I think the word you're looking for is "Burnout," or it's at least what I call it.

Currently, I've switched up how I approach my Uni Round and it's made things feel fresh. Instead of playing one dorm with a bunch of sims like I usually do, everyone is somewhere that suits them so it's like a mini rotation.

I'm also trying to label some of my early backups, and trying to find out where I was up to in each one is a nightmare I should have started labeling earlier!

I'm on again/off again both due to other interests and life in general, but I've noticed that when I've played for a while the little pixel life becomes less of play and more of me taking care of them, so usually it's: starts playing, create chaos/don't stop chaos, feel bad, fix their little world, become bored, stop playing and the cycle continues.

Right now.. most of them still have a nice time.. but it would be kind of interesting if Jesper Svan had a baby with both Amanda Ceder and Veronica Battler.. his family aspiration wife surely must understand, no?

I get withdrawal symptoms if I can't play for a few days. 2019 was bad with a computer (hard disk) failure followed by a Real Life house removal. I get Veronaville withdrawal symptoms if I play other 'hoods for too long. I even get Andrew withdrawal symptoms if I fail to meet up with him somewhere in Veronaville for a few weeks. Even though, in his other role, as my not-so-invisible friend, he is constantly by my side.
I have some neighbourhoods (especially Pleasantview) that I haven't been playing for several years, but I definitely won't be getting rid of any of them. I don't regard any of them as abandoned -- merely paused.
That I find harder to relate too. I think I always want to play with my Sims. If I get a little bored with one household, I simply move on to another. With about 50 active households now across Veronaville and its various suburbs and satellite towns, there's always something interesting going on somewhere. Moreover, if I tell the truth, I think I'm in love with several of my Sims. And you can never be bored when you're with the one you love.

To be serious for a moment, I wonder if bereavement is still limiting your ability to enjoy the game. The passage of time does help, but it never completely heals, nor should one expect it to. Often friends will expect you to feel better after a year or so, but it doesn't really work that way. I think everyone has to deal with it in their own way and at their own pace.

I'm going to suggest this very tentatively, and this maybe only works for me precisely because I've never been in a proper romantic relationship with another human being, but might it be possible to create in CAS one or more Sims that you like so much that you always want to play them, you always want to be near them. There certainly is at least one Sim in my game (you can probably guess who) that has that effect on me, and there one or two others who come close. My heart quickens when they just step onto the lot. Maybe it's not possible to deliberately create a Sim like that; the ones I fell for just happened. I'm sorry if the whole idea is too weird to you, but I'm sure it's one reason why I never tire of playing Veronaville. Whenever my Sims visit a community lot, there's always a possibility he might be there. Or he might just happen to walk past the house.

I really do believe you are right- with this present situation, the game might be pushing that one scar that hasn't quite healed completely (not that I think it will ever, because it does not, in fact) where I deal with pixels that I might be slightly fond of who are going to die in the near future in the game. Sometimes all the outside and personal events join together to make it overwhelming to even deal with the idea of death, no matter the context-in real life or in a computer game.

The fact that I lost my husband shortly before the pandemic of essentially the same disease that has been killing thousands of people every week does not help-it makes me angry to see this more or less preventable loss repeated every single day, and thus my frustration at not being able to stop it is sometimes very overwhelming to put off any enjoyment of any game or book.

In other words, my 'boredom' is actually just a manifestation that the bruised and worn out emotional toll is wreaking havoc on my enjoyment of the game at the moment.

Friends know better than to assume all is well-but they're afraid to ask because they think it's rude.

I don't know if I want to make a pixel of someone I know in the game-it's kind of 'uncanny valley' for me.

I'm sure that time will improve this situation for me, and that spring will come again.

@FranH
@AndrewGloria
One does not simply get over the death of the love of your life. I don't know why people think one should do that.
One rather learns to live with it, which is a very long process and cannot be rushed.
Be patient with yourself, FranH. Thinking of you.

No, one does not do that-but some Americans seem to think that everything and everyone is disposable and replaceable.
Only until it happens to them do they realize what a fallacy they've been laboring under.
You learn to live with it, true, and don't ever forget that grief is one sneaky emotion that pops up when you least expect it to, bringing you literally down to your knees.
Thanks for the care. Winter is always the worst time.

