What do you do in the Sims 3?

@ImmyQuokka Hi. I have several saves with ongoing stories all at one time. I don't do challenges as I don't like rules. :grin:
I create stories with my sims, even the one that is in a legacy style save have mysteries to solve or life challenges that befall them. My most recent story is here if you are interested in reading it.

I have multiple saves going on, each set in a different world. Like, i have one in sunset valley, one in starlight shores, and so on. I do play challenges, which mainly consists of me trying to achieve the lifetime wish i choose for my sims, and some of them are indeed challenging. I have recently started building too! I rarely tried to put that much effort into my builds before despite playing for years. That is because i started playing this game when i was like 12, and designing anything other than a box seemed waaay to hard for little me. I mean, it still kinda is for grown me as well, but at least i am having more fun trying nowadays :D

I've got multiple save files in different worlds. Most of my gameplay is quite freeform, it's really just me and my Sims exploring the vast array of content the game has to offer. I've tried several different skills and careers, and still am very far away from having "done it all". In fact, I just got the Supernatural expansion not long ago, and my next venture will be into playing with supernatural Sims :)

As far as creative expression goes, I mostly create Sims. I've got a huge ongoing project where I create Sims from Sims 4 in Sims 3. The closest I've ever gotten to a challenge in that respect would be creating them without using custom sliders!

I was a “fanfiction” writer before I ever came to the Sims 3, which meant that I used to craft my environment and character interactions with words instead of pictures (so my writing tends into the word-count of tomes - between 80K to 120K words a work and at least 8K to 10K words a chapter. I used to write fan fiction for a military lawyer TV show called JAG which necessitated a lot of research into the characters and created a OC (original character) that complemented the main characters in the story but did not overshadow the other characters.

My Sims 3 characters that I created feature in narrative stories and can be sometimes utilized like “actors playing a role” for a particular scene or sometimes when a nasty case of writer’s block hits, I end up having to do a “freeplay” which pretty much means I just play the game without any direction. In any case, I enjoy apocalyptic fics so a lot of my narratives revolve around that.

Occasionally my id (if you are familiar with psychology terms) just happens to beg to be let out to play so I appease it by utilizing mods to zap Sims who don’t do what I tell them to do and I do have an unholy fascination with det-packs and meteors which makes life for the sims (the ones I do not favor using) a living hell (with the sole exception of two sims, River McIrish and Bebe Hart who rank amongst the EA created sims in the favored circle of this Watcher.

There is no “right way” or “wrong way” to play the Sims - it’s all in what you like to do. I just enjoy telling stories and use my Sims in a way that can best convey what story I want to narrate.

There is no “right way” or “wrong way” to play the Sims

After all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOPo5OUVgtM

I only play one game at a time. Right now, I am doing a legacy challenge but not really following the exact rules, it's more of an inspiration :P I started with my founder in the 1700s and I am building my legacy up to 10 generations but also writing a story so that's why I don't follow all of the typical rules of a legacy challenge :)

My maIn idea (core idea) is sort of to let the sims be autonomous and then base their personality or story line on whatever just happens, but every now and then something happens that trigger me to do "detours" where I go into making "mini stories" as part of the bigger story, or something like that, which includes using the pose player.

I play rotationally with several towns that all tie together one way or another, because the sims in them have family relations or in some instances just know each other inbetween the towns, which makes it a little complicated.. but I think its more real that way, because nobody only knows people from their own hometown, and of course, they have to travel to visit friends and relatives.

Mostly I make movies about the Goths! Just kidding, right now I'm working on a movie about the Wolffs. :lol:

I do love just playing though and have several different types of play style. One town where I control everything that goes on, and another that I let them do what they want with story progression turned on.

It depends for me. At the moment, I have two ongoing Saves: The Oakley Save, in which I try and have at least fifteen children, and the Molyneux Save, a story-based Save inspired by an original character named Achilles Molyneux (I write about him in my stories, and even though I have another one of his friends, Carolina Mason, in the same Save file, I don't plan to add any more of my original characters for a while. So far, I have created seven families based on my original characters, I still have three other families planned out; the Mulrooney, Adlingtons and Mather families) and I also love building as well.

I like to play challenges (self-made or already existent) because i need to have some kind of goal...

Right now i've started a save and played the youngest sim in the first premade household. I was trying to complete his lifetime wish while also following his whims. As soon as i realized his life was getting monotonous i rotated to the next premade household. I found that the girl living there was already married, had 2 kids and was pregnant. I chose the youngest child and will play him until i complete his LTW or i get bored.

Playing one only sim per household and playing rotations is new to me. I use to play legacy style and control all sims in the household.

I know that usually rotational players hate when things change without their imput but i'm loving to find different family situations which i didn't decide myself :smiley:

Also playing with just one sim is so liberating... Autonomy is pretty awesome in this game, so the others will live their lives and i can follow my sim everywhere, living life in his personal perspective and focusing on his goals, relationships...