How do you play The Sims 3?

[paulabelle]

I usually set goals for each of my CAS households and try accomplishing them! Recently, I started a new Legacy family (first time for TS3) and I'm having a blast so far! And I broke my personal record and achieved generation 6! On TS2, I never went past generation4 before a game crash or boredom interrupted my legacy.
I plan on having my 1oth heir follow another challenge, maybe the Immortal or the Apocalypse, I still haven't decided. I've also been reading lots of Decadynasty and Life state dynasty stories lately. So, I'm trying to figure where to go next with the heir!

One of my non-heis became the mother of the Baby Boomer challenge in Appaloosa Plains! That's a fun thing to do, and it gets my mind off the Legacy for a while!

I prefer playing longer challenges, with many goals to achieve a restrictions to watch out for. It gives me lots do with my game and I usually explore jobs and occupations and traits that I don't normally choose for my CAS sims!

[bubbles]

I'm thinking of starting my own challenge whereby I start with 2 married young adults on epic lifespan and try and get them to complete as many lifetime wish criterias as possible between them before one of the reaches elder. Has anyone else tried anything like it?

[cndneh]

I'm thinking of starting my own challenge whereby I start with 2 married young adults on epic lifespan and try and get them to complete as many lifetime wish criterias as possible between them before one of the reaches elder. Has anyone else tried anything like it?

I tried this with a single Sim, aging off, static needs, and I started doing each LTW in order... I got to firefighter before I almost went crazy.  Some of the careers/LTWs are so boring, haha! Also my Sim didn't roll any work opportunities involving saving people so it was taking me FOREVER to get the Firefighter LTW done. I've not given up on her... she's merely on hold, maybe indefinitely.  haha!   (Or I need to super cheat and use my Mods and make her roll good opportunities!)

But good luck!  I'd love to know how it goes with a couple. 

[Katie123urgreat]

Like others, I have started playing the Sims 3 for nearly three years, since I got it for Christmas. At the start, I used to create a family of two parents and two children, but after a while, I realised that their personalities turned out to be the same. Back then, I used to take a whopping 2 hours creating a family, but I never got into CAStyle, so the outfits were pretty plain. Nowadays, it takes me about an hour to make a very large family. I have improved! I then got into multi-generational games, sort of like a mini, less stressful DecaDynasty, as they moved to a new home after every generation. My best lasted nearly 5 generations, and then I just got bored. I loved that game, since EA's story progression worked alright with me. Now I like to pretend I'm writing a story with my families; I take screenshots and write a couple of chapters. I move from save file to save file, which means I don't get a very large progression with one family. I still love to make Sims, since I can make an entire backstory for them. I'm taking a break from building, but I'll probably get back into it in the next few days. I'm currently playing a legacy, since it's more laid back than the Immortal Dynasty, and that most of the time there won't be 8 sims staying under one roof. I like my games to move on like in real life. Now I have a weird fascination with creating weird Sims; bright eyes and hair, and funky personalities. 

[LivvieLove]

How do I play the Sims... I play loosely, I guess. I usually have ideas in my head of what I want to do and go at it. Unfortunately my games never seem to last very long (more than 2-3 generations if I'm lucky) and it's not necessarily that I don't like playing for long periods of time, usually my game stops functioning after a generation. It makes me frustrated to know I'll never complete a legacy or a dynasty or anything of that nature because my game literally goes haywire after so long in a game.

So knowing that: I still try anyways and I'm always surprised when it never works. Currently I have my Fairy legacy in Moonlight Falls... the second generation has just been born but I can barely play that save without stressing. I wanted the two cats they had to just have ONE kitten to pass on the next generation but no, they had 2. So I now have four cats and three Sims that need constant attention. I have to queue up as much as possible for the Sims and hardcore focus on the cats.  I got in way over my head. My other games are usually just my simself and my boyfriend. I like to try different things. I had us build our way up from the bottom, complete our lifetime wishes and become supernaturals. He became a vampire and I became a fairy; he took up alchemy and I took up gardening. It's been a lot of fun just exploring every aspect of the game after starting from the bottom. Unlike most people though we aren't planning on children in our lifetime so we'll likely have an age freeze potion after a young again and travel and go everywhere and do everything.
I guess I really like building up from the bottom in my gameplay, though the beginning is always hard. I just so wish I had a solution to making my game last longer, even with mods in that help clean the neighborhood and keep it from going crazy it doesn't last any longer than one or two generations - three if I'm absolutely lucky.

