When Alice isn’t working, she doesn’t really have anywhere else to go. Often, she ends up sitting on the bench outside the store where she’s employed, waiting for her next shift to start.
Gradually, she seems to have gotten a routine and begun to cope with her existence. Neither she nor I noticed the change happen, but she’s now coming in to work most days feeling mostly alright.
So it’s a surprise for me when she’s given a promotion one day. But not as much of a surprise as it is for her. Her traits mean she would never have thought herself capable or deserving of this. I have seen other Sims get a promotion. They’re pleased, but otherwise go about their day as normal. Alice is ecstatic, and she shouts in celebration as she leaves work.
For some time, she thinks about little else. Whatever she’s doing, she will periodically stop to punch the air or cheer.
After so many hours of watching Alice display only misery or numbness, seeing her loudly and outwardly express genuine happiness is startling.
Next: Kev and Yvette
If you are tempted to buy The Sims 3 after reading this, consider supporting this blog by buying through these links to amazon.com
If you’ve found this tale of homelessness affecting, you might want to consider helping a real-world charity.
Alice and Kev 
Whoohoo! Go Alice!
Is she still sending all/most straight to charity, though?
aww, grats alice 😀
That is really, really heartwarming. The fact that a game like the sims managed to make me feel honest to God happiness for a digital character is astonishing enough, but managing to convey it with mere words and pictures, over the internet no less, is nothing short of astounding.
Yay. Alice is awesome.
Kev’s amusing too. 😛
Oh, wow. That has really made my morning (is that really sad? 😛 )
Are you the AB that I know?
Smuff?
You go girlfriend!
*note the lameness
Congrats Alice!
aw thats awesome for her!
Cannot explain how happy I am for Alice right now. Which is kind of silly, but screw silliness. She deserves it!
Yay! Alice deserves a break.
My day is off to a good start. 😛
Go Alice!! She totally deserves it! I’m so happy 😀
What Jackrabbit said. Never thought I’d feel so good about something so fictional.
Thanks for continuing this, Roburky. I’ll be punching the air throughout the morning just thinking of Alice’s good fortune.
(One aside: During the 1850s, thousands of people waited dockside for delivery of Dickens’ latest installment of “Little Dorritt” because they just couldn’t wait to hear about their favorite fictional characters. We really haven’t changed that much; it’s just easier to get the latest installment.)
(Though the expectation for that ease has also increased, so it feels much longer with the fast paced publishing of the internet)
Hazzar for Alice! She finaly has a block of happyness to build the rest of her life from!
Nice metaphor, Jeroxy
I just found you today – your story is wonderful and different, and shows just how much there is to do in Sims3.
I just got myself the game for my birthday, but started off more traditionally, with my simself. She’s got four daughters now… I don’t know what to do with them all!
Excitable Sims usually yell the loudest. ROFL Yeah, maybe she will stay happy for the rest of her life and earn enough money to retire! Then buy a house! (Kinda late, but not TOO late) =D SHE SHALL LIVE ON FOREVAAAAAAA If you get her or Kev the death flower or life fruit or ambrosia, then they live longer! Vegitarians do too. =D
No, Ambrosia and Life Fruit are expensive and time wasting. The death flower, however, isn’t available in stores. Go to the graveyard, and there should be one in there. Harvest it, and use it wisely. Save Kev now, or grow it and keep it for Alice? GASP YOU FORGOT TO TELL US IF ZED MARRIED SHIRLEY OR NOT!!!!
I don’t care for the Sims 3 as a game. My daughters have been playing it and I find a lot of it quite disturbing at times. Robin’s experiences with it interest me, though, because he’s not doing a lot of manipulation, at least it doesn’t seem so. It would be interesting to hear from the developers who worked on the game to see how much of this they programmed in and how much is just happening.
MT –
What exactly disturbs you about the game? I personally love the game. I love seeing how the different traits decide how my Sims interact with the people around them and how it affects their lives. I like sending them somewhere and seeing how they act when I’m not telling them what to do and it’s enjoyable to see how much like real life (and yet still fake enough to not be creepy)it is. I think you get more attached to your Sims in this game than you did in The Sims or The Sims 2 because they seem so much more like actual people and you actually care about what happens to them. I love seeing conversations in person and on the phone because what they talk about actually correlates to what they’ve been doing before the conversation. I think it’s fun to see the thought/talk bubbles and make up what I think they’re saying.
