games primarily include Paralives, The Sims 2, 3, & 4, Animal Crossing, and any of the 205 Nintendo DSi Lite games i have.
introduction
videogames are, more often than not, incredibly overstimulating. and, in my opinion, are simulations of other worlds i visit when i tune into it. i step into an entire different place. for me this has resulted in my half serious joke that i literally physically can't play Minecraft, it's too much. i'm also afraid of large bodies of water in real life which has transferred into how i consume media, because apparently the general population prefers to always simulate the ability to fall off a cliff into water to some degree. so, with that being said, The Sims franchise, starting with the 4th iteration unfortunately, has been a special interest of mine since i first opened the game back in 2018. since then Electronic Arts has sold themselves out farther than i could morally ignore. many of the games i play were gifted to me by pirates. with relation to The Sims though, Paralives rejoices in their win over my interest.
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6/16/26
My first 60HRS in PARALIVES!
Rosen Household Update 1
as of today, i have hit 60 hours of gameplay in Paralives, and i have a lot to say about it. yes, there's bugs. my first household i made myself, and hit up the local baddie townie Tara. she set my kitchen on fire, then was bugged out enough to stay standing in said kitchen on fire, completely still, after she had passed on completely before saving and exiting. so, my wife is just perpeptually on fire. i had to scrap the save. that was upon release, and since then there's been a few updates, which have significantly improved the lagging, and i have not had to restart a save again due to a game breaking bug or error. onto the things i've been enjoying very much, is #1 the build mode. i was never a builder beforehand, but now with how much customization there is, i'm no longer bored and disappointed after finishing only one room in a house. the ability to to add out own photos to the game has been a game changer in ways i didn't expect. i'm finding myself peeling my eyelids back to focus on small details, where exactly i want to place a specific object. that kind of attention to detail has been so fun to execute! for the live mode, i've been pleasently frustrated with how difficult it can be to make my Paras do and say exactly what i wanted. the personalities actually effect how the Para can interact with others, and effects compatibility in conversations. if my para isn't feeling a conversation, then i literally won't get any options to progress with friendship or otherwise. it's been refreshing to not have control over every little thing, and to just allow my paras to live their lives, gently pushing them in certain directions. the paramaker is otherworldy with the amount of options there is, and the sliders that can make them look nearly however you want. with that being said i would like to mention, i wish that the paras didn't all have thigh gaps, and there was more attention put into how the bigger bodied paras look with certain clothing and which sliders cancel out others, for example when making myself, because i'm genderqueer and intersex, i used mixed features on a larger bodytype, and ended with the double chin poking out of the throat rather than looking normal on any scale. so that was interesting, but i've already found a few mods that lessen this issue. also another note about build mode, fuck yes with the representation! i had a wheelchair and aids on every floor all over my paraself's house.
the next household after the tragedy was, i made was a lesbian couple, one girl was trans, and they had a baby named Echo. i got bored of living the high life so i moved on to start a rags to riches save, which i've kept onto for the last 15hrs or so. i started with Elora Rosen, who was completely homeless sleeping on benches and couch surfing around the neighborhood (relateable). i found this was a great way to see all of the lots, and really get a feel for the town of Molino. i think that's why i got attached to Elora enough to expand her story beyond only wanting a house. currently she has the life goals of owning a home worth at least 40k, have a baby, and reach the top of her rank at one of her jobs (she's currently working full time at the studio as a receptionist, and part time at the plant shop as a crew member). so i made her a sister who's a fresh young adult, only 18 in printage (Elora is 28 in printage at this time), and had them buy a small lot with Elora's savings at the time which wasn't much, only about 17k, and built them a townhouse near town. Bea (her sister) got a job as a full time teaching assistant. but Bea came with someone extra, she reached out to Elora for a place to stay because she was disowned by their parents for becoming pregnant by her boyfriend that left town the second he found out. with this, Elora now had a wrench in her life plans, cause she didn't plan for any of these extra expenses. the plan was to continue couch surfing until she reached minimum 60k to buy her dream home, now her goal is higher with the extra additions to the household, more like 80k. skip to now, Elora is 32, Bea 23, and baby Lola just aged into a toddler. over the last few years, they have both been working non-stop, haven't missed a day, and have ranked up many times. Bea is now an elementary teacher, and Elora is a Guitarist at the studio, and a Manager at the plant shop now. during their free time they both paint, Elora works on her guitar and piano skills. Bea is always leaving to go hang out downtown to spend half her paychecks, so Elora is often stepping in with childcare in between shifts. with Elora's goal still tens of thousands away, she's questioning Bea about it. now tensions are rising between them and they're starting to fight. maybe Bea will get fed up and start using her paycheck for a place of her own?
on the sideline of that, i switched households to someone random to cheat and buy a future house for Elora (mostly because i want to start decorating it, it's a shell from the workshop called "blue dream house" or something) to eventually buy for herself and her future family, but i'm making room for Bea and Lola as well cause they're family too, so we'll see!
6/16/26 My history with The Sims.
for starters, before i make any posts about other simulations, i want to go over my long history of thought behind this game. i'll be talking about the life simulation game i have now spent nearly half of my life focused on as a hobby; The Sims. although i had one of those big dinosaur computers in the living room when i was young, which i eventually claimed as my own once laptops were a thing, i never found out about The Sims until i was a teenager, when i spent $20 to buy The Sims 4 basegame on sale when i got a laptop for myself for the first time. from there i went on to shove out upwards of a grand towards the company, only half shamefully because of their recent decisions to sell out farther than being a money hungry company scrapping a decently genuine and cared for game (ref. Sims 1, 2, & 3) for an empty cash cow. i only say half, because a hobby is a hobby, and regardless of your economic status we all deserve to throw $20 at a materal joy here and there. today, if i open the game, it's purely out of nostagia. but let's all remember, nostagia is memories without remembering the truama. i know that sounds a bit dramatic in this context, but i say it's best to leave these companies who don't respect us in every regard we can mentally, physically, and financially handle.