The Sims Saga: Unraveling The Magic, Mystery, and Community of a Gaming Phenomenon

Ever wondered how The Sims franchise became a household name and why fans are still eagerly awaiting what's next? Discover the secrets behind its lasting appeal and the intriguing mysteries that have captured the imaginations of players worldwide. Join us as Sebby Phantom takes us on a nostalgic ride through the evolution of The Sims, from its groundbreaking debut in 2000 to the highly anticipated Project Renee. Journey with us as we explore the quirky charm, captivating storylines, and innovative gameplay features that have defined each installment, all while sharing personal anecdotes and experiences that bring the series to life.

Our discussion highlights the technical leaps and narrative twists that have kept players invested in the virtual lives of their Sims. From the open-world exploration of The Sims 3 to the heartfelt aspirations of The Sims 2, we reflect on the franchise's influences and how it has consistently redefined player expectations. Along the way, we uncover the dark, mysterious lore that enriches the series, from Bella Goth's disappearance to Olive Specter's unnerving obsession with the Grim Reaper. It's a celebration of the franchise's ability to blend humor, drama, and mystery, offering fans endless hours of creative escapism.

Finally, we revel in the shared camaraderie among Sims enthusiasts, celebrating the countless memories and chaotic scenarios that have bonded players over the years. With engaging community discussions and exciting developments on the horizon, we invite you to join us in our passion for this beloved series. Whether you're a seasoned player or new to the world of The Sims, we promise an entertaining and insightful exploration of a franchise that continues to inspire creativity and imagination across generations.

Chapters

• 0:01 Sims Retrospective
• 7:18 Evolution of Sims Games
• 18:34 Sims 4, Project Renée, and More
• 27:28 Dark and Mysterious Sims Lore
• 41:16 The Sims Influence and Passion Project
• 50:56 Community Engagement and Farewell

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome back to the Zone Podcast, the show about nerdy news and reviews. I'm Jet Blackestream, and joining me today is Sebi Phantom for a review on the Sims. We're going to do a retrospective on all the games, especially with the movie coming out soon and Project Renee still in development. But this time around I'm going to go ahead and let sebi uh lead us in this retrospective. So, sebi, if you don't mind, go ahead and take it away well, thank you so much, jb.

Speaker 2: 0:33

And, of course, soul soul to all of our amazing listeners out there. If you don't know, soul soul means hello and simlish um. So you're gonna hear me speak a lot of well, not a lot of it, but you're gonna see, hear me mention simlish a lot here today. Um, but what is the sims? First off, but the sims is a life simulation video game that was developed by maxis and published by ea um, originally on origin, which has now been shut down and moved all over to Electronic Arts.

Speaker 1: 1:07

The Sims has been in EAM 4. We want your money.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Exactly the amount of money that I've spent in this franchise is ridiculous, but I'm going to basically just be breaking it down in between, from the Sims to the Sims 4, project Grenade and then the movie, and then, yeah, we'll get started. Um, but the first sims game was released in february 4th of 2000, with seven expansion packs and two deluxe editions. It's been released onto several different formats and platforms. Um, the sims has sold more than 6.3 million copies, becoming the best-selling PC game in its history as of 2002.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 2: 1:54

Yeah, it was innovative for its time. Everybody played it. It was featured in shows, featured in movies. You couldn't do very much in it. You played with one family, family and you were all adults. You went from a crib to an adult and that was it, um, but the sims would open up a door for even more to come. But did you ever play the sims jb, the regular original yeah, like that's the thing.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Like you could say, I'm like a filthy casual when it comes to the sims, because I only played the console version. Like I know there's like a difference between the console and the pc, but that's why I was thinking, like I was trying to look into the sims and there was a whole bunch of lore that was involved. Now, like, whoa, hold on. I mean, yeah, there was like a story mode for the sims 1 and sims 2 and uh, I want to say especially, I like the herbs, uh, you know, sims in the city.

Speaker 1: 2:54

We're going to talk about that a little bit later. But I just want to point out how, like yeah, I knew there was like a campaign mode for the sims for the most part, but once I got the sims 3 and 4, it was like, okay, so it's more about the house building and, uh, character creation and whatnot at that point, but, um, yeah, no, I I did not know there was a whole bunch of lore involved. But yes, I did play the original sims on playstation and for the most part I did think it was pretty interesting, even though, I will admit, uh, visually it is dated, but it's not bad, not bad yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 3:39

There is a ton of lore which I am gonna go over, um, but this is our beginning. This is we meet the newbies. Like there's so much going on, um, and, of course, with us going into 2002, in september 14th, the sequel, the sims 2, was released. Um, now, it was just original, just the base game, of course, but we were introduced to over eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs, and even the introduction of the sims to store, with over 400 items where it could be bought. Um, with playing the game, you would get sims coins, basically, and you would buy modded, custom content or just limited edition things. The amount of money I spent with that is ridiculous to me, um, but we were introduced to infants and to old age, including death. Multiple life events was one of the biggest things we've ever got to see. We were also introduced to aspiration system, which included wants, needs and fears, which then allowed you to purchase aspiration points to purchase in-game needs and wants for your character.

