The Sims 3 - No More Hamster Cage

No, I'm not talking about womrats in The Sims 3 (I don't know if it will have womrats or not). Several days ago, I read this very enlightening article at gamesindustry.biz called "Prototyping The Sims 3". It seems:

"That came from a phrase Matt [Brown, design lead] used - during The Sims 2, they referred to the Sims as hamsters with jobs. There's a little hamster cage, and they have a little job.... I always thought that was incredibly limiting," Humble continues."

So did I. That's probably why I spend more time designing things for The Sims 2 than playing it. The repetition--which, sadly, feels like a punishment and casts a long shadow over other games I like, too, like World of Warcraft--is something a lot of gamers can't get over, and makes you want to stop playing, sometimes for good. I always wanted The Sims to be more like a "wind-'em-up-and-watch-'em-go" simulation, where I could interfere but didn't have to (like Black & White, which was an incredible game).

It looks like I might get my wish. After creating a series of imaginative prototypes, the designers for The Sims 3 removed most of the micro-management systems from the game and created a relaxing town full of unstable sims for you to laugh at or nurture as you see fit. Hooray! Check out the full article--it really gives great detail as to how a game like The Sims 3 is developed.

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Freebie Friday - The Sims 2 - Old Murray Manor Hotel

Long before there was an Eira Summit, there was a Murray Old. Murray Old was old enough to see the invention of the telephone. He hated it. Why? Because when the first phone books came out, he was listed as Old Murray. Everyone he knew made fun of him. And even people he didn't know made fun of him. People would call him from all over the county to ask him how old he was. It got old fast. Real old. Real fast.

But Old Murray would have his revenge.

Especially on the pool players. Especially them.

Old Murray Manor no longer houses Old Murray. What you will find here, however, is fine dining, ballroom dancing, and the highest quality hotel suites on the mountain. You'll also find a lavish game room, a health spa, outdoor ice-skating, fishing, and a gift shop. You'll never want to leave--just like Old Murray!

No matter how I tried (and I tried many, many--too many!--different ways), I can't get the lot to package with Old Murray's ghost inside. The gravestone vanishes from the lot, and if you call the Grim Reaper to ressurect Old Murray, he will say that there are no dead sims in the neighborhood. But since so many people seem to have nothing but trouble with their ghosts, maybe it's for the best. Old Murray will remain haunting my computer, but you can make an Old Murray for your manor the same way I did. Here's how:

1. Install the Old Murray Manor Hotel.

2. While still in the Lots & Houses menu (F2), click on the Old Murray Manor Hotel lot you placed and choose to Enter Lot.

3. Open up the cheat menu by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and c. Type (or cut & paste) changelotzoning residential into the window and hit enter.

4. Save the lot.

5. Go back to the main Neighborhood (main as in the base one, like Pleasantview or Strangetown) for this Vacation Destination.

6. Make a sim named Old Murray. Note: Be sure to pick a good outdoor outfit for him because he will change clothes as he enters the manor if his grave is kept outside.

7. Give Old Murray enough money to buy the hotel. I think it's about 466,000 simoleons, but it's okay if you go over. You won't be playing him for long. (Hint: Use the motherlode cheat.)

8. Buy the Vacation Home Old Murray Manor Hotel.

9. Send Old Murray there to die.

10. When he gets to the Vacation Home Old Murray Manor Hotel, kill him however you like. The Tombstone of Life & Death works great for this. Put the gravestone wherever you like. The wooded area behind the pond is probably best.

11. Open up the cheat menu by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and c. Type (or cut & paste) changelotzoning hotel into the window and hit enter.

12. Save the lot.

When you go back to the Neighborhood, it should say that the Old Murray Manor Hotel is a hotel, not a vacation home. You did it! If you didn't do it, go back over the steps to see where you went wrong. If you're really sick creative, you can make and off his whole family! Make up whatever legend you want about your manor--it's yours now, after all.

Bear in mind this is a large lot. Lesser systems may not be up to the challenge of rendering this leviathan. You might want to install Paladin's Service NPC Fixes to improve the housekeeper and bellhop with this one, in case the elevators break down.

Check out more screenshots of this hotel on my flickr slideshow on this blog (clicking on it will take you to my flickr photostream).

Download Old Murray Manor Hotel here!
Whoops! Forgot to mention for any new readers that the Eira Summit Vacation Destination lots require all the expansions up to and including FreeTime, but none of the Stuff Packs. Goodnight! See you tomorrow.

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The Sims 2 Apartment Life Screenshot Released

Update June 05, 2008 - Apartment Life will be released August 26, 2008. Preorder today! Looks like the creature will be a witch. Check out my flickr photostream for more screenshots!

