History ScrappyMechanic / Thesims

* If you have a child sim, it is ''guaranteed'' they'll wake up every night from the monster under the bed. From there they'll be too scared to go back to sleep and will even automatically attempt wake up a teenage/adult sim if you're not quick enough to clear the queue. Talking to the monster won't work either because befriending it will only make them excited and they'll ''still'' can't sleep. The only way to completely get rid of the monster is the use the Defender Light.

** On the subject of holidays, the [[TheScrappy Gnomes]] who appear during Harvestfest. Giving them a gift they do not like will cause them to [[AgonyBeam zap]] your Sims, resulting in a drop in the need meters and they will proceed to ''trash your house'' if you decide not to beg for their forgiveness. If they ''do'' enjoy the gift, they will “[[StopHelpingMe reward]]” your Sims with seed packets, regardless of whether or not the Sims in question even have any interest in gardening. And they will ''continue to flood your house with seed packets'' even long after the holiday has ended. [[TakeAThirdOption Ignoring them completely]] will not fulfill the holiday obligation, resulting in the above-mentioned “Failed Holiday” moodlet the next day. Sims with “mean” or “evil” traits can [[KarmicDeath destroy the gnomes]], but unless they have one of those traits, it’s mostly a matter of choosing what the player deems the lesser of the three evils. However if you destroy a gnome, the rest will get angry and trash your house anyway, and even if you destroy them all ''[[RespawningEnemies they come back.]]'' Luckily, if you don't mind missing out on the Harvestfest, you can remove the holiday in the calendar [[TakeThatScrappy and prevent them from appearing]].

** You better like salsa because if you buy a stereo that is the first station that will play unless you go out of your way to change it.

** On the subject of holidays, the [[TheScrappy Gnomes]] who appear during Harvestfest. Giving them a gift they do not like will cause them to [[AgonyBeam zap]] your Sims, resulting in a drop in the need meters and they will proceed to ''trash your house'' if you decide not to beg for their forgiveness. If they ''do'' enjoy the gift, they will “[[StopHelpingMe reward]]” your Sims with seed packets, regardless of whether or not the Sims in question even have any interest in gardening. And they will ''continue to flood your house with seed packets'' even long after the holiday has ended. [[TakeAThirdOption Ignoring them completely]] will not fulfill the holiday obligation, resulting in the above-mentioned “Failed Holiday” moodlet the next day. Sims with “mean” or “evil” traits can [[TakeThatScrappy destroy the gnomes]], but unless they have one of those traits, it’s mostly a matter of choosing what the player deems the lesser of the three evils. However if you destroy a gnome, the rest will get angry and trash your house anyway, and even if you destroy them all ''[[RespawningEnemies they come back.]]''

*** '''[[StopHavingFunGuys The Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams]]''' is [[GoddamnedBats another notorious one]] for players who simply want to have fun with the game and not have to worry about the Wants and Fears system. If you do play like this, be prepared to see that notification for the fear appear ''every time'' you decide ''not'' to fulfill the Wants for your sim. [[RunningGag Again]], a mod has surfaced to prevent this particular Fear from appearing and another ''kills off all of the Fears entirely'', leaving only the Wants.

* Starting from ''[=FreeTime=]'', Mr. Humble will give you a new computer. Always nice - but he does this for ''every family'' you create. Needless to say, [[RunningGag mods]] were instantly created to disable this since the very high end computer messes up "rags to riches" scenarios. Some are also annoyed by the ProductPlacement aspect of it (the computer includes a copy of the then-upcoming ''The Sims 3''). [[FromBadToWorse On top of that]], there's a potential softlock in ''Apartment Life'' if Humble can't find a place to put the computer.

** In the gameplay options menu, there is actually a button where you can disable the Wants and Fears system. [[TemptingFate Surely there can't be anything wrong with it!]] However, when you exit Create-A-Sim and load into a house, the Wants ''still appear above the Sim's head because the option turns itself back on!'' You need to do this ''every time you open the game or leave CAS'' due to a bug that prevents the option from turning off completely.

*** '''The Fear of a Dead End Job'''. To many Sims players, [[GoddamnedBats this Fear was the one Fear]] that showed just how much of an ObviousBeta the Wants and Fears feature is. A Sim gets this fear by not gaining a promotion in a long time, and to resolve it, the player has to click on their Sim and select "Regain Passion" before going to work. But with this fear, it seemed like it was the easiest fear to get, due to getting a job being a main mechanic in the game, and promotions already taking time due to factors like meeting requirements or leveling up a skill that's required for the career. Not only could a Sim could just get this Fear regardless of whether or not they have the Workaholic lifestyle, they could also get this Fear ''just when they're coming home from work and they've been promoted''. The "Regain Passion" interaction is also a pain, only appearing when a certain moodlet relating to the fear appears. The moodlets for both the fear and the moodlet you get from regaining passion also only last for a few hours, and because a lot of jobs end in the afternoon, either moodlets won't last long enough for a Sim to regain their passion in the morning or for that passion to last until morning. Even worse is that the "Regain Passion" interaction can fail, and the moodlet for that also lasts for a few hours.

