Not feeling the magic?

[xXTotallySimsXx]

I'll bold the importants:

I know I'm going to get some dilikeliness towards me for this, but I'm not feeling the magic when I play anymore. Like, I always used to make families and play that family for days. But now, when I make a custom hood, I don't do anything but make a list of arranged marriges for the next generation.
When I used to make my families, I would just live in the moment, just wanting them to get through the night. The kids would actually have a little sim life. They would try to get good grades in school, make more than one friend (who would end up being their spouse in my new way to play), play outside.
The teens used to have fun and have drama, not getting a partner when they were the beginning at their short teen lives.
I have no idea why I'm going on for so long, but do you have any ideas for me? How to get that feeling back? Thanks

[Cayla]

Here are a few things I do:
1-Take a break and see if you can do without it a week
2- Play a Pre-made and or make maxis only sims. (it's so very tempting to use cc)
3- Add more CC to your game. It always sparks me to make more sims
4- Try making your own CC.
5- Make lots and a ton of them
6- Watch some sims video from YouTube and collect some ideas
7- Do a challenge
8- Try something new (never have families cheat then try playing a romance sims ltw for 20 lovers)
9- Make a legacy (and finish it.) too boring? Make a gay legacy. And adopt your heirs.
10- If all else fails--play with someone else! Introduce the game to one of your friends. (it's pretty hard not to laugh at times)

[xXTotallySimsXx]

Thanks! I gave you a bene! ;D

I haven't played in over two weeks, because I've been busy with school.

[Laura]

Aug 14, 2011 13:10:47 GMT xXTotallySimsXx said:

But now, when I make a custom hood, I don't do anything but make a list of arranged marriges for the next generation.

For a start I would say, don't do this. It sucks the fun out of it, planning exactly who your sims are going to marry. Try not to pair off sims before they're even old enough to date or fall in love! Instead, have your sims go to community lots or college (if you have Uni) and see if they can bump into the love of their lives by themselves! Not only does it leave an element of surprise to it (for you), if the sim they hook up with is a townie, you'll have to contend with an unknown sim, perhaps with quirky or plain strange traits, which will surely entertain you more than if you can anticipate what life will be like for the couple.

Other than that, here's a few things that might help ignite your love for the game again.

• Make a 'black sheep' sim. That is to say, an alien/zombie/vampire/werewolf/Plantsim/witch sim (depending on your expansion packs) - without cheating, if you're really looking for a challenge.
  
• Try to create a 'graveyard' of tombstones that have a ghost of every colour. ;D If you're the sadistic type, you'll have a whale of a time trying to plot all those deaths.
  
• If you have Bon Voyage, go on holidays to all three of the destinations and try to collect all forty-five vacation memories.
  
• Make a family consisting of a mom (or a dad) along with seven offspring (perhaps a mix of toddlers, children and teens... though for real mayhem, try seven toddlers). Move the family into a house (without using money cheats to fund the purchase) and let the fun begin. Your aim would be to not let any of the toddlers/children get taken into care by the social worker, or let any of the teens to run away.
  
• If you play with cheats - try and stop. Very hard, but it certainly will add a more challenging aspect to the game.
  
• Maybe you could stop 'playing' the game and get into Sim story writing, video making or house building, either with the aim of uploading, or just for personal entertainment. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's a different way of using the game and will give you a break from traditional gameplay
  
• The main thing is to break away from your current style of playing. If you find yourself bored by the game, then make a different family from the ones you would normally make and get them to do things that your families never usually get up to. For example, if the 'aim' of your style of gameplay is generally marrying sims off, making them have babies, marrying those off once they're grown up, having more kids etc. - then don't do this with the next family you play. Perhaps their focus could be on accumulating as much money as possible, maxing all seven skills, earning all the talent badges, achieving their LTW - it's all dependant on the EPs you have, but there are plenty of alternative ways of playing.
  

If all else fails, take up a new game, get absorbed into that, then come back to the sims whenever you're ready.

[xXTotallySimsXx]

Thanks so much, both of you.

I've stopped using cheats, and that has given me back that feeling. So far, I made a new neighborhood with only two couples so far, starting out on a small lot. They're working on their jobs and LTW's. I also removed all the expansion music and left the base game music.

This helped, thanks ;D