Play Style: The Nitty Gritty

[Hecubus]

Invisigoth and I were talking this evening about play style...and we realized that this discussion would make an interesting topic. Now IG suggested I start the thread, although, as she says, "since it was my idea I want you to credit me and never post it on the exchange or a paysite.  And also no changing my idea, recoloring, alpha edits...And you must link back to my profile whenever you mention this idea to anyone.  Including IRL."

So with that in mind....

How do you play? Please include details such as:

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

-city/country/suburban?

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

- do you play with pets?

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

Discuss.

[Orikes]

A little of this, a little of that, honestly.

When I played Sims1, I played it for about a month before I was exceptionally bored with it. Occasionally I'd reload it onto the computer when a friend would give me a new expansion or something, but for the most part it didn't really hook me. The sims themselves were so limited and there was only so much time I could spend building and decorating houses. I was curious about Sims2 when I heard it was coming out, but it wasn't until I got my new computer last year that I actually gave it a shot. That was April '06. Within a couple of weeks, I was hooked and I haven't stopped since.

For me, the big draw is the 'Legacy' factor. I like going through their life spans with one generation taking over after another. That's probably what's kept me playing where the older game bored me to tears after a while. Built into that whole shebang is the genetics issue. I get insanely and unnaturally happy whenever I end up with a dark haired sim giving birth to a baby with recessive genetics displayed. It's rather silly, but it's something I've come to enjoy in the game. That and the whole mixing of facial features.

That said, I still spend a great deal of time building houses and decorating them to my satisfaction. Because I've been playing and writing a legacy, I haven't spent much time building random unneded houses lately, but I still put a great deal of time into the various houses I have my sims in. I like figuring out tricks in getting a nice looking house that's actually playable.

Finally, I've also come to enjoy the Sims2 as a storytelling medium. It's been great fun figuring out how to get just the right expressions and gestures for the pictures I need in my legacy stories (which are far more plotty than they probably should be). With a few of the hacks out there, I've found it's fascinating playing with the different animations to get just the right look for a picture.

Neat topic, by the way.

[reggikko]

So with that in mind....

How do you play? Please include details such as:

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I do a mix of those. I usually enjoy building and decorating, but sometimes it makes my brain hurt. I hadn't been playing regularly of late, until I started the MATY 'hood.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I play with cutaway walls. I rarely use any money cheats. In the MATY 'hood, I've been a bit more lax on that rule. I've given Sims just enough to start in the house I want them to live in, with bare essentials. The house gets better furnished/decorated as I go along. I decorate and landscape moderately.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I am a compulsive restarter. I'm going to try to play the MATY 'hood for numerous generations. We'll see. I get bored once Sims have more money than they know what to do with, have maxed skills, etc.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I usually play one neighborhood at a time. Sometimes, I'll play two...Strangetown and whatever custom 'hood I have going.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

Depends on aspiration. Of late, I've been trying to keep some Sims from reaching the tops of careers to keep it a bit more interesting. I'm also trying to play in a more Sim-directed way. They only gain skills and such when they have a want.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

My Sims are mostly homebodies. I've been forcing myself to use Community lots more, again, to add interest and variety.

-city/country/suburban?

Suburban

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Not yet, but Marhis has gotten me tempted.

- do you play with pets?

Yes. I just recently installed Pets and am slowly getting into it.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I love aliens. (Laverwinkle aliens, FTW!) I've done both vampires and zombies and had fun with both. No werewolves yet.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I use fixes and hacks that handle annoyances. I don't use cheaty hacks at all. No Insim and no Inteen. One thing that I am using is Inge's Heirloom cake so I can age Sims when I want to. For example, my new thing is that Sims will become elders when their grandchildren become adults. I feel like that is a bit more realistic.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

A fair amount. Mostly building and decor stuff, clothing, hair, and genetics, ie custom skins and eyes. I used to have a lot of custom meshes, but not so much anymore.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I build houses and lots. Nothing terribly fancy, but playable. To me, if a lot is pretty but a pain in the ass to play, it isn't worth it. I don't like to do a lot of camera rotation, so my lots are usually designed so that you can view the entire floor from almost any orientation. No enormous, laggy stuff, either. I have quite a few nice Starter homes up, along with 2X2 lots, and some fancier stuff.

[phyllis_p]

I'm not a builder or decorator. I'm into families, making good pairings, spawning, genetics, generations.  My neighborhoods used to get so bloated with spawn that I couldn't manage to play them anymore, because I like preserving a relative sense of time. (I used to be extremely anal about this, but have loosened up some). I impose strict population control measures now.

I rarely make my own hoods -- tend to stick to the Maxis hoods. I know, heresy, but I like them, and the Maxis-made Sims. I almost never create a Sim in CAS. I'm into fulfilling lifetime wants.  About the only time I go to community lots is to buy phones/clothes/groceries, and for dates during courtship.  I prefer Strangetown, and when I make my own neighborhoods they're always desert climate.  This may be because I lived in the high desert in California and Nevada for a number of years.

I love aliens. I do the occasional vamp, but don't like them as a rule because they are immortal. I don't do zombies because they can't breed. I've never been successful in getting a werewolf, so the jury is still out on that.  I occasionally allow my Sims to have pets, but I quit breeding them -- don't like to give them away, and they cause bloat.

