Pretty much every gamer — casual or otherwise — has heard of The Sims in some capacity, and it's no wonder why. The series is undoubtedly one of the most popular video game franchises of all time, and holds the distinguished title of being the most popular video game on the PC. The addictive gameplay loop present in the series is certainly a huge contributor to this fact, featuring the most polished virtual life simulation one can find in a video game. EA and Maxis have certainly given birth to an absolute gold mine — that they milk as much as possible, what with the absolutely insane number of expansions, DLC and stuff packs that are released for each iteration of the series.

However, even an insanely popular series like The Sims has its fair share of secrets that even hardcore fans of the series are unaware of. In fact, there are a fair amount of things present in the game that the developers would prefer you to forget. There are a multitude of reasons for this — some of them might be so inconsequential that they don't really make much of a difference. Others might be rather bleak or downright disturbing (especially for a game with a Teen rating), and let's not forget the various exploits that can completely break the game and make it an absolute breeze. Here are 25 secrets in The Sims and EA and Maxis want to bury completely.

25 Your Male Sim Can Get Pregnant...

Talk about starting off with a bang.

While The Sims might try and provide players with the best life simulation gameplay possible, at the end of the day it is still a game, and a player needs to forego their logic when it comes to certain occurrences. Case in point — while your Sims can get abducted by aliens (which is already pretty hard to believe), only the males can get pregnant.

Yeah, we know. That sentence might be a tad hard to digest, and that's probably due to the implications of such an action. After all, why do only the male Sims get pregnant while the females are fine? And just what kind of ungodly experiments are these aliens performing, to begin with?

24 Make A 'Deal' With The Devil To Extend A Sim's Life

Death is a reality that most people don't want to accept, and this can hold true for a virtual environment like The Sims as well. After all, players will certainly get attached to their Sims as they nurture these virtual avatars and watch them evolve from a scrawny infant to a grey-haired elder. So, when the Grim Reaper arrives to take your Sim to the afterlife, said player would obviously try and do everything in their power to ensure that your Sim lives another day... but is it really worth it?

We say this because there's a guaranteed way to prevent your Sim's death... but it involves you forcing one of the female Sims in your family to 'use' herself and attain the Grim Reaper's favor so that she can convince the entity to save his scythe for another day. You'll certainly succeed... but at a rather disturbing price.

23 Prevent The Death Of Your Sims With The Death Flower

If you don't want to sacrifice the honor of your female Sim to save a life, then there's an alternate way to prevent the death of someone in the family. You just need to make sure that one of your Sims has a respectable level (to be more specific, 7) when it comes to their gardening skill.

You can grow what is known as a death flower by planting and nurturing either an Unknown Special Seed or a Death Flower Seed. When the Grim Reaper comes over to claim his soul, you can offer him these flowers and he'll be satisfied enough to leave your family alone.

And since we're on the subject of the Grim Reaper...

22 The Grim Reaper Pranks You If You Have 6 Jack-o-Lanterns Outside Your House

The more we talk about the Grim Reaper, the less he seems like a mythical being. In fact, the Grim Reaper was actually a bit of a prankster in the original Sims. Don't get us wrong — he's certainly quite a scary figure... but this is still an amusing occurrence nevertheless.

If you happened to keep a total of six Jack-o-Lanterns outside your house for some reason (who knows — maybe you were just in the Halloween spirit), then the Grim Reaper will come up to your house, ring the bell and run away.

It's certainly pretty unpredictable and funny to have something like this happen to you in the game. It almost like as if the Grim Reaper's not the merchant of death who takes your Sims' lives. Speaking of which...

21 Mourn The Graves/Urns Of Your Sims To Prevent Any Unwanted Hauntings

Ghosts can undoubtedly be a rather annoying aspect of the game. The first time a player witnesses these specters can be understandably amazing, but once they realize the consequences that arise from such a haunting, this initial amazement wears off quick. After all, these ghosts can completely mess up your schedule, causing your Sims to freak out and even lose out on their beauty sleep.

In order to prevent these unwanted instances from happening, it's highly recommended that you instruct your Sims to mourn the grave or urn of the deceased Sim. Why, you ask? Because doing so will prevent the soul of this Sim from getting restless and haunting the family.

Since we're on the topic of ghosts...

20 Have Babies With Supernatural Beings Because Why Not

This was bound to come sooner or later.

Due to the inherently silly nature of The Sims, there are a bunch of odd things that you can perform in the game. And having a baby with the various mythical beings present in the game is certainly a very odd thing indeed.

