The Pet Hunter Diaries: Thrill Of The Hunt

Dear Diary,

New Acquisitions: 9
Current Total: 151

Every time I write to you I feel like a big nerd. Oh who am I kidding, I am a big nerd.

As you can see, I’ve reached my pre-World of Warcraft expansion goal of 150 unique pets. One reason for that is I made out like a bandit leveling the last 16 points I needed to max Archaeology. It was a pain in the ass, but I managed to score two pets and a mount out of it. Not bad for about an hour of work.

Another factor which helped a lot was the Darkmoon Faire which was in town last week. Can you believe it’s only been my second time at the Faire since it moved to Darkmoon Island? And the first time didn’t even really count because I was only able to catch the tail end of it for a day or two. And yet I’m pretty sure I can play all the effing games there in my sleep now, seeing as I did them every day on no less than six characters to be able to get all the pets at once (now that they’re account wide). It didn’t exactly happen this month, but it sure as hell will next month.

Of course I’m ecstatic about my achievement, but at the same time…I’m getting this nagging feeling in the back of my mind like I cheated a bit because three new additions were actually redeemed through loot cards from the WoW Trading Card Game (TCG). I debated, I debated, I debated, and finally caved and just bought these dirt cheap common cards off eBay.

Okay, so I know it was the wise choice. It’s really not much different from buying aesthetic items from a game’s item shop, no? Probably cheaper too. Prices ranged from $0.99 to $4.50, and as several people have pointed out to me already, considering the time investment and effort it requires for me to gain one pet in game these days, the price is definitely worth it.

Still, I’m loathe to spend real money on vanity pets, because if I didn’t I would have all the ones from the Blizzard store already. Right now I only own Lil’ XT because he was a free gift for being a former WoW Mobile Armory subscriber as well as the Pandaren Monk and Moonkin Hatchling because when I bought them a part of their proceeds went to charity. Otherwise, I would generally prefer to leave “buyable” pets out of my collection as that just feels a little like an easy way out. After all, it’s the hunt that counts, no? Although, I guess one can argue that the bidding war I had over a couple of these cards can also be considered a chase of sorts.

Dear Diary, not saying I won’t continue to pad my collection in the future with more real life purchases, but how ’bout we just promise not to make a habit of it? Okay, sounds good to me.

Happy hunting,

MMOGC

Latest field notes and recently hunted pets:

Curious Wolvar Pup

Am a big moron. Not really “new” pet, but missed being counted after patch 5.0.4 (this is why I write, D.) Thought only had Oracle pet, forgot had done Children’s Day quest a million years ago for this little guy on alt. Which alt? When? Who cares! Was nice surprise “bonus” pet, reward for helping some orphans.

Sea Pony

Nothing more irritating than fishing pets, but surprisingly painless. Random guy on dock beside me hooked him in 5-6 casts, made me want to jump and beat snot out of him to steal sea pony. Luckily fished up my own in about 60-70 casts. Urge to kill gone immediately. Only available during Darkmoon Faire from fishing off shores of island.

Darkmoon Monkey

Between this month’s tickets and last month’s paltry haul on main, had just enough to buy one Darkmoon pet before Faire left town. Chose monkey, because everybody loves monkeys. Especially monkeys wearing red fezzes. This is truth.

Clockwork Gnome

AKA Jeeves’ lazy cousin as he will not fix your armor, sell you stuff or do banking, just stand there looking pretty. Unbeknownst to me, project had been sitting in archaeology queue under Dwarf artifacts for who knows how long.

Voodoo Figurine

Another archaeology find, troll artifact. From description: “Often powered by flasks of mojo, troll sweat, the flesh of tribal enemies, or by DEVOURING TINY PORTIONS OF THEIR OWNERS’ SOULS.” Uh, crap, what? Wait, there’s more: “But don’t worry. Teeny, tiny little portions. You won’t even notice they’re gone.” Oh, good. Was worried for a sec there.

Sand Scarab

From WoW TCG expansion “Tomb of the Forgotten”. Very common and also cheapest of pet loot cards purchased. Maybe people don’t particularly like bugs? Admittedly, little guy is sort of creepy. Takes certain kind of love to appreciate insect bigger than your boot.

Purple Puffer

From WoW TCG expansion “Throne of the Tides”. Looks horrifyingly ugly on card illustration, but surprisingly cute in-game. Like Sea Pony, swims around in own little bubble which floats after owner, quite cruel if you think about it. Am disappointed that despite name, little guy does not have “puffing up” animation. Missed opportunity.

