It is often easier to talk about what annoys us than about what we love; but we wouldn't jump through the hoops we do if we didn't love this game, with all its faults. So this is a thread just for people to stop and think about what, specifically, they love about it.

(Please bear in mind that everything we love is something other people are annoyed by, so kindly don't reply to anyone's raptures over That One Annoying Feature by sneering at it. You already have a thread for that and you wouldn't want them sneering at your enthusiasm for your Particular Favorite Thing, would you?)

So I'll start: Yesterday I was playing a small hood with lots of childbearing going on (no, not Widespot!). Eve Tite was in the final trimester of a rough pregnancy that I was having to micromanage her through, and her husband Adam was having to neglect the relentless pursuit of fish before the pond froze in order to look after toddler Chava - when suddenly, Adam's sister Pinchme appeared on the lot, playing with their basketball hoop. Eve, who made best friends with Pinchme before she married and moved out, greeted her and was able to get her tanking fun up by playing red hands with her. Pinchme than took Chava out of the high chair and started playing with her. She stayed through the baby's birth and Chava's growth to child, and played basketball with Chava.

It is extremely common for friends and relations to drop in and make themselves variously useful as a birth nears in this game, and I love that very much. With influence points you can make them even more useful; but even just their showing up is sweet.

(Chava now calls Aunt Pinchme in the evenings. Also very sweet.)

Well, thinking about just one is quite hard so I guess I'll list a few of them And maybe I'll come back here when I remember others.

In Tinsel Town, there is Fluffy-the one and only cat-she's getting along in life, and because she's Siamese, she's very fussy-she doesn't like people picking her up- all but her owner Kenny Powers.
However that tolerance got expanded when she met the 4 toddlers that she now lives with, and it's beyond adorable when one of them grabs her to hug her and drag her around. She lets the child do as they wish, and she doesn't even mind when they eat her food or try to sleep in her bed. It's kind of like she's saying, "Oh, a mini human..and I guess I'm the play toy of the day. So be it. They don't mean any harm.."

Noodle the cat.

Where do I start?

The list is long and endless This is a start.

Sims have turned up at lots in my game when they were needed so many times, including just before births. I think one of the happenings in my game (I may have posted it back then) that had me quite emotional was when, playing the bin Sims, Faith Goodie died. About 5 Sims arrived and Herb made them dinner. They all left and Herb, finally alone, was cleaning up.

And there she was - Jody Larson, perfect, attracted to Herb for a very long time - the camera moved to her, standing on the sidewalk. She did not knock on the door; she waited. I sent Herb out to greet her. (I don't play strict rotation, Herb was in the retirement hood anyway and she stilll in the main hood, so she was almost an elder). We had a wedding the next day

Long before I had any mods, Trent Traveller came home from his job in the criminal career at a very late hour. Trisha was still cleaning the kitchen after having dinner with a friend who came home with her. The kitchen was at the back of the house. Trent walked straight to the kitchen and hold hands with Trisha, all on his own It was such a lovely moment, and I can never understand why people think these two should split up

A Sim family had twins (toddlers at this event) and the nanny was difficult, picking fights with both parents. I decided she needed to be replaced and had the father fire her. The twins both started crying. They were both best friends with the nanny (rolls eyes) and since then, I have looked at nannies in a different way. As long as the kids like her - who cares what she does; they will be safe at home at the end of the day.

A social sim with a LTW of 20 best friends, was drinking at the bar on a community lot while I sent different playables there. The Sim was chatting to Brandi LeTourneau at the bar - and then I get a notification: Anthony has just reached his LTW and will be in platinum status for the rest of his life.
Getting to Anthony a day or so later, he was indeed glowing with happiness

It's a start, as I said


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Pets, babies and cutscenes!

When I think about what I love most about the game is that I can use it as a vehicle for storytelling in a way, even if i'm not super in-depth with it it's still fun and creative and i have stories in my head about my sims and their lives. Some of which I direct yes but not all of it. I leave free will on now and of course the game, regardless of what one does, loves to throw unexpected things or things that can make the sim's story go in a different even unexpected way. My sims stories are a collaboration between me and them and the game.

In terms of gameplay I just love playing families. Seeing how they interact, the genetics that get passed down through the generations, their stories. I also love the supernatural sims.

There are so many little details that I love. Like when an older family member comes to visit, and they are getting greeted, they hold their arms out and wave them in excitement at seeing their child or other family member, or when a child is kissed by a relative, they immediately wipe their mouth like eww. I also like it when everyone sits down to a meal together and they bond over the food. The shy-Sim flirt and dance. My favorite thing about this game is all the countless social interactions that really make the Sims come alive for me.

My AWW factor is any kind of pet in sims 2. Dog, cat or bird. They made them look so innocent like they are about to cry when they look at you.

With ACR, random townies having their first kisses with each other.

Clicking on every single Sim on a community lot to have them join a smustle.

Kobe the Cat thinks Angela Pleasant is beautiful and wants to be adopted. Kobe is an idependent spirit and doesn't recognize boundaries around college.



Kobe is the cutest cat of all of them because of the fat fur. She doesn't need outerwear in winter. I had a grey cat years ago.

Brandi Broke's child can run everywhere to go take a shower and back to watching TV without wasting any time. I really like this glitch and I think people should run more.

It's strange how I dislike Sims defaulting to running in TS3, but absolutely love the children running in TS2.

Pretty sure they run everywhere if they've got Active set to 7 or above, especially kids (but I think some older sims do it, too).

