Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day. Did you download all the cool Maxis stuff from the Exchange?
My sincere apologies for the lack of updates the past few weeks. I’ve been busy and all that, but I think the main reason is that I’ve lost my focus as far as the Sims go. I play on a fairly regular basis, but keep jumping from family to family. And when I sit down to work on an update, I get distracted or bored with it all too quickly. I have two updates that are half-written, and I don’t know when or if I’ll finish them. A few new ideas are in the works, but I want to see if anything sticks inspiration-wise before I post about them. So there you go — my Sims frustration in a nutshell.
To be honest, I really miss the days when I had just one family, and I was having so much fun with them that I’d go home, play for a few hours, then write a quick update before bed. Now my brain is just too fried, and my families just aren’t interesting enough. Could it be that I’m burnt out on the game? It’s a definite possibility. But I don’t want to give it up yet. I dunno. Is anyone else in a Sims slump?
OK, enough of my whining. I want to say thank you to those of you who left comments on my last post. And a hearty YAY! to Katie and Channe for starting new Sims sites. It’s always great to have new Sims stories to read.
Take care, and Happy Simming. :-)
Hey Jen! i just started reading your site a couple weeks ago and i have to tell you i LOVE your sims! and i am always checking for updates! i know what you mean though, about the slump! i get a little tired of playing after a couple weeks and it seems like if i just take a week or so off, i’ll be addicted again once i start playing again! but the ravelos are my favorite! and from the pictures you have posted, i love villa ravelo! and i can’t wait to see what happens next with the girls!
I have been feeling the slump too, Jen. University can be so boring : ( Also Sims can have such a repetitive cycle. I would suggest creating a Sim just for the heck of it however you want and just do whatever you feel like with them, you know the kind of things you wouldn’t dare to with your regular families because it would mess them up. Hope you get out of the slump and happy simming!
Don’t give up! *flails* Remember that Open For Business is hitting the shelves on March 2nd. That’ll put a fresh new burst of life into everybody’s game! :D
I do think you should have a generic Jenba blog, though. I always enjoy reading what you write — as said in the past, you could be putting up detailed descriptions of your collection of tomato soup cans and I’d be into it.
Maybe a plague could hit the unsuspecting, pretty, little towns? That way you could take your stories down a “dark ages” direction, and then start with the few that survived. I’m sure you could find some infected rats somewhere.
Don’t feel bad about the slump, Jen. I’ve gone through a couple.. the most recent one was before my string of Everson updates. Like Katie said, Sims can have a repetitive cycle. Even if you try to make a story out of things blog-wise.. you’re still playing the Sims who are running to and from work, trying to keep up their needs, having children, dying.. I know I can get burned out on the game very easily. Even right now (when I was doing SO GOOD with the Everson’s) I’ve hit a bit of a slump myself. I /could/ write an update.. but I just don’t have the motivation to. I don’t have as many families as you have, I don’t think.. but I kind of wish I had stuck to just having the Legacy’s. I keep thinking how much further I could be with them if only I didn’t have the Everson legacy to be working through!
Like Kay said, Open for Business is coming soon and everyone usually gets a fresh burst of Simming energy with the coming of a new expansion pack (I’ll admit to being more excited to hear what the /next/ pack will be, though). And if you decide to take a bit of a break from Sims to give yourself a little rest.. have no fear! I assure you, we’ll all still be here when you get back. :)
Yay! I’m glad you wrote something, I was getting concerned. Well I’ve been in a eh I don’t want to play right NOW mood, but it doesn’t last long, and plus I’m doing the Classic Legacy, so it defintly has my interest.
Maybe its time to wipe the whole game clean and start fresh.
If you’re going to do what Rhoda suggested then could you at least kind of wrap everything up? The Shaneys, Maude’s Tales, Annabel Island, and whatever else there is? Or you could just take a long break. I know a lot of readers wouldn’t like that but you should do what you feel like and if you need a break then screw the sims and go do what’s fun for now. You can always come back to the sims later.
Hey, Jen. To tell you the truth, I get those sims slumps every once in a while. But recently, I haven’t really had time to play very much, and come to find out that taking a break really made me want to play again. Maybe just taking a little break, or playing without having to worry about blogging about it, will freshen your mind up a little. Just a suggestion. :)
I had that problem Jen. I felt very bored with the game a few weeks back, and I’ve kind of given up blogging for awhile. My legacy family bored me, so I started a prosperity challenge which I havn’t been blogging about. I LOVE the prosperity challenge! I find it far more interesting than the legacy challenge, as the whole neighbourhood is involved, and you have to play with every family for a number of days each, then move onto the next.