Gregarious Grell

From WoW TCG expansion “Crown of the Heavens”. Sports mullet, lots of piercings, and will look fantastic and right at home running beside warlock alt. Wait, Sand Scarab, Purple Puffer, Gregarious Grell. Purposeful alliteration? Or myself just slow to pick up on “old news”? Either way, I shall dub him Grayson.

Celestial Dragon

Received this latest escapee from the celestial menagerie for completing “Littlest Pet Shop” achievement, requiring possession of 150 unique companions. Since Patch 5.0.4, pet achievement rewards apparently no longer mailed as he appeared automagically in pet journal. Reward for collecting pets — even more pets. Go figure.

Sims 3 Saturday: The Summer Of 69

69 babies, that is. It’s Saturday, so you know what that means — time for another installment of the Sims 3 “Family Man” Challenge series. Warning: we are in for some drama this week.

As you know, last week I broke my previous record for this challenge. I mean, at 50 children, I practically blasted it away (old record was 37). However, this doesn’t mean my Sim is going to stop trying for more, because I’m still very interested in seeing how much higher this number can go. It’s just that, you know…we can relax a little. Have a bit of fun.

My Sim joyriding in his expensive car. Cue “Night at the Roxbury” music.

Another thing — my Sim also became an elder last week. He’s nearing the end of his life and can get a visit from the Grim Reaper at any moment — and since this is The Sims, I mean that quite literally! The poor guy has spent the bulk of his life in his bedroom between the sheets, I figured it’s high time for him go out and live a little. As well, I’m looking forward to stirring the pot and causing some drama in the neighborhood worthy of The Young and the Restless. Mark my words, before my Sim dies, he’ll be sure to throw a party inviting all his children…and their mothers. It’ll be like Fight Club.

As usual we start off with the announcements of a new wave of latest births: Juliet Stump gave birth to twins, bringing our count up to 52. Madison VanWatson gave birth to a boy, making it 53. Sharla Bills gave birth to a girl, 54.

After getting pregnant again, neither Madison or Sharla will be able to have any more babies, since their households will become full (8 Sims per household is the max). Once again, my Sim is going to have to go out and meet some potential new mothers if he’s going to keep the birthrate up. This is starting to become a problem. Quite frankly, the neighborhood is starting to run out of eligible women that my Sim hasn’t already romanced (and/or knocked up).

It’s so, so wrong (well, kind of wrong in the real world, but not one bit in the Sims world) but I had no choice but to do it. Rewind back to the Sims 3 Saturday post four weeks ago, when my Sim experienced the most awkward and derpy moment of his life after he invited a Sim named Kaylynn Langerak over to romance only to find out she was still a teenager and in high school. Of course, once he realized his mistake, she was promptly showed the door.

Kaylynn’s first kiss. My Sim’s 348,325th kiss.

Well, many Sims days later, little jail bait Kaylynn is all grown up. The game now classifies her as an adult, and thus is fair game for my Sim to romance (so wrong). In fact, my Sim has been waiting for this moment for a while, maintaining a not-creepy-at-all friendship with Kaylynn even after all this time so that when she has her birthday he can jump right in (even more wrong). My grey-haired Sim and young, vivacious Kaylynn shared their first kiss after he confessed his attraction to her at her house, right in front of her parents because she still lived at home (wrong, wrong, wrong)! She’s always had a crush on me, okay? That’s the story I’m sticking with!

The thing is, I really like Kaylynn. A neat freak and a perfectionist, her personality simply jives with my Sim’s. He has not felt this way for another since Ayesha Ansari. Throwing caution to the wind, he decides to ask her out on a romantic date, hoping for an opportunity to get to know her better without her family around getting in the way. But to do this, my Sim still had to keep Kaylynn from knowing about the other women whose children I fathered, so we chose to meet up at a secluded fishing pond nestled in the hills.

First date out in the middle of nowhere. Watch out for that poison ivy.

It was exactly the thing they both needed. After making out in the woods, they went home to my Sim’s house and woohooed for a baby.

However, to make up for both Sharla’s and Madison’s full households, ideally I needed to romance one more woman. My Sim looked up his contact list to see if there were any other lady Sims on it that he hadn’t made a romantic interest yet. As it turned out, the only other woman I could call over? Iliana Langerak…Kaylynn’s mom. Dun dun dun.

