Rookie mistakes you made when first playing the Sims 3

[ratchie]

When I first got the Sims 3 I didn't bother actually reading the instructions I had played the Sims and Sims 2 so I was confident I knew what I was doing. Turns out I had not got a clue.
I didn't know my Sims could leave the house I played three generations before I figured that one out. In case you are wondering the first heir married her best friend from school and the second one married the maid.
I didn't know you could go to the grocery store so my original family lived on quick meals for three generations.
Didn't have a clue about the mirror and the dresser so everyone looked pretty bad.

Anybody else have anything to share.

Rachel

[Sportsfan]

I diet know about the living chair can't be used near a desk.

[Metropolis Man]

I hate reading instructions too, Rachel. I just want to dig into a game and play. I'm always asking for clarifications from Carl when we play Rift. I'm convinced Carl is part sponge. Give him a new game and he just soaks it up. Lol. Anyhoo, I remember the whole wish mechanic in Sims 3 was baffling to me at first. And it took me a while before I got a routine down to buff a virgin Sim's mood to elated. Moods constantly tanked and I got frustrated.

[TallStar]

I didn't know about the mirror or dresser, so every time a sim aged up I would save right before so if I didn't like the outfit I could reload.
When I sen my sims somewhere, I didn't know I could follow them and they ended up making lots of random friends because I couldn't figure out how to control them.
I also did not know you could move houses. That ended up a fatal mistake.

This topic is totally awesome!

[Sportsfan]

Oh, and when I played my first game it wasn't showing any empty lots and I was wondering if that was a bug but for some reason it just did that.

[TheChronicR]

Believe it or not I didn't know anything about life stages in my very first game. I also wasn't aware there were cheats for about four-five months. I wish I never found out about their existence.

[MarianT]

My first toddler's hygiene got pretty low. I tried holding the toddler and clicking on the bathtub, having the toddler click on the bathtub; I looked in buy mode for a changing table -- finally I tried "change diaper." Ahhh.

[imaGleek]

Oh I could go on forever about this. I didn't know about cheats so I played for about a year living in the starter homes (my sims weren't good at making money.) And when I first got world adventures, I didn't know how you got adventures so, all I really did was run around and do random stuff.

And for this next one keep in mind I was only ten when I first started playing.I also didn't know about burgalars, so when I got robbed for the fist time I was scared to death, I couldn't sleep for days. and all my sims were nocturnal untill I discovered burglar alarms.

[RunAmokSims]

I didn't make rookie mistakes. I was a complete rookie. I had never played a game like Sims before TS3. I loaded it, made an adult Sim and all she got to do was go to work and do things around her house like eat and shower. It seems like just a few days later she turned into an elder. I was like, what?  What kind of game is this?  It's just good that I'm tenacious.

[ratchie]

The whole wish happiness point thing totally passed me by my Sims would have loads of happiness points and no rewards because I didn't know what they were for. I still often forget about using those happiness points.

Rachel

[SimPoseyYum]

As a few have mentioned, I wasn't quite up to speed on the whole wish management thing at first.  The game was probably harder than it needed to be because of that.

I also didn't understand how to use the palette tool, so my Sims lived in seriously ugly homes, wearing seriously ugly clothes.  And I didn't realize I could shut off the newspaper without suffering any major consequences.

[Pam]

I had no idea about life stages with my first Sim.  She was a scientist and did ok, but had a hard time finding a boyfriend.  She finally landed a new guy in town.  I didn't know how long I should wait before they got married and stuff.  I didn't let them try for baby because I wanted them to be married first.  So when I got the notice that her birthday was a couple of days away, I decided to have the wedding and birthday party at the same time.  They got married first, then she aged up...  to Elder!!!  She was never able to have a baby.

[Orange Iguana]

I had no idea that the only way to raise a toddler's hygiene bar was to change it's diaper. Spent quite a bit of time looking for something that could let me give it a bath.

I also thought pregnancy books were in a special category so I would just ignore requests to read pregnancy books since I had no idea how or where to get one.

Oh, one more, I also didn't know how to take a portable item with me places so that laptop on my first sim's desk? It may as well have been a desktop.

[Micler]

Lol, I had no clue when I first started playing. I didn't know how to make my sims walk at first... Also, I didn't know about CAS, so I thought the only way to get different colours for items was the randomize button. I spent so long trying to get the colour of bed I wanted. I was generally terrible at the game, and I remember how happy I was when my sims finally started to get promotions at work!

[Seabody]

Thinking I knew everything and then failing... epically. I thought that to get options at work, you needed to click on the building.