The Sims franchise has been around for almost 19 years. That’s 19 years of creating sims and causing chaos around the world.
Over that time the game has had 4 different versions, each with its own quirks and features. With each incarnation one thing has remained the same; the game is full of crazy things, some realistic but many others not.
While The Sims as a franchise is designed to simulate real life there are times when it goes beyond reality and becomes truly insane. From strange behavior to odd neighbors and mythical creatures The Sims has it all.
A huge part of the appeal of the game for many is the ability to take life and distort it, causing chaos and drama across your sims neighborhoods. For others its to create a dream life, a simulation of what they wish their future to be. Then there are those who wish just to create, building beautiful buildings and inspiring structures.
There are so many ways to play the game and in every aspect of it, players encounter some things that make no sense at all and others which are all too familiar.
In this list, we explore the wild side of the games as well as looking at the times when it was just too familiar. Here are my top 15 wild things about The Sims that make no sense and 10 that were just too real.
25 Wild: You Can Have Supernatural Encounters
Over the course of The Sims franchise players have been able to have a variety of supernatural encounters. From being able to create magic spells in The Sims Makin’ Magic, through to playing Vampires in The Sims 4 Vampires, supernatural beings are an unrealistic but much loved part of the game.
My personal favorite was the Supernatural pack from The Sims 3 which properly introduced several different occult life states including witches, vampires, werewolves, fairies, and zombies. Here’s hoping we see the return of more of these in The Sims 4.
24 Wild: You Can Own Mythical Creatures
Pets have been around in The Sims since the first game. While mostly they are cats and dogs with an occasional bird, snake or hamster some of them are simply crazy.
One of the most loved crazy pets has to be the Unicorns from Sims 3.
While Sims 4 may not have unicorns it too brings its own wild pets with the introduction of small critters in My First Pet Stuff. Adopt a hamster, rat, hedgehog or bubalus and sit back and watch the craziness unfold as your tiny critter somehow manages to visit space.
23 Too Real: Sims Emotions
Over the years sims emotions have got more and more real. In The Sims 4 they are more pronounced than ever and sometimes really strike a chord. Sims feelings can often fluctuate and their reactions to others are more realistic than ever.
The emotion of sadness with spontaneous crying fits often gets me.
There’s also the so accurate it hurts teenage mood swings and toddler temper tantrums. I’ve never yet felt energized enough to do random push-ups though, maybe one day.
22 Wild: The Timescales Are Ridiculous
The timescales in The Sims are insane. Some things are ridiculously fast, while others are painfully slow.
You can find a new spouse, become soulmates and marry them all in the space of just a couple of days tops. When it comes to eating however expect it to take approximately 3 hours to finish that plate of 2 pancakes and don’t even get me started on how long it takes to use the bathroom.
If you ever wanted to see just how weird they are, then search for “24-hour sim challenges” and watch an array of content creators recreate the timescales in real life.
21 Too Real: The End Of The Line
While some of the ways to cut sims lives short in The Sims franchise are simply crazy, many others are realistic and some too much so.
The Sims 4, in particular, has some ways to end your sims existence which truly tug on the heartstrings. It can feel very realistic, especially with the new first-person camera mode.
For every player who enjoys exploring all the different ways to make a sim exit their world, there is another who just can’t cope with the simulation of what is a heartbreaking event in reality.
20 Wild: Stupid Ways To Make Your Sims Expire
While some ways to end your sims are all too real many are just plain weird. From the Box of Danger in The Sims 3 Showtime to the wishing well in The Sims 2 Seasons, certain objects are better left alone if you’d like your sims to survive.
I’d also suggest giving a wide birth to Cow Plants, Mummies and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The emotional ways to exit the world are also surreal with your Sims being able to expire from too much fun, excessive woohoo or from soiling themselves too frequently.
19 Wild: Cow Plants Exist
Laganaphyllis simnovorii, otherwise known as the Cowplant, is one of the most bizarre, nonsensical items in the game. In this case though the wild is simply wildly entertaining.
While the variations of Cowplant have had some differing qualities in different games the basic idea is the same. This sim devouring plant will lure and swallow your unsuspecting sims if it’s not fed regularly. Surviving sims may then milk the plant for a boost to their own lifespan. Harsh but entertaining.
18 Too Real: If You Are Low On Energy You Can’t Function
This is a tiny quirk of The Sims that often resonates with me. If your sim is too uncomfortable or just simply too sad or low on energy you will find them totally unable to do anything. This is absolutely true in real life as well.
Sometimes the feature makes no sense and drives you insane.
Often however I sit there thinking “me too sim, me too”. This is one sim quirk which I think far too many of us can truly identify with.
17 Wild: Random Characters Will Visit You
The Sims likes to keep you on your toes and the random NPC visitors do just that. In The Sims 2 we had the social bunny, a slightly sinister looking character who would appear when a sims social need was low.
There’s also the tragic clown but I’m too scared to talk about him in case he actually appears and I have to burn everything I own to get rid of him.
Even The Sims 4 still has random NPCs and although they still make no sense they are at least fun. Father Winter, Patchy and The Flower Bunny are a joy to have around in comparison, just look out for those gnomes.
