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[Yet Another Freakin' LJ Post] The Sims 2
Dec. 10th, 2005 02:40 pmInspired by this post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xiphias
As you may have gathered from previous posts, I really like playing The Sims 2. I've never played Strangetown or Veronaville, as neither of the neighborhood stories initially interested me and once I was immersed in Pleasantview I started reading Sims 2 bulletin boards, especially the technical details (why is my fucking game broken yet again and what do I download to fix it), and learned that Strangetown and Veronaville contained very badly designed Sims. Not wanting to mess with remembering what normal interactions I should not attempt with which specific Maxis-fucked Sims, I deleted those two neighborhoods from my game and concentrated on Pleasantview and my custom neighborhoods. In Pleasantview I played all the original Maxis characters through their lives, watched their children and grandchild grow up, and mourned their deaths.
Recently I developed a desire to start over with Pleasantview and play those original characters again, knowing what I now know about their programming, potential storylines, etc. Sort of a nostalgia thing. I deleted all characters from my version of Pleasantview, then managed to find the original neighborhood data (C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods) and overwrote Pleasantview (in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods). I held my breath, not sure it would work... but it DID. I played Pleasantview last night, filled with honest-to-God joy at seeing these characters again just as they were when I first started playing the game.
The first time I played the game, I spent lots of time with Brandi Broke's family before moving on to the Goth house. Knowing Don Lothario's proclivities, Cassandra spent plenty of time buttering him up before attempting to marry him. He married her and they had two children while he continued having affairs and children with many other women. This time around, I knew that in some games Don left Cassandra at the altar and I wanted to see how the storyline played out with the Caliente sisters if Don remained single, so Cassandra went for marriage within the first two minutes of gameplay. I usually make sure the love relationship is a very sure thing before planning a wedding, so this was the first panicked "omg no this is a huge mistake I must run now" Sims 2 wedding disaster I'd ever seen. Don broke and ran. Cassandra sobbed for a long time, then had a total breakdown.
I felt absolutely awful for putting her through that, and yes, I cried a little bit when I saw her grief-stricken, distraught face as Don left her. I made it up to her by then playing the Dreamer household, where this time around Darren gets to fulfill his dreams both of being a stay-at-home artist and marrying Cassandra. Cassandra is very, very happy as a Dreamer.
... and rebellious Popularity-Aspiration teen Lilith Pleasant is pregnant with ambitious Money-Aspiration teen Dirk Dreamer's child. It seemed to fit nicely with the storyline and be something Maxis would have written into the preprogrammed scripts if not for the "we can't allow teens to have sex, much less get pregnant" boundaries for the "Teen" game rating.
xiphiasAs you may have gathered from previous posts, I really like playing The Sims 2. I've never played Strangetown or Veronaville, as neither of the neighborhood stories initially interested me and once I was immersed in Pleasantview I started reading Sims 2 bulletin boards, especially the technical details (why is my fucking game broken yet again and what do I download to fix it), and learned that Strangetown and Veronaville contained very badly designed Sims. Not wanting to mess with remembering what normal interactions I should not attempt with which specific Maxis-fucked Sims, I deleted those two neighborhoods from my game and concentrated on Pleasantview and my custom neighborhoods. In Pleasantview I played all the original Maxis characters through their lives, watched their children and grandchild grow up, and mourned their deaths.
Recently I developed a desire to start over with Pleasantview and play those original characters again, knowing what I now know about their programming, potential storylines, etc. Sort of a nostalgia thing. I deleted all characters from my version of Pleasantview, then managed to find the original neighborhood data (C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods) and overwrote Pleasantview (in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods). I held my breath, not sure it would work... but it DID. I played Pleasantview last night, filled with honest-to-God joy at seeing these characters again just as they were when I first started playing the game.
The first time I played the game, I spent lots of time with Brandi Broke's family before moving on to the Goth house. Knowing Don Lothario's proclivities, Cassandra spent plenty of time buttering him up before attempting to marry him. He married her and they had two children while he continued having affairs and children with many other women. This time around, I knew that in some games Don left Cassandra at the altar and I wanted to see how the storyline played out with the Caliente sisters if Don remained single, so Cassandra went for marriage within the first two minutes of gameplay. I usually make sure the love relationship is a very sure thing before planning a wedding, so this was the first panicked "omg no this is a huge mistake I must run now" Sims 2 wedding disaster I'd ever seen. Don broke and ran. Cassandra sobbed for a long time, then had a total breakdown.
I felt absolutely awful for putting her through that, and yes, I cried a little bit when I saw her grief-stricken, distraught face as Don left her. I made it up to her by then playing the Dreamer household, where this time around Darren gets to fulfill his dreams both of being a stay-at-home artist and marrying Cassandra. Cassandra is very, very happy as a Dreamer.
... and rebellious Popularity-Aspiration teen Lilith Pleasant is pregnant with ambitious Money-Aspiration teen Dirk Dreamer's child. It seemed to fit nicely with the storyline and be something Maxis would have written into the preprogrammed scripts if not for the "we can't allow teens to have sex, much less get pregnant" boundaries for the "Teen" game rating.
