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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd Jun 2017 at 6:11 PM Last edited by JusttRandom : 22nd Jun 2017 at 6:26 PM.
Default What year do you think the worlds are set in?
I read somewhere before that Pleasantview was set in the 1990s. Its pretty obvious Roaring Heights is in the 1930s and Dragon Valley Medieval times. What about the others?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 22nd Jun 2017 at 7:17 PM
At various times between 2009 and 2013, obviously. Sim worlds are always contemporary, unless stated otherwise.
Likewise, Pleasantview couldn't've been set in the 90s - it wouldn't explain the fashion, music and technology of 2004 being there.
Now obviously Roaring Heights, Dragon Valley and Oasis Landing are the big exceptions, being inspired by broad styles rather than one very specific period of time. Roaring Heights is generic Art Deco, which could put it anywhere between the late 20s and the late 40s, while Dragon Valley and Oasis Landing are both completely fictional in style and location, being no more than loosely inspired by real-world works of fiction.

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Inventor
#3 Old 22nd Jun 2017 at 8:39 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
Now obviously Roaring Heights, Dragon Valley and Oasis Landing are the big exceptions, being inspired by broad styles rather than one very specific period of time. Roaring Heights is generic Art Deco, which could put it anywhere between the late 20s and the late 40s, while Dragon Valley and Oasis Landing are both completely fictional in style and location, being no more than loosely inspired by real-world works of fiction.


Lunar Lakes is supposedly set in the future as well. China doesn't look all that contemporary either. They don't even have vehicles.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 22nd Jun 2017 at 9:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien
China doesn't look all that contemporary either. They don't even have vehicles.

Yes, the same thing goes for France and Egypt. I guess it's their American superiority complex plus an overwhelming desire to portray "foreign countries" by their stereotypes.
Apparently, in France, everyone rides Vespas, all the roads are unpaved, steam trains are still a thing, and everyone looks like a mime guy with a glass of wine and a big fuckin' baguette.

So basically, if they had a Dutch town, you'd get a serious case of expectation versus reality:

EXPECTATION (EA version)

REALITY (real-ish version)


And of course the Sims would be all dressed up too:

But in reality:

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Mad Poster
#5 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 10:12 AM
Quote: Originally posted by BagelTheDog
It doesn't really make sense on the timeline:
(The Sims 3 is before The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 is after The Sims 1)
The Sims 3 - 2009 technology
The Sims 1 - 1990s technology
The Sims 2 - 2004 technology

That's because the timeline doesn't make sense. It's completely arbitrary, it was made up for generic storytelling purposes. The only thing that does make sense is that when you release a game in 2004, it's gonna look like 2004.

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Mad Poster
#7 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 12:41 PM Last edited by HarVee : 23rd Jun 2017 at 1:17 PM.
Technologies represented in the game are relative to our own technologies of the time era. Despite the timeline of TS3 supposedly being 50 years prior to TS2, it feels like 2009. Sure IFT is supposed to feel like some kind of futuristic setting, but in reality all of the technologies are technologies that were available to us in reality or theorized in concepts of science fiction in 2013. Truthfully, The Sims series doesn't actually really have a timeline as the concept of time doesn't exist in the game.

Timelines are no doubt the hardest thing to actually portray in a video game, as time in a video game never advances in the manner we perceive in reality. Sure some games are set in time periods and having working calendar systems, but technologies in those games never advance, at least not without constant content updates, and even so, many other aspects of the core game design itself will still feel like whatever time period they were originally released in. Meaning, even if a game is set in 2525 but released in 2017, it'll still feel like what we perceive as being the year 2017.

A video game is analogue to the message of the song by Zager and Evans. Oneself might just even be tempted to argue that time in our own reality doesn't actually function in the way we commonly think it does. It's all relative to our own conceptual reality, which is perceived by the ideals and behaviours among the populace and the technologies available to us.

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Scholar
#8 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 1:43 PM
I'd say 2010 in terms of technology, but in terms of shaming (Child out of wedlock, ZomG), they are stuck in the 1950s.
Site Helper
#9 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 2:26 PM
Trying to date the game era of a Sims world is like trying to date the game era of a Fallout world. It's another world, where things progressed differently. (And where every few years all the animals vanish and you stop getting weather and season changes for a while if you are going to keep with the canon that the game histories are all interconnected.)