I use very few hacks -- generally just to fix annoying/broken things in the game.  I have very little custom content. I don't create things.  I just play 

[Khaki]

I've recently completely changed my play style, due to some changes in my RL situation. I used to primarily build lots, some were fancy and decorated to the nines, some where sparsely furnished, but 90% of them were in a European or French Country style. I dabbled a bit in making a couple of decorative objects, just because I wanted to have the stuff for my own lots without having to constantly copy and paste links and crap like that...

But now for the last 2 months, I've just been playing this one family, and actually got them to a 3rd generation without dying of boredom. Hopefully by the end of tonight there will be a fourth generation on it's way.  But this family is still boring. I don't seem to be able to let anything bad happen. All the kids have straight A's, everybody's motives are pretty much kept in the green. It's like I can't bear to fuck up their poor sim lives, but then they just get boring... I guess the main difference with this family is that I'm only breeding with townies, so at least I get to look forward to what the genetics will spew out with each birth.

One of my biggest problems is I don't have enough hacks and stuff. I don't know what the good ones are... I have macrotastics, which I dig. I've never used the insiminator, cuz everytime I go to the download thread I get all confuzzled. What, there is like 20 versions or something... surfing through the wiki for hacks is torturous. I've been thinking of posting here asking what the good hacks are, but I have a slight fear of being ridiculed for my ignorance.   Not that you guys do that sort of stuff. 

Anywho, great topic. Hecubus you're a true genious for thinking of it. 

[missangelica]

- I create sims the most.  Sims 2 is just a more complex version of a paper doll to me.

- lots: If I'm in it for game play then the houses are pretty sparse and walls are almost always partially down meaning if I'm close up they're down but farther away they're not. If I am trying to recreate a story I decorate fully.

- genetics:  I prefer being able to play the spawn game in CAS where I can decide if that's really how I want the youngings to look but I don't mind it when I'm playing a challenge.  Sometimes a characteristic I wouldn't of allowed can become a feature for that sim and I can play it up/down with makeup/hair/clothing.

- I'm pretty bad at building and tend to get irritated by the inability to move walls instead of having to tear them down and build them back up.  I prefer downloading other's work and making it my own.  I play in bursts so I have never hung onto a neighborhood that long except for when the first came out and I was tickled to pieces by my sim-real family.  When the next expansion comes I usually start over.

- relationships and interactions:  With the creation of macros, dizy's improved free will mod, and ACR I am pretty hands off unless I have a goal in mind for the sim.  I like them to build the initial relationship on their own so I know where the relationship should lead.

- comm versus home:  With Seasons I'm staying more at home.  However, I had a sim who stayed on community lots the entirety of his life and he had a blast.  I would like to do that again sometime soon.

- city/country/suburban? Suburban, but I'll do city when I eventually download all those fantastic sets of lots people have been doing.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian) nope

- do you play with pets?  Nearly every family has to have a pet unless I feel it doesn't go well with how the family is.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?:  I've been told my play style is boring on more than one occasion.  I have had a least one of each mentioned but really to try it out and I dump them pretty quickly.

- hacks:  I used to swear by insimenator but I haven't used it since Pets came out.  It's really a mixture of both harder and easier.. harder to make it semi more realistic but easier in the tediousness part of the game.  Clicking, "go to bed," on a sim is much easier than having to stop everything and find the floor the bed is on, click it and hope the sim doesn't cancel it out or wanders off.  The added feature of them automatically queueing to go to the bathroom after waking up is a total win.

-cc:  I used to download a lot of everything but since the latest expansion packs have been such a load on my computer I mainly choose things to dress up the sim and some objects where the game is really lacking.

-my cc:  I make clothing.

[J. M. Pescado]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

DANCE, PUPPETS, DANCE.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

Victory is life.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

Bit of column A, bit of column B.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

There can be only one.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

Both. With moar fight.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Not a big fan of lot load, but a sacrifice that can be made if it will produce moar fight.

-city/country/suburban?

Bit of everything.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Is "Moar Fight" a theme?

- do you play with pets?

Some.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

Vampires aren't real people? That's news to me.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I AM AWESOME!

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

My stuff.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

See above.

[kuronue]

How do you play? Please include details such as:

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Mm, I tried my hand at lot building a few times when I was bored, but mostly I play families.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I'm bad with decorating, I must have missed out on some girl-gene that makes every girl in my middle and high school graduating classes able to write in pretty loopy handwriting, draw a perfect heart, star, or other doodle, and decorate a room tastefully. In fact, the shirt and shorts I'm wearing now don't even match. I'll put decor when I feel like it, but I play walls cutaway or down.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I'm all about the storyline, honestly I don't think a lot of sims are as fugly as people say. It's not enough to bother me.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I have a couple play hoods and a couple movie-making hoods.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

It's all about the storyline for me.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

I get fed up with load times, but then, my sims have to meet people a lot, so I do play community lots.

-city/country/suburban?

Depends on the hood. Downtowns tend to be more city. Most of my main hoods are more suburban. Riverblossom and subhoods are country.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

one pic/movie hood is victorian-fantasy, and Riverblossom makes good use of the new country decor.

- do you play with pets?

yup

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

The first zombie I made was quite on accident, the first time I used the ressurectanomitron, and it creeped me the fuck out. So I don't use them much. Aliens, a lot. Vamps, a good deal. Weres, too hard to make. Plantsims, a lot in Riverblossom

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I don't like to cheat the game easier, but I don't use harderjobs or expensivenpcs either. Just make it more realistic.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

A decent amount, but you'd be surprise how much I pass by to use maxis stuff instead.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I don't share. Mine are THAT bad.  Example: http://www.geocities.com/techwiz2000_2000/armor5.jpg

[pixiejuice]

I love this topic!  It's so fascinating to see how other people play. 

