Please give me your opinion!

[esmeiolanthe]

(This post is cross-posted at my LJ and on Tumblr, since not all my readers are on Desirable Discourses.)

So I’ve been thinking, and although there are many reasons I haven’t been playing and posting as much lately, one of the reasons is that I have had some unrestricted breeding lately and I’m just not as interested in certain sims. One of my rules for myself when I started playing was that I was going to play every household, so no just leaving sims to languish in the sim bin. Well, that’s not fun anymore, and the point of a game is to have fun. I always say to others “If you’re not having fun, change it,” and I think it’s time to take my own advice.

However, I do have readers, and readers sometimes have favorites. With that in mind, I thought I’d list the sims I’m not so interested in. Currently, my thinking is to speed through their lives (probably just by aging them up using the SimBlender each rotation and providing a one-slide update at the end of Already in Progress about each). That said, I’m always up for interesting challenges, so if anyone knows of a challenge that would fit a favorite of theirs on this list -- preferably a short one that doesn’t involve lots of babies -- please do let me know!

Most spares from my Trailer Park Challenge (I haven’t got any spares yet, but I will)

Ygraine & Nicholas from my Nickle & Dimed challenge
Genevive from my Nickle & Dimed challenge & spouse
Beaudelaire from my Nickle & Dimed challenge & Pitti-Sing from my OWBC
Olga & Caryl from my OWB
Spares from my Creation to Future challenge and my Perfect Mother challenge (forthcoming)
Melanie from my 100 Days challenge (possibly -- she may be a good match for another sim, but they haven’t met yet)
Deadeye from my OWBC & Draupadi from AiP (spoiler: it’s twu wuv, so they go together wherever they go)
Spares from Skye’s family in AiP
Lavinia from AiP
I like Alexander, Anton, Nicholas, Helen, Penny, and Mikey from AiP, but I can’t quite figure out what to do with them, and get-married-have-babies-raise-babies is a bit dull after eight years...


It may be of interest to know that I am planning to do a Playing Blind challenge (minus the “marry off six kids” requirement) and perhaps a “hands off” challenge where I just take a picture every five real minutes or so. I’m fairly sure Ivan will be doing the Playing Blind challenge, but I have no candidates in mind yet for the “hands off” challenge. I don’t have ACR and wouldn’t install it if you paid me, so bear in mind that whoever gets that challenge probably won’t reproduce.

I really do want to know the answer to this! What are your thoughts?

[amylu1988]

I love reading your stories Esme, and the main thing is for you to play the sims that you like to play and find it fun to write, too. Unfortunately I don't know of many challenges, most of the ones I did involved a sim having lots of babies, which is not helpful, I know.

I do have a soft spot for any Dmitri/Rose kids, so it would be lovely to keep seeing them, but you have a lot of sims, so it makes sense to trim it down to the important and/or fun ones.

How many challenges have you got going on at the moment? Is there any that these sims could sort of...join in with? Roman 'extras', or something similar in your CtoF?

I totally agree about ACR. I'm still trying to get my game to the point where I can move onto the UC and try out the extra expansions I've never had. I'm hoping that will re-ignite my interest in it, I've got the opposite problem to you, not enough sims!

[esmeiolanthe]

I have too many, you don't have enough... Do you want some of my sims?

Lots of challenges going on at the moment, some winding down. Let's see... I have a total of eight challenges with their own stories just now, one challenge running within AiP, sort of on stealth mode. I like to inbree -- I mean, *control the population* as much as I can, but when challenges end, they sort of all get dumped into AiP, and that's making AiP not so much fun for me. Katri had some good suggestions for challenges, and I've had a couple of thoughts myself. I can tell you that Ivan (Rose & Dmitri's second son) is going to have a Playing Blind challenge, and somebody will be taken out of the rotation to run the flower shop.

It's been good for me to hear from folks that they are okay with me doing what's fun for me. Which I know is my own advice to others and I really do mean it when I say it, but I'm silly enough to thing that *of course* it doesn't apply to *me* because REASONS, okay? Thanks for the validation!*BIG HUG*

[amylu1988]

You know I'm tempted to say yes, your sims could go on an extended holiday...er, time travelling to the middle ages?

Yay, Ivan was the one who loved giraffes as a toddler, isn't he? There are loads of challenges out there, it's just knowing which ones are worth a play-through and which ones have a reasonable time frame. I was never going to finish my OWBC with my glacial playing speed, but yours has been wonderful to read, as have all your challenges.

I'm exactly the same, one rule for me and one for everyone else. Sims should always be about having fun, and enjoying yourself; and I love reading your stories, you can tell the enjoyment that goes into them. *biiig hugs back*

[joandsarah]

I agree, play who you want to play and write whatever stories interest you. If playing or writing isn't fun then don't do it or change things so it is.

It's nice to see you around Esme I had been wondering how things were going.

[esmeiolanthe]

Thanks, Jo! It's so weird how I won't take my own good advice and need someone to repeat it back to me before I'll listen. So thanks for the good advice! *HUG*

I've been busy at work (although I've been told that I'm doing well) and I'm seeing much more of the family, which is great. It's tiring, though.

[joandsarah]

I think we all do that esme.

So you are finding the new work place to be decent? How old are the niece and nephew now...3? Children grow so fast.

[esmeiolanthe]

So far the new job is going well. *knocks wood* But the kids are older than 3 now - my nephew just turned 4, and my niece turns 6 in a couple of weeks. 6! I remember being 6 myself! How can she be almost 6?! They're great kids, and I'm enjoying being closer to them.

[joandsarah]

For some strange reason I thought they were twins! A friend of mine was showing me pictures of her grandchildren, the youngest is now 8, but it feels like she was born only a few years ago. Same goes for my kids, 15 and 12 this year!

[esmeiolanthe]

No, you can't have teenagers! I remember when DD turned 10, don't I? I know *I'm* not a *bit* older, so how come all these children are?!

My niece & nephew are close in age, close in size, and close in looks, but they are not actually twins. They *are* equally adorable, though!

[joandsarah]

That's right, I just turned 21 again!