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Mad Poster
#10 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 4:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CatMuto
I'd say 2010 in terms of technology, but in terms of shaming (Child out of wedlock, ZomG), they are stuck in the 1950s.

Yeah, as a child born out of wedlock, that surprised me too. I guess that's just wholesome American family values, to marry before doing it and having babies.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 5:06 PM
You all make good points. The game just sometimes irks me with how off it is. I still like it and its one of my favorite games but when things dont match up, its like, "Why? Why would you do this? This makes no sense at all." Oh my gosh and then the Goths (or old families from s2). Why do they have to be in every town? This is a completely different town with completely different people. How am I gonna rebuild their treeline like this? Clearly I mean, its something new you can try but like, I already seen this. This was the way it happened. Its so different now.

Then again, it is just a game. Its not supposed to make sense, lol. It just irks me sometimes.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 5:17 PM Last edited by GrijzePilion : 23rd Jun 2017 at 6:39 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by JusttRandom
You all make good points. The game just sometimes irks me with how off it is. I still like it and its one of my favorite games but when things dont match up, its like, "Why? Why would you do this? This makes no sense at all." Oh my gosh and then the Goths (or old families from s2). Why do they have to be in every town? This is a completely different town with completely different people. How am I gonna rebuild their treeline like this? Clearly I mean, its something new you can try but like, I already seen this. This was the way it happened. Its so different now.

I guess the worst part is when people try to make sense of it. So Goth #1 was born in 19XX and then moved to place Y 3 years later, only to be living in place Z by 19XX, but twenty years later they've ended up in fuckin' place ZZ. No, they haven't - EA just wants to establish a world lore so people have something to mess around with.

I, for one, ignore all of it.
The Sims is set in a fictionalized cartoon version of the United Commonwealth of Simania, a North American nation that primarily speaks English, its capital is Livingstone.
Its currency is the Simanian Dollar, the USD.
Its president is the Honorable POfUS, mrs. Sarah J. Fletcher. The rest's bullshit.

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Mad Poster
#14 Old 23rd Jun 2017 at 8:48 PM
Dragon Valley in my mind will always be a LARP village on the English coastline, no doubt.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 24th Jun 2017 at 10:49 AM
Quote: Originally posted by jje1000
Dragon Valley in my mind will always be a LARP village on the English coastline, no doubt.

So it's actually called Dragonburyfieldchestershire-on-Sea? And does that mean it's pronounced Dra'un'bryfl'estershire?

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Inventor
#17 Old 24th Jun 2017 at 2:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
Yeah, as a child born out of wedlock, that surprised me too. I guess that's just wholesome American family values, to marry before doing it and having babies.


You were born out of wedlock?
Mad Poster
#18 Old 24th Jun 2017 at 3:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien
You were born out of wedlock?

Yeah, to godless atheists, one of whom the son of a dirty commie. And the dirty commie had a brother who was GAY.

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#19 Old 24th Jun 2017 at 11:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CatMuto
I'd say 2010 in terms of technology, but in terms of shaming (Child out of wedlock, ZomG), they are stuck in the 1950s.


Wait, I've had children born out of wedlock in this game and never had that reaction. Is that dependent on different expansions?
Scholar
#20 Old 24th Jun 2017 at 11:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BlackjackGabbiani
Wait, I've had children born out of wedlock in this game and never had that reaction. Is that dependent on different expansions?


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Scholar
#21 Old 25th Jun 2017 at 12:26 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CatMuto
I'd say 2010 in terms of technology, but in terms of shaming (Child out of wedlock, ZomG), they are stuck in the 1950s.

If your sim get abducted, raped, and impregnated by aliens you're forced to carry the baby to term. So the values are also in line with modern era Texas.

I'm writing a TV series, yeah. It's a cross between True Detective and Pretty Little Liars.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 25th Jun 2017 at 2:48 AM
And they can be astronauts, but they're not actually going to go anywhere. So the space program is in line with North Korea's.

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Test Subject
#23 Old 26th Jun 2017 at 7:09 AM Last edited by sasunaru123 : 27th Jun 2017 at 10:26 PM.
I've heard this question before, I mean, it's pretty true that the times are arbitrary. The development team probably isn't going to deny players modern technology because it wouldn't be authentic to the canon of game since most people really don't play The Sims to follow the story. I think it's more interesting to see what references the developers are using and what era those references are from.