Speaker 2: 4:55

With this, though, we do see the first stepping stone to the lore that Sims 2 is sent 25 years after the original game, sims 1. We see some of the original families from the first game where they're older. We even get to see some progressive lore such as Bella Goth, missing between the 25-year period. Now, my favorite lore in the Sims 2 is Don Lothario.

Speaker 2: 5:21

He is the flirt in the Sims 2 is Don Lothario. He is the flirt and the one who is with Cassandra, nina, dina and the maid, but he ends up leaving Cassandra on the altar and when we get to the next game there's a reason why I jumped back to Don Lothario, because there is some really thick lore going on. So again, the Sims 2 is the classic stepping stone. If you talk about Simss, 2 is the classic stepping stone. If you talk about sims, sims 2 is the first thing to be brought up and, as someone who's played the sims 2 for 14 000 hours, sims 2 is my favorite well, honestly, I would say sims 2 is my favorite too, even if I was only playing the console version.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Like, once again, there was like a whole campaign mode and there was a whole bunch of different characters, like you say, had like wants, aspirations, fears and whatnot, but it wasn't that advanced on the console version versus the pc. But listen, like I remember um, certain characters and um, don lothario was definitely one I remember for sure where, essentially, he was on the boat with, uh, all these other people, like the captain and whatnot, but it played out differently. But the whole point was that I knew from jump like the way he wanted to like sleep with all these different characters, like okay, I can tell that you're like one of those legacy characters and honestly, it should be more on the nose anyways, because literally, uh, the word lothario um means like non-committal. So you know the type of person that like wants to date around, but they're not really trying to lock in on a certain person or they're not really trying to get married or anything, just just want to. You know, play the game for as long as you can yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 7:14

Um, and I played different. Uh, I played the console version too. I think when I got my hands on a ps2, um, first game I got was the sims pets, which to me was the greatest game in the world for the console. Everything about it was just amazing. Um, we also, like I said, we get to see our first lore come out with bella goth being missing. Um, seeing the last on lethario's balcony.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Um, she is sent to what we call Strangetown is what I believe. I know a lot of people are like that's not where she went, but in my opinion, she went to Strangetown because there's an exact replica of her and there was even a basically a question air for Bella Goth how she felt about her disappearance. It was like question and answers by Bella Goth done by EA. I thought that was really clever to get people into playing the game, because they did see a spike into people buying the game, exactly. But we're going to move on and we're going to talk about the Sims 3.

Speaker 2: 8:21

But the Sims 3 was released in 2009. I was one of those hundreds of people in the line of a GameStop to purchase it. Back then you had to go to a GameStop and purchase a game, but that was the first open world Sims game. We actually got to see the open world simulation with driving cars. You're going to rabbit holes, but you're not stopping at the end of a path. You're actually physically going to the location that you would like to go to and I think that changed so many people's lives.

Speaker 1: 8:53

Um yeah, that's the one thing like okay. Uh, when I played sims 3 on console like I didn't remember a whole lot about it, but the whole whole thing with the cars, like you know, like part of the cars in there I remember that part I was like okay, that's different. I mean different from what I'm used to, you know.

Speaker 2: 9:13

Right, yeah, because every other Sims game was either you pick up the telephone, you tell them where you want to go and you teleport there yeah, what we call rabbit holes. But the Sims 3 definitely allowed us. We got cars, we got expansion packs with cars, we got boats One of my favorite all times is the Sims 3 Diesel, because we got like 90 new cars all together. But the Sims 3 sold 1.4 million copies In it's first week, surpassing it's first original game. But the Sims 3 is set 25 years Before the original Sims.

Speaker 2: 9:56

In the original world you get to see the Goth family, who are much younger, portraying Mortimer Goth as a child. And, of course, in that whole thing we do get 11 expansion packs, nine stuff packs and the introduction to the sims 3 store, which is just like the sims 2 store, where you can purchase custom content, mods and custom gameplay items that you wouldn't be able to find in those stuff packs. Again, the amount of money I spent is ridiculous. But, like I said, this sims 3 is set 25 years before sims 1, in sunset valley and in riverview, because when we get, riverview was a free town that you could purchase out of the sims three store.

Speaker 2: 10:44

When you upload it for the first time, you get to see a very familiar face, don lothario um, and his story states that he woke up in riverview and he said that he saw two familiar faces, one with red hair and one with blonde hair, that he remembers as the caliente sisters, dina and Nina. Dina and Nina are aliens, by the way, if you didn't know that, but I'll go more into that here soon. But they saw a light, they saw everything, and then he was transformed back into Riverview as an adult and he goes to look for Bella and Bella's a child.

