The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000.^[2] It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X was released on June 13, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs were subsequently released. In addition several console versions have been released. Though not commonly known, The Sims 2 is offered on mobile platforms. Mobile manufacturers such as Nokia offer The Sims 2 from the Ovi Store. A sequel, The Sims 3, was released in June 2009.^[3][4]

The Sims 2 has the same concept as its predecessor and sequel, The Sims 3, players control their Sims in various activities and form relationships in a manner similar to real life. The Sims 2, like its predecessor, The Sims, does not have a defined final goal; gameplay is open-ended. Sims have life goals, wants and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce both positive or negative outcomes. All Sims age, and can live to 90 sim days depending on the degree to which their aspirations are fulfilled. The Sims 2 builds on its predecessor by allowing Sims to age through six stages of life and incorporating a 3D graphics engine. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods. Pleasantview is based 25 years after the town in the original The Sims. Strangetown's storyline is based on the supernatural, and is loosely connected with Pleasantview. Veronaville's characters are based on Shakespearean characters.

The Sims 2 was an instant success, selling a then-record one million copies in its first ten days.^[5] As of June 2009, The Sims 2 has sold more than 14 million units worldwide and was the best-selling PC game of 2004.^[6] During April 2008, The Sims 2 website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold.^[7] In addition to its commercial success, The Sims 2 was well received by critics gaining a 90% score from aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings.^[8][9]

Gameplay[link]

Buy and Build mode[link]

From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in The Sims. There are both residential and community lots, but Sims can only live in residential lots. Community lots are where Sims travel to in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs.

The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into a built-up lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from The Sims is foundations.

The player switches among the "live" mode (default) to control Sims, the "buy" mode to add, move or delete furniture, or the "build" mode to rebuild the house. Buy and build mode for community lots is locked when player Sims visit the lot but are available from the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from SimCity 4.

The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school. Some expansion packs have new mini-games, like running a Greek house in University or dating in Nightlife. In Nightlife, each day is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points. Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into. This includes Vampires, Werewolves, Plantsims, Zombies, and Witches.

[edit] Comparison to The Sims

Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed than The Sims and lets players to view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike.

The Sims 2 characters pass through six life stages - babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults (only with University), adults, and elders - with eventual death of old age, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to continue aging. The aspiration system (described above) is also new to The Sims 2. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child.

Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the cleaning skill (which was a hidden skill in The Sims), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations.

Development[link]

EA Games announced on May 5, 2003 that the Maxis studio had begun development on The Sims 2.^[10] The game was first shown at E3 in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2004.^[10] Will Wright admits that while most of the content of The Sims 2 are original ideas, inspiration for its own expansions and constituents spawned from the successes of the first game. The community interest in the antecedent The Sims: Unleashed and The Sims: Hot Date expansions ensured the creation of The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Nightlife expansions, respectively.^[11]

After development concluded, designers from Maxis regarded The Sims 2 as very capricious during creation. Bugs would appear, and Sims would be "tweaked", or have anomalies not present in a previous run.^[12] A teaser trailer was provided on the Makin' Magic CD but was later uploaded to websites all over the Internet.

Reception[link]

The Sims 2 had a successful E3.^[23][24] The game also received the Editor's Choice Award from IGN and GameSpy upon final review of the finished product.^[25][26] From 71 online reviews, the average score was 90 out of 100. Seven of those sources awarded the game a 100 out of 100 score.^[27] X-Play gave the game a 4/5. However, critics noted some serious bugs in the game.

The Sims creator, Will Wright was recognized by being nominated at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards for Visionary and Game Developer.^[28] The game was also nominated for two international awards in 2005.^[29][30]

Controversy[link]

The Sims 2 malleable content and open-ended customization have led to controversy on the subject of pay sites and sexual modifications. Custom content is distributed through independent websites, some of which charge for downloading materials. Charging money for custom content is a violation of the game's EULA,^[31] which prohibits the commercial use of Electronic Art's intellectual property.

