How to make a great content

[Propfam 2,288]

Hello,

A bit off topic, broken record (I made this multiple times) and pretty not so optimistic (I'm in the rock bottom of my life, in fact). It seems like I get less reps than others for no reason. I don't want to be that guy but when such thing happens, I'd consider my position again on Simtropolis, possibly as far as taking long hiatus like in 2022 (tho in that year, I did it for RL stuff. More specifically my failed studying to enter a prestigious uni.) I'm struggling with rep increasing, even when I started here on ST. I don't want to be a show off and I never see a merit of it. But in recent times, I made tons of contributions here. And yet somehow, I'm still bested by some unknown batter out of nowhere (or maybe, my ignorance), which for whatever reason has 3k+ reps. It seems like contributions like helping others aren't as appreciated as making a BAT or CJ. Don't get me wrong, making BAT is difficult. And batters (and content creators in general. Sorry for borrowing a phrase from another field, which that phrase actually comes from our community first) in particular struggle alot with bad feedback. Just look at @Simmer2, @mattb325, and even @simmaster07 (for some reason) in their prime time. But so does helping others. We think every contribution matters, regardless of the type. And yet, only those types of content get reasonable reps and reviews. This is apparent these days when people like Cori is struggling with their kind of content and even as far as committing, you know (ofc, there are far more reasons than that. But ultimately, it's not her fault, at all).

So, I'm gladly want to ask everyone. How do I make a great content, either a CJ or BAT or whatever? What's consider as meritful content? (This was a highly contentious topic, especially in terms of BAT reviews. One guy was almost banned for making non-meritful review, right in Simtropolis, which I won't rebash here) And speaking of making city, how do I make a city that's so beautiful, think @korver, @SIM-ple Jack? Should I scrap everything Maxis? How about using shaders? Should I learn more photoshopping? Let me know in the replies. I really want to learn any skill. So, if everyone is interested on teaching me, let me know publicly or privately. I hate being on the bottom of my life. I'm really really struggling a lot especially in RL. So, any help is definitely appreciated. Sorry for my words and wrongdoings. As always, thanks for your attentions.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Perhaps some advice from the King is in order...

 

[Propfam 2,288]

@SIM-ple Jack, you're right! Up&Up by Coldplay and basically every Imagine Dragons songs would also be nice additions.

[Brad 343]

SC4 is such an older game, I doubt we get the traffic nowadays. so the comments will be less as well.  most people look but never comment at all on anything. not just here but everywhere. I have loaded many many mods, but left very few comments. like any game site, modders move om, so many wouldn't be here now to read them.

as for how to make any good comment or material, do what is fun to you. we can't please everyone if we tried. might as well enjoy what we can. we all have our own play styles as well. don't expect to create or decorate like others. 

game sites are like walking into a bar. everyone is talking amongst themselves and hardly notice you came in. it takes time to build relationships and get accepted. but over time , maybe we can play darts of flirt with the bar maids.

 

[matias93 7,535]

What you mentioned on the other thread sounds a lot like what some call the "creative slump". You might have just arrived at a point on which your knowledge of the game and its inner workings is over what most people here can usefully comment on, which is only proof of your growth, and not so much of the decadence of the environment.

Obviously, there's also the factor of the dwindling userbase (this is an almost 14-years old game with much newer and shinier competitors), and the general lack of time for playing and modding for many of those who are still here; for example, most of the NAM team is now dedicated to rescuing the files lost in the LEX, so we aren't getting the usual stream of nice new things, but this also means that some of the most technically-oriented people in the community, that could, for example, comment on Lua scripting, are using all their free time checking and repackaging files instead.

In any case, I wouldn't put very much attention to the reputational metrics, be them rep points or star averages on files. Most people (me included) don't think too seriously when giving them: if I see someone answering a can't find it request successfully, I give a like as a way to give thanks even if I'm not the person requesting it to begin with, or in the showcase threads, sometimes the like is just a way to say "I saw this and appreciate that you chose to show it for us", not some sophisticated measure of the quality involved. It might be useful to use more exacting standards? Maybe, but that would also be more arid, harder to use, and probably would come with many complaints from people not knowing or not wanting to follow the new rules, and of creators not liking to see their averages dwindling and their rep point growth slowing; some people do value them that much, and we can only suggest to not take internet points so seriously.