Me - I am an absolute nerd about my Sims, LOL.  I have charts!  My husband laughs at me!  I play with a deck of cards for variety, which decides all kinds of things... what Sim is going to die a tragic and early death... what Sims "move away" (population control!)... oops, somebody got pregnant... somebody has a midlife crisis... how much does so-and-so really want to go to college?... family lost everything in a tragic house fire... criminals draw a card for jail risk, law enforcement and military draw a card for death risk...  I'm not kidding when I say I have charts

My custom neighborhood is Lakeside Heights.  I have 71 Sims, several different family lines, who I play equally in 3 day intervals, and my fourth generation kids are just starting to be born.  I've been at this neighborhood for over a year, and had another before it that I played since the beginning, and that one made it to the 6th generation before I started over.  Lakeside Heights has a downtown, Lake City (the Maxis default, remodeled), and Bluewater Village has been wiped clean and turned into a farming suburb.

I mostly build my own lots, but I do download too. 

Interactions - I'm pretty big on free will, and I almost never exit without saving.  I keep in mind that just because they want something, doesn't mean they'll get it.  I do try to keep them happy though.  I guess I'm big into realism.  Some of my Sims end up very successful, some lonely, some poor but happy, some miserable.

About half of my families have pets.  I don't play any of the vampires/werewolves/zombies etc...  Except I have one alien Sim, but I didn't really have any choice in that matter.  I'm a little irritated right now actually because I can't keep my farmer from turning into a plant Sim with all the spraying he does, but that's another discussion.

Hacks - A lot of them!  I like things that make their lives more realistic, harder, and more logical.  I have quite a bit of CC too. 

I don't share any of my creations.  I'm greedy like that.  Maybe I will someday though, because my houses are pretty cute

Good topic!

[MasterDinadan]

Definitely more of a player rather than builder.  I like to decorate my homes to a certain extent but I can't build large homes because it will cause too much lag... so I just build nice small homes.

I start a neighboorhood with a certain number of families (usually around 5 or so) and play each one equally.
I don't ever move in or have babies with townies or NPCs (alien pregnancy is ok).  After many generations, most of the playable sims will be related and it is difficult to pair them up to make babies, I like the challenge this introduces.
No aspiration rewards since it's too easy.
Tombstones stay on the lot.  After many generations, the ghosts will make things more difficult but this is also fun.

Should go without saying.. but I use a ton of Awesome hacks.  Not many objects though, and no genetics or clothing.
Basic goal when I play is to try to have each sim fulfill as many LTW as possible, with aspiration randomly determined.  Each time they fulfill a LTW though, they can change their aspiration (but still random) and start working on the next.  Keep going until I run out of sims or I get bored with the neighboorhood (I usually start over if I download a major hack or get an expansion)

[Marhis]

- Definitely more into playing families.

- lots: usually slightly decorated, always cutaway walls: focus on interactions but with some atmosphere around.

- Generations FTW. The genetic aspect as a whole is a very important part of the family story. Recognizing the facial traits of ancestors in their grand-grand-grand-(etc.)-children is one of the features I like the most (and touching, too).

- I've played a single hood only from the very beginning: the infamous Pleasantview. When it went BFBVFS, I discovered MATY, studied the issue, then I managed to reconstruct my borked hood from scratch, with all their traits, stories, etc. Almost all my  sims have Pleasantview ancestors, playable or townie; only a few were addeeded from CAS (and not yet breeded, though).
The actual themed hood I'm playing is the first I create from scratch, and with completely different "rules". I find it a good chance to renew the game, and my "base" hood is now in sleep mode.

- I don't care almost at all of their skills, careers or LTWs. The rare cases I care is usually for story purpouses (like a gold-digger who slept with anyone able to pull strings at work, or the traditional bunch of cop pals: 1 police chief and his closer friend who takes his place when he dies - no flying morons in pantyhose, thankyouverymuch).

- My sims are mostly homebodies, because I hate the neverending lot loads. I play community lots only to have them socialize, I don't care a bit of their wants to bowling or play cards, etc. With OfB I often create "fake" community lots: just start a home business and people will randomly come to hang out.

- Suburban for residentials, and city for downtown, sometimes I mix, in the main hood, in zones.

- do you do themes? Medieval, now. I don't like aliens/cyber/space themes much.

- Pets: sometimes, just to add a feature to the story. No commands/pet jobs, some training to pee outside and not destroy the house, and I'm ok.

- aliens etc. I like them as an occasional weirdness addition, for variety. The zombie is totally boring, though. Not yet tried the werewolf.

- hacks: Insim is a must-have tool for in-game reparations or tweakings useful to the story purpose (like adding engagement flags to have sims marry without being in love, etc., or cleaning up borked love flags with deads and such). No inteen, mostly because it involves only a few features I would like and a ton I don't want, and no flavor pack suits my play style.
I use cheats usually only for special situations, and I like to follow rules I make my own, if I can.
E.g., in my medieval hood I motherloded the Royal family with no limits, but also lowered the Peasants budget to 0.
Other hacks are for handling annoyances, to add something funny to game (ex. ACR), or obscure crappy mods made by me to handle some features I want a special family have.