On July 22, 2005, former Florida attorney Jack Thompson alleged that Electronic Arts and The Sims 2 promoted nudity through the use of a mod or a cheat code. The claim was made that pubic hair, labia and other genital details were visible once the "blur" (the pixelation that occurs when a Sim is using the toilet or is naked in the game) was removed.^[32] Electronic Arts executive Jeff Brown said in an interview with GameSpot:^[33]

This is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude Sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.

Prior to Thompson's statement, there was an enterable code which allowed to modify the size (including to zero) of pixelation accessible from the console menu. Shortly after the statement, subsequent patches and expansion packs removed the "intProp censorGridSize" code; this code was leftover from the beta testing stage of the original game and was not intended for a public audience.

Film and TV series[link]

The Sims live action^[34] film is currently in preproduction under an eponymous working title.

On May 25, 2007, it was announced that The Sims film rights had been purchased by 20th Century Fox.^[35] Not much is known yet about the upcoming film, although a rumored story involving the characters finding a way to control others through a "Sims"-like game has been reported on several movie sites. It will be written by Brian Lynch, co-writer of the Angel: After The Fall comics and writer/director of the 1999 film Big Helium Dog. The film will be produced by John Davis, responsible for films such as I, Robot and Predator.^[36]

EA has officially announced^[37] it and a MySims animated television series in development at Film Roman.

Editions, compilations, and add-ons[link]

Many Sims games have been ported to Mac OS X by Aspyr. The Sims 2 has also been released for a number of video game consoles including the PlayStation 2, the Xbox, Nintendo DS and the Gamecube.

Core game editions[link]

Expansion-only compilations[link]

Compilations of expansion packs and stuff packs without the core game have also been released.

Expansion packs[link]

The Sims 2 expansion packs provide additional game features and items. Eight expansion packs have been released with no current plans for more expansion packs beyond The Sims 2: Apartment Life.

Stuff packs[link]

Stuff packs are add-ons that intend to add only new items (usually in the amount of 60) to the base game. However, some releases include certain gameplay elements introduced in previous expansion packs. There are nine stuff packs so far. The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack served as the pilot release for this line of products, which were called "booster packs". After the success of the pilot release, EA named the releases "stuff packs" and launched the line with The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff. The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff is the final stuff pack for The Sims 2.

Downloadable Content[link]

Pre-order Content[link]

Most of expansion packs and stuff packs were released with pre-order items. This game content was redeemable at the official site using a code supplied by the retailer from which the player purchased, each retailer was often associated with an exclusive download. A total of 60 pre-order items were released.

The Sims 2 Store[link]

The Sims 2 Store was an online store where players of The Sims 2 for PC could purchase and download content for their game online for additional fees. It offered objects, clothing, skins, and hairstyles that are both exclusive to the store and also come from earlier expansion and stuff packs.

It also had featured seven exclusive item collections that could only be found in the store. The store used a point system that players can purchase. It was opened from July 2008 to March 31, 2011 as a beta version limited to the United States and Canada. To download, players must install The Sims 2 Store Edition and the EA Download Manager. The exclusive collections were "Cubic", "Art Deco", "Spooky", "Castle", "Asian Fusion", "Art Nouveaulicious" and "Oh Baby", including a total of 471 items.

Third-Party Tools[link]

SimPE is an open-source utility for The Sims 2 that allows editing of Sims' characteristics, relationships and careers. It also allows the creation of objects. The SimPE interface is not considered intuitive^[46] and users risk corrupting the game files.^[47] TS2 Enhancer, developed by Rick Halle, is a commercial utility for editing characters and neighborhoods, but has since fallen into disuse.^[48]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons ("Sims") in a suburban household near SimCity.

Gameplay[link]

The Sims uses a combination of 3D and 2D graphics techniques. The Sims themselves are rendered as 3D objects, but the house, and all its objects, are pre-rendered, and displayed dimetrically.

Neighborhood screen, Build and Buy modes[link]

While gameplay occurs in the game's Live mode, the player may enter Build mode or Buy mode to pause time and renovate the house or lot.

