I'm extremely obsessed with the "Lore" of the Sims universe lately.

For example, our sims live in Sim Nation, a supposedly island nation, that is home to all sorts of supernatural creatures, Capital being SimCity. SimNation, while fictional, is set in our world, on our planet.

But is The Sims 3 true to all this lore and information? The families are, definitely. The Sims 3 is set before The Sims 1, which is set before The Sims 2, and all of that stuff is extremely consistent.

But what about everything else? What about objects? Are there objects that appear to be predecessors? Are there objects that are more technologically advanced than those in later games?

What about the World Adventures locations? They're fictional locations, but the official information claims they're fictional places in real places- Al Simhara is in egypt, for example. But then at the same time they have real life landmarks that are NOT in fictional places. Al Simhara has the sphynx. Is this THE Sphinx, or A sphinx? Is the tower in the France place THE Eiffel Tower, or A Eiffel Tower? If it's THE sphinx and THE tower, then the fictional locations clash with the real locations, and ruin the illusion that our Sims live in a fantasy version of our world. Or, since it's fantasy based on reality, is it ok that the locations are fake, even when the world isn't? It's still real places on a larger scale- different countries are mentioned all over The Sims, but not too many real cities. Perhaps it's only real in terms of continents and countries, but not cities.

Promotional materials seem to ignore the lore entirely, which frustrates me, personally. For example they have campaign-following videos where Palin and McCain and Obama and Biden are in one of the neighborhoods doing silly things on their campaign. But these places aren't located in the US. What are they doing campaigning outside of the US?

I'm interested in this stuff, so I wanted to discuss. Probably everybody else thinks I'm crazy :p

In short, EA fucked up TS3.

/drop mike; walk off stage

QFT. I think this is a perfect example of the transition from Maxis (The Sims) to EA (The Sims 3), where The Sims 2 was a sort of middle ground. The series got progressively less and less creative as it went on, and I personally think the "real" locations planned for WA showcase it perfectly -- if it was a Maxis game, they'd make it creative and focus on the Sim part of it; they'd add hidden easter eggs, they'd experiment with the idea until it was something very new. Now that EA is calling the shots, they'd rather save themselves the time and effort and just recreate what exists in the real world. Obviously not everyone adopts the same play style, but I enjoy intertwining the quirkiness of the Sims into everyday life kind of stuff, and I find it very difficult to play that way in The Sims 3.

/end rant

Alright, let's get one thing straight.

EA AND MAXIS ARE THE SAME COMPANY. MAXIS WAS ALWAYS PART OF EA. EA WAS ALWAYS PART OF THE SIMS.


Nothing I said implied they messed anything up. The families are absolutely perfect down to eevry detail which is extremely impressive considering all the details they have that most players arent even aware of. I suggest you do some reading:

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Premade_families

Each and every premade family, for the most part, has a story, family tree, and history, and those things are perfectly in line with The Sims 3.

The only thing The Sims 3 MAY have SLIGHTLY messed up is physical location, by making the fictional cities the locations of real monuments. But I also said that that is OK, as long as everything else is the same. Perhaps it's BASED ON our world to an extreme degree, except once it reaches the city level, it gets a little more strange- which would be perfectly fine. Plus the election stuff, but that's just jokes anyway(not to mention I'm pretty sure there were similar bush/kerry stuff for The Sims 2)

Firstly, Maxis didn't start out under EA. Maxis was swallowed by EA shortly after TS2 came out. Maxis had NOTHING to do with TS3.



That's the ONLY thing they messed up??!!??

Really, I have no words.

In order of the things that are UNFORGIVABLE:

No Bodyshop
Horrible sim lighting in-game
STORY PROGRESSION
Recycled animations over and over for different interactions
Fugly toddlers that all look the same
Cocoon babies


I'm not saying that the game didn't have great added features that weren't availble in the TS2 base game, but come on. They took the quirkiness and pure fun out of this one.

