Not so - townies do age, and can die of old age. However, they don't progress - so they won't get married, have kids, etc. They just get older. The game moves new townies into the townie pool and into houses around the neighbourhood when the population falls, but these mostly don't seem to be in connected families. So, for example, my teen sim met a few teens at the park, but they didn't have any obvious family members (admittedly I can't work out if they have townie parents somewhere that I just haven't found, or they're just generated totally alone, but the latter seems most likely so far), and they weren't living in a house. They all grew up, and now 1 of them is living next door as a solo YA, but the rest are just YA townies somewhere, floating about in their lonerish fashion. They do make friends with each other, but only in situations where your sim is present - so if your sim chats with 5 of them, those 5 will build their relationships with one another at the same time, but they don't seem to register external relationships (tested with one who moved in, and seemed only to know the exact same people he'd met at my sim's party, despite the fact that I'd seen him at a park playing chess with someone else).

Agreed.

'Write a song' seems to be totally borked - sims start but can't stop (usually needing to be reset entirely to pry them away from the instrument), and although songs do sort of complete (at least enough to register for the Music milestone), you don't get the completed sheet music as an object, so can't send them off to be licensed.

Sadly while flat-hunting I am finding that living underground is all too realistic. But I DON'T LIKE IT, so I also voted only for above-ground houses. I also went for 'traditional' layouts, but ones with a nice twist to make it more interesting than a box (e.g. bay window adding new zone to room, half walls, etc.) Still found it extremely hard to pick only four - well done everyone on such innovative and interesting ideas!

I'd also say that ASUS have some very decent gaming laptops - I am not on one anymore, but had a G1 when they came out which performed extremely nicely, and have tested out a couple of the more recent models which are equally good in terms of performance (relative to time of release, of course). Some of them do get a little hot, but those laptop coolers can work brilliantly, and it's not a universal problem - maybe just check reviews etc. to look out for which ones get hottest.

These days I am on a 'desktop replacement' rather than straight laptop - because I live in two places at once I can't really get a desktop, but I've found that it performs well. It's the acer Aspire 8930, Nvidia 9600M GT, 4 gigs RAM, Core2Duo. I mention it not as a recommendation (because it's old, and pretty outdated these days) but more to say as a useful baseline that it runs the Sims 3 with all expansion packs fine - I am on highest graphic settings most of the time and get no lag in gameplay, although I have to try and keep CC down. So really you shouldn't have a problem finding something fairly cheap which is far better than this setup and should be able to play the Sims 3 nicely.

No.

There are still people who think Norton is a valid choice to make?


Mac vs. PC got a bit dull. What can I say.

While I am not particularly interested in getting involved in the whole debate, here is some more super-useful anecdotal evidence for you: I have in fact several friends who will happily admit that they bought their Macs because they were 'pretty' or 'looked more fun' -> shiny. If you don't really know what you need a computer for, or indeed you know that you don't need it for something like gaming, and so aren't really looking into specs etc., it is very easy to make choices based on marketing or something as simple as which product you prefer the look of. The fact that you don't know anyone who has done that doesn't really mean anything at all - it is a recognisable effect.

Argument fail. People are dying out there, and you're wasting bandwidth throwing a tantrum over Claeric throwing a tantrum over a choice of moar than 10 display options. Go and sit on the naughty step, brat. (Amended, because your version was kind of weird. Let's not encourage him.)

Accept that throwing a tantrum on the internet is, while probably not as important as helping all the people dying in the world right now, a valid thing to do. Otherwise, don't do it.

This is illogical. Do better.

Given the first part of the above quote, you might want to make sure you are reading things more carefully before you start sniping - you have already been caught out there once. Jesslla has said that her computer works REALLY WELL, which is what she wanted, and thus is happy with what she bought. That has nothing to do with working better than anything, and so your 'retort' is irrelevent.

Your second point is better, but given that Jesslla has already explained what she was happy to pay more for, is still fairly stupid.

In sum: READ BETTER. Were you homeschooled?

I feel sick. Really, really sick. This is truly disgusting behaviour, which should never be indulged in on the internet, and particularly not in public! You ought to be thoroughly ashamed, particularly after Jez has already warned you about this.

This word "force" - it does not mean what you think it means.