We’ll be right back after the break, because it’s time to update with another wave of babies (because all this time my Sim has been keeping busy): Jess Eastman gave birth to twins, bringing our total to 56. Toya Reid also gave birth to twins, making that 58. Madison gave birth again, to a boy (her last child), 59. Monika Morris gave birth to a boy, 60. Another cycle later, Toya gave birth to another baby boy, 61. Monika gave birth to another boy, so now it’s 62.

“So you’re sure Jared doesn’t suspect a thing?”

A funny story with Monika — when I tried for a baby with her afterward, the option was greyed out, telling me her household was too full for her to become pregnant right now. But that didn’t seem right, as by my calculation there should be one more Sim slot available. A quick check told me that she was actually married, to Jared Frio. Jared and his wife lived in their house with six children — yep, all of them actually mine. I had Monika kick Jared out, forcing him to move in with his brother Connor Frio, thus freeing up the vacated last spot for Monika’s and my Sim’s final child. By the way, don’t bother feeling too bad for Jared, he’s a jerk.

Back to the babies. Bless that fertility treatment lifetime reward, because it’s a parade of twin girls! Tracy Connor gave birth to twin girls. 64! Juliet gave birth to twin girls. 66! And finally, my Sim’s new love Kaylynn Langerak ended up giving birth to twin girls! 68! It was a happy day indeed.

I guess now is a good time to reveal another shocking event — Agnes Crumplebottom, my Sim’s fiancee and only long-term steady relationship, decided to move to another town. Basically, the game took her away, along with her and my Sim’s seven children. Apparently, these moves by the game are completely random, but I personally like to think that she finally got tired of waiting around for my Sim to marry her, grew a backbone and dumped his ass at last.

My Sim actually let Iliana sleep over? Wow.

We now return to the Langerak Saga. With Agnes now gone, my Sim feels he needs a new steady girlfriend. Could Kaylynn be that special someone? After the birth of their daughters, he moved her into her own home so she could start her own household with their new family.

Still, despite his deep feelings for Kaylynn, my Sim, horrible person that he is, could not help himself and invited Iliana, Kaylynn’s mother, over for some romancing. Needless to say, things got out of hand when the evening ended up with the two of them in bed, and Iliana pregnant. Her little boy became baby 69 for my Sim, the half-brother of Iliana’s daughter Kaylynn, as well as the half-brother of Kaylynn’s own children, hers and my Sim’s twins. Confusing, isn’t it?

Poor Kaylynn. What ever will she say about this? Or should the better question be, will she even find out?

Sims 3 Saturday: An Even 50

It’s Saturday! Screw the pleasantries, let’s get right into our progress for the Sims 3 Family Man Challenge.

When we left my Sim last week, he was the proud father of 21 children. This week, Sharla Bills gave birth to twins right off the bat, bringing our total up to 23. Ayesha Ansari (my darling, darling Ayesha) gave birth to her and my Sim’s seventh and final baby, a beautiful boy, making that 24. Oh, how I wish more than eight people can reside in a household, but I suppose the game is challenging enough as it is. I can’t imagine how much harder it would be to keep track of any more Sims than that, to make sure they all eat and sleep and go to the bathroom in time before messing themselves.

Meeting Monika Morris. Alliteration is fun.

Monika Morris also gave birth to twins — 26. I don’t believe we’ve met Monika on this blog yet, but she was a spirited young woman I met at a remote beach one day. I have taken to visiting community lots that are more out of the way; less chance of getting caught cheating by any of my dozen or so girlfriends this way!

Bebe Hart gave birth to twins. 28! Agnes Crumplebottom — my “official fiancee”, I guess you can say — gave birth to twins. 30! Madison VanWatson gave birth to twins. 32! Jess Eastman gave birth to twins. 34! See, now the multiples are starting to roll in; that’s what I’m talking about. By now, three days have passed (the gestation period of a Sim, I believe) and we’re now back to Sharla, who got pregnant again after her twins and ended up giving birth to a baby boy, making that 35. By the way, I feel obligated to remind everyone that we are now two babies shy of my last record of 37, from when I did this challenge way back in the day.

But here, something strange happened. The game suddenly informed me that the Hart family has decided to move to another town. Wait, WHAT?! Bebe! Our kids! Bebe et mes bébés! Seriously, I didn’t know this was possible. Is it a way for the game to regulate my neighborhood population? Is the town getting a little too full with my Sim’s children? I sure hope not, because I’m nowhere near done.

The last time I saw Bebe Hart, *sniff*.

