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Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 3:38 AM
Default Why do you play ts2?
Why do you play ts2?

Or in other words, why haven’t you moved on / what keeps you coming back?

I’m fascinated by the vast amount of players still enjoying ts2, and even moreso the younger players that are making new and interesting mods when there’s newer games in the franchise.

For me, even though there’s a lot of bugs in ts2 that need patching/the engine is really showing its’ old age, ts2 has a genuine charm that’s lost in later installments. I don’t know how to describe it other than that, charm. There’s also a sense of challenge / the game doesn’t treat the player like babies that can’t handle drama in our games (bring burglars to ts4, you cowards).

So what keeps you coming back?

Not-so-daily TS2 downloads @ my simblr.
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Link Ninja
#2 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 3:54 AM
I've invested so much time into building my hood, sims, and their stories that I don't want to start over. Also there always seems to be something new even for this old game because of the newer modders, and just old cc or mods I still haven't tried or used so it's never stale. It's like tending a digital garden of pixels.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Mad Poster
#3 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 4:10 AM
There's still lots I haven't done yet that I know is possible with the tools in this game, so since I know there's still uncharted territory here, why would I need to move on? I certainly still consider playing TS3 from time to time, but even if I did, I wouldn't intend to abandon TS2.

It's kind of like how I can still come up with all sorts of new things to create on the rare occasions I decide I need to take a break from being 'grown up' and sit down and make something with my old Lego bricks- most of them are 20+ years old, but they still go together and I can still use them to make things that haven't ever been made before!

Welcome to the Dark Side...
We lied about having cookies.
Alchemist
#4 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 4:23 AM
I like to play rotationally, but Sims 3 is more suited to legacy play. I like surrealism more than cuteness, so Sims 4 isn't a great fit. I know how to mod Sims 2, so even when I'm bored with playing, I can work on molding it in the image of my idea of the perfect game.

That said, I do wish EA would make a worthy successor to Sims 2. There are some parts of this game that probably can't ever be modded, and it'd be nice to have some fresh gameplay and nice graphics that don't require 10 gb of CC.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 4:46 AM
I play because I have a town to take care of and lots of pixels to look after. It's almost a full-time job, but much more fun! It also distracts me away from a very dystopian outside environment where all hell has broken loose and nobody can control it or even predict what's going to happen next. My town, I can control.

And it makes me happy-a very important point.

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Theorist
#6 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 4:51 AM
It's a good game.
Scholar
#7 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 5:13 AM
Personally I probably would have gotten bored by now if it weren't for all the new scenarios mods/modded objects give potential to. Such as right now, I've been making a mountain lot so that sims can actually 'go hiking' instead of just walking off lot to tick the box over and over again. In a vanilla game they wouldn't even be able to sleep on a community lot (I think?) but with what I've found so far they'll be able to sleep there and even survive off their freshly caught kills (Plumbobkeeps animal traps) on open coals (Phaenohs rotisserie spit). With the build/buy mode enabler I'll even be able to plonk down the stuff in unique places each time instead of it all magically being there on arrival. There's not much you can't do in the game these days.

There's also the teeny tiny fact my computers decrepit and would implode trying to run anything remotely modern, so there's that too.


"It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled." - Mark Twain
Truth will not fear scrutiny.
Forum Resident
#8 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 11:38 AM
I play both TS2 and TS3 at different times (though I don't have TS4 and have never wanted it), so I can give you reasons why I come back to TS2 as well as playing TS3.

As omglo said, TS2 is much better than TS3 for playing rotations. Rotations are possible in TS3, with the right mods and a record of finances and a fixed time in each household, but its a game suited for playing one or maybe a few households in town rather than all of them. TS2 is the game for playing out everyone's story.

As part of that, TS2 has much more opportunity for exploring relationships than TS3. For one thing it has one-sided relationships that later games don't, but also because everyone gets played you get to see both sides of any relationship as it progresses (as long as there's no townie) without the sims having to live together. It means I get to see Orion Curious and Hecate Beaker's romance from his side (The girl of his dreams! He'd do anything for her! He won't even look at another woman) and hers (He's really cute... but so is her former boyfriend Nathan... and there's so much else to do, and explore, and find out...) - while TS3 relationships all seem to feel the same from both sides.

