The Sims/WMG: Difference between revisions

In ''The Sims'', the Chance Card for the actor career track describes starring in a remake of Citizen Kane. This implies that

So what is the alternate universe of ''The Sims'' like? Firstly, English, French, Chinese, Dutch, every language has been replaced with Simlish, a simplistic language comprised of repeated phrases that communicate (judging by the thought bubbles and the process of writing a Simlish novel depicted in later expansions of ''The Sims 2'') very simple concepts. This is straight out of Orwell's 1984, in which the constructed language "newspeak" is used to eliminate the ability to communicate complex information and concepts that are deemed unsuitable.

Some vestiges of English remain. For example, the unintelligible Sea Chanty from ''The Sims 2: Bon Voyage'' contains some English phrases ("Yo Ho Ho") and contains phrases that sound like slightly garbled English. It is important to note that the Sea Chanty is taught to Sims by a ghost, explaining both the garbled initial rendition and the inability of Sims to render it in English. Similarly the monolithic School Cheer (The same for all schools which, along with the interchangeable nature of all degrees, suggests that different schools teach the exact same curriculum in the exact same way, suggesting that they are all organized by the same dictatorial body) ends with the line "Go Gerbits!" The presence of the word "Go" suggests that this was, once, originally a specific school cheer that was translated into Simlish.

The liberalization represented by the private schools is a motif in the games. Although the party (represented in the neighbourhood view by the player) retains sufficient control to decide upon control over travel restrictions (represented by adding new neighbourhoods in ''The Sims'' and ''The Sims 2'') and even the flow of the seasons in ''The Sims 2: Seasons'' (no doubt as a result of the invention of the same kind of weather machine that can be cobbled together from scrap in the game), by the time of ''The Sims 2: Open for Business'' enough liberalization has occurred to allow for a limited free market and entrepreneurship, which is novel considering that for the past fifty game years only state controlled enterprise(represented by the player's ability to place buildings in ''The Sims 3'' and design their interiors and exteriors in ''The Sims'' and ''The Sims 2'' prior to the Open for Business pack) was considered allowable.

This suggests the emergence of an overall arc. In ''The Sims 3'', the chronologically first installment of the series, it is possible for Sims to buy partnerships in state-controlled enterprise, or even to buy "ownership". Ownership however does not confer any additional rights beyond control over staffing and an additional stipend drawn from the building's revenue. By the time of ''The Sims'', all buildings are directly controlled by The Community. But rather than the decaying soviet-style architecture of Orwell, the Sims are instead gifted with a simulated culture that recalls Disneyworld. It is this simulated culture that evokes The Prisoner, but it is Americana rather than an Edwardian seaside resort in which the characters are trapped. This village progresses over the course of the games. In ''The Sims 3'', it seems most like a genuine town, with a history (founded by The Goths in the Victorian Era, gentrified and "built up" by the Langraab family) and genuine social problems. By the time of ''The Sims'', it's transitioned totally to simulated culture, with travel restrictions (simulated by the loss of neighbourhood size and the one-by-one reconnections with other districts). It has also grown from a small town to a genuine city.

The travel restrictions and the growth in simulated culture should not be read as an indication that ''The Sims 3'' is any less of a dystopia than ''The Sims''. By ''The Sims'', police have ceased carrying out random interviews and searches of garbage in order to build detailed dossiers. Although it is entirely possible that these functions have somehow been automated (perhaps the immovable garbage can itself builds such a dossier), the violation of poverty is less overt. In addition, mind control is ubiquitous in all three games, with the green "plumbob" representing active mind control by the state (represented again by the player) of a particular citizen. The liberal reforms of ''The Sims 2'' are not enough to curb this form of mind control. Indeed, there are freely available machines and chemical treatments which allow for voluntary brainwashing to change anything from life-goals to sexual interests. Depending on how the rewards system is read in ''The Sims 3'', this treatment is already invented and available to select members of the public.

''The Sims'' is arguably the most dystopian of the three games. In it, social control is complete and the personalities of the citizens have been reduced to quantitative, not qualitative values. (Qualitative aspects are reintroduced to the shattered minds of the brainwashed citizenry in ''The Sims 2''). Vehicle ownership, a feature of ''The Sims 2'' and ''The Sims 3'', is banned and drivers are reliant on government-controlled carpools or taxi services. Freedom of movement is nonexistent, as the player/state controls which expansion packs (And therefore which districts) are accessible to his citizens. It represents the time when professional progression eschews both the entrepreneurship of ''The Sims 2'' post-open for business and the softer, more complex and flexible progression of ''The Sims 3'', when objects were (as in the soviet union) only available in one colour and iteration. Laptops and cellular telephones have gone from virtually ubiquitous to banned. Travel is highly restricted, to the point where when it is allowed in ''The Sims: Vacation'' it is only allowed to a single obviously constructed island. While other dystopian elements are present in the other games, such as travel restrictions, the perpetual importance of the military (which will be discussed in a moment) alcohol prohibition, and the above mentioned restrictions on education and language, ''The Sims'' represents the height of the oppressive government's power, and the height of its highly constructed, mannered, false culture.