- custom content: a reasonable quote of hair and clothes, a few custom facial hair, very few makeup stuff (I stick to basics), almost no custom eyebrows (ditto), and eyes and skins I like default replacements only. Just a very few eyes and custom skins to use in special situations.
More stuff in the buy/build mode, but in the end I use mostly the same preferred ones, and it got deleted on regular basis.
 
- creations: a few mods, quite simple, that I made to handle some annoyances, and came out working enough to be shared with no (or not much) shame. My artistic side generated a couple beddings .
Most recently, I discover the medieval theme quite inspiring, and also the interesting world of screenshots etc.

[Li'l Brudder]

Invisigoth and I were talking this evening about play style...and we realized that this discussion would make an interesting topic. Now IG suggested I start the thread, although, as she says, "since it was my idea I want you to credit me and never post it on the exchange or a paysite.  And also no changing my idea, recoloring, alpha edits...And you must link back to my profile whenever you mention this idea to anyone.  Including IRL."

So with that in mind....

How do you play? Please include details such as:

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I play with a mixture of both.  I enjoy building things.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I love this.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

One, but I usually smite it soon after its creation.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I love it all.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Homebodies.

-city/country/suburban?

Suburban.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Nope.

- do you play with pets?

Occasionally.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

A little of both, but neither of those.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

A lot, hacks, recolors.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

Discuss.

Meshes.  Recolors.  Meshes.

[cabelle]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I like building but I get frustrated because I don't think I'm very good at it. Mostly I will remodel Maxis homes or homes I've downloaded to fit my needs. My favorite things are to create sims and play families

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I am into interactions and spawning but I like my sims' environments to look realistic. I'll decorate their home according to my perception of their economic status and style. I prefer to play with cutaway walls and when I take pictures I put the walls up.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

Genetics is one of my favorite aspects of the game. I love to see how they turn out, who has Mom's nose, Dad's eyes and how it passes down through the generations. Really ugly sims (fish lips and gigantic noses) do bother me. I like a large variety in a sim's looks but if the sim looks like an ugly cariacture I'll either do plastic surgery and make the surgery genetic or kill off the sim.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I have 5 neighborhoods. Two are Maxis neighborhoods; Riverblossom Hills and Pleasantview. Three are custom neighborhoods; Sedona (my version of Strangetown), Caerdroia (my Royal Kingdom Challenge neighborhood), and Spring Valley (my Victorian Neighborhood). I deleted Maxis' Veronaville and Strangetown long ago.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I only care about skills or career levels for LTWs. Sometimes I like to make sure teens have at least one skill at 8 points for scholarships. Otherwise I'm much more into relationships and interactions.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Depends on my mood and the sim I'm playing. My Pleasure and Romance sims do a lot of socializing at community lots. My Family and Knowledge sims tend to stay home more often.

-city/country/suburban?

All of the above. I like variety. 

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Yes. I like theme neighborhoods. I mentioned above that I have an alien, medieval and Victorian neighborhood. I'm a history nut so I love to have my sims "step back in time."

- do you play with pets?

Yes, some families have pets though not all of them. I do tend to give more families cats rather than dogs. It's probably because I have three of my own and am more of a cat person though I do like dogs.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I've played aliens, that's it. I'm really not into the other paranormal creatures. They don't appeal to me.  I've never made a werewolf, vampire, zombie or a plantsim. Rose & Daisy Greenman (the plantsims that came with Riverblossom Hills) were turned to human sims as soon as I was able to do so.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I use all of the awesome bugfixes and hacks to get rid of annoyances. I also couldn't live without TwoJeffs ACR and Visitor Controller. ACR is fantastic for me because I was tired of directing my sims' romantic interactions. I wanted my sims to choose who they would woohoo with and when to try for baby. It's also fun to see the messes they will get themselves into due to their romantic choices. 

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

I have lots of custom content, well over 1 G in my downloads folder. I got tired of the Maxis eyes and skintone so I found defaults I like better. For my themed neighborhoods I have a lot of historical clothing and objects. I get tired of Maxis clothes so I have some modern outfits I like too, mostly outfits from All About Style (I think I've downloaded everything she has) and some from MTS2.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I have yet to make anything though I wish I knew how. One of my other hobbies is Civil War reenacting. I make all of my clothes for myself and my family (sans husband's 1st United States Sharpshooter Uniform-my sewing machine does not like thick wool). I wish I knew how to recreate my historical clothing in pixel version for my sims. But alas my skill at virtual needlework is no where near my real life sewing skills.

[Cyjon]

- I'm mostly about playing families with stories

- My houses usually end up as "big box with stuff in it" designes.  I try to be more creative than that, but they usually end up boring boxes.  I rarely download houses as most of the ones I find are just cute building tricks that are completely unplayable in an actual game.  I've played around with trying to build houses from real architectural plans and that's been a bit more interesting.

- For me it isn't so much genetics as it is family history.  I like seeing how the generations mature, who ends up with whom.  However I have yet to play a neighborhood past the 3rd generation

- I always play one hood, all lots time synched, until I install new EPs.  Then I completely uninstall and reinstall from scratch, starting a new neighborhood.  My first hood was the base game, next was Uni, third added NL and OFB, and I'm just gearing up for Pets and Seasons, playing a test neighborhood as I install hacks in bunches.  Once the game is stable, I'll create a new hood as my real one.

- I'm very results oriented and I've had to push myself away from the "skill constantly, reach the top of the career, get all the badges" because that becomes a grind.  I try to balance skilling and promotions with relations and family.

- I play a few community lots only as owned businesses.  I've never seen the point of taking my sims to lots since I can do pretty much everything at home.

