I guess maybe it's that I don't really see the attraction of reading neverending, picture-heavy sagas about ANY Sims - premade or unique - just to follow their stories. If it's entertaining, or suspenseful, or really visually stunning, then maybe I would get interested. I will myself occasionally post shots of amusing situations when they spontaneously arise, with joke captions, on Discord. If it makes a few people chuckle, I've accomplished my goal. But I would never expect anyone else to be particularly interested in my Sims' lives, looking forward to the next chapter on the Caliente twins' great-grandchildren's college romances, or whatever.

I mentioned Lego... When my 10-year-old niece started playing with my old childhood bricks, I would write little vignettes about the characters and their problems, illustrated with photos of the minfigs doing crazy things, which she thought were pretty funny. So I attempted to re-create those Sim-style, and post them in the MTS stories section... I didn't use poseboxes, so it took some patience to get the situations set up, figure out the camera angles, and so forth. And the result? Rejected! Because they weren't ongoing sagas, which apparently was the only acceptable form of Sims fiction. I don't care much for soap operas, either (in case you couldn't guess)... it's the uber-predictable multi-generational drama - paired with bad writing. Eye candy, is the only explanation I can understand. But hey, millions of people watch them, so what the hell do I know? As Charity says, people play this game for all sorts of reasons, and there's a multiverse of tangential activity connected to it. So... don't mind me; play the way you play, and be happy.

I don't get why it's necessary to criticize other people's play style or what they like about the game. That's my pet peeve. It's a single-player game, after all. Yes, people do like to share what they are doing, but that's not something anyone has to engage in if they don't like it. It seems unnecessarily harsh to say people don't have imagination or "aren't free," whatever that means, just because they don't play the same way.

I'm glad there's a community at all, that there are still plenty of people playing a 20-year-old game who are happy to engage on it and discuss all the minutiae. Many, many people would not get this at all. The most wonderful thing about this game is that it is so open to different ways of playing it. I personally enjoy seeing all the very creative things that people do with it, whether that's with premade characters or their own worlds, their builds or their Sims or their stories.

I have always found this community to be mostly a welcoming one as well, no matter how you play.

Yeah, my pet peeve is absolutely people thinking they're superior because they play/don't play premades or use/don't use Maxis Match/Semi realistic CC. We're all influenced by fiction we've read and watched and our real life experiences, and making something using that inspiration is not any more pure or noble than using Maxis fiction as a springboard. But then, what do I know - I'm trapped by my ability to appreciate the premades.

I've been simming since TS1 was released, so close to 25 years now. I spent all of TS1 only using premades for play testing and such, and mainly making rl people and celebrities as sims. When TS2 came out I did a little of that, but as soon as I came across the legacy challenge that's almost all I played. Still rarely touching premades, at least the playables. Got a bit fed up with legacies (and other challenges) after a few years and switched to rotational play. Mostly with my own characters but playing LC so much made me attached to NPCs and townies so often made them playable, came up with backstories and links (family trees etc) and incorporated them into rotations. When TS3 came out, I had begun playing a bit with the TS2 main premade households as they got involved in various ways with my rotation sims usually, and 3 with all the new backstories cemented their place in my heart. After all, even the years I didn't really play them, they were still familiar faces and I knew most of their personalities, stoiylines and connections.

Now my play style is a mix of everything that came before. I don't play 4 but although I did get into TS3 right away back when it was released, I never abandoned TS2. I love playing rotational with a megahood in TS2 and Traveler connected worlds in TS3. All the premades are there, but also a lot of my own sims. I rarely get bored as such, but sometimes I want something simpler and play a challenge again (either created by someone else or myself)

I was into both writing and reading sim stories for a while with TS2 but no longer am, I used to be very puzzled about Let's Plays and couldn't understand how to get enjoyment out of watching someone else's gameplay and now I sometimes do find it fun. I've played realistic and Maxis Match, I've had my folder full to the brim with CC and gone through periods where I couldn't be bothered with any and played completely vanilla.

All these years I've been the same person throughout, at least at the core, and there's nothing wrong with my imagination. If I was to bet on it, I'd wager on most simmers trying out most styles some point, if they've been playing long enough. If you've stuck to just one all this time and it has kept you entertained, that's awesome, but it doesn't really mean anything beyond that. It also doesn't mean that's what you'll be into in 5 years, or even next month.

I can't agree with this more. No one way of playing the game is inherently better than others and isn't it amazing that there are so many different ways to play it that attract so many different people.

Judging someone and criticising them because they play in a way that you don't understand is just unkind.

I gotta say, while I think it's fine to say here that you, say, don't get the appeal of playing the premade families, and that a pet peeve of yours—that's the point of this thread, after all!—is that it's such a popular aspect of TS2 arguably more so than it is for any other Sims game, the way this has been framed as "unimaginative" for example just feels incredibly harsh. When I myself said in this thread that I have a pet peeve with the Maxis Match style being so popular because I personally don't get the appeal, I still made sure to make it clear I don't judge anyone who does like it.

The Sims 2 is a video game, folks, and if Maxis didn't intend for anyone to play with the premades at all, then they simply wouldn't have been there to start with! But they ARE there, and they have plot hooks, practically begging the player to use this to take advantage of TS2's story features (especially for the TS2 website that was still active at the time). Playing with the premades is just as much playing the game as intended as primarily being a builder or making your own OCs and playing as them is.

This also isn't even getting into how derivative works and fanfiction have existed for long before TS2 did, and I feel like, by saying it's "unimaginative" for people to play with the premades and write stories around them, you're saying something similar about derivative works and fanfic, which doesn't seem very fair either.

Overall, please just be nice to each other. That kind of stuff actually is a little hurtful to read as someone who plays with the premades and gets heavily invested in Sims lore, myself.

I don't think my playstyle has significantly changed over the years (nearly twelve now) I've been playing. It's slow, careful and protective, with Aging usually off. If I'm still able to play in five years time (if the Grim Reaper hasn't come to call me to my long home) I hope I'll still be playing the same way, because I think the way I play is really an extension of who I think I am. I feel I have a duty of care towards my Sims, and I don't want to fail them in that duty. I have a lot of fun with my Sims, and I think they usually have a lot of fun too, but I feel my first duty to them is to keep them safe. None of my Sims has died yet.

I do play the pre-made playables, but, if I'm honest, I think I prefer to play my own CAS-created Sims. This is especially clear to me just now, as I'm trying to play through a rotation in Pleasantview after a ten year gap. I know I'm supposed to be continuing the stories of the famous Maxis pre-mades, but, before I start, I go into CAS just to "roll the pacifier"; then, before I realise what I'm doing, I've saved the new Sims to the game, have moved them in, and I'm playing them settling into life in Pleasantview. Sometimes I find the Maxis townies more interesting than their playable neighbours.