm quite a family/domestic bliss/OMG teh pretty houses!!!11one oriented Simmer. I like my sims to have shitty things happen, sure, but overall, I tend to keep them happy. I like the sort of story aspect of creating generations of a family, to see how it grows and develops. I also like to create people I know (in RL and online) so I can inform them of their families exploits. I did a very... interesting story using my sister and her family when I first got the game. She found it highly amusing. :P

My main playing focus is families.  I'll build or adapt homes for them and occasionally create a new sim to throw in the mix, but otherwise it's all families, strict two day/two semester rotation.

I always think I want drama, but I mostly play Happy Families dollhouse-style.  The march of generations seems to be enough to keep it interesting for me; I like to watch the genetics and family trees and I think sim toddlers are really cute, so if I weren't concerned about keeping the neighborhood size manageable they'd be spawning all the time.  I seem to have found a spawning policy that works fairly well: every couple gets one child, but for each Family sim in the couple they get an extra kid.  Plus exceptions for Graduate Three Children, Have Six Grandchildren, etc.  Fortunately my population size is large enough that ltwvariety has seen fit to ban the Marry Off Six Children LTW.

I've been playing the same hood I've been since the game came out.  Originally Pleasantview, Rambelton has been through a lot -- as various things have been exposed as Bad Things, I've gone in and cleaned them up with SimPE and other tools, meaning that it's about as healthy as a hood this old can get.  The playable population is currently fairly stable at 130-140 sims; a full neighborhood rotation takes around a month.  It keeps me from getting too bored with any particular family.

I play with my sims on Free Will, and try to guide how I play a particular sim by its wants and LTW.  For example, I do quite a lot of community lot playing, but most of it is with those sims who want to Own Five Top Businesses.  BRY makes running businesses a breeze, so I think it's a lot of fun.  They are all on community lots, because if I have the patience or the boredom I like my other families to be able to visit the businesses.

I'm still playing in what was Pleasantview, and the atmosphere has stayed suburban.  I imagine my population will eventually grow large enough that I'll want to have playables living in subhoods, and those will definitely have a different atmosphere.  Seeing all the neat themed neighborhoods people have made makes me think they might be themed, although goodness knows I don't actually need excuses to do more downloading.

I play with pets and some supernatural creatures -- I have lots of aliens, although with a PT replacement because I can't stand the noseless.  I'm working on some plantsims, and would like some werewolves if I could just manage to attract some wolves.  I stay away from the immortals, because my population size needs constant culling through death.

Hacks are pretty much Awesomeware and various other fixy things.  The game is easy enough as it is, who needs to make it easier?

As I have no skills of an artist, the only things I've ever made are recolors by playing around with Irfanview's Color Change tool.

That's right, and I'd better not see this in any other forums either or I'm never telling any of you my ideas ever again and I'll have a big tantrum.


Playing!  I hate building and decorating.  I am also missing the previously mentioned gene that allows for decoration and pretty handwriting.  Creating sims is fun though.

I always play walls down although once they are rich enough I'll buy some of the items that they absolutely MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW OMG!11!!! including paintings.  If they don't roll a want for a deco item then they don't get any.  I am interested in the interactions, the story telling, the "personality" of each sim, and the genetics more than anything else.

I love the genetic aspect, that is one of the most fun parts, although sometimes I get bored and drop a family or a hood to create some more interesting sims.

I do tend to make lots of hoods although I play only one or two at a time.  When I get sick of the hood I'm playing I'll usually just dump it and start fresh.  I do build all of my own lots typically because most Maxis homes suck for playability and I loved the downtown lots but so many of them are stupid seasons disasters waiting to happen.  I guess it didn't occur to them when they were building bernard's botanical dining that one day there might be lightning hitting those trees poking out through the giant hole in the roof...Plus it's annoying when non playables are constantly doing the it's raining indoors action.

I love the relationships, but for the most part I let the sims and ACR decide who they will be with.  Sometimes I will plan two sims to marry even if they have no bolts or one is a family sim and one is a romance sim just to mess things up a bit and make it more interesting.  I also enjoy the skilling and climbing of the corporate ladder though.  The way I play each sim tends to depend on their asp and inclinations that they have shown me.  A sims aspiration is determined by personality and family more than anything else (a really outgoing sim will usually be popularity or romance) but sometimes I will mix it up for variety.  I guess it just seems more real to me that most sims will aspire to do what their personality indicates but with some deviation from that rule.  It can be really interesting to play an incredibly shy, serious, mean romance sim or a really lazy, messy family sim.  I like mean sims as pleasure in particular because I think that mean and self-absorbed go together well.

Lately I have been going to a lot more community lots because I've figured out how to build really small, efficient, playable lots that don't take quite as long to load.

Desert in the middle of nowhere.  Always.

I never did before, but after downloading Dewshine's Enayla's One Series I absolutely had to create an alien hood.  I haven't actually started really playing it yet because I generated a townie pool and none of them used the decustomized skins, so I blew up the hood and did it again and the second time they all generated s1-s4 skins (I am really mad) so I am going to blow it up again and make all of my townies in CAS.  But I am really looking forward to my first themed hood.  The idea alone brought me out of a simpotence streak that began when I realized that I hated every sim in my other custom hood.

Depends on the family.  My snotty stuck up rich families are less likely to get a pet, and if they do a single cat is the limit, typically I only let them have one child as well.  I almost never play with dogs because I don't like them IRL, but they do have some really cute toddler interactions that I love.

I usually have aliens in my regular hood, I've always loved green skinned simmies.  To be honest I've never bothered with any of the other creatures, but once my new freaky hood is up and running I plan to have several of each.

Harder is better.  I have most of the director's cut, I think I only took out three or four hacks (traditional marriage, no fraternization...I forget what else I took out).  I like harder jobs a lot!  I also have ACR, insim (although I pretty much just use it as a second opinion for ACR's preg scanner since I had a few probems with ACR's day after pill not working and ACR thinking it worked...Hmm, now that I think about it that's a pretty large file for a second opinion).  I use the kitten killer because I like my teens to have consequences if they are going to be having sex, and it can create a really interesting and unexpected storyline.  I love when something one of my sims does totally throws off my plans and then I have to shuffle to cope with the unanticipated.  Although easier on me is better too, macrotastics and similar allow me to do repetitive things in fewer clicks which I like.  Macro-clean is the best sims invention ever because I no longer have to search my entire house for that one last dirty plate that the sim left in the upstairs bedroom for some weird reason.

Tons and tons of skins (Enayla, trill, cardassian, and default replacements as well as a few skintones between the defaults to make more realistic looking offspring).  A fair amount of custom hair, but I'm always looking for more.  LOTS of eyes.  A handfull of objects and a few wall and floor coverings.  I think the largest one group of CC I have is clothes.  For years I didn't use any CC clothes but in the last few months I can't seem to download enough of it. And I'm still not happy.  I NEEEEED moar clothes!  ::goes off to download stuff::  Oh, and a growing collection of accessories.  I've gotten really into earings lately.


I create eyes sometimes, and I was working on some fantasy skins until I found Enayla's beautiful jewel encrusted wonders and I realized that I would never create anything half as pretty so I burninated my embarassments.  I don't share them because you would all mock me.  Similarly I doubt you will ever see a screen shot with any of my creations in them either.  I is shy dammit!

By the way, your responses to this thread should look like mine in length and content.  Or I'll throw another tantrum.  ;)

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

Playing families.  I suck at building.  I hate rebuilding/redesigning lots that I downloaded too.  I did d/l a few lots from the most recent MATY competition, but I usually tend to stick with Nec's grey box that won last year as it plays fast.  I have entire neighbourhoods filled with this lot - the storyline to cover that is that this is a company town (or a former company town), such a a desert mining town or former military base, and the company built these rows of identical houses to house their employees.

- 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?

Barely decorated.  I recently got a graphics card, before that I was using an integrated graphics chip.  The graphics situation meant that I needed to keep non-essential decorations to a minimum, although when I installed Seasons I was starting to add gardens to my lots.  Walls down, so I can see what's going on.  I've now had my new graphics card long enough that I turned the cut-scenes off yesterday.  (The abduction one would be my favourite).

- 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 try for genetics.  I play on 3 day rotation, but eventually my hood gets too big, and all those families are a chore to play through if there's nothing going on in their lives.