Thankfully, Bebe’s and my Sim’s children remained in the family tree so they still count in the record. Unfortunately, I’ll just never see them again. That’s quite a depressing thought, actually. Regardless, Bebe Hart’s departure was a pretty big setback, along with Ayesha’s household being too full now for her to become pregnant again. Two Sims I cannot romance anymore! Once again, I had to go out and meet some new people.

Enter three women my Sim met at the local library: Toya Reid, Juliet Stump, and Tracy Connor. I met them all on there on a single trip and congratulated myself on a successful outing. It wasn’t until later when I opened up neighborhood map that I discovered all three of them lived in the same house, right across the street from me. ARGH! I told myself I wasn’t going to date roommates anymore! It’s a damn good thing that Sims apparently don’t talk about their relationships at home, because they’d certainly realize they were all dating the same guy…because in a few days, the size of the Reid/Stump/Connor household is going to double with the addition of my babies.

Toya with her healthy green “glow”.

That was my first date with Toya Reid when she came over to woohoo. Um, apparently those fumes wafting off her body is supposed to be her bad BO. Luckily, my Sim didn’t seem to mind. I mean, considering that it was HIS fault she smelled bad in the first place, since it appears she neglected to take a shower after he talked to her so much at the library yesterday that her bladder exploded and she peed herself amongst the books.

Something momentous also happened — my Sim had a birthday! He is now an elder, which means there will be no more life stages after this. Still, I’m very sure I’m going to break my record of 37; now it’s just a matter of how much we can break it by before my Sim arrives at the end of his life and is visited by the Grim Reaper because he’s not gonna stop adding to the family ’til his ticker stops tickin’. Now that’s dedication.

He’s still looking quite dapper, though, isn’t he? Er, except for the default clothes. Dear lord, we’re going to find a better outfit. Back to my regular suit I go.

Sims 3 has awful taste in senior citizens’ fashion.

Toya ended up having twins. We’re up to 37 and tied for the record! We’re going to beat it real soon though, because her roommies should be about to give birth too.

Indeed, Tracy gave birth to a baby boy for the tie breaker. 38! Juliet gave birth to a girl, making it 39. Didn’t I warn you that the Reid/Stump/Connor household was going to be exploding with my babies? Time to split them up. Thus, I moved Toya and Juliet out into their own households.

At just shy of 40 children, I think it’s high time I started visiting some of my offspring.

Haven’t you ever heard of a crib?

First, I hit up the Crumplebottom household. As you can see, Agnes had our youngest infant daughter swaddled and lying on the floor when I got there. Oh you, Agnes!

By the way, she has been my fiancee for weeks now, which I guess for a Sim is like, half a lifetime. I feel kinda bad that I haven’t married her after all this time, and it’s probably never going to happen now. After reading her Sims wiki page, this made me feel even worse. Haven’t you ever wondered why she’s always wearing black? Well, now I know, and it breaks my heart. I should never have read that site, but it does amaze and amuse me that all these well-known Sims NPCs have their individual back stories. Some developer spent a lot of time and effort writing all of these.

Begging forgiveness.

Next, I visited Jess Eastman’s house, which just happened to be right across the street from the Crumplebottom house. It didn’t go well. Jess must have caught me walking across the street right after visiting Agnes, because she gave me a huge scolding for being a cheating scumbag as soon as I stepped up to the door. She got so mad she even put our newborn baby on the wet grass to shout at me more effectively.

Poor sleep-deprived Sharla. I totally understand how you feel.

Sharla Bill’s house is next. All I have to say is, she seems overworked.

Time for another wave of new babies! Monika Morris, who was pregnant again after her twins, gave birth to a boy, bringing us up to an even 40. Agnes also gave birth to twins, making that 42 little ones. And with this latest set of twins, that makes eight Sims for the Crumplebottom household. Now I can never marry Agnes. Like, I literally can’t. The “have a wedding” option was conspicuously greyed out when I talked to her afterward, because there is no more room for the two of us and our seven children to live together. So sad.

Madison gave birth to a boy — 43. Jess also gave birth to a boy — 44. I tried for another baby with her right afterward, but she was still too angry at me from our fight outside on her lawn. I will have to romance her again when she forgives me. As if Sharla wasn’t stressed enough, she gave birth to another set of twins — 46. Toya gave birth to a boy — 47. Monika gave birth to twins — 49. Tracy gave birth to a boy — 50!

Okay, I think that’s enough for this week. Aaaand I’ll just leave you with these screenshots of my family tree at this point (it’s so long I had to split it up into two parts).

