The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is a life simulation game where you can play as a pre-established character or create a character of your own. The game starts off slow, but as you progress through your sim journey things will progress at a nice pace. The offering of products will feel limited at first, but there is much to be had from the game's Exchange (online store) as well as Expansion Packs.

One of my characters I created some time
ago who happens to be quite successful
in Real Estate, Gardening, Fishing
and Book Writing.

Overview

The main objective of the game is to achieve your lifetime goal which is determined by the player. You can earn money (Simoleons) from working at jobs, writing books, winning contests/competitions, completing side tasks and helping Sims around town. You can commute from Point A to B by manual transportation or via motor vehicle.

Compared to its predecessors, the world of Sims 3 is open. This means you're not limited to the lot your home is on. For me this was a welcomed sight since I like to explore.

There are pros and cons to gameplay but the gameplay overall is intriguing. Some players have created mods so their sims can look more appealing. Since the reveal of the Sims 4 in the newsletter some players were concerned about the hype and if #4 will live up to #3.

Well, thanks to the EA's press conference during E3 2014, the new comer looks pretty promising.

UPDATE: November 15, 2022

I had no idea this post was so short, especially with all the fun I had in game. Unfortunately, at the time of play I didn't think to take screen captures of my stuff for later reference. Even more depressing was losing access to my EA account due to not logging in consistently.

Any who, the Sims 3 played a major role in calming my nerves during down time. I created a single character and focused on that character; I was going to experiment with a family setting but my game got erased from my laptop (more on this later). When I started playing, I purchased a purchased a lot on the beach and built a home from scratch.

After a while, I decided to move closer to town as the commute was too much for my work schedule. I purchased a simple corner house in the suburbs that had a spacious yard. I went through several careers and began several entrepreneurial endeavors.

I started off with writing books and quickly followed those up with gardening. When I wasn't tending to my writing or gardening, I was renovating my house. It went from a single story to a two story home.

My modest garden expanded enough to where I didn't need to shop as much and could even sell off some produce at the local market. The same applied to the fishes I caught. Then came spelunking around town.

If I'm recalling correctly, I took a week off from work (in-game) just to go spelunking. There were lots of rare seeds that were discovered during that time. That said, my pride and joy at the time was finding the Simoleon tree seed.

My Adventure into Real Estate

I didn't know this at the time, but purchasing real estate was an option for earning funds. My first two purchases was the Italian restaurant and the gym. Top priority for the gym was to add some much needed furniture along with some other features.

After these came several other venues with the exception of 2-3 that weren't purchasable yet. I even experimented with flipping by purchasing an empty lot, building a functional structure and then selling it off. There were so many options I wanted to try, but something strange was afoot.

The Lost Game

There was something going around at the time and whatever it was it took out all computers in the house. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal; however, it called for a major reset of all devices which results in the removal of the game from my laptop. Unfortunately for me, it was a digital download.

I used a download client from a game store which was also uninstalled during the reset and since my account with them was idle, all information was erased from their platform. Even worse, none of my data nor pictures could be retrieved from my EA account as that account too somehow went idle and I couldn't get on. If at all possible in the future, I hope to purchase a physical copy of the game.