The “Think Outside the Box” Challenge
I have a new challenge! For some it might seem silly, but it might be for you if: you love Sims challenges but they’re all too easy, you control your Sim’s every move and hyperfixate on their achievements, or you just want the gameplay to be fun again!
1. Start with a single Sim on an empty lot. Your Sim can have any age, traits, aspiration, and career (or lack thereof) you’d like.
2. Build or download your Sim a tiny home with a maximum of 64 tiles. Furnish it with the necessities of a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. You can go all out with decorations if you’d like, but the home may NOT include any items that have the specific purpose of meeting your Sim’s fun need or increasing their skills. This home is their box.
3. To socialise, increase their skills, and have fun, your Sim must go outside their box! The idea is to explore the world, try new activities, and get amongst it. You can add and edit any community lots you’d like.
4. Over the course of your game, you can expand your household in any way you’d like - get married, become roommates with your bestie, move in with your three lovers, have a stranger’s baby, adopt a stray dog. I would just recommend adding younger Sims in some way to continue the legacy.
5. As your household expands, you can be a little more lenient with the size of your home and the items in it. You can add bedrooms, toys for the kids, maybe essentials for your job’s daily task. You can also add items according to your Sim’s aspiration or wants. Just make sure to leave your lot for most of your activities. You can move house if you want to once your household has more than one Sim (or if, say, your Sim still lives alone but has a mid-life crisis and decides to move to Henford-on-Bagley or go to university).
6. The fundamental rule of this challenge: Your Sim MUST behave in a way that is driven by their personality and values, and NOT by optimising progression in their aspiration, career, skills, or money. Your family-oriented Sim is a hair away from that promotion, but their partner’s going to give birth any minute? Vacation day, baby. Bookworm wants to re-read Love in the Time of Sandwiches, even though they could be building their fun and piano skill at the same time? They’ve made their choice. Irresponsible party animal gets invited out 8 hours before work while their energy is in the yellow? You’d better believe they’re going out. If you don’t have a clear idea of your Sim’s character, that’s okay! Just do whatever you think is the best choice if it were a real-life scenario.
7. Let your characters develop and show you their personalities over time. You can randomise or choose traits for new Sims. You don’t have to abide by every want and fear, but pay attention to them. Change careers, get divorced, leave it all behind and move off the grid. Just let life happen.
8. For aspirations and wants, make sure you’re achieving the spirit of the goal rather than just ticking the box. Sure, you could complete a romance aspiration by spamming interactions and then ending your dates, but instead, take the time to give your Sims a date that’s unique and fun!
9. Whenever your household funds get above 50,000, either spend some funds on a fitting addition to your home, or cheat them back down (testingcheats true; money 50000). This is to avoid getting focused on maximising your funds for no real reason, but if your Sim aspires for wealth, frugality, or a huge mansion, feel free to disregard this.
10. Over the course of your game, try to make use of a major feature from each pack you own (unless they’re rubbish or don’t fit with your game - you don’t have to journey to Batuu or adopt a hamster if you don’t want to). If you’d like to and can afford it, buy any new pack when you start this challenge (or better yet, pick one you own but have never really used) and use it as inspiration to begin your story. If you’re only playing with the base game, that’s totally fine too.
11. Have lifespan set to normal and autonomy to full. Try to avoid using the pause button - if you’re wrangling toddlers and have no idea whether your teen will be ready for school on time, don’t worry about it! They’ll figure it out themself. If your Sim wants to play Blicblock on their phone and drink a glass of water (why??), then so be it. And no restarting the game to do events over (restarting to fix glitches is fine).
12. Alter or eliminate any of the above rules if they make the game less fun for you!
For some players this will all sound obvious, and it might seem ridiculous to call this a “challenge” with a dozen rules that essentially boil down to “chill out, tell a story, and have fun”. But I know I can’t be the only neurotic completionist who hyperfixates on achievements, and needs structure or permission to adopt a more relaxed style of gameplay!
I realised that while I was sitting in my home, taking a break from the daily grind by escaping into a simulated world - my Sims were also sitting in their home, sucked into a daily grind. For example - in the Disney Princess Challenge, one of the rules for the first gen is that each of your 7 children must achieve something before their teenage years (e.g., achieve level 5 in a toddler skill, or complete a childhood aspiration). This is a really fun challenge and that rule is totally reasonable, but for my personal style of gameplay it was just laughable. All 7 of my kids (including triplets, and all had immediately one after the other) maxed every toddler skill, completed every childhood aspiration, and completed more than one lifetime aspiration in their teens. Wow, I won at the Sims! But all I really did was create cooker-cutter characters and stifle part of their individuality.
