Different simmers play and blog with their own style. Some have amazingly developed plot lines, round characters that have their own mind, and their screenshots contain posing and composition that just blow me away. I absolutely adore reading those blogs and following those simmers.
This is not one of those blogs.
You might sum up my play style as "Sim Watcher." Over the years I've found out that the way I most like to play and blog my pixelated people is very much on the gameplay end of the spectrum. I don't start play sessions with a very detailed idea of what kind of shots I want to get; I pause a lot and look around, and see what's happening in the game. I choose among the goals and whims/wants/wishes of my sims based on how I see their long term personality. If the game makes them do something I think is really out of character, because that's how EA set it up, I'll pretend it never happened. And I also use shots to move the blog story along, even if it's not what they were really doing in game. But overall, it's a gameplay blog.
The aspects of simming that really grab my imagination, in my own game, are building and playing sims that are developing, or have, a history. Seeing gameplay develop in places I've built, basically, is what keeps me coming back to my own game.
One area I am mindful of, that I'd like to change in, is my character development. Just what I let my sims do, or not do, is pretty narrow and I'd like to broaden their horizons. However, this blog will always be a little pollyanna (or a lot) because in real life my job is to work with people who are dealing with serious, often traumatic issues, and this is an escape. And if you haven't noticed already, it is definitely PG... my own limitations in writing characters makes me feel safer not delving into a lot of issues around sex and violence, and other mature themes. But I am trying to let my sims have more life of their own, even if it isn't the way I see the world.
Thanks for reading!
Just for Kicks, here's my original "About this Blog," when it was a Sims 2 blog:
Or, Lots of Imaginary and Minute Detail about Sims 2
This blog is part gameplay blog, and a little bit of storytelling about my Sims 2 neighborhood, Simdale Valley, as well as reference for managing my Sims 2 game. Simdale Valley is a small, quaint town. To reach it, one has to take the two lane highway from the mainland, from the south over Lake Simdale, or take the ferry from Port Prominence. Port Prominence is the "big city," and home of Peninsula State University. Summerton, to the north, is an upscale town with larger homes and businesses than Simdale Valley, as well as a national shoreline. Fort Strange is the military base within the larger region, but with different weather and topography (it is a desert), where most military sims and some scientists live and work. Three Lakes, (in an idea I got from Maisie who writes the Millwood Sims blog), is a vacation area in the mountains, between Port Prominence and Summerton, and close enough for many families to visit and some to own a vacation home at. Twikki Island is in the South Seas, and sims have to be able to afford a plane ticket to travel and stay there, for an exotic vacation. Takemizu is in the Far East, and also requires a plane ticket and good amount of expendable income to visit.
As for story-telling and news reporting in this blog, I plan to blog (pretty regularly, as in about once a week...) as I feel like recording what's happening or as a story I want to tell develops in my neighborhoods. For a long time now, I've played Sims 2 in "rounds," which just means playing each household for a set amount of time and having the sims age up congruently. Some entries might be like news stories, others may be like journal entries or photo entries, and others may relate gameplay events. It is mostly for my own enjoyment, as I look back at the history of sims, families, and the neighborhood, but if others also want to read it they are welcome to do so. The reference parts, I used to keep on Evernote, but decided to move them to Blogger to have everything in one place, and just in case any of it might be useful to someone else who plays Sims 2. To experienced Sims players, most of my notes are probably extremely basic, but I like to keep them just in case.
Most of the interesting ideas about the way I play and blog were developed over time by a community of Prosperity Challenge bloggers and the blogs they inspired. You can see many of them in the Sims 2 Neighborhood link list in the blog. Some of them have been playing and writing about the same neighborhood for up to about eight years, I think, and the intricacy of the world they have developed is fascinating.
Unless you are really bored or enjoy Sims minutia, you probably don't want to spend time reading the following bit (& maybe you were already thinking, why I am taking the time to read this!! so you can stop now):
Simdale Valley is actually in its third incarnation...the first one, I used to blog about in 2008, but I stopped when I had too many technical problems and too little time to fix them. Earlier this year, Simdale Valley as an idea of a place (not the same map or buildings) made an entrance as a sub-neighborhood, a small farming community, outside Strangetown, in another prosperity style neighborhood that I played for about five months. (Prosperity Challenges are a certain way to play a neighborhood house by house and also usually includes ideas such as taxing the residents to gradually build the 'hood as a whole to be more prosperous.) But about the time I added "Simdale Valley II," file corruption in that neighborhood got to the point where I decided to start fresh. About that time I also decided to rescue my old buildings from Simdale Valley I, from an old hard drive, and did some research on how to avoid my new sims from getting corrupted. I extracted some of my Strangetown sims, and started re-populating New Simdale Valley (aka Simdale Valley III).
This is not one of those blogs.
You might sum up my play style as "Sim Watcher." Over the years I've found out that the way I most like to play and blog my pixelated people is very much on the gameplay end of the spectrum. I don't start play sessions with a very detailed idea of what kind of shots I want to get; I pause a lot and look around, and see what's happening in the game. I choose among the goals and whims/wants/wishes of my sims based on how I see their long term personality. If the game makes them do something I think is really out of character, because that's how EA set it up, I'll pretend it never happened. And I also use shots to move the blog story along, even if it's not what they were really doing in game. But overall, it's a gameplay blog.
