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Post by applevalley on Mar 14, 2010 15:43:19 GMT -5
This is a question of slow blogging vs fast blogging.
In spite of frequent updates, Apple Valley just seems to be moving along at snail's pace lately. I calculated that I've done one simyear every 5 months, meaning my simmies only age 2 simyears each RL year. Um, I'm kind of getting impatient to see what the deal will be for a lot of my simmies.
On the other hand, the depth into the characters has grown tenfold and I'm enjoying finding out about each simmie. Something that I haven't been able to do since TS1.
So, do you bloggers ever skip over years or speed through updates.
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Post by laura on Mar 14, 2010 16:41:12 GMT -5
This is a good question. For me, it depends on how much story material I have going on, which recently, has been a LOT! My current 2 year round is headed to take about a year in RL, so I'm doing about the same pace you are. Though a lot of that may have to do with RL breaks I've had to take this year, for one thing or another. Back before my story was so loaded, I think the first couple of rounds I blogged took me 3-4 months to cover the 2 Sim-years. But those stories weren't anything I was proud of, and the pace was not really something I could sustain while keeping the rest of my life (career/family/other interests) balanced. It is kind of disappointing though, sometimes, to realize that some of my babies being born right now will never get to grow up and go to college and all that - but then, you have to think of it as a different kind of story, I guess. The depth of character is definitely something to be valued, and I'll keep my characters any day over seeing my kids grow up and pair off, their kids growing up and pairing off, and so on... I don't think of my story in terms of a typical "Sims blog" much anymore, since it's not ever going to be the kind of story that plows through the generations. It's just a story, really. A neighborhood saga. And I never feel myself tempted to make it go faster, except in the way of wanting to get to a really exciting part of the story that lies ahead. But no, not just to grow them up. But then, I also never make myself write an update or storyline that doesn't interest me. And if a family doesn't interest me, I'll either wrap their update into another family or make them non-playable. This is why some of my Sims get like 20-something updates each round, while other families only get one Sorry so long, lol!
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Post by blackcat on Mar 14, 2010 19:56:39 GMT -5
I haven't started blogging yet, but I can relate this to gameplay and how I imagine it will work out once I start blogging.
My hood has gotten huge and my rounds would also last months if I played all my households equally. So I've fallen into a kind of fluid pattern of playable and non-playable households - that is, I don't play every household, every round. There are some favorites that do get into every round, and some who are definately non-playable (ie have "moved away" to a seperate sub-hood). But for most of them, whether or not they are playable in a particular round, depends on a number of things - their storyline at the time, obviously, their relationship to other storylines, if there is anyone aging up, if they roll random events, how long since I last played them, etc...
This works for me because I have a balance between the length of the round and the desire to 'get to know' my sims in some depth. I want to see these kids grow up and have their own families, but I don't want to be tempted to race through and not get to know them or come to care about them, in order to achieve that. I still see most of my sims every round, because my households are so interrelated that people visit each other all the time or whatever, I just don't play each individual house. Probably about a third of my playable households are left out of each round.
I try to play a round (2 sim years) a month or so, although that will probably slow down when I'm blogging. I'm aiming for 6wks/round, but won't be sure until I start.
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Post by applevalley on Mar 15, 2010 9:28:26 GMT -5
-Laura, I understand completely. Everytime I go into a household to update a look, I tend to come out with a mini-update based on their actions or their results of their actions.
-Blackcat, I haven't thought about having some of the playables not have their own update each year. Maybe like the "fast forwards" that Laura used to do.
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Post by laura on Mar 15, 2010 10:20:06 GMT -5
Oh, and btw, I only don't do "fast forwards" anymore because at a certain point, there weren't any families left that weren't involved in the major storylines, lol! I tend to go the non-playable route now instead, if a family doesn't have much story to cover, and I'll usually wrap them in with another family member's update. Even in my coming Hathe family update, I've got enough story to cover between Liza and Riley, that I think poor Chad and Shaun will just be swept to the background. I'm not going to make more work for myself, you know, if they aren't already involved in part of a story. I'm not going to force another storyline where there isn't one already. I forgot to even take a picture of poor little Shaun last time I played their house, lol! Maybe this time he'll at least get a picture
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Post by applevalley on Mar 21, 2010 18:52:31 GMT -5
I remember you saying that you didn't do fast forwards anymore. I guess this current simyear is so jam packed with stories and mini-updates that it seems to be going on FOREVER! I managed to squeeze the winter season into two weeks of posting instead of four, so maybe I can actually see some kids grow up. I really want to see my simmies age and see the results of their decisions and yes, reproduce ^_^
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Post by monqiue on Apr 15, 2010 21:16:37 GMT -5
I haven't skipped over years, yet. I really don't plan to since I like how the stories are developing now.
When I first started blooging Oasis Valley. May main goal was to post as many updates as I could so people could see what was happening in my game. But as I really got into other sim story blogs and saw how much better a real storyline was, I changed up my style.
I like the way things are coming in Oasis Valley now. It is getting slower and slower but I really like all my sims, for the most part, and I feel really close to most of them. Currently, in round 8, I am still using all maxis defaults for aging and timing. One round now equals four years. But that is going to change during round 9 and I am going to go to a two year system. So, my sims will age even slower.
I really would like to see all my founding sims age and have like ten generations in the family line. But I really don't think that will happen or people will read the blog for that long. I am just going to see how far I can take this and try to enjoy it.
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