- Suburban.  My latest game I'll probably not even create a downtown, just lump everything together in the main hood.  The only real reason for a downtown (for me anyhow) is Grand Vampires and I can just make a sim a vampire if I really want one.

- I occasionally try themes on a lot, but not a neighborhood.  Themes usually come from having to find some excuse to use the godawful Maxis clothing or hairdos, sometimes from custom content.

- I just got Pets but I doubt I'll have one in every household.  Just a scattering here and there.

- I like having about 10% of my population as aliens for variety.  I'm experimenting with my first test werewolf now but I doubt I'll have many.  My problem with vampires, zombies, and servos is the immortality.  They become too static.  My plan for the new neighborhood is to have a 10% chance of every sim death to return as a vampire or zombie.  I had an idea of using servos as townies, hiring them to manage my multigenerational stores.  I age my townies so it's annoying to have to keep retraining managers as the old ones die.

- hacks: My last game had just over 200 hacks, mostly MATY and my own.  In my current one I'm up to 164 and still have a few more to go.  It's interesting how many of my previous hacks I'm not bothering to install because things aren't annoying me too much.  Yet.

- custom content: I'm increasingly frustrated with CC because of things like unbinned hair, underwear classed as everyday, tile floors priced at $1 per square, and so on.  I'm being very picky this time and pre-processing everything myself so it shows up right in the game.  I'm also decustomizing many things so the townies can use them.

- I make hacks, mostly for my own use.  I have a few up on MTS2 but I find the support side of it annoying.  I have several dozen in my own game and a to do list of about a zillion.  Like many modders, I'd rather play than mod so I don't accomplish as much as I would like.  I also *gasp* dare to modify awesome hacks to appeal to my own tastes.

[Onion Girl]

Yay, a questionnaire! (Is it weird that I kind of enjoy online ones? o.O)

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Well, since I like to play families, create lots of generations, I have to build lots for them. So, I do a bit of both. I can get quite into building houses/lots, though.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

A bit of both. I always like to have nice, fully decorated homes, and I play with the walls up. I like the spawns to have somewhere nice to live.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I suppose so. I don't do ugly sims, and I do like to see what the genetics have formed for a sim (or malformed. )

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I like to try and stay in the same 'hood, if possible. I'll only begin a new one if the previous one becomes overcrowded/bugged.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I prefer relationsips. I don't really care for the careers (except to see what they are and the outfits. etc). But, for sims who want to climb the career ladder, I usually do so. And they've usually gained all needed skills even before they're teens (no kids, you can't play, you stay here and gain skills, you useless sprogs!)

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

I only really go to community lots for outings and dates, which don't happen too often. They don't even buy food now that Seasons has more or less eliminated that need.

-city/country/suburban?

Usually, my 'hoods are a surburban bliss.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

No. Although, I wouldn't mind trying either Victorian or 50's.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Sort of, I like the animals. But they can get a little annoying after a while (aswell as the fact that there's more pixels to keep from dying).

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

If I'm doing a story, I'll do the supernatural stuff. But for the most part, I prefer the game to be realistic.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

Bit of both; I don't really do mood hacks, since it would get very boring after a while. I use InTeen because I sometimes like my sims to start spawning young, and because of the miscarriage aspect. Although, I find it bizarre that they react worse to a miscarriage than to a death.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

I have a shitload of content; I've made certain to limit myself. I think I have more Bodyshop items than I do objects, but I'm not entirely sure.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I've considered uploading my lots; but I haven't got around to it, not even sure if I even want to, to be honest.

Personally, I'm quite a family/domestic bliss/OMG teh pretty houses!!!11one oriented Simmer. I like my sims to have shitty things happen, sure, but overall, I tend to keep them happy. I like the sort of story aspect of creating generations of a family, to see how it grows and develops. I also like to create people I know (in RL and online) so I can inform them of their families exploits. I did a very... interesting story using my sister and her family when I first got the game. She found it highly amusing.

[aqualectrix]

My main playing focus is families.  I'll build or adapt homes for them and occasionally create a new sim to throw in the mix, but otherwise it's all families, strict two day/two semester rotation.

I always think I want drama, but I mostly play Happy Families dollhouse-style.  The march of generations seems to be enough to keep it interesting for me; I like to watch the genetics and family trees and I think sim toddlers are really cute, so if I weren't concerned about keeping the neighborhood size manageable they'd be spawning all the time.  I seem to have found a spawning policy that works fairly well: every couple gets one child, but for each Family sim in the couple they get an extra kid.  Plus exceptions for Graduate Three Children, Have Six Grandchildren, etc.  Fortunately my population size is large enough that ltwvariety has seen fit to ban the Marry Off Six Children LTW.

I've been playing the same hood I've been since the game came out.  Originally Pleasantview, Rambelton has been through a lot -- as various things have been exposed as Bad Things, I've gone in and cleaned them up with SimPE and other tools, meaning that it's about as healthy as a hood this old can get.  The playable population is currently fairly stable at 130-140 sims; a full neighborhood rotation takes around a month.  It keeps me from getting too bored with any particular family.

I play with my sims on Free Will, and try to guide how I play a particular sim by its wants and LTW.  For example, I do quite a lot of community lot playing, but most of it is with those sims who want to Own Five Top Businesses.  BRY makes running businesses a breeze, so I think it's a lot of fun.  They are all on community lots, because if I have the patience or the boredom I like my other families to be able to visit the businesses.

