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September 17, 2004

Chlorinating Car Pools...

So yeah, after a couple of days playing the Sims, I've been thinking about what makes it better than the original. The graphics are better, sure, AI smarter, yeah, but there's something about it that pulls me in more than the original did, and I think I figured it out. It's the story.
Apparently, the peoples behind the Sims learned that why people who kept playing their game kept playing it was because they make up little stories and make their Sims act them out. I never did that with the original Sims, so even though I enjoyed it, I only played it for like two day solid spurts and then I was done. But the story is so built into the Sims 2 that you can't help but do it, and man, is it fun!
First of all, you can completely make your own neighborhoods, from the ground up. Organized however you want, build the houses however you want, whatever. You name it. Then you write a description from when you pick it from the menu. Then, when you go into the Neighborhood, the Neighborhood story pops up. This is an overview of all the stories your different families are going through. You can customize it with any pictures you've taken in game and write whatever you want. Then, you start playing with a family. You can take pictures, just by hitting C on the keyboard, or you can take .avi movies. With the completely superior camera control you have in Sims 2, you want to take pictures. Then you click on the family story, organize the pictures, and caption every one of them in either album mode (One picture per page) or Blog mode (With a buncha pictures on one page with a bit of the text that can be clicked on to expand.). And then when you're done writing that, you upload it to the Sims 2 website so everyone can view it. Just check it out.
It makes me feel so much more attached to my characters because they're actually characters. Their in-game wants sorta lay a groundwork and then I fill everything in. This was why the silly Simspeak was implimented in the first place, so I can pretend they're saying whatever I want to fit my story. It just... I dunno. It's kinda sad that I'm writing a little tale about my sims' lives like that, but that's what really makes the game fun. I'd only touched on it before. Sims 2 is a sandbox for you to play around with stories and plots and such, or just make a buncha interesting people and see what they do (Since the AI is actually good enough for you to do that now, at least to some extent... you still have to tell them to do stuff like order more food.).
Long story short, I'm enjoying Sims 2 very much.
Prerelease this weekend! Wish me luck! It's Sunday, and I'm sure I'll write a full report on it when I get back.
Halloween game is coming up on Saturday, Oct 30. If you are a friend of Jonathan's or are just a friend who has nothing to do that Saturday, let me know if you can be there or not. Seriously, it's going to be hella cool, and you'll still have your Halloween day open for scary movies or whatever. And yes, we're going to practice the route so I doesn't take three days to do like last time. It'll be shorter, but infinitely cooler. Anyway, get in touch with me or Essner, will yah?
And that's it for today. Good job, Parappa! You can go on to the next stage now!

Posted by poetfox at September 17, 2004 01:34 PM

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