What do you do in the Sims 3?

I rarely play the Sims 3 anymore. I'm so hooked on Sims4. But I have almost ALL the expansion packs for 3 and they're just sitting there begging me to play them. What sorts of things do you do in the Sims 3? Stories? Challenges? What types? I want to play, but get bored quickly lol. Tell me what you do!

OMG I need this help too. I load a world, then just sit there and don't know where to start. Then I have to build a house, then i don't like a community building and have to build that, then i have to... yada yada yada...

Then i usually just make something and test it out. XD

haha I'm so glad I'm not the only one!!

I play my crack Jim-Bob legacy. I also play Ace and Cameron in a different world than them so story progression doesn't jack up Jim-Bob.

Mostly my Jim-Bob thing is just whatever randomly happens... Jim-Bob married Charity who was made for me by my bestie, but everything else is gonna be random.

With Ace and Cam, I also have Alice, Ace and Alice's dad Hikaru, Cameron's aunt Linda, and Ace and Alice's foster siblings Jocelyn and Noah. So I basically just fart around with them and take pictures of what they're doing at the time. XD

Well, I do modeling comps, which isn't really playing..lol.

I wrote a story for my tumblr but lost interest/had game issues towards the very end. However, it made me realize how I would do it differently the next time

I spend time making sims and take pics of them and edit them in Photoshop.

I build or decorate--or both--when I have had enough of the above.

I also play just to play, take screenshots and edit them in Photoshop.

I guess for the most part, I don't play just to play. There are so many things from each expansion pack though that I have never explored, though Into The Future was my fave and I really did explore that one. But doing all the different things above keeps me from getting bored. When I do get bored with one of the above, I take a break from it and do one of the other ones

Right now, I am building and decorating and enjoying it!

Well I do all that too, Nini my dear. I just have trouble with actual gameplay. All I seem to do any more is model, photo shoots and edit, and make stuffs. I don't even know where to begin to play a game. I spend so much time setting up, building decorating making new sims, then I get bored XD

Same here. I mainly model. Then I read about other people and their awesome game play and think why can't I play like that? I read a beautiful love story the other day between a mermaid and fisherman. I mean, why didn't I think of that?

There is so much to do. Maybe that is the problem. haha. I just don't know where to start anymore. I have so many unplayed households that I start up but then I get bored. I struggle to get like a backstory for them.

I find I struggle to maintain interest if I go for too strict a back-story; sometimes I just like to play and see how it goes trying to get people high in their careers, making friends and just having children to have the fun of genetics. I like to form my characters as they go along, depending on the gameplay. I find I get stressed if I have too defined a character - always thinking would they do this? and hating when things get out of my control.

I find it to be such a nuisance to play TS3. I only just take pictures with my legacy when I have time to write it. When I do actually feel like playing a Sims game with no pictures or anything I play TS4.

What always gets me started is making a Sim, planning out what I'd like the future to hold for them. An if I can't think of anything I usually just do terrible, terrible things. I once had my Sims get married and killed her the night of the wedding. It makes things so interesting though!

Thanks for all the input so far!!! I think my problem is I'm too controlling when I play. I need to loosen up and let crazy things happen!

I once tried that one sim murder the other by setting the house on fire. But the fire didn't want to spread past the kitchen and eventually died out. He survived.

I'm currently active with my family the Alfredo's, and that's all I do. Playing them, but really, playing. That's the main reason why I don't do modelling anymore: I love playing the sims way to much and had to choose.

I recently reinstalled my sims 3 base game and play it completly CC free!
The idea behind was to 'recreate a sims life circle' (that sounds so weird) and enjoy every single expansion on their own.
Soo, I install the expansion packs one by one and really try to do all the things that are possible and come with the different packs!
So I started with a YA and went to university (University Life) then you need to party (Late Night) and enjoy your youth, then thinking about your further education (university life could actually replace that) and find a job (ambitions) and settle down to family life (generations) and so on.. I really want to enjoy every expansion to the fullest

Finally got some time to answer this thread and give out some tips.