When the game begins, each family will start off with §20,000 Simoleons (regardless of its number of members). These funds can be used to purchase a small house or vacant lot on the Neighborhood screen. Once a lot is purchased, a house can be built or remodeled in Build mode, and/or purchase or move furniture in the Buy mode. All architectural features and furnishings customizable in the Build and Buy modes follow a square tile system in which items must be placed on a tile. Walls and fences go on the edge of a tile and can follow the edge of the tile or cross it, but furniture items cannot be placed on either side of a crossed tile. The base game contains over 150 items including furniture and architectural elements.

Sims' Lives[link]

Sims are instructed by the player to interact with objects, such as a television set, or other Sims. Sims may receive guests, invited or not, from other playable lots or from a pool of unhoused NPC Sims. If enabled in the game's options, Sims can have a certain amount of free will, allowing them to autonomously interact with their world. However, the player can override most autonomous actions, by cancelling them out in the action queue at the top of the screen. Unlike the simulated environments in games such as SimCity, SimEarth, or SimLife, the Sims are not fully autonomous. They are unable to take certain actions without specific commands from the player, such as paying their bills, finding a job, working out, and conceiving children.

The player can make decisions about time spent in skill development, such as exercise, reading, creativity, and logic, by adding activities to the daily agenda of the Sims. Daily needs such as hygiene maintenance and eating can and must also be scheduled. Although Sims can autonomously perform these actions, they may not prioritize them effectively. Much like real humans, Sims can suffer consequences for neglecting their own needs. For example, Sims can die from starvation if they do not eat for prolonged periods of time. Needs govern the overall moods of the Sims. The Sim will complain to the player in most cases when they are suffering from neglect. If the needs are not fulfilled, the Sims can become grumpy and unwilling to obey certain player-directed commands, particularly ones that further deplete the needs in question. This system follows the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in which physiological needs must be satisfied before other needs can be attended to.

In addition to fulfilling their needs, Sims need to maintain balanced budgets. The most conventional method of generating an income is to obtain a job. The game presents various career tracks with ten jobs (levels of promotion) in each. The original careers include Business, Entertainment, Law Enforcement, Crime, Medicine, Military, Politics, and Science. Sims may earn promotions by fulfilling skill and friendship requirements of each level. These promotions lead to new job titles, increased wages, and different work hours. The Sims: Livin' Large and The Sims: Unleashed introduced additional career tracks including those of Paranormal, Cooking, and Education. Other means of generating an income include creating and selling various items such as artworks and gnomes at home, or growing produce at home and selling them at a nearby farmers' market. The latter option is introduced in The Sims: Unleashed.

The inner structure of the game is actually an agent based artificial life program. The presentation of the game's artificial intelligence is advanced, and the Sims will respond to outside conditions by themselves, although often the player/controller's intervention is necessary to keep them on the right track. The Sims technically has unlimited replay value, in that there is no way to win the game, and the player can play on indefinitely. It has been described as more like a toy than a game.

In addition, the game includes a very advanced architecture system. The game was originally designed as an architecture simulation alone, with the Sims there only to evaluate the houses, but during development it was decided that the Sims were more interesting than originally anticipated and their once limited role in the game was developed further.^[1]

The first game of The Sims series has several limitations, most notably that children never grow up to become adults, though babies do eventually become children. Also, adult Sims never age (or die of old age), and there is no concept of weekends. For example, adults and children are expected to go to work and attend school respectively, every day. In particular, adults receive a warning if they miss one day of work, but they are fired if they miss work for two consecutive days. Children can study at home to keep their school grades up. If they miss too many days of school or fail, they are transported away to a military academy indefinitely. Because children cannot prepare food or earn money, nor room with another adult Sim, they cannot sustain life on their own if their adult guardians die.

