The year was early 2000-something and one of my college professors gave the class a unique assignment –design and plan a city with roads, utilities, parks, and other infrastructure.
To accomplish this, did we simply write a paper?
No.
Make a video?
No.
Design a colorful poster?
Also no.
We played a game called Sim City.
I bought the game, installed it on my outdated desktop, and assumed the role of mayor. Creating my first city, I generously provided electricity, water lines, and public services.
It was entertaining. I felt good about myself. As I supplied more, my population soared, resulting in a thriving city with happy Sims. Confident in my abilities, I saved the game, ready to impress my professor with my thriving, happy city.
The next day the bottom dropped out. I loaded my game and received news that my Sims were infuriated with me and leaving town.
What did I do to make these hypothetical creatures so mad at me? I wondered.
They informed that that they were tired of paying high taxes and sought a better life elsewhere. My population dwindled very quickly.
Being the Sim-pleasing mayor I was, I immediately lowered taxes but this move seemed to make my Sims even angrier than before. They left in droves, now complaining that they did not have enough resources to live in my horrible town.
My days as a mayor and urban planner were over.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I found Sims/Sims 2. This time, instead of designing cities, I focused on creating characters. I chose their hair, their clothes, their personality traits. This brought me immense joy. Most of all, I knew these Sims would never break my heart by leaving town.
This led to my blog for the Sims 3, initially called The Riverview Review.
When it became apparent to me that the story would eventually evolve from the world of Review, the blog was renamed The Plumbob Press.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
My older MacBook became water damaged and I had to purchase a new one. I didn’t fret because I knew I had my game saved on backup in a flash drive.
However, I learned that my saved Sims 3 files were not compatible with my new system.
And the world ended.
And I grieved.
I couldn’t bring myself to attempt to physically recreate the saved game that took me years to make and I couldn’t just walk away.
But, then I realized that like any good reboot on Netflix, a story and characters can be reborn.
I allowed myself to recreate my characters in Sims 4, despite the challenge. While I couldn’t replicate their appearance and traits exactly from Sims 3, I recognized that Sims are like characters in a bookâsometimes the cover changes, but the story remains unchanged.
This is how I transitioned my Sims storyline from Sims 3 (The Plumbob Press) to the Sims 4 (Planet Sul Sul)
So here I am. If you love Sims stories and lore, you’ll love Planet Sul Sul.