On Yes, I Did It Again:

Okay, I’ll admit it straight from the top. I went back on my word.

I tried, I really did. I was not going to get sucked into the money pit of the world of Sims. ‘Expansion packs’ and all that good ‘Stuff.’

Sims 2 was riddled with problems. Patches were far too long in coming. Months of play time was left fallow while we waited for the fix to come in.

I, along with others, screamed and ranted about lax policies at EA Games. How the money grubbers there didn’t care about the consumer. How we would never give them another dime so long as we lived.

I broke down and bought Sims 3.

I know, I know. I’m not worth the air I breath.

In my defense I did wait until the patch was out before I bought it. I did my research before plunking my money down.

A large change for me from counting the days and standing on line waiting for the store to open just to get my hands on the next installment.

The patch for this new game took almost as long to download as the game did, but I’m up and running. And it is good. Very different in play, I must say, than the first two go rounds, but strangely familiar.

I watch my Sims walk to the neighbor’s house to visit, an impossibility before. They interact more like humans do and learn in different ways then the old Sims do.

My Sims can bring their guitar to the park to play. They can walk or drive to a place of business to find a job. They can have part or full time jobs and work on odd jobs on the side.

You know right away how another Sims feels about your Sim in words as well as symbols. And you can play multiple versions of the same game from a point you pick in play, like a big ‘What if I turned left instead of right‘, life puzzle. One Sims can marry different other Sims and you can see which life choice worked out the best.

You can give them longer or shorter life spans. Their lives are more complex, in a good way. No longer are they fairly cardboard and repetitive in life patterns. They even have favorite colors.

I’m in love all over again with the Sims.