* Some players think that the pets getting counted as ''Sims'' is this and it's easy to understand why, because in ''The Sims 3'', pets are actually separate from the ''main'' Sims, for a total of ''10'' (8 Sims, 2 pets and vice versa). Naturally, this ''severely limits'' the amount of normal Sims in the now-starved 8 maximum Sims per household because of it. [[RunningGag Mods]] such as [=TwistedMexi=]'s ''Full House'' or MCCC ('''MC''' '''C'''ommand '''C'''enter) ''can'' override this, but CAS is ''still'' limited to 8 Sims regardless and removes the additional Sims. Better hope you have a RedShirt [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential nearby!]]

** Finally, you can simply disable Wants and Fears in the options, [[TemptingFate sounds easy, right?]] Be prepared to turn it off ''again and again'' as due to a bug, whenever you load into a game or go into Create-A-Sim, the Disable Wants and Fears button will undo itself, turning the feature back on, leading the player to having to disable it again.

*** '''[[StopHavingFunGuys The Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams]]''' is [[GoddamnedBats another notorious one]] for players who simply want to have fun with the game and not have to worry about the Wants and Fears system. If you do play like this, be prepared to see that notification for the fear appear ''every time'' you decide ''not'' to fulfill the Wants for your sim. [[RunningGag Again]], a mod has surfaced to prevent this particular Fear from appearing and another "kills off the Fears entirely'', leaving only the Wants.

*** '''[[StopHavingFunGuys The Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams]]''' is [[GoddamnedBats another notorious one]] for players who simply want to have fun with the game and not have to worry about the Wants and Fears system. If you do play like this, be prepared to see that notification for the fear appear ''every time'' you decide ''not'' to fulfill the Wants for your sim. [[RunningGag Again]], a mod has surfaced to prevent this particular fear from appearing and another prevents ''all of the Fears appearing entirely''.

*** '''[[StopHavingFunGuys The Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams]]''' is [[GoddamnedBats another notorious one]] for players who simply want to have fun with the game and not have to worry about the Wants and Fears system. If you do play like this, be prepared to see that notification for the fear appear ''every time'' you decide ''not'' to fulfill the Wants for your sim. [[RunningGag Again]], mods have surfaced to stop this and ''all of the Fears'' entirely.

** Finally, you can simply disable Wants and Fears in the options, [[TempingFate sounds easy, right?]] Be prepared to turn it off ''again and again'' as due to a bug, whenever you load into a game or go into Create-A-Sim, the Disable Wants and Fears button will undo itself, turning the feature back on, leading the player to having to disable it again.

* Starting from ''[=FreeTime=]'', Mr. Humble will give you a new computer. Always nice - but he does this for ''every family'' you create. Needless to say, mods were instantly created to disable this since the very high end computer messes up "rags to riches" scenarios. Some are also annoyed by the ProductPlacement aspect of it (the computer includes a copy of the then-upcoming ''The Sims 3''). [[FromBadToWorse On top of that]], there's a potential softlock in ''Apartment Life'' if Humble can't find a place to put the computer.

* Hope you enjoy the gesturing in ''Bon Voyage'', because once you install it, that's all they'll do. Unless you get a mod.

** If you call the firefighters for no reason, you get a fine, which ''is'' logical. To check whether they have been summoned for a valid reason, the game checks whether there are burned appliances in your household. Therefore, if you have replaced the destroyed furniture before their arrival, the game will consider that they have been called for no reason; same thing if a Brave Sim extinguished the fire themselves, since putting out the fire would then be so quick that it wouldn't have time to damage anything. To add insult to injury, 9 times out of 10 it happens because a Sim burns their meal while cooking with a smoke detector installed in the kitchen, which automatically summons the firefighters. To make things even more more frustrating, this very event usually happens with a new household, when you're already low on cash and are struck even harder by a §500 fine.

** The Sims 3 Store has not been well received, due to the rather pricey items (most of which are essentially priced custom content), GameBreaker items, and the fact that it requires online registration of the game to log onto, which leaves several players who are unable to register their game online out. This is most likely the reason ''The Sims 4'' removed the feature as a whole.