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

I have several hoods.  I rotate through them.  I currently have 3-in-1 (by SaraMK, available in Peasantry), ST, PV.   I also have a legacy hood, and Madame Mim's PV ancestry (available at www.genensims.com).   Currently I've just finished an Apocalypse challenge with the Seasons rules, and am playing it through again.  I also periodically get bored with a hood and delete it.  Am thinking of putting in Marhis' reverse gender PV again (available in the Podium).

- 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'm trying to get away from the skilling/corporate ladder thing.  I use Hook's randomiser to shake things up a bit, introducing random death, and Denimjo posted JadeElliott's list of random events in Hook's randomiser topic, which I also use when I think the pot needs to be stirred.  I'm trying to get away from playing happy families.

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

Homebodies.  Occasional outings, until a sim has enough friends, or I might send a sim with 20 woohoo LTW to a comm lot.  I don't do dates.  I'll also run through 5 comm-lot businesses for LTWs.  Get them to lvl 10 then sell them.

-city/country/suburban?

Suburban.

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

No.

- do you play with pets?

I have it installed, but they annoyed me too much.  No pets now in any of my many hoods.

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

I like aliens, especially with Dylan's Laverwinkle PT replacement.  Aliens in all my hoods.  My Legacy usually has a main line and an alien line, and each generation in the main line has the heir, the spare and the alien baby.  The alien line has a normal baby and an alien one (I edit aliens so that they're not related to PT).  Every other household gets one pregnancy.

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

I use insim, but only sparingly.  Mostly when I make my own townies - sometimes I give them skills, job, etc, rather than letting the game randomise it, since the game doesn't give townies the Seasons jobs.  Also handy for keeping track of how close they are to dancing level 8.  Most of my hacks are from here, I have most of Pescado's director's cut installed and quite a few of TJ's hacks.  I tend not to use hacks to make life simpler - the game is easy enough as it is.

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

Not much.  I need more RAM before I can go mad with CC.  I have Melodie9's toddler hairs, Genensims' apricot red recolours of Maxis hair, and some makeup by Hairfish.

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

Not a creator.

EDIT: to give appropriate credit to the people who put together the neighbourhoods I play.

I have many neighborhoods, all of them either themed or based around various challenges. The challenge neighborhoods are pretty self-explanatory, I guess, so I'll just talk about the themed ones.


I'm not into building lots. I have built very few houses for my own game. I mostly download lots and modify them. I'm primarily a player, not a creator, but because my 'hoods are themed, a certain amount of creation and decoration has to be done.


Again, themed. Most lots are appropriately decorated.


Genetics are very much my "thing." I often plan out families well in advance, like, Cornelius is going to be the seventh son of the seventh son, so he'll be the town idiot who makes dire predications and seem to leave a lot of dead sims in his wake.


Both. I have a lot of 'hoods AND I've played a lot of them for a long time. My oldest was made after Uni came out and I've been playing it at least once a week since then. It's kind of dying a slow death due to too many character files....


I'm definitely more into relationships and the sims' place in the community.


I try to keep comm lots to a minimum, based on what's necessary for the neighborhood. But, yes, I like to take my sims out!


All of the above. :)


Just about everything. I have several with variations of the country theme, a space colony... just a lot of different stuff.


Yup. I like pets. Most of my families have at least one.


I like them if they're appropriate in the neighborhood.


Both. Or, I guess I should say, I use hacks to change the game to make life in my themed neighborhoods seem more like what it should be. Sometimes that means using a hack that makes something easier, and sometimes it means using a hack that makes something way hard.

InSIM is always in my game. InTeen not usually.


Tons and tons. I think I generally have the most clothing, hair, and decorative objects, but it depends on the neighborhood.


Not much. I'm not really a creator. If you go into Peasantry... that's pretty much all I've made, except for some default replacement stuff that I've made for specific neighborhoods.

I like to screw around. I do a little bit of everything.

I download houses by Pbox at MTS2 and rip them apart and re-wallpaper and such. I play strictly walls down (I like clear sight lines)

I get through about 2 generations and then get bored

I rip apart maxis hoods because hood decorating and house building is beyond me

Both interaction and skilling

Suburban

Homebodies. The com lot load lag is severe, my computer is not equipped to play base game let alone all expansions and 2 stuff packs.

As making everything as strange as possible (if thats even a theme)

Very few pets

Aliens!

I am hacked to bits, I have Insim, Inteen, Squinge, and a good portion of the director's cut. I have hack subfolders where I can.

I have a lot of CC mostly clothes

I make paintings, but I do not share because making paintings is lazy-man work. I mod some things when given hand-hold directions

Ok, fine. I can adjust.... or post again or whatever. :)

I build, decorate, increasingly playing families

I play decorated, walls cutaway, I wish they were somewhat less cutaway though, if you know what I mean...  if playing a family I focus on interractions and the like.

Trying these days to observe the spawns of my new family without freaking from boredom.

Constant hood creation. Most I ever had at once was 15 hoods, most of them abandoned with unfinished houses in them.

Both, depends on the aspiration crap.

Homebodies

All

No. Yuck.

Rarely.

Real person player.

I'd like to make life simpler, if only I knew how.
 
Depends on the lot... I like CC, depends on the poly counts. I have a lot of garden stuff, I dunno, I've been using less CC - as someone said, with all the EPs there is so much non-cc to choose from now.

I share my houses. And I made some decorative objects. And a stair thing that I like. Oh and a backwards garage door with frontwards animations. :D

I was kidding....

I know, but everybody else answered so much better than I did... your possible tantrum  just gave me an excuse to repost properly. :)

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

I use already made lots mostly plasticbox these days, redecorate and change a few things in them to fit certain families needs.

- 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?

Walls are always down, camera in the back of the lot facing the street.

- 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 playing a hood now that I am trying to see through several generations, now that I have a good set of CAS replacements spawns do not look so awful.

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

I have four XP user accounts, with one neighborhood in each. They are Modern/Suburban, Country-Rural, Victorian and Medieval.

- 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?

It depends on the aspiration, I find that the Rural theme I am playing now I have become a bit more laid back allowing free will a bit now and then. Ever since TS1 I have been micromanaging my sims every move, with the invention of macrotastics to manage those issues that now only need addressing about once a week I even let my sims relax a bit now and then. My TS1 sims must have hated me with a burning passion, I never allowed them any rest, if they were awake they needed to be working on something.

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

I do not go to community lots, my sims are hermits. A few own business, but that is as close as I go to community lots.


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

I have four XP user accounts, with one neighborhood in each. They are Modern/Suburban, Country-Rural, Victorian and Medieval.

- do you play with pets?
Yes, many familes have pest, mostly cats as I am a cat person. Mine is on my lap whenever I am at the computer with her head on my keyboard.

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

There are a few families where aliens, zombies and servoes are part of the family, I find them useful for minding and training spawn.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
 I do not play with out the Insim and lots of stuffings from the fish. I use hacks to create nobility and royalty in my medieval neighborhood. I also use that in my Victorian area, very handy to create slums complete with a slumlord!

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
I have alot of CC if it was to be all added up, the most is genetics. I only have 8 skins, mostly it is hair & eyes to give different classes of sim a hairstyle that is approperate.

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

By looking at the things I have tried to create I have determined them not fit to share, my recolors are so awful it would be criminal to post them.

Playing families usually.  I really only build lots when I'm forced to.  However, there are occasions where I get a wild hair up my butt and go on a building spree.


Barely decorated most of the time.  Unless the family has an over abundance of funds.  Then I'll splurg a little and fancy the place up.


I have a short attention span in this game.  But I'm trying to change that because the constant restarts are annoying and making me bored with the starting families in the Maxian hoods.


I play Pleasantview and Strangetown mostly.  But lately I've been playing Strangetown more.


Little of both.  If a sim gets a promotion I put priority on skill/friend gaining while trying not to screw up their usual routine.  Then when they're done they go back to the usual mundane things until the next promotion.


Both.  My younger sims (teens and YA's) travel to community lots pretty frequently.  Older sims usually stay home unless they have a community lot business.


All of the above.  Some sims I prefer to live in a certain region.  Depending on things like personality, aspiration, or whatever goal I have for them.


Never had a themed hood before.  But have thought about building a futuristic hood full of aliens.


Sometimes.  They're usually more trouble than they're worth for me.


I think everyone knows I have an alien fetish by now.   ;D  I like vamps as well.  Servos are cool.  Haven't played around with werewolves too much yet.  I rarely if ever do zombies since they're kinda irreversible.  Not sure how I feel about a plant sim since they skip two whole age groups.


Not really to make it more simpler or harder, but to make it more sane.


Not too much.  Mostly hack.  Every once in a while I'll see some CC clothing or whatnot that'll catch my eye.


