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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 12:30 PM Last edited by SneakyWingPhoenix : 21st Oct 2017 at 1:38 AM.
Default What has* the TS2 taught you?
Surely, I believe this life simulator, might teach someone a life/philosophical lesson, let it be good or bad. Maybe it had inspired you in some way? Perhaps fight off unwanted habits of yours? I can't recall any instance from my personal experence, though that my be the reason I created this discussion. Give your answer to the tile. Maybe it will jog my memory so I can engage in here as well.
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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 1:35 PM
"Do not neglect your children, pay attention to them and care for them." I always had a though that thanks to social nanny, it could potentially in theorical sense reduce the chance of parents actually neglecting their real children once they experenced it in TS4. Games can really do impact you, for good or worse. Imagine If teen pregnancy was a (vanilla) thing in a T rated game x_x

I like the article in the last link. It has more merit than the other two imo.
Inventor
#4 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 1:43 PM
Though the last one has "Sometimes you just really need to be naked." I'm tempted to ask someone how valuable this is if it's not meant figuratively or... for other reasons.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#5 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 1:56 PM
If your neighbours annoy you, beat them up. (TS2 Apartment Life)
Mad Poster
#6 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 1:59 PM
That a game can be a creative medium.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Top Secret Researcher
#7 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 2:23 PM
Back up your precious files regularly.

I've got one or two things on MTS, but most of my stuff is on my main site here:
http://simcessories.blogspot.com/
(Now recruiting budding creators.)
Inventor
#8 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 2:44 PM
Screen your calls so you don't get picked up by strangers.
Field Researcher
#9 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 7:22 PM
Well, so far everyone has come up with some funny lessons, but I have a more serious one.
From playing the sims in its various forms for around 11 years (I started when I was 7, I'm now 18) I have learned that there is more to beauty than the white European standard of beauty.

I was born and live in Northern Ireland. The capital of Northern Ireland is pretty diverse, probably because it has Queen's University. However, I was born in Lisburn. It is classed as a city, although it really doesn't feel like one. Most of the people in this small "city" of Lisburn, are white. I am white, my whole family is white, all my childhood friends have been white, my boyfriend is white. Most of the people you see on the street everyday, are white. If you watch TV shows, or movies, most of the actors are white. It's getting better in this regard, but it's still an issue.

If I were to count the number of people I have met throughout my life who were not white, I couldn't honestly tell you it was more than 10. It probably doesn't even reach 10.

When I started playing the sims at 7 years old, (it was the console version of The Sims 2 Pets) I made white families. For years afterwards, in any sims game, my sims were just white. In fact I remember seeing a meme (before the word meme was mainstream) about how nobody ever made a black family in the sims. I showed it to my sister who also loves sims, and she agreed, she never had.

Well just recently, I'd say within the last year or so, I got bored of only seeing white sims. I needed more diverse sims. Not everyone in the world is white, even though in Northern Ireland it feels like it. So I went looking for people to inspire me to make sims that weren't white. I started to see that these people, whatever their skin colour, whatever their facial features that didn't fit with white European beauty, they can be absolutely beautiful. Sometimes I feel they are even more beautiful than the European standard. And I feel by learning that POC are beautiful and diverse, I have also learned how to relate to people, whatever they look like.

Years ago I would say that I never made black sims because I can't relate to black people. That's no longer the case. I don't even think about it now when I make sims, I just make them and play them.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#10 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 8:01 PM
@Zena-Dew-Drop, ice try. From this thread, I had expected to hear more serious, so It's nice I got to hear yours

It reminded me of a similar situation that I heard from a youtube video TED talk. A female asian woman address an issues about from her own experence about how uncomfortable race stereotypies can make one uncomfortable. She gave a backstory of when she played TS3 with a household of a family of her own real family and her sim self (*double checking it*), and that she didn't came to realization, before she put the game away and start thinking, only then realizing that racist people around made such a big influence to her life to a point she didn't wanted to indentify her race in the virtual game and thus why she never consider creating sims of her own race.

That pretty much shows of how much of an impact the people and the local around us can makes on the social norm
Mad Poster
#11 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 8:04 PM
Back up - yes - AND preventing corruption - especially after my hood vanished into the fiery space ball thing.

Creative medium - definitely, although I have a long way to go.

Beat up your neighbours - now that is an idea

Screen your calls - I thought everyone did that.

Black sims - well, I kind of live in Africa And in a complex with 26 flats where I am one of 3 white families - so it is kind of logical for me to have a variety of sims.

