Summer of Sims

I enjoy being able to relax and escape the reality and stress of my daily life. Reading books is my favorite past time of escaping to a new world within my head, but something I have also been doing for a long time but recently fully committed to in the past few year has been The Sims; more specifically, The Sims 4. I started TS4 on the PS4 because I go my PS4 as a bundle with a game, knowing that the only game I actually like in the selection was The Sims as I had played all the previous versions. Learning all the new features of this new version of my favorite game was an adventure because it had been a while since I had even played The Sims 3. Finally, getting the hang of playing this game, I spent hours upon hours of game play and working on my building skill, which is admittedly easier to do on the PC. Joining a Facebook group all about TS4 opened me up to the world of cheats, mods and custom content, though I couldn't have the mods or cc on my PS4, I was able to use the cheats; once I started using the cheats, there was no turning back, and I definitely tried.

After buying all the expansion, game and stuff packs, and eventually kits on my PS4, I still made the choice to switch to PC because I really wanted to use mods and cc, though I was met with controversy there as well since my laptop does not have enough storage to have all of the packs (or even half) and have mods and cc. I had to make the choice of having more packs or having mods and cc; I chose to buy the packs, though I am at a standstill with those as well currently until I can upgrade my laptop to have a bigger SSD. Being able to play The Sims gives me a true escape of reality because I am able to make their lives whatever I want, choosing to have them struggle or to live a lavish life from the start. The way I play my game changes frequently to match the mood I am in, however, I do not do one thing that a lot of Sims players do; killing my sims. No matter what I do, I can't bring myself to kill off any of the sims in my game, I just move them out of the current household and keep aging on for un-played sims so they will die of old age on their own. Of course though, if the currently played sim has any sort of relationship with the sim that died, they will be sad for about 2 sim days.

Sim time works a lot different than our real world time, and if you play with the game being on super speed, one hour of game play could be about a week or 2 of Sim time, letting you play the entire life of a sim in less than a day. I am currently challenging myself to play one family for at least 26 generations, but there is 1 sim in the family so far that I am super attached to at this point because I have never had a sim that looks like her and I plan to save her to my library and use her for future game play when I finish this personal challenge. I have also been trying to play the game in ways that I normally wouldn't play it to try to spice up the game a little. Like a lot of simmers, I tend to get bored with game play and take a hiatus from the game for a little while. Usually, my hiatus lasts until a new pack comes out since new packs mean new game play, even if it just a stuff pack because there are new things to interact with.

EA started "Summer of Sims" in May, announcing there would be a new kit, which came out in May, a new Game Pack that was just released on June 1st and there will be a new expansion pack that I can only assume will be out in July since the "Summer of Sims" ends in July. They also tease a virtual block party for PRIDE and state to "Rock out at the Sims event of the summer!" I am not sure how either of those come into play in the game itself, but I play for a bit every day so I am sure I will find out soon enough. My job is a "seasonal" job, specifically for the spring, summer and fall months as lawn care in my region can't be done in the winter. Since the main time I need to escape is after I am done working, I generally log off from work and pull my laptop out to play my game, and I generally play Youtubers playing TS4 on my tv as well. One could say I am a little obsessed.

Some of my favorite Sims Youtubers include:

1) Clare Siobhan (aka Clare Callery)

2) Kelsey Dangerous (aka Kelsey Impicciche)

3) Deligracy

4) James Turner (aka Semaj or The Sim Supply)

5) The English Simmer (aka Molly)

6) MyaSchmya: My most recent favorite for her incredible builds

As always, tips are not required but deeply appreciated.