The aspects of simming that really grab my imagination, in my own game, are building and playing sims that are developing, or have, a history. Seeing gameplay develop in places I've built, basically, is what keeps me coming back to my own game.
One area I am mindful of, that I'd like to change in, is my character development. Just what I let my sims do, or not do, is pretty narrow and I'd like to broaden their horizons. However, this blog will always be a little pollyanna (or a lot) because in real life my job is to work with people who are dealing with serious, often traumatic issues, and this is an escape. And if you haven't noticed already, it is definitely PG... my own limitations in writing characters makes me feel safer not delving into a lot of issues around sex and violence, and other mature themes. But I am trying to let my sims have more life of their own, even if it isn't the way I see the world.
Thanks for reading!
Just for Kicks, here's my original "About this Blog," when it was a Sims 2 blog:
Or, Lots of Imaginary and Minute Detail about Sims 2
This blog is part gameplay blog, and a little bit of storytelling about my Sims 2 neighborhood, Simdale Valley, as well as reference for managing my Sims 2 game. Simdale Valley is a small, quaint town. To reach it, one has to take the two lane highway from the mainland, from the south over Lake Simdale, or take the ferry from Port Prominence. Port Prominence is the "big city," and home of Peninsula State University. Summerton, to the north, is an upscale town with larger homes and businesses than Simdale Valley, as well as a national shoreline. Fort Strange is the military base within the larger region, but with different weather and topography (it is a desert), where most military sims and some scientists live and work. Three Lakes, (in an idea I got from Maisie who writes the Millwood Sims blog), is a vacation area in the mountains, between Port Prominence and Summerton, and close enough for many families to visit and some to own a vacation home at. Twikki Island is in the South Seas, and sims have to be able to afford a plane ticket to travel and stay there, for an exotic vacation. Takemizu is in the Far East, and also requires a plane ticket and good amount of expendable income to visit.
As for story-telling and news reporting in this blog, I plan to blog (pretty regularly, as in about once a week...) as I feel like recording what's happening or as a story I want to tell develops in my neighborhoods. For a long time now, I've played Sims 2 in "rounds," which just means playing each household for a set amount of time and having the sims age up congruently. Some entries might be like news stories, others may be like journal entries or photo entries, and others may relate gameplay events. It is mostly for my own enjoyment, as I look back at the history of sims, families, and the neighborhood, but if others also want to read it they are welcome to do so. The reference parts, I used to keep on Evernote, but decided to move them to Blogger to have everything in one place, and just in case any of it might be useful to someone else who plays Sims 2. To experienced Sims players, most of my notes are probably extremely basic, but I like to keep them just in case.
Most of the interesting ideas about the way I play and blog were developed over time by a community of Prosperity Challenge bloggers and the blogs they inspired. You can see many of them in the Sims 2 Neighborhood link list in the blog. Some of them have been playing and writing about the same neighborhood for up to about eight years, I think, and the intricacy of the world they have developed is fascinating.
Unless you are really bored or enjoy Sims minutia, you probably don't want to spend time reading the following bit (& maybe you were already thinking, why I am taking the time to read this!! so you can stop now):
Simdale Valley is actually in its third incarnation...the first one, I used to blog about in 2008, but I stopped when I had too many technical problems and too little time to fix them. Earlier this year, Simdale Valley as an idea of a place (not the same map or buildings) made an entrance as a sub-neighborhood, a small farming community, outside Strangetown, in another prosperity style neighborhood that I played for about five months. (Prosperity Challenges are a certain way to play a neighborhood house by house and also usually includes ideas such as taxing the residents to gradually build the 'hood as a whole to be more prosperous.) But about the time I added "Simdale Valley II," file corruption in that neighborhood got to the point where I decided to start fresh. About that time I also decided to rescue my old buildings from Simdale Valley I, from an old hard drive, and did some research on how to avoid my new sims from getting corrupted. I extracted some of my Strangetown sims, and started re-populating New Simdale Valley (aka Simdale Valley III).
the result is fabulous :D i'd love to know how to populate a beautiful town like this !
ReplyDeletemyrabellah
So nice of you to comment, Myra Bel! I couldn't find the place to leave a comment on your second chapter.... but I am very intrigued to see how you develop Shinji's character.
ReplyDeleteI spent several years populating my first Simdale Valley, so that there were a couple generations of sims in it. It was definitely fun., but that was in Sims 2.
I just love your description of your Sims blogging. I view my Sims blogging as guided storytelling. I play the game largely as a game and take a lot of pictures, and I build a story around those pictures. I admit that I often take pictures of interesting poses during conversations and then use them wherever I need a good conversation to move the plot along. As I get to the end of a generation, there usually are some solid plot threads that I want to push a bit harder to tie up.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we have somewhat similar styles, though I've never played more than one household. I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Wow, thank you for taking the time to comment, Echo Weaver! It does sound like our playing/blogging style may be similar. Did you start playing with Sims 3? (Oh, just saw that you have the longest running Pinstar Legacy in Sims 3, wow!)
DeleteI wondered because Sims 3 is more conducive, to me, to playing one household, than Sims 2. Before Sims 4, I played Sims 2, which was great for playing many houses in rotation.
Sims 4 is definitely trickier to play multiple houses, even with aging off. For example, I've noticed other sims can die, babies can be born, and pregnancies can move forward, when I switch active households (even with aging off for everyone).