Not that there's a snowball's chance in hell of it being finished in time for a theme, but the project that I'm most looking forward to being able to work on again is definitely my university, and I'm heading back to grad school next week and really looking forward to my classes this semester, so yeah... obviously gotta go for Back To School here.

There are a bunch of school mods - you can already send your children to private school/boarding school or home school them, I believe? I don't use them myself, but plan to do so in a future hood.

A lot can also be achieved with Sophie David's mods. Some of my elders teach at University.

Most of the elders in my hood - excluding the original sims from the bin who are still alive - HAVE GONE TO UNI - they were born in game. No point in sending them again They are the wise ones now and have to teach the youngsters.

@Billilith has made some stuff for the age group between adult and elder (eg. here: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=472876) - and I would love to see more black/brown/blond/red hair starting to turn grey - in Pooklet colours : there is no reason for all elders to have grey hair.

More clothes - especially clothes for summer, the more decent clothes are more suited to cold climates - I find it hard to play a sim in a warm jacket when it is a hot summer day in South Africa. And especially for the elder male - and if I could, I would have made some myself. With all respect - please remember the fat morphs - my sims tend to have a lot of dinner parties, which means their weight goes up and down. (I almost had a heart attack a while ago because I thought my graphic card was breaking - turned out the shirt my elder was wearing did not have one).

I think we can honestly say that all of us look forward to your university, @Zarathustra!

Totally agree, the game seems to go from about 45 to 80+ in one fell swoop. I give my elders time to live those 50s, 60s, and 70s. I'm about to have a birthday in there. I still weigh what I did in my 30s, and I've only just in the last couple years learned to play guitar, traveled all over Ireland taking care of horses and kids to pay for it, done a solo art museum tour in Spain, lived in Mexico, learned enough of two more languages to work in India and Uzbekistan... life isn't over at 50, young'uns.

Well, i've officially been threatened for having a different opinion than the in-crowd, who clearly want Elders to be the theme. If i continue to push for the education theme, i'll be punished. So i won't be participating any further in this topic.

While my posts were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and make people laugh, certain individuals refuse to acknowledge that. I appreciate those of you who took it as intended and laughed. The world is a better place, where there's laughter, and I tried to add a little more.

So through fear and intimidation, i will be silenced. Elders is going to win. I change my vote. I encourage everyone else to do the same. While opinions are being asked for, they're not really wanted if they're not the right opinion.

Enjoy your theme.

You can vote for whatever theme you want Grin and the winner will be whoever gets most votes by the time the poll closes. Right now it's close between Elders and Uni. It isn't rigged and hate isn't allowed on MTS. So if you feel a post broke the rules report it.

Oh @grinevilly , I'm sorry you feel unwelcome! And I'm also sorry you deleted your posts. They were funny and they added a bit of variety to the thread. I know you got a "disagree" on one of your posts, but that only means that someone doesn't agree that the theme should be education / back to school. You really shouldn't take it personally -- it doesn't mean that they dislike you, just that they disagree with that opinion. You say you were "officially" threatened. That suggests a warning from a mod, and, from what I know of the mods here, I find that hard to believe. I'm sure Gina (gdayars) was being quite straightforward and honest in asking our opinions when she started this thread: they really want to know what theme we -- the members -- prefer. If you got a threatening or intimidating PM from anybody, you really should report that -- it's just not acceptable. Since I first came here back in 2012, I've always found this forum friendly, welcoming and accepting, and it hurts me to think that anyone should feel unwelcome here. I wish I could invite you to our Veronaville -- my Sims and I try hard to make sure everyone feels welcome and accepted there.

On the actual subject of the thread I am with the majority opinion in voting for Elders, but that doesn't mean I feel any antipathy towards those of a different opinion. You're not alone -- Zarathustra, arguably the best Sims 2 builder active today, also supports the Back to School theme. I'm an elder myself, but there's certainly no prejudice against youth in my game. In fact most of the Sims I play regularly are teens. And, as for younger children, well, I'm the one who added a codicil to my Sims' constitution stating unequivocally that "Every child has the right to be loved."

Now let's face it: all three suggestions are good, and I hope all 3 get adopted as themes over the next few months. But the reason I want the Elders theme first is that I find it far harder finding clothes for my elders than for my teens or children. (Fakepeeps7 does such a good job for TS2 children - I hear that TS3 children don't have it nearly so good!). My elders have such a limited choice when they go to the outfitters! So theirs is really the most urgent need in my game. Much though I would like extra embellishments for my owned businesses and for my Simlogical schools. And yes, there are things I'd like for University too, which I'm only just getting into. Including a mod I'd like to make myself to make dorm bills affordable (or no bills at all in dorms if I can't make them affordable!). But my elders' need of clothing is just more urgent. So yes, I'm still hoping that Elders will win this time. But, grinevilly, any "victory" will feel pretty hollow if it's bought at the price of hurting someone as much as this seems to have hurt you.

Whoever posted the 2 "disagrees" on grinevilly's last post, wasn't that a bit mean when he was clearly already very upset?

Now The Sims 2 is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. Or there's not much point in playing them! So can we all kiss and make up, and get back to having fun with this great game that we all love? And no more threatening or intimidating!

Sorry this has been a bit of a rant, but I hate to see anybody being bullied, be they Sim, or Simmer or other!

That will be a pity -- your posts were worth reading. Even though I was really on the other side! So I may I just ask you, in the words of the old Scottish Jacobite song:

"Will ye no come back again?"

I hope all three of the themes are used at some point. I had to roll a dice to pick. It came up Elders.

Planning on it. Using them I mean.

@grinevilly - just for the record: I loved your posts and you made me laugh.

Well, I wanted education too - I have an idea for a building contest and was hoping to persuade Gayars or Jo ... but we'll get there in the end.

Education building contest? I am all in

<updates register - JP, check>

Amen...I have nothing in common with my elders in their 80s except the odd aches and pains...I'm not ready to sit in the old porch rocker chasing kids off the lawn (if I had either).

I've got more in common with the angst ridden 20 somethings..lol.

For what it was worth, I voted for Uni as well. I had fun with my shipping-container dorms (one is uploaded here ... the others are not upload-worthy, but I still like them). I might have given another dorm layout a try. I have classrooms/lecture halls/coffee shops/studios and cafes/activity centers all over my game's campus. It doesn't seem like much of a campus without those! I use Sophie-David's lecterns a whole lot. It might have been a challenge for me to think of a subject I haven't used yet or a cafe that is different from the four or five I already have on there (my campus has a campus area as well as two adjacent "town areas" .... I don't use the community college mod because it really mucked up my game during an EP reinstall, and I'm reluctant to put the mod back in there again), but I was game to try it!

Businesses were a close second.

Not sure if I'll participate in the Elders theme because my life is still chaotic, but I'll give it a shot! The Space theme ... sorry. I was coming up with blanks for that one. I tried coming up with a lot for a week or two after, but really didn't like the results.

*Jo is interested* :D