Line #65 Headscratchers/TheSims


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2	[[folder:High on Bubbles]]
3	* So if bubble blowers are the equivalent of bongs in the Sims world, does that make those bubble wands the children play with the Sim equivalent of joints?
4	** They're probably more like candy cigarettes
5	** They're more akin to Hookahs than bongs.
6	*** They're the equivalent of bubble blowers that [[AluminiumChristmasTrees kids play with in real life.]]
7	[[/folder]]
8
9	[[folder:Hypocritical Adulterers]]
10	* The Romance aspiration in ''The Sims 2'' can be really unrealistic at times. They will want to bed as many Sims as possible...but go nuts if any of their bed buddies hooks up with someone else, even if the Sim in question was cheating on a spouse/lover to be with ''them''! Yes, I understand people are hypocrites in real life, but there needs to be some sort of Open Relationship or Friends with Benefits option.
11	** There's a [[http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=19.0 mod for that.]]
12	*** There's another mod by JM Pescado that makes it so that most/many Romance sims don't get jealous and most Pleasure Sims only get jealous if the cheater was actually engaged or married to them. Some are still hypocrites though.
13	[[/folder]]
14
15	[[folder:Hot for the Unobtainable]]
16	* Sims want hot tubs in a game where ''hot tubs do not exist''. Maybe it's a bizarre variant of IWantMyJetpack...
17	** That was just a case of shameless product placement. The patch included that wish because the next expansion included Hot Tubs. "Want to satisfy your Sim's wish? Buy the new expansion!".
18	*** It's not so much product-placement as future proofing. Sims 2 expansion packs regularly re-introduced old bugs that'd been patched out because they were built on older versions of the core game. Workflow and post-release support were re-organized so that this wouldn't happen on The Sims 3. It's also why much-ballyhooed expansion features, like the ability to swim in the ocean in Seasons, were quietly introduced to the core game.
19	*** Fortunately, more recent patches allow those who upload 50 memories to the Sims site to get a free downloadable hot tub.
20	[[/folder]]
21
22	[[folder:Obliviousness]]
23	* Why don't Sims react to certain events? For example, in one game there was a married lesbian couple. One of them had an affair with her wife's brother, and got pregnant by him. ''The wife never questioned it''. Huh? Does she think girls just randomly get pregnant or that her wife got an AI?
24	** Unless the Sim actually watches them whilst they do it/flirt/kiss, they don't realize they are being cheated on.
25	*** Not completely true (at least not in [=TS2=]). If one Sim is on a date with another and the cuckolded Sim sees them - even if the cheater is all alone and not doing anything out of the ordinary! - they immediately know they're being cheated on.
26	** It's still makes no sense in certain situations, such as the one described.
27	** It depends on what's being done. For example, if a Sim cheats on their partner by having sex with another Sim, the Sim being cheated on will immediately know if they are anywhere on the lot. But with socials like flirting and kissing, the Sim being cheated on must be in the room to know (children should be kept out too, as the Sim being cheated on can know from them). Also, if the 2nd lover leaves the Sim a bouquet of flowers and the Sim who was cheated on reads it, they will also know.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:They Grow Up So Fast]]
31	* The length of the Child life stage in ''The Sims 3''. Beyond just children being cute, it's actually a pretty significant life stage, as it provides a good opportunity to practice skills that will be more useful in the Teen and Young Adult stages, as well as having a fair number of unique options -- even more once Generations comes out. The problem being that on any lifespan setting other than "Epic", it's so short as to render this effectively meaningless.
32	** Fixed in Generations: You can adjust each length of life stage separately.
33	*** Additionally or actually fixed as of a patch that came around the time of Generations.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Strange Behaviour]]
37	* What's with the way the Sims act in 3? They're very odd, especially Mortimer. Is he mentally sane, or just weird?
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Age and Appearance Changes]]
41	* What's with the design changes between the ages? Most of the time, their hair and clothing don't look anything like you'd expect.
42	** TruthInTelevision. Some people grow up and look next to nothing like they did when they were younger.
43	** Clothing isn't a part of your body, so wearing different clothes as you get older is normal.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Creepy Curfew]]
47	* Curfew. It can be really unsettling at times. A teenager can be sitting outside his house, on the sidewalk doing homework, and the police will get you. But you can be inside the pool all night, with no problem.
48	** Hell, a teenager can be standing around with their parent (the Police Commissioner, incidentally) and still get picked up. Then watch as the Chief of Police sprints after a patrol car all the way home.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Miss Mary S. Nomer]]
52	* Mary-Sue is not a MarySue. There's a very low chance that the creators of the game even [[OpinionMyopia know what Mary Sue means.]]
53	** Mary Sue is a perfectionist. She probably ''wants'' to be a MarySue.
54	*** There's nothing in the game that says Mary-Sue is a perfectionist.
55	** It might not even ''be'' the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' {{fanfic}}-inspired definition, but rather the classic use of the name where Mary Sue brought up connotations of a 50s-suburbia style high school girl (''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' is one work that [author edit: almost definitely coincidentally] combines the two definitions).
