What kind of game style is your favorite in Sims 3?

I've never actually switched households in an active game, except of course to peek at other sims' traits (and then quit without saving) before I had mods. Whether I start with a single sim or a couple, the goal is always to build a dynasty, populating the town with my main household's offspring and their families. I don't really develop any interest in sims, be they townies, NPCs, or the children of sims I raised myself, unless I play them, so I have no trouble ignoring most of the town's population. I move on whenever it feels like there's nothing interesting left for my founding family to do.

All my stories tend to turn into legacies...or long-lasting multi-generational sagas. Even though I'm in the first phase of my "Selfacy" I've got it on Epic Lifespan (which means that I have almost 100 chapters in the first generation and they're not even half-way done their lifespan. :D

A combination of all of the above.

Sometimes I play a save that is for nothing more than developing new Sims.
That save is also where I initially build and test all lots before I put them in another saved active game.

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This. I regularly do this, I kind of hope to make it a long-lasting legacy, but it doesn't really happen so I just see where it goes.

I like to play a long-lasting single household over generations. Unfortunately I can never get as far as I would like before I need to move everyone to a new save and I have several such families waiting to move but it's so much work setting everyone back up again it doesn't always happen.

I have done long lasting for the whole town but it takes a long time to work. These days I do stories or make films

For most of the past year I've been playing a sim couple who have a mission of raising 100 babies. Along the way they've been plantsims, mummies, explored all the tombs, tackled various rabbit hole careers, and are now completing legacy statues. Basically the first option with a healthy dose of "exploring different situations, towns, EPs, etc." I also did a similar game years ago when I was first getting into TS3 (without the 100 baby goal though).

I play many different games involving legacies, large and small families, adventurous sims. I've done survival, rags to riches, variations of a few challenges because I don't follow all the rules. I enjoy the variety that you can play with Sims 3 sims. :)

this is difficult, cause my intention & how i actually end up playing differ

i intend nowadays to play
A long-lasting multi-generational game but of the whole town.
but due to mostly bugs, glitches, boredom, incomplete gameplay, lacking meshes, lacking interactions, my impatience with building & so on i unfortunately end up with
Play many different games exploring different situations, towns, EPs, etc.

this meantime even spans over all sims games TS1, TS2, TS3 & TS4 :lol:

years ago i rather tended towards
Start with a single sim or househld and see where it goes.

sometimes, when i am severely bored i also play
Homeless, "survive this" and other hardship challenges.


& as @king_of_simcity7 wrote, to play the whole town takes a verrrrrrrrry long time
it would be easier if there was a well made random town generator, but there isn't
i am currently again having a taste of those difficulties in my TS2 game, remaking of Belladonna Cove to a modern cuboid town while Bluewater Village towards victorian is a very tedious undertaking & ends up a game in itself, namely
City building or "lift restriction" challenges.
which i don't really intend but that's the basis for a city where the sims i intend to play can live at all

i like mostly to just play the sims
but i start with making them, cause i rarely find sims made by other simmers which i like & i find most of the premades boring
at least i like to make sims, only in TS2 CAS is a pain as well
i remember what a revelation TS3's CAS was for me, pure heaven, even with the ever growing clothing & patterns lag
but then after the sim settles in a house it can end up with me trying to rebuild the city to something more coherent & less suburbian
unfortunately, i still hate to build & especially in TS3
at least TS3 has some really well made maps, which do inspire me to even build :smirk:

"Generic storytelling" would be a great option too. Because I like generational play when I'm playing but I foremost use the game as a screenshot tool.