That's so true. This person has a good description of grief, it certainly feels like this for me anyway:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Assistance..._to_do/c1u0rx2/

Oh they're not gone for good, just moved onto my external hard drive for safe keeping. I love my Sims, I'd never be able to get rid of them forever. One of the neighbourhoods I moved was last played in 2013 and was a beautiful 1950s style hood, I played it for several generations - I like to think one day I'll go back to it.

I've taken a break from my megahood for now too, but I'm sure I'll go back to it shortly. I just have a craving for playing Premades and in my megahood most of the original sims are elders or have passed. Now I'm playing "The beginning of Pleasantview" which has satisfied my premade urge but given me something different. If I installed (clean template) Pleasantview or another premade neighbourhood I'll end up wanting them to interact with other neighbourhood premades and next thing I know I'll have another megahood

@FranH I definitely agree with all the grief talk. I lost my husband February 16th last year (not covid) and I know i'll never be "over it", it's just something that I gotta learn to live with. And we all deal with it in our own ways. I worry that people will see me and think I look fine and am all ok now and then something will happen and grief will bring me to my knees again and they'll be all "I thought you were over this, move on already" when it doesn't work that way. I'm only in my early 30s, I could be alive for decades still, and it doesn't matter how long, i'll always be grieving him.

Take care Fran <3

Lost my husband in 2005.
Not over it, not going to be over it - ever.
Because my son uses his hands when talking, in the exact same way my husband used to do
My daughter smiles at me with my husband's smile
and my grandson looks at my with my husband's eye
and he should be here;, to see them now.
There is no moving on. There is only living with it because that is the only option.
Wishing you the best - strongs.

One of my neanderthals is about to receive a visit from a social bunny any moment now, and considering that he also has min fun it reminded me of the one time when I was a kid I convinced my best friend at the time that not only was there the social bunny but there was a fun bunny that came if your sims had low fun.

Ok, one more post and we'll drop the sad stuff: that I read an article on FB about someone who had been developing a relationship with a recent widower, and she had the gall to ask him why he didn't take off his wedding ring. She got nailed from every side and pounded down for her audacity to ask, "Is he leading me on?". That's the kind of thing that widows and widowers have to face in their lives-and the answer from every single person replying was: "No, he wasn't, and you had absolutely no right to assume he was even interested in you." The real answer: you don't have to take the ring off ever, if you don't want to. I'm not planning to, and nobody should ever dare ask.

EA should've put the street lights in the outdoor lighting section instead of Lighting Misc. I'm used to the current location now, so I won't change it, but it bugs me a little every time I buy a street light.

Never change ModTheSims, please never change. As of lately, this site has become a safe haven for me when it comes to The Sims. Social Media (Twitter, Discord, and Tumblr) has become way too immature and drama-filled to enjoy. I recently left a few Sims 2 communities due to the childishness being hard to ignore. It's not very active on here anymore, but it's nice to see when it is active, Simmers are condoning themselves in mature conversions. Makes my Simmer heart happy

Well most of the time we're conducting ourselves in mature ways..and if we're not, HL will come flying in and telling us, "Don't make me come in here and lock up the thread! I have more important things to do!." And we'll stop misbehaving for a few days. Sure, it's slow most days but that what we like about this forum. We're in our own separate universe.

So I came up with a solution for my disproportionate male to female baby problem in my test of time challenge: heirs will receive first dibs on women.

At the time of typing this I'm up to 16 babies, 12 of which are boys. But there's only the 5 initial households, so that will mean 5 heirs. So if I can have AT LEAST one more girl then at a minimum all the heirs can have a wife.

But I forgot to take out my longer lifespan so all the founding sims still have like 20 days to make babies so fingers crossed for more girls still.

Sims really don't like a fence around their homes. Maybe it matches American houses in reality. But having a glass door exposed to the street doesn't feel secure to me.

If I erect a fence to protect my yard from the dog who digs pits, and to put the trash bin behind it, confused delivery persons drop their packages in the mud without going to the gate. They don't even look for the front gate and can't ring the bell. If my family is poor and can only afford a fence on one edge of the lot for the time being, and I instruct a person to ring the bell on a gate there, it fails with too many interations because both sides are in the same room 0. It is realistic to have a battery powered bell button with a radio transmitter.

Rude visitors get really upset when they can't come in as if it was their right. When a date mate brings a piano or a DJ booth, he can't fit it outside and it gets permanently lost in another dimension, but the smell and sounds of them still reach my people. The dressing at the gate by the street doesn't look appropriate.

I suggest fencing the backyard only and not using a glass front door. All of these difficulties are circumvented by this dodge.