All for the money.
All hail the corner-cutting, blind, deaf, party pooper that is EA.

This topic is about Lore. And those are hte only things they possibly messed up with lore. You seem to be distracted by your own whining and have forgotten that that is what this topic is about.

Go make a whine about EA thread, tht is not this thread.

Also, Maxis was a part of EA as of July 28th, 1997. The Sims came out in 2000.

And I think you are getting caught up in words.

Would you feel better if they called the countries something else?

And how does this NOT involve EA messing up this game? You are whining about the EP.

EDIT: Nice double post.

I am not whining about the EP. I want to discuss how well The Sims 3 sticks with the lore of the games. I am slightly agitated by how there's no way to know if it is truly breaking the lore to have the destinations the way they are, but I am not "whining about the EP".

This is not the "EA sucks" thread. Go elsewhere.

The EP really doesn't stick with the "lore" of the games.
AFAIK there has never been a 'fictitious' place within a real place in any of the games.

Though, TS1 Rockstar involved Hollywood and had real life celebrities. Avril Lavigne and Drew Carey.

I think they kinda had to branch out to give us some options. They've done vampires and werewolves. Now they are doing mummies and lord knows what else.

I really don't see why people are so in a dither about them doing 'real' world places when there are so many other things that they could have done to make the game better to begin with.

At the end of the day it all boils down to how you play your game and if you use and enjoy the features of the EP, regardless of the wording.

If you didn't notice, I agreed with you in the beginning that they have derailed the original conception and uniqueness of this game. So I'm not in the least bit surprised by this turn of events.

But I didn't say they derailed the original conception and uniqueness of hte game. Everything you've said is you spouting ideas on the basis that someone else already claimed them, and nothing you've said was already claimed.

I love the games. I love the lore. They are doing a fantastic job with it.

Anyway, the game si pretty obviously a fake place with lots of real things. It directly alludes to hollywood, it has real life people in-game, it mentions real countries in lots of descriptions and such.

But if anything in any of the games mentions BY NAME Paris, Giza, or wherever the CHina place is supposed to resemble, then there is a contradiction.

However, if none have been mentioned, nothing is wrong- and The Sims 3 will be the game that shows that the world, people, countries are the same- but not the cities.

We could probably compare the Sims lore to the Superman lore if anyone's familiar with the latter. Superman comic books were published years ago when cell phones and DVDs didn't exist.

Now there's a TV show called Smallville which is supposedly about Clark Kent (before he becomes Superman) and on that show, characters use cell phones and send emails to each other. They even kill off main characters that supposedly lived in the comic books and movies. The timeline is wonky because Clark meets Lois BEFORE becoming Superman which is different from the books. A lot of other stuff I could mention but I think you get the idea.

It's kind of like the Sims in a way. Sims 1 and Sims 2 follow a progressive timeline whereas Sims 3 (like Smallville), is a prequeal based on that lore. So even though Mortimer and Bella are kids in the game, the characters use cell phones and drive cars. These didn't exist in the Sims 1 base game and it's probably safe to assume that the Sims 3 is going on a different path.

We could view Sunset Valley in the Sims 3 as an alternate universe or spin-off.

Sims 1 = Superman (Comics)
Sims 2 = Superman (Movies)
Sims 3 = Smallville (TV series based on Superman but not necessarily true to the plot/timeline)

@OP You know, I'm seriously confused by you.

I tried in my last post to give my thoughts and opinions about your OP.

Still you say I'm 'spouting'.

I can't give my opinion on this? You DID ask for it.

And aren't you the one that said my sim should be sim something...wait here it is.



You are obsessed to the point that people trying to engage you in this discussion are being told to leave the thread.

Now now guys, Sims 3 is all about the love. Time to make those green plus icons float above your heads...

