What does that have to do with the topic?

I keep my game interesting by putting cc on it and making stuff for my Sims stories and films.

Suggestions on Keeping the Game Interesting!

• If you are a person who likes to optimize the personality and the aspiration in Create-A-Family, now is the time to avoid that habit. Try creating a Knowledge Sim that is very social or a Romance Sim that is extremely grouchy and excessively neat.
• If you are a person who normally avoids the story aspect of gameplay, try becoming more engaged in the story aspect. Take advantage of the Sim bios and make each character unique and substantial. Make an overarching family bio, describing how the characters are going to be played out and what their motivations or worldviews are. Make your Sims come to life with the Story Mode feature (press F4 to enter the Story Mode). Think of a good neighborhood story that summarizes what the neighborhood as a whole has accomplished and what its dreams are.
• Take each aspiration to the extreme! Fulfill the toughest lifetime wants that you have never achieved before!
• If you have fulfilled your Sim's lifetime want, fulfill another one until your Sim dies or drinks the elixir of life to keep on living a very fulfilled life.
• If you are a person who typically fulfills wants, then try realizing your Sim's fears. They are not as easy as you may think! So, you may want to lock them.

I made an "Excavation Lot", a community lot where sims can dig for treasure, and families who earn their living by selling things they dug Also made an apartment where the only thing in their block is a bed, and everything else is for public use.. haha, just like Uni dorms.

Also after having a family who earns hundreds of thousands through investments (hard-earned money through real estate and car dealership business+4 sims w/ Investing Aspiration reward) I thought it was fun to play lottery. Then I started sending money to random families through checks every 4pm. (Is there actually a lottery mod out there?) Then 3 days after the 'president' became an elder he was 'kidnapped' and put in an survival challenge together with 4 random person. He's the one who I control, and I was planning to give a huge sum of money to the survivors but he died early

It's actually fun to create your story than randomly playing families. If you avoid sticking into one family and spending lots of aspiration rewards for elixir of life and try to play other families, you'll eventually see that their stories can fit into a larger plot.

I also became fond of taking pictures (not the screenies but the "Take a picture" and the photobooth) and puttung their frames on the wall, stacked/arranged by family relations.

Maybe I'm just not that good at the Sims 2, but I never have to worry about perfect families, tons 'o skills or super high aspiration meters- in fact, I spend most of my time trying to force failing teenagers to do their homework to prevent them from getting fired from the jobs they need to have so that the oversized single parent household they live in doesn't starve/end up losing half the kids to the social worker. That keeps me busy. Then there's the families where I'm slowly having one teenager turn to a life of crime, while another has crushes on two different girls, and wants to date them both. Totally accidental by the way- none of this was pre-planned! I keep free-will on unless it's a social worker situation (then I force the little buggers to do their homework come hell or high water. Doesn't always work funny enough.) so that lets them basically do what they want, and I play by queueing up actions so that *hopefully* some of what needs to get done gets done.

I've not yet had a death, a wedding, or a proposal, so hopefully that'll be in the works soon, and I'm trying to keep building families that are unusual: single mum with a romance aspiration and too many kids, single dad with a popularity aspiration and slacker job, a male and female roommate pair who have crushes on each other but are not yet married, interracial couples with no kids (so that I can enjoy how awesomely cute their in-game babies are) And, I've only just gotten the expansion packs, of which three are now installed, and one is on the way. There's never enough CC, businesses, or fun little gameplay mods in my Simverse, so I don't get bored. It's also the only computer game I play, as I'm *not* actually big on gaming in general. And if all that fails, I'll start making crap. The end.

Oh, last thing: I don't cheat. Ever. I love items, especially items that are playable, but I don't use any cheat codes, money fixes or anything like that. My sims earn every simoleon, skill point, and aspiration through pixellated blood, sweat and tears. It's awesome - I'm telling you. I don't honestly know why anyone would cheat, the game's so much harder and more rewarding (especially with a big family!) if you don't cheat... I don't pick genders of offspring, or remove typical Sim behaviours, and when stuff happens out of the blue (like my whole household coming down with the flu at once- hella annoying that was, but hey.) it just adds to the fun of adapting to different situations.