Speaker 1: 11:24

Wow, that's crazy yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 11:29

But the Sims 3 you definitely get a lot more things going on. We see the introduction of the Sims Online around this time as well. The Sims Online was basically what's going to be coming out with Project Grenade, which I'll go over, but we see a lot of multiplayer, one-on-one interaction. Unfortunately, the Sims that game did not surpass. It did not sell great, so it was ultimately shut down. It was basically like a web version of the sims that you could play with other people, like a lot of people did back in 2012. Um, yeah, that is where we are in the sims 3.

Speaker 1: 12:18

You said you played it during the console jb yeah, but it was like the one that I was like least familiar with because it was like I swear to god, I played it. But I don't know why I don't remember much about that one. It's like maybe, maybe on something about it didn't stick out to me that much, but they were like I definitely remember playing it. But, uh, one that I definitely do remember playing is the herbs when I talk about a little bit earlier. Uh, I definitely remember how in that game, um the, the main appeal was first of all uh, will I am in black eyed peas um doing the promo for that and I'm like okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 13:00

And I got into it and essentially it was about how you, the protagonist, moving out out your mom's house, you move into the apartment in the city, you go clubbing.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Uh, then, because you uh failed to do a certain dance move, um, you weren't able to get into the club, but, um, yeah, william helping you try to, um, you know, get you right and all that shit.

Speaker 1: 13:29

So, in other words, you have to like learn certain things, like guitar moves, like, um, different skills to impress people, you know like um, social interactions, and you do that and then like, okay, I see you, I see you, you can like go places and then eventually you get to the penthouse, you're greeted by this dude, darius, who essentially gives you the penthouse and all that, and you pretty much like run and shit. I liked it. I liked it for the most part. I especially like how, like, like in that game when, if you were to change clothes and whatnot, you have different wardrobes, right, but they had the one where you had the one that was shaped like a game cube and I had it on game cube, by the way, uh in case it wasn't that obvious, but yeah, I thought it was pretty cool that way to where I'm like oh shit, we're going to see what it takes.

Speaker 2: 14:23

Yeah, absolutely. We even got to see that in the Sims 3. We got a lot of real musicians actually singing in Simless, so Rise Against MCR, Of course.

Speaker 1: 14:45

We even got a Katy Perry stuff pack which came with a bunch of Katy Perry songs. Um, by the way, I can't just say that I like how, uh, even though it wasn't that obvious to me at first, but I was like jamming to some of the sandwich songs. And then I started to realize, wait a minute, like, yes, we all listen to uh or um. To realize, wait a minute, like, yes, we all listen to uh or um. You're looking at the um song titles and it's like, wait a minute, these are actually, oh, like the one with paramore. I'm like, wait a minute, I have to listen to. Oh, okay, it does kind of sound like her um, sound like them too, but it's just that, uh, it's in simlish, so it kind of threw me off a little bit, but, um, I thought it was kind of cool the fact that I can't listen to the original songs anymore without especially my chemical romance.

Speaker 2: 15:32

Na na, na, na na. I can't listen to the song and not sing it in simlish. So we don't. We can't play that song in my house because I get a pillow thrown at my head because I want to sing it in so much. Anyway, but, like I said, the Sims 3 was definitely innovation and in 2013, we were announced that the Sims 4 would be coming out and released into 2014 in September, just like its predecessor, the Sims 2.

Speaker 2: 16:03

It was a very the Sims 2. It was a very, very rocky start. We had no babies, no pools, no basements, no cars. We had a house and Bella got off. That's at least what we got. But by 2023, we've received 15 expansion packs, 12 game packs, 19 stuff packs and 25 useless kits. Um, but the sims 4, oh yeah. Don't even get me started on kits. I think they're ridiculous. Um, but the sims 4 was made to made for free back in 2022, as a future project they're going to be doing where they're going to try and make the Sims games from the future a bit more accessible to people who want to play it, hopefully adding more things in the actual game, because if I'm spending $59.99 on a game, I expect some things to be with it.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Um yeah, uh, can I talk about sims 4 real quick now? Okay, I have more uh on ps5 right now and I like it for the most part. Like, even though people said it's like the weakest um installation I'm installing excuse me into the mainline sims game and I'm like, yeah, you can't say that, but not gonna lie, I did like the uh different updates, like it just felt more modern compared to the other three. But, to be fair, it was, it is the newest one, so it's gotta make sense for it to be like modern enough to where you got to a point to where you can see your sim like walking down the hallway and then for some reason, they're just fiddling with their phone right before they get to the room they're supposed to be in. I'm like you know what that sounds, so realistic, like that sounds like something I would do. That's not something a lot of people would do. So I'm like, okay, it felt a little bit more realistic in the console version. But of course I don't like, how, bro, all those expansion packs and kits and whatnot. I'm like, listen, listen, I cannot keep up with all these packs because, like it, just See, that's why I got appreciated for Larianian studio for doing baldur's gate 3, because they put out their game uh, no expansions, no dlc, nothing like that. You got a full game and they were done with it.