Sisaly: The problem is you keep acting as if you're agreeing with me when you are not. Your stance is that eA is the devil and everything they do is wrong and they suck and destroyed the game, mine is that the lore is interesting, well attended to, and I wanna talk about how it fits with The Sims 3. Your stance is taht they screwed it up, mine is not. But you say "I agreed with you about..." and go on to say something I never claimed. You're putting words in my mouth just to whine about EA.

Firewaller: Eh, I dont htink the cars/ cell phones acn really count. That's more a case of gameplay innovation than outright destruction of the timeline. They're so true to the families that I don't mind that stuff either way. Note that The Sims didnt have driveable cars, but it certainly did have cars You could similarly say "Sims and Sims 2 didnt have astronauts", but that's more gameplay-oriented than game-world oriented. Get what I mean?

I agree with CharmingFirewaller, this topic has gone off the deep end. Sorry your topic got diverted, Claeric...

Charming, I agree with your assessment. Sims will be a dynamic story that is going to change with time. I don't think their intent was to create a time lined novel series but rather something else. For example, the Police Cars in the Sims 1 were older (by our standards) yet in the Sims 3, which is supposed to be before Sims 1, they look newer (by our standards).

Also, who cares about locations? Maybe in SimWorld there is a SimFrace along with SimNation (United States). It's not our France but could be based off of or inspired by. I think that's alright within the context of the series.

Think of when you play something like Civilization and France creates the Eiffel Tower wonder. It probably isn't anything like France, maybe the world isn't doesn't even resemble Earth, but it still works.

Anyways, I'm interested to hear more about Sims lore from Claeric...

On a note, if every topic was immediately responded with "EA sucks!" then we'll quickly have no topics to discuss... be sensible.

You don't even own the game.

Come back when you do and THEN we'll talk.

And I DID try to bring up lore with you by the way of Rockstar.

BTW TS1 DID have astronauts.

Why do you think that someone doesn't have the game?

Your starting a counter-productive fight that you can't win. Stop attacking Claeric...

As for Astronauts, your right. They were I think level 9 in the Military Career followed by General or something (It's been a while). Anyways, what I'm trying to get to is that the careers are way different from TS1->TS3. That doesn't necessarily mean that the SimNation career market has changed, we the users just have different access.

I'm not certain how they'd explain that...

Yes, I suppose objects don't really count. But I still feel like the Sims 3 is missing something that was present in the previous games. In Sims 1 and 2 the characters seemed more special because there were very few of them and you could get to to know them easily (even though I'm well aware they're just pixels).

In the Sims 3, however, there are way too many to keep track of. And gosh, how many siblings did Bella even have? Lol. Or was it Kalynn Langerak with the big family? See, I can't even remember.

I wish they had gone a different route instead and done another time jump (like Sims 2 Pleasantview taking place 25 years after the Sims 1). I'd have been more interested in seeing Bella return or Brandi Broke finally getting her happy ending.

hehe, right on about that. Way too many characters to keep track of...

I also think the "Personalities" and "storymode" system makes it more difficult to stick with the original Sims timeline.

It'd be pretty hard to present the player with "their" future in a game after you played with your game for so long. I'm sure players would have been upset to see things turn out differently then they'd expect. That probably influenced the decision to go back in time rather then forward

And oddly enough, TS3 Sims watch videos of TS2 Sims on their TVs. It's a strange, strange world.

After all these years of playing Sims games, though, it does sort of warp my brain that the upcoming expansion packs includes locations in real countries.

As for the videos I've seen with people like Susan Boyle and President Obama, I look at those the same way I do my own game. Those are just insertions by players, nothing more. Shoot, right now Tom Cruise is masquerading in my game as someone entirely unrelated to Tom Cruise or any character he ever played, as are a few other celebrity Sims I happened across and thought were interesting looking. I had a Sim of Vincent Price in my TS2 game, but his name wasn't Vincent Price.