The Pet Hunter Diaries: The First Step Is Admitting I Have A Problem

Dear Diary,

They say it is coming; I can smell it in the winds. It has been a long time the hunt called to me, but I hear their voices now, the song of my dreams — and I have no choice but to heed. Look at me, they say. I’m so cute and cuddly! You want me in your collection. You know I’ll make the perfect companion. Time and time again, I have tried to turn away! But, dear Diary, as always…here I am.

Vanity pets. My love, my shame, my addiction. And in about a month’s time, it will only get worse. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is coming. Pet battles are coming. For self-proclaimed pet hunters such as myself, this new feature is both a blessing and a disaster. Perhaps it’s time to just give up this futile fight and embrace my inner obsessive pet collector. After all, I’ve played in the beta, and in it I’ve seen the time sink that is this new pet system — AKA my complete and utter ruination. And how better to embrace my imminent downfall than to document the entire process here like the gigantic nerd I am?

MoP might not be out yet, but the hunt is on. What does it say about me, when the first thing I did upon logging into my character for the first time in nearly a year, was to catch up on the new pets I have missed? Even though this is incredibly last minute of me, ever since I resubbed to WoW a few weeks ago I’d been working towards obtaining the “collect 150 unique pets” achievement — a not entirely unreasonable goal, or so I thought, seeing as I had last left off at 134.

Unfortunately, it might have been a tad too ambitious. Of the pets I have yet to collect, even the ones that don’t involve extreme good luck or paying an obscene amount of gold on the auction house require weeks to months of grinding, grinding, grinding. Again, what does it say about me when I will scorn grinding rep and dailies for gear, but will practically trip over my feet to do them if the end reward was a vanity pet instead? I am a sick, sick woman.

Latest hunting notes and recent pets:

Armadillo Pup

Was not even Revered with guild upon return to game, can imagine how long I have not played. Immediately bought this little guy upon hitting required rep. 50,000 dead critters needed to unlock pet, can somewhat recall going on rat killing spree in Deeprun Tram (just doing my part!) Seeing as I personally helped kill thousands of the little buggers towards guild achievement, I’d say I deserve this!

Guild Herald

Also bought at Revered rep with guild. Looks like full-sized male NPC, faction-exclusive companion, not battle pet. Too bad, as all I can picture now is this dude drop kicking my armadillo. On second thought, non-battle pet status probably good thing.

Rustberg Gull

This pet a result of almost two weeks dailies grinding for Baradin’s Wardens in Tol Barad. Alliance almost never wins there on server. Wanted to shoot self by time I was done. Unfortunately, 200 more commendations in my future, required for Fox Kit pet (now added to vendor). Oh well, better than farming and hoping for random drop. Might as well get to exalted on the way too.

Blue Mini Jouster

As pet collector, always thought Blizzard were bunch of shitheads for making you choose between getting Blue or Gold Mini Jouster as a reward for quest Egg Wave. Glad they made it daily, which if completed ten times awards you the Mini Jouster you did not choose in initial quest, allowing you to collect both. Thank you.

Hippogryph Hatchling

Found my stack of WoW trading cards while cleaning the other day, including rare Thunderhead Hippogryph loot card. Forgot I had this. Used to play game with ex-boyfriend, thought the dirtbag had made off with this along with rest of my collection. Could have sold this for at least 50 bucks on eBay, but hey, recall that I am sick, sick woman who must have her pets.

Dark Phoenix Hatchling

Thanks to removal of guild rep weekly cap and number of dailies cap in latest patch (again, thank you), got exalted with guild earlier this week. Would have been another four weeks otherwise. Bought really awesome dark phoenix pet right away, as well as its big brother the dark phoenix flying mount.

Lil’ Tarecgosa

Also bought this little guy when hit Exalted rep with guild. Cutest pet ever (sorry, Baby Blizzard Bear), and definitely prettiest dragon whelp pet by far. Unlocked by guild achievement. Now currently one very adorable pet richer…but unfortunately about 1500 gold poorer.

Tiny Shale Spider

Doing Therazane dailies one night when NPC scan mod alerted me to Jadefang in Crumbling Depths. As luck would have it, had Underground Economy daily quest. Heart pounding, set bomb in order to be literally exploded ass-backwards into previously inaccessible ledge. Held my breath, heaved a sigh of relief to find Jadefang in back of cave, actually up and alive. Wasn’t for long. Looted Tiny Shale Spider. Did not expect to go camping for rare spawns, just lucky night.