Speaker 1: 18:34

Uh, with the sims, well, at least sims 4, like the other three games, I didn't have this problem with it because I felt like I was at least playing a full game or at least a game to where. All right, I'm kind of content with the content that you gave me with these three. But with sims 4 because it was like mainly, you know you're just building a avatar, you're building a family, you're interacting with other characters and whatnot. Uh, it wasn't like a campaign mode, like, um, the other three, at least four console version, but it was like, bro, like I gotta spend like 15, 20, 30 bucks just to have all this different content that could have been in the game. I don't know that. That was kind of pissed me off. I do like the base version of it. Anyway, it's just been a while Since I have been playing Sims 4. Mainly because you know other games and adulting and what not.

Speaker 2: 19:38

But do you have?

Speaker 1: 19:38

anything else you want to add on to Sims 4.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Yeah, so with the Sims 4. We so with the Sims 4. We'll go into the lore portion Before I continue on. But the lore portion is that the Sims 4 is an alternate timeline. It does not exist in the Sims 1 through 3. Because Bella Goth exists. Cassandra's never met Don Lothario. Lothario lives with Nina and Dina and their mom, just different. The Landgrabs have another son, so it's an alternate time universe. Of course, everything was the same Up until the second game, but other than that, as of right now, the Sims 4 has no connection With the other three games. I'm going to quickly just run over Project Renée, because I do have a blog coming out about Project Renée.

Speaker 2: 20:36

Project Renée is the next installment of the Sims. Everything that I've seen so far is very speculative. So, according to I remember correctly, her name is Kate Gorman. The game is going to allow solo, collab and cross play. They're going to continue development and it will, as of right now, coexist with the Sims 4. And that is in quotations Coexist. Project René will actually allow players To have the best play with the lower barriers, with many features being free. So they are going to try and step into that new dawn. But as of right now, project René is a separate project, but Sims 4 will continue to grow as they have a ton more things To go along with it, but Project René is still in effect. If a sims 5 does come out, would you play it?

Speaker 1: 21:33

yeah, because you know what my main thing was when I heard that it was gonna be online multiplayer. Like wait, hold on online multiplayer's. I mean I'm pretty sure that's not something brand new, like maybe like they did in PC. That's just the thing. Like I never played the PC version of the Sims, so I wouldn't know. But that sounds pretty good, if you're talking about console-wise, because I just think it's kind of interesting to wait. Okay, a whole bunch of people can play the game and make their avatar and they can just essentially interact with the other avatars, and I feel like you're. It's kind of like with Pokemon Go, except you don't really have to leave your house.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I choose you land grab family, yeah, but yeah, I'm definitely playing Sims. I choose you.

Speaker 1: 22:23

Landgrab family, yeah, but uh, yeah, I'm definitely Um play Sims 5. I wanna see how Advanced it gets in this one Because, also, it being easy Access where it doesn't feel like you have to um Buy a whole bunch of DLC just to fully Enjoy the game, I'm like, okay, I appreciate that. I think I still have Friends that still play buy a whole bunch of DLC just to fully enjoy the game. I'm like, okay, I appreciate that. I think I still have friends that still play Sims, like a couple of them where I'm like, okay, they'll probably appreciate not having to pay all the extra money just to have the full experience.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Yeah, there was a lot of us that when Paralives came out, that's kind of the Sims and EA's rival. At this exact moment when Paralyze came out, everyone I saw Because I'm in a very big group of Sims players I saw them slowly leave the Sims and go to that new game that come out almost exactly like it in my opinion, just a little bit better graphics. But the Sims will always be something special in my heart, so I didn't venture off. But I can definitely see that. Uh, project grenade is a big project. It's been in the work for a couple of years now, um, so I'm excited to see what happens. We haven't had any inside look just yet. A lot of us have been on the wait list to test it. I've been on the waitlist for almost a year now.

Speaker 1: 23:47

Gotcha. Ooh, hold on. There was another. I wouldn't say it's a direct installment Damn, I'm fucking up. But I still remember this one title, sims Busting Out. I definitely remember playing that one and it was one where, okay, malcolm Landgraf going around the neighborhood stealing items to return for unpaid rent and the player got a complete easy career track to buy back everybody's possessions, become rich enough to evade Malcolm from the mansion and all the other stuff, and I thought that was kind of cool. But all I think like I just never played that one too.

Speaker 2: 24:37

The Sims 2 busting out for the Game Boy Advance. The Sims busting out for the Game Boy Advance, the Sims busting out For the Game Boy Advance Was everything the whole Malcolm Landcraft To the characters. The models were gorgeous. This gave me kind of the same vibes as Herbs did a little bit. Yeah, but I had it for the Game Boy Advance. I had most of the Sims games Like Sims 2 Castaways. I had that on the DS Boy Advance. I had most of the Sims games like Sims 2 Castaways. I had that on the DS, which I still play it. But you also had my Sims and my Sims Kingdom, which actually just had a remake and that recently actually came out last week, as far as I'm aware. It's a pretty good game so far. I'm probably going to buy it. There was a really big wait list on that game. But if you don't mind, jb, I'd like to go over a little bit of the Sims Iceberg, if you want.