First off, Sims 3 will be boring if you do not have this mod....
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/StoryProgression

It is the mod of all mods! Seriously! It made the town in my game feel so much livelier. It gives you just enough control to feel like you're in charge, but random crap happens almost daily with it because the townies aren't just roaming around doing nothing. They get jobs, hook up, and have babies. You even get little popups telling you. You can cut those off if they're annoying, but I like to keeps tabs on my town and who's with who.

Now I've been through hundreds of saves and I've gotten bored with almost all of them. I usually make couples and have them have kids. Then once they have kids I'm bored with it. I think I get way too attached to the sims I've started out with, so when the kids come into the picture I have no interest of continuing the story with those kids and there's nothing else left for my couple to do accept get old.

So morale of the story is let go and focus on the family as a unit. If you focus on one sim and don't  leave yourself with any room for the game to grow, you will be bored and disappointed.

Next, I am a control freak when it comes to games. I will freak out if I can't make everything perfect. That in itself is a big mistake when it comes to sims. You have to let the game dictate some of what you do rather you stressing out trying to make the perfect little life. If your sim fancies a married sim, go for it! If your sim is unhappy in their marriage, have a affair or get a divorce. Go crazy!!! Do evil crap!

I have a legacy now that started as an affair and grew into a loving family of vampires. Now I have another affair going, but the husband's brother is the one sleeping with his wife. It's pretty freaking awesome! I love drama like that!

Before island paradise fucked up my save I had a sim name Seamore and his goal was to sleep around town. He was even seeing a married women. I still miss that save!

So yeah you can't be too controlling and you have to include the randomness of townies to have any fun. Townies can be unpredictable, because you didn't make them and they have traits they you may have never picked. They even have a history with other sims you may have never encountered. Exes, parents, siblings.

The vamp I spoke of earlier with the cheating wife has a ex boyfriend who she's still friendly with and she must have flirted with him too at some point, because the husband became aware of it and it was the start of their downfall. Interesting stuff.

Then you got genetics! Townies can come in handy for this too. Waiting for kids to grow up can be boring, but you gotta stick with it. It paid off big time! Seeing the kids grow up and picking out who got what from what parent was so fun and satisfying.

Speaking of that, legacies work great for genetics and boredom. Doing one now. It's the longest I've ever played with just one family.

Finally, play with sims that cater to your rl interest and use supernaturals to mix it up. I love vampires, so a vampire legacy was perfect for me. I'm also playing in Midnight Hollow so it all speaks to my dark soul. As for other supernaturals, my vamp heir might start dating the werewolf neighbor next door who I moved in. Probably won't get a hybrid without mods, but I wouldn't mind having werewolf in the gene pool.

I'll post my legacy in the legacy section, so you can see. Been planning too.

I might can also provide some ideas. Starting with a character or idea for a sim or family helps. I started with one vampire and went from there.

@vidkid20

I play a family, in at the moment Isla Paradiso, and I don't use any storyprogession. Why? I like control. With that mod there's a chance my heir's mother suddenly divorces with her husband (my heirs father) and I absolutely don't want that. The game is already lively enough without because nowadays half the town is the family of my sim, a town full of handsome/pretty Alfredos.

Actually you can switch off break ups, remarrying, babies, and job changes individually by household with that mod .

My legacy fonder and his wife are living across the street from my active household now and I cut off all those things, so they still work in their current jobs and they won't break up or have kids via story progression at less I want them too. It's very customizable.

But it's just a suggestion.

Thank you all so much for the continuing comments! This is helping a lot!!

lioness_k wrote:

Just had to share my legacy...Parker & Kaylyn getting married!
P.S. I love playing in Sunset Valley. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one. lol

Oh wow your family is so beautiful! Great pic of them too.

B/w I like Sunset Valley still. I just seem to always end up in the other EA made worlds.