If you want a sincere advice from someone that has also struggled with the feeling that, no matter how much you contribute to something, you're not getting the feeling of accomplishment that you once got, I can only tell you that you need to protect your hobbies and pastimes from becoming a performance of excellence, or you'll end hating them, and looking elsewhere just to repeat the same cycle. Sometimes, pastimes need to be just pastimes on which you dedicate time and effort to feel the freedom of it not amounting to anything, to not be under the vigilant eye of other people, to be derivative, uncreative, imperfect, but actually enjoyable to do. If you end finding that this game and this community can't give you that, it might be the signal to give it a time out, until you find yourself one day thinking on something fun to do in the game or here, and wanting to do it without caring at all for what we, or whoever is in here then, thinks or says about it.

More than all, always remember that your free time is almost sacred, and that you have to protect it from becoming a duty or a chore, because duties will always be there to tire you, but you can lose your free time to projects that became chores.

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, matias93 said:

which is only proof of your growth,

Thanks for the compliment! I thought it's the other way around. I'm nowhere at Cori level. Heck, I'm not in the leaderboard, yet. So, based on objective data, I thought so badly about myself. Again, thanks for debunking this myth! Also, being resilient in a declining community proves that I'm not as bad as I might think.

I don't have anything to do now, so ST is basically just the destination. I wish I have more hobbies, to distract from declining SC4. But again, it's pretty hard. It seems like I can't get a good life, despite deleting all of my social media accounts (that is, excluding ST ofc). I'm not that privileged enough (famous example being married or have relation or direct friendship with important people, both in Simtropolis and especially real life) to share unique experiences. I'm not Greta or Sofie Louise Johansson (search her on Google. She's so lucky working at a special institution) or Abel Tesfaye of The Weeknd. Just before posting this very topic, I sent a PM to @TheMurderousCricket exactly about this.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Hi @elfrjz.

Regarding the reputation part, I can see that you indeed attach a lot of attention to this feature. I understand it. Every human being craves for attention and recognition.

However, internet likes are just that - internet likes.  It is, of course, very nice to receive them and I like it a lot, especially when I earn them on my CJ. However, they are not necessarily a reflection of the content's quality or the purpose of being on that site. There are a lot of nice BATs, CJs and comments down here which, in my opinion, deserve more face-value recognition but they don't. Still, I can guarantee you that the people who read or use them are delighted to lay their eyes upon them.

Sometimes, people are in fact so happy they got something that they spend hours experimenting or viewing some stuff without liking it or expressing official "thanks". The bigger the problem/find, the more forgetful they become once it's solved! 

I think you should pay less attention to the rep points and accept them simply as nice bonusses rather than the essence of your participation here. @matias93 has an excellent point saying that if you become to preocupied with the audience's expectations and critique, your hobby turns into work and business hours. Instead of offering people a tale and a vision, you suddenly lobby for a product...

I must say that I just love @SIM-ple Jack's musical advice too.  A little less conversation a little more action - precisely! The only thing one needs really is a spark, general thought. Go with that and you'll gain more ideas and quality as you go. There's no point in trying to forcefully plan your entire route in advance and ask what others expect from you. You should be the one who takes a decision and you won't become perfect after the first step!

[Propfam 2,288]

2 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

your hobby turns into work and business hours.

Pretty much true. I heard some content creators (no, not SC4 kind. I mean MKBHD, Unbox Therapy, LinusTechTips, etc) acknowledged that they had and still have huge burnouts over the years, thanks to unrealistic expectation. I'm not a SC4 content creator. So I can't confirm that. But I think it's the same.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

1 hour ago, elfrjz said:

they had and still have huge burnouts over the years

I believe it was @SIM-ple Jack too who once replied to your very simmilar topic by saying that he once worked for a rich guy that had a chain of music shops. When asked about his secret, he replied something along the lines of "Never do what you love for money". So in other words, yes - even the greatest passion can decay into a nuissance given enough pressure.

Of course, I do not wish to disclose your PM to me, but I'd like to make a general comment on it. From what I read there, you definitely wish to accomplish some very large goals in just one huge leap. Sadly enough, this is almost never the case...

