How often do you 'reboot'?

[rampancy]

I'm just curious, really...

At what points, if any, do you decide to just wipe your neighborhoods back to their un-altered states (be it back to the shipped state, or whatever 'clean' template, whatever) and start again?

I never intend to, but I always start over when I get my hands on a new expansion. I think about going back to the Sims I created previously, but by then I've lost most of my (for lack of a better term) emotional connection to those characters. So I start over with a new expansion, play until I get bored, and abandon the game until the new expansion comes out... and wipe those characters out.

What about you? When do you just want to restart?

[Zazazu]

I create new 'hoods. After I don't play a particular 'hood for a month, I back it up on my alternate drive and my memory stick, then delete from the game. This generally happens when I start to feel like my neighborhood has too many sims and I don't want to neglect any of them but I really only like three or four, or if I get too attached to the tester sims I play while I'm waiting for hacks to be updated, or if I just want to play with terrain creation again.

[Shivani]

I generally only use the Eaxis 'hoods for testing or challenges, but otherwise ignore or delete them.  And then I create a new 'hood, play it for a while, and generally abandon it when a new EP comes out and start another one, though I back up all neighborhoods pre-update.

But I do extract sims I become very fond of and turn them into saved sims, custom N001 template townies, or default facial template replacements.

[Kazzandra]

So far, only once. I started with some interesting characters as adults. I backed up that hood and am currently playing a hood where those characters are 'born' (I use SimPE to clone them ingame before I left ye olde hoode and reintroduce them as toddlers. I created their parents by using their faces as templates and messing with the silders a bit). That way, I can see that particular generation grow up before I go rushing off into the distant future.

EAxis Hoods? I opened one accidentally before I knew I could delete them all. Out of curiosity, I loaded the Goth house-- (because I remember my Sim living with them in the console Sims: Bustin' Out) and was unimpressed.

Other than that, I have my MATY hood and a testing hood, and that's it.

[Lum]

Wow, you guys. I've been playing for 2 or 3 years, and I've never, ever rebooted. I'm on a fourth gen with several family lines, and just looking at the complicated family tree... which is HUGE... brings me inexplicable joy. Everyone is vaguely related somehow, because the nearest thing I had for founder couple had 6 kids. Another founding couple had 2 kids, but the male sim had a mistress by the side that gave birth to twins, and then... well, I'm telling you, the family tree is HUGE. When lacking proper mates, they've been known to marry townie or Maxoid sims. The Goth and Dreamer families live on in my game, but I killed the Pleasant twins because they didn't pass the prettiness test when they grew up. Haven't had much use to other Maxoid sims. I believe I killed the Caliente sisters early on.

[jsalemi]

Same here.  I got TS2 and NL back in late 2005, made Pleasantview my main hood, and have been playing it ever since.  It's somewhere in its fifth generation now. Only hood I've ever rebuilt from the start was Strangetown -- I use that as my test hood for new EPs, etc, and really fouled it up at one point. I made one custom hood but rarely play it, and never play Veronaville. I'm getting fond of the Desiderata hood that came with FT though, and have been playing that one quite a bit as a break from PV.

[SnootCB]

I've only completely redone all the Maxis neighborhoods 3 times, the first 2 times due to technical difficulties and the last time just because I was bored and wanted a fresh start for FT.  I try to save my custom neighborhoods, though it seems that those are more often fubar'd than the regular Maxis ones by the time I get done with them. 

[V]

I start a new hood far too regularly and I never delete a hood, even if I don't like the way it was turning out.

Consequently, I have a huge number of old neighborhoods packed into my spare hard drive. Some of them are copies of the same hood, backed up by SimPE and in varying stages of growth; some are neighborhoods I backed up prior to installing a new EP; some are variations on Pleasantview & Strangetown. But not one of them has managed to get to the 3rd generation or to have a lasting relationship with vampires, werewolves or bigfoots.

But, my two main hoods are my first Pleasantview and my 2nd "Experimental".

I move the neighborhoods I am not planning to play into a separate folder named, "EA spare neighborhoods" so I don't have to page through to get to the hood I want to play.

[Lum]

Does anyone ever play Veronaville? I've always stuck around Pleasantville, but most of my time is spent on its Downtown lot and Bluewater subhoods (Bluewater is getting a lot of play lately). I also added its university and all three vacation lots. No need to ever leave Pleasantville, really, but I first started playing on Strangetown, so I occasionally visit as well.