I'm still playing in what was Pleasantview, and the atmosphere has stayed suburban.  I imagine my population will eventually grow large enough that I'll want to have playables living in subhoods, and those will definitely have a different atmosphere.  Seeing all the neat themed neighborhoods people have made makes me think they might be themed, although goodness knows I don't actually need excuses to do more downloading.

I play with pets and some supernatural creatures -- I have lots of aliens, although with a PT replacement because I can't stand the noseless.  I'm working on some plantsims, and would like some werewolves if I could just manage to attract some wolves.  I stay away from the immortals, because my population size needs constant culling through death.

Hacks are pretty much Awesomeware and various other fixy things.  The game is easy enough as it is, who needs to make it easier?

As I have no skills of an artist, the only things I've ever made are recolors by playing around with Irfanview's Color Change tool.

[Invisigoth]

Invisigoth and I were talking this evening about play style...and we realized that this discussion would make an interesting topic. Now IG suggested I start the thread, although, as she says, "since it was my idea I want you to credit me and never post it on the exchange or a paysite.  And also no changing my idea, recoloring, alpha edits...And you must link back to my profile whenever you mention this idea to anyone.  Including IRL."

That's right, and I'd better not see this in any other forums either or I'm never telling any of you my ideas ever again and I'll have a big tantrum.

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Playing!  I hate building and decorating.  I am also missing the previously mentioned gene that allows for decoration and pretty handwriting.  Creating sims is fun though.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I always play walls down although once they are rich enough I'll buy some of the items that they absolutely MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW OMG!11!!! including paintings.  If they don't roll a want for a deco item then they don't get any.  I am interested in the interactions, the story telling, the "personality" of each sim, and the genetics more than anything else.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I love the genetic aspect, that is one of the most fun parts, although sometimes I get bored and drop a family or a hood to create some more interesting sims.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I do tend to make lots of hoods although I play only one or two at a time.  When I get sick of the hood I'm playing I'll usually just dump it and start fresh.  I do build all of my own lots typically because most Maxis homes suck for playability and I loved the downtown lots but so many of them are stupid seasons disasters waiting to happen.  I guess it didn't occur to them when they were building bernard's botanical dining that one day there might be lightning hitting those trees poking out through the giant hole in the roof...Plus it's annoying when non playables are constantly doing the it's raining indoors action.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I love the relationships, but for the most part I let the sims and ACR decide who they will be with.  Sometimes I will plan two sims to marry even if they have no bolts or one is a family sim and one is a romance sim just to mess things up a bit and make it more interesting.  I also enjoy the skilling and climbing of the corporate ladder though.  The way I play each sim tends to depend on their asp and inclinations that they have shown me.  A sims aspiration is determined by personality and family more than anything else (a really outgoing sim will usually be popularity or romance) but sometimes I will mix it up for variety.  I guess it just seems more real to me that most sims will aspire to do what their personality indicates but with some deviation from that rule.  It can be really interesting to play an incredibly shy, serious, mean romance sim or a really lazy, messy family sim.  I like mean sims as pleasure in particular because I think that mean and self-absorbed go together well.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Lately I have been going to a lot more community lots because I've figured out how to build really small, efficient, playable lots that don't take quite as long to load.

-city/country/suburban?

Desert in the middle of nowhere.  Always.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

I never did before, but after downloading Dewshine's Enayla's One Series I absolutely had to create an alien hood.  I haven't actually started really playing it yet because I generated a townie pool and none of them used the decustomized skins, so I blew up the hood and did it again and the second time they all generated s1-s4 skins (I am really mad) so I am going to blow it up again and make all of my townies in CAS.  But I am really looking forward to my first themed hood.  The idea alone brought me out of a simpotence streak that began when I realized that I hated every sim in my other custom hood.

- do you play with pets?

Depends on the family.  My snotty stuck up rich families are less likely to get a pet, and if they do a single cat is the limit, typically I only let them have one child as well.  I almost never play with dogs because I don't like them IRL, but they do have some really cute toddler interactions that I love.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I usually have aliens in my regular hood, I've always loved green skinned simmies.  To be honest I've never bothered with any of the other creatures, but once my new freaky hood is up and running I plan to have several of each.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

Harder is better.  I have most of the director's cut, I think I only took out three or four hacks (traditional marriage, no fraternization...I forget what else I took out).  I like harder jobs a lot!  I also have ACR, insim (although I pretty much just use it as a second opinion for ACR's preg scanner since I had a few probems with ACR's day after pill not working and ACR thinking it worked...Hmm, now that I think about it that's a pretty large file for a second opinion).  I use the kitten killer because I like my teens to have consequences if they are going to be having sex, and it can create a really interesting and unexpected storyline.  I love when something one of my sims does totally throws off my plans and then I have to shuffle to cope with the unanticipated.  Although easier on me is better too, macrotastics and similar allow me to do repetitive things in fewer clicks which I like.  Macro-clean is the best sims invention ever because I no longer have to search my entire house for that one last dirty plate that the sim left in the upstairs bedroom for some weird reason.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Tons and tons of skins (Enayla, trill, cardassian, and default replacements as well as a few skintones between the defaults to make more realistic looking offspring).  A fair amount of custom hair, but I'm always looking for more.  LOTS of eyes.  A handfull of objects and a few wall and floor coverings.  I think the largest one group of CC I have is clothes.  For years I didn't use any CC clothes but in the last few months I can't seem to download enough of it. And I'm still not happy.  I NEEEEED moar clothes!  ::goes off to download stuff::  Oh, and a growing collection of accessories.  I've gotten really into earings lately.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I create eyes sometimes, and I was working on some fantasy skins until I found Enayla's beautiful jewel encrusted wonders and I realized that I would never create anything half as pretty so I burninated my embarassments.  I don't share them because you would all mock me.  Similarly I doubt you will ever see a screen shot with any of my creations in them either.  I is shy dammit!