As an aside, it might be a good idea to understand completely the relationship between EA and Maxis. When Will Wright (strictly Maxis) couldn't afford to develop The Sims, he sold the idea to EA. That's when Maxis became a subsidiary of EA. As a subsidiary, Maxis had pretty much free reign of what they did with The Sims, but they still had to answer to EA. EA gained complete control of The Sims franchise shortly before the end of TS2's expansion packs, and has been in complete control ever since.

I agree that Story Progression might mess up the timeline a bit. Afer all, Bella could move out once she ages to a Young Adult and Mortimer might end up with the girl next door (I wouldn't know her name since they have too many neighbors now...lol).

Although I'm not exactly a fan of the upcoming EP, it doesn't bother me much that the locations are named after real places. Just like how a couch is still called a couch in the Sims universe instead of 'Comfy Sitting Thingy' or something ridiculous like that. But yes, EA could have been more creative and named places like they did with Bon Voyage.

They are. Calling them those names originally was just a working name. Besides, you act as if this wasn't true of the locations in BV, which were thinly-veiled conglomerates of real-world locations as well. So now instead of Japan, we're seeing China. Big deal. I'm sure the Weeaboos are disappointed, but we'll cope.

Hmm, you want more of the lore, huh?

Well, Olive Specter.

She's a gooooood one to talk about.

Olive Specter, upon her death, leaves her money to Nervous Subject, who does NOT live in the home. This is because he is her child, taken by the social worker and adopted. Nervous' father is the Grim Reaper, people think. His family tree does not show his father, if I remember right. Olive also has memories of a dead Nervous. She perhaps thinks he died when he was really taken away.

This means Olive and the grim reaper had sex and she got pregnant. But Olive also has a lot of graves on her lot...a lot of which house service people. It's pretty likely that Olive took such a liking to the reaper(either before or after their encounter, it does not matter) and began KILLING sims to get to see him.

She was left at the altar by one of the people in her graveyard- "Earl E. Demise". Guess what? He died just after. How coincidental. ;D

Bonus: Olive Specter. I Love Specter. :O

Though that's more "Fun facts" than "Lore"...

Mrs Crumplebottom is a good one, too. She goes between 3 games nicely. The Hot Date crumplebottom and Sims 2 crumplebottom are NOT the same- they are distant relatives. But Agnes in The Sims 3 is the crumplebottom from hot date. Her story is very nicely fleshed out. Her husband dies on their honeymoon and as a result she detests when others are happy together. That's where her demeanor comes from, and it's pretty sad. By the time The Sims 1 happens she's completely bitter. What was once an annoying character is now a tragic one.

She's dead in The Sims 2, and is buried in the Goth graveyard. What's strange about this is that this means both

A. Agnes' existence in The Sims 3 was probably planned when making The Sims 2
B. They remembered to take note of all the characters, and remembered she'd be dead.

But considering by the time of The Sims 2 she'd be long long long dead, chances are...they did in fact plan for the Hot Date crumplebottom to be fleshed out in The Sims 3. Maybe not when they made the original sims, no way. But when they were making The Sims 2...there's a good chance they were planning on it. There's no way she'd live to the sims 2 and they wanted her back, which is the sole reason a "distant relative" replaces her. They paid attention t the fact that she would definitely not live the 25 years from The Sims to The Sims 2.

ramble ramble ramble



The difference here is that those were just named places. They were not "Twikki Island, Hawaii". Just "Twikki Island". These have real countries they are set in.

Which now that I think about it adds to the idea that it's a distant land- we know that the sims live in SimNation, whever that is. ANd now we know they're definitely going out of the country, and probably pretty damn far away, instead of just to another lot a mile away. That's actually pretty cool now that I think about it.

Maybe all 3 Crumplebottoms are distant relatives...lol Agnes could be the Hot Date Crumplebottom's aunt and that one could be the Nightlife Crumplebottom's great grandmother.

Except none of them have children, so that's weird. Perhaps they were all adopted?