[Anne]

I just started on the fifth generation in my custom 'hood - which I started just after NL came out. So I guess... never?

[Zazazu]

Does anyone ever play Veronaville? I've always stuck around Pleasantville, but most of my time is spent on its Downtown lot and Bluewater subhoods (Bluewater is getting a lot of play lately). I also added its university and all three vacation lots. No need to ever leave Pleasantville, really, but I first started playing on Strangetown, so I occasionally visit as well.

I haven't played the original 'hoods since 2004. I played the Tests (custom) through the beginning of the third generation in Pleasantview, but after Chuck died I had issues letting elders happen for awhile, and flitted for a bit before trashing all EAxis 'hoods.

My longest family line was 11 generations in Urban Paradise. That terrain was out of control. I was doing some Alphabet-Apocalypse-whatever hybrid and only following the heir line. Other than that, I've gotten to generation 4 twice prosperity-style, currently on generation 5 in Teardrop Isle.

[Assmitten]

I think about going back to the Sims I created previously, but by then I've lost most of my (for lack of a better term) emotional connection to those characters. So I start over with a new expansion, play until I get bored, and abandon the game until the new expansion comes out... and wipe those characters out.

EXACTLY! Me too. I wander off after a while into an EP and then push the oldies off a cliff. I have one sim that I keep from first playing in 2004, because she was the first one born in game and I just liked her so much. Sometimes I put her in, and sometimes I don't.

I do like a populated neighborhood, though, and I am lazy, so I dread the point when I have to take all the sims in the bin and chuck them into houses. I am impatient.

[Solowren]

I had the same neighborhood going for three years. Imagine my heartbreak when I FUBAR'd it!

A big draw of the Sims for me is the genetics. I love to watch families grow and genes get passed down, so, I started the neighborhood I have now about a year ago(?) and I've been playing it ever since.

[maxon]

I would say never but it's not quite true.  I have been playing the same neighbourhood since the game came out (Sept 2004) but when the empty templates first became available. I remade the hood with the same custom terrain I'd made in SC4 (tidied up a bit and made smaller) and completely empty.  I then cloned all my old sims into the new Little Carping and rebuilt everything - relationships, memories etc and used copies of the lots and so on.  Much better now.  No Goopy.  God, I hate Maxis sims - I opened Pleasantview and Strangetown when the game first came out and that's it.  The only Maxis sims I ever liked were the Curious brothers and Nervous, Loki and Circe so their clones moved into Little Carping.  I have a second hood I play sometimes called Rummilly which is my medieval/fantasy hood but that somehow doesn't hold my attention like Little Carping does.  The family stories in LC are so complex now even though I play V-E-R-Y s-l-o-w-l-y.

[Nepheris]

 I've reset Pleasantview (the only hood I play) so often I've lost count. I tend to lose interest in the game, uninstall it, then get back to it after a couple of months and reinstall.

Every time I play Pleasantview I tend to take a different route than I did the last time. Cassandra has been married to Don, to Dirk Dreamer, to some random townie and has remained a spinster... I like playing out different scenarios

[Lord Darcy]

When TS2 first came out, I sort of re-created my favourite TS1 polyarmory family in TS2, but quickly lost interest due to the telepathic Woohoo Sense. (That's before I found out about no-jealousy hacks.) That 'hood went down when I lost the entire backup. I eventually scrapped my second 'hood too, in which I committed all kinds of mortal BVTVFSes including binning occupied lots and putting in another 'hood.
I'm on my third 'hood that was going on since Seasons, the first time I ever used clean templates and also the first time that I ever reached over Gen 4 in any given 'hood. I tend to play several 'hoods in rotation, so it takes me quite a long time to reach the next generation.

[pixiejuice]

I've never played any Maxis hoods.  I've had three custom hoods in my TS2 playing experience.  The first hood lasted about a year, six generations, and then it got too big and I got bored with it. 

My second hood I built on a terrain I didn't like (before I knew about terrain surgery and all that), and that lasted a year before I scrapped it.  I cloned my favorite characters though, and moved them to my current hood, which I've been playing over two years now, and am on the fourth generation (sixth if you count that the clones were third generation from the previous hood).

