The Sims 2

The Sims 2 is the first game where I really learned how to play. I feel like I stole this but maybe Alicia bought it. I really cannot remember.

This is the game that introduced aging. I can remember vividly creating my perfect Sim, a replica of myself but obviously more handsome and cool. Finding his love, marrying her, and then having them both max their professions. I also learned even though people could age, by maxing out aspirations and getting the points, you could purchase potions that would turn back the clock on their age.

I was addicted to hitting all those little aspiration bubbles. To some extent this was the first thing outside of career-goals that lent some sort of clear and guided path for progression. I leaned into this and really, really focused on it. This meant I had characters with a huge surplus of those points and I used them to make my characters immortal.

They slowly grew their family and amassed enough wealth to buy the biggest plot of land. Previous to this I would always use cheats to get money. This was the first time I learned how to "win" at the Sims. Eventually the family grew in numbers and it became unwieldy to control all of them. I think I burned out at that point. But I must have put hundreds of hours in by this point.

Truly a tremendous game and, depending on who you talk to, the peak of the series. They kept a lot of the weird stuff like being able to befriend the Grim Reaper and added more with expansions. I recall min-maxing a character going through the University expansion. And the addition of the aging mechanic added a lot in my opinion.

Honestly writing about it, I want to go back and play more!