[orawnge]

Rather haphazardly. I usually create a Sim with a preferred playstyle in mind and once I've completed whatever it is I've set out to do, I start another. Most of my Sims end up being deleted.

There is an exception, though.... My favorite Sim, named Elle Dahb, has been around in one form or another since I first started playing. She has The Tinkerer lifetime wish, and usually once I reach that I start customizing her with the efficiency LTRs (Steel Bladder, Meditative Trance Sleep, etc) and make her into a God among Sims.

[Saga]

I usually play with 1 or 2 sims until they reach their LTW or I get another idea that I want to try out. But now I have started to try to check out bigger family too. I often use money cheats so my sims can get nice home and few things from start (but now picking and selling wild flowers is easy quick way to make money). Also now I use buydebug to plant supernatural seeds in some park or near Elixir store so I can find them easily.

I always create my own sim or use one that I have made before. In my main game that I'm playing now (one where created 2 sims who will get married and have kids, whose future I already have decided) I named my male sim after one of my favorite singer and female is mixture of me and character my and my best friend created about 20 years ago ... I play with sim based on her "twin brother" a lot too. I have been thinking that if I learn how to take screen shots  I could make a story of him and his way to be great singer. My and my friend created several families with full backgrounds for our plays (I really didn't believe that those characters or main 4-5 families would still be living with me 23 years later).

[Katie123urgreat]

@Saga - To take screenshots in game, you press C on your keyboard. If you are on Windows 7, they can be found in Documents > Electronic Arts > Sims 3 > Screenshots. They will be presented in the order you took them whilst playing.
Sorry for being off topic.

[folcon]

I'll usually create a sim with some idea in mind for play, then get bored after a few real world days and either start a new game with a new sim, or end up not playing for a few weeks.

[Free SIM]

I normally do the whole family thing, build a great house etc. Then I get bored and allow their lives to fall apart

[NearlyWitches]

I normally do the whole family thing, build a great house etc. Then I get bored and allow their lives to fall apart

Yeah, building a life for them isn't as much fun if you can't destroy it straight afterwards.

[DeNile]

Typically I start with a female in CAS or a couple, then I move them into the world I feel like playing. I start messing around with store content, building lots, making houses, and just generally renovating the town. After that, I start playing the Sims, usually with a family as a end goal for that generation. I use the Tabcast to gain skills, I use alchemy to make friends if I'm playing a witch, and I like to meet lots of people or focus on a skill, depending on the sim. My sims will always have several dates before they get married, at least several, and I love to throw actual weddings. After that they get a vacation or an at home honeymoon, then I play them a bit longer before they have kids.

After that it's a matter of figuring out what to do with the kids, and then continuing on with the generational game,

[MoMoll]

I used to mico-manage my sims. Now, I check their wishes and let them have what they want. This has led to marriage break-ups; careers changes, too many kids, etc. So I try to deal with the ever changing scenarios. The new attraction system adds something to the mayhem.

I may go back to micro-management; but, right now they are "elated" and I think "why not".

[sunnydays]

I used to mico-manage my sims. Now, I check their wishes and let them have what they want. This has led to marriage break-ups; careers changes, too many kids, etc. So I try to deal with the ever changing scenarios. The new attraction system adds something to the mayhem.

I may go back to micro-management; but, right now they are "elated" and I think "why not".

That's actually really sweet. I was re-reading the little booklet guide that came with the base game disc, and it said something like locking in a wish was a promise to your sim that you'd make a conscious effort to fulfill that wish at some time. And I felt kind of bad because often I don't bother trying to complete my sims wishes... I'll lock them in if I have space, and then forget about them, or I'll keep the really big wishes locked in - whether or not they ever end up getting fulfilled - and ignore the small ones. Maybe next time I play I'll consciously try to play according to what my sims want.

[Rheassi]

I tend to play mostly multi-generational families with a strict emphasis on keeping the extended family in contact and not using cheats except for building cheats or to rescue a stuck sim etc..

I also enjoy doing challenges and I am currently working on 2 challenges of my own devising along with a really neat challenge created by a friend of mine on TS3CC.

I also spend a fair amount of time creating my own Sims and building homes. I enjoy going though the store worlds I have bought and rearranging things and putting in my own homes, sims and missing community lots.