Hope all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I've started 2018 by purchasing The Sims 3 on Steam. Don't worry—I won't leave The Sims 2 and this thread to gather dust. Once school starts both games will be of equally low priority anyways... hehe.

Anyways, I only have one non-premade family left to cover in this hood, but I feel like I've neglected the lots a little. So, why don't we resume our tour of Amar's magnificent owned businesses? Mr. Capitalism, here we come!





Founded alongside Amar's Restaurant, Amar originally wanted to set up a car dealership here. That vision fell flat for two reasons: 1) Most Sims in SimVille lived in apartments that lacked garages, so cars were useless to them; and 2) Most Sims in SimVille got around on foot, or by taking public transit. By the time Amar realized this, the building had already been constructed, and it looked too good to see the bulldozer. Amar decided on selling expensive stuff here, and what attracts more customers than expensive clothing, musical instruments, and even aspiration rewards... sold at "agreeable" prices?



What intrigued a lot of Sims is how this magnificently expensive shop was built near where the poorest Sims in SimVille lived; just a few steps down is The Grey Lofts! The inventory has sent Sims from all over the county rushing over to SimVille to get their hands on these special items before they run out of stock, paying no attention to the poverty around them. They've tunnel visioned onto this expensive shop... and maybe the restaurant and the beach next door as well, which do enough to satisfy visiting Sims for a day before the drive home. Many aren't too pleased with Amar's Clothing & Instruments, whose presence has done nothing to alleviate the situations of those living nearby.









Conclusion

Amar obviously likes this lot a lot because it racks in a ton of cash for the Newbies. He has a manager assigned to mind the store, so he's able to keep ringing in the money without having to physically poke his head through the door. While rich Sims certainly appreciate the investment, poorer Sims around the vicinity of the store aren't too happy with this symbol of capitalism in their backyard. Indeed, the store reminds them that, as much as the Newbies like to befriend people around the hood, regardless of their social status, they still very much prefer the company of their rich buddies over actually making a difference in a poorer Sim's life. Everyone in the Newbie family is on board with the status quo... except Evan, perhaps.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more!

(Noticing larger screenshots now? I installed the No Pause Frame mod that gets rid of the annoying red frame entirely, allowing for larger, beautiful screenshots that are all of consistent size!)

The Sims Wiki Fanon pages

• Amar's Clothing & Instruments
• Newbie family

*Gasp* I totally adore this lot! *simsample steals ideas gains inspiration* :lovestruc

Great idea to sell aspiration rewards, and i like that there's a bit of everything in this department store.

Really good pictures of the store and I like your descriptions of each level.

The clothing racks look different than the standard ones, where did you get them?

I like the layout of the store.

Those clothing racks came from H&M Stuff, and they work well in player-owned clothing stores. Be sure to get Lord Darcy's mod that fixes these clothing racks if you're going to use them, though, since EA apparently forgot to include the empty state mesh for them.

This is perhaps Amar's most inspired business. It has something to appeal to every kind of wealthy patron. It is a bit of a shame that no one has noticed the neighborhood or considered what they might do to help.

Well they are quite nice, but I can't use them as H&M Stuff is PC only. I blame EA.

Here we go, the last non-premade family in SimVille! The heat of the school semester is on and I'm battling with my schedule to find time to do the things I want to do. But between working, attending lectures, commuting, and wishing I wasn't procrastinating on work, perhaps I'll dabble with my SimVille fanon some more.

So, here comes a family that, like many others, initially started off with little to no background. The main purpose of this family was to see how I could manage a large 7 Sim family in an apartment. A noble challenge, yes, but I cheated a little too often by turning free will off. Okay, maybe I cheated a lot... maxMotives came in real handy here! Still, while I seem rarely inclined to play with the McGregors these days, when I do they remind me of the challenges that large families–both in the virtual and the real worlds–face.





Despite their large size, the McGregor matriarchs and patriarchs are both family Sims, and having a huge family is what they've always dreamed of. They also have one thing going for them: Sim kids don't spam their parents with nearly as many attention-seeking requests as real life kids do; that burden goes on you, the player! As someone who's worked with kids before, I can tell you that they sure can tire you out. With a family the size of the McGregors, most parents would probably reconsider even congratulating people with children, but the McGregors get along just fine... mostly because all of the tiring burden gets placed on me. But hey, "cast your burdens on the Lord", right?[1] If I'm the "God" of my Sims, then surely they rightfully depend on me!







Conclusion

Alyssa's a member of the Parents For Better Children Council, and she frequently petitions for more open space, parks, and playgrounds for kids in the neighbourhood to use. It's a significant challenge, given how building space in SimVille is at a premium and most developers are probably interested in building apartments to house the growing population rather than building space-consuming parks. However, Alyssa knows the challenges of managing a large family in an apartment, and she's sure that many other large families in SimVille feel the same. Kids need a lot of space... and if they don't have it, they'll just make use of existing space; hence, if you want kids to stop playing hide and seek in the alleyway behind the convenience store, maybe you should build a park instead of chasing them off with a broom. The McGregors should consider themselves lucky, however; out of all the large families living in SimVille, they are probably the best off.