Speaker 1: 25:30

Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 25:33

All right. So the Sims Iceberg, just like any other iceberg. You have the top, which is pretty stationary, and then as you quickly go down to the bottom, it gets darker and darker. I'm just going to touch on a couple of each line. I won't go into full depth. But at the top of the iceberg, everyone knows the abduction of Bella Goth, Bella's abducted by aliens in pleasant view on Lothario's balcony, and, of course, Dawn's affairs. Dawn is seeing multiple women in pleasant view, like I said, and then drowning of Skip Brook. That was a character. He had a wife and two kids, and one on the way. Skip Brook died in a pool ladder accident because there was no pool ladder there. But in other Sims, in the Sims world, if a pool is generated, a ladder is generated. So where did the ladder go?

Speaker 1: 26:29

Who knows?

Speaker 2: 26:32

The next one is we see Bella in Strange Town. Strange Town is another Sims 2 town. It's basically this whole alien radioactive desert, lost, lost, fake Area 51 type place. We see a Bella there who has the same memories as Bella Goth. She's the one who did the question and the answer Like this is a Bella, but she doesn't remember anything else Past marrying Mortimer. Um. We see a Bella Goth on Lunar lakes. Um, lunar lakes is a Sims three down um viable city that you can purchase on the Sims three store. We see a Bella goth there. Now lunar lakes is basically everyone is pale and blonde because they're all radioactive there too Basically an alien planet. We see a Belegoth there.

Speaker 2: 27:28

And the next one we have Olive loves the Grim Reaper. Now Olive Specter kills about 20 sins in her lifetime because she loves the Grim Reaper and she wants to see the Grim Reaper because she ends up having Nervous Subject. Now Nervous Subject is a test subject for the Beakers and Sins 2. The grim reaper and she wants to see the grim reaper because she ends up having nervous subject. Now nervous subject is a test subject for the beakers and sins too. And nervous is the son of death who is all of son, see where I'm getting there. Okay, that's crazy wait, hold on.

Speaker 1: 27:57

I remember this one part, but all of where essentially? Uh, the main reason why if you were to order like pizza or whatnot at her place, they'll just leave it outside and not come in. Because if you go into her closet she got a whole bunch of different uniforms and you're like wondering where to get all the uniforms from and why won't they go into her house, and it just makes it seem like, oh well, if you go into her house you might not come back out.

Speaker 2: 28:25

Essentially, I mean every tombstone there Is practically her husband's or someone else's death there. The next one we have Sunny the Tragic Clown. There's this big poster In the Sims 4. It's called the Tragic Clown poster. It's a clown. That's really sad and if you cry to it he actually comes to life. But the Sims 3, if we know, it's 25 years before the Sims 1 he's dead. There's a tombstone with Sunny the Tragic Clown, but in Sims 1 he's alive. So there's a theory going around If you put on the clown suit and the clown paint, you can never come back from being Sunny the Clown. You're stuck that way for the rest of your life. Wow.

Speaker 2: 29:15

Then there's a book Written by Alexander Goth 50 years before his birth. That is the son of Bella and Mortimer, called Murder in Pleasant View. Pleasant View is a Sims 2 town, but he wasn't even born yet. He doesn't make his first appearance until Sims 2. And then my other one is you have Been Chosen. There's these eerie prank calls that you get in Sims 1. Called you have been chosen. No explanation, no reasons, you've just been chosen. If I get a phone call like that, I'm calling 911. 911.

Speaker 2: 30:00

The next one we get into a little bit more of a Touchier subject. I'm going to only cover two, because it gets really dark. No happy endings. Nervous dies at the Beaker's house and his girlfriend is unaware. The Beakers are mad scientists that use Nervous subject for their subjects. He is tested on. And then back when the Sims 3 exchange happened that's that Sims 3 store there was this virus that was going around Called the haunted doll. If you purchase that doll and put it in your game, a virus spreads around your Sims 3 game. That was not fun because I had a computer die Because of it. Someone made this doll and if you look it up it's basically a creepy antique doll that if you put it in a kid's room it stands up and then it corrupts your game.

Speaker 1: 30:57

That's crazy. See, that's funny how, with the Sims, they just have a whole lot of dark humor and shit, to a point where where I'm like uh, there's like kind of some cursed energy going on with the sims, but it's still fun though it's just uh, it's keep in mind like uh, I remember with the uh research that I was doing that I think the sims was like kind of sort of inspired by horror films oh yeah, that's actually one of the next ones that we're going to talk about that's what I heard.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Like that would be crazy, but it kind of makes sense with the way all these different characters like dying off, like some die off from starvation or they burn to death or something, I'm like wow crazy or drowning Well in.