TS3 definitely has it's advantages. Story Progression (with a good mod) means that I don't have to play families that bore me, or I can move on with a game without spending the time it takes to play everyone. The skill system is so much better. And Create a Style is a wonderful thing for designing furniture/ clothing the way I want it to look. So I do enjoy playing TS3 - but I also come back to TS2.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#9 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 12:20 PM
A lot of reasons.

The sims: I find sims 2 sims easy to make, especially now with nondefault face templates and custom sliders and I like how they look once cc is applied. I find the interactions realistic with enough silly to be amusing without being annoying and anything that is annoying has a mod to nix it. Sims 2 sims feel more real to me than the other two games, the sims in sims 3 and 4 feel more like characters than people.
I never liked how sims 3 sims looked so while I liked the activities I disliked the actual sims, and while sims 4 sims are cute, especially the toddlers, the game itself is shallow and boring for any serious long term play. It feels casual and shallow.

Mouldability: Most things are moddable so the game can be stretched and moulded into whatever you want including ease of creating hoods. Sims 3 hoods can be made but looked difficult and sims 4 dropped the ball there entirely. I want to be able to have as many lots as I want of whatever type I want. I dislike any game that tries to tell me what to do, I want to tell it what to do. Which leads onto...

Control: I like to be in control of my game. I like my sims to be where I left them when I come back to their round. No one has changed jobs, had babies, or done anything I didn't want them to do. (although the story progression mod has made even that possible for those that wants it) The most that could happen is relationship changes or they have bought items at a shop. Looking in inventory to see what they have bought is always interesting.

Sims 2 ticks the most important boxes for me and where it falls down, those things are much lower on the rung of importance. I would love lot imposters to be improved, but I can live with those due to how good the rest of the game is.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#10 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 12:30 PM
What keeps me coming back is the ease of creating a neighborhood. Anyone that has seen my towns knows that I invest a lot of time into each and every one of them and while TS3 offers the same town/world building concept, it is a concept that is much more complex and I simply cannot invest time into Create A World. TS2 on the other hand has all I need to set up amazing or detailed towns and the best part of it is that the tools, with exception of SimCity4 terrain creation, can all be utilized from in game. So it really offers a world/neighborhood builder and lot creator like myself the creative freedom to go wild.

For the Sims themselves I find TS2 to be more restrictive in comparison to TS3 when it comes to actually creating them, however the Sims in TS2 are more detailed or fleshed out than TS3 Sims. In short TS2 Sims simply have more personality and that drives me to connect better with them whenever I do decide to actually play them.

Don't even get me started on the disaster that is TS4 Sims and world/lot building.....

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Mad Poster
#11 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 5:00 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 11th Aug 2021 at 1:59 PM.
For me, it's the game with the least bugs (believe it or not... although I don't count getting the thing to work on newer hardware - that's another can of worms).

I much prefer the storytelling tools in TS2, the sims, the animations, and a lot more. The only thing I kinda miss is having a fully developed environment (to some degree - the only thing I really wish I had from TS3 and TS4 is having a nice neighborhood in the background, because the lot impostors are sometimes a pain to deal with. there's hood deco, so some clever placement there and I can get away with it, but still). TS2 does have one big advantage in that you can customize the neighborhood exactly the way you want it with hood deco and such, so at least there's that.

I prefer the playstyle, with individually saved lots, and as many lots as you want without worrying about them not saving properly. I really don't like how that's handled in TS3 or TS4, so I mostly end up playing one or two families there because I just can't bother modding those two games to infinity and beyond just to get it how I want. TS2 is how I like it vanilla-style, and that's perfect. I also like that there's a little bit more challenge needed to keep sims happy. TS4 sims (vanilla, anyway) are ridicolously easy to take care of (been a while since I played TS3, but I do remember them as being less challenging, too).

I also like TS2's attention to detail, and all those little things they've put into the game that you hardly even notice until you're made aware of them. I really like how the sims have actual emotions and reactions that fit their current mood, but also their memories from earlier (unlike TS4...).

I also like the TS2 babies a LOT better (they're hands-down the best and cutest of the bunch). I have warmed slightly up to the TS4 toddlers, but the rest of the game unfortunately doesn't save them (plus, I don't like the triple set of skilling they have to go through - that's overkill! My TS2 toddlers get to keep their skill points, and so do the kids, which I think is fair game. The adults have better things to do than talking to a mirror all day to gain charisma).

Sims 2 genetics. Need I even say more about that one?
TS1 doesn't have genetics, and the other two barely have a genetics system that works for one generation forward.

