As one of the most successful PC gaming franchises of all time, The Sims is a series that has outshone its expectations by leaps and bounds. Originally released in 2000 by EA Games, this series has grown exponentially over almost two decades to be one of the highest-selling gaming franchises of all time. At this point in time, The Sims has spawned four sequels and a whole host of expansion packs, and yet another sequel, The Sims 5, is an upcoming release that is highly rumored to be VR compatible.
In this life simulation series, you have the ability to custom design a family of up to eight people, and to purchase or construct a home in which your creations can live. The Sims has been praised for its scope and versatility, especially in it's later iterations, where the options for your Sims' personalities, physical appearances, and lifestyles are seemingly infinite. Like any other sandbox game, The Sims puts out whatever you put into it. Considering the kind of gamers who are attracted to a series where you get to have total control over the lives of tiny people, this obviously leads to some weird and surreal situations. Some of the oddities of this game are established canon in the series, and some of them are hypothesized by the game's passionate fan-base, but the one thing that unites all of these moments and features is that they are highly unusual and sometimes seriously creepy.
Here are twenty totally weird fan theories to help you make sense of The Sims universe.
20 Bella Goth Was Abducted By Aliens
The Goth family are one of the most memorable sets of pre-made Sims. After debuting in the first The Sims game, players came to know and love their spooky Adams Family-type shtick. However, in a strange turn of events, the family's matriarch, Bella Goth, was not a member of the family in The Sims 2. To make matters weirder, two different versions of Bella can be found hiding inside the game. The first Bella is in hidden in the game's code and located in Pleasantview. The second Bella is a Strangetown Townie NPC. Both Bellas have no memory of their past lives with the Goth family. The most common explanation given by fans of the game is that Bella was abducted by aliens, who cloned her and wiped her memory. This explains why all of Bella's descendants in later games are terrified of UFOs.
19 American Psycho's Patrick Bateman Is A Self-Aware Sim
A lot of The Sims fan theories focus on examining ways that other characters from different books, games, and movies fit into this game's universe. One of these theories centers around Patrick Bateman, the murderous protagonist from the film American Psycho. This theory asserts that Bateman is a self-aware Sim who has grown bored of the game's monotony. Much like bored players of The Sims, Bateman resorts to murdering annoying or whiny Sims in various gruesome ways. When Bateman makes an attempt to confess to his crimes, he finds all of the evidence to his murder spree deleted by the Player. This can either be attributed to the Player not saving Bateman's game after he commits the murders, or even Player interference through using cheat codes.
18 The Sims Live On A Planet Like Venus
Players of this series know that the passage of time in The Sims can be alternatively frustrating and gratifying. In normal settings without the application of cheat codes or special items, the average Sim lives for around 90 in-game days, give or take up to 30 days due to lifestyle factors and other choices made in the game. This means that The Sims could possibly take place on a planet like Venus, where the length of one day is greater than the length of one year. The introduction of seasons in The Sims 2 expansion packs kind of messes everything up, but maybe The Sims are on a Game of Thrones type situation where there a "wobbly" planetary axis could generate crazy patterns of weather?
17 SimNation Is A Police State
One of the more popular fan theories about this game has to do with the social structure of the Sim universe. All evidence points to the fact that by our standards at least, your Sims and their families exist in a highly-controlled police state. In the game, your children can be taken from you by social services, and you have zero ability to appeal this process. Households are strictly limited to eight people, to the point where people are forced to move out if your Sims choose to have children. Organized crime is a valid career path, and the entry-level job in the Law Enforcement career track is literally being a snitch. Even the political system is a sham, as there can be an entire neighborhood full of Mayors.
16 The Sims Aren't Bound By Gender
One of the weirder fan theories has to do with the game's alien abductions. In the game, if your Sim is in the Science career track, or if they own a satellite or telescope, there's a chance that they will be abducted by a UFO. What makes this even more unusual is that if an anatomically male Sim is taken by aliens, there's a chance that he will come back pregnant with an alien baby. This means that both male and female Sims possess a uterus, and are therefore intersex. The Sims has been praised countless times for its diversity in allowing players to create Sims of all genders, identities, and sexualities, so there could be some real merit to this theory after all.
15 You Are Your Sim's Conscience
Do you ever listen to that little voice in your head, nagging you to clean your house, or to work on your novel, and wonder where it's really coming from? One theory is that for The Sims, you are that little voice. That's right. You are the Jiminy Cricket of your Sims, and it's your responsibility to make sure that your household doesn't fall into chaos. Without nagging your Sims to go to work on time, or to bathe, your creations are totally hopeless. If you're ever bored and feeling spiteful, make a new Sims game and deliberately make the choice not to intervene in the lives of the weird little people you've created. You'll see just how quickly your Sims' world dissolves into piles of dirty dishes and crying. Just like real life!
