Hello, some of you might remember me, I was quite active on here for a while, but have been away for about 5 years.

I discovered the Sims 2 in about 2012 I think, and used to post on here asking for advice, chatting etc.

I loved playing the Sims 2, and got into creating a bit too (only for my own game, nothing good enough to upload, as I was still learning). But I had so many projects on my 'to-do' list that I got overwhelmed.

I started to feel guilty for just playing the game, as I 'wasn't being productive enough'.

I put too much pressure on myself and got so overwhelmed that I just stopped altogether, it felt like a chore, not fun anymore.

But then recently I started playing Subnautica, and loved it, and started missing the Sims 2.

However, I have forgotten everything it seems! I had asked questions on here and learned about the game, avoiding corruption, even a bit about computers in general.

But now I can't remember any of it! Is that normal after only 5 years?

I'm 40 now, so perhaps it is part of getting older? Will it come back to me?

It's nice to be back anyway, I'm hoping to start playing soon

You can forget a lot in 5 years. Ask anyone who has done a unversity degree, and see how much they actually remember... Chances are they've forgotten quite a lot of the details. It also depends how well you learned things. There's a difference between skimming over a book and vaguely remembering having read it at some point, and reading that same book 50 times and then remembering it so well you still can quote entire paragraphs 10 years since you still read it.

The brain is weird. If it decides "Well, my owner is obviously not using this piece of information any longer, and they didn't learn it well enough to really jam it in there, I'm going to chuck it out to leave some room for this new stuff", then that's what's going to happen. You may remember some pieces here and there when you're reminded of them due to the brain's ability to recall old information, but other than that, some of it is probably lost. At least you'll probably have fun relearning it. And you're not getting too old to learn (in case you wonder, there's no such thing - it's been proven that even old dogs can learn new tricks, so the much repeated saying is wrong), but you may have to re-learn a few things if it doesn't get back to you.

I wonder if it's also a certain type of brain? I've been playing Stardew Valley with my boyfriend and have been surprised at how his mind works. He's really smart in the way that he remembers so much and can explain things well and knows how things work. He is knowledgeable about mechanical things, political things, and just about anything scientific. In our game, he asks me the same questions daily. How do you do this? Where does this go? He repeats the same questions even within the same 20 minute play session. I've been learning so much about his focus and his ability to hold onto memories of things as his big brain attends to other things. I guess it's a matter of allocation of resources.

I'm sure it will come back to you. Just google what you can't remember or ask in the Sims 2 section -- no one will mind. I hope you are having fun with it.

Welcome back and don't worry we are a friendly bunch over on the Sims 2 board, Feel free to ask, we even have a stupid question thread for tiny questions about anything and everything.
Quite a bit has changed in 5 years, now most of us play with the 4 GB patch and graphic rules to make the game run properly on new hardware. Some of the CC available now was only as a pipe dream 5 years ago. Once you get over the learning curve of the new stuff I am sure a lot of the old stuff will come back to you.

Thanks everyone, that's helpful.

simmer22 - Yeah, they are weird, I hate it how my brain remembers every bad memory and stores them in perfect detail, bringing them out when I'm feeling down. But it gets rid of all the good memories and things I want to remember, or leaves them all fuzzy!

VerDeTerre - That's an interesting idea actually, I do well at exams, knowledge of work related things etc. and am sometimes considered quite intelligent, but I can't hold information in my brian short-term at all. If someone tells me a date or phone number etc. I have to write it down instantly, otherwise it's gone in a couple of minutes. When checking figures at work, I have to have the information I'm comparing side by side on the screen - if I have to switch from one document to another, I can't remember what the first one was.

joandsarah77 - Thanks, I remember people were very helpful when I used to be on these forums years ago. It's nice that the community is so friendly. I might have to look into that, I still have Windows 7 on my gaming laptop, but might need to switch to Windows 10.