The Sims 3

I've been playing sims for years, literally. I was drawn to the idea of the game for years before I ever even played it. I had never really played computer games other than cards and the occasional talking moose widget, yes I am that old, but that is neither here nor there... point is, I saw the game in stores and had always been drawn to the concept. It wasn't until Sims 2 was well out though that I finally tried the original Sims. with all it's expansions. I think it was found at a thrift store or some such so there was no real money investment required so I took the risk... and I loved it.

There were grave limitations to that first rendition, but it didn't take me long to realize, it was just Barbies on your computer... and I loved my Barbies as a kid so I fell even more in love with the game.

To this day, I still remember one of my favorite families I created in that original game. I remember their house, the vacations I took them on, the pets, the kids they had... yes, my geek is showing a bit here, but who cares. I loved that game.

So as soon as I could, I upgraded to Sims 2 and started collecting expansion packs. I went wild creating date spots with the Late Night expansion. Spent countless hours causing mayhem in University Life and of course turned more sims than I can count "accidentally" into plant sims due to my love of gardening.

 I've clocked hours upon hours with this game. I've built houses and community lots to the point I think I deserve an honorary architectural degree. I've even uploaded a few things to the Sims 3 exchange. I've only ever been minimally involved in the
community of the Sims, but I have added my input to the forums and for a time, led something I created called, Sim Challenge Sunday, where I'd issue a game challenge and see who could complete it in one day of gameplay. It was a lot of fun, especially since I played it myself with my kids and that is a special memory for sure.

These games saw me through my divorce and the dark time surrounding that. It was my only friend for a very long time while I went through my miscarriages, and it was creating stories in the Sims that reawakened my love for story telling on the whole and really made me want to go back to writing, which of course the rest there is history.

So if you've read one of my books and loved it, you, in a way, have the Sims to blame, and if you've read one of my stories and hated it... well... same thing.

At this stage I am on the Sims 3, although Sims 4 came out recently, I just feel there is still so much to play within Sims 3, for a change, I'm in no hurry to upgrade. Sims 3 suits me just fine. I only recently purchased the Island Paradiso expansion and have barely scratched the surface of all that's there, house boats, island hopping, scuba diving, boating... You can be a mermaid!! Oooooh I have to do that!

I think for a very long time I have felt like loving this game was silly and juvenile and I, the responsible grown up in charge of the entire world, had no time for games, especially not one that would absorb me into it's world and make me forget those very important responsibilities... right?

Those of you who follow me personally, know my long held struggle with loosening up and having fun, this game always serves as a reminder to do so and when I let myself, my entire personality changes. I have fun. I get positively goofy. I laugh and really let myself just fall into the world I'm creating and that feels exceptionally good.

If you've never played this game, it's only going to be as fun for you as your imagination will let it be. I've watched people play who only seem to want to create themselves as they are in the real world and live out a pseudo existence within the game and while I can see the therapeutic value in that, you have to give yourself to the game. If you let it play, if you follow its leads, you can run into some incredible story telling and all around craziness, which I for one, find fun.

Don't get me wrong, I've spent countless hours doing nothing more than building skills and taking care of their most basic needs, but that's not when the game is fun, that's when I'm medicating with the game. This game, with so much content and so many surprises always around the next corner, can be a wild adventure of fun, but you have to be willing to roll with it. It can also be a challenge game like the now infamous Legacy Challenge, or like many of the challenges I would create for Sim Challenge Sunday. Once I tried to see if a single dad could raise seven toddlers without social services stepping in... it took me four tries, but I eventually did it! I cheated though, I got a couple of dogs to help. LOL

One of the things that has been a constant for me is writing story as I go along. I've entertained most of my friends a time or two with my madcap Sim stories, from the woman who found her husband cheating with her sister and took the news so badly that she turned to her garden, became a plant sim, despite her husband and sister both trying to get her into counseling, then one day while she sat in the garden... a meteor fell on her and killed her! To the vampire who kidnapped a woman because she had the sacred Pangu's Ax and I built a dungeon beneath his house for her and everything, but then they ended up falling in love and having a son together... I don't think she ever got out of the dungeon though if I remember correctly. lol To the crazy threesomes and mad cheating scandals, the tales of loneliness, lunacy and romance... all these things amuse me and tend to work their way into my writing one way or the other.

Now I've decided to come out of the closet, so to speak. and just share one of my favorite sim stories with you as is in Ever, Ever After the sim re-telling of the bachelorette mixed with some Big Brother and some HGTV... it's different... but then so am I. :D

You can find the different episodes at the link above or at my website www.starlightkey.com there's a handful of episodes up right now with more coming nearly every day at the moment. I find this type of story telling to be my favorite in a way, because I just have fun with it, I just let the story flow where it wants, no rules, no right or wrong, and while I'm hoping it's entertaining and that those reading it are enjoying it, what it's doing for me is, again, reminding me why I love writing. Awakening again that story teller in me that tends to get buried by life's rubble and that for me is a priceless treasure.

I know others who feel similarly about Second Life, Dungeons and Dragons, Yoville, World of Warcraft or any game that allows you to build an alternate universe to play in. Society has always tended to look down on those of us who find comfort here, but to the world I say, it's you who's missing out. My creativity is richer, my life is richer for this game and if you get that, if you have a game you love like that, then we're kindred and I'm glad you're here. If you don't "get" my sims stories, that's okay too. Different drum beats and all that.

If you haven't checked out Ever, Ever After yet, I hope you will, it's just barely started, but I intend to take you on a wild ride before we're through and if you've never played the sims, check it out. With the arrival of Sims 4, Sims 3 is now absolutely affordable! That's the best part about the new game coming out. Now's the time to go around and complete my Sims 3 collection!