Maybe you could try playing it once just to see if you like it better after you see what it’s all about?
I wouldn’t be surprised that he was slightly disturbed by Sims. I remember when I discovered killing them off, I almost couldn’t stop. You should have seen me when I discovered boolprop and pulled out the Tombstone of Life & Death in Sims 2. I was adding everyone in the neighborhood to my family to kill them by flies, electrocution, satellite, drowning, and fire. And even crazier, in Sims 3, you can look in another sim’s house. Stalkerish and creepy. Plus in Sims 2, guys could get pregnant via alien abduction, so…
Due to the lack of specifics regarding your dislike and disturbance for the game, we don’t have a lot to go on. I will simply state that this is an adult game for the most part and at the very least, would require multiple discussions that real life is only shallowly approximated by the game. Real life is much more complex and difficult.
Shallow approximation aside, I’ll never forget my burst of laughter when coworkers in cubicle land resembled the Sims telling a joke by tone of voice and hand gestures. “She-wa-wa, Rapidol” (or a bad translation of Simlish)
WOOO! go alice!!,i was also wondering what you’re gunna do once kev dies. are you going to continue the story with alice? are you gunna turn it into a legacy of sorts? or just stop and make a new story?
Alice deserves so much more!
That’s so great for Alice! 😀
Yeah! Way to go, Alice!
This isn’t really a complaint. I think this blog is very cool, and I’m happy to read it whenever it’s updated.
Having said that I still don’t get its collapse and now random updates. Each update is like 5 sentences at most, with maybe 4 screenshots pasted in covering at MOST a few minutes of in-game time. I fail to see how this results in lack of time to update it. Again–not complaining so much as wondering how it all adds up. I’m not going to complain about something that someone is volunteering their own time for. I am just curious.
My updates, counting time for breaks, generally take about six to eight hours. And I’ve been updating twice a week for three months now.
But then I’m not a student – just have a regular old 8:30 to 5 job and not a whole lot of responsibilities outside of that. And I sort of love my story and it’s sort of become my life.
I think roBurky has a lot of other things going on and also got burned out. And he also took some time to build up a buffer of updates.
Hey, medleymisty!
I just peeked at your blog and have subscribed to it via RSS. It looks great and I’ll go through the older posts at length when I have time. I’m also going to blogroll it on my budding Sims stories blog.
Cheers! 🙂
Hurray for Alice! 😀
Still hoping she finds someone, whether or not it ends up being Zedadias..
U – Go – Gurl!!!!
thats great for alice!
lets hope her luck stays
Maybe she’s super excited, or maybe the incongruity has driven her completely insane. 😦
Good for her. 🙂
congratulations to Alice! she deserves this! I’m so glad her life is turning around.
hooray for Alice!!!Best.Day.Ever!
Great post! Thanks.
Hooray for Alice! Is she not hanging out with Zed any longer? Did Shirley kick her out?
Woooo!! Go Alice! Now she will have more money to do things. 😀
Yay Alice!
I know that you’re trying to keep it realistic and let the characters do what they want, but can’t you get alice an actual house?
Just thinking.
=]]
Have you completely missed the whole point of this blog?
No I haven’t. Don’t be an ass.
I’m pleased that Alice has accomplished something she never thought possible 🙂 Brought a smile to my face even if she is just a Sim.
YAY!!
Now go ahead and whoop Shirley’s ass!
WOOOOOO!! Thats what Im saying Dylan!!! hahahaha:)
Love the posts so far, but what happened to the little comedic punch line/ending line? I’d love to see those come back, but nontheless awesome.
I can’t help but think that maybe, just maybe, it is because Kev is nowhere in sight that she feels good. *is not evil* XD just kidding about my being evil. =)
thanks! =) i luv this i missed it soo much! o and thnks again
Oh wow. That’s genuinely lovely.
Yayyy, Alice and Kev is back in full force. 🙂 Great to see Alice happy for once. I’ve never really seen Sims react so positively to a promotion, even my excitable sims. I can’t remember… is Alice excitable? Either way, that’s a big reaction. I guess when you’re life is that hard when you finally catch a break you just can’t keep it to yourself.
Oh yea! Alice and Kev are BACK!
THANK YOU ROBURKY!! I LUV THIS BLOG!
