I appreciate that explanation, the "aha!" light came on - I've wondered what symptoms to look for, since I played these families right away after getting the game, not knowing any better at the time.  I've been playing for a while now, and only a few odd things have ever happened, nothing particularly unpleasant or disruptive so far, the most significant being the one I described at the start of this thread.  I have not played any of the problem families after finding out about them, but they do still roam the hood and have relationships with other playables.  Will fix gossip and clean up memories on the lot debugger at least help with the ensuing corrupted gossip and memory files? Then would more drastic measures be required to quarantine (or repair, or remove) the borken families/prevent damage to the neighborhood?

From the context, obviously severed files are bad for some reason, so what is the extent of the "badness"?  From the fishing pond o'fingers example, sure that sounds yucky, like it would stink, etc., but it wouldn't bring about the end of the world...or would it?  What game problems could these severed files cause?

Talk about random, I had a sim bring home a coworker who immediately turned around and claimed to be a business owner, and offered my sim a job in another field.

Because I wasn't sure anything was broken, or that there was a problem.  Nice kitty.  I was asking the question because I like the way my game is playing, but was warned by someone that I was destroying it by playing borked characters.  I really just wanted to know if there was any truth to that, rather than rely on superstition, since I don't know enough on my own about how it works to know if it would even be possible to ruin the game with a borked character.  Some people here have been very helpful, and I got what I was looking for and then some.  Thanks!

One thing mitchellcjs said sticks in my mind though, not to play he pre-made Pets EP families- Since I got eveything all at once, I'm not sure which familiies came with what EP, but I'm assuming Cyd Roseland and Tara Kat did (cuz duh), but are there any others?  Thanks again.

No, I was saying that it didn't seem that you understood my post. That's not what I said, and even if it WERE what I meant to imply, who cares?  I didn't say I was better than anyone, insult anyone, or even call you Miss Arrogant Bully Cow.  It just looks like you read a lot into what I wrote and went headlong into flamer mode.  You ignored the point of the post, and latched on like a pitbull to a harmless incidental statement made in jest that you could have chosen to ignore.  If this is the type of reaction a small moue of distaste triggers in you, it says more about you than anything I said....about myself...sheesh...
If you're not offended, good.  If you prefer to be intelligent, even better.  Let's start now by dropping this pointless bs, mmkay?  I didn't come here looking for a fight, I came here to discuss TS2, and this thread was just starting to get good.  Please don't spoil it.

No lie.  I'm in desperate need of attention.  Someone might get to me if they weren't so darn distracted with sims after finally getting TS2. 

Thank you so much, that was what I was looking for.  I like the new Lilith, honestly - I hated her before and planned to kill her off.  When she became transgender, it seemed to fit with her story, and the new Lilith suddenly made easy friends and actually began to "fit in". There's ferrous for you.  And she looks great without makeup with her new unisex haircut and horn rims.  If I could remember how, I'd attach a picture.

If I already have downloaded houses with families, is it gloom and doom now?  Because I have. 
How do we know which NPC's are safe to interact with? That makes me nervous.

Thanks so much for your reply.  At the time of the occurence I had just installed TS2 and all the EP's prior to FT.  I had no hacks or custom content and had only official patches.  I have never used SimPE...I'm just not that advanced.  The condition of the Pleasant house was almost virgin - I had entered the lot to check out what was inside before deciding to play a family that was more interesting to me.  I had never sent any sims to college before, if that matters.  What I had done immediately before is send another playable sim to college.  From the neighborhood view I got the option of sending other eligible sims to college, and I chose Angela Pleasant, and townies Debbie King and Ivy Copur.  The next time I opened the Pleasant house, Lilith was an adult.  At that time I thought maybe it happened because she and Angela were twins, and Angela had just aged up when I sent her to college, but then noticed all the other stuff and figured that surely it wasn't supposed to work that way.

Please excuse me if I have offended you somehow, as it was not my intention at all.  Perhaps my statement would seem to be self aggrandizement to someone who would prefer to be dumb, but I was conceding that (alas) I am not any smarter than I look, and pointing that out as a handicap in my plea for mercy should one find my question stupid.  I never said I was beautiful - read the post.  I might be the bearded fat lady making my living in the circus freak show for all the information I gave about myself, hence the room for irony. Truth be known, I've always considered myself rather average looking. Thanks for the advice about the dictionary and your opinion about my name.

And sincere thanks, Inge, for the tea to help break the ice.  It only took me 3 days to muster the courage to post here for the first time with my question.  I was so afraid that I would be so far behind since I waited so long to get TS2 and the EP's that I've read darn near every post on this site to avoid annoying you guys with a goofy dinosaur question.  I hope someone will be kind enough to share any information if they have it, since I considered asking here my best chance of getting an answer from someone who know's what he/she's talking about.

LOL  I was actually only trying to offset the noobness of my post with some self-depricating irony, but if you really want to see what I look like, I'm googlable.  I'd attach a link, but I think I read in the "read this before posting" rules that that is not allowed, and I certainly do not wish to offend.  At any rate, if someone would interface with me on this issue with something more intelligent than the hysterionic advice that I've received so far to never play a corrupted sim without any further explanation of what kind of armageddon to expect, responses will be very appreciated.   I had already played the sim quite a bit before being told not to without noticing any problems, and I want to keep playing my corrupted sim, but I obviously don't want to kill my game...

Also, it may have made me seem less retarded had I included the information that I have all EP's installed, and that I installed all of them at once, with the exception of FT and AL.  Thanks again for any ideas.

Something went wonky when I sent Angela Pleasant to college, but didn't send Lilith.  I didn't do this in-game, but rather from the neighborhood "send sims to college" function.  Angela was a member of the first University household I played, and I hadn't really played the Pleasant family yet, only opened the lot to check it out, decided to send Angela to college but make Lilith wait until she raised her grades.  SO - When I went back into the Pleasant house, I immediately noticed that Lilith had aged to adult (bummer), all her needs and aspiration bars red, all memories & relationships (including family tree) wiped, and 0 hashmarks in all personality traits.  What took me a little longer to notice was her very deep voice, and that she now pees standing up and uses the men's room on community lots.  Lilith is now recognized by the game as male. I went about seeing what I could fix, and used cheats to age him back to teen and to give him a personality.  Thanks to the AL patch from this site, which made the schoolbus come and evidently corrected his shool hours that had started off showing 12am-12pm, Lilith was able to raise his grade to A+...because he no longer had a family tree he also got the Orphaned Sim Grant...Life actually looks great for Lilith now as long as he doesn't mind being transgender, and he doesn't seem to.  I've played him a while because he's so darn fun, and frankly, amusing.

The only potential problem is, since Lilith's new gender identity was caused by something like that first-born syndrome (dontcha think?), like he respawned off Angela or something thus turning out male, but kept the female skin, he would be considered corrupt...

On the official Sims2 site, users warn to either kill off or put corrupt sims in the family bin and NEVER play them again, lest you DESTROY your whole neighborhood!  Is this a real concern?  What could happen?

I'd like to keep playing with Lilith, especially since he/she's in love with Stella the alien girl, and I want to see if they can try for a baby...bad idea?

As this is my first post, please excuse me if it is too long or if my question is just too stupid.  Faceless as forums are, I'm put at a disadvantage here, as I usually get by on looks alone IRL.  Thanks in advance for your understanding and any helpful input.