Yep, if you wish then you can have a baby with a ghost (the semantics of such an impossible action certainly need some explaining). If that wasn't weird enough for you as is, then you can also try and have a baby with the freakin' Grim Reaper himself, you sicko.

Just don't expect anything normal as a result — the child you give birth to will certainly look rather... 'off', to say the very least.

19 Delete The Carpool So That You Never Have To Go To Work

Going to work can certainly be a drag, and this is certainly true in The Sims as well. After all, there's nothing fun about having to fast-forward time as you stare aimlessly at an empty house until your Sim comes back, following which you can go back to the usual gameplay loop. If this downtime in your gameplay becomes too frustrating, then you can always just remove your work carpool altogether.

All you need to do is bring up the console and put in the command 'testingcheatsenabled true' in order to enable cheat mode. After doing so, the only thing left is to shift-click on the car, select 'object' and then 'delete' to completely remove the carpool from existence. Congratulations — now you never have to work ever again!

You can use these console commands to remove another thing in the game...

18 Remove The Mailbox So That You Never Have To Pay The Bills

Paying your bills can be a pain, and this rings true in in the virtual environment of The Sims too. The fact of the matter is that sometimes, paying the bills in the game can completely slip your mind, which can lead to an unwanted situation where the Repo Man comes to your house and straight up absorbs the various things present in your household.

In order to prevent this from happening, you can enable cheat mode and simply remove the mailbox outside your house. This will completely negate the arrival of any bills in your house... but it's advised that you save beforehand. After all, you're not really meant to remove something so crucial.

17 "Inside The Family" Relationships Can Happen

When it comes to taboo acts, "family fun" is very much up there. It's certainly one of the most disturbing acts that can ever be initiated, and it's especially jarring to see something like this happen in an innocent game like The Sims. Of course, it's also pretty creepy on the player's part if they actively try and perform something like this, but the fact of the matter is that a game that's made for teens simply shouldn't be allowing this heinous act to begin with.

And yet, veteran players must've noticed that after a pretty long playtime in The Sims, you'll actually be able to engage in this egregious act. It's simply baffling how Maxis has not noticed and corrected such a grievous oversight.

16 An Exploit In The Sims FreePlay For Fast Building And XP Generation

This one's for the mobile gamers who're addicted to The Sims FreePlay, a mobile counterpart of the popular game series that has gained its fair share of fans. However, there's a pretty annoying paywall in the game, which can thankfully be surpassed with a nifty exploit. Simply set the year of your device to 2010, then start the game and start construction on a particular building. Tell your Sim to start driving their car around the map, and then change the year back to 2017. If done correctly, then the task should be completed when you switch back to the game.

This exploit works for any task in the game as well, which can prove to be a huge help if you want to reap XP rewards easily without having to wait for what can seem like ages.

15 Place The Mouse Cursor On A Burglar To Slow Them Down

This exploit was a huge help in the original Sims, and enabled players to pretty much prevent any thefts whenever a burglar invaded their home. While this advice might seem somewhat outdated, it's certainly not a stretch to say that there are still some gamers around the world who are experiencing this classic for the first time, and this trick can certainly help them during a burglary.

First of all, do make sure that you have a burglar alarm installed so that the police are notified as soon as a thief steps into your house. Normally, the burglar would bolt at this point, but if you keep the mouse cursor over him/her then the thief will get slowed down for some reason, letting the cops come and rightfully arrest the vandal.

Since we're already on this nostalgic trip...

14 Drew Carey Made A Cameo In The Original Sims

The Sims has seen its fair share of oddities, and this particular celebrity cameo is certainly one of the weirdest things one can witness in any video game, let alone The Sims. This happens in the first Sims game, and is without a doubt one of the oddest things one can experience in the game.

It's pretty easy to have a great house party in The Sims (no matter what iteration you might be playing), and if your party is especially off the charts then you'll be visited by none other than Drew Carey. There are so many questions that arise with the appearance of this individual, and the biggest one has to be that why is Drew Carey of all people featured in this video game?

13 A Combo Of The Cloning Machine And The Retail Store Can Help Prevent Aging

The Sims 4 has seen its fair share of criticism at launch, but over time a bunch of patches and expansions have mitigated the concerns of most veteran players about the future of the series. The 'Get To Work' expansion is one such addition to the series that provides players with a large number of career options... but the focus of this entry is on the objects that come with this expansion.

In the game, there are elixirs which reset a Sim's life stage (the chances of which are further boosted through the application of Lifetime Rewards). These elixirs can be replicated in the Cloning Machine, which can certainly be a huge help. If that wasn't enough, then your Sim can also use the Retail Shop to make this feature common for other families in the game as well.

