Kinda random, but how many of my fellow simmers use the hood description box when creating a new hood? Personally, i usually dont use it becuase i dont really have a real story in mind from the beginning.

very rarely have I done so either, although as of late I have been writing just a little blurb, which mostly has to do with a play on the 'hood's name or if the hood is dedicated to a specific challange. Once upon a time, I did add to it as the game progressed, but that was in a hood with only a few families & it didn't last long.

I think I filled one out once, a long long time and many reinstalls ago. But as you pointed out, I sort of had a story in mind. Usually, I just want to play and have no patience for all of that. Did you ever play Sims 1? There used to be an option to write bios for your characters or to edit them on existing ones. Sometimes I filled those out when I was crafting a certain theme or story line.

i did, for a very short period of time, maybe 3 or 4 years ago. And all i remember was building a ginormous house and getting a pink poodle but that sounds kinda neat i wish TS2 had that

You can write/edit Bios for Sims in TS2.

I didn't know that. Where do they show up? Did you mean if you create an album?

While in a lot with a Sim selected, click on the Simology panel (the one with the head as its icon) where you see their personality and fitness. Above the fitness bar is an icon of a paper and pencil, click on it. You should a little panel appear that will say "NAME's Bio" with the bio. Click on the text and edit as you wish. All the premade Sims have Bios which you can edit; some of them are funny. Of course, for Sims you've made, there won't be anything meaningful (I think something like "Please enter a biography for this Sim..." or something).

In CAS, you can find the same Bio icon (the paper and pencil) on the first Step/Panel (where you can change gender, name, skintone, etc). The icon is under the thin/fat icons and to the right.

Again, have fun reading the premades' Bios.

On topic: I used to write hood descriptions, but then I stopped. *shrug*

It's in the righthand corner in the panel where the Sim's personality is. There's a little icon and it opens a window that lets you write the Sim's bio.

Of course I wrote a hood description for Drama Acres! Where else could I put all that backstory?

The albums tell the story, but there's basic information on each sim in the bio, and I update them periodically.

I don't usually add anything other than what type of challenge 'hood it is, if it is one. I've restarted so many times that it doesn't have a point to me. But, my current main 'hood says something along the lines of "Due to corruption, lobotomy is required preceding entry." Basically a stupid way of saying MY GAEM IS BORKED prepare for insanity.

The only one I ever use is on my countless redos of my main megahood sunset beach.

"When the moon rises early, just as the Santa Ana winds kicks up out of nowhere, and the sun is just dropping out of sight, whoever you meet at the far side of the pier, is who you're destined to be with."

Seeing that gets me in such a mood to play.

You know, I really should update the bios and hood descriptions. As I'm playing with the Maxis premade neighbourhoods, they all still have the original hood descriptions, which mostly have nothing to do with how the neighbourhood is now. In the desceiption it says Pleasantview was originally 25 years after Sims 1, so now my version of it will probably be another 20 after that! Also a lot of the household descriptions in Pleasantview mention characters that are now dead (the Lothario lot mentioning Bella, the Caliente lot mentioning Mortimer), so yeesh I'm behind with the times!

I get so eager to play I just click 'enter' and don't bother with the descriptions, but now I'm thinking I might give them a much-needed update that reflects the new generations!

Little Carping by the azure sea. A calm description - I think it's meant to be ironic.

Always.

EDIT : OKAY, more than 7 characters now!!
EDIT : I always make a bio for a new hood, because I like to have a n'hood that is similar with the premade ones. :D

Ha! Thank you Maybesomethingdunno and Lerf1950 - I can't believe I've been missing this the whole time! Can't wait to try it out!

My Hood caption is Ocean View.
"This is Ocean View such a lovely town with lots of beaches and shops but don't let it fool if you closely people are mad at each other, if you like drama, gossip, rumors, secrets, and being the center of embarrassment than Ocean View is right down your alley. So come on pull up a chair stay awhile hear all the drama just watch your back because who knows tomorrow there probably be one about you."

Be warned, though...whenever I edit a Sim bio, my keyboard won't respond for several minutes thereafter. I don't know if that's a weird glitch on my machine or a more general bug, though.

It's your computer, I think. I never got bug like that..

I always add a description for each of the neighborhoods that I create whether they are my own recreations of the maxis hoods or some that are completely new. for example in my version of Pleasantview for my Pleasantview: A new beginning hood states that...

"Arthur Pleasant, a wealthy Simcity resident and a group of college friends purchased a large tract of land outside of Simcity that has become Simcity's first suburb. Now the suburbs have been opened to the public and Sims from all over have left the city and settled into the area. Will they leave the fast paced life they grew accustomed to in Simcity or will the drama follow them and destroy the peaceful calm of this new neighborhood?"

If I'm doing a challenge in it, I usually put a note to that effect: "BACC," or "Medieval City Challenge," for example. As an aid to my own memory.

What you need to do is open the bio panel once again, and the keyboard will work again. I used to keep game notes in the bio field, so it happened to me all the time. Just open it again, type a letter and delete it, and after you close it everything will be back to normal. It's some kind of weird overlooked bug.

I tend to write a short paragraph, usually describing the founder (if a challenge) or any other notable families. In the case of my BACC hood, I've added a sentence of two about some special rules I've incorporated on top of the challenge ones.

As for Sim bios, I don't tend to use them unless I need a quick reference for one thing or another. FAMILY bios, on the other hand, usually get updated once (maybe twice) per generation.

Yes, always. It isn't really significant though, as it's usually just a little paragraph about how lovely the landscapes are, or how friendly the neighbours can be.

i just wrote this one for my new neighborhood, Townie Place:

This town is special in one way, everyone suddenly found themselves with their spouses, parent and siblings. What happened to them that everything suddenly seemed to be mysterious?

And for my older neighborhood: Whiskerton (PC version of the PS2 version):

Many events had taken place in the last 20 years, but not all of these events are positive ones, some events are ones who leave scars.

Some families had grown roots, some sims had fallen in love with eachother, but what is the future hiding?

I use hood descriptions all the time. They usually read "Test <so and so's> problem with <such and such> under <this and that condition>".