ResearchSims I have Known...
An interesting side culture to the gaming world of the Sims, Sims 2, and the Urbz is the object mod culture. These "hacked" objects are common on the PC, but it is expected that console Sims will eventually get this ability as well. Object mods can be anything from designing your own custom colored and patterned clothes or wallpaper, to radically modifying the behavior and programming of objects in the game, often with awesomely amusing results. I sought to experiment with several alternative objects downloaded from various object-hacking sites to see what new kinds of Sim families I could create. You won't think I'm twisted after reading these, will you?
The psychic was my first serious mod. This began with a female hippie-style Sim whom I named "Faith". Faith lived in a commune with a group of adults and by luck I started her on the psychic career path. She took to it and did quite well, and when she'd taken to hanging around dressed in her sorceress outfit from work, I decided to take it to the extreme. Her room was redecorated in the star-field carpet and wallpaper pattern, furnished with the crystal ball object and every other occult gizmo I could find, and then I started working her day and night over a hacked chemistry bench, which could produce any potion called for. Sure enough, she cranked out love potions, and I began having her steal all the husbands in the neighborhood. Faith became a wicked witch, hooking one man after another under her spell, only to abandon them over time and leave them to fight jealously with each other over her favor.
The cubicle junkies were next. I stumbled on some furniture modified to office style, the typewriter object modified to be a computer, and the most interesting of all, the virtual headset modified to behave like an addictive drug. The headset charged the Sims' energy and fun, while creating the increased desire to use it again and a tendency to burn out their energy faster over time. Virtual speed! I created a household of geeks (neat, outgoing, active, playful, and nice personality levels all kept low) set them up in a house furnished as a cubicle farm, and they had no beds... just the headsets. The geeks slaved like mad earning me money, and I could afford more and more office furnishings, but no place to rest so they only could zap up with the headsets, top it off with an espresso, and head back to work. Suffice it to say that this didn't last long, as the stress eventually made them all crack and fights broke out and cliques developed and one Sim simply tried to hide in corners to get out of work. Yep, just like real life!
When I discovered a voodoo doll object hacked so it actually killed Sims instead of just making them feel terrible, I knew I had to try a serial killer Sim. This was a mean guy I made in a small, spooky house with a lot of yard space. Using the Hot date expansion and the love potion hacked chemistry set from the earlier mention, my psycho trolled the downtown for naive women, whom he then lured home to marry and collect their money, before killing them. Their graves lined up over time. The occasional ghostly visit provided some novelty. I found many Goth-styled objects to furnish the creepy atmosphere. I wanted to try to get him killed and have him haunt the lot forever as a ghost, kind of like Freddy Kruger, but I never got that far.
OK, so I'm twisted.