Of course, if this seems like too much work then there's another way to extend a Sim's life.

12 There's A Cow Plant That Produces A Life-Extending Elixir

The Laganaphyllis simnovorii (commonly known as the Cowplant or Cow Plant for obvious reasons) is one of the weirdest plants present in the game. The plant produces a valuable elixir that prevents aging, which will certainly optimise the playing sessions of gamers who wish to spend more time with their Sims.

However, keep in mind that there's a pretty sizeable risk attached to this particular plant — it's a carnivore at heart, and if you forget to feed it for a while, then the Cow Plant will get restless and lure a Sim to his or her early grave. So if you do want the benefits of no aging, then make sure to feed this plant at regular intervals.

Of course, if you just want to avoid all these hassles...

11 Simply De-Age Your Sims With The Create-A-Sim Tool

Aging is an integral part of life, but it's a part that no one likes. This rings true in The Sims as well, and the exploits that we've already discussed can pay dividends when it comes to reducing the age of your Sims. However, these methods are either convoluted or extremely risky, and if you wish to take the easy way out then the Create-A-Sim (CAS) tool can prove to be extremely valuable.

Simply enable cheat mode using the method we've described before, and shift-click on the Sim of your choice. Out of the options that come up, select 'Modify in CAS' to bring up the respective tool. Now, you can simply edit the data of your Sims as per your wish — including their age.

10 Find Hidden Traits And Rewards By Playing The Game

The Create-A-Sim editor is truly one of the revolutionary aspects of The Sims 4, that completely alters the way you can create the Sim of your choice. The degree of flexibility offered with this creator is truly astounding, and yet somehow, Maxis managed to include a bunch of secrets in this editor as well that most players don't even know of.

These hidden traits and rewards can significantly alter the course of your gameplay over time. The entire list is quite long, and some of these benefits can be extremely useful. Examples include a lack of requiring sleep, making food that never spoils, starting a career with a boost through connections, and a quickened pace when it comes to developing skills.

And speaking of these skills...

9 There Are Various Hidden Skills In The Sims That Are Still An Absolute Mystery

Hidden skills have always been an integral part of The Sims, and the nature of their existence has been a pretty major mystery across all of the titles in the series. These hidden skills cannot be accessed by normal means, and change the gameplay in minor ways that most players don't even notice, which just adds to their mysterious nature.

The number of hidden skills has constantly increased with every iteration of the series, and the actual list itself is pretty detailed. Some of these skills include Gaming, Work Ethic, Maintenance, and Sales. There are also skills like Reaping, but this particular skill is only available to the Grim Reaper, and can only be developed through cheats (it's not even necessary, since you can't exactly replace the Reaper in the game itself).

8 Fulfill Your Needs In An Instant

One of the main gameplay loops present in The Sims is the satisfaction of your Sims' needs, which should always take precedence over everything else in the game. Failing to do something so innately simple will lead to the death of your Sim or other such harsh penalties which is certainly undesirable from a player's point of view.

For some reason, if fulfilling your Sims' needs becomes an extremely arduous task that you want to get rid off, then you can just enable cheat mode as an alternative. Shift-clicking on your Sims after doing so will bring up a special menu (that we've already discussed before), which will let you max out your Sims' needs without a hitch.

This cheat mode can help you accomplish another act...

7 Set The Skill Levels Of Your Sims As Per Your Preference

We've already talked about the hidden skills present in the game, but the fact of the matter is that the main skills present in the game are the real bread and butter of your Sims that governs how well they can perform the various tasks present in the game. However, developing these skills can take a lot of time and effort... that is, if you don't plan to cheat.

Simple enable cheat mode (obviously), then use the following console command: 'stats.set_skill_level Major_<skill name> <desired skill level>'. Of course, this format isn't universal to level up all your skills, and if you wish to get a detailed look on how to improve each and every skill then we urge you to go check this site out.

These cheats can also let you...

6 Buy Real Estate Absolutely Free Of Charge

Buying a house in The Sims can be extremely frustrating due to the high cost of living when it comes to some of these particular establishments. If you wish to start your Sim off in a luxurious mansion, then one look at the hefty price tag will force you to pretty much kiss those dreams goodbye. However, if your stubborn nature prevents you from setting for anything other than the best house for your Sims, then there's a cheat to help you provide your family with a great place to live.

First of all (and we apologize for sounding like a broken record, but you'd be surprised when you find out just how many players forget this basic step) enable cheat mode, and enter 'FreeRealEstate on' in the console to enable Sims to own any house absolutely free of charge. It's really that simple.