Level Up! Blogfest

Today I'm joining in with the Level Up! Blogfest, hosted by Mithril Wisdom and Geek Banter. The idea is to talk about one of our favourite games, explain how it works and share our love for it (whether it's a card game, dice game, board game or video game).

My favourite computer game is The Sims 3. I started playing the original Sims as a teenager, and became totally addicted to it. It's a roleplaying simulation game where you can create virtual characters (including pets), build a house for them, furnish and decorate it and play out their lives. This includes helping them to succeed in their career, embark on a new relationship, have children, learn new skills, go on vacation and have lots of other life experiences. The aim of the game is up to you. In my younger days I used to spend a lot of time trying to kill my sims off in horrible ways, like putting them in the pool and removing the steps or locking them in a room and setting fire to it (yeah, I was a bit messed up)-but thankfully I'm over that now!

The reason I love this game is because it gives me a chance to be creative. I can spend a lot of time perfecting a character by customising their outfits, appearance and personality and then designing a house that suits them. Sometimes I create sims based on the characters I'm writing about in my current WiP to help them 'come to life', or sometimes I base them on characters from books and TV shows that I love. I've also created a virtual model of my own house which I use to try out different decorating and gardening ideas. I don't feel under any pressure to hurry through different levels or reach a certain target-I can just explore my ideas in my own time and watch what unfolds.

Another thing I love about The Sims is that the makers really have a sense of humour. There are tons of funny allusions to books or TV shows hidden about and lots of odd and hilarious things that can happen. In one of the older versions of The Sims there was a picture of a clown that you could buy and hang on the wall, which would result in a depressed clown appearing and following your sims around all day. In another version there was a genie that could grant wishes (sometimes with disastrous consequences). Your sims can also be abducted by aliens or turned into zombies, vampires and werewolves. It's a bit crazy at times, but a lot of fun. The only problem is they keep bringing out more and more expansion packs and stuff packs and I keep having to buy them all! Grr!

As for more traditional games I am THE MASTER of word anagram games like Scrabble and Boggle, but I'm usually up for anything!