Hey all (if anyone is even reading this blog anymore)! Turns out the book thing didn’t go so well, which I doubt will surprise anyone who knows me, heh. I tried to do some writing, but I missed having pictures to go along with my stories. I missed building houses. I missed watching families grow. And to be honest, I didn’t even try the book thing for very long. I got sucked back into Lord of the Rings Online for several months, and that was fun, but lately I’ve felt a void in my life, and I realized it was partly because I wasn’t doing anything creative.
So I thought I might get back into Simming and Sims storytelling. I decided to start afresh – I completely reinstalled TS3 and added World Adventures to the mix. The first thing I did with WA was to send a hapless traveler to Shang Simla, but for some reason I got bored quickly. I know, I don’t get it either, since it sounds like people are having so much fun with it. But I couldn’t find the location of her first opportunity before she needed food and got tired. And even though the scenery is gorgeous, I could only gape at it for so long before I realized this was not scratching that creative itch at all.
I set it aside for a few days and pondered some possible story situations. I remembered how much I enjoyed Fran and company at first, before it degenerated into posing them all the time for every story. Bleh – don’t want to do THAT again. Was there some way I could recapture that earlier fun, keep it organic and interesting, and avoid the dreaded poses? I played around with that a little, creating two sisters – one is a hopeless romantic but also an unflirty, cowardly loner, and the other is a brave, adventurous party animal. I plopped them into a pre-made house from the bin in Sunset Valley (like I did with Fran) and hit play. And the first thing both of them did was head straight for the bookshelf. Bah! I know that’s typical of all S3 Sims, and I need to play them for longer than 5 minutes to see their personality differences, but it was kind of disappointing right off the bat. I’m not saying an adventurous, flirty, brave party animal would never read a book, but why wouldn’t she go explore, or wish to visit the bistro or something? And do we still not have clubs in this game? Where can my flirty party animals go to, well, party?
And I know my Sims aren’t going to just run around doing fascinating things all the time without my help. I know I have to pretty much make things happen. I was just hoping they’d help me out a bit. You know, make some funny faces or react to their surroundings or SOMETHING. I do think I should have put more people in the household. That’s where Fran worked well for me – more people means more interaction, and interpreting a conversation between two people is much more interesting than trying to make a story out of a Sim reading a book (which also makes for boring pictures as they have absolutely NO expression when they read). I’ll keep playing them and see what transpires.
I won’t even go into my experiences trying to figure out the Create-a-World tool. I appreciate that they released it, given all the clamor for it, but it needs some serious work. It is NOT user-friendly. I probably need to spend more time with it and find more tutorials, but man…I miss being able to use Sim City 4 to make ‘hoods. It was much more intuitive (albeit far less powerful). I’d like to see a happy medium between the two.
So this is basically a big whiny post. Sorry about that. My gripes do have a purpose. I would like to get back into Sims storytelling. I miss it. But I’m still frustrated with S3 as a storytelling tool, and I need to work some things out. I’d like to see how others are doing it, but I haven’t been able to find much. There are some folks doing legacy stories here and there, but most other blogs seem to be on hiatus (even Alice and Kev are finito). I’d love to know if anyone is blogging about building a new neighborhood, or their experiences with the CAW tool. What’s the coolest thing you’ve seen in TS3 lately? Is anyone still playing?
(Right after I published this post, I recalled the Simverses blog. Looks like Ingeli is still going strong and creating some really amazing stuff!)
It’s good to see you back, Jenba, even if you’re not creatively happy right now. Don’t give up & something should happen to tickle your muse.
Good to hear from you Jenba! I share your frustrations but also miss the creativity of Sims storytelling. Thanks for keeping us posted.
I have a few links that I hope will help.
Well one is my blog. *points at linked name* I’m working on using TS3 as a story telling vehicle right now. But I’m just doing the writing and then I use the game to take some pictures, which it sounds like you don’t want to do. And I can’t blame you. Seems like TS3 is really limited when it comes to animations. I swear that TS2 base game had so many more animations than the game has now.
Two other stories that greatly inspired me: Marooned on Tuesday and Inside Hope Springs.
I’ll also throw up a link to Valley Sun Sims. There are a lot of inspiring people there. Plenty of people who are playing the game and then telling the stories. Right away I can think of The Foliage Legacy.
But there are others. You should have a look in the stories forum, or in the links in my side bar on my story site for other stories. I hope something jump starts that muse.
Sorry to hear about your frustrations, jenba, but I am pleased to see you trying to get back into your creative side. One suggestion I have about TS3 … increase their free will all the way. See if that helps?
Welcome back :)
I wasn’t that impressed with WA either, I basically send my sims there to get recipes and play around with the photography and martial arts skills…..or possibly start up a romance. I do very little questing, I’m bored after 3 days anyway, no need to increase my visa. I found that what could be considered as the annoying traits, made them far more animated. Traits like absent-minded, insane etc. Personal favorite is absent-minded, I love their expression when they forget. Anyway, that’s what made me stick to a character and just play her and see what happens.