I usually upload the lots that I make every once in a blue moon.

PlantBABIES skip the age groups, including the ever-critical uni phase, permanently landing them with the incredibly craptastic 4 want slots. At least they tend to max out all skills early on, seeing as they inherit all parent skills. Plantsims themselves can also be made rather than born, however, and those get the full 6/2 + Degree.

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
I like all aspects of the game. I love to build and decorate houses, and remodel them as the family who lives there changes. And I love to play the families I make. In this present hood I just started and my previous one I've gone back to not letting anyone die, as opposed to merely making them 'die of old age' as old adults (sim elders make me want to cry. Their animations, their whining voices... bleh x_X) I might keep the previous generations in their own homes, in new houses built for them and friends, or I might turn them into townies. I've not decided yet. I love creating sims, too - that's why I create all my townies from scratch.

- 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... neither? I play with walls down because it's less laggy and I can actually see what I'm doing! But I decorate my houses as much as I can before they become unplayable. :)

- 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 cycle through the families, generally when the first sim gets married, when the first kid is born, and after that it depends how many kids the family has. But I do like having very long family trees. It's interesting :)

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I normally only have 2 hoods at a time - the testing hood and the main hood. The testing one has been there for ages now, because, well... it's a testing hood! I'll ditch it only when it becomes unplayable. It's not there for real gameplay. Prior to my cleanouts and discovering of empty templates and replacement face templates I had only had Pleasantview and one custom hood, both of which I played for at least a year. I've been through about 5 for one or two generations after that, and I think I've finally got my game perfect so I can stick with this one. :)

- 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?
Both! I can't really understand playing in just one way. The relationships are important to me, and many of my sims are knowledge so they need to skill. Jobs are important too because I start with one CAS sim and no money cheats, and play in a vaguely Legacy-like style  (but I'm not fussed about the rules so much, and some sims can marry playables...)

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
I only play community lots when I need to find a partner for a sim, or the rare occasions I just feel like it. Otherwise, they stay at home. They generally have home businesses and such.

-city/country/suburban?
It's most like a country village. There's a main square with the shop, the church, the park, the café and then about 5 houses (more as the neighbourhood gets older, but never more than 20). There's normally a lake somewhere, too. I love lakes! Especially lakes with bridges :)

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
I find themes like that far too restrictive. I normally have a few medieval lots, an alien family or two, some elf-fairy-people who normally have treehouses, some big (well, 2x2, which is big for me) fancy Victorian manor... I believe variety is the spice of life XD

- do you play with pets?
I do, but only cats and birds. The guinea pig-things (I don't remember what they really are) are very boring, and sim dogs are even more annoying than rl ones! I'm really, really not a dog person. But the sim cats are cute. I like the way they sit on pretty much anything, and pounce people. The birds are pretty, and I like watching them fly about (even the weird turning XD), and they're useful for charisma. Not every family has a pet, though. I used to properly breed pets, but now I have one woman somewhere living as the owner of a 'cattery', and anyone who wants a pet uses the christianlov statue and spawns a kitten from some of those cats. I especially like amjoie's cat breeds in Peasantry :)

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
Aliens, yes. I have an alien father replacement for abductions and I make some townies with alien skin.

In my old hood I made a townie with the zombie skin tone... it was quite funny, I made her as the mother of a toddler that I wanted to put in the adoption pool. Later, when this toddler was adopted and an adult, I decided she would have an affair to get back at her husband for doing the same. I forgot that the zombie was her biological mother until they'd already fallen in love... they got married and had a kid through the tombstone, who was very pretty until she aged to teen and turned blue and started to decompose! I made her some special zombie concealer to wear... she was a popularity sim! XD

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I don't use insim or inteen. I can do pretty much all of that with just testingcheats and some select hacks - the rest I'm not interested in. I like to make things simpler with hacks like macrotastics, but I also have things like no20khandouts. I don't use any mood hacks or cheats, though - even snapdragons feel a bit too cheaty for me!

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
2580 files, 240mb... :x I went on a downloading spree the other night. *smacks own wrist* Anyway, this is a wonderful excuse to open JDiskReport. Yay graphs!!! Apparently, the thing I have most of is hacks - 300 files. Then comes Piggi's Sims furniture recolours, then my face replacements, Avenida Sims build/buy stuff, then ATS build/buy stuff, a generic folder called buildandbuy, then 128 Life Stories walls and floors, 121 Windkeeper doors and windows... I'm seeing a pattern. Doing a pretty rough estimate (I group by creator apart from my hacks folder and my buildandbuy and cas folders for people who I only have one or two files from), 1500+ of my cc files are build or buy mode stuff. So... yeah. If another 500 is hacks and faces, that means I only have about 500 appearance/genetics-related files. I would now continue with facts about my folders based on size, but I think most people don't even care about this stuff with their own downloads folder, let alone someone else's. XD

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
My sister and I are making a site for our stuff. It's mostly clothes, and generally maxis recolours, or recolours of very useful custom meshes. Down with redundant custom meshes! XD There's also a lot of other people's nice textures put onto almost-the-same maxis meshes.

Kyna, what is Hook's randomiser?  And JadeElliott's list of random events?  It sounds like a lot of fun.

Agreed, on both counts.

I tend to download lots of custom content, but often end up modifying it myself for my own needs (knocking down the walls of a house, or recoloring bad textures on a nice mesh).  I enjoy all of the aspects of the game, and try to play the sims according to their aspiration.  If they want to reach the top of their career, that's what I shoot for; if they want to pop out lots of spawn, that's what they get.  But my favorite part of the game is playing with genetics.  When I'm bored and short on time I like to open up CAS and see how many different combinations I can make.  All of my sims (even Romance) will end up having at least one kid, just because I like to see how their genetics mix.

So I realize I fell asleep before I actually posted my own answers! Here we go:


I am mostly a builder/decorator. I'm not terribly girly, but I grew up with a mother who had a great eye for decorating, so i learned by example. I love building homes based on RL architecture - once the online sites started to bore me, I started getting books from the library. Fun! I'm working on a true-to-the-plans version of Fallingwater..it's the long-term project in the midst of other smaller ones (like the yankee barn which I PROMISE I'll rebuild sans curse!). I honestly have only gotten into playing families since I moved MATY sims into the game.


I do major decoration/buildling. I use the cutaway walls mostly, with the hack to choose visable paintings. I also use some of the custom non-cutaway walls, especially when I wish to maintain the look of a room or hide a garage. Whoever has the most toys wins is DEFINITELY my motto for my sims. Again, I have only recently gotten into playing sim families.


I've yet to get through two generations....previously, once i got a couple to spawn, that was about it. This time...well...I am DYING to know what MATY spawn will grow up to be like, so we might see a few generations.


I have blown up more hoods than I can count.


My sims tend to be overachievers....doing the relationship/interraction thing is not my style (odd, since I'm a director IRL)....but I'm learning. Maybe it's because I know my actors this time? <muahahaha!>


My sims tend to stay at home, but I LOVE building community lots. I find comm. lots best for meeting new people rather than meaningful story movement.


I LOVE city scapes, but I always include some more suburban looks...and a country house or two.


Nope. And yes, Pescado, "MOAR FIGHT" is a theme.


No. I tried in the beginning, but they annoyed me. I use Ste's visitor controller to ban pets. (Exception: Lorelei asked me to give her a tuxedo cat, so I will. I also am allowing cats on the Bast Moon Cafe lot....well, it's a natural, isn't it?)


I will be trying my first vamp WITH hacks as soon as I get a friend's self-sim. Otherwise, I don't do the supernatural stuff.



I generally like to make life harder...although I use jfade's career choosing flamingo, as I like to dictate the path of a sim...and I have used money cheats now and then (mostly to build the requisite perimeter fence)...or if I want a family to start off richer than most. I will also use the college adjuster to randomize skills if I start with adult Sims...seems stupid to be an adult and have less skills than a toddler!



I use a ton of CC....mostly, in fact. I go through spells of what I love...went on a kitchen spree for a while, then a clutter spree, an art spree, a garden spree. But i will drop everything for a good build set!   I limit hair and clothing...so much of it sucks out loud through a straw.



Mostly lots - at SFV at the moment. I have done a few recolors - but I find I don't have the patience for it that I do for building.


I am really enjoying this thread...glad IG suggested it. I also think it's interesting that the game is so flexible as to accomodate so many different styles of play.

I hate building, decorating or creating sims. I play with game generated families.



I only play with fully furnished houses that are in game or ones that I have downloaded, walls down, focusing on interactions.