Speaker 2: 31:53

In the Sims 2 for the DS, it had unusually Creepy atmospheres and themes. This also happened In Castaways 2. Just the environment that you were in. Some of the story plans were very, very creepy and actually led to the ds games being t for teen because of those events you just reminded me, I did play castaway.

Speaker 1: 32:19

I like you know, like I don't just get strained on this island. You gotta build, build this house and whatnot, and then ultimately, you try to undo all these different trials until you get rescued. And I still remember, like why would I want to go back home when, at the end, you go home and you got all these bills that you're behind on?

Speaker 2: 32:42

Yeah, I love the Sims 2 Castaways, but some of the levels and storyline that you have to do is kind of creepy. There are some things that I'm like. Is this game for kids? Should I have been playing this at 7?

Speaker 1: 33:02

Probably not.

Speaker 2: 33:08

We also have no uh futa. Nuke futa is a character. That's where that delivery guy comes from. He was made in this. Uh. He's a pre-made deceased sim. In the sims 2 he worked as a delivery man and his final delivery was to olive specter. Um, she has a memory of his death. But here's the really weird part, because he is the most corrupted character file in the Sims 2 game. He has no age, no aspiration, personality. He lacks memories, relationships. He is intended to stay deceased, but if you pull him from his deceit state he has the appearance of a child, but his age data is missing, so he behaves like a child Because of this. If you try to age him up, the game crash.

Speaker 1: 34:01

Missing data.

Speaker 2: 34:02

It's basically like this really weird thing you start losing data in the game. Other sims may start exhibiting really weird things, but Newt's delivery man outfit can be found in Spectre's household wardrobe, like you said. Wow. And then, last and final lease on the iceberg, of course, is the we are all sims, so we're sims. Now, like you're a sim, I'm a sim, we're all controlled by one of us. Um, the sims are alive. They think and feel for themselves, but must do as you tell them. It's kind of like that whole we're sims, you're a. It's kind of like that whole we're sims, you're sim, someone's controlling us. And then Sims 2 players will remember this O-M-G-B-B-Q. That's all I'm going to say. If you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, but there was a really bad mod that happened. That mod that happened that basically allowed you to cook something, and I continue to traumatize my sister with it because I have it on my old computer. Look it up. It's funny. Not funny, haha, but funny in the sense that this continues to traumatize people all the way back from Sims 2. But that is the Sims iceberg and of course, we're all awaiting the anticipated 2026.

Speaker 2: 35:35

The Sims movie. We don't know how it's going to work, but the rumors are very much true. We're preparing for the 25th anniversary. Hopefully we'll have a trailer before then, but we're supposed to be getting an update as we approach its 25th birthday. But Amazon, mgm Studios and EA are the ones producing it at this time. So, yeah, do you have anything you want to add?

Speaker 1: 36:09

For starters, at this point, I think it'll be better if what they do for the movie is, let's just be real, if they do a complete simlish, that will like confuse some people. But what they could do is like, okay, okay for the most part, like maybe like an 80-20 or a 60-40 type deal. Most of what you're saying is like English or whatever language that you know, like how movies go out internationally. So you can't just assume it's like English. But whatever your native language or your preferred language is, it'll speak that. But then they'll like sprinkling some simlish in there. I'm like, okay, well, at least they're actually um, putting in the effort to do simlish in there. But I can't understand that doing complete simlish would just confuse people. Um, outside of that, I'm trying to remember, uh, was there any other uh sims games like okay, uh, I'm talking about sims, sims busting out herbs.

Speaker 2: 37:13

I played that uh, this is medieval I did not hear about that one.

Speaker 1: 37:19

That one was new to me. So see that, like I said before, like I'm kind of a casual come to, the sims game is like I just played the um, the mainline uh console games, aside from you know um herbs and busting out like those were the only uh spinoffs. I guess you can call them. It was the only spinoffs. So I do like them for the most part.

Speaker 2: 37:48

It's just I just did not know about all this shit oh yeah, there is a ton of things with the sims, whether you play it for just to play it, just as a casual builder, or if you're a story people. I know people who have been playing the sims 4 since 2014 and they have generations and generations of sims.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Kudos to you, because I make a sim and I'm like trash it me, I'm like, until I know for sure that you're straight, I I'm like you're not going to even age. It's like I'm going to keep them like the same age until, like, I get the you know like, make sure I'm like at a certain level in my career path, like you know like financially stable and all those things you have money.

Speaker 2: 38:39

You're promoted Nothing. You're not doing anything else, but you're working. You're promoted nothing. You're not doing anything else, but you're working. I'm the type of person that builds a house for two hours and then I walk away from my computer and I come back to it in an hour I'm the same ways.

