Just curious! Do men and women play Sims 3 differently?

[Carl]

I am male and prefer playing without a family. I like to play it like it's a solo role playing game of sorts. Start from poverty and lead them to wealth.

[Kreathyr]

Looks like more female players than male ones.
I wonder why...

[Carl]

Not to be offensive, but I've heard the Sims described as a virtual dollhouse. A description I wholeheartedly disagree with. I think this belies the depth of the game.

[jinhong91]

Not to be offensive, but I've heard the Sims described as a virtual dollhouse. A description I wholeheartedly disagree with. I think this belies the depth of the game.

It is more a life simulator than a virtual dollhouse to me
The ironic part is that there is not much about death in game.
Evil sims cant really kill (whether by arson or poison food doesnt matter) which is quite a bummer.
After all, death is a important part of life.

[Metropolis Man]

I'm a guy — the Metropolis MAN kind of gives that away — and like Honeymooners accurately pointed out, I tend to go for just couples or singles when I play. I pretty much do only my own challenges and I'm looking forward to participating in other player's challenges, so I have no time to do stuff like a Legacy Challenge just for fun. I have 3 daughters in real life, so I know all about raising kids. But, it's not surprising to me that the poll would show much different results between men and women's play preferences — it's to be expected.

Carl and Pam threw up the new Baby Boomer Challenge yesterday so that is enticing. I feel obligated to support other player's effots to come up with interesting challenges, and for no other reason, I just want to see if I can beat Pam in an area of the game where she's a pro and I'm an amateur. We'll see. I have a couple more challenges to finish first.

EDIT: Oh, and Carl, I missed your post above mine. Let me assure you — Sims 3....all Sims games...without a doubt ARE a virtual dollhouse. Moreso for women obviously. That description is perfect for how my 2 older daughters play the game. Things like career advancement take a back seat when they play. They are much more interested in creating sims with certain appearances and houses arranged in a particular way. Obviously for female adult players like Pam, Sims 3 can become much more then a dollhouse and offer a lot of depth. It's a huge reason why the franchise is so wildly popular because it appeals to so many ages and can be played on so many levels. I've mentioned that I'm also a Diablo II fanatic. Well, in that game your options are a) go out and kill monsters and improve your gear, or b) go out and kill monsters and improve your gear. Probably a big reason why women just have 0 interest in Diablo.

[Bogie74]

I've mentioned that I'm also a Diablo II fanatic. Well, in that game your options are a) go out and kill monsters and improve your gear, or b) go out and kill monsters and improve your gear. Probably a big reason why women just have 0 interest in Diablo.

I am a woman, and I like playing Diablo too!!  I like a lot of "guy games". When the last Madden Football came out, my guy friends absolutely flat out REFUSED to play with me because I whipped their behinds!! (One of them got so mad he threw the controller down and walked out of the room) Frankly, I thought that was hysterical but that's just me! 

Probably why I'm single... hmmm... will have to think about that one!

[Metropolis Man]

I am a woman, and I like playing Diablo too!! 

Oh, my god...can I have your baby?! Wait a minute....my wife looks at this forum now too, so scratch that last sentence. 

Seriously, that's really cool, Bogie. I know women Diablo players exist, but they're insanely rare. I've hosted around 30 D2 tourneys in the past 3 years and I'm guessing there have been 3 different women participate.

[Honeymooners]

I have to laugh about the dollhouse thing because my friends call my simming "playing Barbies"  I always correct them and tell them that Sims are way more fun than Barbies!

[PJSim]

Not to be offensive, but I've heard the Sims described as a virtual dollhouse. A description I wholeheartedly disagree with. I think this belies the depth of the game.

I agree, it's like calling a computer a typewriter.

The ironic part is that there is not much about death in game.
Evil sims cant really kill (whether by arson or poison food doesnt matter) which is quite a bummer.
After all, death is a important part of life.

True but at least the sims do die. In Sims 1 the sims never died and the kids never grew up, after a while it got weird.

[igzigpuff]

Female and prefer to play without families ( I also voted that way).  However, with that said the game is new and that is my preferred way to play right now so I can explore the new game play.  I also played that way in TS2 until I learned enough about the game and then was able to handle more than one person in the household.

I never played a legacy, it just seems to take me forever just to have a couple of generations.  For TS2 I never got past the 2ND generation and most of the kids ended up being professional students at the University!    I did eventually start to get into the families just before the release of TS3.  The genetics seemed more interesting in TS2, so at this point for my TS3 games I've only had a total of about five children born ( it would have been six, but my game crashed and I lost a kid.  hee hee).

Oddly I've never thought of this as a "virtual dollhouse", since I never had one as a child.  I just know whatever sex you may be, this game has something that interests everyone.!  Ain't it grand! 

Happy Simming! 

[Cel_sims3]

I'm female and prefer families. It's not really for the raising kids part though, it's more because I get tired of my sims and want new ones and (ta da) one action, three days, and some fun later, a kid pops out that I can now create into whatever I want.

Oh, and Metro, I LOVE D2. I had a level 70 necro before I moved and all my games got lost. By the time I had the money to buy new ones, I was too wrapped up in college/work/sims. =(

Oh, and the whole comment about the virtual dollhouse, I'm not sure if that's fair or not. In some ways, I do treat my sims like I did my barbies when I was a kid but in others, well Barbie never had a career in politics where she had the option to embezzle (sp?) money from her campaign funds and Barbie couldn't invest her money and buy the town. I think Sims is much much cooler than my dollhouse when I was a kid.

[HelenP]

I too am female, I tend to start with a single sim to get the feel of the game dymanics (have done this since sims 1) then move on to families. 

Like several others I enjoy Diablo both 1 and 2 (with expansion), have played lots of other rpg's and once managed to win a map on half-life Counter Strike .

I don't play on-line much having spent too much time using modems instead of broadband and because I am not naturally competitive but I have been known to join my hubby multi-playing when we can get the home network to function.

Hope this hasn't drifted too much off topic

Just realised that I tend to make single sims or founders female because I prefer playing my own sex when the game doesn't give males a big advantage.  Do others prefer their own gender for these games?

[RCHaynes]

Well, I'm female, but I can't select either option. I play both ways. Sometimes as a single looking to achieve a goal (right now I'm playing to finish the Martial Arts and the LTW for level 10 Athletic/MA (no, they don't help each other   ) ) and other times I like to play families, I have 1 Legacy I finally liked the start of and I have another 'No-Goal' family that had 3 sets of twins back to back. I had to start using cakes to get a few to toddler, since I often play the open-ended ones with aging off or set to epic.
My husband plays with mostly setting silly goals (Try for Baby with every female sim in town type things) or just running through the game.
We both love building, and shamelessly plagerize each others' creations

and in the spirit of topic drift, I don't play Diablo, but I have played MMORPGs for a decade.

[PJSim]

Do others prefer their own gender for these games?

I don't have a preference. I often play single Sims and I tend to switch between playing a male and a female Sim.

[Da Vinci]

I am a man, and I enjoy playing individual sims, preferably self-employment. My preference is painting. I play both male and female sims.