Hope you get your mojo back :)
Honestly Jen, I checked back every once in a while to see if this blog was still alive, and got that feedblitz message today :)
The funny thing is, I stopped playing Sims3 really quickly because it really drove me nuts that it took about 3 minutes to – only – buy a refigerator to fit into my house designwise – not to speak of creating clothes or other things – waaaay to timewasting!
But in fact, I began playing Sims2 just last week, and I enjoy it so much :) Much more than Sims3, despite the graphics (which I still think are magnificent though) and the little amount of interactions and everything in comparison.
Might give it a try?
Best!!
I’m afraid I don’t have any Sims 3 advice…I tried it for a few months but am so happy to be back to Sims 2.
Anyway, your description (whining?) of your latest forays into the Sims 3 verbalized my frustrations with it, which I didn’t put enough thought into to put my finger on.
Whatever you end up doing, I know it will be great.
I am still playing TS2. I could not get into those horrid, ugly, plasticy, expressionless Wallace and Gromit TS3 sims.
It is really nice to play and really get into the game now that I am not having to update everything for a new EP every six months. I am developing depth and the stories are becoming very intertwined and rich.
I took a break for a few months, focused on my new relationship with an awesome guy, and am now back to playing. The itch to write and tell stories about Thyme really pulled at me.
I am glad you are well, if creatively frustrated.
Oh, hey! How funny I just checked back here the other day to see if you were up to anything! :)
I’m sorry to hear about your creative slump. But if this means we get more Sims stories from you, then I’m happy. Like many others, I’m still hopelessly lost in Sims 2 and can’t offer any advice, but I can recommend my Sims 3 favorites: Lunar’s Ruin Destruction, and all of Carnaxa’s stories, Moondaisy’s Sim of the Month stories, and Mao’s Different Views.
I missed your stories though, so I’m glad to see you back! :)
Hey Jen! It’s so good to “see” you again. I’ve been hoping and wishing that you’d post again and tell us how you’re doing. I tried getting into TS3 and while I like it, I’m not in love with it like I was with TS2. I still play both games, but I really don’t blog about them anymore. Real life is just so busy and updating a blog started to feel more like work than fun. Anyhoo, I’m really looking forward to seeing Sims stuff from you again…if you choose to return. You’re so creative and your updates are always fun to read. Glad to see you back!
Oh wow, it’s great to hear from you guys! Thanks for posting and letting me know what you’ve been up to. And mucho thanks for the links to Sims 3 stories you liked, too. I will definitely check those out. I’m working on figuring out the Create-A-World tool — so far it’s scary, there’s a very steep learning curve for me, but I’m determined to make it work somehow. Thankfully since it has been out awhile, there are some good tutorials and info provided by the community. EA may make us pull our hair out sometimes, but the Sims community is always wonderful.
Jen, your back!
Sorry to hear your story writing didn’t go the way you hoped. I think your a great writer and you never fail to entertain me with your sim stories!
My life has been so hectic latley that I too have also almost dropped off the sims blog-o-sphere. I’m sorry I haven’t yet replied to your LJ response too but I have been neglecting that latley also. (My laptop speakers also broke recently so it’s been shipped off somewhere to be fixed) I’m now a magazine staff member over at Livingsims which keeps me interested in the game and has been really fun so far. For sims 3, the forums and challenges over there are really taking off too which I really enjoy.
As for stories, my favourite sims 3 one atm (if you haven’t already read it) is the Edith Prescott Mysteries by Rachel:
http://simstoriesbyrachel.wordpress.com/.
SO glad your blogging again Jen. Good luck with CAW, I’ve already thrown the darn thing down in frustration a million times :D
Hey, Jen!
I have been back and forth between Sims 2 and Sims 3 for… geez, a long time now. I play Sims 3 (I actually have two legacy-style families I’m playing and I love them both, I just haven’t really been into the picture taking mood to do blog updates) and sometimes the Sims seem like they’re very expressive, but other times it seems like they lack tons of animation. I adore the open neighborhood, the fact that I can send my sims out to do things without the insane loading times of Sims 2, but there is so LITTLE to do that I go right back to Sims 2, where my sims have lots of items and can do tons of things, have a wide variety of jobs, have their pets and weather! I still have not gotten World Adventures, and at this point it doesn’t look like I ever will. But then I’ll want to play Sims 3 for the families I have there, and then I realize I miss all the CC I have in Sims 2. CC seems so very frustrating (at least to me) in Sims 3! It’s like once I figure out how everything needs to be set up, something changes because of a patch or something and the process starts all over again! And now, only 4 generations in to my Riverview family, the neighborhood is (I think) starting to shut down and give me grief with annoying pauses between each. and every. action. So I switch back to Sims 2, but am eventually bored by the load times and how much I miss the open neighborhood and the traits and not having to worry about sims dipping into negative aspiration.
So, yes. I am still playing! I’ve actually been playing Sims 3 the last few days (which has renewed my frustrations about CC and my failing ‘hood) and I am very attached to some of the Sims I have there. I just wish the game was… better. :/