who's playing this game?

[cwieberdink]

If you want a very nice and playable house = see reggikko
If you want a funny story that makes you laugh = see reggikko
If you want to test-drive a challenge to see if it is doable = see reggikko

Hm... I seem to detect a pattern here

G.

At which site can I get these wonderful and playable houses?  Several of my latest downloads ended up being the most bizarre houses with terrible layouts and all sorts of unecessary "noise" in them and the LAG, whew.  Nasty.  I'm okay as a builder if I have an idea in mind, but just going by the seat of my pants.... well, not so much.  For example, I made a wonderful sim copy of my own house, down to photographic wallpaper, etc, but building for my legacy family (which I got bored with and started using hacks) was not easy for me and they still don't have much furniture or wallpaper.



Chris

[J. M. Pescado]

Heh-heh. It is rather the polar opposite of your playing style, isn't it? You'd be surprised how much you can actually control vicariously, though. This challenge shows just how efficient a Sim-master you can really be. I think you'd actually be quite good at it.

Well, I know that this doesn't actually work, because sims are actually crippled and cannot perform most actions autonomously at all. Plus, do you really want me to suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage and die in the process?

[Marvin Kosh]

See I would make the challenge null and void by sending all the free-range Sims to repair broken computers.  Or maybe I could use the death field on the APO to get rid of them.... it's not my fault if it happens to be in the kitchen

[veilchen]

At which site can I get these wonderful and playable houses?
Chris

You have to go to the official site (sorry about that ). The direct link is this one:
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/search.php?searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=lot&key=reggikko1960&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=5&game_version=&custCont=&zoneType=-1&lotSize=&lotLevel=&lotValue=&familyFund=&familyWorth=&familySize=&locality=&country=&view=new&x=11&y=13

Long, isn't it? If that doesn't work, just go to the lot-exchange and type reggikko1960 into the search, that'll get you to her site.

Her houses are very playable and have a certain NO (New Orleans) flair

G.

[Darkstormyeve]

I am a Fire Engineer and fully qualified Building Surveyor. My highest qualification is a Masters degree in Applied Science majoring in Fire Dynamics. Lots of physics!

So count me in as a science person who loves the game.

BUT as a result I have a very limited imagination and artist qualities.

[reggikko]

Well, I know that this doesn't actually work, because sims are actually crippled and cannot perform most actions autonomously at all. Plus, do you really want me to suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage and die in the process?

Well of course I don't want you to suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage and die, silly. Where would I get my hacks then? It's precisely the fact that the Sims cannot perform most actions autonomousy very well that makes it a challenge. Of course, you have to be comfortable with them going to sleep at 6AM when they need to get up for work at 7. Then they come home and pass out. It's great fun! It forces you to think outside your comfort zone. That's why I like your Email challenge so much. It made me strategize and  come up with a new way to play. And I will have a perfect score before I die. I simply will not give up until I do!

[reggikko]

Reg, I'm curious. Is there actually a challenge that you refuse to take on? I see you all over the place (and I am, of course, rooting for you), and you not only take on all the challenges, but actually successfully tackle them all. I knew you'd be one of the first one to take on the e-mail challenge before it was even posted.

If the challenge is well done and it catches my fancy, I'm in. I have one waiting in the wings which I think is by TreyNutz. The AntFarm challenge. The Sims can never leave the house in that one.

I'm one of those people who needs constant challenge and brain stimulation. The game on its own is quite easy so to keep myself from being bored, I like to take on new things with it.

My what many talents you have:

If you want a very nice and playable house = see reggikko
If you want a funny story that makes you laugh = see reggikko
If you want to test-drive a challenge to see if it is doable = see reggikko

Hm... I seem to detect a pattern here

G.

Gabi, you are too kind. Thank-you. 

[Tina G]

I am just your average, everyday dumbass who enjoys playing The Sims, as is my sixteen year old daughter. She frequently runs me off my computer so that she can play. It all started a few years ago when my seventeen year old daughter (then fourteen) insisted on getting The Sims for her playstation 2 console. She got frustrated the first time she tried to play so I decided to give it a whirl. I wound up playing more than she did.