By the way, your responses to this thread should look like mine in length and content.  Or I'll throw another tantrum. 

[Kyna]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Playing families.  I suck at building.  I hate rebuilding/redesigning lots that I downloaded too.  I did d/l a few lots from the most recent MATY competition, but I usually tend to stick with Nec's grey box that won last year as it plays fast.  I have entire neighbourhoods filled with this lot - the storyline to cover that is that this is a company town (or a former company town), such a a desert mining town or former military base, and the company built these rows of identical houses to house their employees.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

Barely decorated.  I recently got a graphics card, before that I was using an integrated graphics chip.  The graphics situation meant that I needed to keep non-essential decorations to a minimum, although when I installed Seasons I was starting to add gardens to my lots.  Walls down, so I can see what's going on.  I've now had my new graphics card long enough that I turned the cut-scenes off yesterday.  (The abduction one would be my favourite).

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I try for genetics.  I play on 3 day rotation, but eventually my hood gets too big, and all those families are a chore to play through if there's nothing going on in their lives.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I have several hoods.  I rotate through them.  I currently have 3-in-1 (by SaraMK, available in Peasantry), ST, PV.   I also have a legacy hood, and Madame Mim's PV ancestry (available at www.genensims.com).   Currently I've just finished an Apocalypse challenge with the Seasons rules, and am playing it through again.  I also periodically get bored with a hood and delete it.  Am thinking of putting in Marhis' reverse gender PV again (available in the Podium).

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I'm trying to get away from the skilling/corporate ladder thing.  I use Hook's randomiser to shake things up a bit, introducing random death, and Denimjo posted JadeElliott's list of random events in Hook's randomiser topic, which I also use when I think the pot needs to be stirred.  I'm trying to get away from playing happy families.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Homebodies.  Occasional outings, until a sim has enough friends, or I might send a sim with 20 woohoo LTW to a comm lot.  I don't do dates.  I'll also run through 5 comm-lot businesses for LTWs.  Get them to lvl 10 then sell them.

-city/country/suburban?

Suburban.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

No.

- do you play with pets?

I have it installed, but they annoyed me too much.  No pets now in any of my many hoods.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I like aliens, especially with Dylan's Laverwinkle PT replacement.  Aliens in all my hoods.  My Legacy usually has a main line and an alien line, and each generation in the main line has the heir, the spare and the alien baby.  The alien line has a normal baby and an alien one (I edit aliens so that they're not related to PT).  Every other household gets one pregnancy.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I use insim, but only sparingly.  Mostly when I make my own townies - sometimes I give them skills, job, etc, rather than letting the game randomise it, since the game doesn't give townies the Seasons jobs.  Also handy for keeping track of how close they are to dancing level 8.  Most of my hacks are from here, I have most of Pescado's director's cut installed and quite a few of TJ's hacks.  I tend not to use hacks to make life simpler - the game is easy enough as it is.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Not much.  I need more RAM before I can go mad with CC.  I have Melodie9's toddler hairs, Genensims' apricot red recolours of Maxis hair, and some makeup by Hairfish.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

Not a creator.

EDIT: to give appropriate credit to the people who put together the neighbourhoods I play.

[SaraMK]

How do you play?

I have many neighborhoods, all of them either themed or based around various challenges. The challenge neighborhoods are pretty self-explanatory, I guess, so I'll just talk about the themed ones.

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I'm not into building lots. I have built very few houses for my own game. I mostly download lots and modify them. I'm primarily a player, not a creator, but because my 'hoods are themed, a certain amount of creation and decoration has to be done.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

Again, themed. Most lots are appropriately decorated.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

Genetics are very much my "thing." I often plan out families well in advance, like, Cornelius is going to be the seventh son of the seventh son, so he'll be the town idiot who makes dire predications and seem to leave a lot of dead sims in his wake.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

Both. I have a lot of 'hoods AND I've played a lot of them for a long time. My oldest was made after Uni came out and I've been playing it at least once a week since then. It's kind of dying a slow death due to too many character files....

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

I'm definitely more into relationships and the sims' place in the community.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

I try to keep comm lots to a minimum, based on what's necessary for the neighborhood. But, yes, I like to take my sims out!

-city/country/suburban?

All of the above.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Just about everything. I have several with variations of the country theme, a space colony... just a lot of different stuff.

- do you play with pets?

Yup. I like pets. Most of my families have at least one.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I like them if they're appropriate in the neighborhood.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

Both. Or, I guess I should say, I use hacks to change the game to make life in my themed neighborhoods seem more like what it should be. Sometimes that means using a hack that makes something easier, and sometimes it means using a hack that makes something way hard.

InSIM is always in my game. InTeen not usually.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Tons and tons. I think I generally have the most clothing, hair, and decorative objects, but it depends on the neighborhood.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

Not much. I'm not really a creator. If you go into Peasantry... that's pretty much all I've made, except for some default replacement stuff that I've made for specific neighborhoods.

[CandyToast]

I like to screw around. I do a little bit of everything.

