The Beginning of the Beginning

Hello, my name is Jennifer and welcome to the beginning of my blog! If it's not obvious already, what I hope to accomplish in the next few months is a documentation of the huge process that is creating a world in the Sims 3, which I figured someone might be interested in if they too are considering doing the same. Because this undertaking is a process(huge emphasis here) that requires a large amount of time and planning, I have decided to start from the beginning,which is my background with the game and what sparked my interest in this project.

Background with the game:
I have played the Sims series of games on and off for the past seven years and I feel that in this time I've gotten a pretty good feel for how the mechanics of the game work and the types of game components that I have really liked and disliked. As far as the create-a-world tool goes, I have attempted building in it a few times, though with limited success and never actually to completion. Because of this, I know how to use the basic tools of the program(add lots, move trees, simple terrain paint, etc), but that doesn't put me very far ahead of a beginner and I still anticipate making rookie mistakes. Though, I suppose that that will be part of the fun, won't it?

Where this idea began:
This whole project is the brainchild of my desire to travel internationally and my general interest in real estate. As a lifelong resident of the southwestern United States, I've seen snow maybe six times total and in my area the idea of a green lawn is more of a local joke than an attainable desire. At some point, I was chatting with an UK resident online and they joked about how their summer had started and ended last Thursday, after a blissful day of absent overcast. I laughed because of how comical this seemed, I mean, a single day of cloudless sky is a cause for celebration? We get over 300 sunny days a year with a rainy day being a blessing from on high! This geographical (and cultural) difference really sparked my interest in international geography and lifestyles. Soon, I was looking up real estate in England and was enthralled by how different the living spaces were. A tiny flat in London costs as much as a 7 or 8 bedroom house does in the southwest!

For the curious, I pulled two homes (one from Zoopla, the other from Zillow) from my searches to show you an idea of my culture shock.

An end terrace house in London. 942 sqr ft.

A detached house in Phoenix, AZ. 4,796 sqr ft.

Each is listed around the same price point, but location differences caused the amount you get for your money to vary incredibly! This idea of different locations, different lifestyles is really what sparked my interest in creating  a world that would be fundamentally different than the familiar desert landscape I've grown accustomed to. In this project, I really get to explore by creating, which is one of the things Sims games are great for. Also, as a bonus, I now can warrant spending more time looking at lovely landscapes on the internet(for inspirational use, of course).

That's it for now! Next up will be my pre-planning stage in which I'll go over the topics of world size and topography.