I play with one family until the existing youngest member has become an elder and then I'm off to the next family.



In-game hoods only.



Both, I do what it takes to keep their aspiration levels good. I also help them to the top of their careers.



All of my sims are homebodies (just like me). Too many sims in one place makes me crazy.



Wherever they already reside



Never.



Only if it is one of their wants, but most of the time no.



No, though I did play with the plantsim family just so that I could make them normal (wanted to see what they looked like).



I was previously playing with all of the "no autonomous" hacks I could find, but then my sims wouldn't do anything on their own (like take care of their needs) and I hate micro-managing them (I like to leave my game running while I'm sleeping and not wake up and find them dead). Now, I only use The Director's cut, Monique's computer,  no bringing anyone home from school/work hacks, auto do homework and gardening.



A Little, though I have over 20,000 (ridiculous load time) custom objects, I tend to put only the "hacked" objects in my game.



I don't create anything.


As you can see, the way I play is quite bland. So occasionally, I will do challenges, which I almost never submit.

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
A bit of everything - I don't use Maxoid Sims, except for NPCs.  I create everyone else individually, including townies/dormies.  I generally create my own houses, which run from the "normal" to the outrageous (built one floating house with a pool under it once).  Mostly I get tired of building after a bit and get back to playing so there's usually a lot under construction in my hood somewhere, waiting for a generation to grow up and need it.  I also steal houses from Maxis hoods if necessary.

- lots:
Walls up to take pictures.  Walls down/cutaway to play.  I don't care who has the most toys.  I focus on interactions, but not necessarily spawning.  I decorate if I feel like it, or if a Sim wants to buy a painting, for example.  Not big on cluttering the houses up with plants unless the Headmaster is visiting and I need a good enviro score.

- is genetics your thing?
I care enough about genetics to make my own sims - I don't do fuglies.  If an NPC is decent material, I could consider marrying him/her into the game.  Otherwise townies are Bodyshopped and imported to the game as needed for marriage or interactions, etc.  Other than that, I let the sims crush/love on whoever they seem to choose/end up with.  I do like watching how spawns turn out, but if a really ugly thing happens (i.e. no chin, huge nose) I have been known to call down a satellite (only if a family can make money off it though).

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
One or two custom hoods only.  I use default hoods as places to plunder houses, and sometimes to clone Sims.  Lots of plundering and reloading from backup.  I never move in occupied lots or download 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?
I like the relationships and interactions, but do the skill things if the aspiration or LTW of the Sim warrants it.  If a Sim wants to be Captain Hero, I'll try to get them there, but not at the expense of their other immediate wants (i.e. to make friends, eat omelettes, etc.).  I make sure they go to school, work etc., but don't concentrate too much on their grades.  I play several families at once in rotation (not strict) and will play a family until I get bored, and then move on to the next one.  I don't care about sync timing, so sometimes one sim will age to elder, while their childhood friend is still a teen.  I sometimes make spawn into townies, which means they don't age until they move back in with someone else, which could be a couple of generations later.  Makes things weird but interesting.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
Mostly homebodies - even my fortune sims want spawn, so they woohoo a bit.  Lots of cooking, phoning, and playing piano.  I had one sim who was a novel writer (very poor).  I do Community Lots for shopping and meeting people, and sometimes to boost fun meters.
I don't do clothing hacks, so if they want to buy clothes, they go shopping.

-city/country/suburban?
Usually starts as wilderness/country, and evolves into suburban/village.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
No themes, as such.  I download any CC that looks interesting, including medieval/victorian furniture and clothing.  Some of my sims dress in armour and go to work in helicopters.  Others have computers in rooms lit by candles.  One sim is mayor and dresses in pirate costumes, while his wife wears sundresses.

- do you play with pets?
No pets - why do I want to worry about the aspirations of dogs?

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
None.  Might try this sometime.  Have not had an alien abduction yet, after 8 months of play.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
Hacks only to make things more sensible.  Use Jenflower's woohooteens and InSim.  I avoid inteen because of previous problems/conflicts.  Have a lot of the Director's Cut, but am somewhat selective.  I don't care if sim toddlers play in the terlet or if sims put coffee cups on desks in bedrooms.  That's what maids are for.  I usually run debug mode (heresy?), mainly to speed up bathroom visits (honestly, it takes these blighters forever to pee).

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
Use a lot of custom clothing and some furniture.  I do not download sims or lots, even though I have clean installer.  Prefer to build my own.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
Sorry, don't create things yet.  Might get into that sometime.  If I shared anything now it would be houses, but they tend to be a bit abnormal.

I like building and playing. To me, it's almost like I've got two games: Construction and Sims.

But with decorating...it depends.  Poorer sims get very little decorating.  Once the paint is on the walls, that's that--their furniture doesn't match, they probably won't have drapes. Rich sims get properly decorated houses, eventually.

Depends on the shape of the house what I do with the walls.  If walls cut away leaves a right-angle wall blocking my view, I'll play that house walls down. And if there are a lot of sims on the lot to keep track of, I'll play walls down.

Some of my sims have big families, some have no kids.  With the families that have kids, I'm happy when a kid turns out pretty but I don't sweat over it.  I have been know to kill off kids I can't stand.  I usually move them out and play them for awhile, but because they're there, not because I'm really obsessed with following a family line.

I decided awhile back to stop creating separate hoods and stick to one main hood. In most of my hoods I'd have one or two interesting families and a bunch of boring bastards.  And I couldn't get all my interesting sims together 'cause they weren't in the same hood. At the mo' I've got Strangetown, my primary custom hood, and another hood for random crap/testing. With one primary hood, the sims I intend to play long term (i.e., till they croak) are in one place.  If I want them to get together, they can.  The boring bastards get murderlized. The asylum is in the random crap hood, so as not to spam my main sims with Nutbag Memories.  I have no subhoods because I found I never used them.

With some sims, I focus on the career.  Fortune sims have to be greedy social climbers and they have to be ruthless about their jobs.  Criminals have to reach the top of their career 'cause I like criminal masterminds. And I like to make sims earn their lives.  I frequently start sims out with a shack and a hundred dollars.  Some sims are required to achieve permaplat before they can build a 'real' house, get married and do the kid thing, or maybe just before they're allowed to date.

But I've always got some sims that never get to reach the top of their career or have all those grandkids they want.  What's a neighborhood without a childless spinster or a guy who's a total failure at life?  And Pleasure sims exist to live ridiculous and pointless lives.  In my hood, pleasure sims are more likely to have stupid affairs than even Romance sims.

I don't do community lots very much because of the load.  My teens seem to get to go to comm lots more than other sims.

Mostly suburban in the current hood.  But there's a little corner I think of as "out in the country" that only gets to have a couple houses.

No themes.

I doesn't has OMGPETZ!!!!1!!! Doesn't has Uni, either.

I've got a couple vamps. More servos than anything else. No plantsims yet, 'cause I haven't yet concentrated on getting one.  Aliens all over the place; I like the green skin and black eyes.

I like to make the game less annoying.  Essentials:  antipeeobsession, antiwatchout, engagewantsfix, ltwvariety, Monique's changeoutfitnospin and her dohomework hack--because a kid who throws a tantrum about doing homework may not survive the night-- noeatcrap, noservochores, nounneededcoats, phonehack, stereohack, toddlerpottyfixes. Plus the important fixes. And I am deeply and fervently in love with abortbedmaking. If it were a person, I would stalk abortbedmaking.

I've also got inSim, which I keep primarily for two reasons--Wardrobe adjuster and Universal Teleport.  The sim modding features come in handy some times.  And I've got ACR, which makes the game a ton more interesting.  That's the way EAxis should have arranged it in the first place.

I don't have as much CC as some people; I'm nowhere near the gigabyte range.  And what I do have is mostly furniture and build mode stuff.  I don't do a lot of skins and clothes, though I rely on custom eyes.  Maxis defaults are terrible. 

The only stuff I've created are a few floors and walls, which aren't good enough to share, and a couple recolors of cars and clothes.

You didn't ask, but I think it says a lot about playing style and approach to the game whether you play freewill on or off.  I always play free will on.  The only time I may possibly turn it off is on business lots when I've got a particularly ADHD business owner.

I build, decorate, and play families.


Highly decorated, walls cutaway, with the camera zoomed out enough that I can see the whole house (my lots are usually very small)


I do generations (and believe it or not, never have tried a Legacy). The whole population of my neighborhood's playable sims consisted of generations of 2 families.