As you can see, I was somewhat aided by Tuesday’s patch 5.0.4, which also brought along an overhaul to the current pet system. The spellbook companion tab is now replaced by a Pet Journal UI, and all pets and mounts become account-wide with the exception of faction-exclusives.

As a result, I sorely regret not working harder on pet collecting using my other characters in the past. Children’s Day pets? Could have done the quests on multiple characters and gotten them all in one year. Argent Tournament Horde-side pets? My Tauren could have done those ages ago. Darkmoon Faire? My army of alts could have been ticket farming for a pet each. I could have been well over 150 pets by now.

Oh well, as they say, water under the bridge. The important thing is, hunting has been busy yet fruitful. Two weeks ago I needed 16 more pets to meet my goal, but today we are up to 142 with only 8 to go. Dear Diary, I hope to be there the next time I write, or at least be a lot closer to 150. Much luck and best wishes to all the other pet enthusiasts out there embarking upon their own pet hunting safaris. If interested, feel free to check out my current collection. To use a turn of phrase coined by my lovely guildmate from across the pond, I’m always happy to talk shop with other fellow “Pet Pals.”

Happy hunting,

MMOGC

Sims 3 Saturday: We Are Up To 21

Despite this crazy weekend with Guild Wars 2 headstart in progress and all, the Sims must go on. It’s Saturday, so time for another update, as our incredible super-duper amazing Sims 3 Family Man Challenge continues.

And yes, you read the title right. We see a huge jump this week, from the previous week’s humble figure of 10 little sprogs, to a whopping total of 21 at the time I drafted this (we’re actually up to a lot more now). It wasn’t easy. I’ve played Sims games for many years, and in that time I’ve participated in many challenges, but I have to say Family Man is one of the more difficult ones (but it’s also the most twisted and fun). Not only does my Sim’s entire life revolve around meeting women, romancing them, and trying for babies, he has to make sure he remembers to eat and sleep so that he doesn’t die of fatigue or starvation amidst all this hot, wild, sweaty woohooing.

My Sim’s a lover not a fighter.

And let’s not forget — we’re kinda working under a time limit here. My Sim’s birthday looms on the horizon; in a few days he becomes and elder. After that, he can expire from old age at any moment, so let’s sow those oats as far and as wide as we can while we’re virile and, well, still alive.

I’m not even going to deny it anymore, my Sim is now shamelessly trying for a baby with the same women over and over; as soon as they get pregnant and have their babies, I repeat this cycle all over, as long as these Sims would have me. Once I’ve established the relationship, things get relatively easier; I just have to be careful to maintain them and avoid being dumped for being a cheating scumbag.

Recall how last week, I mentioned the women my Sim had been seeing: Bebe Hart, Jocasta Bachelor, Jess Eastman, and Sharla Bills. Okay, ready? Deep breath now!

Bebe gave birth to twins! My Sim is now the proud father of an even dozen children. Then Jocasta also gave birth to twins. That’s 14. Later, Jess had a baby boy. 15.

I think that’s Bebe. Or is it Jocasta?

I’ve also managed to build up enough lifetime reward points to buy some perks — like being more likeable so that my Sim will make friends a lot easier, being always interesting so I can spam the same interactions over and over without other Sims being bored (since I tend to spam “flirt” all the time, this perk was a godsend).

At this point, my Sim is woohooing every day, sometimes up to three times a day — morning, afternoon, evening. After we do the baby dance, I always kindly ask the Sim I’m with to leave the premises so I can invite the next one over. Apparently none of the Sims I’m seeing seem to be employed, because they appear to be able to come over anytime I call, or maybe I’m just lucky. There is really no time to do anything else, I’m hardly leaving my house (more specifically, the bedroom) and very soon I get a moodlet telling me my Sim is going “stir crazy!” from being cooped up all the time.

Three under three and another one on the way.

To fix this, I decided to visit my true love Ayesha Ansari to see how she and my little tykes are doing. Before I did, however, I went to “edit town” view and split up her household, placing her roommate Madison VanWatson and her little one (also my child) into a separate house. After that disaster with Molly French and Fiona McIrish in the first week, I vowed never to date roomies again. I did the same thing for Sharla Bills and Jess Eastman, because I found out were living in the same house as well. This accomplishes a couple things: 1) there now is more room for the women and our current and future children in each house, and 2) I can visit my kids without worrying I’ll run into other Sims.