14 The Sims Is A Metaphor About Consumerism
In The Sims, the general guide to happiness is that more is more. The monetary value of the physical objects in your Sim's life directly impacts their mood and wellbeing. Is your Sim swept away by a soul-crushing depression after the "mysterious" drowning death of their child? Wipe those tears away with a brand new jacuzzi tub! The most expensive items in the game grant up to +10 happiness by just being placed inside your Sim's home. This sounds cold and callous, but think about it: wouldn't your mood be boosted if a Monet mysteriously appeared on your bedroom wall? In a way, the entire point of the game is to accrue the largest pile of valuables and gain as much social status as you possibly can. Even your relationships are largely based on who you can flatter the most with compliments and presents.
13 Don Lothario Teleported From Sims 2 To Sims 3
This series is known for its recurring cast of pre-made characters. One of these Sims that appears from game to game is Don Lothario, a character that the game describes as a "lecherous lowlife." When looking at Lothario's character profile in The Sims 3, the game describes his background like this:
"Don woke up one morning in a whole new world. He remembers stepping onto a teleporter, several women laughing, then nothing else until he found himself here."
Other than this clear-as-day description of events, there's more evidence that Lothario has been directly transmitted from the world of The Sims 2 into the world of The Sims 3. Lothario shows no signs of aging between the two games, and his character model is nearly identical as well.
12 Skip Broke Was Murdered
In another mysterious scenario involving pre-made Sims, one of the more tragic backstories from this game has to do with the Broke family. At the start of The Sims 2, Skip Broke is established to already be deceased, and he only exists as a ghost. The game describes his passing as being related to a "suspicious pool ladder accident." The most obvious way to look at Skip Broke's death is that it's a tongue-in-cheek reference to the way that players tend to kill off their unwanted Sims by placing them in a swimming pool and deleting the ladder. There is also an implication of foul play at the hands of Skip's wife, Brandi, who he sometimes chooses to haunt in their small Pleasantville home.
11 Grim Reapers Are Undead Sims
As players of this game know all too well, death is a major aspect of The Sims. Whether your Sims die accidentally in a kitchen fire, drown in a swimming pool, or reach a ripe old age, the Grim Reaper will eventually come for them. Like anything in this game, there are ways to circumvent death that are somewhat interesting. Unlike other NPCs, such as Michelle the Policewoman and Sunny the Tragic Clown, the Grim Reaper has some unique aspects that raise a few critical questions. The Grim Reaper can be interacted with like any other regular Sim, even to the point where your braver Sims have the option to WooHoo with him. This means that, on some level, the Reaper is actually a Sim himself, possibly one that has been brought back from the dead.
10 The Sims Is A Next Sunday, A.D. Game
The Next Sunday, A.D. genre refers to near-future science fiction that is close enough to our own world that it's still recognizable, but far enough away that it's not quite contemporary. The Sims is a series that definitely falls into this category. Their world appears very similar to our own modern-day Earth, but the game's technology is noticeably more advanced than our own. In The Sims 3, a game which was released close to ten years ago, your Sims could purchase a home VR system similar to the Oculus Rift and the Vive. Other items are still out of our reach, such as teleportation devices, but with recent advances in technology, you never know what will happen over the next decade.
9 There Are Doppelgangers In The Sims
Twin Peaks might have just ended its third season, but you can still hit up The Sims to get your mysterious doppelganger fix. As mentioned previously, several of the pre-made families in The Sims appear consistently from game to game. However, there are a ton of weird inaccuracies between the four Sims games, not to mention a host of in-game bugs and issues, leading to odd duplicate appearances of certain characters. For example, in Brandi Broke's memories, there are two different versions of Skip, and it's unclear which one is real. We also already mentioned Bella Goth, who appears in two different forms under different identities in the game. This somewhat creepy problem can even happen to your own custom Sims.
8 The Illuminati Has Secret Images In The Sims
Strap on your tinfoil hats for this one, because it's conspiracy theory time! Some paranoid fans of The Sims series believe that there are hidden occult images put into the game by a group known as the Illuminati. The real Illuminati were a Bavarian Enlightenment-era group of writers who mostly hung out and drank wine. The made-up Illuminati are a theoretical group of powerful individuals who allegedly control the entire world. According to the kind of people you try not to sit next to on public transportation, the Illuminati has a habit of dropping Egyptian symbols into pop culture for nebulous reasons, sort of like how Drake puts that stupid owl onto everything he makes. To be fair, Ancient Egyptian symbols do appear in The Sims, but only because Egypt is a travel destination in the World Adventures expansion pack.
