09 Apr 2003
has it been nearly a week since i last wrote? egads. i have been very, very preoccupied… yup, very much so. last friday, i finally got my hands on the sims game and i have been hooked for the past few days. oh yes, i was in front of the computer alright but i wasn’t checking my e-mails nor reading journal entries, i was fully immersed in my “alternate-dimension” world. i was not addicted so much to the game itself, which i found to be somewhat dull after playing nonstop for 10 hrs straight, it was something else.
the hi-fis (the poor version):
in the first family i created, johnny and moon lived in a small cottage house, had jobs, learned all the necessary skills to advance their careers, got swiftly promoted, got married, had a baby boy named junior. and then i (meaning, me, the one who’s writing this now, not the lead female character in the game) started going crazy buying new stuff for the house and re-arranging the new furniture so junior hi-fi got kinda neglected, and he ended up being taken away by welfare. d’oh! so johnny and moon flirted some more, and as the relationship meter kept improving, the game blessed them with another baby boy – whom we named, er… duh, junior once again. hahaha, i’m creatively-challenged in the kids’ naming department because in real life, i want a daughter but the damn computer game keeps giving me sons!!!
the hi-fis (the rich version):
by the second day, i began losing interest in the game after junior hi-fi came into the household, because it became quite a bitch to control the lives of three people and decorate the house which increasingly felt smaller and smaller. i found a cheat code for unlimited amount of money and so i created the second family with a new mission: to build and decorate a dream house. fuck the jobs, fuck the skills and promotions, i’m on a buying frenzy (thanks to the internet sims communities which offers craploads of objects for download). i even gave johnny and moon a make-over and they now look fantabulous! in this version, i built a large mansion from scratch, successfully manipulated the hi-fis to be a married couple once again but thank goodness no kids yet… at least not until i find a downloadable designer babycrib online first.
the hi-fis look a million times better here compared to the original avatars i initially picked from the game defaults. think, uhm, tucked-in oversized sweaters, big hips and stiff hair that looks like mops. yuck! they both look mighty stylin’ now :)
the living room, complete with mies pavilion chairs + daybed and a white panton chair. i even “bought” an imac but it is not very visible in this screen. there’s also a fireplace that can only be seen from the back.
j-hi has always dreamed of a stainless steel kitchen, so i went off searching for all the appropriate appliances and this is what we have so far. i guess it’s alright, i want to have an island in the middle of the kitchen, but haven’t found the right object yet. i burned the kitchen by accident in the first family coz the sims hadn’t scored any cooking points yet, so i installed a fire detector in this version… just in case.
i was very happy to find a vase of calla lilies, so i downloaded that object and placed it on the dining table. how can this be a complete dream house without my favourite flowers? i also used the jacobsen chairs as dining chairs, just as i have planned on in the future if i have my own house.
i’m quite happy with the results: a dreamy, roomy tuscany spa-style bathroom with marble tiling floors and filled with lots of sunlight coming through the windows. it also faces the swimming pool outside… aaahhhhhh~
here is the swimming pool, complete with a grill, a pair of recliners and a beach umbrella. next to the pool is a small basketball court for the couple to shoot some hoops together.
evidently, i am really hooked on downloading all the additional objects from the internet and customizing my sims. not only have i searched high and low for those designer furniture (which i’ve been eyeing in real-life for some years now), i also downloaded better-looking clothes and hairstyles for the hi-fis. i am also having loads of fun putting together all these interior design ideas and i can play architect/fashion designer :) sure, it’s all just a fantasy but it sure beats daydreaming alone in the kitchen while flipping through the latest interior design magazine. in the game, i can change my mind as often as i like regarding wallpapers and carpet colours, i can place the chairs ten different ways before i am satisfied – and even if i’m not, i can do it all over again. the best part is, i don’t have to spend a single dollar building my dream house.
this week’s project: finish decorating the bedroom and design a japanese rock garden. i downloaded a white corbusier chaise and a pair of armchairs last night, but i think i’ll use them in the next sim property i’m building. gosh, i haven’t even installed the expansion packs to the game yet, those are supposed to allow me to customize even more stuff… like customizing a shop or a restaurant :0
[Ed.] The Sims was a really great game, I enjoyed it a lot and kept buying the expansion packs until my computer finally couldn’t handle it anymore and kept crashing. Damnitz! :| I never got into the online version where I could play real-time with others though, coz I really just wanted to decorate the houses and dress up my characters. :P
-MB.