MaxoidShannon has released a screenshot from Apartment Life for us to ogle:

"I was playing The Sims 2 Apartment Life the other day and thought you might like to see a sneak peak at some of the cool new objects. Check out the ceiling!!!"

The ceiling looks just like the one I see daily, so I admit, I'm not that worked up about it. But the painting and the mirror stand out as new, and I like the layout of the apartment. Since there's no gameplay in the screenshot, I can't guess about new interactions. I've been working on my own list of interactions that would make Apartment Life feel real. Some of them include:

• Mrs. Crumplebottom taping hostile notices to sims' doors and car windows.
• Packages being delivered to the wrong apartments. And never being returned.
  
• Dog do regularly appearing on the tiny patch of green you call a lawn--even if none of your neighbors have dogs.
• Werewolves really need to make an appearance in a big way because I can never make a flanking werewolf and it would be pretty cool to have one in my neighborhood--er, apartment.
  

Okay, that last one was just a gripe. But seriously, werewolves. Who doesn't love 'em? They're like giant puppies. Everyone loves puppies. Even Mrs. Crumplebottom loves them--for dinner. (You know, I think if I ever saw her really eat a puppy in the game, I would wet myself laughing.)

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Freebie Friday - The Sims 2 - Maflika Camping - Eira Summit

Greetings Simadores! Today I bring you a new addition to your Eira Summit (or Three Lakes) Vacation Destination–Maflika Camping.



Made famous by the traditional campground song, “Maflika Yopped-Da Himla Crails,” this camping has it all: dining, washrooms, fishing and swimming (seasonal), and even local sporting events (if you like axe throwing). Not to mention comfy tents to get a good night’s sleep. Though nothing’s ever two tents at Maflika! Get it? Two tents? Ha, ha! Ha, ha! Hurrrrrr….anyway, I’m calling it Camping not Camp Ground because this is supposed to be Alps-like or something and Camping is the international word for Camp Ground, or so I have read. If you want to get a better view of it before downloading, there are more pictures on the flickr slideshow on this page.

I want to thank all of you great visitors from all over the world for stopping by. This post is a copy of Friday's post from the old blog to get everyone caught up and on the same (web) page. All posts will be made on this blog from now on.

This lot needs all the expansions (but none of the stuff packs) installed.

Download Maflika Camping here.

Ho, ho…this sim says he’s camping because he saw a ghost up at Old Murray Manor. He must be scared to want to spend the night outside with the werewolves instead of inside with the ghosts.

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Maxis Wants YOUR Help! Troubleshooting FreeTime Patch

From the keyboard of MaxoidDrea:

As most of you know, we had put out a patch for FreeTime but had to recall it because of installation issues. Some of you were getting an error with the objects.package when trying to install the patch. We're currently trying to troubleshoot this issue and need your help. If you had an issue with the objects.package while installing the patch, we've provided the below FTP instructions. It would be a great help if you could provide us this file so we can look into the issue and make the correct fixes to the upcoming patch.

We appreciate your help! [Emphasis hers.]

Personally, I did not have problems with the old patch, and it is installed in my game. But if you would like to help Maxis, now is your chance! Details in her post on TheSims2.com BBS.

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EA-Land -- AKA The Sims Online -- Shutting Down

Via EA-Land Blog » EA-Land Drawing To A Close and Snooty Sims:

It is with mixed emotions that today we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close. Since 2002, EA-Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players (of which you are one) and we certainly appreciate your participation in the EA-Land community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.

I've never played TSO, but it seemed like a fun idea, and it's too bad it has to go. Hopefully, something even better will come along to replace it. You never know.

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The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion

Update June 05, 2008 - Apartment Life will be released August 26, 2008. Preorder today! Looks like the creature will be a witch. Check out my flickr photostream for more screenshots!

Looks like the next expansion pack for The Sims 2 will be Apartment Life according to MaxoidDrea at TheSims2.com - Forum BBS.

Here's a little video someone made that shows the teaser MaxoidDrea is talking about.

What will be included in this pack? Apartments, maybe? Ha, HA!

Update: Found some more info at Snooty Sims which gives clues as to what the expansion will deliver (excerpts from an EA survey):

The following is a list of features that may be included in a new apartment life themed expansion pack.
- Ability to move four single family households into one apartment building
- Asking your neighbors to baby-sit
- Different living experiences based on the surrounding communities impacted by rent and noise
- Experiencing living with an unruly roommate
- Owning a helicopter
- Learn to Breakdance
- Learn a new life skill: fire prevention

If it's anything like my apartment, the neighbors above will stomp and stumble repeatedly, play music that makes the stored glasses clink together, and vaccuum at 1am. Stay tuned!