If there is one advice I can give you it would be "Think big, act small". You won't become someone influential overnight. It takes a lot of events, dynamics and elements to end up in the place you'd like to be. It's not like there is an e-mail or person to whom you can simply connect and have your wishes fulfilled.

Good example is Yours Truly as just this month I finally found a romantic partner after years of being single. Something I thought will never happen to me. But it took many challenges, situations and courage for me to be in this lucky place.

[catty-cb 4,393]

10 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I think you should pay less attention to the rep points and accept them simply as nice bonusses rather than the essence of your participation here. @matias93 has an excellent point saying that if you become to preocupied with the audience's expectations and critique, your hobby turns into work and business hours. Instead of offering people a tale and a vision, you suddenly lobby for a product...

17 hours ago, Brad said:

.....as for how to make any good comment or material, do what is fun to you. we can't please everyone if we tried. might as well enjoy what we can. we all have our own play styles as well. don't expect to create or decorate like others..

 

I think a really good example of this is https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761847-bounty-a-tropical-story/

@Tamijo started this Tropico (6) topic back in July 2022 set on Bounty Islands in year 0 .... now 23 pages and 686 posts later its now year 2046, I think they could count on both hands the number of people who have posted in the topic since it was started and still have fingers left over, but their posts are just as detailed today as the 1st one was back in 2022.

 

 

[Propfam 2,288]

9 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I do not wish to disclose your PM to me

Now, that's fine. It's okay to disclose it. After all, I said similar or even exactly the same idea. I said the same person in one reply as with in my PM, which to be exact

20 hours ago, elfrjz said:

Greta or Sofie Louise Johansson

I describe both as privileged and lucky people both here and in PM. Anyway, I approve it.

I'd agree with your mindset. It's just so liberating and doesn't put any pressure. But like climate change, I'm too late. I missed the deadline of age 20. I know it's a bit extreme but I had a huge dream when I was little. I wanted to be a coder. But my dream crushed for tons of reasons: slow hardware, bad internet, a bit early to be a coder, etc. I still, for a lack of better words, haunted by that even to this day. It's just a huge regret, despite it's not my fault. Combined with I never have any psychological consultation since I was very little, I feel I'm terrible. I'm not that useful to many people. My parents being on the downs financially doesn't help. They always pressure me to work, which is great. Except work is hard, especially in countries like mine. Even in the Nordics, it's not like everyone is enjoying work, right? (Nords, let me know your opinions) I hate this. I hate this world. Everyone seems pressuring me for no reason other than their benefit. I know I'm not as advanced developmentally than others (yes, my mental growth is basically stunted since I was little). But it doesn't any excuse for anyone to pressuring me. Heck I'd consider it as an attack. Like I almost never did wrong and yet they always blame me (ik it's an exaggeration. You get the idea).

It turns out that my cure would be to love something, including someone. It's nice to behave nicely. But I think it's just a bonus point. Unfortunately, loving is pretty hard. My love for SimCity 4 for instance came from struggle within Minecraft community (which I won't rehash it here). I'm always limited by everyone to love someone. It seems like I have to work (as in making money) first then everyone is seemingly loving me. I shouldn't met with someone that's opposite of mine (aka any potential romantic partner. You get the idea). They always told me that. I agree, there will a time that love is finally coming. But it's not like we don't have to work (now, as in finding it) to have that love. Even I have a dream to fall in love with prominent people in real life, like maybe a president or a royal or an artist (as in famous singer/actor) or a model (that one in Miss Universe, not S3D or Gmax/3DS file, or in the context of math lol). Heck I'd want more than one partner, with the consent of all parties involved ofc, with differing backgrounds, etc, tho too bad, wealth etc prevents us from doing so. It's not like dating just before marriage will always yield a good partner. It's not always like that. After all, experience is a very good lesson. Making a short experience will make a bad judgement. But since I was raised that way, I can't find any love in my life, except again my passion which is SC4/urban planning. I have anything but a true love of anything, that's again, SC4. Thanks, Simtropolis.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

4 hours ago, elfrjz said:

It seems like I have to work (as in making money) first then everyone is seemingly loving me.

Of course, I'm not sure what are the socioeconomical mechanics in Indonesia but in my country you'd find both types of people. There are those who look into the partner's wallet as deep as they look in their soul. But then you also have people to whom money is not that important. It takes all kinds to make a world.

