Since all of SOE has been shut down (going on day two) I’ve been spending some time in single player games, mostly the Sims. One of the sims expansions introduced professions, which are different then jobs in the way that they’re preformed. They include you controlling your sim for the work day, and I’ve been playing with one in particular, architecture. Basically families within your town will hire you to remodel their homes, either with a brand new addition or reworking a room. The homeowners give you a budget and a list of requirements (ie: they want a writing room and it must have 2 chairs 1 tv 1 desk 1 computer) and then it’s up to you to work that beautifully into their home. They take things into consideration at the end when they ‘judge’ you, like how much time you spent decorating it, whether the walls and floors were completed, whether or not the items placed are easily accessible. If you do a good job you take a picture for your portfolio, and this helps you ‘level up’ in your given field. It’s not as easy as it sounds, either. I’ve remodeled three homes so far and two of them said I did a terrible job. Woops.
It’s not the easiest way to make money, but I’m having a lot of fun breaking away from the ‘typical’ sims job, which requires me to fast forward through countless hours of nothingness while my sim does her own thing. There are other professions as well, such as stylist, firefighter, and investigator. Each one has tasks and events your character will have to partake in to get paid.
Looking back over the years at the progression of the Sims franchise I’ve really been impressed with how far they’ve come. Sims 3 is some of their best work (imo) and I also enjoy browsing the store for new items to purchase for the game. I earned 2,000 free sims points by purchasing various expansions over the years and they’ve had so many sales that I’ve yet to actually spend any money in their market aside from picking up the expansions which I would have done anyhow for simply being a fan of these games. It’s easy to spend hours lost in little worlds that I create, and when my online games are unavailable, it’s a comfort to know that these single player games are not going anywhere.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
I still have so much left to do in Sims 3! Thought about playing it some last night since EQ2 is down, but I ended up doing a mission in Guild Wars instead. One thing I just love about Sims is that it is neverending and always something fun and different to do. It’s definitely a game I go back to again and again and again!