Thanks for reading. I'll hopefully cover more lots now, and perhaps I'll start filling in the pages for all the premade, family bin Sims that have moved into SimVille, and how they have made themselves at home.

The Sims Wiki Fanon pages

• McGregor family
• Sherman McGregor
• Alyssa McGregor
• Andy McGregor
• Marlene McGregor
• Terry McGregor
• Dominic McGregor
• Lyndsay McGregor
• Seaspray Apartments

Notes
1. Psalm 55:22; Proverbs 16:3; 1 Peter 5:7.
2. Too bad there are no laptops in The Sims 2.
3. According to Cyjon's Debugger, the maid, "Solveig Barakat", has 0 neat points, so she won't recognize objects that most other Sims find dirty enough to clean.

Hey, I've tuned in to your thread a couple of times here and there to read about your families, and I can see you put a lot of thought and care into crafting their backgrounds and personalities. For some of the larger families like the Haiders and McGregors, where some of the kids' personalities and quirks get lost in the shuffle, it's much harder to even notice these character traits, let alone expand on them. I look forward to seeing what becomes of Simville.

I like to play large families, but I also admit to cheating and I am not embarressed about cheating. It is my game and I can cheat if I want to. {sung to the tune of it is my party}

Lots of great pictures and I loved reading about the McGregors.

There are Mac Laptops for The Sims 2, in this collection of Apple Computers On MTS

I like how each of the McGregors have a very distinct personality like how one wants to be a track star, the other just is happy playing video games, etc. I commend you trying to play such a big family in an apartment no less! Yeesh! I also like the character details you added per each family member like how the father spends his time sleeping and the mother volunteers for an organization trying to get more parks in the neighborhood. You're writing is really good and it's interesting to wind a detailed summary with a story feel instead of just providing stats.

I will say that I was surprised to see that the McGregors were considered well-off in comparison to other families just because my impression at hearing that Teacher's Aid and a Food Shift Manager with five children paying weekly apartment rent and going on a vacation soon, it makes me think they may be living beyond their means. Now if they were a bit more higher up in job titles like a sous chef and professor or had less children, that would make more sense from an economic standpoint. Just my opinion though.

The pics were great too!

I'll echo everyone's thoughts about how much they enjoy the detailed and distinct personalities of your sims. It really brings them to life.

Maybe remaining in an apartment instead of buying a big house has allowed the McGregor's to save their money and be considered well off. Still, they aren't getting a bargain with a maid who has 0 neatness points!

Seems like only yesterday my winter semester began for me and already I'm chest-deep in work and stress! I do have reading week in less than a fortnight and I hope to get a proper update out for this fanon then... but for now, I thought I'd go and revisit some of the families I've covered previously and explore how they've changed

Serge rolled a want to work out, which I granted.



Looks like Count Nery Wood is still pissed at him, for he showed up to his lot... but fled immediately because it was still daytime.



Happened a second time an hour later. This time I managed to catch a picture of him just before he faded out.



Serge maxed his fitness enthusiasm today! ...But of course, that darned hobby instructor had to intrude. Perhaps he'll challenge him to a round of fisticuffs at a biker bar someday.



Third time's the charm.



Serge is actually a pretty good cook. Few Sims would dare to ever come to his house for dinner, but even though fighting may be his favourite pastime, it still isn't everything. Tonight he decides to make some salmon.





Halfway through the preparation process, Count Nery Wood showed for the fourth time today that he's not smart enough to leave his trash can kicking scheme till after sundown.







Serge juggles enemies like they're balls, and occasionally a ball here and there slips out of his hands and rolls away. Looks like he has some relational fires that are beginning to cool off, like hot cocoa next to an open window! Maybe he can fix that.



Tonight he's decided to stay in and do something else that he likes doing that pisses the townsfolk off: crank calls!



"COME OVER HERE YOU SLIMY LLAMA SNIFFER!!!" he shouts over the phone at Nery Wood. He tried coming onto his lot four times today; surely he'd like to pay a visit now that the sun's gone down.



Why not look good for him before he shows up?



Sometimes, Serge sits and waits patiently for his victims.



...and why not primp some more?



Some pacing back and forth.



When Nery does not show up, Serge decides to call another Sim...



...and another, for good measure...



Finally, Armando Cox shows up, and he doesn't look happy!



"Harrumph... you've gained weight, Serge."

"Well so have you, Armando. You look like a pig."



Serge jumps on Armando just as Amanda Carlson shows up.



"Boo!! I hope you choke on Armando's fist and die in there, Serge!!!"



"You think it's just Armando who lost? You're next, Carlson!"