No one has forced you to download anything. It may be a condition of having one thing, that you must take another, but this still does not count as 'forcing' you to download it. Take responsibility for your own actions and CHOOSE if you want something, despite the condition, or not.

Actually I am still having the same issue even in Bridgeport, despite the AM-fix. It isn't just a non-Bridgeport issue, I am afraid.

"We"?

I freaking loved this bar. Now I can't look at it without thinking that there might be an Ella lurking inside it. Jesslla - I am so sorry.

In today's "confused" society, Dr Dreadful is merely doing his bit to avoid insulting hermaphrodites. What a noble and worthy aim.

Sorry, what? The TV told you that all large PC retailers are stupid/evil and you are actually claiming that as evidence? Did you WANT someone to come and point out your stupid?

Furthermore, your picture is inaccurate. The problem with places such as PC World (which will henceforth be the main retailer discussed) is that they are inconsistent - they do tend to hire people who are very good with computers, but simultaneously staff who don't know what a monitor is. This also is subject to local variaton - so I know that my local one at home requires people to demonstrate computer skills as part of the interview, but the one in Oxford will hire anyone (or so they tell me.) If you work with their core departments however (bypassing the poor confused part-time staff), they are quick, not overly expensive, and good at what you want them to do. I have heard them endorsed from senior types in IT companies as well, so this is not just my isolated opinion. The trick is to not go in entirely uninformed - so that you can recognise whether you are being served by someone who knows what they are doing.

Yes, you can write to him at:
123 Stalk Me Please,
The Real World,
USA.

If that doesn't work I think he's listed in the directory under Mr F Prince, but he normally gets a bit fed up with people trying to contact him through secret real-life methods, so he might hang up a few times before he talks to you. Don't worry if the police turn up - it's just a hazing thing he does. Only super dedicated people get to harass him outside of private message.

This is one of the stupidest, most annoying things I have seen in the last week at least. Congratulations, that's an achievement.

I have had some experience with this and Sims 2, although I don't know if that counts as useful experience. Unfortunately with Sims 2 it didn't work unless the hard-drive was never turned off and never disconnected from the computer (and it seemed to work best if the computer was never turned off either!) Otherwise it kept effectively losing the expansion packs - claiming that they weren't installed so you were using the wrong disk, or getting otherwise confused and refusing to run the game. However, as I say, I don't know if this is comparable evidence.

I'm also starting to think that the gigs problem is a bug - I haven't got any gigs for my sim's band, no matter who the members are. There is also the bug with tipping which some people have mentioned - bystanders make the tipping motion but my sim gets no money from it.

Perhaps, as witch says, it's hyper-realism - after all, there's a recession on, why would you tip a musician in the park?

My computer isn't amazing, but it is still well above required specs, and plays the game perfectly smoothly on highest graphics settings. However, I am still having this issue. It doesn't matter what time I attend clubs, there is always maximum one other person there, and they normally leave when my sim turns up. For further information, there are normally between 5 and 8 sims at celebrity parties (sometimes all standing in the foyer because an apartment is too small, but that is a minor annoyance), and about four sims in parks or other community lots. It actually seems to be just clubs and bars for me.

ETA: So, I was considering something else as regards this problem - we should probably keep an eye on it until AM is fully updated, and then see how things are, as it may be that Pescado notices something to do with the community-stalker-swarm function that can be sorted out. But it might also be worth checking if those who have the problem are playing sans AM, or with AM-test version, or with out-of-date AM (/are mad)?

I'd add a word of caution here - one of my sims recently married a nice French lady (having separated her from her husband and son in France) - the marriage took place in Riverview rather than abroad, and all seemed fine. However, after I did a fixall the husband and son disappeared entirely from the face of the planet (no longer in France, not on family trees, no one remembered knowing them), and then her family tree broke - clicking the button does nothing. Thoughtfully, she passed this family-tree fail on to all her descendants. Two generations on, I can access a half-complete tree through spouses, but no direct descendants have one still. So perhaps if you care about family trees a foreign marriage could be tricky.

If you look here you'll see that there's been some discussion of this in the AM bug thread too - looks like Pescado's worked it out and it will be fixed soon.

Ignore Jezzer - he gets bitter when surrounded by complete idiots. I want to reply and help, and I really think I've worked out the best way for you to sort out your problem.

Don't play with things you are clearly too stupid to play with. Like matches, chainsaws, and computers.