However - I am not trying to learn anything (except building techniques). I just have fun. Because, in life, sometimes, one needs to just have fun.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 8:25 PM
Representation is important. And we learn the most when we're having fun.

Zena, I can assure you, it was never true that "nobody makes black sim families." But then all statements with words like "nobody" in them are false. If someone says "nobody" does something, it's a good bet that what they mean is "nobody who matters to me."

When making sims in Sims 1 I would deliberately alternate among the three available skintones so there were always the same number of sims with each skin in all my hoods - which meant I made more black and brown sims than white ones, when I kept the premades. When I got to Sims 2 I was excited to have an additional skintone, and bitterly disappointed to find that, not only was the new skintone an additional white one, but that the new S3 was so much paler than the original S3 that unless a sim had other obvious ethnic markers everyone who wasn't S4 looked white to me. Few of the premades had S3 or S4. Even the Goths were white. (And don't get me started on the hair selection!) That's why all the core families in Drama Acres are black - if I was ever to get anything like the kind of variety I'm most comfortable with, I needed to make it myself. Now, of course, I've downloaded a bunch of geneticized skins and have lots of lovely shades of brown to play with.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Inventor
#13 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 8:28 PM
@Justpetro - About the screen calls thing...

I had a friend who answered a call in the school office from a complete stranger who told her that he was sent by her parents to pick her up from school. I insisted on her not leaving with him but she ignored me and got into the car with him when he arrived.

It was absolute chaos when I searched for her twin to tell her what happened (because we didn't have cellphones back then) and my friend was missing for several hours. Her father was ballistic and her mother wouldn't stop crying, and none of us knew where she could've gone. Her parents went out to search for her while a few of us stayed at her house to wait for her. Hours later, almost dawn, her parents returned with her, shaken up beyond belief.

The mysterious man actually drove her into the seedy part of town and well... It was a good thing my friend fought back and ran off into the warehouses. She eventually made a run for the main road where her parents found her. This wasn't the first (nor last, unfortunately) incident wherein I almost lost someone to something like this, so I was beyond relieved that she was all right given the circumstances.

---

On a less serious note:

My neighbors are mostly scary reptiles. I don't want to lose a fight and be eaten!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#14 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 8:35 PM
Got a problem? There's a mod for that.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Instructor
#15 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 9:00 PM
I learned some social skills from TS and TS2.

I was mostly the shy kid, hid myself from the world. And while Sims socials aren't the same as human, I learned that humens aren't closed books, like they were in my mind.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 9:23 PM
That is terrifying, @Sketching - and it is sadly far from unique; it probably happens daily, cell phones or no cell phones.

We know that people disappear daily, some meeting the strangers who make them disappear via social networks, using those same cell phones.

In my opinion, no game can adequately teach you about the dangers of talking to strangers or going with them or meeting them. (Perpetrators are not always strangers, we know that, but often, they are). In what you tell us here, you have learned from a real life experience as well.

The game cannot teach you life skills. No game can. Only life does that, as well as listening to good advice and experience.

The game, as a tool for creative people (looking at you, @Peni Griffin) can of course be used to bring attention to important issues, to make well rounded, multi-dimensional characters and to tell stories with depth. I credit the person using it in this way, not the game as such.

I love the game with all my heart. The Sims 2 took me through my darkest hour, after my husband died - it was the best therapy I ever had. I did not have a lot of time to play, since I had children to raise and parents to look after, but I started the game when I could. A couple of years, when my best friend died from cancer, I did have some time and it was the game again, helping me through another trying time.

I love the game, I love the Sims with with their quirks and their expressions and their body language. I love Goopy and Amin and that even that darn Komei. And I learned things - about the game.

But not about life. And I am not going to pretend it did.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 9:47 PM
You can call out of work because the paper boy left a magazine right in front of your door and you can't step over it.

"Fear not little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom". Luke 12:32 Chris Hatch's family friendly files archived on SFS: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=603534 . Bulbizarre's website: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C...CoveredPortals/
Mad Poster
#18 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 10:10 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 20th Oct 2017 at 11:49 PM.
Sims 2 has taught me a lot about computers in general. I used to be rather clueless, but after I got Sims 2 and my first laptop, things have changed. I'm not a computer expert by any means, but I can figure out things more easily, and I'm comfortable with several programs and computer functions I never even knew existed some 10-ish years ago.

TS2 (along with the HP books) has also helped me get better at writing in English. I've always loved writing, and started reading in English with the HP books (and just kept on with English books from there), but after I started writing TS2 stories and doing contests back in 2007 my English writing skills have become a whole lot better. While writing I also did a whole lot of extra research that probably came in handy when I started nursing school.

