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Looking Forward to Break!
Original article written by Kelley Wachter posted 12 years 1 week agoAs we close the final week of racing in Year 30, I have realized that, in my six plus SIM years, I have finally matured enough to appreciate the upcoming BREAK for what it is. In years past, I have dreaded the two-sometimes three- week hiatus from the “real SIM” as my impatience to just go ahead and get on with it, already, has been the most prominent of emotions. However, as I have learned, there are a number of reasons why we should all look forward to the SIM Break. Hopefully the list below can offer some solace to those of you who may be getting mopey over the fact that until September 12th there won’t be any racing.
1.) People are bored during Break. You are probably wondering how that is a good thing. Well, when people are bored they buy horses. Whether it be through auctions or the sales page a lot of people (even thought they say that they are cutting numbers) are looking for a good deal, a diamond in the rough, and the next blue-blooded champion to add to their stables. So now is the time for you to SELL! Go through your stables and sort out the Keep, Sell, and Donate piles to cleanse and lower your overwhelming numbers.
2.) Conversely, Break is the time to BUY! With the above mentioned cutting of numbers and culling done by most trainers there are a multitude of good deals on the market. Some of the big-name stables go on a Greener Pasture-rampage as soon as the SIM year turns over and they can gallop their yearlings or they ofer them on the sales page at $1 apiece. Also keep an eye out for the AJ sales which start the day after Week 16 Friday—horses stabled in Alexandra Jaysman’s barn go up for public sale (previously only available for New Players or by private request) until the end of Year 30. The limit is 10 per day (which can be reached quite quickly, trust me) and usually the horses cost $100 each. It is very easy to go crazy and load yourself up especially with the caveat that the horses remaining in the barn at the end of the year will go to permanent Greener Pastures. I myself have found a few that have earned back several thousand on the hundred bucks they cost so it is worth sorting through.
3.) Time to catch up on naming and other stable-keeping chores. If you’re like me, you still have foals, yearlings and maybe even older horses who still remain unnamed and might have unspecified preferences (if you’re a SIMPERIOR member). Break is a great time to catch up on the clerical work in your stable office. Without having to worry about entering races, you can focus your daily allotment of SIM time on all the little details like breeding, naming, planning future breedings, sorting which horses you want and which you don’t, and a number of other things that might necessitate a little bit of thought on your part. Some people turn to setting up a myriad of spreadsheets to keep track of their horses, spending, earning, breedings, and more, but however you keep track of things the break provides ample time for you to catch up.
4.) People are bored. Wait, didn’t I already say this? But here is another face of that boredom: exciting threads on the Forum and posting of contests, giveaways, and offers. From SIM to real-life, some forum threads involve a lot of ranting and raving, some follow advice-giving trends, some are about awarding kudos to those who have been successful. Whatever you might be interested in you will likely find something about it on the Forum and you might even learn something (especially of interest to all of those Newbies out there who might not be Newbies much longer). What excites me especially are the contests and polls that seem to pop up over Break. Don’t forget to vote for the Inkslinger Awards (thanks to Nan Lanson for coming up with that) when you are perusing the Games & Contests Forum. In the past you may have seen a Best-Named-Horse Contest, a Limerick Contest, a Mixed-Up Name Contest and various other means of distributing game points, simcash, breedings, yearlings, and various other goods. I have it on good authority that there will be another brain-bending contest on the Forum during this upcoming Break to challenge the SIMsters. And for those Triple Crown enthusiasts, there is the annual Triple Crown Contest which usually opens the last week of break. Take advantage of the time that Break allows and start sorting who you want on your list of Triple Crown hopefuls.
5.) This is a great time to set goals for next year. Looking over the past year’s statistics, what do you want to improve on? Do you maybe want to add a few turfies to your string of dirt sprinters and milers? Do you want to take a swing at the Mixed Breed Racing scene? Do you want to pare down and only do steeplechasers and AW? Whatever your preference, there are no biases here. Go ahead and set yourself some goals, even if they are just fun ones (I’m going for having foals named with every letter of the alphabet for Year 31).
6.) And of course, though I don’t necessarily advise this, you can just go away and ignore the SIM for a week or two. Though, if you’re like me, the SIM is a hard habit to break and it often seems as if I am going through a detox program as Break wanes and we head into the new year and I am just waiting for my next “fix.”
While we don’t have the overwhelming anticipation of CHANGE as worried/excited most of us going into Year 30, there are bound to be differences and besides, we have our newly minted yearlings to gallop (woohoo!) and our two-year-olds to send to the track. Next SIM-year is full of possibilities and in planning stakes schedules, breedings or purchases you could be striking gold. So, my advice is to take advantage of the time and get ready for next year—who knows, it could be the best time of your SIM-life!!