** The Memory System. It's a return of the Memory System of ''The Sims 2'' in which Sims get memories added to their book whenever something significant happens in their life. Instead, Sims get memories for almost everything they do. Went to buy something? Memory! Just unclogged a toilet? Memory! Passed by the library on your way to work? Memory! It doesn't help that you get an incredibly annoying pop-up saying that your Sim obtained a memory every time this happens. Fortunately the developers had a heart and allowed you to disable the pop-ups, but not the memories. But wait! [[FromBadToWorse There's more!]] Inactive Sims also gain memories. And memories take up space in your save file. If you've noticed that your game is loading/saving slower than usual after installing ''Generations'', it's probably the game trying to process all of your memories. It's not surprising that within a week or so of this new system, [[GameMod mods]] immediately popped up to stop the memories. With the ''Seasons'' patch, they finally allowed disabling memories.

** The ability for parents to autonomously punish their children for poor behaviour. The problem is, this system is far too sensitive. [[DisproportionateRetribution A whoopee cushion can cause a child to be grounded for two days]]. When grounded, they are literally not allowed to leave the house under any circumstances, not even to go to school, unless you decide to let the punished Sim "off the hook" or use a mod to let them decide the punishment. It should be noted that skipping school also causes grounding. So your child is grounded, then their parent will not let them go to school, [[{{Hypocrite}} and then extend the grounding, since they skipped school]]. Worst still, not going to school will result in the kids' grades dropping and [[MortonsFork being grounded]] '''again!'''

** This pack adds the attraction system. Said mechanic also adds the sub-mechanic of your Sim receiving love letters and gifts from other Sims in their mail or calling them on dates. Couple that with the unbalanced romantic reputation system, and your actually faithful Sim can still be considered cheating. The gifts and letters also tend to come in unnecessarily large numbers. There are mods that completely disable this.

** EA somehow decided it was a good idea to add a University Mascot (AKA some idiot dressed as a llama) to spawn whenever you start a new game. The mascot will stay on your lot for hours on end, even if you completely ignore him/her, as you cannot ask them to leave like you can with other Sims. The mascot also spawns if you travel to another subworld (i.e. ''go to University, the place he/she is promoting in the first place'') and come back home. Naturally, there have been mods created to prevent the mascot from spawning.

*** On an unfortunate side-note, Sims could get Wants to ask a Sim to be their boyfriend/girlfriend, but due to a bug, Sims could get the Want to ask toddlers and children to be their boyfriend or girlfriend, even worse if the two Sims [[BrotherSisterIncest are related]]. Unsurprisingly, this was fixed rather quickly.

*** '''The Fear of a Dead End Job'''. To many Sims players, this Fear was the one Fear that showed just how much of an ObviousBeta the Wants and Fears feature is. A Sim gets this fear by not gaining a promotion in a long time, and to resolve it, the player has to click on their Sim and select "Regain Passion" before going to work. But with this fear, it seemed like it was the easiest fear to get, due to getting a job being a main mechanic in the game, and promotions already taking time due to factors like meeting requirements or leveling up a skill that's required for the career. Not only could a Sim could just get this Fear regardless of whether or not they have the Workaholic lifestyle, they could also get this Fear ''just when they're coming home from work and they've been promoted''. The "Regain Passion" interaction is also a pain, only appearing when a certain moodlet relating to the fear appears. The moodlets for both the fear and the moodlet you get from regaining passion also only last for a few hours, and because a lot of jobs end in the afternoon, either moodlets won't last long enough for a Sim to regain their passion in the morning or for that passion to last until morning. Even worse is that the "Regain Passion" interaction can fail, and the moodlet for that also lasts for a few hours.
** Finally, you can disable Wants and Fears in options if you want - but be prepared to turn it off again and again. Due to a bug, whenever you load into a game or go into Create-A-Sim, the Disable Wants and Fears button will undo itself, turning the feature back on, leading the player to having to disable it again.

** Finally, you can disable Wants and Fears in options if you want - but be prepared to turn it off again and again. Due to a bug, whenever you load into a game or go into Create-A-Sim, the Disable Wants and Fears button will undo itself, turning the feature back on, leading the player to having to turn it back on.

** Finally, you can disable Wants and Fears in options if you want - but be prepared to turn it off again and again. Due to a bug, whenever you load into a game or go into Create-A-Sim, the Disable Wants and Fears button will undo itself, turning the feature back on, leading the player to having to turn it back on.