TS2 also sparked my interest for photography and 3D modelling, and while I didn't end up working within any of those areas, I still like doing it, and frequently take sims pics and make 3D models for my game.
Mad Poster
#19 Old 20th Oct 2017 at 11:40 PM
The sims series as a whole (but mostly ts2, because I play it more) has helped me work through my personal hangups with sexuality and specifically same-sex relationships. I remember making Willow and Tara from Buffy way back in Sims 1 (and Tara getting jealous when Willow hugged Giles! ), but an entire decade later I still couldn't make myself make a sim gay or bi unless they were based on a character who was actually gay or bi. I remember in TS3 making a sim I intended to be gay and then never managing to go through with any romantic options with another male sim. I was pretty disappointed in myself, tbh.

But once I accidentally turned Guy Wrightley gay by having Frances J. Worthington check him out too many times. I didn't even intend Francis J to be gay; I just wanted to re-roll his wants... And it was that experience that led me to learn how sexuality is actually handled in the sims and suddenly I wanted it to make sense. So I got the sim blender and started using it to set a sim's sexuality properly.

I started out just making everyone bi (unless they had a good reason to be straight). See, over time through other things going on in my own real life, I'd slowly come to the realization that I was bi, and for a bit there I just kinda defaulted to making all sims "just like me."

I was actually really excited the first time I had two female sims share a first kiss. I paused the game beforehand and made my husband come watch too.

My Four Corners-Bitville + LGU now has two gay guys and a lesbian (in addition to quite a few bi sims, and one properly ace sim now that I figured out how to do that in SimPE). I feel like that's also an important step for me, personally, but the most important part was just having this whole world I can play in, this "safe" environment with no real-world consequences. For me, it's been such a great way to explore ideas I previously found uncomfortable. And I do think (in addition to fanfiction and whatnot) it's definitely been a factor in my own self-discovery. :lovestruc
Alchemist
#20 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 12:34 AM
tread title; it seems to not fit English grammar. "teach" would go with "did", or "has" would go with "taught".

some potential lessons people might be able to learn without this game and/or without the other versions. such stuff might be able to be found in various books and/or through various organizations; and/or possibly in real-life education.
child raising through books/organizations; architecture/designing/landscaping/etc in real-life education.

me; I think I learned more from various tutorials for this game than from the actual game itself.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 12:51 AM
Kids learn from everything. They can't help it. Grownups can't control it.

Adults are much less open to learning and are less capable of it, and different ones will learn best in different environments.

Yes, a number of different wordings would be better for the title, grammatically. "What did you learn from Sims 2," "What has Sims 2 taught you?" "What did Sims 2 teach you?" are probably the three most natural - for a native speaker. But we all understood SneakyWingPhoenix, and we're not the grammar police. It doesn't matter.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Link Ninja
#22 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 1:17 AM
It may be a one player game but it feels multiplayer when there's so many people online you can talk to about it. It's definitely not a lonely game.

Any aspect of sims can relate to a real life situation

Technology isn't as scary as you think it is (modding, using SimPE to edit packages, trying to import image files into body shop to create CC)

Sims 2 taught me more about story boarding, world-building, character building, house structure, interior decorating dynamics etc.

Mpreg starts with aliens.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#23 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 1:25 AM
I actually used Sims to teach history to my daughter. I would have her make sims from history, and then model their life in sims. She learned a lot about them that way.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#24 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 2:17 AM
@Sketching That is horrifying, so glad your friend was okay.

Back up - Yes I learnt the hard way about not having one the first couple of years of playing.

Creative medium - definitely.

Beat up your neighbours well when I was a kid the neighbours use to beat me up. Does that count? Me and my friend did scratch an S on the front of the name those kids had already scratched into their own front door. So Norton became Snorton. yeah we were scared stiff they would arrive back home while we did it.

Diversity- my game has always been fairly diverse with sims looks but then I was past 30 when it first came out. Sadly I am terrible at making sims look right though especially Asian sims so I would never upload any.

Technology- scares me a lot, but sim2/simpe has helped in this regard. You still don't want to let me loose with the TV and DVD remotes.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#25 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 2:59 AM
Another thing these games have taught me is that I'm severely better at managing the lives of little computer people than I am at managing my own life. My sims houses are always considerably cleaner, and they're always far richer. And they have much more active social lives. They're also much more fulfilled and happy in general.

But I think the real lesson from these observations is that real life could benefit from both "pause" and "reload" functions. Mostly that "pause" thing; I can technically deal without reloading, but pausing is absolutely essential to my playstyle.
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