While there is no eventual objective to the game, states of failure do exist in The Sims. One is that Sims may die, either by starvation, drowning, perishing in a fire, electrocution or by virus (contracted from a pet guinea pig, which can happen when its cage is left dirty). When a Sim dies, a tombstone or an urn will appear in , the ghost of the deceased Sim may haunt the building where it died. In addition, Sims can leave a household (and game) for good and never return, if fed up with another Sim; two adult Sims with a bad relationship may brawl, eventually resulting in one of them moving out. Children will be sent away for good if they fail their classes. Sims can also be deliberately killed by the player by various means, such as removing the steps to a pool they are in, removing the doors to a room they are in, or surrounding them by objects. They can also be locked into an "undead" state, by blocking them from exiting a hot tub or bed, where they will remain to interact with other players, despite having few or none of their requirements left.

Life Stages[link]

There are three life stages in The Sims: infant, child and adult. While babies spawn into children, children and adults never age. This means children and adults remain in their life stage indefinitely. All Sims, however, can die from various causes (e.g. burning to death in a fire, drowning in a pool, starving, or dying from disease). If the player owns the Livin' Large expansion pack, the Grim Reaper will appear after the death of a Sim. If a relative of the dead Sim wins against him in Rock, paper, scissors, the dead Sim will be revived. If the relative loses, the dead Sim will remain dead and his/her tombstone will appear. The tombstone will appear where the Sim died, unless the player decides to move it to another place, or just delete it. The Sims Makin' Magic allowed children to turn into adults with a spell.

Music[link]

The game music was composed by Jerry Martin,^[2] Marc Russo , Kirk R. Casey,^[3] and Dix Bruce. The game disc contains 37 tracks, of which 15 were published in 2007 as an official soundtrack album.^[4] Most of the tracks contain no vocals, but some of them feature Simlish lyrics.

Simlish language[link]

Simlish is a fictional language appearing in Maxis' Sim series of games. Inspired by the code talkers of World War II, the Maxis development team created the Simlish language by experimenting with fractured Ukrainian, French, and Tagalog; Sims creator Will Wright also suggested experimenting with Navajo.^[5] Debuting in 1996's SimCopter, the constructed language is prominently featured in The Sims series, and, albeit less frequently, in SimCity 4 and Firaxis' Sid Meier's SimGolf. Conscious of the need for in-game dialogue, designer Will Wright dismissed using a modern language due to repetition during gameplay and financial costs for international translation. Currently, on both The Sims 3 and all of the MySims games, the startup screens feature a clip of a Plumbob and the EA logo, along with a voice speaking in Simlish, which are the same "words" that a Sim uses to greet another.

Expansion packs[link]

The Sims is one of the most heavily expanded computer game franchises ever. In all, a total of seven expansion packs were produced for The Sims (listed in chronological order):

[edit] The Sims: Livin' Large

Release date: August 31, 2000 (North America)

The Sims: Livin' Large (known as The Sims: Livin' It Up in the United Kingdom) is the first expansion pack released for The Sims. This expansion pack focuses on adding new characters, careers, items, and features that allow for more obscure and extreme gameplay. Many of the games new additions may seem a bit out of place. For example, Sims can transform into Frankenstein-esque monsters by ingesting certain potions made from the chemistry set.

[edit] The Sims: House Party

Release date: April 2, 2001 (North America)

The Sims: House Party is the second expansion pack for The Sims. House Party gives players the ability and facilities to hold elaborate parties and gatherings in their Sims' homes. For example, sims can purchase dance floors, costume trunks, and buffet tables complete with hired caterers. Interestingly, if a Sim throws a really good party with a lot of guests, Drew Carey will make a guest appearance and mingle with the guests at the party. Conversely, if the guests at the party become bored, a mime will show up to entertain them with his act, only making them more angry.

House Party was reissued in October 2002, not only to mark the release of The Sims Deluxe Edition, but also to match the box covers of the Hot Date and Vacation expansion packs.

