Yes, there’s a little blurb about me at the bottom of every page of this website. No, I don’t NEED to put this page up, but I will anyway. I won’t go into my history with games on this particular page, because I have pages devoted to that – so if that’s what you’re interested in, I would go there first. I’m also not going to give my whole life history. It’s not that I am not okay sharing it, I just feel like the average person probably doesn’t care. If you care enough to ask, I’m happy to talk about it, but be warned, it will probably include lots of horsey anecdotes and silly stories because beyond that was a not-very-happy childhood that I remember little of (thankfully), and a rather misspent youth. I have a long history of mental health issues, and it’s only fairly recently that I’ve found the serenity and competent health care to help me get to a stable place where I can enjoy being who and what I am. I still have rough days, as I think we all do, but for the most part, I’m content being me and I enjoy my life.

Do I play things other than Sims? Heck yeah. I play a little bit of everything. Except scary games. Those, I’m not interested in. However, right now my brain is mush from all the website work… so I’ll come back and write this page later after I take a break from website work and get back to real story writing.

More coming soon….

Day One:

Fantasy, Plot: A woman awakes in the early morning to see her shadow sneaking out the bedroom door. She follows. (To Continue the story: The woman sees her shadow holding hands with another unattached shadow. What happens next?)

Lainey sat up, feeling a shiver go through her body. Had she left the window open? Groggily, she got up to check, and caught movement that should not be there out of the corner of her eye. Immediately awake and afraid, she froze in place, and watched a shadow moving through the open door to her room. She couldn’t see who it was attached to, though, and that just seemed weird. Glancing at the window, she confirmed in the moonlight that it was tightly closed, proving that the shiver had not been from the chilly night air outside. Slowly, she moved away from her bedside, passing by the window. That was when she noticed. The light from the moon outside her window should be casting her shadow across the bed. But it wasn’t. In consternation, she stopped, and looked from herself to the window. With shaky hands, she tried to do what we all learned to do as kids – make shadow shapes with her hands. But no shapes appeared. With a determination she rarely felt, she followed the shadow out the open door, trying not to notice that her own shadow still appeared to be missing. Rounding the corner of the hall, she stepped into the kitchen.. and froze again. A shadow was there, making ducky shapes on the wall. Like she had just been doing in the bedroom. Then, the shadow turned and walked along the wall, stopping in front of a… another shadow? The other shadow-form shook hands with the first shadow, as if in greeting. Looking about the room, Lainey tried to find either the source of the light that was casting the shadows, as well as the two forms that should be there making the shadows. But the room was empty besides herself and the two shadowy forms. She rubbed her eyes, and looked again. The first shadow-form also rubbed their eyes. Feeling unaccountably frightened, Lainey walked backwards to her room. The shadow followed, albeit a bit slower. By the time she arrived at her bedside, that shadow had once again caught up with her, and proved absolutely that it had been her own shadow. With a shake of her head, Lainey watched her shadow closely while she went and closed the door to her room. She really didn’t know why, but she felt safer with it closed. It was a long while before she was able to fall back asleep. By morning, everything was back to normal. Lainey was left wondering if it had only been a dream. In fact, she was almost sure it had been one. Hadn’t it??

I’ve been a creative writer pretty much ever since I could write. And a storyteller even before that. Instead of dressing up my My Little Ponies, I made them trophies and ribbons and made up stories of grand champion jumpers. In school, I spent as much time writing or creating worlds of my own as I spent time studying. For a while, I wanted to be a writer.. then I got too busy with horses to bother with more writer’s camps.. but I kept writing.

In fact, my name “IllusoryThrall” comes from my writing. Illusory means fake, not real, based on imagination, and thrall refers to a captive or slave. It refers to the way the “muse” holds you captive until you write your idea down. It’s not a real captivity, but it might as well be, because the idea will pester you until you follow it. At least, that’s the way it works for me.

My creative writing has shifted from stories I wrote as a kid, to the poetry I wrote (and had published) as a teenager, to a long period where I was too busy raising my son to write… then I got into Sims and challenges, and the stories started coming again. These days, if I go too long without my writing, I start to feel like I’m withering. It’s a very important part of me and who and what I am.