Normal people can run when directed with Go Here to a Destination. One has to micromanage them. But children can run when going to an object. He has 4 points of activity. I suspect a child's walk style never got cleared, because for a toddeler it means he can walk instead of crawl. But for adults it means to run instead of walk.

I feel like it's always the latest little detail I've noticed that is my favourite . But some all-time "awws" are these:

• The little animation when a sim couple wakes up together and have a wee cuddle before getting up.
• The sim toddlers huggling eachother or cuddling pets.
• The older siblings playing peek-a-boo with or tickling, or occasionally teasing a toddler.
• The new college students rolling wants to call family members and friends and having younger friends and siblings going to college. I see this and remember my first term at university, longing for people from home and wishing I could share all the fun with my younger sisters.
• Any autonomous token of affection between sims makes me go "aaaww", really.

I fully believe this game is magic. It started as a joke, but honestly, the longer I play the more convinced I get. It has some kind of advanced AI that's got magic mind-reading capabilities. Constantly reads my mind on a story I have in mind, throwing me curveballs that perfectly enhance where I was trying to go, or causes additional elements that I had not considered. I can feel stuck on how to make something happen, not knowing how to combine Part A and part B, and it's like the game reads my mind and says "I got you, here you go" and introduces the perfect bridge. It happens again, and again, and again. It's like the game wants me to have fun, and wants to help me truly execute my creative vision. Storytellers best friend.

Recent example of this was when Zoey called over her new friend to ask her out on a date. She's family aspiration and I struggled to really get her anywhere with wants because it's all fall in love and big things like that, so although Zoey is a side-character only made to be the future partner of main story Sim, I decided to let her have a fling beforehand. I settled on a dormie that I think is really cute that hasn't gotten used yet, I had Zoey call her over to ask her out on a date. Dormie Ulrika asked if she could bring a friend, which I almost always accept because I've had so many great moments spawn from spontaneous friend tag-alongs. Like when orphan Stoffe brought the orphanage matron along when his fiance called him over for their wedding. You never know what you'll get, but odds are it's great because the game is magic. And so it was this time. Who does Ulrika bring? Zoey's future partner Who immediately initiates a flirt with Zoey, which surprisingly was accepted. Upon which future partner immediately gets crush and love. I looked at their relationship panels, and future partner had very high relationship with Zoey, whereas Zoey was only at 17/11. So here I have Zoey with her heart set on asking Ulrika on a date, and Ulrika brings a friend who immediately falls head over heels inlove with Zoey. I debated, should I move up the storyline of Zoey and future partner dating? Should I stick to my original plan of letting Zoey have different romance first? I found it interesting that it was so uneven, I thought it an interesting element. Usually Sims progress at similar rates, so when the game presents one-sided for once I decided to embrace it. I had Zoey serve lunch and dessert for her visitors, and the entire time Zoey is looking at Ulrika, and future partner is looking at Zoey. Acting just as I had decided I would interpret it. Eventually I had Zoey say goodbye to future partner, so she could have some privacy to ask Ulrika out on date. Future partner looks at them, then walks off. Except Zoey only made it so far as to ask Ulrika for the date, before the doorbell rang. Who's knocking? Fellow sorority sister of future partner Clearly the minute future partner was out of reach she called up her sorority sister, recruiting her to help in her newly developed crush. Telling her to get there immediately to interfere with this date. That's what I read from it, and game was fully on board. Zoey and Ulrika started dancing to the stereo, sorority sister walks over to chat with Zoey, talks about bad weather. Like if she's trying to bum out the mood. Didn't work, Zoey and Ulrika went to the sofa to cuddle. Sorority sister walks over to pick up the game controller to play SSX, blasting the room with whoops and game sounds, ruining the vibe I would not have thought to have future partner send someone over to interfere with the date, but the game did, and it enhanced and furthered the story in a great way. I love when the game reads my mind and helps me out.

Also been developing some background stories/relationships when playing Zoey. Jonasn barista mod is so much fun (highly recommend, the latest update adding cleaning is so immersive I love it). Zoey works as a barista every day and the game makes sure to give me lots to observe as Zoey works away for hours. Lots of visiting Sims buying espressos for each other, and almost all of them are dudes buying for dudes, or women buying for women. The animation is really flirty, so I interpret it as burgeoning romances in the background. And almost exclusively homosexual, which is amazing because Zoey is gay, and it's like the game knew that's what I decided for her, and decided to turn the café in to the main hangout spot for all the gay people.

Constantly people show up and act in ways that plays in to and enhances the story I was already going for. Setting up background atmospheres, or clarifying personality traits. If you are open to it, the game delivers.

I always get a kick out of children doing stuff. For some reason, watching them eat hot dogs makes me inordinately happy..

When you manage to get every single Sim on a community lot to smustle in perfect synchronicity with each other.

Walkbys bringing their pets.



I don't know why one of my very pregnant Sims is walking her brother's cat, though.

I love how Dirk Dreamer comforts Lilith Pleasant, when her parents publicly bully her. They were all at the Goth Manor for a party. Dirk was being so sweet and would caress Lilith after her parents harassed her.

When you move a couple into an empty lot and they get all lovey-dovey with each other cause that's all there is to do.

I know a lot people think it's annoying, but I think it's adorable when kids run up to hug their parents when they come home from work. Especially since I used to do that with my parents when I was a kid!

I think that's a big reason Sims2 is so popular; the creators had a sweet sense of humor, and made even "bad" sims likable.

Hacks that have BCONs so that players can customize them to their liking.