56	*** Exactly. Mary Sue, Skip, Don and Betty are all cheesy old-fashioned sounding names that were also used in the ''Pleasantville'' movie. I'd say there's a snowball's chance in hell that anybody who worked on that movie was thinking of the fannish definition though, so no the movie was not combining the terms.
57	[[/folder]]
58
59	[[folder:Beautiful Duckling, Ugly Swan]]
60	* Anyone else a bit unsettled by when your children and toddlers age? You make them so cute and expect them to look a certain way, but they end up looking....
61	** Maybe the creators try to make the game somewhat realistic and well, that is TruthInTelevision. Some parents do envision their kids growing up to look one way and their kid grows up to look like something totally different.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Are You Potty?]]
65	* For some reason Sims don't pull their pants down/hike their skirts up when they sit on the toilet.
66	** Even stranger is when sims wet themselves there's a puddle and they look down and react as if there's a stain on their clothes, but their clothing remains dry and unchanged, how hard would it have been to add a dark spot after a bladder failure, even if it disappears after a short time?
67	** They don't even pee - there's no urine. Also why is their urine apparently clear, despite them never drinking water?
68	*** Pee is filtered from blood, so maybe their blood is see-through. Have we ever seen a Sim bleed?
69	** Perhaps the creators did that on purpose to keep the game at a T rating?
70	** Think about this: the developers at EA have to fix all the bugs and glitches while preparing the content and new animations for the next expansion packs. Do you ''really'' think they'd spend ''that much time'' on such a '''''minor''''' detail?! Think about the varying skirt lengths, too.
71	*** If they spent THAT much time on the pants thing, simmers would go absolutely berserk!
72	** With the pants and skirts thing, remember that when they sit on the toilet, it's censored. Maybe they do that, but you can't see it.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Making Friends Quickly]]
76	* It is a little weird how Sims still keep a relationship bar for random Sims who they were served once by (like waiters or pizza delivery people.) It really clogs the relationship panel with all these random NPC's who in Real Life you would rarely contact again.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:No Afros]]
80	* What's with the lack of an afro in the third game? The other two had it.
81	** [[MostWritersAreMale Most Game Developers Are White]]?
82	** More like "What's with the lack of hairstyles period"? There are so few choices, especially for male Sims. Also pretty much every hairstyle seems to be for straight hair - there are very few for kinky, wavy, curly, or any other variations.
83	*** You can buy TONS of hairstyles as official DLC even "The 10th Doctor's hair" I don't know if that was what it was intended to be but it looks exactly like it.
84	** When was this posted? Because there's probably one by now (especially with the 70's, 80's and 90's stuff pack).
85	*** You'd think there would be. There isn't. The closest thing to a full afro in any of the stuff/expansion packs is in the Katy Perry's Sweet Treats stuff pack, but it has an enormous tacky candy accessory on it. It's not just the devs, either - this troper spent ''months'' trawling multiple modding sites' content before seeing an afro.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Teens Have it Bad]]
89	* Anyone else bugged by social services lack of care for teenage Sims? Also why can't you adopt a teen Sim?
90	** They are much more self sufficient on their own and can legally hold a job until they grow up. But to move in, they merely need citizenship papers from a biological parent.
91	[[/folder]]
92
93	[[folder:Cooking is a Sport?]]
94	* So why does Atheletic sims need cooking skills? I also noticed that the Sports Academy provides insight into cooking and fishing.
95	** It may be about protein-carbohydrate balance/workout fuel, etc. And fishing is... technically... a [[InsistentTerminology sport.]]
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:No School for the Neighbour Kids]]
99	* In Sims 2 Apartment Life, why don't the child sims in the other apartments go to school if your sim family you're using has kids who go to school?
100	** Isn't the error in all Sims games and not just that expansion? Anyway, it's likely technical limitations. The developers couldn't program the kids friends, (or enemies) who are the same age to go the school as well. At least not while you're not playing them.
101	** No, there was a point where child sims in other apartments on the lot automatically went to school, the school bus showed up and everything.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Brandy's Babydaddy]]
105	* Brandi Broke starts The Sims 2 pregnant... yet according to her Memories, she had Beau ''after'' Skip died, and she doesn't have a Memory of having [=WooHoo=] with anyone else. He might be adopted (though would that affect the Memory?), except Dustin became a Teen after Skip died as well, and he's already three days into that stage. So how exactly did Brandi get pregnant again?
106	** WritersCannotDoMath. It was a mistake, she is supposed to be pregnant with Skip's child.
107	** Well, Sims don't get memories for being pregnant, only for giving birth. Skip probably died while Brandi is still pregnant with Beau.
108	*** That's the problem. Brandi is pregnant with a third child at the start of the game, but it can't be Skip's if he died before the second one was born.
109	** Well, if you crack the baby open and look at its genetic data, it's a gender-swapped clone of Brandi. So, mad science?
110	** IVF?
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:PC Version]]
114	* Are the tropes on this page for the PC version? Because there's a lot I don't recognise from the Xbox/PS versions.