** But the thing that immediately became ''the'' Scrappy Mechanic to many Sims players were Fears. Unlike how Fears were in ''the Sims 2'', Sims don't start out with Fears, but rather develop them over time. After a while, a fear will develop from certain conditions, like "Fear of Being Cheated On" being triggered by bad [[SexualEuphemism WooHoo]] or lack of interaction with partner or "Fear of Death" from witnessing a Sim dying, and they constantly get negative moodlets should they frequently experience these fears. These fears can be overcome by different means for each Fear (e.g. to have a Sim overcome their fear of being cheated on, they can "Talk About Relationship Fears" with their partner). So, for people who wanted the return of Fears, they were disappointed to find that these fears are basically InNameOnly from their ''Sims 2'' counterpart. Things went FromBadToWorse from there:

** But the thing that immediately became ''the'' Scrappy Mechanic to many Sims players were Fears. Unlike how Fears were in ''the Sims 2'', Sims don't start out with Fears, but rather develop them over time. After a while, a fear will develop from certain conditions, like "Fear of Being Cheated On" being triggered by bad WooHoo or lack of interaction with partner or "Fear of Death" from witnessing a Sim dying, and they constantly get negative moodlets should they frequently experience these fears. These fears can be overcome by different means for each Fear (e.g. to have a Sim overcome their fear of being cheated on, they can "Talk About Relationship Fears" with their partner). So, for people who wanted the return of Fears, they were disappointed to find that these fears are basically InNameOnly from their ''Sims 2'' counterpart. Things went FromBadToWorse from there:

*** '''The Fear of a Dead End Job'''. To many Sims players, this Fear was the one Fear that showed just how much of an ObviousBeta the Wants and Fears feature is. A Sim gets this fear by gaining a promotion in a long time, and to resolve it, the player has to click on their Sim and select "Regain Passion" before going to work. But with this fear, it seemed like it was the easiest fear to get, due to getting a job being a main mechanic in the game, and promotions already taking time due to factors like meeting requirements or leveling up a skill that's required for the career. Not only could a Sim could just get this Fear regardless of whether or not they have the Workaholic lifestyle, they could also get this Fear ''just when they're coming home from work and they've been promoted''. The "Regain Passion" interaction is also a pain, only appearing when a certain moodlet relating to the fear appears. The moodlets for both the fear and the moodlet you get from regaining passion also only last for a few hours, and because a lot of jobs end in the afternoon, either moodlets won't last long enough for a Sim to regain their passion in the morning or for that passion to last until morning. Even worse is that the "Regain Passion" interaction can fail, and the moodlet for that also lasts for a few hours.

* BBQ grills at community lots (especially in ''Bon Voyage'' can really conjure a nightmare as [=NPCs=] don't seem to know how to clean up after themselves. Expect to see ''a lot'' of dirty dishes around the area as Sims won't clean them up automatically. Some of them are even only half-eaten. And Sims will keep making ''more'' of them if there's a BBQ grill available. The sheer number of dirty dishes in the lot is guaranteed to ruin your Sims' Environment need, and the only way to get rid of them is to have your Sims being ordered to clean it up themselves, which also took precious time and energy out of them while the NPCs will ''still'' keep cooking more food before leaving them out there ''again and again''.

* BBQ grills at community lots (especially in ''Bon Voyage'' can really conjure a nightmare as NPCs don't seem to know how to clean up after themselves. Expect to see ''a lot'' of dirty dishes around the area as Sims won't clean them up automatically. Some of them are even only half-eaten. And Sims will keep making ''more'' of them if there's a BBQ grill available. The sheer number of dirty dishes in the lot is guaranteed to ruin your Sims' Environment need, and the only way to get rid of them is to have your Sims being ordered to clean it up themselves, which also took precious time and energy out of them while the NPCs will ''still'' keep cooking more food before leaving them out there ''again and again''.

* Neighborhood Actions Plans in ''Eco Lifestyle.'' In theory, they allow you to vote to change your neighborhood, with NPC voting allowing for chaotic and unpredictable results. The problem is that most N.A.P.s are minuscule or just minorly inconvenient, rather than any real game changer. One of them, Sharing is Caring, is GameBreakingBug incarnate: sims have no limits as to how much they can steal with this trait, so they can clean out lots within a few sim hours. Removing certain items will outright break most community lots and make them non-functional. The only way to stop Sharing is Caring from ruining your game is to disable the NPC voting feature altogether.

** Making things worse, if you also have World Adventures or University Life, and end up being hit by a scandal on vacation or while attending university, the quick option of suing for slander isn’t available, as there’s no city hall in those destinations. Also notable for World Adventures is that you can be hit by a scandal for something that happens when you’re deep inside a tomb. Get hit by tranquilliser darts at the top of a pyramid and pass out? The paparazzi standing outside the closed ground floor entrance will name and shame you for something that they didn’t see, or was even something you did of your own accord.