In another thread it was mentioned that SIMs 3 is coming.
OK, sell me on the idea. I’m not being snarky, I have never played any of the SIMs games and I want to know what I’m missing. (Mods, rather than derail that thread, I started this one, but maybe the two belong as one.)
What do you do in the SIMs and why do you find it entertaining? (I know that last is hard to define, it is like asking why a joke is funny.)
1st reply: gonna shoot it down. I don’t find it a pleasurable experience, but I’ve only ever found a couple of Sim games to be exciting.
In the most basic vesrion, you take your little SIM folk and try to direct their lives so that they get enough to eat, get enough sleep, get out of bed and go to work on time, get some entertainment and social interaction, remember hygene, and remember to go to the bathroom and not wet themselves. If you can pull it off correctly and get them to lead balanced lives, you are rewarded with money to buy things, better surroundings, and a family.
Keep in mind: The Sims is not a game. It’s a toy. It’s something you play with. Different people find different aspects of the toy interesting.
I like seeing if I can create self-perpetuating combinations, so that I don’t need to interfere with the lives of my sims. There’s a certain self-satisfaction when I find a good combination of sims that don’t just give up and end up peeing and sleeping on the floor.
A friend of mine enjoys making up unusual social combinations, and seeing what happens. Sort of a “what if?” thing.
A teenager I know uses the game to design unusual, even bizzare houses and people. He likes doing things like killing several sims in a row in a room where they are trapped with an inevitably burning oven, thus giving himself a graveyard full of headstones.
Someone else I know uses the game to try out house designs; can the Sims function with the design he’s created?
It’s not for everyone, but most people, if they give it a chance, and play with it enough, find something worth playing around with about it. 
Sims 3 will do away with Comfort, Social, Hygiene, and Environment Needs.
I still play the original, and even then I’m STILL short the last three expansions (I’ll probably have to try Half-Price Books or somewhere like that). I’ve found objects like elixirs and “rejuvenators” that up all your needs.
My favorite part is getting pretty new outfits, and building awesome houses and downtown stores, bars, restaurants, etc. Killing off a bunch of Sims – you can then make a graveyard which results in a haunted house. (There are plenty of killing objects on sites, like poisons, instant fires, etc that take up less time)
The best site in my opinion is Parsimonious.
The Sims is basically what you make of it. Once you start finding downloads and patches, you can really set out to customize it.
Except for the social, sounds like college.
Sims 2 had a great house building tool. I’d spend hours upon hours putting together the most outrageous dwellings. Once I got a family in, I usually ended up getting pissed off that they started another fire and I’d go into full-on Hannibal Lector mode – build walls with no door around them – thrown them in the pool and remove the ladder – shit like that.
I’m curious to see what, if any, house building/architecture/design/furnishing/whatever tool comes with Sims 3.
I just got Sims 2 and it is addictive. I’m really enjoying building houses and making the most screwed up families possible. It really lets your megalomania shine.
I got the Sims 2 Double Deluxe package which included a pair of expansions for less than ten dollars. So it doesn’t cost that much if you want to play around with it.
A good deal of fun can be had by modding your own items for the Sims. That is to say, extracting objects and skins from the game and changing them with your own 3d models. That’s a whole 'nother level of Sim-addiction, though.
It’s best to run on a newer computer, though. My 5 year old computer can barely handle Sims 2 with one expansion pack.
Speaking of expansion packs, this whole gaming thing can turn into quite an investment. It’s possible to enjoy the game on a casual, basic level with just the original, but once you get into downloading mods, it can be pretty hard to find objects that don’t require expansions.
I love building houses and decorating them, mostly with stuff I’ve downloaded from various free sites. There are pay sites too but most of them are disappointing once you get them in your game.
I like making different people too, but I find that I rarely play more than a generation at most, usually only a few days out of a life. I get bored, mostly because I have so many cheats it’s far too unrealistic.
It’s like the ultimate dollhouse though and I play with it several times a week.
DON’T LET ANYONE SELL YOU ON THE SIMS! IT WILL SUCK YOUR LIFE DRY!
OK. More seriously, I enjoyed it (the housebuilding and stuff-buying, especially), but it really is a total time-sink. There’s always something more to do - which is one of the reasons people like it, I guess.
I could go for Simcity agan any time, though.
Man, I need to invent Can-D.
Seriously? Then I see no point in selling anyone on the Sims, as the game will no longer be the one we are familiar with.
I mean, this fundamentally changes the game where it is no longer a people simulator.
It really is. I limit myself to play/modding on weekends, but between file checking, download-adding, folder cleaning, Tmogging my own stuff, testing, categorizing, and the 25 minute load time (Sims 1, all EP, lots of downloads), that’s a day completely shot.
ETA: “People simulating” isn’t the only thing the Sims is about. It’s really more of an electronic dollhouse, with the buying and the building added in. And maybe it’s just my cynical side speaking, but the buying and the building (downloads/mods) is where the money is, as far as EA is concerned. Their complete failure to crack down on paysites violating the EULA has led a fair number of gamers to speculate that they were simply watching and learning so that they could implement the paysite setup into their business model, as it were. I’m already hearing rumors that EA will offer its own add-on pay content for Sims 3 (outside of expansion packs). I don’t know how much merit there is to that, but there you go.
From what I understand, these four needs will still be in the game but won’t have the effect on Mood that they do now. The other Needs will still be there and a whole bunch of Personality settings–any five of which can be selected for any given Sim–are being added
If possible, I plan to create a household consisting of a paranoid, anti-gun, anti-government, carnivorous Sim, an anti-gun, anti-government, militant vegetarian Sim, and a gun-loving, political, carnivorous Sim and see how long it takes until they try to kill each other.
Wait, I thought that’s what Great Debates was for.
Watching Sims fight is more entertaining.
I liked the sims at least the builder part, I used to build whole neighborhoods and get pretty crazy. I liked my Costco house, and several floating ones. Once I made a red light district complete with houses full of little naked whores that had outdoor showers only. but actually playing the game? yeah not so much, I did play through a bit here and there but not really that much.