The role of the military is the last, and possibly most important, aspect of this dystopia. In ''The Sims 3'', the military is almost totally centered on The Air Force. The Air Force maintains a space program that is either largely for show or largely expunged by ''The Sims'', in which any record of a successful moon landing has been deleted. While this might suggest that ''The Sims'' has a point of divergence prior to the moon landing, the highly similar aesthetics of our universe and that of ''The Sims'' suggests that this is unlikely. The military in ''The Sims 3'' has no war to fight and largely engages in readiness exercises. However, by ''The Sims'' it has entered into a lengthy Cold War with a neighbouring city-state called "Red City", which recalls the real life Cold War and the political war that is so famously integral to the stability of The Party in 1984.

In ''The Sims 3'', freedom of travel is also limited: Sims are unable to travel to big cities without permission. Also, passports apparently exist, but this suggests that the Regime is not yet in full control of world.

As the discovery of [[Command and& Conquer|Tiberium]] on Egypt (World Adventures), and a mention of a guy called Kane in the Science job, the Tiberium Wars most likely to happen sometime later. ''The Sims'' and ''The Sims 2'' may or may not be a [[Lotus Eater Machine]], as the world seems to be fully recovered into lush green meadows with 50's to 80's lifestyle and technology (''The Sims''), and late 90's to 2000's lifestyle and technology (''The Sims 2'') and chronological errors of ''The Sims 3'', which should be take place before ''The Sims'' and ''The Sims 2''.

How about the robots and such marvels as teleporters? That's either the quirks of the [[Lotus Eater Machine]] simulation or the remaining scraps of military reorganized as technologies helpful to mankind. In addition, the Tiberium and the wars is fully gone, nothing but a videogame based on disclosed past history (In ''The Sims 2: [[Free Time]]'' expansion, a Sim can play C&C 3 Tiberium Wars). The military? They rebuilt the space program in ''The Sims 2'' and NEVER any single mention of war in ''The Sims 2'' provides that is there only for employment.

Think of it this way: In the original ''The Sims'', it's pretty boring, the Sims are poor quality, and have silly toys. In ''The Sims 2'', you can get your Sims to purchase the original ''The Sims'' and play it on their computers. If you want to be creepy, you can event zoom in so that you can watch them play ''The Sims'' (and it looks pretty similar!). Not so bad as far as mindblowing goes, but it gets better. Now look at ''The Sims 3''. You can get your Sims to purchase ''The Sims 2''! But, in ''The Sims 2'', they can buy ''The Sims'' original! So, that means that your ''The Sims 3'' Sims can play ''The Sims 2'' and make their own Sims play the original. But we're also playing the ''The Sims 3''!! By logical analogy, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to wonder if we're ALSO Sims, being controlled/periodically manipulated by some mysterious god-player.

First we have the original!Timeline, the one from ''The Sims 3'', where time travel is available to any Sim smart enough. As time passes from ''The Sims 3'' to ''The Sims 2'', scientists become aware that all the time traveling is about to cause a Temporal Collapse, but they keep it a secret and impose a ban on time traveling. One of their main concerns is that there is no known source for the time travel technology, it just seemed to have appeared, out of nowhere. Shortly before the collapse, happens the "Lothario Incident", in which who we will call original!Bella uses a time machine, an illegal one, to send Lothario to the past when he cannot be a problem for her family. In this timeline, original!Bella does not disappears. But, inadvertently along with Lothario, she sends back the technology for time travel. This closes that loop, the knowledge for time travel was sent trough time travel, from the future to the past, but this closed loop was instable and ultimately brought on the Temporal Collapse.

== Bella is Italian ==

Or really, whatever the Sims version of Italian is. "Bella" is an Italian name, her grandmother's name is a variant of an Italian name, and she is [[Ambiguously Brown]] (it's not uncommon for someone who is of Italian descent to have an olive skin tone).

* There's Christmas and Hanukkah stuff available in one of the Sims 2 expansion packs, and Santa Claus actually shows up if you put a plate of cookies by a Christmas tree and a fireplace and everyone's asleep by midnight. I think they were just trying to avoid controversy as much as possible. (It'd kind of interesting if you had modern-day Peteran or Jacoban Sims, along with a Sim-expy of Judaism, a Sim-expy of Islam, a Sim-expy of Buddhism, a Sim-expy of atheism...) In ''World Adventures'' you could put a Peteran cathedral in France, a Sim-Islamic temple in Egypt, and a Sim-Buddhist sanctuary in China.