TS2 (when it works fine - still having some issues with crashing but I suspect there could be some issues left over from all the "fixes" I tried) usually runs much better than the other two games, and doesn't put the laptop fans into jet engine mode (dunno what that's about, but my laptops have never liked TS4 or Origin much, and they've not been the biggest fans of TS3 either )

There are things I like with TS3 and TS4, but TS2 is my favorite game and will always be. I've got far too many annoyances with the two others...
Instructor
#13 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 8:19 PM
I'm just so familiar with Sims 2. I don't know every little detail about it, like many on this forum do, but I know enough about it to fix any issues I have with it.

I did play the Sims 3 for a few years before I became fed up with the lagging and two-hour load time. When I get a new gaming PC, I do plan on playing it again.

Sims 4 is just a full-on snoozefest. Even with mods and EPs, It's still boring. Even watching other people playing it, it's still boring.

Sims 2 has heart, soul, and a sense of humor that the latter Sims games don't have. I think that's the main reason why I am still with Sims 2.



There's no drama, like Sims drama.

Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!




Forum Resident
#14 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 8:28 PM
I was passionate about them when I was little but never had a decent computer to run them well, I suffered with eternal loading screens, and the special event camera was something for the rich xD. Then I took care of other things and couldn't play this game until I finally built my own computer, three years ago. Playing them with a more mature perspective and being able to do things that I didn't do before is what attracts me now, although some of that childish innocence is gone, so when I discover something new about this game I get excited. I also realize that the "ugliness" of the objects and walls in this game made me develop a very special aesthetic sense that I am recovering today when I build, remembering decoration tricks that I did when I was little is quite fun .

About why I continue with this game and not the newest ones ... well, many here have already said why. It feels more alive and real and the sims seem to have a soul. Storytelling is also better, in addition to memories and wishes.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 10:58 PM
For me, it is the limitless possibilities that the game offers when you make your own custom hood.
Hundreds of families - I have 153 right now. And I started with 24 single sims.

Subhoods: I believe my idea for a retirement subhood was one of my best ideas ever. Other subhoods in my game: a farming one, a military one, a hood for the rich and famous, a hood for the poor, as well as Univiersity, Bluewater Village and Downtown. (And, yes, I do play ALL the families).

The Sims themselves: they continue to amaze, surprise and entertain me. Whether it is the now retired Minister of Education (who has done it all) deciding to teleport to the bathroom to clean it, or the sim turning up all on her own on the doorstep of a newly widowed former lover - just in time for a second wedding. Or a sim finally - finally - finally - owning 5 top businesses. And it is quite gratifying when one of these top businesses is a restaurant! Or the number of twins being born at random intervals, or the way a toddler plays in the snow, or the way a neat sim reacts when you tell him to clean something on a community lot (fist pump!) - or the way sims seem to grow smarter and smarter over time.

Also trying to improve my building skills as well - I have a lot to learn and someday, I may be able to build a true masterpiece.

I am simply not done with Sims 2 - not by a long shot
Mad Poster
#16 Old 9th Aug 2021 at 11:37 PM
A combo of I like it best and I'm poor. I never tried 3 because I could never get past how awful the actual Sims looked and I wasn't about to go dropping money on something I didn't like the look of. I did try 4 at launch, but only because somebody brought me the base game. But it launched with too much stuff missing. I don't mean weather and pets, which should be base game by now, but pools, ghosts, burglars and firefighters, and a whole entire life stage! Why would I want to move onto a game that has less to offer me than the TS2 basegame? I know most of that's been patched in now, but it was just such a bad first impression that once again, I couldn't bring myself to drop any money on it, especially when the price tag is now like $800 and rising. Sims 2 is fun, engaging, challenging, but most of all, it's complete and I was able to get all of the disks cheap from CEX.
Field Researcher
#17 Old 10th Aug 2021 at 5:07 PM
I'm actually still playing Sims 2 because of this site, I thought I needed a computer with a video card until someone here encouraged me to try installing it anyway. I'm glad they did.

I still find the game fun (even a version that doesn't have all the expansion packs), I already have a paid-for copy, and it runs on the secondhand computer I currently have.
Mad Poster
#18 Old 10th Aug 2021 at 9:57 PM
Default Why do I play The Sims 2?
THIS
Quote: Originally posted by Charmful
I've invested so much time into building my hood, sims, and their stories that I don't want to start over.

