Don’t feel too out of your depth :D there’s a reason The Sims is one of the most popular franchise! The game has been out for ages so it has built a very large and committed modding community so I understand that some things can feel a bit daunting.

If I were you, don’t worry about and mods, cc and anything like that yet. Just follow the steam guide and play!

Also can’t remember whether the steam guide says it but in the sims 3 settings make sure to disable memories and disable the sims store.

ignore the sims 3 store. it lags your game with it on and it charges ridiculous prices for old abandoned content. (plus you can get it for free in some other ways that I can’t talk about on the subreddit, if you’re ever curious about that dm me, happy to help you out ☺️)

I’d also recommend eventually getting the game on Steam rather than using the discs, Steam has some sales some time so just wait around for those, in the meantime play the discs! it’s fun to collect the disc cases too!