How did you start your first save?

I started with a new single adult sim, one based on one of the sim kids in my game of The Sims 1. I settled her in Verona and got to know the game, then made my sim-self and his wife. I didn't play Pleasantview for..FOUR YEARS, because my first install was on an older computer that ran things slowly, and I wanted to enjoy that neighborhood the way it was supposed to be enjoyed. After Verona I made a couple of other neighborhoods using default maps, but once I had my new machine, I could use SimCity 4 to create custom maps, and made a "real" neighborhood -- one with municipal buildings, parks, that sort of thing. It looked like a city instead of just a green area with houses and streets.

I remember the first family I created well, because I had been planning in advance the type of family I was going to create when I'd finally get The Sims 2. I had played S2 a couple of times at a friend's house and fallen in love with one of the premade teen Sims in CAS, because she looked like Gabriella from High School Musical (ugh). So when I finally got my own copy of the game, I obviously added her to the family first (and named her Gabriella, duh). I also made her a little brother and a mom and a dad. The family's last name was Merjanen (a random Finnish last name). I moved them into a house in Pleasantview, and the first thing I did was I ordered the dad to go make some food, and since I was such a noob, I was oblivious to the whole skill point system. So yeah... he started a fire. And the young me freaked out and exited the game.

Nowadays I pretty much only play Legacy Challenges. I don't really create families in CAS anymore, because I have a hard time getting attached to them. I also always create a new neighborhood, I never (except with friends) play in the premade hoods.

I also don't freak out about fires anymore.

It's been about 14 years since that first time, but if memory serves I did the tutorial first to get the hang of it. Then it was off to Pleasantview, a mix of one of my own sims and tinkering with the premades. Those days were largely experiments, what can I do - even if it's pushing the envelope. Somewhere along the line discovered the great CC available (that works, first pass, and doesn't need fixing), integrated it, and developed what has become my style - multiple interconnected families with complex (and photo recorded in the family albums) stories that seldom stick to the overall domestic vibe of the game. Great stuff!

Is it weird that I still remember that moment?

I went into CAS and created two Sims. A male Sim called "Lothar" and a female Sim called "Silke". Both had brown hair. I moved them into a small house and pretended that she was a university student renting a room in Lothar's house.

I started "The Sims 3" the same way, but here I created "Tina Traveller" and "Geert Greening".

Strangely I don't remember the first Sims I created for TS4 - must have been overwhelmed with the tactile and intuitive CAS. ;)

When I was a kid and started playing it I just did silly things and downloaded a ton of CC. I moved on from that since CC kinda ruined making babies with all it's bugs. (The extra stuff like unlockable skin tones (zombie, alien, vampire) were all really cool, the unlockable outfits too (No idea how to get them back in The Ultimate Collection though.))
I then went though a phase of where I played a whole town seasonally, trying to fulfil each household's aspirations, continue the family line and so on. Every time it changed Season and I had to move to another family I always charted down in my notebook anything notable like whether something had happened or if something was wrong with a sim.
I now do my own Sims 2 challenge as I apparently have gotten really good at the game over the years. You can find the details on my DeviantART "ZeldaGamer11" (It's really old though). In basic form though I start off with one sim and have to make their family line last as long as possible. Everything is randomly generated. Their names: I pick names that I see in the wild and name them that. Their aspirations: I find a word randomiser online, put all the aspirations in and out comes an order in which I have to pick the new sims aspirations. Turn ons: You only need to pick the first sim's ones so I just wiggle my mouse around with my eyes closed and pick the one closest to the mouse.
It's pretty simple, you fail if they all die or if your save gets wiped.

When I first started playing, I would usually just play the premades, with an occasional family that I made. Then I discovered the exchange and found out about legacies, and I've been doing my own families ever since. I will still occasionally play one of the premade 'hoods, but it never lasts long before I go back to my own families.

I start new saves by moving into a house.

I first made myself as a sim, then I made my real life best friend, as my sim's sister and then our mum and dad. I bought a pre-made home and removed some of the furniture. However, the home was a one-bedroom and I haven't played Sims 2 enough to get around build-mode in the game and so...I left it as I spent too long that day just making my first sims family! I made my sim her own special someone in another household, with his mum and dad, the next day. Right now, I haven't gone back to the game and this was only in May this year haha. I will go back on Sims 2 again at some point and move my main sims family into a bigger home.

"ThePinkBookGirl;d-941911" wrote:
When you first started playing, how did you start your first save game? And have you changed how you start new saves in comparison to your first?

In 2014 I bought the sims 4, (never had played the sims) I wont say my age at the time but I was yound enough to be scared easily. I remember downloading it from origin just being like, OMG imma make my family and it'll be so fun! So I made my family, CAS was a challenge because I was never introduced to the sims that much before. When making my family, I would sometimes change their hairs in outfits other than everyday. My sister ended up with an afro, she's a blonde white girl. I was shocked when I saw my family when we moved into our lot. Now, I saw some youtubers building their home so I was like, I'll do that! I moved onto an empty lot and was like, wait how do I build? I sat there and watched the wacky-sim version of my family talking and walking around in sped up time. My mom needed the toilet so I was like, I do not have a toilet. I moved my cursor around the screen before it landed on the build mode button. I got a toilet and placed it down, I decided she needed privacy while she used it so I made the tiniest triangle you could make with walls around the toilet. I did NOT put down a door. She peed herself and died of embarrassment. When the grim reaper arrived, I was terrified. I took one look at him and closed my laptop. I later said to my dad I wanted the sims 3 instead. So we set up a case on EA that we bought the wrong game, I got the sims 3 then.
What a game.

Started with a single CAS sim because didn't find any attractive to me. Then I did create even more, have babies.... I just tried to populate the town in my own way. I went into the uni thing, whose Sims were so much better. Then I started to kill/delete many of the Sims I don't like (which is bad for corruption, I learned it later) Lucky me I could still play that neighborhood a long time until I got interested in modding, which gave me a wish to restart.