I do write things other than Sims fiction… but not very often anymore. I figured I should have a place on the site to put it, you know, just in case. In fact, I may very well move Sliding Sideways here eventually, since it’s more story than Sims… but I haven’t fully decided. I will say, the only thing that’s going to be here, currently, is a short sketch I did for a writing prompt, but I may eventually add some of my other stuff.

I’m going to do some copy and paste here, because I posted some very nice editorials/reviews about the different sims games during my 2022 “Thrall’s Game Awards” season. Some things will be new, because there’s more than just four Sims games that I have history with. But we’ll start with the basics. The Sims is my favorite games franchise of all time. Not only in hours played, but in the amount I’ve SPENT on the game(s). Now, as of November 2023, I have been named as a member of the “EA Creator Network” .. which is quite literally a dream come true for me. I squealed out loud and nearly cried when I got the acceptance email. Now, I get to make content for the sims on a more “official” basis.. and I’m so excited about it. Expect to see some exclusive Youtube series start up soon, as well as me definitely getting back to writing my blog stories. (I am missing writing SO badly after this massive website move – because I told myself there was no point in publishing anything on my old site just to move it and have to edit it on the new one. Which.. was legitimately a reason.. but it’s been torture.) Now, to get into some history and editorials/reviews on each game in the series that I have had experience with:

Hey, there! I love meeting new people! If you have a burning question for me, or just want to contact me personally, check the page below, and fill out the quick form. I usually check my mail every day, barring a forgetful mind or lack of time, so I should get back to you soon after! Have a great day, and I hope to hear from you soon!

There are several ways to support me. The first of which is simple: donate on Kofi (frame below to do just that!). The second is to visit my Patreon and subscribe there (https://patreon.com/illusorythrall) – there you can either just support me, or you can spend a little more and get access to discounts and much more. Also, you can follow, donate, subscribe, or give “Bits” on my twitch channel (https://twitch.tv/illusorythrall). I am live five days a week!

I started streaming on Twitch in 2020… and I doubt I’ll be stopping anytime soon. If you’re interested in the videos of me as I was just getting going, 99% of my VOD footage is on my Youtube channel. If you’re more curious about how things are now, feel free to stop in to any of my weekly streams by checking out my schedule on the page below (updated weekly on Sunday).. or just watching the icon in the top right of the website – it will show when I’m live and link directly to my Twitch Channel.

This section… is all about me – who and what I am, as well as my interaction with games. I’ve been a gamer since I became an adult decades ago, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon. Beyond that, I’ve been a creative writer since before I have defined memories. I was writing stories – or re-enacting them with my toys – since I was first able to – so it’s no surprise that blogging has become a big thing for me – and that it will continue to be so.

I realize that the average person visiting this site may never get to exploring this section of my website, but I whole-heartedly believe in being as transparent as I can be, so I wanted to have this information accessible for anyone who wants to get to know me a little bit better. My favorite part of this website is the stories I write about my sims, but the challenges I’ve come up with come a very close second. The stories are my creative outlet, little pieces of my heart put on paper – or in this case, a website… but the original challenges (especially Timeline Adventure) are my babies. I’ve brought each of them from the first figment in my imagination to something I feel I can be proud of – and something I hope others can enjoy as much as I have.

All that being said, I hope you enjoy your stay on my website. Feel free to poke and prod and look around, find whatever you’re looking for, and maybe even something you weren’t. I truly believe that the stuff you find that you weren’t expecting in life are the things that keep you going, and that keep life interesting. Also, I love to hear from others, so feel free to use the “contact me” page, or jump onto the Challenge Forums in the Challenges section, register, and say hi. I will endeavor to answer every message as soon as I can! Enjoy!

So, Steam Nextfest just ended.. and I played a good 40 games over the period of two days. I decided to rate them on a 5 star system (although I did give a few of the very very best ones 6 stars).. and write up a little review of what I thought of each of the games. So without any further ado… here you go: (all games listed are on steam and were in demo form for Nextfest.)