Doing this is iffy, but I don’t think I’m technically breaking the rules as they only state I am not allowed to play any other Sim in the neighborhood than my own. But even if I am breaking the rules, oh well, I’m having too much fun to really care.

Being told by my six-year-old how useless I am.

So I go to Ayesha’s house. The place is full of my kids, and yep, as you can see, she’s expecting another. There are literally babies everywhere. And just as luck would have it, while I was there, she went into labor! I wasn’t sure what to do, so my Sim ended up doing nothing but stand around while she’s screaming out in pain (oh dear, I’m terrible). Only afterwards did I realize I could have taken her to the hospital.

With this newest birth, we now we are up to 16! Not two seconds after she came home with the new baby boy, Ayesha and my Sim jumped into bed and tried for their baby #7. This is both a happy and bittersweet occasion — since only up to eight Sims may live in the same household, this is probably the last and final child for my Sim and Ayesha. In spite of the challenge, I couldn’t help developing a soft spot for her.

Yeah, so I wasn’t doing anything terribly important, besides, you know, JUST AT THE HOSPITAL HAVING A BABY!

I find I am now forgetting which Sims I am woohooing is already pregnant or not. One time, I called Sharla Bills to come over and she said yes, but changed her mind after that almost immediately. I got frustrated, until I realized it turned out that she was at the hospital going into labor at that very moment. She did come over afterward, carrying our new baby boy. That’s 17 now, by the way.

Like I said, I am also dating Ayesha’s now ex-roomie Madison (thanks to my antics), and she seems to have a habit of bringing children to our dates, so I basically had to buy a couple cribs for the house. Now when my girlfriends come over with our children, they don’t have to put the little tots on the floor, because I was actually feeling quite terrible about that. Finally, they’ll have a place to sleep while the adults woohoo down the hall.

Baby is snug as a bug in a rug.

In the above picture, Sharla Bills gets it. And yet, it appears Madison never learns:

Sigh.

Here, it’s been three days (the gestation period of a Sim) and the cycle starts up again. Bebe had another boy. 18! Agnes Crumplebottom, my darling fiancee, also gave birth to a boy. 19! Madison VanWatson ended up having another boy. 20!

After the first couple sets of twins, I seem to be only getting singletons now. Looks like the effectiveness of the fertility treatment is completely random, but imagine how much crazier this would be if I got lucky each time and had multiples.

Finally, Jess welcomed a baby boy. Oh my, blue all over! We’re being inundated with boys this week. And that’s how we got to 21!

Screenshot of the Day: Purged By (Growing) Pains

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’d probably know that I go through cycles with World of Warcraft, taking breaks and going back as I feel like it. Still, I have to say this is the most fun I’ve ever had returning to the game. I’m sure the company has everything to do with it, as I along with several folks from my multi-game guild has decided to take a casual dip back into WoW before the arrival of Mists of Panderia. We’ve all either started new characters or picked up long-forgotten baby alts, and one thing we were curious about was how we would do in a dungeon as a group of lowbies.

So, riddle me this: what do you get when you take five people, put them in an MMO that none of them have played in ages, get them on baby characters they’ve all forgotten how to play, and stick them in the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard? You get:

So okay, the first big pull ended up in a pathetic wipe, but it was caused by a confluence of unfortunate events. I think we all knew beforehand that our very first run together was either going to be really easy or really hard. Our Priest was playing healing spec for the first time, the tank would sometimes forget to be in the right stance, and we’d also inadvertently pulled the boss with Shaman totem aggro. Plus, by then I was pretty sure that anyone still left standing was giggling too hard to be really effective at anything.

And yet, it was great! For me, it was also a momentous event. Personally, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been through a low level dungeon in WoW “properly” without being powered through on an alt by a level-capped friend, or more often than not, I just skipped them entirely. It’s been years, probably not since the first time I leveled up my main. However, our humble little group has started anew, complete with a humble little guild. Luckily, since that pitiful first wipe, we haven’t had another. In fact, in the interim we’ve completed a lot more classic dungeons for our guild achievements — no reason at all, other than just for the fun of it.

There are definitely some growing pains, but in the face of disastrous early results, all you can do is laugh — because it is kinda funny if you think about it. WoW veterans, destroyed by puny SM trash. In a way, the game feels new again.

Sims 3 Saturday: Perfect Ten

So, this week’s session of the Family Man Sims 3 challenge got off to a bizarre start: I loaded up the game, carted my Sim off downtown to the bistro, and encountered a game bug which duplicated him! For a while there, there were two of me. The implications of this for the challenge are mind-boggling! Astounding, even! But alas, it was also just too damn weird and I had to reload.