[edit] The Sims: Hot Date

Main article: The Sims: Hot Date

Release date: November 12, 2001 (North America)

The Sims: Hot Date is the third expansion pack released for The Sims. Hot Date adds a significant new feature not present in previous versions of the game: the ability for Sims to leave their homes and travel to new destinations. In this expansion pack, the new destination is composed of ten new lots and is called "Downtown". This new feature sets a new legacy for the franchise as all of the following expansion packs for The Sims add new destinations as well. At this city, Sims can enjoy various activities such as eating at a restaurant, shopping at a store, and going out on dates. Hot Date introduces other new features such as a revamped relationship system involving daily (short term) relationship and lifetime (long term) relationship scores. Sims can also carry inventory and give gifts to other Sims. As with other expansion packs, Hot Date also adds a variety of items such as the heart-shaped hot tub, cuddle swings, and items used to build eateries and shops. New characters such as the blonde bombshell, the matchmaker, and lounge lizards are introduced.

[edit] The Sims: Vacation

Release date: March 28, 2002 (North America)

The Sims: Vacation (called The Sims: On Holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the UK, China and Scandinavia) is the fourth expansion pack for The Sims. Vacation introduces a new destination called "Vacation Island" where Sims can take vacations with family members or with other Sims. This marks the first time Sims can stay on lots away from home. In other words, the game can be saved while a Sim is on Vacation Island. Vacation Island is split into three distinct environments: beach, forest, and snow-capped mountain. Sims can stay at a hotel or rent a tent/igloo to rough it in the wild. They can also purchase or find souvenirs. As with other expansion packs, Vacation introduces new items, characters, and features pertaining to the theme of vacations.

[edit] The Sims: Unleashed

Release date: November 7, 2002 (North America)

The Sims: Unleashed is the fifth expansion pack developed for The Sims. Unleashed introduces pets into the game. While dogs and cats are treated as Sims, other pets are treated as objects. However, dogs and cats cannot be controlled directly like human Sims are, and can only be directed to move around by the player. Small pets introduced by the expansion pack include scarlet macaws, Greater sulphur-crested cockatoos, iguanas, box turtles, Fischer's lovebirds, and budgerigars. Furthermore, Unleashed introduced gardening, allowing Sims to grow and nurture plants that could later be harvested and consumed. In Unleashed, the original ten-lot neighborhood that was featured in all previous games was expanded to over forty, and also provided an option to re-zone lots into residential or commercial. In commercial lots, one can build shops and cafes which Sims can visit by calling the Old Town trolley to take them there. The theme of the game is considered to be Cajun or Zydeco. One could compare it to New Orleans' French Quarter with voodoo shops and jazz musicians appearing on commercial lots. With the addition of The Sims Makin' Magic, users could cast spells on pets and turn them into humans.

[edit] The Sims: Superstar

Release date: May 13, 2003 (North America)

The Sims: Superstar is the sixth expansion pack of the seven released for The Sims. This expansion allows the player's Sims to become entertainment figures and includes representations of several famous personalities. A number of celebrities make cameo appearances but cannot be controlled by the player, and include Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, Jon Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah McLachlan, Richie Sambora, and Avril Lavigne. Along with new work items such as the runway and leisure items such as the mud bath tub, Superstar includes a new destination called "Studio Town" in which celebrity Sims can utilize these work items to generate simoleons and fame.

[edit] The Sims: Makin' Magic

Release date: October 29, 2003 (North America)

The Sims: Makin' Magic is the seventh and final expansion pack released for The Sims. It introduces magic to the game and allows Sims to cast spells, forge charms, and buy alchemical ingredients. Dragons are also made available as pets to hatch from eggs, and can destroy a Sim's home and garden as well as provide spell ingredients. Makin' Magic introduces the Magic Town lots, which house vendors of magical ingredients and items and a number of magic-related mini-games. Additionally, Sims with enough MagiCoins (the newly-introduced currency) can buy lots to build houses in Magic Town, which provide special magical benefits and abilities. In addition, it introduces baking and nectar-making. This expansion pack includes a disc containing a preview of The Sims 2.

The theme of the game is Mediterranean and Eastern European/gypsy carnival.

Compilations[link]

Core game with expansions[link]

The Sims has been repackaged in numerous editions. These are not expansions in themselves, but compilations of the basic game plus pre-existing expansion packs and additional game content.