What are your best gameplay tips?

"Pamtastic72;c-17761896" wrote:

My biggest tip is let your imagination free. 90% of this game takes place in your imagination, you have to set it loose if you’re going to enjoy playing. I think as you get older that gets harder because so many times real adult life manages to intrude upon our ability to just suspend reality for awhile. I actually think that’s the root of a lot of the complaints about this iteration of The Sims by long time Sims players. Your imagination at say 8 isn’t the same at 28, 38, 48, and I think they were able to let their imagination run more free on earlier iterations because they were kids, but it’s harder as an adult. They can still do so on the older games because their mind is trained to relax into imagination with the familiarity of those versions.

@Pamtastic72 This is a great tip! Even with better personalities, the sims are still going to be nothing more than simulated beings coded to react certain ways, so it's up to the player to give them the depth they want to see.

For example, I know that dogs often get fearful when humans play instruments (you can even see the shadow of the guitar player in the background) but in my game, this dog is based off my real life dog who HATES the snow and cold, so it was easy to imagine that she had a thought bubble of her owner's face crossed off because she was mad at her for dumping her in the snow.

https://i.imgur.com/9T4zjh9.png

Or here, I'm sure that Marin making and consuming fruitcake in mass quantities is just a game glitch, but she's one of those rare sims who actually likes it and I like to pretend that since she's pregnant with twins, she's been craving fruitcake.

https://i.imgur.com/XJ19B5Z.png

And those of course are just little examples of making spontaneous things the game does already fit into my storyline - 90% of my sims world and lives take place in my imagination because their backstories and nuances are what made them so fun to create!