4 hours ago, elfrjz said:

Heck I'd want more than one partner, with the consent of all parties involved ofc

Ooooof. Not my pair of shoes.  But to each according to their needs, I guess. 

[Propfam 2,288]

8 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Of course, I'm not sure what are the socioeconomical mechanics in Indonesia but in my country you'd find both types of people. There are those who look into the partner's wallet as deep as they look in their soul. But then you also have people to whom money is not that important. It takes all kinds to make a world.

Ooooof. Not my pair of shoes.  But to each according to their needs, I guess. 

As long as capitalism exist, which also the case in my country, there will be people who just think materially. Of course, the latter also exist in my country. But yeah, it's a bit hard.

For the second, I agree. It's not for everyone. I don't want to just love one people, because there's always a flaw, which can be problematic in the future. To combat this, I'd want this kind of relationship with all of my partner. Personally I find Balkan people, especially Albanians and Greeks, are pretty much equally beautiful. Not to mention, their cultures (and languages. Albanian sounds unique while Greek has very interesting writing system), while often stereotyped (I guess, you as a European know more than me), are pretty much interesting too. And also, they're quite excellent while also humble people, unlike again, stereotypes. @cogeo, @Terring, @mitsos, and @vetram (yes, I summon all of you) come to mind. But I also have a crush to Nordic girls. While they, imho, are a bit too Nordic-ish (I can't describe it with my words, honestly), they're pretty much beautiful. I don't forget Southeast Asians since they're also beautiful and humble too, and also my place of birth and live. I also have an affinity (such a cool word, huh?) with East and South Asians. Combined with my dream on having crush with prominent people, I can't just have a relationship or marry with one of them, I have to fall in love with all of them at once. That's why I want to pursue this kind of relationship, provided money, position, chance, etc to do so. Of course, I'll do it in fair and possibly even truly egalitarian way.

Another reason why I want to have a multiple partner, if I can say, is the possibility of having a huge, diverse family. I was raised in a small family. It's my turn to hopefully 180 of that. Having a huge family means I can grow my empathy and other soft skill. Not to mention I can develop a system to manage such very large family. You get the idea. Also, I might sound selfish but having a huge family means I can have enermous power and position on my hand, which I'll use it benevolently and just a flex on certain people who imho, has problems with me for some reasons (again, I already describe that). Unfortunately, that's pretty hard with today's environment. Lack of money, time, effort, etc. I'm afraid I can't form a family at all. Not a problem today, certainly one time, it will.

[matias93 7,535]

17 hours ago, elfrjz said:

I missed the deadline of age 20.

What deadline? You don't need to be barely more than a child to start a career. In fact, you have much greater chances of succeeding on it by starting later, both because you are mature enough to choose more wisely, and because lots of things that one learns for different purposes also serve for the kind of specialised skills a career requires. My dad, for example, spent more than a decade studying to be an engineer after deciding too early that it was his calling, just to fail two times, start working from the bottom on a completely unrelated field at 40, and becoming one of the most knowledgeable people in his current business nowadays.

I think you're undermining your own well being by believing too hard on this prototypical idea of how success should look like: successful workers are generally very anonymous aside from their immediate job environment, and successful relationships aren't characterised by the prominence of one or both of the people involved, but rather on their mutual understanding and their actual enjoyment of being together.

From your words, I get that you have a very healthy and very common desire to know new and different experiences, but unfortunately, you're making it more difficult than it should by putting metrics and milestones in the middle. In many cases, you can gain a much deeper understanding of a subject, a culture or a place by reading about it and talking with people related to it (and you would get surprised at the good will that many have to curious and respectful strangers on the internet), than actually going there and filling the typical checklists of expected experiences; there's a reason why the Instagram-flavoured selfie-spot tourism routes are so frowned upon by locals everywhere as 'tourist traps', because they aren't the real thing, but only simulacra of it, filtered through the mainstream expectations of the people travelling there.

[Propfam 2,288]

7 hours ago, matias93 said:

What deadline? You don't need to be barely more than a child to start a career. In fact, you have much greater chances of succeeding on it by starting later, both because you are mature enough to choose more wisely, and because lots of things that one learns for different purposes also serve for the kind of specialised skills a career requires. My dad, for example, spent more than a decade studying to be an engineer after deciding too early that it was his calling, just to fail two times, start working from the bottom on a completely unrelated field at 40, and becoming one of the most knowledgeable people in his current business nowadays.

