I never fully stop. At the most, I might just be going through phases. For example, like everyone has mentioned here, I may get busy and not have time, or I am just invested in another game at that moment, usually FFTactics or Heroes of Might and Magic III, for me. Usually I can continue to play the Sims with the other games, but if I don't have as much time, I'm more likely to choose the game that has a defined goal/end scenario.

I've also stopped out of boredom. Doesn't last long usually, but it happens occasionally.
At this moment, I am unemployed, so yeah, I've been playing.

Like justpetro said, it's just another hobby of mine. But, like some of the discussion has turned to, I might also be addicted... I definitely am to the computer, so while it's not Sims in particular, I could be a better person. As long as I'm seeing some type of progress off the computer and in real life, I don't consider it so, but, uh, some family members sort of disagree (they also see 'some' progress, so they have mixed views on it; they also have resigned themselves to the fact that I love the computer). Not going to lie, it was a bit hard to read some of those posts - I'm awfully defensive when it comes to it.........

For example, I could look harder for jobs, but I haven't. On the other hand, I'll be starting a seasonal job later this month that has excellent pay for me (and MAYBE, according to my parents, they might hire me on full-time, but I think that's real slim). It's awkward looking for jobs and interviewing at this point (the jobs I'd be doing are 'instant'-start type jobs normally with not-so-good pay). I've interviewed, but again, I could be looking for work way more than I do. As I've said, I see progress in my other hobbies, I get out occasionally despite not really having any friends (def. an improvement I could make, but is something that is not instant, and despite meeting new people, nothing really turns into friendship, go figure). But the job will take a lot of time out of my day (8.5 hours work, + 3 hours commute, + 2 hours free time out of house). And that's an average time (the time I'll be doing), some people work 10-12 hours a day. If I had actual responsibilities, I wouldn't have any time for Simming or gaming, except for probably a tiny bit on the weekends. And at that point, if I would only get to it for 30 minutes once a week, then I'd go with something else.

But on topic, I've never fully quit the Sims.

They get bored, I guess

Lack of time keeps me away from the game for periods of time.

This is a bit worrying, as I recognise some of the patterns mentioned in the web page that PlatinumPlumbbob linked to. Playing The Sims 2 has cost me hardly any money directly as I got my game so cheaply, but I reckon my Real Life business would do better if I spent a little less time on the Sims. I can restrain myself from actually playing The Sims for days at a time, but I keep thinking about them, and I fear I am absolutely addicted to this forum. I check it first thing when I get up and last thing at night, and lots of times in between. Maybe I am overdoing it a bit. I don't talk much about the Sims, because not even my mother (with whom I live) knows that I play the Sims at all. She doesn't stop me playing because she doesn't know. (I'm 50 years older than poor FrankieSims.) Because nobody at home knows, all my talk about the Sims is on this forum. Because, whatever differences we may have, I know everyone here loves The Sims 2! :lovestruc

So if I do stop posting quite so often, perhaps you'll all understand why.

One thing I do sometimes wonder about: what makes top rate modders like MogHughson or christianlov give up the Sims?

I remember when my older sister was 12, she claimed to have 'grown out' of Sims 2 and refused to play it. Kinda awkward that everyone on this forum is older than 12 and still plays

I imagine talented creators can get tired of a game just as easily as anyone else. Reading Trappings post about her leaving the community it seemed the creation part was part of it. Anything can stop being fun if you feel pressure and obligation from it, no matter how much you love the thing in question. I'm extremely prone to this myself. As soon as I feel something is an obligation, and all other emotions are shadowed by the pressure. Fortunately, it doesn't happen with The Sims, since it's very much only on my conditions. But being a talented creator, I imagine you feel the pressure of the community and their admiration, and their longing for more great creations.

I also don't think reading a forum a lot is necessarily a sign of addiction. It can definitely be, but not every interest you do a lot is an addiction The sign of addiction is not being able to stop, or reacting poorly if you can't do it, not only that you do it a lot. I check this forum every morning and countless times during the day when I'm at home, but when I see my parents I often don't check in for 3-4 days and it doesn't bother me.

Well, I got the game back when I was 16, along with a shiny new laptop. Used to play nearly every single day, sometimes hours past midnight. Almost had abstinences if I couldn't play for a few days.

Now, perhaps not so much. I still play the game, but not as often. Mostly taking pictures or doing story shots, or testing CC. I haven't played the game for quite a while now, having lots of other things to do. But I eagerly check forums and sites everyday, and make CC whenever I feel like.

