100things - pop culture - facebook games, my love/hate relationship, Sims addiction

[orangerful]

So, I had avoided Facebook games for a LONG time. I was a "real" gamer, so the idea of playing some silly Farmville game never entered my mind. But earlier this year, EA launched Sims Social for Facebook and my Sims addiction over-rode my Facebook game phobia

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[orangerful]

Sims Social (Facebook) you log in whenever and have your Sim do random tasks. Like regular Sims, you can have them cook, clean, sleep etc. You use "Energy" for special tasks and each time you log-in you get 15 Energy to use (this usually takes an hour or so to replenish). There are little "missions" for you to complete, like right now you are building a penthouse which will unlock new activities. The Facebook part is that you can visit your Friend's Sims and interact with them, which can earn you extra Energy and some quests require you visit a certain number of Friends and talk to them about things. It's a Facebook game so it's designed to be played for like 10 minutes then back to work/life/whatever.

Sims Freeplay (iPad/iPhone/Android) is a little bit more like normal Sims. You create a Sim and help manage their life for them. The tricky part is that it takes time to do things. So you want to build a new house, it takes 12 hours to build it, you send your Sim to work, they are out of the game until their shift is done. This is another one you can play for a brief period (Sim conversations take 15 seconds to a minute) or play and walk away (tell your Sims to watch a movie for 2 1/2 hours).

Both of them, of course, want you to get so into it that you pay real money for house decorations, extra energy, faster building etc. which I refuse to do.

Does that clear it up?