I think you're undermining your own well being by believing too hard on this prototypical idea of how success should look like: successful workers are generally very anonymous aside from their immediate job environment, and successful relationships aren't characterised by the prominence of one or both of the people involved, but rather on their mutual understanding and their actual enjoyment of being together.

From your words, I get that you have a very healthy and very common desire to know new and different experiences, but unfortunately, you're making it more difficult than it should by putting metrics and milestones in the middle. In many cases, you can gain a much deeper understanding of a subject, a culture or a place by reading about it and talking with people related to it (and you would get surprised at the good will that many have to curious and respectful strangers on the internet), than actually going there and filling the typical checklists of expected experiences; there's a reason why the Instagram-flavoured selfie-spot tourism routes are so frowned upon by locals everywhere as 'tourist traps', because they aren't the real thing, but only simulacra of it, filtered through the mainstream expectations of the people travelling there.

Completely agree. I mean deadline, I want to be like young artists or some entrepreneurs like that little kid who somehow have a medical startup (yk, that vending machine) and Martin Garrix, which he founded his own record company at age 17 (correct me). Don't forget, I'm not mistaken, @Pegasus also started his journey at age 16ish and he made much more than me even at my age when joining ST. While he's definitely controversies, particularly in terms of BDK prop scandal and PEG vs BSC Seaport thingy (which basically every BSC member knows it), he's still impressive. The problem is, they're all privileged. You can't be an artist without any invitation, roughly speaking. You can't have your own company, especially not from scratch, if you don't have rich parents. You can't even have awesome modding skills if you don't have good enough computer to begin with. There's a reason I can only make cap lifter while he can make everything. My laptop, while it's far more powerful than his, running with Windows 11 would mean nothing compared to his XP machine. Not to mention, the standard of his times was pretty much low. It's easy to one up him today. I can't say it for today's BAT, which often involves 3Dsmax. Today's Max is far heavier than Gmax. Not to mention the demand for details today outstrips anything in the past. Any batter who's still active today will know this. The world is changing, for the better of course. And that'd mean better machines which I can't afford.

[catty-cb 4,393]

32 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

Don't forget, I'm not mistaken, @Pegasus also started his journey at age 16ish and he made much more than me even at my age when joining ST.

Pegasus is my age, and would have been in his late forties .... early fifties when he set up SimPeg ... and was married with kids and running his own business at the time

[madhatter106 3,903]

2 hours ago, elfrjz said:

You can't even have awesome modding skills if you don't have good enough computer to begin with. There's a reason I can only make cap lifter while he can make everything. My laptop, while it's far more powerful than his, running with Windows 11 would mean nothing compared to his XP machine. Not to mention, the standard of his times was pretty much low. It's easy to one up him today. I can't say it for today's BAT, which often involves 3Dsmax. Today's Max is far heavier than Gmax. Not to mention the demand for details today outstrips anything in the past. Any batter who's still active today will know this. The world is changing, for the better of course. And that'd mean better machines which I can't afford.

I dunno, I am running gmax off a granny laptop (ie. the type of budget, low-level laptop you sell to grandmothers at Best Buy, because they want to go on the internet), and I seem to make out okay...

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, madhatter106 said:

I dunno, I am running gmax off a granny laptop (ie. the type of budget, low-level laptop you sell to grandmothers at Best Buy, because they want to go on the internet), and I seem to make out okay...

Yeah, Gmax is doable. But I'm afraid I can't sell as easily as 3Dsmax. Max renders are just way more beautiful. Anyway, I don't have any modelling skills. So, I have to learn it.

4 hours ago, catty-cb said:

Pegasus is my age, and would have been in his late forties .... early fifties when he set up SimPeg ... and was married with kids and running his own business at the time

Sounds more like Dirktator or maybe Tarkus. I think he's around the same age as Terring when he's joining the forum or he's today. People in the 20s and 30s can do amazing stuff, the recent example being the former PM of Finland (that famous, cheerful, stunning but also controversial girl. She's also one of the youngest Finnish PM, right after a guy, and have a good friendship with NZ PM). Of course, virtually noone here is older than A Nonny Mouse (RIP) when he died (let me know there is). But I'm not PEG admin. So I can't really tell the truth.