I build my own hood then play until I get the sudden urge to start over. BUT, I have been building an urban hood and it's taking forever to do and I do not want to do it again. I will probably stick with this one until it becomes a fireball, then whip out the pristine backup.


Both, but I don't care how they turn out. I like having perfect genius sims and really shitty, always in aspiration failure sims.


Thankfully, lot load is only about a minute so I do play lots of community lots.


Definitely CITY!


Hell no! Hate themes!


A little, depends on how many are in the family. Most elders get a cat.


No, I keep my game as real as possible, not even a servo.



Definitely harder, but I also make things easier choice-wise using certain mods...like with ACR, I let them decide on how many kids if any. I have Insim, but maily only use it for the teleport here feature. I don't use Inteen.



I dunno...is 1 gig a lot or a little? I have build items the most, next would be bedroom sets.



I build houses. More recently, I started building sets and whole neighborhoods to share.

Hook's randomizer can be found here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8253.0.html

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
In order of preference: playing families, creating Sims, decorating lots, building lots.

- 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?
Er...I do something in the middle, though leaning toward the barely decorated/walls down/etc. style. I hate decorating, because I can't ever seem to be satisfied with the results (people even tell me I'm good at it. Psh!) and I'm too lazy to do so. I have no patience at all to sit for an hour or two just putting clutter all over the place if my game's just going to crash anyway.

- 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?
Oh, yes. The most important reason why I keep coming back to the game is to see how my Sims' genetics fare in new generations. I do have a billion families, so I haven't ever gotten farther than gen. 4 in any family.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I have lots of hoods. In fact, I have several saved games with ~6 neighborhoods each. As for if I play them evenly--no.

- 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?
Before I got the hang of time management, it was mostly about relationships/families/babies. Now, I like to have Sims reach at least one LTW before even starting a family (though ACR's complicated things a bit).

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
They're pretty much homebodies. I only send them to comm. lots if they go on dates.

-city/country/suburban?
Mostly suburban.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Not really, unless you count the one neighborhood with Sims with Genensims' furry skintones. I don't write stories with those Sims.

- do you play with pets?
I used to let my Sims have a pet or two, but since they have a tendency to ignore everything else to play with their pets, I'm not keen on getting pets for them any longer.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I'm mostly a "real person" player, though I like aliens. There are a handful of Servos and two vampires in all my hoods.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I like to make their lives more realistic, I guess I should say. Insim = yes, Inteen = yes, as well as 200+ other mods/hacks (incl. ACR, but mostly just anti-annoyance mods) which by some miracle all seem to work fine together.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
6.57 GB, last I checked. I really need to do some cleaning. I download mostly clothing and hair, occasionally furniture and build mode objects, rarely makeup and accessories.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I'd created a few things, but haven't shared anything yet. I might start sharing if I'm confident that everything I make works and doesn't have any CC that shouldn't be shared.

Building and playing, pretty equally.

Walls down, all the way, except for photo time. I want to see what everyone is doing. A lot of times my lots are built with a great deal of windows on the rear so that I can keep half an eye on the other floors while I'm focused on one sim. I also play viewing from the back of the lot to the sidewalk so that I can catch walk-bys. I tend to forget about decorative items until I start taking photos and realize how similar shots in the same room seem.

I used to leave after 1-2 generations because I wasn't fulfilling my "build need", but then I figured out the best formula - move every generation, new house, new community lot. I do love the genetics. I love the annoyance that comes when I realize that at Gen 8 I still have that stupid pinnochio nose I married into the family at Gen 1 on all the guys (no boys in Gens 9 and 10, so we'll see if it comes back to haunt me yet again). I like starting with sims with dominant traits and breeding in recessives until I get an all-recessive kid.

I'm a 'hood junkie. I started Urban Paradise and swore that this was my one 'hood forever and ever, no more making one every couple weeks. A couple/three months later I started Monopoly. Now I also have that Meadow Lawns 'hood I pop into from time to time. But I'm being good about playing both Urban Paradise and Monopoly equally, one each week. I feel bad for my simmies if I don't visit them (yes, craziness).

Mm. Well, that's always changing. In Urban Paradise, since it's more of a challenge 'hood (though I rewrite challenges and merge them until they aren't recognizable) making sure that I focus on the heir and breed them is the most important. So on one hand it's about the relationships primarily. However, I let them loose a bit and often spin their non-breeding life into different directions based on what's happening (the elevator-plummeting-caused insanity of Charisma causing the obsession with immortality and subsequent drinking of the life essence of the entire 'hood, the All-Knowing Mime^tm's periodic appearances, India's obsession with the dead caused by her parents' early demise and her husband's death plus the presence of so many grilled cheese zombies, Jasmine's origins as part of Project Nanosperm due to random ACR sexual preference making the heir, Ivy, a lesbian). In Monopoly, I basically go free-play with them and let their actions show me what they want. I'll put them in a particular career if that's their LTW, and give them the requisite skill points when they want them, but I don't focus on it. Like with Klapaucius...she wanted a puppy before Flamingo left for college, so I got her one. Visitors gravitated to the puppy, and I had almost nothing for her to do as she didn't work. I have her start up a pet store to share the love she's found. Then everyone starts getting pets autonomously right and left.

Depends on the sim and 'hood. No community lots yet available post-apoc in Urban Paradise, but they will be cropping up again soon. Typically I have a sim go out a lot while they are searching for a mate, and then on a date every sim week or so. Where they go depends on the personality. Really outgoing sims go to clubs/bars, playful sims to arcades, active sims to bowling alleys/skating rinks, lazy sims to restaurants. As for Monopoly, I'm doing it in rounds. One round they all stay home, one round I take them out.

Urban Paradise is urban, but developing. So for the most part, the lots are crammed together but there is a lot of open space. Because of the story aspects (apocalypse) after the F generation got back from college, they started over on the opposite end of the 'hood which was completely undeveloped. Now there is the Apocalyptic Tower of Doom (about to be torn down and replaced with greenhouses), a small but pretty 1x1 cemetary, and a second house where India moved with her twin teen sons and newly-resurrected husband. Monopoly is, of course, a Monopoly board.

Monopoly is my first. It's only a theme in 'hood layout, lot design, and sim last names. No special clothes or objects except the layerable letter floor tiles and token piece painting recolors I did for the 'hood.

Sometimes. If aspirations are low and the only want they have that will keep them out of the green and is feasible is a pet, I'll get them one. If they have a "raise 20 kittens/puppies want" I definitely do and have them pursue it. India was my first with that. Monopoly is going through a pet explosion (especially womrats!) due to Klapaucius's shop. I almost never get them jobs.

Alien babies happen if they happen. I don't generally like vamps or werewolves or zombies, but Urban Paradise has 11 grilled cheese zombies who were created during the apocalypse (former romance who lost the reroll option).

I don't see a reason for insim or inteen. I don't want my teens pregnant, and almost everything else can be achieved through the testingcheats "Spawn..." menu. I started using those objects before either -killer became popular. Hacks either cut annoyances (servo chores), make things crazy (ACR, trips/quads) or harder (Uni degree hack).

Tons. What's odd on a lot/sim is what isn't custom. My main focus is hair and objects, but I have default replacement everything as well! Polination techs, skins, eyes, pet eyes, face templates, name lists, extra geneticized skins & eyes...

I don't really share much because everything I have to share is so bloated with custom stuff. :( I have a few lots I've put out there, my face templates, one of these days I'll fix the preview issue on my layerable tiles so that I can share those.

O, ROFFLE, y'all so silly.

So with that in mind....

Yes?

How do you play? Please include details such as:

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

I like to redesign houses and lots, decorate, create Sims, and I'd probably play families if I had more than two hours free a month on average to play.

- 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?

Yes to decor, collapsible walls unless taking pictures, then walls up. I liked the idea of granting alternate fear/want days, but haven't done it yet. I tend to let the family I am playing get what they want so i can get pix I need. Unless I need Woeface Simmies. Then they are DENIED. Interqactions, yes; spawn, no.

- 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?

With two babies in StrangeT and one child in PView, plus one plat death in StrangeT, I'd say breeding/killing off Sims isn't a big draw. Yet.

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

Typically play PView and occasionally PView Uni. Have played STown to test new eps. Ditto VVille.

- 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, kind of. Skill, yes. Jobs? Occasionally.

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

I send families to comm lots on occasion. Not often. Typically teleport desired visitors in if needed. Start on lot I need pix of, and get needed Sims to arrive. If on comm lot, will delete Townies to see familiar Sims arrive, but do not teleport while on comm lots, generally speaking. Whoever shows, shows.