You will find, when you've been on here for awhile, that a lot of people cheat to make their games harder. You sound like an excellent candidate for "no $20K handout," "higher bills," "harder homework," and so on, once you've gotten really good at the basic functions.

Also, some cheat codes and hacked objects are necessary for good game health. When your sims can't go to bed and you can't delete it because it's gotten a stuck "in use" flag, move_objects is the only recourse. Make sure you patch your games as you go and get mods like "nounlinkondelete," "creature fixes," and the almighty ffslotdebugger (aka batbox) to prevent and clean up problems that arise as a result of the complexity of the code and the corporate culture that never quite cleaned up all the messes in it. With the aid of such things, you can get years of enjoyment out of neighborhoods that, without them, would have crashed and burned in a matter of months.

In defense of "cheating":
First of all, I don't believe in the notion. The only time I consider anything someone would/could do with their game as "cheating" would be if they're doing a challenge they're sharing with others and say they're following the rules, but in fact are not. THAT is cheating, in the sense that they're lying/misleading people following their experience.

Otherwise, there's absolutely no basis for thinking anyone's play style is better or worse than anyone else's. As Peni says, a lot of us use cheats (and mods) to make things even harder. However, there are plenty of reasons some might want to make things easier. For instance, people new to the game may find maxmotives invaluable, while learning how to keep sims' needs up. I remember using aging off a lot, in the beginning, because the fact of sim aging terrified me. I was sure those first families would age and die before I learned how to take care of them!


Then there are the practical reasons for using cheats. If one makes a family in CAS that's supposed to be rich, doesn't it make sense to start them off that way? What about skill points for CAS adults/elders, or even teens? To some, it makes no sense to make them start at the bottom for all their skills, and feels more realistic to imagine they'd already have at least a few by that age, yes?

Cheats are also extremely useful (critical, actually!) for storytellers. A refusal, on principle, to use maxmotives or simply make motives static during filming or picture staging would be just plain silly. Storytellers may also use cheats as a matter of course so they can focus less on needs (or finances, or friendship-building, or whatever), and more on the storytelling. Who's to say that's wrong, even for non-storytellers?

tl;dr: I don't believe there IS such a thing as "cheating" in games like Sims 2.

ETA: And another thing... There are a ton of ways to make things easier with in-game objects and exploitation of game mechanics that don't involve the use of cheats or mods at all. Some of the career and aspiration reward objects are ridiculously powerful. Is it cheating to use them? Making money is insanely easy as well. You can take a sim to a community lot and have him/her sell coffee, bartend, play DJ, catch fish to sell, dig for treasure, etc. indefinitely. I, personally, prefer not to do that in normal play, but it's a great strategy for prepping a sim for an Apocalypse Challenge. Or just because.

I didn't mean it in a negative sense - I thought cheats were called cheats? (Like from cheatcodes?) Not actually 'cheating' - you can't cheat in a game you don't actually win! I just meant that I actually find the game plenty hard/interesting enough with the scales that were set by EA- I know that having to earn skillpoints as an adult/teen seems odd, but it works really well for my stories, because it's about trying to fit those things in and balance the social/needs of the characters. I like having things happen without so much planning because it creates stories that are more organic to me- I didn't mean to criticise anyone's style of playing (apologies if I did!) I just meant that I didn't personally see the point of using those codes to generate stuff that way. I've got one family that I plan to have eventually get wealthy. If they don't it's no big deal, but they're on their way already so I enjoy getting to see them 'move up' so to speak without starting them at the top right away. Another family is meant to be poor, and as they've got an unusual living situation at the moment (and a lot of members) they're staying that way all by themselves, but it's really fun watching their fortunes change without having control over it. I do enjoy the storytelling aspect, but I like to have the game do what it wants as well, so I only plan my characters and then see what new twists their interactions will bring.

Hey just wated to know what insem is?

Its Insim, not Insem, and its the short from Insimenator, a mod for sims 2 and that allows you to alter a lot of things during gameplay.

The term "cheat code" in gaming typically involves a video game player using non-standard methods for creating an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually to make the game easier. Cheats sometimes may take the form of "secrets" placed by game developers themselves. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by the original game developers); or created by third-party software (a game trainer) or hardware (a cheat cartridge). They can also be realised by exploiting software bugs.

