The Sims 3

A friend of mine got an advanced copy and has been playing the Sims 3 for the past week.  According to her, the game is not worth buying at this time.  

The new interactions between neighbors, being able to walk around the town, and having your families continue to "live" even if you're not playing them, are very nice options.  

Being able to add your own textures to furniture is just a simplified version of the object editor wizard that comes with SimPE.  

She says that even with the vast details you can add to your Sims, such as how they behave and what they look like, they still managed to all look somewhat alike.   

The most frustrating thing so far is that relationships take a lot longer to build.  A couple that she started as soon as she got the game has had two children together but she can't get them to agree to get married after a week of trying.  

And aside from all of that, it's still just the Sims 2, yet even more boring because it doesn't have all of the expansion pack activities.

So feel free to buy it and try it for yourselves, but if you mostly enjoy the custom content found on TSR and the expansion pack goodies, you may find yourself very bored, very quickly.

Birthdays

Our house has been busy the last three months, since everyone celebrated a birthday ... my mom, my son and I share January birthdays.  My dad's is in February and my brother's is March 1st.  But the big news is that we took my son to Disney World for his birthday.  It was his first time there and they are having a "get in free on your birthday" special.  Course now all he wants is to know when he gets to go again.  Aside from that, nothing much going on here.  Been trying to make at least one house a week, and it always surprises me... the ones I think will get a lot of downloads usually don't, and the ones I think are just OK get a lot more downloads than I expected.  Have you guys gotten used to the new TSR format yet?  I'm still not happy with it, and it loads so much slower than it used to, but I guess it's here to stay.  I hope you all have a great day and there's more to come, as always. -- Sara

The New TSR

I wrote this comment in response to the developers' request for feedback on the new site:

"My first impression?  I hate it.  Sure it's shiny, but if you were aiming to make it easier for people to find things, you have failed.  It's harder than ever to locate a specific item on the front page.  Haven't you guys heard of the old saying "less is more" ?  You have so much information in such a small space, the images keep getting smaller and smaller and the numerous pods are ridiculously undersized.  Give people the option to remove the pods that they never intend to use (both on the front page and on their profile pages), and don't make it so hard to figure out how to remove them.  Accessing profile pages, forums, private messages, live chat, submission areas and the download database should only take one click.  The best websites are the ones that don't require you to spend 30 minutes looking for or doing one small thing."

Maybe I'll get used to it, but I have to say ... I'm not really happy about it. 

Name Change

Yes, I changed my name from Bortai_Degera to just plain Degera. Having to type the full name all the time was too much for my lazy self. And this is actually my second name change since I started submitting to TSR five years ago. My original name was Nethie and I lurked around the forums for a long time before I got up the nerve to post anything. Some of you may know that name from my old website, Spiffy Sims. Now I'm off to make a new banner image! More to come, as always! -- Sara

WoW!

You guys just weren't thrilled with my Cozy Cottage series, so I've cut it short. But that begs the question... what do you want? More of my Affordable Homes, or Luxury homes, or other kinds of Lots? I am working on more rugs as well, by request. More to come, as always! -- Sara

Objects Anyone?

There will be some new houses and rugs coming in the next few days. I know I've been slow to get them posted, but I've been working on some object recolors by request. I haven't done any object recolors in a long, long time, so I'm having to teach myself again along the way. Good things come to those who wait! More to come, as always! -- Sara

Apartments Incoming

I haven't submitted anything in about a week because of an issue with submitting apartment buildings. I encountered a bug when I uploaded Cordellia's Cove, reported it, and waited for the support staff to let me know it was OK to re-submit. Now that it has been sorted, the apartments are uploaded and should be available in a few days. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have! More to come, as always! -- Sara

I Have No Blog

Those have to be some of the lonliest words I have ever seen. "I have no blog." I couldn't leave them like that. (Did I spell that right? Lonliest? Is that even a word?) I guess the big news is that I have, obviously, changed the layout and featured sections of my minisite. I removed some of my older lots and added some of the most recently published houses. I'm also still in the process of uploading my favorite items from my old website. If you remember something from there and you don't see it here, feel free to ask for it. More to come, as always! -- Sara