In the previous part, we looked at some of the "under the hood" changes that have come with this expansion and in the main, I think they add something beneficial to gameplay. In this part of the review, we take our first close look at hobbies from the perspective of the Harpers. We see what hobbies became passing fads and whether any became a lifetime obsession.

One of Julian Harper's first wants was to get a job in the intelligence career track. Fortunately for him, there was a vacancy for a gumshoe, which is the bottom rung on that career ladder. As one of the desired skills for advancement in that career track was logic, he was regularly playing chess. Combining that and an interest to play "The Sims 3" on the new computer and before long, he had a telephone call from an instructor from the "Games of Glory" club informing him of their existance and that he may become eligible for membership.

Tamara's goal was to become a world class ballerina. To practice accordingly, she bought a Basic Barre (Hobbies, Exercise) and began warm up exercises. This built her body skill but also started to give her an interest in Music & Dance. After continued practice, she was informed of the existance of "My Muse", asked if she wished to subscribe to a weekly magazine about the hobby and ultimately had a membership card to "My Muse" delivered personally.

When Julian was promoted to Crime Scene Investigator, he chose to emulate the legendary Gol Grissim, become an entomologist and collect insects. This went quite well until a swarm of bees started chasing him and a few days later, some of his bugs escaped and one of rooms in the house was infested. This hobby did not last for long and his nature hobby interest deteriorated in time.

Julian did, however, get in an interest in car mechanics by restoring an old junker and turning it into a hot rod. He even got the choice to determine what colour to paint the car. This interest in tinkering continued and he was invited to join "Will's Garage", which was the name of the tinkerer's club. He found that by restoring these cars, he could make quite a profit from it.

By the time Julian became the Head of the SCIA (sssh!), he had restored three cars and sold two of them on at quite a profit although as he approached his retirement, his main hobby was Nature. With an interest in fishing and gardening, his interest in this hobby had also increased. However, the front lawn of their house was often very cluttered with the hobby magazines they had subscribed to.

By the time Tamara retired, didn't just restrict herself to music and dance. In order to build her creativity, she also took up painting and that became an interest and ultimately a lifetime obsession in Arts & Crafts. Following her retirement, she took up sewing and became quite talented, so talented that the leader of "My Muse II" presented her with a plaque commemorating her achievements.

All in all, Julian & Tamara Harper had been interested in quite a few hobbies during their adult lives and as they entered their elder years, they would be finding more time to enjoy their hobbies.

As I pointed out in the last part, it is very easy for hobby club leaders to think that you are interested in a hobby. You don't even have to be actively following it. Just living your life normally is all that it takes. However, once you start getting those interest points, you are able to do different things.

1 Point means that you can talk about your hobby with someone. This comes up as an option under "Talk".
2 Points means that you can read the section about the hobby in the newspaper.
3 Points is usually where you are invited to subscribe to a weekly magazine and also when your sims start to dream about their hobby. Each hobby usually has its an added benefit at this level.

4 Points allows you to browse the internet with your computer for your hobby ... a bit like what you are doing now.
5 Points grants you clubhouse membership and the club leader delivers it personally. Also, another hobby-specific benefit is granted at this level.
6 Points enables your sim to share hobby tips with other sims.
7 Points allows you to blog about your hobby, which I suppose is what I am doing now.

8 Points is when the third hobby-specific benefit is applied.
9 Points allows your sim to instruct others in their hobby.
10 Points means that your sim is "In the Zone", seen by a shimmering glow around them and even delusionary sounds in their own mind when it comes to certain hobbies. When a sim in in the zone, their needs decay a lot more slowly when they are engaged in their hobby. This is very useful if they are doing something productive as can be seen on the left.

However, sims will find out that they will start to lose enthusiasm if they stop carrying out activities that are related to their hobby. Once you're in the zone, you don't always stay there.

A sim can have his or her optimum hobby "predestined" and it is highlighted on their hobby interest display. In the case of Julian Harper, his predestined hobby is Science. This is dependant upon their personality and represents an innate ability to learn this hobby more quickly. I will be looking in detail at which personalities predestine which hobby in the next section.

The acquisition of enthusiasm in a hobby is also influenced by skills and interests. Every hobby has an associated skill and one or more areas of interest. For example, a sim who has a cooking score is more likely to pick up an interest in cuisine than one who is lucky if he does not burn his mac and cheese. Also, that same sim is more likely to acquire enthusiasm in cuisine if he also has a high interest level in food. If a sim is serious on his hobbies, as well as reading the hobby magazines and other specific hobby-related activities, it might do him or her a favour to go shopping, buy a magazine from a rack to increase his interest and also be beneficial to also improve his related skill.

Putting aside how the telephone is off the hook in the early days of a sim's life from the hobby club leaders, it has been interesting following the lives of these sims and seeing how their interests have changed over the years. I am gradually coming to the opinion that this expansion may have something to offer the game after all.

In the next part of this review, I will be looking at each hobby in turn, their special benefits and looking at how they can be predestined and also which skills and interests directly affect them.