By that definition, "cheating" in single-player Sims gaming is less about taking an advantage of others and more about unlocking more desirable things of the software through alternative routes that would not be discovered during normal gameplay. The boundaries of "cheating" can be quite loose to define; and sometimes it's not easy to pinpoint what constitutes or does not constitute "cheating". I play The Simpsons Road Rage, and I discovered a couple of "hidden" routes that I could exploit as shortcuts and deliver patrons faster. This would put me as an advantage to my opponents. Would this be considered cheating? Well, my opponents, provided that they practice the game well enough, can also figure out these "hidden" routes and beat me at my own game. This is why I said cheating in gaming can be hard to define in strict terms.

Try turning the Greenmans into anti=garden freaks! Build them a new house, cure Rose and Daisy's plantsimism, and make them all tech-nerds! Backup the Greenman's files before doing so.

4 years later, The Sims 2 still works better than TS3 even if I can't use patterns.

I still love my sims and their stories. I keep on creating my own neighborhoods and there are many lots to build.

This has been a great thread! Very inspiring. I needed to find a new way to play. For some time, I've been doing 'Build A City Challenge' hoods. That makes the game different by severely restricting jobs. But I've won a few times and it is getting old. Then I read, on this thread I think, about someone restricting skilling by only letting sims with neat+active-play >8. I liked the concept and tweaked it. In my new hood (Elderberry Ridge), mousegod only tells sims to do something that will raise a skill if they have a keen interest in it (sims with a related personality of 8,9,10 such as an active sim wgoing to swim or sims with a related predestined hobby such as a sports sim playing basketball), the sims roll a want for it (skilling wants get locked!), or there is a natural game reason to do so (like cooking so you can eat or painting a picture because the household makes its money by selling off the easel). This has been a great way to open up gameplay.

I have one household where mousegod never tells a sim to adore an art object--which is one of my key ways of keeping sad sims happy. I lost one daughter to a fire when her brother couldn't repair Mr. Humbles computer (they had no spare money for a repair man). I usually don't let sims get near death, so I had never previously gamed with death. Sigh, I lost. It has been a struggle to keep the brother from flunking our of highschool and the mother from starving to death. I discovered that Mr. Humble will bring your household a second computer if everyone is really depressed for long enough!

A second Humble computer? Never heard of that. And I actually have a "cheat" to stop him, since I like a bit more reality to the game.

Actually, I find this method of just having sims build skills they roll a want for or have a natural talent for (as in 8,9,10 in a personality trait or a predestined hobby) makes the game seem much more diverse and 'realistic' than any other way I've played. It has made the game new again. I find I am enjoying the chance cards (something I would have bet money I would never say) and other random occurences. Take Brandon Hanby--the sim who hovered on flunking out of highschool, but did get up to a C+ and so get to go the trade school (college expecting to flunk out early as he had few skills). Once there, he somehow managed to survive just going to classes, chatting up profs and making the best of the skilling chances he had. He kept rolling wants to be an art major, though he had a creativity of 2, cooking 1, mechanical 0 and charisma 0 (not easy skills to learn in a dorm setting). He spent a lot of time chatting up girls to woohoo (being a romance sim who wants to woohoo 20 sims) and ended up with a very cool looking jacket as many of them were in the secret society. He wore it all the time as he thought it might help him pick up girls. Somehow, each semester, he squeaked by, sometimes getting a want to learn a random skill just as the semester was about to end so the finals could get him a passing grade. Then he rolled a want for a pottery wheel and kept rolling wants to make pottery. He graduated with a gold pottery badge, a sizeable inventory of beautifully made pottery and a way to make a living while he chases his dream dates.

I often make up some challenges for myself while playing.
My sister and i share a computer, and so we decided to share a neighbourhood and put some rules into it. Once we had the rule that we used the boolProp cheat to set relationships based on how the first encounter ended up. For example when two Sims met and they didn't like each other, we pulled the relationship down to -100, so that they became enemys. That was kinda interesting, in a short time there was much more live in the whole neighbourhood because of that.