(calms self and prays she dfoesnt sound obsessive.) XD
go Alice! 😀
I’m SO stoked about Alice finally showing signs of lasting happiness. I hope she still isn’t donating all her salary to the charity, though. That girl needs to look after herself, too.
When I saw the word Celebration, I thought, Oh good, Kev’s finally died.
LOL, thats funny.
Thank goodness! Go Alice!
Yay! The post is back up! I’m glad Alice got her promotion. Hopefully that way, she can still afford to send at least 100 simoleons (the minimum amount you can donate) to charity and still be able to afford a decent place to live sometime soon.
yaay alice!
I literally wanted to cry when I read this. YAY ALICE!!
Yah for Alice. But please get a real job. You can’t kick kev and Shirley’s butt by working in a grocery store. Now police enforcement or athletic career….you might have something with that….
Wow, this is great. I am not entirely certain what gave you this idea, but it’s wonderful, and starting to take on a happier end.
Yay! GO ALICE WOOT!
*throws partay, invites everyone… except Kev.* : D
this blog sucks now, seriously make us wait for like what two months and then roll out this crap. you used to do so much more than this lame excuse for an entry…
Miko! You’re back!
*EPIC HUG*
I am SO sick of you being so stuck up and rude!!!!!
Stop being a jerk! If you don’t like it STOP READING!!!!!
Does it make you feel good to post such crap?
Hey now, I’ve learned my lesson and been born again! So to speak.
Okay, I haven’t really been born again.
But anyway, deal with trolls by being better than them. Shower him with affection! He won’t know what the hell.
Trust me on this. Seriously.
Hey, does anyone else find Simlish very similar to Huttes (the language of the Hutts, I’ll be damned if I know how to spell it)?
If I remember correctly, one Huttes sentence went as follows: “Achupa nowalya!”
Doesn’t that sound like he’s trying to tell a joke in the Sims?
Bantha Poodoo is just hilarious, in my opinion.
I wonder what she’ll spend her promotion money on.
I’m so happy for Alice. It’s about time something went right for her.
Woot! Go Alice 😀
As much as I love updates, like some I’ve noticed a difference. As a suggestion perhaps you could have a proof reader? Would take off some stress.
A second suggestion would to do a profile post on the main charicters; so far being Alice and Kev and maybe Zed. Would be great filler when you don’t have something else to post. Just listing all their traits, your opinions, and such.
Wishing you the best.
not a bad idea. 🙂
YAY!Go Alice
🙂
That’s wonderful. I’m so happy for her.
More!More!More! It looks like Alice’s unlucky trait is doing something funky! I can’t wait to tell my friends about this!
P.S. I’m a new reader just started reading today.
you go alice YAY
Other people have been a little rude about this, but I agree a little witha few of them. Since your hiatus, this blog just hasn’t been as good. I don’t know if it’s because Alice is grown up and Kev is getting ready to die, but it doesn’t seem as interesting.
Not that I don’t love it. I do. And when I saw that Alice got promoted, I was like, “Yay Alice! You go girl!” And apparently some people dislike Kev, but just think about it from his point of view.
Maybe he fell in love, got married, and then his wife died in child birth. Maybe he blames Alice for her death. And he’s homeless. He’s a single parent living in an old abandoned park. Just think how hard that must be for him.
But maybe that’s just my opinion… Ah well.
Also, he’s insane and inappropriate. That can’t make life easy, especially the insane part.
Exactly my point! I’m glad someone agrees.
RoBurky: What was your original idea of Kev and Alice’s history before the start of the story? Did the mother leave them? Die in child birth? etc.?
This question popped into my head recently, and wouldn’t pop out, so I just wanted to know the answer.
I LOVE THIS! XD
Sorry, been a fan for a while. Great to see this back. Anyways, I really want to know what Alice’s last trait was. I don’t remember finding out…
Wow, the posts are getting so short and boring, but I still love Alice and Kev! Please check out my new blog http://agrandmothersstory.wordpress.com/
wow finally some just reward for a life of despair!
go girl!
Aww good 4 her!!
Great! I’m so happy that Alice is excited and happy finally after the tough life she’s had. You made my day reading this after having been away from it so long.
I enjoy that Kev’s bucket list is nothing but a list of people to yell at.
What trait is it that makes her not think much of herself?