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Freebie Friday - The Sims 2 - Eira Summit Visitors Center

Another week has flown by. This post is a little later than usual because I had to catch up with some housework. Aha! You thought I was rich and had a maid, didn't you?! AHAHAHAHAAAA! No.



This Freebie Friday is the first entry of a Bon Voyage Vacation Destination series: Eira Summit. Eira means snow (I think. I hope!) in Welsh (maybe?), and it sounded romantic and snowy-destination-like, so I went with it. You can make your own Vacation Destination and call it Eira Summit if you want to add these entries to it piece by piece (it'll take several weeks to get them all finished and up for downloading). That way, you can place the sights-to-see where you want them. You can also place these lots in your Three Lakes Destination for your favorite neighborhood, since they fit the forest theme.

You will need all the expansion packs (but you don't need any fun packs) installed for this lot. Only Maxis objects were used for this lot, no recolors.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you what this lot has! There's everything a sim needs except a bed--but they can order coffee to help stay awake. They can fish, check out an old tree ring, read about whatever it is sims read about, buy new clothes & change, buy souvenirs, play a little chess, and even barbeque. There's speakers so they can slapdance, and there are restrooms and a snack bar, too.

Google Fight turned up more than twice as many entries on the web for Visitors Center than for Visitor Center, so that settled the question (for me, anyway) of which was right.

Next Friday there will be another great lot for Eira Summit, so be sure to visit again!

Download Eira Summit Visitors Center here.

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Freebie Friday - Sims 2 Recolor - White Marbletop Counters

This week went so fast that I've only managed a small Freebie for you. Next week I'll give out something a little grander.

But by small I don't mean shoddy. I really like my sims to have cheap things that look good. So here we have...

...a white marble topped counter, recolor of the Maxis "Krampft Industries Value Counter." Only the counter--top & bottom--are included, the other objects shown in the picture are Maxis objects that come with the game. This recolor should work in any game.

You can download the counter top here, and the base here. Please let me know of any problems.

See you next week!

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Spore Creature Creator in June & Thomas Vu Interview

Hooked on Spore directs us to an IGN article about the Spore Creature Editor being released in June. From the IGN article:

Patrick Buechner: A trial version of the Spore Creature creator will be available for free through a variety of sources including as a download from Spore.com and in The SimCity Box. There will also be a version of the Creature Creator available at retail. The free Creature Creator has about 25-percent of the creature making parts from Spore. The retail version will have 100-percent. It's up to the players to choose which version they want, but they'll all be available at approximately the same time.

I know that I usually post information without throwing my own thoughts in. But after reading it through, I have to admit, this article gets puzzling when the IGN interviewer, after hearing Mr. Buechner's explanation of the editor, asks, "There's no game content?"

The Creature Editor isn't game content? But the interviewer doesn't even know that a release date has been announced for Spore, and asks incredulously, "This is a sign that Spore's really--finally--happening, then, right?"

I'll just...scuttle away from that one.

Artistvrd (from Hooked on Spore) also mentions in a newer post an interview with Thomas Vu--Spore producer--at Play.tm.

"Are you worried that even Sims fanatics will be daunted or even confused by the seemingly infinite possibilities of Spore?" I've seen this question (worded differently) in a few interviews now. The question implies that most people go through life wanting everything spoon fed to them. Or that people don't enjoy learning or trying new things.

Most people who are excited about Spore (and that's a LOT of people--thousands, if not the millions who loved The Sims) can't wait to mess around with it. I've never read about anyone saying they were scared of Spore, or afraid of all the choices. Never. Nowhere. Yet this question keeps getting asked. I think that one interviewer somewhere asked it, so now everyone feels they have to ask it. But I've never yet put down a game that had "too many choices." Have you?

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Freebie Friday - SimCity 4 - Snack-N-Play

This Friday, I have made a 2x2 seaside lot to get your SimCity 4 cities ready for summer.


Here's a shot of where it's best to put it--by the beach! But this can also stand in for a beach in a small neighborhood. The plants and lamp posts will vary.

Everyone loves to snack and play at the shore. Even sims! This seaside park plop has games, beach gear, & treats. You will need "SimCity 4 Building as Props" from the Lot Editor Tool Download page in your plugins folder. You can get it from the Lot Editor Tool page, but I have included it in the download that I host.

It doesn't need water to plop. May all your summer dreams come true!

Download Alien Ann's Shoreside Snack-N-Play here.

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Smooth Move - MyMiniCity Update

Smooth Move - MyMiniCity
One hundred sims now live in Smooth Move--and our industry is stronger than ever! Looks like we can start building a better transportation network. Stop by when you can.