-city/country/suburban?

PView has businesses and a small industrial section, but it also has a very suburban area. I like the lush green terrain best.

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

I typically like Mod furniture, but that's not specific to a theme.

- do you play with pets?

I have a handful, mostly cats. Mostly MATYean cats, actually. I want a SimFerret. :)

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

I have one vamp who vamped three or four townies plus default vamps and grand vamps, default aliens plus two halfalien babies. If there are default werewolves and zombies, then I have defaults, or none.

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

Both, depending. Insim, yes. Inteen, never.

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

Lots and lots and lots. Hacked objects and bodyshop crap.

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

"Known" Sims, famous or otherwise, occasional spates of texturing clothes, a lot for MATY contest. Link in sig.

Discuss.
I think I download more than I play, I enjoy other people's stories, and I like to try and help resolve game problems I've dealt with, read about or found solutions to with others who are struggling. When I do play, I typically let the Sims do their thing and let them direct the action unless they are about to waste my time by destroying the house or dying, which would be an aggravation to repair or undo.

Typical game sesh = me redesigning layout of PView, putting more Sims into expanded hood, checking in on new or an old family, tweaking decor, watching Sims interact and be stupid, taking pix, getting bored and moving to new lot.

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

When I first got the game, I was totally into playing families.  Then I discovered custom content and became obssessive about lot building.  Now I do a lot of both, but it's cyclical.  My most recent challenge attempt got derailed by my own infernal meddling, so now I'm building.

- 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 keep the decor pretty straightforward inside and out- simple but not bare.  Every now and again I clutter because I can, but I hate lag and useless items, so I usually keep it to needful things at 90 degree angles.  I play with walls down, usually, putting them up for pictures only. 

- 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?

If a family interests me, I usually get to the third or fourth generation before I get bored.  I love the genetics, especially when certain features are still going strong four generations down.   Noses and eye color are my favourite things to geek out about.

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

I've played a lot in Maxi hoods, but I like to create my own neighborhoods.  I even make my own terrains in Sims City 4 and have spent whole weekends just doing that, but I end up using downloaded terrains more often than not.  Currently my big project is a main neighborhood with wolfsim's lots, a downtown with plasticbox's Backdoor Lane lots and a beachside shopping village and tiny university with my own creations.

- 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 keep a nice balance, I think.  I like to keep my sims happy all around, so they get what they want.  I also like to watch their crazy expressions and reactions when they interact.  They're like a little television show I have all to myself.

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

I love community lots to meet new people and for dates.  I think it's a lot of fun to have my sims "go out" and I usually send newly aged teens straight downtown to scope potential spouses. 

-city/country/suburban?

A little of all three.  Mostly suburban.

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

I've tried, but I find themes too hard to stick with across several lots. 

- do you play with pets?

I have, but they have a tendency to bork my game so I only have them in lots that I don't care about. 

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

I adore the supernatural, but have only played extensively with vamps and aliens.  Zombies and werewolves are usually relegated to the townie sect, because the moaning and loping bug me in the long term. 

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

I use MATY hacks to make things run smoother, to make the tedious less so and to get the socio-political climate of Batelle Land the way I want it.  I have insim to give CAS sims a boost out of the gates and to fix genetic woes.  I don't use a ton of money cheats, but I do use shop at home functions for clothing.  I like to have a few outfits on hand for everyone in the household.

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

Tons.  1.8GB at last check (and that was before Holy Simoly released their latest donation pack).  I have a lot of everything, but I have a weakness for women's casual clothing, beach-themed stuff, retro objects and industrial/grunge decor and build items.  My biggest subfolders are Cyclonesue, Windkeeper, Shannanigan and Holy Simoly. 

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

I can barely do simple recolors, but I have shared a few basic houses that I built.  If my uni turns out the way I hope, I might share it. 

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

More of the first three-I create the families, build and decorate according to who I've decided they are, then play them just long enough to see if the lot is up to spec.

- 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?

The first one-I recently upped my ram to 3gig, so I decorate pretty heavily now.

- 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?


The second one-I get bored with the families easily.

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

Lots of hoods-I do have SarahMK's merged Maxis hood that I've kept for ages-I go back to it ever so often.

- 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?

More into relationships, etc. I usually cheat like mad for skills and jobs.

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

Both-I do stay interested in community lots longer.

-city/country/suburban?

All of the above.

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

Love themes-famous movie monsters, Bayou, 1950's.....

- do you play with pets?

Sometimes

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

I only have supernatural sims in my monster hood. The others I keep to regular sims.

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

Hacks a'plenty-Nearly everything from MATY, most of SimWardrobe's stuff, the one tiled version of Merola's painting, -No inteen, the options never appealed to me even before I knew about the kittens.

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

Lots of CC, probably more recolors than anything else, but lots of clutter & anything needed to make thems more complete, Not nearly enough clothes, though.

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

I'm not awesome, so I only make things when I can't find what I need for my own game. I have a Buffy and a Spike on the Exchange that I keep up out of nostalgia-('baby's first uploads'). -And tacky 70's couch and accessories set on MTS2.

How do you play? Please include details such as:


All of the above.


Both, depending on family size.


Both, again depending on family size. I must admit I rush through large families :D


I only ever have 2 hoods. One is my main playing hood where all the action happens and the other is for building.


Both depending on the sim's aspirations.


Again, depending on the sim families. If there are a large number of sims in the family they tend to socialise at home. If I have a small family or just a single sim I tend to send them on a lot of outings at community lots.


Definitely suburban.


Not at the moment although I did have a Simstones themed neighbourhood on my other computer. I am thinking of doing a victorian themed neighbourhood, but kinda busy with the hood I have now.


Yes, I love them. I am really glad I bought this expansion as Unleashed for Sims 1 really put me off the pet thing.


Yes, although I am still to have a werewolf or Zombie in-game.


I am a macrotastics convert :D I love my hacks. I don't do Inteen or Insim though.



Very few objects. I tend to have completer sets and repository items and use the maxis stuff. Mostly hair and some clothing. I am trying hard to be strict about downloading clothing as my other game on the upstairs pc has hundreds of downloaded clothes installed and I think my sims have used about 25 of them. Seriously.



Lots of Lots! Linkage in my sig. First one to find and pm me with the link to my 'famous bathroomless house' wins a custom made lot. ;D Oh, I have made some crappy walls and floors too. Go me.

Funny.  I tend to play with a focus on heirs as well, although I never score the challenge because I'm always playing with hacks and debug mode.  I tend to like going for interesting events, interactions, occurrences, rather than sticking to the Maxis imposed timelines for eating, terlet breaks, etc.  If there's something good going down, I give them a full hunger bar and green bladder condition so they can get on with it (unless the situation calls for them to be hungry or extremely uncomfortable.

I tried one "real" Asylum Challenge in May (no hacks, no debug, no cheats, no InSim) and had no fights, only one death, and lots of pillow fights and sims breaking down and crying due to aspiration failure.  No visits from shrink, even when they did the chicken imitation or talked to the volleyball.  I got bored.  It's more funny now that I've turned all the former asylum inmates loose in the hood as townies.  One of the fortune sims from the asylum is still in aspiration failure (broke down and wept on a community lot yesterday because he had no way of making money).  Apparently the game has not assigned him a job yet.

Mostly, I create sims, in a very general sense, and play families spawned from those sims. My houses tend towards the minimalist, more a graphics concern than anything else. Walls down, all graphics set to the lowest setting, my focus tends more towards the 'plot' than the special effects, so to speak. Though there's not very much plot either, actually... I don't have many downloads, and most of the ones I do have are hacks, not clothes or objects.

The genetic aspect -- well, I'll admit, this version of the sims has held my interest for a lot longer than the first one. I routinely start various genetic 'experiments', though I jump around so much that I don't think I've even hit a second generation anywhere yet... (Also, I had an anti-aging hack in, which I have recently removed) Various experiments have included: Don Lothario + Woohoo = Baby. Don Lothario + 20 Woohoo LTW = 20 Babies... I made a couple in CAS, generated a child with a 'double jointed nose', and kept it - intending to breed from him later on, to see how long the nose sticks around. Another experiment is to see how many children one couple can have before they reach elder - begun shortly after I removed the anti-aging hack. I think at this point my best bet for seeing things through to another generation is to go for China rule. I'm not quite there yet, though. Closest I've come to multi-generational has been Don's family, some of his earlier kids have married/joined now, he has one baby grandchild and two more on the way.