16 Too Real: Pregnancy Symptoms
The Sims 4 has made pregnancy more realistic than ever before. The first time I saw my newly pregnant sim make a dive for the bathroom and spontaneously upchuck, so many memories came flooding back.
Then there’s the ever increasing need to use the bathroom, the expanding waistline and the inability to function during labor. Even fathers don’t miss out with the ability to get excited about the news followed by a pre-parental panic before the baby arrives. Pregnancy just got real.
15 Wild: You Can Decorate Your House With Ridiculously Oversized Objects
This is a problem that’s really obvious in The Sims 4. For some reason, while building up the catalog of build buy items, it was decided that bigger is better. I’m not sure why, as most of the oversized items make absolutely no sense.
Who on earth has a full-sized observatory in their yard?
Bring back the humble telescope I say. Also while I’m at it I’d like a cupcake machine that doesn’t need its own room and a dolls house that’s smaller than the toddler playing with it.
14 Wild: Expensive Items Affect Your Sims Needs
Have you ever bought a more expensive shower so you can get clean quicker? What about a more extravagant toilet so you can use it faster? In The Sims, all this is possible thanks to the properties associated with different objects.
More expensive items have better stats, meaning needs are refilled quicker.
You need less sleep in a luxury bed, spend less time relaxing on that overpriced sofa and bathing is quicker in a high-end tub. While I can see you may sleep better in a more comfortable bed I’m failing to see the toilet link pans out in real life.
13 Too Real: Using Cellphones
The Sims 4 introduced the concept of cellphones. Replacing those delightfully retro chunky wall phones all sims now have their own cellphones and highly realistic they are too.
You can change your phones cover, take and post photos of your food, call or text other sims and even receive random messages at 3 AM.
Cellphone usage is incredibly true to life. Sims can even whip out their phones to play games. Be careful, however, as Get Famous introduced the cellphone addict quirk, and you may become addicted!
12 Wild: Sims Lose All Sense In Swimming Pools
Swimming Pools have long been a nemesis for sims. Back in the older versions of the games, you could rid your household of any unwanted occupants by simply removing the pool ladder. The sims would then be rendered incapable of getting out of the pool.
These days its a little harder. In The Sims 4 your victims will simply climb out of the pool as you would expect. They do however have a new nemesis in fencing or walls. If you fence a pool in, then it will once again render them unable to escape. (cue evil maniacal laugh)
11 Too Real: Kids Grow Up Super Fast
While The Sims is not known for its realistic timescales, when it comes to kids sometimes the game is too close for comfort.
After the shortest romance in history, your newly married and now pregnant sim will have a baby. Then, just as you learn to cope, they become toddlers. You start learning again, teaching them new skills then bam, they are a child, then a teen.
Suddenly it feels like no time at all has passed and now your tiny baby is a young adult and has moved out of your home and taken half of the furniture.
10 Wild: Your Sim Will Shout At Fires
Fire, in general, is pretty crazy in The Sims franchise. Often once a fire is started, your sims will slip into their preferred method of coping with it, which is jumping up and down and shouting frantically. How this is supposed to solve the problem, I don’t know, but sims have been screaming at fires ever since the first game was released.
Early games at least brought firemen if you had a smoke alarm.
These days all we have are temperamental sprinklers and frantic clicking as we try to get our sims to produce the fire extinguishers – which they all appear to keep in their back pockets for such occasions.
9 Wild: Criminal Careers Are Advertised In The Paper
Can you imagine if this happened in real life? The local paper contains a small discrete ad, pickpockets wanted, call this number. How much easier would it be for cops to do their job?
Advertising criminal careers in a public forum is definitely not the wisest idea. In later games, you can overlook it slightly, as its more common to find jobs online. Searching the web for criminal opportunities is at least a little more believable than reading about them over your breakfast.
8 Too Real: Sims Playing The Sims
If you aren’t careful, your sims free will can often lead them to spend hours and hours watching tv or gaming on the computer. The second action is especially meta because your sims can choose to play The Sims on their computer.
That’s right, in game, Sims can play with their own Sims. In game.
When you finally realize that while you were making little Timmy do his homework and chores, his parents spend 6 hours playing The Sims and are now hungry and in desperate need of the bathroom it’s all just a bit too close to home.
7 Wild: Free Will Is Interesting
Free will is one of the most useful but insane functions of the game. While it has improved over the years, your sims are still likely to do an array of crazy things when left to their own devices.
The strangest part is that when the household is inactive, they seem to be fine. You can leave a household running in the background for weeks on end and everything is great. Hit that active button, however, and it’s another story entirely.
If you’ve ever left your game accidentally running while you nipped to make a snack and came back to everything on fire and only one survivor, you’ll know the struggle is real.
6 Too Real: Bad Cooks Burn Things
Like many things in The Sims cooking is a skill. If you are terrible at it the results are predictable. From food which is such low quality, it gives you a stomach ache to setting your kitchen on fire cooking with no skills is a wild ride.
If you’re cooking make sure you skill up first, both in-game and in real life.
So far, in reality, I’ve not managed to produce food so bad eating it actually causes someone to expire, but I’ve certainly produced some low-quality meals in my time. There was also that one time with the small fire… but we won’t go into that.