Talking to myself.

Recall how last week, my Sim had resolved to go out more in order to start meeting new people. It only made sense, therefore, to start this session by trying his luck with some of these new Sims on his contact list. Except things didn’t turn out so well.

It was bad. First up was Claire Ursine, whom my Sim had the pleasure of meeting on his last trip to the neighborhood park. Frustration! It didn’t matter what I did, Claire would do everything with me except woohoo! I would max out her affection. Nope. I became extremely irresistible. Nada. Nothing worked. My poor, rejected Sim! As it turned out, Claire’s supposedly the town recluse who preferred living the loner life down by the ocean. Sometimes, it just comes down to pure bad luck. Or maybe it was because my jerk of a Sim forced her to break up with her boyfriend. Oh, how karma rears its ugly head.

Everything but woohoo.

A new maid also started showing up to clean my house every day, a Sim named Beatrice Reeder. My Sim and Beatrice had a great thing going for a while there, but when we tried for a baby, the option was blanked out — again! Surprise, surprise, Beatrice’s household too full for a new family member, just like what happened to the last maid, Kate Pistachio. Desperate now, my Sim practically jumped on the next female Sim to walk through the door. She happened to be repairwoman Amanda Gerstein, who showed up to fix a broken toilet. Needless to say, bad idea! It was strike three, and worst of all, my toilet remained a gushing mess after Amanda stormed out of my house in a fury.

Note to self: no more hitting on the hired help.

Then, something weird happened. Along came Madison VanWatson to save the day, showing up at my door carrying a toddler in her arms. Uh, yeah, she brought a kid to our date. Unannounced! Arrrgh. I was about to turn her away in frustration because, let’s face it, having a baby in the house while trying to romance someone just cramps my style. But suddenly, with shock, I realized the child she was holding was MY kid! As in, my Sim’s daughter with Ayesha Ansari, one of the twins who were born last week.

Just going to pop upstairs to woohoo with the babysitter. Kid will be okay on his own on the floor there.

I was thoroughly baffled as to how this woman got a hold of my baby and was walking around town with her, but then discovered that apparently Madison and Ayesha were roommates in the Working Friends household. Ah, so not a case of kidnapping then, the former was simply babysitting! Whew. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think it occurred to me that what I was about to do may be a little inappropriate, but that still didn’t stop my Sim from getting Madison to put little Christian Ansari down and come upstairs for some woohooing. As Ayesha’s and my baby was left alone and unwatched downstairs by herself, Madison and I were upstairs busy making our own. Soooo wrong.

Since my plan with new Sims didn’t seem to be working, my Sim decided to reconnect with some old flames. A good strategy, except my Sim made the mistake of going out to one of the busiest hangouts in town to do it, which nearly led to disaster. It’s getting a little too dangerous to be seen in public, since at this point,he’s the boyfriend of more than a dozen Sims in the neighborhood, which is maybe one in every three or four women he meets on the street. As one of them stopped to flirt with my Sim, of all people, Ayesha Ansari appeared around the corner and almost caught him cheating. Yikes. My Sim practically tripped over himself jumping back into his car and running home before she could give him an earful.

Madison VanWatson going into labor right outside the diner.

Lucky thing too, since out of all the girlfriends, I think Ayesha is my favorite. Despite having had a hot date with her roommate just the day before, in my mind Ayesha’s really my Sim’s one true love. She ended up having three more children with my Sim, making them the parents of five little ones in total. Said roomie, Madison VanWatson (of the terrible babysitter reputation, as you would recall) also ended up giving birth to a baby boy. Thus it was such that the Working Friends household is now full of my Sim’s babies.

That’s not all. My “official” girlfriend, Agnes Crumplebottom also had another baby boy. She also became my fiancee at the end of this Sims 3 session, because for some reason, she would only agree to woohoo with me again after I’d proposed to her. Um, hey, I guess whatever works! My Sim is now the proud daddy of ten little ones!

Proposing to Agnes Crumplebottom.

Of course, as it had to happen in the messed up world of the Sims, right after I get engaged is when my Sim started getting lucky left and right. Here are just some of the Sims he chanced to meet and romance this week: Bebe Hart. Jocasta Bachelor. Jess Eastman. Sharla Bills. Yep, they’re all expecting. And this is after I happened to snag “fertility treatment” as a lifetime reward too.

Next week should be very interesting indeed.