goldfish: random and inconsequential thoughts on TS2 vs. TS3

Lately I’ve been going around with my TS3 Sims wanting to assign them TS2 aspirations and secondaries, thinking in my head: Charlie is a knowledge primary and family secondary, Benny is popularity primary, Ingrid is a classic romance Sim primary. What would Sophia be? Or Josh? I hadn’t yet created them in TS2. And how about many of my teens, most of whom were too young for aspirations in TS2, or were never Sims in TS2 at all? I remember how knowing that about them, their primary aspiration in life, helped me form so much of how they looked at the world and approached life as they grew up, because dorky as it sounds, I truly think it’s very relevant to how real life people approach the world and life. People ARE family Sims or fortune Sims or romance Sims. They really are, lol!


But I’ve also been realizing why TS3 suits the storyteller in me, but why I think it can be less satisfying as a game. It’s inspired SO MANY IDEAS for me—more than even just these stories I'm writing here—but I think that’s because when I make my characters and push them around in the world, they feel so blank to me. I really feel like I’m putting so much more of my own ideas into them, while in TS2, I felt more like they were lending me the ideas instead. If my TS3 Sims are sad or scared or depressed, those are certainly feelings I’m projecting on them, because in game, the Sims really exhibit no changes at all.

Though I could never go back to TS2 as a game because I'm spoiled on TS3's open world and all that pretty, but there is a significant lack in the TS3 life-simulation engine. Maybe that’s okay, I suppose, if I want to write stories that are truly my own. And most of the time, I do.

But I remember the surprise and fun of *playing* a story in TS2, as story that was partly mine, but partly belonged to the game engine as well. I remember having TS2 Sims who would roll nothing but impossible wants. They'd roll wants to see a certain Sim, or marry a certain Sim that they couldn't. Sometimes it seemed like everything they wanted was out of their reach and their aspiration was sinking by the hour. I remember how a Sim would lose a spouse or parent and many years later, just stop, out of the blue, and sigh, frown, and remember. And on top of that, they had real fears. They were afraid that they'd flunk school or that a loved one would die. And then sometimes those things would actually happen, and they reacted as if their worst nightmares had actually come true. It all seemed so meaningful. There was real risk in their lives. There was risk and reward, and their little pixels came alive.

As I was writing the last couple of stories with Natty and Charlie, I realized that if they were TS2 Sims, Charlie might be afraid of breaking up with Natty, and Natty might be afraid of becoming enemies with Charlie. Do you remember those fears?

I mean, a TS3 Sim would be perfectly fine if you never fulfilled any of their wishes. They don't really fear anything. They wouldn't dip into depression like TS2 Sims would if they never got what they wanted. I found that so compelling. If you didn't give them what they needed, they'd have a breakdown. If you did, they'd soar. But in TS3, they might get a little bad moodlet that hardly affects their overall existence. In TS3, if you deny their wishes, they just roll another one. Like: oh never mind you really want to be a journalist, or go back to college, or have another baby, or get married. Never mind what you wanted for your life. Here, let me buy you a fishing book instead. Whee, look at the pretty, shiny fishing book!

TS3 Sims are lovely, but they're sort of vacant. They're like goldfish.

There is no point to this observation. I am just rambling, lol!