I download houses by Pbox at MTS2 and rip them apart and re-wallpaper and such. I play strictly walls down (I like clear sight lines)

I get through about 2 generations and then get bored

I rip apart maxis hoods because hood decorating and house building is beyond me

Both interaction and skilling

Suburban

Homebodies. The com lot load lag is severe, my computer is not equipped to play base game let alone all expansions and 2 stuff packs.

As making everything as strange as possible (if thats even a theme)

Very few pets

Aliens!

I am hacked to bits, I have Insim, Inteen, Squinge, and a good portion of the director's cut. I have hack subfolders where I can.

I have a lot of CC mostly clothes

I make paintings, but I do not share because making paintings is lazy-man work. I mod some things when given hand-hold directions

[Khaki]

By the way, your responses to this thread should look like mine in length and content.  Or I'll throw another tantrum. 

Ok, fine. I can adjust.... or post again or whatever.

are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I build, decorate, increasingly playing families

do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

I play decorated, walls cutaway, I wish they were somewhat less cutaway though, if you know what I mean...  if playing a family I focus on interractions and the like.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

Trying these days to observe the spawns of my new family without freaking from boredom.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

Constant hood creation. Most I ever had at once was 15 hoods, most of them abandoned with unfinished houses in them.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

Both, depends on the aspiration crap.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Homebodies

-city/country/suburban?

All

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

No. Yuck.

- do you play with pets?

Rarely.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

Real person player.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

I'd like to make life simpler, if only I knew how.
 

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Depends on the lot... I like CC, depends on the poly counts. I have a lot of garden stuff, I dunno, I've been using less CC - as someone said, with all the EPs there is so much non-cc to choose from now.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

I share my houses. And I made some decorative objects. And a stair thing that I like. Oh and a backwards garage door with frontwards animations.

[Invisigoth]

By the way, your responses to this thread should look like mine in length and content.  Or I'll throw another tantrum. 

Ok, fine. I can adjust.... or post again or whatever.

I was kidding....

[Khaki]

I was kidding....

I know, but everybody else answered so much better than I did... your possible tantrum  just gave me an excuse to repost properly.

[cassandra]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

I use already made lots mostly plasticbox these days, redecorate and change a few things in them to fit certain families needs.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

Walls are always down, camera in the back of the lot facing the street.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I am playing a hood now that I am trying to see through several generations, now that I have a good set of CAS replacements spawns do not look so awful.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I have four XP user accounts, with one neighborhood in each. They are Modern/Suburban, Country-Rural, Victorian and Medieval.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

It depends on the aspiration, I find that the Rural theme I am playing now I have become a bit more laid back allowing free will a bit now and then. Ever since TS1 I have been micromanaging my sims every move, with the invention of macrotastics to manage those issues that now only need addressing about once a week I even let my sims relax a bit now and then. My TS1 sims must have hated me with a burning passion, I never allowed them any rest, if they were awake they needed to be working on something.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

I do not go to community lots, my sims are hermits. A few own business, but that is as close as I go to community lots.


-city/country/suburban? do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

I have four XP user accounts, with one neighborhood in each. They are Modern/Suburban, Country-Rural, Victorian and Medieval.

- do you play with pets?
Yes, many familes have pest, mostly cats as I am a cat person. Mine is on my lap whenever I am at the computer with her head on my keyboard.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

There are a few families where aliens, zombies and servoes are part of the family, I find them useful for minding and training spawn.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
 I do not play with out the Insim and lots of stuffings from the fish. I use hacks to create nobility and royalty in my medieval neighborhood. I also use that in my Victorian area, very handy to create slums complete with a slumlord!

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
I have alot of CC if it was to be all added up, the most is genetics. I only have 8 skins, mostly it is hair & eyes to give different classes of sim a hairstyle that is approperate.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

By looking at the things I have tried to create I have determined them not fit to share, my recolors are so awful it would be criminal to post them.

[Dark Trepie]

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?

Playing families usually.  I really only build lots when I'm forced to.  However, there are occasions where I get a wild hair up my butt and go on a building spree.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?

Barely decorated most of the time.  Unless the family has an over abundance of funds.  Then I'll splurg a little and fancy the place up.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?

I have a short attention span in this game.  But I'm trying to change that because the constant restarts are annoying and making me bored with the starting families in the Maxian hoods.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?

I play Pleasantview and Strangetown mostly.  But lately I've been playing Strangetown more.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?

Little of both.  If a sim gets a promotion I put priority on skill/friend gaining while trying not to screw up their usual routine.  Then when they're done they go back to the usual mundane things until the next promotion.

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?

Both.  My younger sims (teens and YA's) travel to community lots pretty frequently.  Older sims usually stay home unless they have a community lot business.

-city/country/suburban?

All of the above.  Some sims I prefer to live in a certain region.  Depending on things like personality, aspiration, or whatever goal I have for them.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)

Never had a themed hood before.  But have thought about building a futuristic hood full of aliens.

- do you play with pets?

Sometimes.  They're usually more trouble than they're worth for me.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?

I think everyone knows I have an alien fetish by now.     I like vamps as well.  Servos are cool.  Haven't played around with werewolves too much yet.  I rarely if ever do zombies since they're kinda irreversible.  Not sure how I feel about a plant sim since they skip two whole age groups.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?

Not really to make it more simpler or harder, but to make it more sane.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?

Not too much.  Mostly hack.  Every once in a while I'll see some CC clothing or whatnot that'll catch my eye.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?

Discuss.

I usually upload the lots that I make every once in a blue moon.