Speaker 1: 38:52

Um, well, it really depends on what I'm doing, like, uh, if I'm like building the house, building the avatar, whatnot, and then I'm like, okay, let me just make sure that you're straight, and then I'll just leave it alone for a while, that's the main draw that I have to the sims, where it's one of those games where, because it's a life simulation game, you can just pretty much like put it on. All right. Well, I'm just gonna put it down and, um, walk off, like I I kid you not, sometimes, like I'll play the sims so much that I'll be playing at night, and then I'll just fall asleep on, and then next morning I'm like waking up and I'm like, oh lord, look at all this shit do you not pause your games?

Speaker 1: 39:32

jb I do. I do it just sometimes. When I'm playing the sims I'm like just um looking at it, like just you know um playing, and like I don't just be knocked out cold out, nowhere. I'm like, oh shit, I'm dozed off what happened never leave your sims alone that's what I would say you want to see some stuff happen.

Speaker 2: 39:58

You want to see a house get burned down. I walk away to use to go to the kitchen to grab a drink and I come back and there's a kitchen fire. They keep it twice letting you cook.

Speaker 1: 40:09

It'd be like fires and lights are off and stuff got stolen and I'm like what the fuck? People got fired and shit.

Speaker 2: 40:22

I was gone for two seconds. Yeah, I think that for two seconds yeah. I think that's one of my favorite aspects in the Sims 3 now is that you can actually pay your bills and lights can get turned off and water can get turned off. I think that was one of the most creative things that they've done. Now, if they can put us back in an open world concept, we're really doing something. I miss the open world concept.

Speaker 1: 40:44

Yeah, I hope Project René kind of Does that for us. But, um, okay, two more things I want to add on. Then I'm just pretty much running out of steam. Uh, do you still like Get a little that tense feeling when the burger shows up and that Music starts playing and I'm like bro, like what's up with this? Um, music, like it just got me on edge when I would get a burger come around.

Speaker 2: 41:16

I'm gonna be ready to fight my shit the little image on your screen pops up the where the burglars coming in. That's the one thing I miss in sims 4 we don't have burglars yeah, that's what I was kind of expecting in um sims 4.

Speaker 1: 41:28

I thought someone I'll try to come steal my shit. But I'm like, oh, I guess there is no burglars. Well, that's a funny thing. It's like it's a career path.

Speaker 2: 41:36

Now you are the burglar no, yeah, that was one of the craziest thing. You hear the noise and you're just like what did I do? Okay, can I let me lock the door?

Speaker 1: 41:47

I can't lock the door, you can't click anything, it's just there you have to really hope you have a burglar alarm in there so that way if they uh, if they walk in there, it's like it'll go off, oh shit when you put the fire out and then the firefighter comes and gets mad at you, like why didn't you?

Speaker 2: 42:06

Where's the fire? You owe me money now.

Speaker 1: 42:09

Yeah, that'd be really funny too, when you call the police or you call the fire department, and be like you called us here for nothing.

Speaker 1: 42:19

You gonna get in trouble for this. But uh, one more thing I had to mention was Do you ever feel, like you kind of feel a little guilty that your sim is like you? You build up your sim right. You build them up to like have this um, very lucrative career. They're like married. Well, oh, I really pin because, um, from person to person. But uh, growing up, have you ever felt like, ah damn, like I I'm doing all this for myself, but I can't do this for myself? Growing up, have you ever felt like, ah damn, like I'm doing all this for myself, but I can't do this for myself? You ever felt that way, because I know a whole bunch of players felt that way too, but also some players like tend to develop a God complex when it comes to their avatars and whatnot. But how do you feel about that?

Speaker 2: 43:18

Oh yeah, most definitely. I mean, as a kid I definitely had that god complex Like let me build this giant house, trap all the male sims in the house and whoever dies first, you're the loser. Whoever dies. I was the same way, like that was my whole what was your house Saw.

Speaker 2: 43:36

Pretty much. I mean, as a Sims 2 player, even going into Sims 3 Used to build these like big houses and then do like little jail cells and everything, trap Sims in there. That is what I used to do as a kid, like that was the greatest thing ever to do. Now, as an adult, I'm like I was really demented. But even now when I go and build a house control mother, load rosebud, bbmoveobjects on, I'm like why can't I not have $50,000 automatically when I type a cheat code in?

Speaker 1: 44:13

Bruh.

Speaker 2: 44:14

I want $50,000, please.

Speaker 1: 44:16

I'm going to be honest with you, I'm starting to think, oh man, in hindsight I might have been a little bit of a sociopath when it comes to the Sims, because I still remember playing the Sims 2, right, and you know how they have the hot tub and you have maybe up to six Sims in the hot tub and, uh, you're, you have like maybe up to six sims in the hot tub, maybe eight sims, right, and they're all in the hot tub, right, and you can like have them uh increase their like hygiene and sociability so they'll be like friends with whoever they are in the hot tub with. And I thought you know what would be on good cheat, on the way to cheat the system. You know how, uh, you have to have like a certain number of friends in order to uh get promoted. So I would get like these uh shrubbery bushes and I would Fucking Enclose them into the hot tub so nobody leaves Until everybody is like close friends. I want to go home. No, I need this promotion.

