Video Games – Page 10 – Rule of the Game

As a fellow simmer, I find that I will be obsessed with Sims for a couple months but then find myself uninspired and uninterested with the game. I have some techniques I use to play Sims in a different way that brings a lot of enjoyment and helps me get better at the game as well. This article will give you some new ideas that will expand your Sims worlds by expanding the way you play and interact with the game. Give some of these options a try, and you will be surprised about what you have been missing out on! 1. Building challenges I have been playing Sims since the first generation of the game. Since I was younger when Sims first came out, I didn't have the patience to actually learn how to build. Once I became older and a more sophisticated player, I really started to challenge my building in the recent years. I used to hate when I had to get my Sims a new house because I was a terrible builder. Now I actually find that some of my houses look pretty good and I will posts them to the gallery from time to time. I started getting better at building when I started to challenge myself, I tried building my own house in the game as well as searching for houses on google images to try and build. I also look for a lot of other types of builds that other simmers are building that I normally would have never tried in the past. The gallery also has a lot of "shell challenges" that I have come to enjoy. A shell challenge is when you have a a blank building with only outside walls and you are not allowed to change any of the exterior walls when creating your build. When you start to challenge your building skills and become a better builder you will find more inspiration when playing the Sims. 2. Play without cheats With the Sims 4 this isn't as big of an issue because in my opinion the game play is easier than previous versions of the Sims. However, as someone who used to be an avid cheater in the Sims when it came to game play I found myself getting bored very quickly because there was no challenge. My sims would have their dream house and millions of dollars and never be in a bad mood, when your sims have everything they need you will become bored very quickly because there is no actual reason to keep playing with those sims. Try not using any cheats and having to actually take care of everything for your sims and you will find that you end up enjoying the game play a lot more. 3. Start a family tree This tip can be combined with some other ones on this list. I used to think of a type of game play I wanted to play and just create a new sim for that particular story line I thought up. However, I would end up having about five different sims going all at once and there was no connection between them. Every time I went to play the sims I would find that there were sims I completely forgot about and forgot why I created them in the first place. I decided to make a new save file and create a family and give them a backstory, and then try and only play the sims from that family. When I go to play I know exactly who all the sims are, I spent more time playing with each of them and they seemed to have more personality in my eyes. Having all my sims connected in some way or another was a breathe of fresh air when it came to game play. It felt like I built a community of sims rather than just a bunch of random sims that are strangers to each other. 4. Get a better computer I used to play Sims on my laptop which wasn't very powerful, it was an entry level machine which was great for everything besides gaming. I would become frustrated when trying to build because things would take awhile to load and it was hard to create more complex builds because I was limited in how much I could put on a single lot without my computer freezing. I recently built my own desktop and have had a much better experience playing. I enjoy building new types of builds that my laptop couldn't handle. I also found myself more willing to actually make my sims leave their house because the loading screen wouldn't last forever. Getting a more powerful system whether it is a new gaming laptop or a desktop really improve my experience with the Sims and allowed me to play in ways I hadn't played before. A slow system can really put you in a box with what you can do in the Sims. If you think you may want to purchase or build a new computer for gaming you can discover what the best graphics card for your gaming type is here. 5. Download Mods or Custom Content Downloading mods and custom content really open your game play up to endless possibilities. Mods and custom content are made by fellow simmers and can only be used by PC players. There are some really creative sims developers in the sims community that have created some fun mods and unique custom content for the Sims. If you have the ability to download and use mods or custom content give it a try. 6. Try a new career I find that I tend to make my sims do the same careers over and over and there are some I always ignore for a variety of reasons. If there are some career paths that you find yourself never using, make a point to take a sim down that career path. You may find some new perks or traits that you enjoy using as a result of going through a new career path. You may also want to try buying a retail location and create your own store or coffee shop. Some careers lead to interesting outcomes, if you have Get to Work and start the scientist career your sim has a higher chance of an alien abduction. I wrote an in-depth article going over exactly how to get abducted by aliens and what to expect. 7. Use less desirable traits If you want to make your game more entertaining try using some traits you don't normally use for your sims. Try using the hot headed or mean spirted traits. I find that that I use the same traits with all my sims and its normally the traits that help my sims achieve whatever goals I set out for them such as the genius or family oriented. Using the less desirable traits can add some new experiences to your game play. 8. Do a rags to riches challenge When I discovered this type of game play it really made me start to enjoy the sims again. I used to try the game play without cheating which I found was fulfilling, but then I took it to the next level and would delete all my money as soon as I purchased a lot. Trying to get my sims on their feet and eventually being prosperous is still on of my most enjoyable game play experiences. When you do challenges like rags to riches you run into a lot of challenges you normally don't run into when playing with or without cheats. Your sims will start out with no money to their name and no way to take care of their needs on their own lot. With each new pack you get, try the new game play options to try and get your sims on their feet. 9. Stay away from the fast-forward button This is a habit that can be hard to break but results in more immersive game play. While you may be doing one of the suggested challenges above, it is easy to get impatient and want to fast forward through the more mundane parts of the game play. I found that trying to get through certain aspects of game play really took away from my experience. Sure I get tired of waiting for my sims to eat or talk to other sims, but I also would miss the cool animations that the Sims team works on providing for the players. I also found that once I got used to fast forwarding through certain game play aspects I would play the game on 3x speed for a majority of my game play. I started being more deliberate in how I play with my sims and found that trying to avoid 3x speed as much as I could made me more involved with my sims and created a more in depth feeling game play. If you find yourself fast forwarding through a lot of your game play try reducing this, start by trying to only use the 2x game speed when your sims are being active. 10. Try a pack that isn't your normal game play If you still find yourself uninspired or disengaged from the Sims you may want to consider purchasing a new pack. Look through and figure out which packs you normally don't gravitate towards. I personally am not a huge fan of the occult packs, such as the witches and vampires, but I made myself play some of these and actually found that I enjoyed the game play quite a bit. It was out of the norm for me but overall I enjoyed the experience and I go back to these packs every so often. With sims sometimes you don't realize that you lean towards the same type of game play most of the the time. So it's no wonder you get bored after awhile. When you are aware of your habits, it's easier to change them up and try new things. When you try a new pack or challenge you will find that you have a new appreciation for the game that you didn't have before.