For example, I think that someone at the Sims Studio really likes the 70's for example because a lot of Sunset Valley has 70's design elements. That's especially true of most of the homes on Maywood Lane. Also, the Bunch family lives there and they're just a reference to the Brady Bunch. Most of the World Adventures expansion pack feels very vintage because I think they were trying to go for that 40's adventure novel feel. Also, I heard that Sunset Valley's city hall is modeled after Back to the Future's city hall. This seems like it's intentional because apparently when The Sims 3 was in development they'd just brainstorm what movies and pop cultural icons that related to the content they needed to create. For example, when they were creating Into The Future they just tried to come up with references to futuristic content that teenagers/twenty somethings would understand. I'm guessing that's why Supernatural has so many references to Twilight and the werewolves look suspiciously like the ones from the Teen Wolf reboot. That's why The Sims is so weird time-wise, it's because the team just goes "Would a teenager understand this reference?" with a few references to older media. A lot of their clothes/objects are just complete copies of real life things.

Other references I've noticed: I feel like most of Moonlight falls is referencing CW and MTV supernatural dramas (Being Human, Bewitched, Teen Wolf, Doctor Who, Charmed, Twilight). Into The Future references the Fifth Element, The Jetsons, Futurama, and Star Wars. The Sims 2 makes fewer references but I know that The Goth's are specifically modeled after the Addams family. I think that the Pleasant family is a reference to Daria. Basically some Premades are just references to actors... one example I can think of is Agnes Crumplebottom who looks exactly like Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Mortimer also has a celebrity Doppelganger but I can't remember that actor's name. (Also, I feel like adult Skip Broke from Riverview looks like an actor but I've never been able to put a face to the name. It's been bothering me since 2009! )

Anyway, point is, I feel like every Sims game is just a mishmash of cultural references so it's hard to determine dates.
Mad Poster
#24 Old 26th Jun 2017 at 12:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by sasunaru123
For example, I think that someone at the Sims Studio really likes the 70's for example because a lot of Sunset Valley has 70's design elements. That's especially true of most of the homes on Maywood Lane. Also, the Bunch family lives there and they're just a reference to the Brady Bunch. Most of the World Adventures expansion pack feels very vintage because I think they were trying to go for that 40's adventure novel feel. Also, I heard that Sunset Valley's city hall is modeled after Back to the Future's city hall. This seems like it's intentional because apparently when The Sims 3 was in development they'd just brainstorm what movies and pop cultural icons that related to the content they needed to create. For example, when they were creating Into The Future they just tried to come up with references to futuristic content that teenagers/twenty somethings would understand. I'm guessing that's why Supernatural has so many references to Twilight and the werewolves look suspiciously like the ones from the Teen Wolf reboot. That's why The Sims is so weird time-wise, it's because the team just goes "Would a teenager understand this reference?" with a few references to older media. A lot of their clothes/objects are just complete copies of real life things.

I suppose so, the devs definitely have their sources of inspiration, and their stylistic ambitions. But there's more references and inspirations than the ones you're seeing, and I rather think the references come from the devs themselves rather than being tailored to a specific audience - there's at least 3 Blade Runner references in Into The Future that I can see, and I just found a reference to American Psycho. They're not movies most teenagers will have seen.

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Test Subject
#25 Old 26th Jun 2017 at 5:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
I suppose so, the devs definitely have their sources of inspiration, and their stylistic ambitions. But there's more references and inspirations than the ones you're seeing, and I rather think the references come from the devs themselves rather than being tailored to a specific audience - there's at least 3 Blade Runner references in Into The Future that I can see, and I just found a reference to American Psycho. They're not movies most teenagers will have seen.


Oh yeah, I know that I could go on forever and still not get all of the references. I have to disagree though, The Sims is made for a broad audience but it's still aimed at a specific demographic. Teenage girls is one of their major demographics and that's what they aim for as you can see in a slide show that was put together by the Sims Studio. Broad appeal is still important but The Sims 3 at least was made with teenagers of the late 2000s and early 10's in mind.



It's actually sort of interesting because it seems like the references they make aren't just easter-eggs but rather like they're just how the developers try to make the game. They figure out a theme and then they try to emulate pop culture that already surrounds that theme. You can see the rest of that slide show here if you want, it's pretty interesting.
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