SimSational || The Sims 2 Open For Business

The Sims 2 Open For Business

Inthe third expansion to The Sims 2, your Sims are Open For Business!

Of course, as the title suggests, your Sims will be able to open and runtheir own booming business. But what kind of business? That is totally up toyou. If your Sim is a good baker, why not open up a bakery store? Or if youdon't want to sell things, you could try running a service. That is, open up ahair salon and have your Sim cut customers' hair. What ever it is you want todo, this expansion makes it all possible.

Ifyou want to open a store, you can sell anything you want. You could sell sofasand open up a furniture stores, for example. You can literally sell anythingwhich is in the Buy Mode catalogue. There are also other things which can besold which are not available in Buy Mode. If your Sim is skilled enough, you canpurchase a toy making bench, and make toys to sell in your store, or you couldbuild robots to sell. Once you know what you are selling, you can design yourown floor plan and build shelves to stack your products. This is, of course, TheSims, so you can customise your store in any way you like.

If you want to run a service, you could build and run a restaurant. You'llneed to employ chefs, and you will be able to plan your own menu which yourcustomers can choose from. It's not just restaurants you can run either. Howabout a museum? A nightclub? You really do decide!

Getting your business started isn't all too difficult. You can choose to runyour business from home, or buy a community lot in the neighborhood or in thenew business district, 'Bluewater Village'. If you have Nightlife, you couldopen your business Downtown too.

Once you have your business in place, all you need to do is buy a cashregister and open up your business using the phone, and watch the customers pourin! You will need people to run your business for you once it starts to getpopular. If you're not raking in too much cash, members of the family can helpout, but soon you will need to hire employees to keep everything under control.

You can assign your employees with matching uniforms, or if you like, theycan wear their own everyday clothes. Their salary (which you have to pay) isdependant on how skilled your staff are. The less skilled and motivated theyare, the less they are paid. Just like ordinary Sims, your staff will also getbored and can slack off, so it is your duty to keep them on track.

Your customers are an important part of your business. Should you providethem with a bad service or product, their customer loyalty to your business willdecrease, and so will your rating. However, if your customers are pleased withyour business, their loyalty will increase, and so they will return to yourbusiness in the future. Higher customer satisfaction leads to a higher businessrating, which in turn will provide you with perk credits, much like the Wantsand Fears credits with which you can exchange them for reward objects. With theperk credits you will be able to buy 'perks' for your business, which are splitinto 5 categories, Connections, Perceptions, Cash, Wholesale and Motivation. Themore perks you have, the better your business will be.

Just like McDonalds has Ronal McDonald as its mascot, you too can choose amascot for your business in the form of a statue to put outside your business.You can also assign staff members to wear suits that look like your chosenmascot.

Just like all the other expansion packs in the series, Open For Business isfull of new objects. These are primarily aimed at business and stores, and theseis not a lot of new things for at home, but that does not mean there is nothingnew for your Sims homes at all. There's a new country style theme, with a newdining room set and new sofas. There are also new connecting sofas which aregreat for salons.

Should you wish to close your business for an hour or so, there is a newOpen/Closed sign. When the sign is set to Closed, customers will not enter thebusiness and your employees will get a well deserved break.

To go with the store theme, there are new speakers will play cheesy shoppingmusic too.

OpenFor Business includes a much loved character from The Sims 1, and that is an allnew Servo. There will be several robots, all set to do different jobs, such ascooking, cleaning, or watering your flowers. Once bought, your robot will becomea member of the family and you will be able to control it. However, a Sim willfirst need to switch it on before you can tell it to do anything.

The Build Mode fans will certainly not go without! Besides new fences andconnecting stairs, there are also new connecting awnings for stores which can bebuilt in a similar way to laying foundations. There are also new roof shapes,such as the much requested round roofs (like a dome top), and also a coned roofshould you wish to build Sleeping Beauty's castle (who wouldn't?).

One of the most exciting additions to Build Mode is split level floors. Atlast, Maxis have answered our prayers. Although split level floors were possiblewith complicated codes and a lot of fiddling around, you can now buildthem with a click of a button, in a similar style to building foundations. Thesewill be accessible with connecting stairs. The new split level floors are greatfor stages, for example.

Anothermajor addition as the much awaited elevator. You build a regular piece on eachfloor, one above the other, which will be a sliding door and a lift shaft. Ifyou don't want the lift to stop at a certain floor, you can build a simple liftshaft which has no doors on that floor. If the lift is broken, it is possiblefor Sims to die in them (what a cheery bunch Maxis are!). There will also be alockable door which will come in handy if you are running your business fromhome, so you will be able to keep your customers out of your living space.

So there you have it! Open For Business has a lot of new features forall kinds of players, adding a new tycoon-style business aspect to the game, aswell as a lot of new building features to further customise your Sims homes orbusinesses. The expansion also grants those players wishes who have wanted tosee their Sims at work.