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Spore & Sim City Goodies at Game On - Free CD!

Via Spores Illustrated and Hot & Cold Spore, the Sunday Herald Sun out of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia reports that guests at the ongoing Game On exhibition (6 Mar - 13 Jul 2008 in Melbourne) will get a free CD:

SUNDAY Herald Sun readers can build their own city and plan its infrastructure with a free copy of the classic computer game, SimCity...

Everyone who has a ticket to the exhibition, which is running until July 13, will receive a copy of this DVD, which also features a sneak peek at Wright's next game, Spore, which will be released later this year. This offer is made while stocks last.

No clue as to what the "sneak peek" could be--it could be a short video, or something more! Maybe someone who gets one will report back and let us know.

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Tips for Sims 2: Fast Skilling and Secret Skills

I've noticed that people often drop by this blog as they look for tips to have more fun with The Sims 2. Some of the searches have brought victims er, guests here eager for knowledge about the lastest expansion, and I'd like to provide some more detailed posts to that end. But today, here are some oldies that I was kind of aware of but never really thought about until it was spelled it out for me: vampire meditation, fast skilling up, and hidden skills (meditation, dancing, yoga, and billiards (aka pool playing) in University). They're posted on The Sims 2 BBS but should be visible to you even if you're not logged in.

Many thanks to Sketch Elder and vibrateforyou for making these detailed posts on the Sims 2 BBS for the community. I'll bet you, dear visitor, will find them as clever as I did!

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Freebie Friday - The Sims 2 - Spore Outfits

I took some of the content from the fansite kit in the previous post to create goodies for The Sims 2. Took me a lot longer than I thought, too, unfortunately, since I ended up redoing many of the shoes and recreating the womens shirt. But I hate leaving anything half done or looking icky, so there it is. It is available at The Sims Resource. I hope you like these outfits because, now that they're finished, I sure do!

Update: I've decided to host the Sims 2 Freebies on box.net for download every week until they get permanently placed. That way, sites who host my work can approve them or whatever at their pace and you can get the content every Friday. Once they get a permanent home, I'll update the links here. This means that people who come to my site every Friday from now on will get them BEFORE everyone else. Hooray!

Thanks for waiting!
Click here for download!

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Spore Magazine Article & Will Wright Interview

The Spore fansite Xspore.com posted that the British magazine Total PC Gaming has a huge and marvelous article on Spore which includes an interview with developer Thomas Vu. I wish I could score a copy for myself as the article's colorful design and illustrations are impressive, and it would make a great keepsake for any Spore fan.

Some of the highlights beyond the artwork include:

• An overview of Spore's five phases.


• Influences on Will Wright that affected the outcome of Spore.


• Snippets of basic game play.


• An interview with Thomas Vu, EA Producer.

Also, Hooked on Spore reports about a fascinating interview with Will Wright himself on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Good Game." He talks about Sim City and his inspirations for his games with the focus of the interview being on Spore.

After watching the show & reading the article, I felt as if I knew enough to pick up the game right now & start playing it. Oh, if only I could... Less than six months left and counting down!

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Freebie Friday - Sim City 4 - Petting Zoo

I guess these Freebie Fridays are becoming a regular thing. Which isn't bad, exactly. I'm getting to make content that I want to make for my games, and getting to share it with you! Isn't that a nice deal. So, this Freebie Friday is for one of my favorite games, Sim City 4. I bring you Alien Ann's Happy Petting Zoo .

This petting zoo is so incredibly happy that every animal in it is a shining beacon of health and wonder and every child leaves crying--because they don't want to go. It's a ploppable petting zoo (1x1 recreation lot), ideal for your rural sims. Comes complete with goat pen, barn o' fun, fluffy doggy, refreshment stand, and coin-op horse for the little sims. Lamp fixture and bushes will vary.

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Oh-Em-Gee Sims 3?!

What's going on over at EA today?

Let's go find out!

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Smooth Move - MyMiniCity is Getting BIG

Smooth Move - MyMiniCity has been growing by leaps & bounds lately, thanks to everyone who has been stopping by. We're growing our industry now; industry began around the 50 population mark. The town has undergone quite a change--pay a visit to see how it's grown!

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Freebie Friday - The Sims 2 - Shamrock Undies - SimPE Updated

For the upcoming holiday, I bring you Shamrock Undies for Adult Sims, a freebie from me to you once again hosted by the fine people at Mod the Sims 2.
Download it here.
Also, SimPE - The Sims 2 Package Editor has been updated for FreeTime. A brand new version, it's still in the alpha stage, but if you need to make changes in your game right now, you might want to give it a try. I unzombied my zombie sim with it. You can, too!

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