It's hard to generalize about what American houses are like, because there's so much individual, regional, and historical differentiation, but an open front yard and enclosed back yard are common enough. Leave enough room for ball games and so on in front and you'll also have space between the doors and windows and the street, as well as acknowledging the sim tendency to insist on doing those things in the front of the house. If you want more backyard activity you can put fun objects back there (playgrounds, lock pets inside the fence, garden statues, ponds) and the fencing will look logical.

Most front doors with glass in them have high, narrow windows to let in light and allow people answering the door to see who's out there and aren't really much of a break in hazard. Large stained-glass doors, as are sometimes found on fancy houses, have double layers, lots of little leaded panes, and thick heavy glass which would be serious work to break.

I'm just thinking about the different storylines of the hoods and what would be the "goal" of Sims of everything, every last little thing, went according to plan (yes, I also have the corps bride soundtrack in my brain while thinking about this) and I'm currently stuck with Nina Caliente, if Don and Dina are the gold digging, Bella removing masterminds, and everything goes according to plan (Don marries Cassandra and Dina Mortimer, they get all the gold): what does Nina get out of it? I mean, in game I could make her happy but the drive and desire for the whole plot feels kind of empty.

I gave up on Bluewater village before I even tried this activity with that hood.

I don't play the story this way, but I guess she'd get the benefit of having a rich sister, so some of the windfall would come her way too.

Wasn't sure where else to post this but it's on my mind. It's probably a bad idea so apologies if I may delete this post later.

I'm not handling the news about Pleasantsims/Cindy leaving very well. Since discovering her in 2020 I've basically modeled my entire way of playing after her. I feel quite lost and not sure how to play sims at the moment. I don't want to let her absence ruin my own enjoyment of the game, because I know that's not what she'd want and also is allowing those who took her down to win even more. But I just kind of feel like I don't really know what to do right now. I know there's an entire massive community, not just her, and I will find new favorites and new people to learn from and take inspiration from. But I'm just feeling really sad and especially because I just began last night creating my own custom hood following her advice on her blog. And now I don't even know if she'll continue those posts, so how will I know what she's doing so that I can do so in my own game? I know the obvious solution is to just do it however I want to but still. I am really angry that this happened but I'm going to bite my tongue and stop typing now because I feel like if I elaborate any further I open myself up to the attacking that is so prevalent on the web these days. It really is so awful that this happens to people, to anyone, just because people sometimes say things. I feel like it causes this unnatural pressure to carefully monitor everything that one says so that one doesn't run the risk of the internet mob.

Anyways, I don't know. It's only noon and I have several hours before I need to be doing anything of any importance. And if my options are watch youtube for 5 hours or play sims I guess I'm going to suck it up and play anyways. I can't let something like this ruin my one true source of happiness. I've been playing sims since I was 4 years old, I'm almost 26 now. This game is not something I'm willing to allow anyone or anything to ruin for me. I just keep flipping between being extremely sad and extremely angry which I know is normal because I am experiencing a loss. As much as one might say that your favorite youtuber leaving is a silly thing to be so upset over, it is a loss nonetheless. I still have Marticore at least. I wish that there was more sims 2 on youtube...or that I wasn't so picky about who I enjoy.

I guess thank you for listening to me and hopefully I'm not like breaking any site rules by posting this, and that I don't make anyone mad that they have to scroll through this when they probably just want to see sims stuff instead.

Loss is loss, especially in a time of isolation like right now. How you feel is how you feel and that's valid, regardless of what caused it. This may in the long run be an opportunity to grow and find your own simming voice or whatever; but you're allowed to feel bad about it, first.

I think you're right, and I know that this is something I at one point had because I played the game for so long without being online at all. So to your point it could allow me to RE-find that own simming voice that I may have lost at some point in trying to implement all of these new techniques and playing styles I was learning about.

She's leaving due to personal health issues. She doesn't owe anyone an apology or explanation. People leave the community every day-either by choice or other. You will be still be able to play your game.
You're grieving that loss. It's normal.
Some of the best creators in the Sims have left us at one time or another.
I remember when Mootilda died and we had a page of condolences for over 100 or more pages of people sending her husband their best wishes and grieving communally. it was quite a blow for us and MTS, and everyone was saddened by it.
However, life goes on. Mootilda would have wanted us to go on playing our game, but we still remember her to this day.

Now that the Travellers have visited every vacation destination....I have no idea what to do with them.