I start new hoods for new experiments, things I don't want to subject my main hoods to. Like overpopulating with one generation of siblings. Obviously I can't always do that (Don Lothario, for instance) but I try. I also go through and delete hoods I haven't visited in a while, just to keep the scrolling through to a minimum.

My main focus with sims is fulfilling their LTWs, though I like to have each sim either run at least one business, or have business reward skills passed on by another. Reaching the tops of careers is always fun, though since the education career I haven't been very motivated to try for any of the other rewards. Maybe the paranormal one here, or the adventurer/journalist ones there, the occasional cowplant for fun, but the skilling ones don't quite seem as important anymore. When it comes to interactions with other sims, there's not generally much going on within the household. Parents teach their toddlers the toddler skills, teach their children to study, etc. But mostly social comes from phone calls.

The only community lots I visit are ones that are owned and run as businesses, and then only as the business owner. More of a 'takes too long to load' problem there. I'd love to be able to exploit the lack of time passing while there, I just don't have the patience to go anywhere if I don't have to.

I like to play the farming part, that hasn't changed since Unleashed (I was so disappointed that it wasn't included with Pets... In Unleashed, pets had something to /do/, not crappy jobs to unlock weird coat colours) so I suppose there's rural in that. And I don't exactly play the ultra modern, or anything. But my sims still have all the modern conveniences - flushing toilets, fully stocked kitchens, big screen TVs, expensive computers, sports cars, you know, the basics. I don't think that really fits under city, country, or suburban... They're sims, they live wherever it is that sims live.

I'm not really big on themes exactly, or pets. (Though invariably someone ends up adopting Bonkers...) But I do like the alien abductions and alien babies. Vampires, well, they can be fun. Especially when the 'designated telescope shover' is a vampire. That was hilarious. "You looked at my house, in the day, while I was in my coffin, in my windowless basement, where you could not possibly see me! I must come over and shove you, with complete disregard for my own safety! Oh, but look, the sun! I must flee!" (complete with the standard 'the sun, I must flee' message) Zombies, not so much... I have a couple of werewolves. (And played a pre-Seasons lot the other day with a crazy amount of trees... THAT was fun when Autumn rolled around) I wouldn't mind more, don't think I ever got a 'natural' werewolf transformation (or vampire, for that matter...) but things are fine the way they are. Plantsims are pretty neat, though I had to cut back on that, as I couldn't tell them apart any more.

I would say, hack-wise, I like to make my game simpler. And less stupid. Mostly the less stupid. I have a lot of MATY hacks. A fair few of Inge's. And, yes, insim. (Though not inteen) and I've already mentioned my lack of custom content. Though I am quite fond of much of Mermaid Cove. Especially the subtle make-up, and hints of lipstick. I don't create anything, but am in awe of those who do.

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

I have built lots since I first got the game, usually from scratch and with the emphasis on playability. I'm an obsessive decorator and tend to do revamp lots as one would do in real life. I'll create playable sims to start a game and fill the townie pool but what I really like is playing families for multiple generations.

- 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 that tend to acquire decoration over time - always useful for fortune sims wants.

- 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?

Yes, more of an addiction than a thing. I've added geneticised version of Enayla's skins to my game and it's interesting to see how these breed into the gene pool. At the moment it's the fantasy skins but I may well try some of the others in the future. I'll often pair up/breed certain sims just to see how their spawn will turn out. In fact I refer to them as my little simmie fruitflies, which hubbie finds hilarious. I've completed the 10 generation legacy and have now embarked upon the 26 generation alphabet legacy so I enjoy watching how they develop.

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

I started off with Strangetown but since then tend to build hoods for specific purposes, usually a challenge. There's the legacy hood, asylum hood, black widow hood, alphabet hood etc I also have a boolprop hood for testing things. It's been such a long time since I played Strangetown it will be interesting to have a look at it again... if it still works.

- 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 and interactions are far important. Skilling and career are things that automatically happen, although I may weave career choice into a storyline.

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

I have the community cemetary but I wouldn't say I play it. I prefer home businesses and while I enjoy the features of NL, the whole getting there and coming back is annoying so I call up visitors/greet passersby instead.

-city/country/suburban?

country or suburban

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

Not really though I am seriously tempted by a medieval game with all the tasty CC that's available.

- do you play with pets?

Cats yes, dogs not anymore - as in real life they require far too much attention. I might try another one with a water wiggler as suggested by Pescado.

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

Aliens yes, lots of, it's the genetics thing again. Zombies are on the whole annoying though they were lots of fun for a while with the zombie apocalypse/eat brains hack. Vamps are ok and I've yet to try a werewolf. Plantsims are useful servants, certainly much better than servos, but I haven't yet turned one of my sims despite lots of gardening/spraying.

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

I like hacks to fix things and the odd one or two that add to gameplay, I certainly wouldn't be without ACR or the age duration hack. I don't macrotastics as I like to micromanage, or maybe I'm just a sim control freak.  :D I have used insim but not since Seasons and I will confess to trying out the kitten killer, but as I disagree with teen pregnancies in real life I didn't see why I should use them in game.

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

Lots and lots and lots and even more that I don't have in my downloads folder. Current size is ~1.6Gb evenly split between clothing, buy and build mode items as I build, decorate and play lots.

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

I haven't shared very much - a couple of outfits and buy mode items, one tutorial, that's about it. I can create stuff, it's just time and effort on testing it for public release that has stopped me. I am working on a family tree utility but even that's on hold until next month when I'll have free time to start coding again.

Mostly playing families, but I have one hood I use just for building lots.  I made a couple of versions of the house we had that my kids grew up in and I use the smaller one for newlyweds and then move them to the bigger one when they can afford it.  I also did a few for some themes I recently decided to try (my own themes, not any you mentioned).
 

Barely decorated, walls down so I can see what my pixel people are doing.  Walls cutaway or up for pics.  Most of my houses don't even have curtains unless a sim wants them.


I have a couple of hoods that I made specifically for the genetics.  My oldest one is over two years old now, and I expect something bad to happen to it every time I play, but so far so good.  It started as a Color My World challenge, which got me started making color skins, clothes, decorations, objects, etc., just to make it easier to recognize who was in what family.  I then got to wondering what kind of genetics would be passed on as the colors mixed.  I have charts, too.


I originally was playing Pleasantview, a little of Strangetown, and my own hood.  In the last six months I added a townie town that I am using to see what the different kinds of deaths are like (take out my frustrations on! lol) and I got a hair up my ass to make one that is just going to be a "creature feature".
I started a second user account so I could start PV and ST over again, and added another color hood and townie town (the first one gave me a bunch of odd townies, not the usual crowd) and I started an Island Paradise hood with hula girls and pirates.


Some of both.  One of the "rules" of my color hoods is that they have to reach the top of their career and get the reward when it becomes available.  All sim teens go to Uni the day before they will become an adult to find their mate (hopefully) if they haven't already.


Mostly homebodies, occassionally I let them hang out at a community lot, but they usually only go to buy clothes or electronics.  Yes, they have cell phones, mainly so they can each talk to their friends at the same time (for relationship building).


Suburban, with the exceptions of the island hood and the creature hood.


The ones I mentioned - gee, I guess they're almost all themed in some way!


Very few, and then only if that's the only way a sim's wants will roll up something else!


I only have one zombie family, but have had a few alien abductions.  One guy in my first color hood has been abducted 3 or 4 times!  (Once as a teen, once at Uni, and once or twice as an adult.)


Mostly only what makes my game run better for me.  I like macrotastics and every lot has a debugger box.  I also have the InSiminator, mainly for checking on pregnancies, but I also use it sometimes for other things, like making a dormie playable.  I also have the pregnancy for all mod so I can
allow my same-sex couples to have their own kids (Genetics, of course.)  And crammyboy's cock hack.  Just because.  ;D


Quite a bit, mostly my own.  Clothes and furniture, some wall and floor recolors.  When a sim age transitions in my color hoods, I will go make a recolor of whatever outfit they grew up into that corresponds to their color name.  And all furniture and walls have to match the color name, too, so I have done stoves, fridges, counters, beds, desks, chairs, couches, tables, robots, etc., ad nauseum to make the houses consistent.


Only recolors.  Don't really consider anything I've done to be so great that I'd put it up anywhere, but I did put my home lot on the exchange once and had an Uncle Sam suit up there once.  (Didn't announce them anywhere; I just wanted to see if there was any interest without pimpin' mah stuffs!)  I've done a hula girl outfit and a pirate outfit for toddlers, but haven't offered them anywhere yet.  Don't know what they look like in-game yet!