So, my anxious friends who might need some encouragement to give up control and stop striving for perfection - if your game is becoming stale, let this be your sign to mix it up! I would love to hear about any of your takes on this challenge. Have fun!
1. Start with a single Sim on an empty lot. Your Sim can have any age, traits, aspiration, and career (or lack thereof) you’d like.
2. Build or download your Sim a tiny home with a maximum of 64 tiles. Furnish it with the necessities of a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. You can go all out with decorations if you’d like, but the home may NOT include any items that have the specific purpose of meeting your Sim’s fun need or increasing their skills. This home is their box.
3. To socialise, increase their skills, and have fun, your Sim must go outside their box! The idea is to explore the world, try new activities, and get amongst it. You can add and edit any community lots you’d like.
4. Over the course of your game, you can expand your household in any way you’d like - get married, become roommates with your bestie, move in with your three lovers, have a stranger’s baby, adopt a stray dog. I would just recommend adding younger Sims in some way to continue the legacy.
5. As your household expands, you can be a little more lenient with the size of your home and the items in it. You can add bedrooms, toys for the kids, maybe essentials for your job’s daily task. You can also add items according to your Sim’s aspiration or wants. Just make sure to leave your lot for most of your activities. You can move house if you want to once your household has more than one Sim (or if, say, your Sim still lives alone but has a mid-life crisis and decides to move to Henford-on-Bagley or go to university).
6. The fundamental rule of this challenge: Your Sim MUST behave in a way that is driven by their personality and values, and NOT by optimising progression in their aspiration, career, skills, or money. Your family-oriented Sim is a hair away from that promotion, but their partner’s going to give birth any minute? Vacation day, baby. Bookworm wants to re-read Love in the Time of Sandwiches, even though they could be building their fun and piano skill at the same time? They’ve made their choice. Irresponsible party animal gets invited out 8 hours before work while their energy is in the yellow? You’d better believe they’re going out. If you don’t have a clear idea of your Sim’s character, that’s okay! Just do whatever you think is the best choice if it were a real-life scenario.
7. Let your characters develop and show you their personalities over time. You can randomise or choose traits for new Sims. You don’t have to abide by every want and fear, but pay attention to them. Change careers, get divorced, leave it all behind and move off the grid. Just let life happen.
8. For aspirations and wants, make sure you’re achieving the spirit of the goal rather than just ticking the box. Sure, you could complete a romance aspiration by spamming interactions and then ending your dates, but instead, take the time to give your Sims a date that’s unique and fun!
9. Whenever your household funds get above 50,000, either spend some funds on a fitting addition to your home, or cheat them back down (testingcheats true; money 50000). This is to avoid getting focused on maximising your funds for no real reason, but if your Sim aspires for wealth, frugality, or a huge mansion, feel free to disregard this.
10. Over the course of your game, try to make use of a major feature from each pack you own (unless they’re rubbish or don’t fit with your game - you don’t have to journey to Batuu or adopt a hamster if you don’t want to). If you’d like to and can afford it, buy any new pack when you start this challenge (or better yet, pick one you own but have never really used) and use it as inspiration to begin your story. If you’re only playing with the base game, that’s totally fine too.
11. Have lifespan set to normal and autonomy to full. Try to avoid using the pause button - if you’re wrangling toddlers and have no idea whether your teen will be ready for school on time, don’t worry about it! They’ll figure it out themself. If your Sim wants to play Blicblock on their phone and drink a glass of water (why??), then so be it. And no restarting the game to do events over (restarting to fix glitches is fine).
12. Alter or eliminate any of the above rules if they make the game less fun for you!
For some players this will all sound obvious, and it might seem ridiculous to call this a “challenge” with a dozen rules that essentially boil down to “chill out, tell a story, and have fun”. But I know I can’t be the only neurotic completionist who hyperfixates on achievements, and needs structure or permission to adopt a more relaxed style of gameplay!
I realised that while I was sitting in my home, taking a break from the daily grind by escaping into a simulated world - my Sims were also sitting in their home, sucked into a daily grind. For example - in the Disney Princess Challenge, one of the rules for the first gen is that each of your 7 children must achieve something before their teenage years (e.g., achieve level 5 in a toddler skill, or complete a childhood aspiration). This is a really fun challenge and that rule is totally reasonable, but for my personal style of gameplay it was just laughable. All 7 of my kids (including triplets, and all had immediately one after the other) maxed every toddler skill, completed every childhood aspiration, and completed more than one lifetime aspiration in their teens. Wow, I won at the Sims! But all I really did was create cooker-cutter characters and stifle part of their individuality.
So, my anxious friends who might need some encouragement to give up control and stop striving for perfection - if your game is becoming stale, let this be your sign to mix it up! I would love to hear about any of your takes on this challenge. Have fun!
