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How I Play Rotationally
You might've heard others talk about rotational play and how they organize their spreadsheets. Some use Notion, others use google sheets. But what are they even talking about and how do you get started? In this article I'll be covering the basics of Rotational gameplay, primarily for The Sims 2 but can be applied to 3 and 4 as well.
What is Rotational Play?
Rotational Play refers to the play style where a player controls multiple households and switches between them on a planned schedule rather than focusing on one household forever. Instead of playing one family until their story is finished, you “rotate” between households so that the entire world progresses together.
This style of playing developed naturally from the way The Sims 2 (released in 2004) was designed and from how players wanted to experience the game. Unlike the original The Sims, The Sims 2 introduced a much stronger sense of time and family progression. Neighborhoods had premade families with interconnected stories but since other households would not progress while you were away, this meant players had to decide how to manage time themselves. Since each household had its own timeline, many players began playing one family for a few Sim days, then switching to another family and continuing their story. This prevented one family from aging far ahead of everyone else and made the neighborhood feel more like a real community.
When The Sims 3 released, rotational play became even more appealing because of its open world. However, The Sims 3 also introduced Story Progression, where inactive Sims could get married, have children, move, or change careers without the player controlling them. This created different styles such as players who still rotated among their different household but let story progression do it's thing, and players who used mods to keep as much control over their gameplay as possible.
How I Found It
I found rotational play after I started playing the PC version of the Sims 2. This was when EA gave away The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection for free in July 2014. It was a special promotion when EA announced they were ending official support for The Sims 2. I was used to the story progression of the Sims 3 and didn't know there were other ways I could play the game. I found rotational play through Pleasantsims on YouTube and instantly fell in love with the idea of micromanaging every little aspect of my sims. I've since then relaxed a little and let my sims make their own decisions once in a while, but I still stick to my spreadsheet for tracking households.
Why I Love It
I love rotational play because I can be a part of all the sims in my town/neighbourhood. I grow deeply attached to every household and want to be there for every birthday, every wedding, and every birth. It might sound crazy to non-simmers, but for many of us that is a feeling we all share.
With rotatioal play, you can make your own stories and tie them all together. You can witness the drama from every angle, and the best part is, you'll never be bored of playing a single household for a long period at a time. Of course, a draw back is that depending on your rotation length (how many days you play each household per rotation), and how many households you have, it can take exponentially longer to progress and get through each family.
Of course, that's where spreadsheets come in!
How I Organize Everything
Every one of my sims games has it's own spreadsheet. This is because I play rotationally and have no need for different save files (unless it's a challenge save).
I use Google Sheets and a template made by Pleasantsims. This template keeps track of every sim categorized by household and age. I also color code according to life stage such as:
- Baby = Red
- Toddler = Orange
- Child = Yellow
- Teen = Green
- YA/Adult = Blue
- Elder = Purple
This also lets me know the age of my sims at a glance and is useful for when I'm looking for friends or potential romantic interests for my current households.
I'm in the process of removing some unused features from the spreadsheet, the "Generation" tab being one of them. I will say, after playing for a while, it gets a little tedious to update every little thing so I'm trying to only update things that are very important to me after a play session.
You are free to add or remove anything on the spreadsheet provided here
A rotation, for me, is to play a household from Monday-Thursday at 12am. Once the clock strikes midnight on Thursday, I save, mark that I have finished a round with that household on the spreadsheet, and switch to the next household. This next household is now starting on Monday and I repeat the same thing.
For the Sims 3 or 4, I usually keep track of how many days I've played in general, for example, playing 4-5 days for each household. Using the days of the week does not work for these games since time flows naturally, unlike the Sims 2.
Once I have gone down the list and played all my households, I start the next round with the very first household I played at the top of the list. This time, they will be starting out on Thursday 12am and I play until Monday 12am. Once I've played them from Thursday-Monday, I once again save, update the spreadsheet, and move on to the next household. This means that every other rotation, they will either start on the beginning of the week or towards the end.
I used to play my households for full weekds, Mon-Sun, but because I have so many families now I have cut the rotation time in half. You can choose how long you want your rotations to be but keep in mind that the more households you have, the longer it will take to get through a full town rotation if you choose to play for full weeks at a time.
Would I Recommend It?
Yes, absolutely! Is it for everyone? No, but I think you should still try it. Rotational gameplay is a great way to keep a save file interesting and stop you from creating new ones just to leave them abandoned after your week long sims phase.
Keeping a save file stable after many generations (especially in the Sims 3) can get tricky but it's so worth it. Rotational play has helped me keep my "Forever Saves" feeling fresh and exciting
I have many tips and tricks for keeping savefiles from bloating out of control and more about the concept of "Forever Worlds/Saves" that I'll be writing about so stay tuned!
Now start up your game and start setting up your spreadsheet!