Interesting idea, seeing how people play!  Are you into fantasy or reality, basically.  How do you escape the tedium that is life?

I pretty much play Pleasantview, and only Pleasantview. It is a mildly-twisted Pleasantview. The original families remain in an
almost-pristine state, with my own Sims added.  I started out with the family that I created and played almost explosively when I just had the Sims,, and spread from there, seven generatirons ago.

I generally play with reasonably well-decorated walls and floors, though I find playing at Sim-Eye-Level a bit restrictive. Genetics, for the mos part, aren't really my thing. I don't use money cheats; it's ridiculously easy to make money post-Open-For Business; A skilless, badgeless, straight-out-of CAS Sim can make a million Simoleans  within an hour of being plopped on his first lot under the right circumstances.

I use a reasonable number of creature Sims. There are three half-alien Sims in my neighborhood, one of which is the descendant on a n uncheated abduction (Marie Roomies), the other two weretwins from a cheated abduction (Adam and Molly Black). Adam Married Stella Terrano, and they have a pair o green-skinned children, and I'm planning to add some more custom townie aliens to  sustain those lines.

I have one Playable Vampire  (Nadine Housewalk), and five custom townie vampires: Count  Carpathius Nocturne (Monacled Elder), Almathea Kallichore (Raver Adult), Baron  Samedi Guédé (Red-suited, Top-hatted adult), Vinnie Luciano (Greaser Gang Teen), and Bobbi Sachs (Poodle-skirted Teen).

I've got One Playabl(Sandy Housewalk, formerly Sandy Bruty and living with Nadine), and five custom townie Werewolves, whose names I can't remember (Two adult Males and one Teen Male,  One Adult and One Teen Female). Well, I can remember one of the Teen owlf names,  "Howard Scott."

Sandy Bruty:
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/835/05132007222946al2.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=05132007222946al2.jpg)

I have two Servos, Prime and Secunda Servo, who are married and live on their own.  Their adopted son, Tom,  recently became the father of twins, Tyche and Calypso. Not planning to make any more, as it's hard enough to tell the Servos I have apart, and they don't provide any benefit over my crafted-object production factories.

Prime Servo, with his Son and Daughter in Law,  Tom and Coral Servo
(http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/354/05282007211644ah8.th.jpg) (http://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=05282007211644ah8.jpg)

I have three zombies, two of which are townies and one of which is a playable. I don't really like them all that much, particularly because of the huge personality shift and major skill-loss, so I tend to consider Zombification a Townie Punishment State.

Santa Klaus
(http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/8679/05252007213625sc2.th.jpg) (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=05252007213625sc2.jpg)

I have two PlantSims, Simon Greene and Phyllis Forrest.  Disliking the

I play a lot of community lots. I have dozens of owned community lots, providing a multitude of goods and services.  I build most of my Community Lots from scratch, as I don't really like the Maxis ones; they often lack features I consider vital for  Business-running.  I've also got factories that produice Food, Toys, Robots, Flowers, and Fish for my business-owners, rather than have them prodced by the business-owner, or on the sales lot. I don't have a Plantation, since produce takes too long for my taste. Instead, I built what's been called a "notovny cheaty lot", a lot that takes advantage of one of the quirks of gameplay (in this case, Community Lot Restoration) to provide a hideous amount of  produce to whoever visits.

After a brief experiment with pets,  my sims no longer obtain Filthy Monsters., and most of my lots are built or hacked to keep them out.

I limit myself to custom content clothing that doesn't break the Suspension of Disbelief (nothing with real logos, or english text), and virtually no recolors or custom objects.


I don't play with Self-Sims, except for my own, who is primarily a spectator.

(http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/2860/05312007123134pz6.th.jpg) (http://img296.imageshack.us/my.php?image=05312007123134pz6.jpg)

And Hilary Duff, who is mean and outgoing, and rigged to be in constant near-aspiration failure.
(http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4776/duffhateim0.th.gif) (http://img525.imageshack.us/my.php?image=duffhateim0.gif)  (http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7066/04102007231904rq9.th.jpg) (http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=04102007231904rq9.jpg)


Families tend to be happy and long-lived in my Pleasantview.
My Test Neighborhoods, however, know me as a Capricious and Vengeful God.
(http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3575/snapshot6fdb25286fdb34cqj1.th.jpg) (http://img156.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snapshot6fdb25286fdb34cqj1.jpg)

As far as what I create, it's mostly community lots, which I'm uploading to my own webspace at a relatively glacial pace.  Residential lots I either download, or update small Maxis Lots for better playability.

Play, build, decorate.  I build to take a break from gameplay but bulldoze more houses than I keep. I screwed up at the start by allowing one family to spawn eight kids (three sets of twins in a row) and just recently had to add three new male YAs to Uni for new opportunities.  For the most part, I've avoided the playables that came with the game and EPs.


I like nicely designed, furnished and decorated homes.  If there are more than two Sims, most of the time the walls are down primarily for control purposes.  Cutaway with my senior citizens (they pretty much get to do whatever their pixels desire).

I have some smaller homes that newly graduated Sims can afford to move into, except for those who get to move back into the family home and inherit the place (which really isn't fair to any siblings).


I like the genetic aspect; am trying to breed out the haughty raised brows inherited by the spawn of Petra Petrovitch, a Russian princess who was granted asylum in Pleasantview after escaping the tyrannical overthrow of her princessdom.


Pleasantview is my hot spot, but I've been toying with starting a new hood this winter (when I have more indoor time).


All of the above. 


My Sims shop for clothing, art, robots, snapdragons, and goodies from the local deli.  I do send families out for bowling, skating and an occasional dinner.  My senior citizens will don formal dress and dine out, since they don't have much else to do.  My YAs do date at community lots.


Country/suburban. 


Nope.


About half of my families have a PITA pet.


Within the first 20 minutes of play after installing the base game, I had an alien abduction.  The scariest looking spawn I've seen.  Essie Tessie is in the adoption pool.  The vamps look too goofy to bother with.  Don't like zombies. but am toying with turning recently widowed Dirk Dreamer into a werewolf just because I'm curious and he's having a breakdown.  I do have quite a few Servos scattered about primarily because they are slave labor and can be turned off. 


I am particular about hacks and only use them to change what irritates me or what I consider really stupid.  The few hacks I have installed are from MATY.  Only dumb teens get pregnant.  My teens are smart.  [Edited to add that I use Jfade's and Paladin's talents as well.  Good stuff]


3,422 files in 16 folders: one gig.  723 files in clothing, 145 in build, 217 curtains, 130 floors, 353 furniture, 592 hair, 179 walls, 132 objects, 138 outdoors, 66 paintings, 134 plants, 59 rugs, and who knows what else hasn't been moved into folders yet.  Gads, got to do some culling.  Why do I have 179 walls and 130 floors???

Bed linens are a weakness; my Sims are better dressed than I am.


I've only fooled around with recolors for my own use, but someday (when I have more time) I'd like to get into that aspect of the game as I really admire some of the great work being done and would like to learn how.

I've never tried Legacy families before, since my neighbourhood usually ends up in a BFBVFS before I get to 3-4 generations. I tend to just delete the hood, and start over.

I used play with testingcheats enabled, and it's come in handy more than once. However, the cheating gets a little easy after a while, and I downloaded all the "harder grades/jobs" hack to make the game a tad more realistic.

Nowadays, I play with the fight club and zombie apocalypse hacks intact. University's actually fun to play now, where your sims have to juggle their studies, social life, and stay on their toes to survive. I even created a greek house called the 'Resistance', in which their task is to train new members to defend against zombie attacks. :P

I play with all of the macros, especially during university and business hours. To be honest, I've gotten a lot more incentive to play the game ever since my zombies turned brainthirsty.

There seem to be a bunch of empty posts in this thread.

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

Makes me sad. I was gonna save the whole thing to keep for ideas and such.

Sounds like a browser problem to me.  I do not get any empty threads when I access the thread - all OK.  Check your browser settings or reload page.

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



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).



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. :D

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. :P

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 :P 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. ::)



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 :P), 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.



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. :P  I am even considering adding cwykes other custom hoods as subhoods, just cause I like the idea of having sims with pre-built history.



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. :D  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.



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.



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.



Nope.  Too much effort. :P



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.



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. :D



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. ;D  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.



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 :P) 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.).



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

Ste

Nope; I can see them all.

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Submit  :D

- 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.  :D

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.  :D

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

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.

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.

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.

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.


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.


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).


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.

- 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.

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.

-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.

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.

- 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.