Playing games and wasting time

Anyone that knows me knows that I love to play The Sims games. Lately, I've been playing a lot of The Sims 3. I'm really enjoying the seamless neighborhood setup. It makes their little lives feel so much more "normal." I've started a "Legacy" game, where you make a Sim, buy a huge empty lot and try to build wealth (and a house!) over 10 generations. You start with the clothes on your back, the empty lot and $1300. So far, my little dude has a little shack and a vegetable garden to show for his time. He does have a love interest so he may manage to produce generation #2, even if they aren't exactly wealthy yet.

I also have a game running that started out as my actual family (mom, dad, brother and me) and, so far, I've grown up from a toddler to young adulthood, established myself in a good job, gotten married and had two kids. It will be fun to see this family go through a few generations after I'm gone, but I think I'll be slowing down time a lot. It's creepy to think of letting a representation of yourself die!

This silly little game takes up far less time than The Sims 2 did because you don't have to babysit the little guys quite so much. Still, I spend a good deal of time micromanaging them because it's just plain fun. For example, one of the families has produced an evil genius son. He's just a baby, but I can't to see what kind of interesting life I can create for him. ;)