Back From A Video Game Induced Trance

Ugggh. 

Whe...where am I?

How long have I been out?

Oh...oh, wow. It's been a week, hasn't it? *sigh* Well, I guess I finally have to come clean.

Sometimes--not very often, don't worry--I go through a little...transformation. Kinda like a werewolf. Except I turn into a gigantic nerd for days on end.

(Yeeeah, not nearly as cool as a werewolf.)

That's the reason for my recent absence. Between Portal 2 and Sims 3 Generations, I just couldn't control the beast inside me any longer. It infected my mind and...changed me. Bent my spine forward and hunched my shoulders. Drained the color from my face. Hung deep purple bags under my eyes and etched tired lines around their edges.

*shiver*

As always, I eventually managed to drive the sleepless demon of Gaming back into the depths of my mind. But it's always there...lurking in the shadows of my psyche, waiting for the slightest sign of weakness.

Okay, okay--I'm done being melodramatic. But I did just spend a week straight playing the Sims and watching my brother and boyfriend play Portal. (I'm feeling pretty unaccomplished and lazy.)

Rane Anderson of The Lit Express (It's an awesome blog, btw. You should totally follow them if you don't already) posed this question on my last post:

"Do you ever make videos of what you do on SIMS? I'm really curious! I've seen a couple youtube videos...hmm...I guess I don't understand the purpose of the game...like what are you trying to achieve?"

To answer the first question, no, I've never made any videos. I have given some thought to making Sim representations of my characters. (Just realized that would probably be easier than spending hours looking for pictures of suitable celebrities...)

Now, as for the second question...it really got me to thinking--seeing as I just killed A WEEK playing. I don't think there is much of a purpose to the Sims. Or rather, the purpose is whatever you want it to be.

My boyfriend plays to build things. He could care less about creating Sims and watching them move about in their world. All he wants to do is see how many interesting sites he can build.

My brother only wants to see how many hi-jinks he can get his Sims into/how much drama he can create in their lives. He's a wrathful overlord where his Sims are concerned.

And me--I like to watch a story unfold. You create these people, assign them a set of traits and a lifetime aspiration (usually based on the traits you choose, though they did open it up recently so you could choose whatever wish you want), and set them free into their world. They want to go certain places, get certain jobs, learn certain things, and meet certain Sims. Given enough free will, they'll live their lives for themselves, only needing you to help grant their wishes and achieve their goals. I love watching my Sims' families grow and evolve, seeing all the wonderful and tragic things that happen along the way. The one I'm working with now has five generations so far.

On that note, I wanna show you one of the best stories I've seen come out of the Sims 3.

The story of Alice and Kev, created by Robin Burkinshaw.

Here's Robin's intro to the story:

"This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any of the game’s unrealistically easy cash routes. It was inspired by the old ‘poverty challenge’ idea from players of The Sims 2, but it turned out to be a lot more interesting with The Sims 3′s new living neighborhood features.

I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over."

The Sims doesn't really have a set "purpose." And that's what's really great about it. You can choose to make the game about just about whatever you want. (And with all the neat expansion packs coming out every few months, new possibilities are always popping up.)

Anyhow--this post is getting kind of long and I still have a tagging to attend to. So yeah, click that link and check out Alice and Kev's story. I found it very enjoyable when I came across it back in 2009.

I've been tagged by the amazing Madeline Bartos of Capricious Existence. What fun! :D

Do you think you're hot?

I'M A SEXY BEAST! RAAAWR!

Ahem...what I meant to say is, I have my days when I wake up and grin at the mirror, thinking Hell yeah, who's that tasty mama in the mirror? Oh right, me. (I'm kidding. I'm not really that lame.) And I also have my days where I'm pretty sure I've seen fish with better looks.

Upload a picture or wallpaper you're using at the moment.

Oh lord...*headdesk* I drew this up a while ago for the sole purpose of serving as my desktop image. Enjoy my lameness.

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?

*gigglesnort* What sort of weird question is this?

But it's kinda funny this is being brought up. My mom has an unnatural love of eating chicken. No joke--if she had her way, I'm positive all her meals would have chicken in them. I think I inherited it to some degree. So, to answer your question, really recently. (I can't give an exact date...pork yesterday, chili before that, and from there I'm drawing a blank where dinner is concerned.)

The song(s) you listened to recently?

What were you thinking as you were doing this?

My exact thoughts went a little something like this:

Hmm...should I make more coffee? Hmm...

I wonder if I could fit in another hour of Sims--NO! No. Must finish blog post. Must write.

*Elevator music*

Yeah...I should totally make more coffee. I've only had two cups so far today. A couple more won't hurt.

Am I addicted to caffeine? Naaaah....

*More elevator music*

Where did my other shoe go...?

Yeah. That's the wonder of my mind at work.


Do you have any nicknames? What are they?

I had so many nicknames in middle and high school it isn't even funny. Lots of people called me Mickey Mouse for unknown reasons. Really--I have no idea why they did that. Other people liked to call me "Kristmas" because one of my favorite ensembles involved a green sleeveless shirt and a red undershirt. There were a couple of other plays on my name: KrissKross and Kristibug. In high school, they called me Mary Poppins because I had a seemingly magic purse that carried anything and everything. Oh, and I had a particular friend who called me Vanilla Bear, because Scrubs was "our" show.


Tag 8 blogger friends...

1. Rane Anderson
2. Artemis Grey
3. Colene Murphy
4. Jodi Henry
5. Quinn
6. Teralyn Pilgrim
7. Loralie Hall
8. Kerri Cuevas


Who's listed as No. 1?

My blogosphere BFF! Her blog is amazing and don't even get me started on the awesomeness that is WHO IS SAINT GIOVANNI? (Which you can read on her blog...for FREE! Go. Go now, and read.)


Say something about No. 5.

Hi Quinn! I've missed your fantastic posts since you broke your hand. Hope that's healing nicely, btw. I can't wait to have you back on the blogosphere--it's not quite as fun without your posts!


How did you get to know No. 3?

Through blogger? Lol. I've followed her super-awesome blog for a while. Her Word Verification posts are freaking hilarious :)


How about No. 4?

Pretty much the same. I've followed her blog for a good l'il minute and find her absolutely hilarious. Her sense of humor never fails with me.


Leave a message for No. 6.

Hiya, Teralyn! You write some great posts! And I can't wait for SACRED FIRE to hit the shelves so I can get a copy! :D


Leave a love-dovey message for No. 2.

Uh...I've told you before...I'm not exactly the lovey-dovey type. Ehh...I'll give it a try.

Artemis,

Your posts ROCK MY SOCKS OFF. The situations you describe are priceless! And your flawless descriptions really bring your hi-jinks to life. My newsfeed would be a very dull place without your posts. Don't stop being awesome!


Do No. 7 and No. 8 have any similarities?

They're both too awesome for words, not to mention fantastic writers. 'Nuff said.

Whoo...my apologies for this super-long post, everyone. It's great to be back! I promise I won't go on any more week-long trance-outs any time soon!

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

**Also, I just want to let everyone know, blogger is being an unbelievable pain in the ass. It won't let me log into my Google account to comment. So...yeah...I'll try to work around it somehow, but please bear with me until they DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!