The Self Sufficient Sim: There's silver in them there hills

Joe wakes with chirpy optimism on the third day. After two days of hard slog he's got money in the bank and food in the fridge. Time to focus on his real passion. I send him to harvest the vegetables I spotted near the pond on the first day, but I get distracted on the way and find an old abandoned mine with shiny things dotted around on the ground. Unable to resist anything shiny I divert Joe to investigate the mine.

Not creepy at all...

Joe takes a close look at the hunks of rock and they turn out to be lumps of iron ore, silver and even a piece of topaz. Joe shoves them in his pocket and I make him collect the rest. With his trousers laden and in danger of slipping I send him waddling home for lunch.

Examining the ores I discover that I can sell them straight away or send them off to be smelted (or cut in the case of the piece of topaz). I stare at the screen for a few moments. Having a piece of smelted iron or silver must be worth more than the unrefined ore. I had never came across collectables like this in my previous games. So I continue to stare at the screen genuinely hesitant to invest the money. It is pretty much all I have, and there is no guarantee I will get it back. Other games are mean like that, some take your money mercilessly and laugh at your misfortune when you realise your mistake. Maybe Sims is the same. All it takes is a developer, who is having a bad day, to slip something in out of spite. I hover over the button but in the end I instruct Joe to mail the pieces off to be smelted and immediately regret it when I do. It's the same feeling you get when you by something expensive, like a new TV, you don't need. Buyers remorse its called, well I have smelter's remorse. Oh well to late now; 'for there to be rewards there must be some risk'.

Bye Bye money, please come back.

Finally I get round to making Joe harvest those vegetables. It takes most of the rest of the afternoon and is a decent haul, so worth the effort. It was while Joe was picking apples that I had a thought. No-one has visited Joe. No-one has introduced themselves and welcomed Joe to the neighbourhood. No-one has even passed by the house. Maybe they had heard about the toilet fishing... It is this thought that made the next few moments particularly peculiar. Joe, having finished with the apples begins lifting onions (which in the game seem to grow on bushes...), when a lady approaches at speed. She stops a few metres away from Joe and stares. I worry that maybe I have accidentally raided her vegetable patch when another lady, slightly bigger, does the same thing. Runs towards Joe, stops and stares. Joe is oblivious to the audience and carries on getting his hands dirty when a small girl joins the line. Now, completely convinced I have done something wrong, a young man appears as well. There are four people stood in a straight line watching poor Joe bent over trying to yank out lettuces, they must have heard about the toilet fishing! He obviously senses something is wrong and (now this next bit genuinely happened) turns to face the wall of people. They all eye each other, completely silent and still, for a few moments. Then just as suddenly as they appeared the family of four turn away and walk off in different directions. What the...? 

With the weirdness over I make Joe (who has no friends at this point after all so I figure it's better to be friends with a crazy bloke than become the crazy loner) introduce himself to the young man Simis Bachelor, who is now stood next to the pond with book in hand. Handshakes over we hurriedly leave the scene with the vegetable stash before any ritualistic burning can take place. 

This is Simis, you think he's trying to tell me something?

By this time its getting late and Joe is dispatched to bed. I feel bad as he sleeps, I promised him a garden and still have nothing but lawn on our land, although we do have lots of free veg! I vow, again, that i will definitely make a start tomorrow! 

The next morning Joe wakes with begrudging optimism of finally being allowed to plant something... anything. I let him indulge in some pancakes for breakfast though first, big day ahead after all. Joe puts the mixture in the oven (pancakes... in the oven?) and stares blankly at the wall. Suddenly he snaps back into reality when the rising smoke makes him realise that he has burnt his breakfast. He rushes to get the batter out of the oven. I will him desperately, uselessly to do it with some haste, before the bubbling mixture starts a... oh crap!

Don't pretend it wasn't you! I watched you do it!