10 years? Wow. I joined the site here back in Jun. 2008, holy crud! Time flies before you know it.. and to think TS3 has only five more years until it reaches its 10th anniversary!
I didn't get the game however until Dec. 2005, as a Christmas gift. It was one of the most exciting moments for me, to get into the game as I slowly shifted from TS1 into TS2. Seeing how cool the gameplay actions were, and the new options that weren't in TS1. It used to give me this strange feel, especially with the music..
Still, unbelievable today.. TS2 is my favorite game from the series. :lovestruc

My first memory of Sims 2 is from around 2005. I wasn't addicted to it then, but my mum was and I would watch her play the game for hours. I got her Nightlife for her birthday and I also remember her making sim versions of herself, me and my dad. I got really upset when my mum was abducted by aliens and I was taken by the social worker in-game. So upset, that don't think I did anything sim-related until about 2010 where I played the game out of curiosity and well, the rest is history.
I'm off to play Sims 2 now, my favourite game ever!

I'm feeling the urge to.

I have been playing the Sims 2 sense it first came out. I abandoned the sims 1, completely in 2008. and only watch YouTube videos of it today.
I never got past 2 generations before I corrupted my neighborhood or did something I should not have done. This may sound awkward to some of you but I never knew that deleting sims from the bin, as well as sending lots with families to the bin causes so much havoc to the game until I came here. but that is the ONLY real thing wrong with the sims 2 otherwise I think it is the best of the series so far.


the first thing noticeable on the sims 2 cover is the alien in which took me years to find out how to unlock that feature in the game. (just with cheats alone)

in spite of my last post I love the sims 2 don't get me wrong I love it

So far it seems this is the best version of the sims for the way I like to play. Now with some essential hacks --- like the one where the social worker does NOT come take your kid for getting too chilly out playing in winter --- I love it even more !!!
Plus, the way it's set up is a plus for my inner control freak Mua ha ha ha ha ..... >:D

Been playing since I noticed it at BestBuy in Nov. 2004 ; it looked interesting so I bought it, brought it home, and gave it a try. Later that night about 12 am, my husband said ," You're STILL playing those little people ? Seriously ? "

I preordered it and got it on release day, after having played with the standalone bodyshop all summer waiting for it.

As a Sims 1 player I'd initially been worried about all these reports that your Sims would grow old and die, and was only slightly reassured by reading that you could turn ageing off. Now I can't imagine wanting to play any other way. There are still Sims 1 objects that I miss - like the Magic Town funfair - but it didn't take long before I knew I was never going to go back.

I still remember being ridiculously excited about the release of Nightlife because it was going to have ownable cars. And Seasons because of weather.

Like the OP, I too had the original Sims, but found the game fairly boring, eventually selling it.

It did pique my interest enough to give TS2 a try though, and I bought it within a month of two of it's release. I found the build mode delightful and the game play much better all-around than the original. I ended up making over a dozen Lots, which I uploaded to the Maxis Exchange. Even had two or three Featured Lots. Eventually, I got bored and sold the game on Ebay. Got back to it a couple of years ago, when all the EPs and SPs could be had cheaply.

The Sims series is not my computer game genre of choice, but it's a pleasant and relaxing diversion, at a highly discounted price for TS2.

I checked back on my old email to see what I was doing 10 years ago today. I got an email from a customer about a database I was building for them. Not much different to today. I was aware of the existence of The Sims back then, but that was about all. I didn't play any computer games apart from the free ones that came with Windows, and some very cheap ones I had bought. None of them interested me much. I had read reviews of SimCity, and it did sound interesting, but not interesting enough to actually buy it. I was vaguely aware that The Sims existed, because I had seen an advert in a computer magazine, but the release of TS2 didn't enter my consciousness at all. (I probably looked after my customers better back then when my Sims didn't run my life!)

It was less than two years ago that I actually bought Double Deluxe and started to play The Sims 2. The first thing I did was mess around in body shop where I created a very basic pair of underpants. Then I played through the tutorial with Tutorial Joe and his girlfriend, and then I opened up Veronaville, created teen Andrew and his outgoing Romance mum Gloria, and moved them into the little house (number 19) at the end of Chorus Court, just across the road from the market. And... they've been my favourite Sims ever since! Some guardian angel must have looked down and protected them from fire and pestilence until I learned how to play properly! It's amazing how quickly I became totally addicted. I joined MTS within days of starting to play, initially to download clothes, but very quickly to ask for help with gameplay too. (I created Garry as a boyfriend for Gloria, but couldn't work out how to make them meet.)