AND THIS
Quote: Originally posted by FranH
I play because I have a town to take care of and lots of pixels to look after. It's almost a full-time job, but much more fun! It also distracts me away from a very dystopian outside environment where all hell has broken loose and nobody can control it or even predict what's going to happen next. My town, I can control.

And it makes me happy-a very important point.

PLUS

It's where my friends live.

(By that I mainly mean those Sims in my 'hoods -- especially Veronaville -- that I regard as special friends, but I hope I may also include some of my fellow Simmers here on this forum.)

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#19 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 2:58 AM
This is why from one writer.

A homage to the game we all love, no matter which iteration:

On "The Sims," Cottagecore, and Disassociating Through Grief

Quote:
Playing The Sims doesn’t make me feel that, necessarily, but it offers a soft, quilted bed to slip into when the pain gets unimaginable. A year and a half ago, I yearned for control. Now, I yearn mostly for rest. Soon, maybe, I can ask for joy.


Which is the article after this one:

"The Sims" Is the Perfect Game for Social Distancing During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#20 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 6:25 AM
Wow those articles made me cry, oof.

Hold onto your pixel people and irl people and love them.

Not-so-daily TS2 downloads @ my simblr.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 11:59 AM
For me, Sims has always been a means of therapy. I process my life experience through my Sims and their stories. If something felt unfinished, I can finish it in Sims. If something felt unexplored, I can explore it in Sims. If something happened in a way that I am unhappy about, I can finish it the right way in Sims. In addition to the therapeutic aspect, it's an outlet for creativity. Both in terms of story-telling, but also in the many different ways you can create for the game. When I want to challenge my brain and learn new things, I can mod. When I wanna do something akin to painting, I recolor. If I wanna be nerdy, I can fire up excel and make a spreadsheet about taxes or something else in the game that interests me. So to put it plainly, I play Sims because it's good for my mental health.

And the fact that it's Sims 2 specifically is simply because Sims 2 added things Sims 1 is lacking, and 3/4 offer nothing. I loved Sims 1 back when that's what we had, but the lack of aging makes it hard to really enjoy long-term. It has some great stuff, but once you did something once, it wasn't that appealing to repeat it, at least not to me. I do wish more of Making Magic and Vacations had made it into Sims 2, but over all Sims 2 is a better sandbox which is why I dropped 1 for 2. Sims 3/4 takes away the things I love, and adds things I hate, so they never had me the slightest bit tempted to try.

Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 12:09 PM
Its just what I'm use to. I get so frustrated with 3 & 4 because its too different and I can't do the things I want to do. To be fair I think it mostly comes down to I have lots of mods and I'm very familiar with the game mechanics.

I played Sims 3 on and off for a while. It was okay but I felt you couldn't play premade storylines because by the time I had played one family, the other had aged too fast and couldn't ply through their storyline. Also if I did just want to play one household: other households would age generations until there were just a collection of random unrelated sims living together. Their names and clothing would be random and wouldn't feel like it fits with certain family ascetics etc. Some of my discontent could be solved by turning aging off... but part of the lure for me was that they aged independently. So it just seems pointless to play it like sims 2 when I can just play sims 2. Also the genetics was off and I love playing with sims 2 genetics.

Sims 4 I couldn't get into. All sims look too similar to me and no matter how I tried to make sims they all came off looking very hipstery and similar even when I tried to give them different styles (e.g. a family of a businessman, 50s housewife, goth daughter and sporty son - all just looked like hipsters). Maybe I'm just so use to sims 2 sims but sims 3 and 4 faces all look more or less identical to me. Their clothes and hair could at least be fixed with CC... but again why download cc for sims 4 when I can just play sims 2 with the hordes of cc I have?

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Mad Poster
#23 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 2:25 PM
I'm playing TS2 because I've always wanted to take a town from nothing to becoming a city with multiple neighborhoods over the generations as new families move in and as the founders have children and later the decendants are still living in the town.
Test Subject
#24 Old 11th Aug 2021 at 6:46 PM
This year I have been playing the sims 2, after so much time playing the sims 4, since I was bored. And I came back because in the sims 2 I have more possibilities and the stories are made by themselves. In conclusion the sims 2 is the best game of the sims franchise in my opinion.
Field Researcher
#25 Old 13th Aug 2021 at 12:16 AM
I enjoy rotational gameplay and being in total control of what happens in my neighborhood.

All's fair in love, war, and video games! ~LyokoGirl5000
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