I'm quite attached to my Simmies and their little dramas. 

[Roux]

I guess I reboot rarely for actual game play. The first six months or so that I played, I played Pleasantview and Veronaville heavily. Then the new merged 'hood tute came out, which then occupied my game for about a year before it crashed and burned. So then I decided to create a custom one, which is very loosely based on the Royal Kingdom Challenge. I've been playing it for 1.5 years now, and I'm very attached to the families. I have no intention to abandon it in the foreseeable future. My only other 'hood is one to house all my lots (Eaxis/mine/downloaded), which I prefer over keeping them in the lot bin.

I have occasionally started new neighborhoods with the intention of playing other challenges, but they never last and I always delete them. If the challenge takes more than a few days for me to complete, I get bored and want to get back to my regular 'hood.

Now I only play the Eaxis neighborhoods when I need to test something, or when a new expansion comes out and I'm waiting for updated hacks/bug squashing. They're in a separate 'The Sims 2' folder so I only load them when they're needed. I try to protect my precious sims from the potential destruction inherent in new EPs.

[Alex]

I tend to play the Eaxis hoods quite often, and only use the premade sims in those hoods (there's enough crap in there already without me going in and CASsing the place up). It's quite nteresting this way. I only ever restart those hoods if absolutely necessary. I tend to do some things differently, like Cassandra married Don one time, but the other time she got left at the altar and married Darren.

I have a "Legacy" hood, the Riverside one. It's probably fucked to pieces internally, but oh well, it's really entertaining. I also have my main custom hood, Vinewood, which I am always starting again, because I usually hate the terrain and can't seem to make one I really like. I also have some test hoods.

[jolrei]

I am often more attached to the neighbourhood than the actual sims in it.  If I get bored with a sim or family, I townify them.  If I want them back, I can recall them to playable status.  I never delete a hood (except my very first BFBVFS).  All my hoods are custom, with custom downtowns - I get a little invested in their design and it hurts to lose them.

[Assmitten]

Every time I play Pleasantview I tend to take a different route than I did the last time. Cassandra has been married to Don, to Dirk Dreamer, to some random townie and has remained a spinster... I like playing out different scenarios

Hee, me too. I like to say that I like the variety of scenarios, but I think I am just afraid of commitment. I would not want to be in Solowren's boat and lose three years' worth. Plus I just can't keep track. Sometimes I come back months later and look at their memories and I am like, you poor, poor, thing I can't believe that happened to you. Oh, wait. That was me. Then I reinstall over the top and start torturing them again.

[Ambular]

I think I still have all the hoods I made, though I deleted all the Maxis hoods except Strangetown, which I only visit occasionally.  I'll build a hood and then lose interest and go build a new one.  Mainly these days I just use one of the old hoods to test my custom stuff.

My main problem (other than changing fandoms occasionally and wanting new Sims of the characters) is that when I put all the work into building a hood and its Sims just the way I want them, I don't want to mess it all up by playing it!  Also, I want my game to be just so before I try to do anything with it, or I get all annoyed and have to stop to fix something, and I still haven't run out of stuff to fix.  :p  One of these days (maybe after AL and all the necessary mods for it have come out, or when the masses start migrating to TS3 and the supply of new custom content starts to wane) I'll actually sit down and PLAY one of my hoods.

[aussieone]

A big draw of the Sims for me is the genetics. I love to watch families grow and genes get passed down, so, I started the neighborhood I have now about a year ago(?) and I've been playing it ever since.

Same for me. I like to see who new kids turn out and it's a nice surprise when you get a sim who inherits something recessive for a change. I have been playing Riverblossom Hills only pretty much, since BV first came out which was about a year ago I think.

[rampancy]

Wow, gotta say I'm surprised about how this turned out

I suspect after this last expansion pack I'll keep my Sims going and not start over each time. I just hate having Sims that exist that didn't "grow up" without the features added to an expansion pack.

[NothingToSee]

I don't. Mind you, I don't play the original maxis hoods much. I set up my own hood to play as I like without any of those Maxis Fuggo Townies. What's sad is that I found it more fun setting the hood up than actually playing it. 

But when I read the thread title, I thought it was going to be along the lines of 'how often do you reboot your computer'.