The Sims Freeplay

This is a free version of the The Sims which I am playing on my Nokia Lumia 920 which is a Windows Phone 8. It needs a phone with at least 1 GB of RAM and won’t show up in the Store if you have less.

Like many “fremium” games it is technically free, but every action in the game takes time to complete so if you are impatient you have to buy in game currency to speed them up. You don’t have to though – if you’re patient you can play for free.

There’s not much depth to the game though. You can create multiple people (Sims) and houses for them to live in and fill the houses with lots of stuff for the Sims to interact with, but left to their own devices they just find a chair to sit in. Buying the stuff requires in-game currency (Simoleons) and using the stuff takes time. You can easily earn Simoleons by growing plants and getting jobs, for example.

The best stuff, and some actions such as having a baby or advancing a Sim through to adulthood, requires a second in-game currency: Lifestyle Points (LPs). These are harder to earn, assuming you don’t want to pay real money. Initially you can earn them by increasing your overall level and increasing your town value. Doing any action (sleeping, eating, watching TV) generates XP which  increases your level. Longer actions usually provide more XP. Spending Simoleons on building new properties increases your town value. However, both these activities become slower to level up as you increase their levels, which means you run out of LPs, in my case by level 25.

However, there are other (legitimate) ways to earn LPs:

• Goals. The game keeps generating goals through weekly challenges which will earn LPs.
• Pets. You can buy pets at the town pet store, although these also cost LPs. I believe more expensive pets find better stuff. Shake Hands with a dog and he’ll dig something up for you. Usually Simoleons, but sometimes an LP. You can Praise the dog afterwards, but I’m not sure if it actually trains the dog to find extra LPs.
• Sims can win LPs at the town Competition Centre. One Sim can enter one event every 24 hours. Each event uses one of the various hobbies, so get your Sims to practice these.

 

Hobby	Stage	Compete	Practice Venue
Woodworking	Adult		Community Centre, first floor
Ghost hunter	Adult		Any home – buy items with the red ghost symbol on then use them to Search For Ghosts
Fishing	Adult	Yes	Town park – look for fishing rods on a wooden pier
Fashion	Adult		Buy the Fashion Studio item from the town’s Promotions R Us store and then add that to a house from your Inventory
Ballet	Pre-teen	Yes	Community Centre, ground floor
Karate	Pre-teen	Yes	Community Centre, ground floor
Skating	Adult		Snow park
Diving	Adult	Yes	Swimming Centre
Music	Adult	Yes	Teen Idol’s can’t compete in this event