As for TS3, I play it in spurts. Maybe for several hours a day during a week, with several months between. That is, when my game actually works. After I tried installing the latest EP, it stopped working. Haven't gotten around to fix it yet, probably because I haven't been very keen on playing it lately. So I can understand why people can grow tired of it. I've just never been much into it myself. If it had been my TS2 game not working, I'd probably been in full panic mode a couple of days later... As for TS4, I don't have it, and don't really miss it, either.

I'm always sad when a creator I adore leaves the community. For most of them, I guess that life just happens, and that they sooner or later figure out that sims take up too much time, or that they just don't like the game as much as they used to. Can happen to anyone.

When I stop playing sims for a while, it's usually because I'm busy with something else. I haven't fired up my game for several days, maybe over a week at this point, because I found Pam Uphoff's Wine of the Gods series (genetic engineering creates magicians) and I have fun ebooks that I need to wait until kids are in bed to read. (And which series I will heartily recommend to those of you who are adults-some are set in some pretty nasty cultures, nothing worse than actual history-and who enjoy that sort of multidimensional travel fantasy book.) Her stand alone novel Fancy Free would be good for anyone who likes science fiction.

I never could get much into game play because my joy was building lots. Lots and lots of lots. I enjoy building and, when not doing that, revamping old lots.
Then, a few months ago, after all these years, I built the perfect layout, with the perfect lot size, kitchen, living room, foyer, baths, etc. I revamped it with colors and walls and furniture, and like all past lots, I saved them all.
In doing so, I created my own demise. My Sims are all happy with their lot, so to speak, and I just can't bear to change their lives to any degree!

In my case, it's for the second reason PlatinumPlumbbob stated. I'm too much of an OCD perfectionist to have versitile gameplay, so in my mind, each family is a seperate game, and that game is accomplished by unlocking everything, doing everything perfectly, achieving the highest scores etc. I have never had a kid not get into private school or a family sim not getting their desired family or a wealth sim not having gotten to the top of at least 5 carreers and owning at least 2 top level businesses. When you have a compulsion to play like that, every family is the same on repeat, over and over. I haven't played the Sims now for several months.

The same applies to older games, such as Super Mario 3. There are certain uhm.... tracks (?) where the camera is constantly moving, forcing Mario (the player) to move forward quickly. If you obtain every single coin, 1up and whatever else on that level, it will spawn a white ship or a white mushroom (complete nonsense for those who haven't played Super Mario 3). I have played it since I was a small child and even then, if I missed just one coin on one of those levels, I would reset the entire game and start over. Then came Lylatwars with Star Fox for Nintendo 64 and that was no different. Getting "mission complete" was the same to me as getting "mission failed". I had to get "mission accomplished" and I would re-play it until I got it.

That's why I'm currently playing Minecraft, because there is nothing in that game to trigger the unpleasent aspects of my OCD. Only the pleasent aspect of getting to collect tons of different items, gems and materials and building gigantic fancy storage facilities to store it in.

Ahhhhh..... organized structure....

I just get bored of it after awhile. Sometimes I'll switch to Sims 3 and I'll play that for awhile. And then when I'm sick of Sims 2 and Sims 3...I don't really play anything.

Since Sims 4 is only a few months old (and I've played TS2 since maybe 2008 and TS3 since 2009) I don't really have an opinion on it. Though presumably the same thing will happen.

Six years of playing Sims...damn, has it really been that long? I wonder if I should try getting TS1, since I heard someone say it works on Windows 7...

Sometimes I get bored of playing Sims 2. I have Sims 4 but haven't played it yet. When I get bored of playing, I just build.
I tend to do the same type of family over and over. I like realism and I usually have to plot out what happens to the families.

I guess some people may stop playing due to school, work or raising a real-life family. Maybe they simply got way too bored of the game.

I've stopped playing Sims because of time and not having access to a good computer. Each day I wake up at 5:20 to go to school, a club or class tutorial, then depending on the season either sports practice or the gym, eat dinner, shower, do homework/study, and hope to finally be in bed around 10-12:00. Each weekend I hang out with friends, go to practice/a meet/the gym, do homework, and go to church. I live in a rural community so it takes forever to drive places so that also takes up a lot of time. It would not be possible for me to play Sims on the weekdays, I'd maybe get an hour in every few weekends.
I still want to play, I just don't have a computer capable of handling the game system requirements right now. I have been saving up for one to order Black Friday or Cyber Monday which I would either pay for with some of my savings or receive as my Christmas present. Even though I know I'm allowed to get one I don't know if I should.. I miss Sims like crazy and don't know when I'll play it next, but it's still expensive. I feel bad because money's tight and somehow my parents always get me things I need and I don't want to take advantage of that.