[catty-cb 4,393]

3 hours ago, elfrjz said:

But I'm not PEG admin. So I can't really tell the truth.

Perhaps a picture from 2010 would help, so Pegasus is the guy at the back wearing the black top

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, catty-cb said:

Perhaps a picture from 2010 would help, so Pegasus is the guy at the back wearing the black top

Thanks for the info! Since you know everything about every exchange, you have the most perfect info possible. I always thought he's like Tarkus. Sure, he's old now, but he started his journey on SimCity 4 in the age of 30ish. It turns out, I was wrong, pretty far indeed. I'm pretty much one of the youngest members that's playing SimCity 4, and especially true for prominent member. Another young guy is @Raymond7cn. Unfortunately, he decided to focus on ETS2 instead and no further news. I think @Kloudkicker is a bit young, but I'm not really sure. I'm pretty sure @simmaster07 and especially @Turnstyled are pretty young, indeed.

[fugosushi 41]

On 9/18/2023 at 9:50 PM, elfrjz said:

I don't have anything to do now, so ST is basically just the destination. I wish I have more hobbies, to distract from declining SC4. But again, it's pretty hard. It seems like I can't get a good life, despite deleting all of my social media accounts (that is, excluding ST ofc). I'm not that privileged enough (famous example being married or have relation or direct friendship with important people, both in Simtropolis and especially real life) to share unique experiences. I'm not Greta or Sofie Louise Johansson (search her on Google. She's so lucky working at a special institution) or Abel Tesfaye of The Weeknd. Just before posting this very topic, I sent a PM to @TheMurderousCricket exactly about this.

I just wanted to throw in a few bits of advice after reading all of your responses here.  @matias93 and @TheMurderousCricket had some very good suggestions, and I would add too, a couple other things. In my real life career I'm a mindset coach, and there's two things I would tell you right away. Check your self talk and also stop comparing yourself to anyone else. Comparison is a mind killer; it just creates stress and feelings of worthlessness, and eventually burnout. You'll never be good enough, pretty enough, successful enough if all you're doing is noticing how you're not as smart or young or connected or talented as others. (It's totally fine to want to emulate attributes that you see other people being or doing, but once you've decided what you want, write it down as a clearly stated goal, and then drop all comparisons from your life).

And second, notice how negative your self talk is: "I don't have anything to do now", "it's pretty hard. It seems like I can't get a good life", "I'm not that privileged enough", "You can't have your own company, especially not from scratch, if you don't have rich parents", "You can't even have awesome modding skills if you don't have good enough computer to begin with", "And that'd mean better machines which I can't afford", etc.. Your subconscious mind hears every single one of those thoughts and over time it becomes your self concept. 95% of all of our thoughts, beliefs and actions are driven from the subconscious, so whatever you say about yourself becomes true for you. If you want a really good book to introduce you to the idea of positive self talk, check out one called "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself"

[Propfam 2,288]

28 minutes ago, fugosushi said:

I just wanted to throw in a few bits of advice after reading all of your responses here. @matias93 and @TheMurderousCricket had some very good suggestions, and I would add too, a couple other things. In my real life career I'm a mindset coach, and there's two things I would tell you right away. Check your self talk and also stop comparing yourself to anyone else. Comparison is a mind killer; it just creates stress and feelings of worthlessness, and eventually burnout. You'll never be good enough, pretty enough, successful enough if all you're doing is noticing how you're not as smart or young or connected or talented as others. (It's totally fine to want to emulate attributes that you see other people being or doing, but once you've decided what you want, write it down as a clearly stated goal, and then drop all comparisons from your life).

