Introduction

"Have you ever wondered why fat parents have fat children? And why Chinese parents have Chinese children? It's no coincidence. It's because of DNA!"

-Troy McClure, Someone's in the Kitchen with DNA

As a young boy, I never had a reliable, non-exploding computer, so the idea of playing The Sims 2 in 2004 was non-existent for me. By 2009, when I finally did get my hands on a copy and a decent computer, everyone else was too busy with Modern Warfare 2 (and The Sims 3) to care about good old Sims 2, but that didn't stop me from picking it up and making up for many years of lost playing time.

In today's era of Modern Warfare and games like Modern Warfare, I haven't lost interest in games that let us do more than just duck and shoot. Some games give us more creative freedom than others, and The Sims series lets us be the ultimate creators. You can create a person; a family; a dynasty; a neighborhood's history, and you can live every second of it, reminiscing as if it happened in the real world. Not every title released allows so much ingenuity that you become compelled to sit down and write your experiences, but The Sims is one of them, and I think that's why it's so popular, among men; women; kids and adults. It's because we can create characters who will share their lives with us, have kids, pass on, and become distant memories. It's no wonder some Sims have had entire novels worth documenting the history of their families.

Doug's Declassified History of Pleasantview is the result of nearly three excellent years of Sims gameplay played by us Wingate brothers, which we began in early 2011 and still play to this day. Throughout the town's history, there have been over 100 characters; 20 families; 3000 photos taken and 200 home videos recorded, spanning 4 generations. All that time spent on this virtual neighborhood would have been for nothing if I didn't have the chance to share it with the world, and that's what I'll be doing here.

With the Declassified History of Pleasantview, I want to motivate people to keep playing The Sims, and inspire them to tell their own stories. But most of all, I hope this entertains somebody. If my stories give you so much as 3 minutes of entertainment while you're sitting with your I-Pad at the bus stop or the dentist's waiting room, I have done my job.

Anyone who loves The Sims, or just good old storytelling, please follow me or subscribe via e-mail below. I hope you enjoy the tales we tell in the world of the Sims, because I enjoyed writing it, and we both enjoyed playing Pleasantview; controlling the fate of its troubled denizens, and we won't stop playing Pleasantview until we're forced by gunpoint to move on to Sims 4.

-Doug Wingate

Author and Co-Creator

(Me with my friend Mortimer)