I stopped playing because I started uni and became too busy. Now I'm on holiday I can start playing again.

Uhmm...1980 was 34 years ago, not just "over 20".
Or maybe we should

I have never been bored with Sims 2 because I'm still discovering new things about it. I think after eight years and two other Sims series, I can consider the Sims 2 an addiction. And outgrow the series? Oh, dear. Could I just chalk it up to being young at heart, rather than young?

However, there have been times I haven't played much. Sometimes, I didn't play at all, or played once a week, and for a Sims 2 addict, that IS being restrained, I believe.

1. A main reason .... computer glitching. Video cards, refurbs, etc. At once point, I barely played for about a ten-month period because my computer kept doing wonky stuff. I hope I don't have to wait THAT long again!

2. Just as important: the game glitching. Since my Happy Holiday mess, the idea of reinstalling and having to keep my fingers crossed as I install each EP and SP again is really dampening my enthusiasm for playing my current hoods, since I do plan to get rid of all of them. (There are other things I would like to fix, though ordinarily, I wouldn't have done so if the game ran fine, and the only way I can fix them is a reset/reinstall.) Perhaps I am slow when it comes to this ... no, I AM slow ... but I find installing can take several hours of work, and I have to do it over a couple of days or more. There are other things one often does in addition to simply installing ... backing up, packaging favorite lots or copies of Sims, CFE Explorer, fixing the video card file, etc. A few minutes here and there can add up.

But hey, I can smile at the thought that my current hood has lasted for well over a year. For me, that is an accomplishment!

3. As addicted as I am. sometimes other pastimes fascinate me more for a while. Back when Sims Social/SimCity Social came out, I barely touched my PC Sims game for several months, for instance. My family was wondering if I was ill. I'm not bored with Sims 2 when this sort of thing happens, but even the most addicted game player can't create 36-hour days and play for every hour of them!

4. And sometimes, family or personal matters DO hinder playing. Real life can be most uncooperative.

As for creators leaving, often it's real life situations or game burnout, but sometimes, I'm sorry to admit, Sims players can kill a creator's spirit. I've seen some truly abhorrent behavior on the part of a few Sims 1, 2, 3 and 4 players over the years. No, we don't need to bow down, kiss creators' feet, and wash their floors, but at least be tactful and polite, and maybe extend a thank you or two or three.

I temporarily get absorbed in something else, like a tv show already seasons in I just have to catch up on really quick. Or I get "burned out" for a time. I always come back but if I play something too much i'll get burned out on it, no matter how much I love it. Recently though i've made a "rotation" list of games to play so I shouldn't get bored.

Well it feels like 20 years ago!

When I take a pause from playing The Sims, it's usually to focus on something else, sometimes school or another game that has my attention. Or maybe I've lost interest and want to take a break. Nostalgia is usually a driving factor to get people to play a game they once loved, so I highly doubt I will ever put down The Sims and say "I'm finished with this game - I will never come back." Eventually, the memories of all the fun I had with the series will drive me back, and soon I'm back burning Sims to ashes like a pro.

Another reason I've read ... sometimes, people lost or broke disks, and didn't get around to replacing them. With the UC, that's not as common a reason now, but it has happened.

Honestly, sometimes people forget just how diverse you could make the sims. The game sort of guides players to play a sort of way, which may be more rewarding for some to break the rules, but could also harm others who don't think outside the box. Like, Pleasantview is this soap-opera rich community with expensive everything, but there's always rebels and crime in places that seem sweet. Some people might not want to shake up the neighborhood that much, but playing the same for so long could ruin their experience of the game. Even just having non-stop raging house party-turned community lots shakes things up a lot. Seriously, what are your rebellious sims going to do? Non-stop parties? Aw yissss.

Also, mods can make the game a lot more detailed, so I imagine people quit whenever they either don't know mods exist or are too scared to use them. I mean, some computers hang on with a thread. Some mods might be enough to snip the thread and absolutely ruin their already awful computer. Plus, some sites are virus ridden. I bet that keeps some people from modding. Honestly, it limits the amount of sites I use, though I imagine some people might be too scared to use any sites at all.

Also, what if the same reasons they don't mod also keep them from downloading custom content too? Every sim will look the same. Every sim will have the same shade of skin, the same shade of hair, the same eye colors. Boring. Less bad in TS3 with all the recoloring, but in TS2, what you get is what you get. Some people might not even really want to try making things in Bodyshop.




Basically, the people who leave might either have terrible computers, or might just not be the type of person who would really like to play it.