From there, it progressed into The Sims for PC when my husband (who happens to be highly entertained by flight simulator games) decided to bring me home a disk while he was buying a game for himself. Since then, I've been pretty much 'hooked' on a game that seems to take up way more of my time than anything should...lol. I didn't get The Sims 2 until March and then Uni a few weeks later.  For a while all I wanted to do was play the damned game. Until... bugs began filtering in.    Now for the past couple of months, I've spent most of my free time searching for and reading information about the game and all its glorious 'surprises'! Though my daughter still bugs me until I have to stop and let her play the game.

I'm not particularly artistic, scientific, nor computer savy. Just a regular sort of gal who's managed to become addicted to controlling the lives of tiny pixelated people on a computer screen.  

[reggikko]

See I would make the challenge null and void by sending all the free-range Sims to repair broken computers.  Or maybe I could use the death field on the APO to get rid of them.... it's not my fault if it happens to be in the kitchen

See, but you can't send them to do *anything*. Influence maybe, but I don't think influence works on electrical repairs. I'll have to check on that. The only time I was really tempted to kill one of them was when he inexplicably lost his ability to cook for himself. I had to buy pizzas and hide them under the foundation to use when he got hungry so he wouldn't starve. You could buy some fire and burninate them, though.

[SimsHost]

...normally is it true that most business or science people hate this game and art and design people love this game? ...

Wellllll... I suppose I'm another data point that runs contrary to that assertion, being both a business and a science people.  I'm president of my own company and in my day job I design spacecraft.  The Sims is one of my favorite computer games.  I like to play the game and make things for it and play with other Sims fans and even host sites for a bazillion Sims artists.

On the other hand, I'm also a Photoshop junkie and I enjoy designing things more than just about anything else, so maybe I'm an art and design people, too, and that's why I enjoy The Sims so much. 

On the third hand, without the mods, hacks, and enhancements created by J. M. Pescado, Inge Jones, and TwoJeffs, I would have given up in frustration and stopped playing The Sims 2 long ago; so we might not even be talking about the same game. 

I think the lesson that we've really learned from this exercise is that trying to force-fit people into pigeonholes is a generally fruitless exercise.  Business and science and art and design are things people do, not classifications of human beings.  Specialization is for insects.

[PresentTense]

I'm currently studying psychology at uni, but I've always been kind of an arty person, as my favortie hobbies are drawing, writing poetry and singing. (whether I'm actually any good at it is another matter!). I have only about the average person's (maybe even less) computer knowledge but I spend a lot of time on them, and the Sims was just one those things I had heard about and ended up getting addicted to! 

[Sandilou]

I work in education and have a BSc in social science: on a psychology test done while I was doing a leadership course, I came out as an ideal leader (top left hand side of the test grid), and dead centre of the introvert/extrovert scale.   In terms of art vs science I'm more art/maths than science.  I like logic problems and solving riddles but I'm no Mensa candidate!  I enjoy being creative (sketching, painting and craftwork) and am lucky because every now and again I get to do those things as part of my job.  I use the sims to fulfill my creative storywriting needs: I love the power of wordplay.

[phyllis_p]

I have a degree in engineering management and a degree in music, work as an administrator at a university.  My sweetie's a sequential artist and sculptor.  My daughter just finished a journalism degree and is going to grad school in social work, and my son is in his third year of college and third major so far (astrophysics, psychology, photojournalism).  Both my kids are musicians as well.  We all love the game.  Daughter and I play mostly for the relationships angle; sweetie loves to build and write stories; son loves to build and push the limits of the game, experiment with cheats.

[laeshanin]

I'm an IT guy who currently does systems administration, and I am unable to socialize around people (Asperger's syndrome). I have no art skills I know of.

I've never heard of this. Is this one of those new diseases they made up now? Sounds like a load of bolognium to me. I think you're just talking to the wrong people. Although I similarly lack art skills. Unless you count finger-painting with the blood and entrails of my enemies as an art skill.

Believe me, if I actually *HAD* art skills, you'd be seeing more totally awesome stuff. So who wants to volunteer their skills of an artist?

Asperger's Syndrome is a form of high-functioning autism. The majority of those with this diagnosis are perfectly capable of holding down a job but find it almost impossible to form personal attachments or function at a social level. I work with people with autism, and the behaviour associated with the full disorder can be pretty spectacular and involves them painting with their carers entrails!