And second, notice how negative your self talk is: "I don't have anything to do now", "it's pretty hard. It seems like I can't get a good life", "I'm not that privileged enough", "You can't have your own company, especially not from scratch, if you don't have rich parents", "You can't even have awesome modding skills if you don't have good enough computer to begin with", "And that'd mean better machines which I can't afford", etc.. Your subconscious mind hears every single one of those thoughts and over time it becomes your self concept. 95% of all of our thoughts, beliefs and actions are driven from the subconscious, so whatever you say about yourself becomes true for you. If you want a really good book to introduce you to the idea of positive self talk, check out one called "What To Say When You Talk To Yourself"

I usually have a very good outlook in my life. Sure I have some doubts like how I can be a powerful person. But I'd just deflect with, "Why not becoming an urban planner?" Since my failed entrance to the uni however, I'm pretty much eaten by my own outlook. My expectation is pretty much crushed. My dream of one day getting a romantic partner is crushed. My dream of attending a very good college is crushed and instead I have to go to, not necessarily unknown, but not-so-great private uni (if you know Indonesia and the rest of the world really, private unis are mostly bad compared to public ones, even if we ignore issues like the quality of teaching or job prospects). My dream of becoming urban planner is crushed since I can't even enter a private uni with urban planning degree. My dream of even getting a well-paid job is most likely to be crushed as well since I don't think I can't find such job with my degree-in-study. My situation is possibly similar to what Cori is fighting right now, to the point of her to, you know, committing what could be a huge tragedy to the community. Fortunately, I'm not in the position yet and hopefully it stays that way. But I'm feeling worse and worse every day. Hopefully, I'll return to a better state.

Speaking of "I don't have privilege," well it's more like reality check than a negative talk imho. It's realistic and even fine to think like that. It can be proven by objective data. Like there's indeed few well-performing young artists even today. My intention would be to shut my unrealistic thoughts up and move to other ways to fulfill my life, like let's say world travelling (tho it's still unrealistic for me today. But at least, far easier than becoming a president). The problem is despite this, my mind is still tripping on the old stuffs. That means I keep getting the same negative thoughts everyday. I'm pretty much tired with this stuff. But since there are few people near that can help me, it's pretty hard.

[fugosushi 41]

I mean this with all the best intentions for your greatest life and complete success: learn how your mind works. Your imagination creates your reality. If you say you usually have a very good outlook in your life, and the immediately proceed to say your dreams are "crushed" six different ways, then I would suggest that you don't actually have a good outlook. Your mindset/outlook/self-concept is dragging you down, and it creates a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

54 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

Speaking of "I don't have privilege," well it's more like reality check than a negative talk imho.

Reality is only what you make of it, not the other way around. You are the cause of everything you experience in life.

54 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

My intention would be to shut my unrealistic thoughts up and move to other ways to fulfill my life

If this is seriously your intention, then I would begin immediately to study how your mind works and the laws of success. Read the book I suggested to you. Read other success books like Think And Grow Rich, the Science of Getting Rich, or Psycho Cybernetics. 

54 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

The problem is despite this, my mind is still tripping on the old stuffs. That means I keep getting the same negative thoughts everyday. I'm pretty much tired with this stuff.

Your way's clearly not working then. Why not try looking at your life from a totally different way? Try looking at your life as an experiment. Study your mind and successful people, learn what they did to succeed. You literally have nothing to lose. Your life can only get better.

54 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

But since there are few people near that can help me, it's pretty hard.

You have access to the internet, which means you have access to pretty much all the knowledge of humanity. You can help yourself by studying what other successful people did to succeed. If they did it, you can too. 

Seriously, I wish you all the greatest success and happiness in the world!

[Propfam 2,288]

47 minutes ago, fugosushi said:

Seriously, I wish you all the greatest success and happiness in the world!

We'll be back one day.

Hopefully with an absolute banger.

Thanks for the info! Btw, I'd like to learn from @SIM-ple Jack and if the time really comes, @CorinaMarie

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Wait a minute... I've been making BATs ever since I was 17...

WHERE IS MY HOT RICH SWEDISH WIFE!?!?!?!?!?

Seriously though... there's the saying that "you can't reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into". The way you're feeling is dependent on there being connections between certain things, where connections do not exist in reality.

You want to be a child prodigy and you want to be an influencer. Those are concepts that don't exist in this community, so it's impossible to be them, no matter how hard you try. The community has always had people of all ages, and all of the activities are doable by people of any age, so being young or old isn't special. And it's not possible to be an influencer because those don't exist here. You talk about people like they're distant celebrities or characters on a tv show. But everyone here are just normal people, on the same forum as you, hanging out together because we all like SimCity.

The reality is that this is a community of people who like SimCity. If you enjoy playing SimCity, then play it. If BATing, or CJing, or anything else, seems like it might be fun, then try it. If it turns out it's not fun, stop doing it. It's impossible to gain status and power, or to dominate over others, or anything like that, from SimCity. The only thing you can gain is enjoyment from a hobby, and friends who share your hobby.