"Hmmph, yeah right Serge. You know, you don't even count. If you disappeared off the face of the earth nobody would care. In fact, there would be a celebration!"



But before Serge gets a chance to properly annoy Amanda, Armando seeks his rematch.



"Stupid, smelly, llama-kissing Serge!! I hope my spitballs hit you in the eyeballs and you need a seeing dog for three weeks!!"



Armando looks desperate.



"No one messes with the Barb!"



In other news, I recently discovered that you could save camera positions. I tried it out when making this thread and it worked beautifully! Just one of the things I'm learning that's helping me to improve on my Sims 2 picture taking.

The Sims Wiki Fanon pages

• Barb family
• Serge Barb

You'd think Count Nery Wood would keep track of such things as daylight.

I have total faith that Serge can reheat those relationships and keep his enemy count high.

I had no idea you could save camera positions; thanks for the link.

Amar's garden is amazing, and he's a smart businessman. Keeping the customer happy whatever it takes will pay off in the long run. I love the pictures of everyone working at the crafting stations.

Count Nery Wood coming by Serge's place is amusing.

What job does Serge have {other than beating up every sim he knows}?

Amar's Flowers & Craftables is great what a nice business.

Great Pictures.

Some MODs from MATY I would think you would like if you don't have them already: enemiesaccumulate.package and thefightclub.package

Serge works in the military career as a junior officer. He's following in General Grunt's footsteps.

After an embargo period of about a week,[1] I decided to release some more images of Amar's Flowers & Craftables. I guess I've been a bit too formal with this thread, with each post being like a polished, finalized project. However, this group is called "What's Going On In Your Game?", which means that things can be a lot more relaxed here. I still want to push polished posts out when I find the time and motivation to; however, I have decided to, well, reveal a bit more as to how I play the game by just taking pictures as I go and not worry about posing my Sims beforehand (Yes, most of the images you've seen in this thread are posed or staged). In addition, I learned that Irfanview is able to take pictures of just the foreground application (Historically I've only used it to take screenshots where I wanted the mouse cursor to appear), which makes taking and sharing lots of pictures a lot easier, since it often saves me the hassle of having to crop it later in Paint.NET. If you frequent The Sims Wiki's Discord server, you've probably seen me post a lot of screenshots from The Sims 3, taken using the in-game screenshot tool. The in-game screenshot tool in The Sims 2 isn't so intuitive, since where the screenshots are saved isn't so straightforward, and I hate how it saves two copies of the same image. Irfanview not only solved that problem, but it also allowed me to capture much higher quality screenshots, and it's worked really well for both games, allowing me to quickly share them to Discord without having to crop them. I definitely recommend Irfanview if you're looking for a good way of taking screenshots in any context.

As I mentioned in my post about the Days (click here if you haven't seen it), I play with cheats quite a lot... sometimes to the point of crossing the line between what is ethically acceptable and what my Sims would consider "abuse of my powers". But oh well, I'll write a book on philosophy in The Sims some other time. For now, let's pick up where I left off after I finished making the last post.

Notes
1. Not really. If you frequent The Sims Wiki's Discord server, I uploaded quite a bit of these images up for everyone to see. I just chose not to post them in this thread for some reason.

@k6ka I cheat when I am playing the game. I could play with out cheating if I had a reason to do so, but I don't. I don't do challenges or contests and so I play however I feel like playing.

My intent is to have fun and I enjoy how my Sims do things in my game with the set of mods that I play with.

I like your pictures it was a good set of them.

I enjoyed this update. I love "a day in the life" sequences.

I don't use cheats much, but I play with a ton of mods. I do sometimes cheat a little with money for the first generation because it seems to me that larger, more established families would have more going for them than newlyweds just starting out. I add a little money for each family member, mainly because I need it for furnishings.

After all the fun I had last time I did this, I decided to try again. I caught myself being a little more formal with my pictures than I would've liked, but I didn't stage any photographs this time. I wonder if this will start to turn this thread into more of a photography thread than a "Here's my hood!" thread, but oh well, why not? It takes a lot of work to get a polished post out, and sometimes I feel pressured to update this thread when I play, so to help with that, I may as well be a little more casual.

Amar strikes again, with another terrific and very successful business!

I enjoyed looking at the pictures and seeing your sims just be themselves. Water balloon fights are one of my favorite things.

I love this appliance store. It looks pretty upscale with the chandelier and the fountain at the entrance but I love the layout

I am sorry that I have not responded to your posts for a bit, so this time I am going to try to cover two of them at once.

I quite enjoyed your Friday evening with the Urbans, and I particularly liked your pictures of the water balloon fight.

I also quite enjoyed Amar's Appliances. lots of really good pictures and the business looks to be well laid out.

I really love OFB, it is one of my most Favourite EPs, I really like all of the others that I have Uni, NL, Pets, Seasons and BV, but OFB is a favourite. I just love having playable Sim owned businesses.