One of the main appeals of the Sims 3, in comparison to its predecessors, is the ability for the entire community to age collectively. Except, not so much. I don't know if the good ol' "testingcheatsenabled" cheat tripped up my game, but nobody in my town ages. I have confirmed numerous times that aging is indeed turned on. I have reset my Sims and moved them in and out of different houses. I have messed around with different lifespans. Nothing works. My Sims' aging bars are stagnant. I can only manually usher them into the next life phase through cheats.

I recognize that Twallan's Story Progression Mod will take care of the aging problem, but I'm hesitant to download it. My game has crashed in the past, and I hate to screw around with it by introducing foreign mods. I'd appreciate any thoughts on how to address this aging issue without having to resort to downloads.