7 Olive Specter Is A Serial Killer
Appearances sometimes deceive when it comes to the world of The Sims. Olive Specter might look like a sweet old lady on the outside, but her backyard tells a different story. If you look behind Olive's house, you will find a massive graveyard containing the bodies of at least three of Olive's ex-husbands, along with a whole host of maids, butlers, and gardeners. The pun-based names of her ex-husbands, such as Hugh Thanasia, Rigger Mortis, and Earl E. Demise points to the popular fan theory that Olive is, in fact, some kind of serial killer. There's an additional theory that Olive is carrying a torch for the Grim Reaper. When looking through Olive's memories, there is even evidence that Olive has shared a night of passion with this undead collector of souls, and that they had a love child together. Scandalous!
6 Sunny The Tragic Clown Drowned In His Own Tears
The world seems to be obsessed with creepy clowns right now, and with good reason. The only people who should be able to get away with wearing garish facepaint, huge wigs, and ridiculous, impractical shoes are drag queens. In the first Sims game, Sunny the Tragic Clown appears in the homes of Sims who own a special painting. Sunny appears when your Sims are feeling depressed, but this clown has zero capacity to turn any frowns upside down, as all he does is show up and cry.
By The Sims 3, Sunny has died and appears as a ghost. In this game, the ghosts of deceased characters turn a certain color depending on how they died. Sunny's ghost is blue, indicating that he died from drowning. Considering that one of Sunny's traits is hydrophobia, the implication is that Sunny was so sad that he drowned in his own tears.
5 The Sims Takes Place In The Mass Effect Universe
It's not uncommon for video games to contain Easter Eggs and references to other series and franchises. In The Sims, there are a ton of big and small nods to other games and pop culture moments. For example, the Never Nude character trait is a direct reference to Tobias Funke, the jorts-loving therapist from Arrested Development. There is one particular Easter Egg that has led some players to believe that The Sims universe somehow overlaps with the universe of the Mass Effect series.
If a player uses the Time Machine object found in The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion pack, one of the possible outcomes is that you will receive this message about "some sort of shepherd saving the galaxy from an ancient machine threat," which many gamers take as a reference to Commander Sheppard.
4 The PlumBob Is An Alien Control Device
The gigantic green diamond that sits on top of your Sim's head, also known officially as a PlumBob, is the subject of a lot of hot debate amongst The Sims fan theorists. Players of this series will know that the PlumBob is the identifying icon that allows you to know where your Sims are, and which Sim you are currently controlling.
Any Sims who aren't held under the power of the PlumBob are not under your direct control at that moment in time, which is why some gamers believe the PlumBob is some kind alien mind control device. This theory purports that you, as the player, are meant to be an alien, and that the PlumBob is the tool that lets you track and manipulate the actions of your Sims.
3 The Sims Is An Adaptation Of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
There are theories that propose The Sims is conceptually based on other works of fiction. Some people have conjured up the premise that this game is based on Harlan Ellison's science fiction short, I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. To recap the story for those who aren't familiar: about one-hundred years after the end of all human civilization, AM, an all-knowing supercomputer, tortures the last five living human beings on Earth by trapping them in a small room and moving them around for his amusement. The humans wander around, desperately trying to survive. Sound familiar? There's even one scene in I Have No Mouth where the humans find a pile of canned goods, and become overwhelmingly depressed once they realize they don't have a can opener, just like Sims who have emotional breakdowns because the wrong kind of chair is blocking the path to their Goopy Carbonara.
2 Tommy Wiseau's The Room Is A Game Of The Sims
If you're unfamiliar with the cinematic masterpiece known as The Room, stop whatever you're doing and watch it right now. This notoriously hilarious and cringe-worthy film was the product of Tommy Wiseau, a mysterious figure of unknown origin who successfully made the worst movie of all time.
One especially fun fan theory posits that the unnatural behaviors and odd tendencies of the characters in The Room can be attributed to the fact that Johnny and his friends are, in fact, just a household full of Sims. The dialog is rambling and nonsensical, like Sim conversations. All of the characters perform odd, repetitive tasks in inappropriate places, like this scene where Johnny and his friends play football in tuxedos. Even the sex scene between Johnny and his wife is reminiscent of how Sims WooHoo.
1 We Are All Sims (And We Just Don't Know It)
Try not to let this last one creep you out too much, but according to Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom, there is a 20% to 50% chance that we are all living inside a simulated universe. With the constant advancements in technology and virtualization that have been happening over the past twenty years, the likelihood that we are, in fact, just a part of a greater computer simulation has increased dramatically.
Scientists have considered that either humans will go extinct in the future, or that "posthumans" will run advanced simulations to learn more about their history and origins. Bostrom believes that there's a decent chance that we are actually living in one of these simulations. As a silver lining, if it turns out that we're all just Sims, maybe our universe also has a Rosebud cheat.