So, social worker which makes me quasi-scientific (psychology), and I have a love/hate relationship with the game.

As for art skills... damn, I'm good. Should have done it for a living, but chose people instead.

[witch]

I think the lesson that we've really learned from this exercise is that trying to force-fit people into pigeonholes is a generally fruitless exercise.  Business and science and art and design are things people do, not classifications of human beings.  Specialization is for insects.

I agree, you put that so well!

I'm amazed by the variety of the people here and also, I have to say, by the generally high levels of educational achievement. I knew the discussions here were on a different plane, people can write, spell and comprehend for a start, but I'm totally blown away now. 

I've always felt a little ashamed of being a grown woman playing games, I keep it a bit quiet at work, but I'm just about out of the broom closet now I've read this thread. 

[Oddysey]

I'm amazed by the variety of the people here and also, I have to say, by the generally high levels of educational achievement. I knew the discussions here were on a different plane, people can write, spell and comprehend for a start, but I'm totally blown away now. 

Definitely. For me, this is an online community of my intellectual peers, something which I cherish in both the real and online worlds. Age, education, whatever. I just like talking with people who think.

[Renatus]

I think the lesson that we've really learned from this exercise is that trying to force-fit people into pigeonholes is a generally fruitless exercise.  Business and science and art and design are things people do, not classifications of human beings.  Specialization is for insects.

Exactly. (Do I detect a Heinlein fan?)

[nothingbutsims]

Well, I was in the legal field for 15 years before I decided to be a stay-home-mom.  I'm not artsy or creative, but I love anything about science - it fascinates me.  I like to watch the Science Channel.  And my husband, who is the creative type, is a certified welder and pipefitter and thinks this is the most ridiculous game ever.  So, we're backwards from what purportedly is the norm for people who enjoy this game.

[Brynne]

I was an art major in college, but I have a strong interest in psychology and actually toyed with majoring in that for a while. I do lots of sim-psychology experiments on my sims .

[SimsHost]

I think the lesson that we've really learned from this exercise is that trying to force-fit people into pigeonholes is a generally fruitless exercise.  Business and science and art and design are things people do, not classifications of human beings.  Specialization is for insects.

Exactly. (Do I detect a Heinlein fan?)

Let there be no doubt about it!  Rah, rah, RAH!



Innocent bystanders will be enlightened to learn that when I typed "Specialization is for insects" I was quoting the Dean of Science Fiction Himself, Robert A. Heinlein.  My apologies to the memory of The Master for failing to attribute this wisdom to its source.

[SimsHost]

Aaargghh!  I did it again!  When I typed "Rah, rah, RAH!" I was actually quoting the title of an article that Spider Robinson wrote about Robert A. Heinlein.

And when I wrote "Aaargghh!" I was quoting Charles Schulz.

But when I wrote "I did it again!" I was most emphatically not quoting Britney Spears!   

[witch]

I loved Heinlein when I was a little hippie in the '70's, especially Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love, but I've been going off him ever since. He got seriously weird about incest in his later books and it creeped me out so much I can only read his earlier stuff now. Feminism helped turn me off his theme of old balding hook-nosed blokes who got all the nookie, as well.

[Darkstormyeve]

Well said Witch!

[ElviraGoth]

I'm amazed by the variety of the people here and also, I have to say, by the generally high levels of educational achievement. I knew the discussions here were on a different plane, people can write, spell and comprehend for a start, but I'm totally blown away now. 

Definitely. For me, this is an online community of my intellectual peers, something which I cherish in both the real and online worlds. Age, education, whatever. I just like talking with people who think.

Got to agree with both of you.  This is what keeps me coming back here, and avoiding the "official" site.  Too many airheads who don't understand the meaning of spellcheck, let alone have the ability to put together a comprehensible sentence!

However, I did have to look up obsteperous.  Good word, I had to pass that one along to a co-worker who is in love with words and is always looking for a new one to use on those who don't have the ambition to learn.  I'll have to see if he actually looked it up!

[garyalex]

I run the technical department of a large IT company, my major studies at university were in business management and accounting, though I have lots of practical experience with personal computers. I was also very good at maths at school and university. So that means that I shouldn't really like the Sims.

I don't think its fair to put people in boxes unless
a) they fit and
b) you plan to torture them at some later stage.