[Propfam 2,288]

10 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

Wait a minute... I've been making BATs ever since I was 17...

WHERE IS MY HOT RICH SWEDISH WIFE!?!?!?!?!?

Seriously though... there's the saying that "you can't reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into". The way you're feeling is dependent on there being connections between certain things, where connections do not exist in reality.

You want to be a child prodigy and you want to be an influencer. Those are concepts that don't exist in this community, so it's impossible to be them, no matter how hard you try. The community has always had people of all ages, and all of the activities are doable by people of any age, so being young or old isn't special. And it's not possible to be an influencer because those don't exist here. You talk about people like they're distant celebrities or characters on a tv show. But everyone here are just normal people, on the same forum as you, hanging out together because we all like SimCity.

The reality is that this is a community of people who like SimCity. If you enjoy playing SimCity, then play it. If BATing, or CJing, or anything else, seems like it might be fun, then try it. If it turns out it's not fun, stop doing it. It's impossible to gain status and power, or to dominate over others, or anything like that, from SimCity. The only thing you can gain is enjoyment from a hobby, and friends who share your hobby.

I have to have a Lambo! I have to be married with Marzia! I guess, I have to be PewDiePie lmao! I don't care about the quality. I just want the money.

Jokes aside, you're basically 100% right. Even peeps like Cori aren't celebs here. I mean, she could but I don't think it's that useful. And I don't think she really wants to be that after, you know. It'd weird if ST has kind of influencers. The last people close to have such power was A Nonny Mouse and he died around 7 years ago. Even he's not a celeb. He's just a very very prominent member. SimCity 4 community is indeed very egalitarian. You can't make huge money or influence from it. It'd nice but there will be a huge consequence which for obvious reason, we decided to opt not to allow it. Heck, I wouldn't even know if Pegasus was much older than the rest of community if not for Catty saying. Yeah, pretty much egalitarian.

By the way, the influencer community has stolen so many terms from SC4 community. One of which is content creator. They use the term to describe themselves as like the name suggest. The problem is the term has been used by us for decades, to describe people who's making BATs, CJs, etc. And yet they use it like they coined it. Another is stuff revolving engagement. While the term "engagement" isn't used that often in this community, we have things like reputation or likes or whatever. And yet once again, influencers corrupt the definition of such and becomes a race to the top, with sacrificing their fans (mentally, but also other things) for their benefit.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

15 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

WHERE IS MY HOT RICH SWEDISH WIFE!?!?!?!?!?

You already had one but you were busy BATting so she left and you didn't even notice.   

[catty-cb 4,393]

8 hours ago, elfrjz said:

The last people close to have such power was A Nonny Mouse and he died around 7 years ago. Even he's not a celeb. He's just a very very prominent member.

And not something he would have agreed with had he still been with us, people aren't labels .... John was a kind, intelligent man with a wide variety of interests, he had very firm views on how my website should look thru was very clear he would never join as a member because when he first started joining community forums after he was moved to assisted housing when his wife died which was unfortunately several hundred miles from where he had been living and had to give up his dogs as well as they weren't allowed he got a bit carried away joining sites and had started to cut back to just the community forums of the games he was still playing regularly ....

We once ... after someone had stated in a post that horse and cart animations in the game weren't very realistic, and I'd posted that when I was growing up the milkman was still driving a horse and cart and it was also a highlight of the neighborhood kids week when the rag and bone man came as well as we got to pat his horse and feed it bits of grass ... spent a couple of weeks exchanging PMs on what we remembered from our childhood, he was a different generation but what he remembered as the norm was starting to died out in my day but we still had a lot of common memories.

He is also missed in those communities who's websites still exist and while the WOB site got a bit damaged a few years back, some of the topics still have the pictures he posted

http://worldofbanished.com/index.php?topic=1142.0

[madhatter106 3,903]

3 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

You already had one but you were busy BATting so she left and you didn't even notice.   

So that is who that was?
I thought the random blonde was the nextdoor neighbor's foreign exchange student, who kept wandering into my living room...

[Brad 343]

now we know who kept stealing the milk. and here i kept blaming the dog. LOL