The Sims is one of the most iconic and celebrated franchises in gaming history, providing players with years of open-ended, life-simulating gameplay. From The Sims all the way to the development of The Sims 5, the game series has built quite a large community that has created its own culture of rules, challenges, and quirks that make gameplay exciting and unique. In fact, The Sims franchise is famous for the myriad of fan-made challenges, with community members creating new legacies, pregnancy, and building constraints that seasoned players can try.
EA has sparked rumors around the development of The Sims 5, the next installment in the franchise and a new source of excitement for fans. The Sims 4 has already contributed to immersion in the games, including emotions, parenting skills, comprehensive identities, and playable career paths. As the franchise continues to grow and add more features that fans are looking for, there will certainly be more "unwritten rules" established through the magic of The Sims.
Sims Are Fantastic At Dying In Odd and Surprising Ways
One of the most iconic enduring aspects of The Sims franchise is that Sims can perish in a variety of ways, ranging from the realistic to the downright silly. To make things worse, once a life-threatening emergency occurs, Sims can be slow to react and fix the issue. Fires are iconic in the games, as Sims are more likely to stand and watch instead of putting the fire out. Items from toilets to Tiny Living Murphy beds can cause instant death, making it important to properly fix and upgrade broken equipment.
While it is at times morbid, there is a unique tradition in the Sims community to try and discover more Sims death mechanics - and there are many. From death by pufferfish in The Sims 4: City Living to emotional deaths to literally exploding with fury in The Sims 4: Supernatural & Fantasy, it can be an entertaining experience to track these death sequences down. Players should make sure to go back to previous games as well: Sims in The Sims 2 can perish from falling satellites, running with scissors, and more.
Anything Can Be Mastered With Skill Books In The Sims
One of the less realistic mechanics in The Sims is Skill Books, books that Sims can read in order to gain experience with specific skills. While guides, manuals, and textbooks do exist in the real world, the game series takes this to an extreme, providing skill books for almost every available skill in the franchise. For example, in The Sims 3: World Adventures, Sims can buy Skill Books for martial arts and fitness, an odd mechanic for physical skills. Some notable Skill Books are for fishing, emotions, crime, and gaming.
If players are tired of making their Sim constantly cook poor-rated dishes or take photos of random shrubs, Skill Books are the perfect solution. They are part of the Sims 4 pro tips to learn skills faster, as players can simply sit their Sim down with a book and fast-forward the game until their skills are raised. The same rule can be applied to kids as well - having them play with toys, learn to walk, or do homework on fast-forward raises their skills as well.
Don't Be Afraid to Use Motherlode Or Experiment With Careers In The Sims
In every Sims game, it can be difficult to figure out what career paths to try, especially when aspirations and traits can be crucial to success or failure in certain jobs. Hopefully, The Sims 5 will create more flexibility in the career system but for now, there are a variety of ways that players can gain Simoleons. The easiest way is to use console commands to spawn thousands of dollars in the game. Specifically, an iconic cheat is motherlode, a console command introduced in The Sims 2 and usable ever since.
Sims players looking for ways to make money involving gameplay might find a solution in freelance or skills-based careers. Painting, composition, novel writing, content creation, and more can actually net players more money than conventional careers, simply based on the franchise's odd in-game economy. Sims can also marry rich characters, sell artifacts and rare bugs and gems, or steal money through hacking.
Enabling Free Will In The Sims Is Always A Disaster
Free will is an important mechanic in The Sims franchise, allowing Sims to have autonomy and make choices without player input. Conventional gameplay relies heavily on the player, as certain behaviors have to be queued multiple times in order for Sims to do them successfully. While the free will mechanic is fun in theory, there are a slew of Sims gaming influencers who have demonstrated the chaos that occurs.
In free will mode, the Sim behavior is dictated by their mood, aspirations, and a variety of other factors. Unfortunately, this game mode isn't very rational or realistic - leading to comedic and tragic outcomes. For example, Sims that need to work, take care of basic needs, or care for children are more likely to end up playing on the computer, walking in the park, or watching TV for hours. Simmers who want realistic gameplay are better off queuing actions for their Sims to ensure they do what's needed.
The Sims Social Mechanics Are Hard-Wired For Drama
Many Simmers are "legacy" players, in that their games can span generations of the same family, and often are focused on family dynamics and relational building. The Sims franchise has always had a fraught relationship with social mechanics. Most relationship-building relies on spamming social interactions until a specific Sim NPC grows closer to a player character. While much of a Sim's social life is dictated by the player, there are some unexpected moments of randomness.
For instance, some Sims in committed relationships will randomly make advances on NPCs, even in front of their partner. If the player slightly encourages cheating, Sims have a habit of cheating in front of their partners, a moment that is awkward and often comedic in the game. This becomes especially relevant in expansion packs like The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories, where Sims at the altar will randomly cheat, break up, or not even make it to their wedding.
The Sims 4 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