So I didn't even notice when EA/Maxis first brought out The Sims 2, but it's turned out to be a rather significant event for my life. I reckon EA/Maxis must have really excelled themselves when they created TS2, to get me, who had previously been so resistant to computer games, so completely hooked so quickly. TS2 is the only computer game that has ever held my interest. I did recently buy a second hand copy of SimCity 4 though. I'm reading the manual, but I'm a bit scared to install it in case I get hooked on that too!

For me I think life started to go past too fast when I started school just before I was 5. When I left at 17 I remember thinking that it seemed only yesterday that I was sitting on my first day in the infant class. After that it just gets worse. I'll be 63 on my birthday. Where's my life gone? That's one reason that I just can't bear the thought of my Sims only living 90 days. So I always turn aging off, and only occasionally turn it back on so they can age very gradually (and perhaps gracefully).

I got the base game Christmas 2004. I owned all the EPs and most of the SPs and had it installed almost constantly until 2012 when my graphics card and Windows had a terminal disagreement that ended with Linux installed and the graphics card purring.

I needed an operating system that supported professional CAD and wasn't impressed with Windows so I brought a Mac and my Sims 2 disks were incompatible. The Supercollection has allowed me to return to playing and I'm really loving it but I miss Freetime so much.

I didn't find out about and start playing Sims 2 until July 2010, so I wasn't doing anything related to Sims 2 when it came out. I had just gotten my BA in Psychology in May 2004 and was looking for a job around September 2004.

The Sims 2 forever indeed! Though I never actually got to play the game until only a few years ago, I wish I had the game since 2004! In those few years, I've forged many excellent memories with The Sims 2, and it really is an amazing sequel to an amazing game. The Sims 2 shall live on forever...

Oh, I was still a tiny 2nd/3rd grader. I was playing the Sims 1 console version, no doubt, but I think I got The Sims 2 in 2006 or 2007. My parents bought me the base game and every stuff pack/ep that was out at the time (so OFB, Glamor Life, Family Fun and University- maybe another?) for Christmas. My mom played the game at the time too (she has since switched to Facebook games- *cringe*) so I guess it was kind of a group present. I was so, so excited about the different age groups and had no idea that they got pregnant. It's still fascinating to me that each sim has their own genetic "code" and baby sims are, in a way, actually related to them. I remember being incredibly embarrassed every time the first woohoo cutscene played. That is one of the only constants from my 11 year old self's playstyle to my 18 year old self's.

Along with being an endless source of entertainment and a way for me to release my creativity, The Sims 2 kept me going through the 6th grade when I was Diagnosed with Depression and Social Anxiety, and has been keeping me going off and on for the past 8 years. Happy Anniversary, The Sims 2!

I learned about The Sims in, oh, probably about 2003, but didn't experience it for myself until the tail end of 2004 (in 7th grade) when I got The Sims 1 for Nintendo Gamecube for Christmas (and it came from a Toys "R" Us store that just closed at the beginning of this year :-[ ). Then I found a TS1 for PC CD in a box of software and installed it. I befriend this girl from the neighborhood (who had a crush on me), and showed her what I had been doing on TS1, and she told me about The Sims 2, I picked up the new game at Wal-Mart, and I've been hooked ever since.

TS2 didn't come out until the 17th of September in Australia. This suited me perfectly because my 9th birthday was just a day after. Me and my best friend at the time (who I had introduced to TS1 and was similarly obsessed with the game) were so happy when I received the game (and prima guide) the morning of my birthday. Man, those first few weeks with the game... such great times.

I became truly obsessed with the game, getting so excited at school/on the bus to play it when I got home, thinking about it before sleeping, putting every spare moment into it that I was allowed. When I wasn't allowed to play, I'd go upstairs and read my prima guide and make plans for when I played it next. It stands as a testament to the value of that prima guide that it literally fell apart from being read so much.

Cringe moment : Back in 2004, my family owned a motel, and the only PC in the house was located in the motel's reception (which adjoined onto the house). If I was playing and a customer came in, I'd have to hastily shrink my game and go get my mum/dad. Sometimes I'd shrink it, but the damn game wouldn't mute. Due to various circumstances (such as the sound coming from the computer itself and therefore not physically mutable; the mute button in the desktop tray disappearing; not having time to maximise/mute in-game/re-minimise ), mum/dad would be serving a customer to TS2 buy mode or build mode music.

So indeed, somewhere in the world in 2004, there were people being given motel keys and receipts to TS2 game music.

My parents had bought me TS1 with some expansions when I was 12 which was the first I'd heard of the Sims. A few months later TS2 came out. My younger sister and I knew we had to get the game just based on the game box art alone. It seemed like such an improvement! I remember I made a deal with my mom where I would pull all the weeds in the front yard in exchange for getting TS2. I'm still playing TS2 now so I'd say that was worth it :D