I usually play with Sims based on characters from other series or make my own original Sims. So when I get a little burned out I pick one of the pre-made Sims and play as them.

I haven't played my game in so long lol. I just thought about it today. I was so used to filming/making videos with the sims that I always just cheated. I always typed in all the cheat codes to turn the aging off, max their skills, make them like someone, etc etc etc. I just took the fun out of it. I'm still on the fence about The Sims 3 because they look kind of crazy and similar to each other. I like The Sims 2 more because of each sims uniqueness but The Sims 3 does have other functions that I want to try out and experience. These were all good suggestions. First I have to locate my latest disc that I installed and try to get back into the game.

Right now, I'm playing Pleasantview to its entirety. I usually play one family for generations, without even touching another family. Now, I'm trying to create a sim that can be linked to all of Pleasantview's original families. It's going to take a while, but I've remained determined.

If you didn't customize your townies/dormies you can always have a bit of fun taking a sim to a community lot and gussying them up with the 'gussy up' hack. It makes for more varying looks among townies instead of the same maxis hair and face templates.

If you're bored by your game, then try watching live streams and see what others do, you might pick up a few things that you can do in your game.

This tumblr blog: http://livesimming.tumblr.com/ keeps updated with all the upcoming livestreams, in fact, there's going to be one after a few mins.

Make sure you keep on checking with the blog in the link, it gets update from time to time.

One thing I've started doing is minimizing, even eliminating promotions. Let's be honest: most people in the real world don't start at the bottom and keep getting promoted all the time. What usually happens to my sims now is that I'll purposely keep them on a level for years, even their whole life (I suppose this could be done with mods, etc., but I do it the old-fashioned way by simply denying them the a skill point or two). Not only is it a bit more realistic, but it keeps money in check too, since there aren't all the promotion bonuses, etc.

I'll also have realistic job switches - so military, intelligence, business often gateway into politics (but I have career politicians too); science/medicine/nat. science often overlay, as do entertainment/showbiz/dance/art/sport, etc., etc.

Of course, variety is key and it's good to have some competitive sims who are always pushing for that next promotion too. I often play those sims as kind of douchy. A good example from my hood is brittany upsnott. She made a power marriage to a scion of a politically well-connected family and serves as the "power behind the throne" to her Mayor husband. One of her sons is being pressured by her to follow in the family footsteps, but he's not really interested.

I started playing ts2 (with just Bon Voyage) again, after long period of time. I didn't knew how it can be fun without all those expansions. The problem was then that I had so many options, I couldn't choose how to play. Now I admit The Sims 2 is more fun than The Sims 3.

I created a sim called by my name and started off at one of the houses in Pleasantview. I furnished the house and found him a job in a culinary track career. Then he met Dina, Brandi and Darren. He kept arguing with Dina constantly. They went home and after few hours of everyday life and skill increasment Brandi called on phone. My sim was in a low social mood so that was good for him. But then she kept on calling every single day. He would get back home from work with a raise every single day and she would wait for him on the other side of the phone line.

So eventually (after 4 sim days) he climbed up to a restaurant mannager, career level 4, and became friends with brandi. One day he missed work so he invited Brandi over. They just greeted and then she kissed him :lovestruc ! Ok, this is unusual I thought. Eventually, he met all of the neighboors. I planned the engagement but I didn't expected it would happen so soon. He got out in the park and there was Brandi (a stalker or just a desperate mother). So they got engaged in the park and then went his home for a WooHoo. I filmed both momets XD. Brandi went home and my sim planed a honeymoon as a surprise for their wedding day. So after a promotion to waiter (career level 5) he took few days of for his wedding day.

So they got married, Brandi got pregnant (Skip's baby) and the party was a roof raiser... or not! The party ended, the guests left and then another wedding party started counting down from roof raiser to disaster! During the "other party" My Sim and Brandi would constantly toast for themselves (they probably wanted to get drunk in attempt to crash the party ). So Beau, Dustin, Brandi and a newborn baby moved in and I had to make a second floor of my house for them. My sim and Brandi are now on honeymoon at Twikkii island having a great time. I wonder what are Beau and Dustin doing?

helpful!!!! thank you