Im finding it really fun, maybe you could give it a try?
Or you could just give yourself a few weeks break from playing the sims, when you get back to playing, you might find it a lot more fun again.
I hope you don’t give up on simming, as your site is my favourite one to read. Just remember, Open For Business is out soon, and that will add a whole new prospect to The Sims 2!
Eh, take your time, Jen! You do so much for us by writting up your sim stories so I think that we can give you a little bit more time. lol Besides, does anyone know what’s going on with my Sims game? The memory icons have disappeared (there’s only red and green background) and when even I select “Go Here” just a blue background icon appears in the top left corner. Help?
I suggest that you put off the Shanleys for a while, as with the Ravelos, and perhaps just start a fun little family. From time to time you could update all of your other families (Ravelos, Braytons, Shanleys, etc.) but do main updates on that one family. You may want to even try making up your own kind of challenge, the Jen Challenge, maybe? lol
Yeah I know what you mean about the slump thing. I have been in a sims slump for a while. I have had so many problems with the game I just stopped playing. I am trying to start a legacy family but can’t get motivated. I really love your story and hope you can get out of your slump and continue your stories. Best of luck!
Hey, Jen! I know all about those awful slumps. The new expansion pack gets me out of that for a while, and then I’ve seen everything, and done everything, and I start getting slightly bored with it all. I always write my updates ahead though, so I’ll always have something to post. What usually works for me is setting up a whole new neighbourhood, which I play in the polar opposite way to my blog neighbourhood. You know, instead of conquering the Sims wants, try concentrating on their fears only, or leave them alone and see what silly antics they get up to.
I’m exactly the same way! *takes a glance at her own dust-gathering site*
…yes, exactly the same way.
And the worst of it is definitely how I get all these ideas for TS2 stories, and then take the time to download appropriate items, build appropriate houses, come up with everything appropriate, and then…
Start some new challenge and blow the whole thing off. Naturally! :D
Even as I type this, I’m looking around to order Nightlife online, and I play the game at least three times a week (and given TS2’s size and my computer’s processing power, that’s quite an undertaking. *nod*).
I play the game, think up the stories while I play, but then don’t put them to words.
Errg, but there I go rambling. >_>; Sorry.
But… anyway, what I was trying to say was: I get EXACTLY what you mean. *nod* It’s a pain in the neck. At least you’re still having fun with the game, though! And, who knows? Maybe fun with the game will lead to fun with writing! …about the game! And other topics!
Ooh, I’ll have to look at those new blogs. One of them is a livejournal– I totally must add it as soon as possible like even now! Or, um, after I finish the ordering thing.
Also: Holy Cowllamahybrids! Maxis had Valentine items? (I rarely visit the official site. ^^; ) I’ll have to take a look over there.
I just hope they haven’t taken them all down by now, like with the Christmas items. I so very missed out on those…
Hope you, too, had a happy Valentine’s day; and that you also get hit with the arrow of inspiration!
That is, of course, what Cupid does in his off-time. Inspiring arrows. Yarr.
Hey guys, thanks so much for the suggestions and commiseration. I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets into these slumps. I ended up doing a kind of “Jen Challenge” (thanks, Surely!) which turned out to be quite fun — I wrote a post about it, though I didn’t really explain the “challenge” part of it. Maybe I’ll do that as a separate post once I have all the kinks worked out. Right now it’s just for fun, sort of making up the rules as a I go along. I might have something else in the works, too, but I need to figure out a few things before it goes live. I think having OFB come out soon will be great, and I’m hoping I can incorporate it into some of the stories I have going on. And I don’t plan on giving up the Ravelos, Shanleys or Braytons just yet — I’m sure I’ll come back to them at some point. Especially the Braytons. I still love that Victorian stuff to bits. Well, thanks again, Happy Simming, and I hope you get out of your slumps!
I just made my sims 2 blog and I thing your site is the best.
Thank you so much for the mention! I’m having such a good time! My blog is actually my way to get *out* of my own Sims slump, and it’s working wonderfully. Why don’t you try making a game on your own rules? Your blog sincerely rocks, and I hope to see much more of it.