115	** Yes, Yes it is.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Uneducated Paperboy]]
119	* Shouldn't the kid who delivers the newspaper be in school? It's 10am! No school I've ever heard of would make an exception five days a week either.
120	** [[WildMassGuessing Maybe he's home schooled, online schooled, or goes to some sort of private school where students do their own scheduling?]]
121	*** If true, then why can't the player's Sim Child be home schooled, or go to the school with the odd hours?
122	** Maybe the kid perpetually cuts school?
123	*** Perhaps this was true, until he got sent to military school like the player-controlled children who cut school, but was too weak for military training so they had him deliver newspapers instead.
124	*** No more worries about the kid in ''Sims 4'': [[TruthInTelevision the newspaper gets replaced by the Sim's cell phone and computer]].
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Worst Uncle Ever]]
128	* This one's from the PSP version. Why did Vidcund Curious kidnap his own nephew for research and money if he should be pregnant with his own by that point? Well, he may be a [[{{TheWoobie}} Woobie]], as his memories in the PC version imply a terrible childhood in contrast to his brothers (especially Pascal) and sister. But that's no excuse to give him an AdaptationalVillainy, especially since he and Pascal are shown to get along well in the PC version.
129	** Doctor Newlow (the main villain) was probably mind-controlling him to do it.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Brings a New Meaning to "Boning" Someone]]
133	* Sims can [=WooHoo=] the Grim Reaper. How?
134	** She jumped his bones.
135	** Is that a double entendre?
136	** Real answer, though. There ''is'' a penis bone (-r. Heh heh.) called baculum, although it's only present in animals like monkeys, not in humans (also, the penis bone is seperated from the skeleton anyway). Who's to say the Grim Reaper has any trace of humanity at all, though, or that scientific facts apply to him since he's a supernatural being? Heck, for all we know, he could use magic for some temporary hanky-panky. [[TakeAThirdOption Or not be a complete skeleton to begin with.]]
137	*** You can quite clearly see he doesn't have much, if anything, below the lumbar spine. That being said, you can pleasure a woman with things other than your ding-a-ling. He definitely has fingers, and his face is hidden, so we can't rule out a tongue. Also, the point about magic is a good one.
138	*** Also, if you do a bit of cheating to put Grim in your household and take his clothes off (not like that!), the game renders him as a regular Black man with a standard build and, presumably, all the, um, parts that come with that.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Why Llamas?]]
142	* Llamas are clearly quite central to the culture of Sim Nation - but llamas are native to the Andes, which Sim Nation is clearly not located anywhere near!
143	** Lions are the national animal of England, even though lions aren't native there.
144	*** Unicorns are the national animal of Scotland. Enough said.
145	** As for the actual reason why llamas are so central in The Sims, it mostly comes down to Maxis having a thing for them, they appear in a lot of Maxis games outside of the Sims.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Cats, Horses, and Jumping]]
149	* In the Bird Sisters family, they have a cat for some reason. Why keep a cat if they eat birds?! And in the County Cowpokes household, Johnny can't even ride. On top of this, Freebird has level 5 jumping skill despite the fact she has the Hates Jumping Trait. And two sims in the Unfretted With Feathers household have level 4 and 9 riding skill respectively, yet they don't have a horse! What's the deal with those families?
150	** [[WatsonianVsDoylist Doylistian reasons]]. Why is Kaylynn a few days into child stage when she's just turned into an adult "50 years later"? Because someone at EA wanted her in. Why does nobody in Twinbrook know each others' traits? Because it's the same expansion that introduces trait-related Profession features and they didn't want to spoil it if you moved someone in your household. Why are sims not connected on Isla Paradiso family trees? Because time constraint.
151	** For the jumping one, you can hate something but still be good at it.
152	** 1. Sadly, it's TruthInTelevision. As someone who studied animals in senior high school it irritates the hell out of me when people have pet birds and cats coexist in the same household. Not only is the bird at risk of getting killed by the cat, but it causes it tremendous stress and is not good for its mental health to be near a predator. It doesn't matter if the cat is "the sweetest thing on Earth" it will NOT override its predatory nature and at any time it can snap. This family just reflects that choice. 2. See above troper's response. 3. Even if they don't own a horse, maybe they either used to own horses or they attend a horse-riding school?
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:Jokes]]
156	* When Sims tell jokes, a series of pictures appear in speech bubbles while they speak Simlish in a joke tone. So are the images chosen randomly, or did the creators actually think of real jokes and use pictures to illustrate them?
157	[[/folder]]
158
159	[[folder:Terminology]]
160	* Many casual fans refer to the Sims as "Sims characters", but since the title itself refers to the entire race of digital people in the games, isn't this as redundant as, say, referring to [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] as "the guy from the ''Mario'' games"? It sort of comes off as a bizarre inversion of IAmNotShazam where the title ''does'' refer to the main characters but casual fans ''don't'' realize this.
161	** Not really. The word "Sim" refers only to the ''human'' characters, so it excludes characters who are, say, pets, robots and the Grim Reaper. It might also be because using the word "characters" make them feel more human than using the name of their "species".
162	[[/folder]]

Context Headscratchers / TheSims