Speaker 2: 45:29

I want to leave, hello.

Speaker 1: 45:31

No, I have to get the promotion.

Speaker 2: 45:34

Since we're talking about it, I guess I'm just going to come out with it. That's exactly what happened with the OMG BBQ. The OMG BBQ was a mod that you could download if you didn't want your baby anymore. Do you know what you did with them? Are you hungry? How do they make you a nice, fresh baby barbecue? Oh, that is what happened in the sims 2. It came out. You could do it. It is really. I'm laughing because I'm remembering doing this. I'm my sister is the one who introduced me to the sims 2. I found the mod, I downloaded it. I had everything set up. I'm'm like hey, I got your Sims game going and then she goes where's my baby? And I'm like check the grow. And then there it is. That is the gruesomest mod I've ever downloaded, other than running with scissors. Wow, I promise you I wasn't demented Six.

Speaker 1: 46:35

That's crazy.

Speaker 2: 46:38

It's just the little things that you get when playing. I generally think that playing Sims brings a lot of people together I mean, like any game does. But the Sims franchise has been like a project statement in my life, with us everyone going from origin to like a project statement in my life with with us everyone going from origin to entertainment arts. I lost a lot of hours playing so like on EA it shows I have 14,000, but if I go log into my origin account for Sims 4, I know for a fact I have 27,000 hours logged in. Wow, it's not an addiction, jb, it's just a passion project I mean, I guess I promise, you know what?

Speaker 1: 47:23

uh, I did feel you on. It brings people together because, crazy enough, it was one of the only games where at least uh, with my mom and my younger sister, like whenever uh they catch me playing the game, they'll uh watch me play the game, uh, and I'm like, okay, well, it's like the one game where like okay, uh, because they normally don't play games that much like, unless it's like one of those uh mobile games. But uh, with the sims it was like kind of different to where like okay, well, uh, they may not play the game themselves, but they don't mind watching someone else play the sims oh yeah, when my parents were remodeling their home, my mom came up to me was like so can you put our house in the sims?

Speaker 2: 48:10

I want to make sure that the paint color goes with goes well, with it. I ended up finding the exact shade of paint color because they had a bare paint mod, so I was able to actually redesign their living room with the sims it's almost like yeah, in a crazy way, it's almost like when you're um creating your avatar and you're creating your house, it it's like.

Speaker 1: 48:34

It's almost like you feel like an architect where you're trying to imagine what your dream house will look like, even though, with the technology that you have with the game, it's like, okay, there's going to be some restrictions, of course, but outside of that, it's like you try to make your dream house in the game. So in real life, it's like okay, I have an idea where I want my dream house to come out.

Speaker 2: 49:00

I mean I applied to interior design school only because of the Sims. I didn't do it. I didn't do it. But I applied and I got into the school but I didn't do it. I totally left field into the school. But I didn't do it. I would totally left field. But that the sims franchise definitely changed a lot of people's lives, whether you paid it, played it on console, whether you played it on pc, the ds, gamecube, game boy. It changed a lot of people's lives and hopefully electronic arts can keep going. I mean mean Project Renee's coming and who knows what we can see in the future, the Sims 10, who knows?

Speaker 1: 49:42

I mean that'd be crazy to keep it going up to like a Sims 10. But we'll see. Speaking of which, we'll just have to see how the Sims movie's going to play out, and with Project Rene, because I am very Curious about those two projects. But Was that all you had to add About the Sims in total?

Speaker 2: 50:06

In total. Yeah, just keep on the lookout Because I do have, like I said, a blog Coming out in February for it's anniversary. That'll talk a lot about Project Renee more in-depthly.

Speaker 1: 50:17

You can check out that blog, dear listener. At zonealliancecom that's zone-alliancecom we're going to be working on a whole bunch of things. I'm going to be trying to get into streaming games on Twitch and YouTube, trying to get the website shaped up. We're adding merch to the site. We're also trying to do a whole bunch of different events. Say, for instance, we're trying to do Spell Table, people who play Magic the Gathering we can pretty much show videos of us playing the game and a whole bunch of other things.

Speaker 1: 50:56

Uh, check out our discord. If you want to uh chat with us, maybe do some watch parties and whatnot. Uh, if you want to donate and support the cause, uh, there's our patreon. Uh, it's everything's in the link tree that we got. But you know what? Let's just go ahead and zone out of here. Uh, sebi, I do thank you for being on the show and leading this review and, dear listener, I do thank you for listening to us rant and ramble to the end. I remember that great things are coming and, to stay nerd until the next episode, I have you to have a good morning, good afternoon and good night, but, most importantly, take it easy.

Speaker 2: 51:37

Dag, dag.