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The Sims 4 is not set in an alternate universe. It takes place before The Sims 2

Update to The Sims Mysteries: The Timeline of the Sims

I've never been convinced by the alternate universe explanation for The Sims 4's lore, and I'm confident that it can be explained as a prequel to The Sims 2 without resorting to a multiverse cop-out. I’ve personally always thought this, and from watching Gonz’ lore videos lately, I’ve never been more compelled by a one-universe explanation. At the risk of giving The Sims 4 team too much credit for attention to lore which was definitely missing in the early years of the game, when you break down the supposed "conflicts" between entries, you begin to see that all the games in The Sims franchise can be explained as part of one whole with a little bit of creative reasoning.

For the record, the only “official” indication that The Sims 4 is set in an alternate universe ever stated came once in the form of a brief Tweet from a Sim Guru who suggested that they “would call it an alternate universe.” This was obviously not definitive, and an easy way to justify reproducing the most popular Sims while seemingly discarding their lore. At present, there’s been a concerted effort with recent packs to clean up and enrich the lore, so it’s definitely worth looking at more closely, even if the franchise itself is taking a nosedive. Unless the developers make any more serious lore mistakes that shake my theory, for the moment it holds up better than the alternate universe explanation. Keep reading to find my explanations with evidence, my proposed timeline with calculated time jumps, and reconciled "conflicts" listed in the Alternate universe article on The Sims Wiki.

In general, it seems like a lot of people repeat this alternate universe explanation without questioning why it's necessary. Something else that I hear way too often is that there is a 25 year gap between each of the first three games, which is not true. This is only confirmed for the gap between TS1 and TS2, not between TS3 and TS1. The supposed 25 year gap between TS3 and TS1, although often taken as absolute fact, is not canonical, nor does it work with Sim aging.

The traditional view of The Sims timeline holds that the canon order of the base games is TS3, TS1, and TS2, with TS4 in its own timeline. However, the lore in the vast majority of The Sims 4 packs actually seems to comfortably precede The Sims 2, with exceptions for Get Famous, Discover University, Adventure Awaits, and Royalty and Legacy, which seem to be sequels. This has convinced me that not all worlds in The Sims 4 occupy the same point on the timeline (although most do). This also wasn’t the case for worlds in The Sims 3, and just because a player can travel between worlds in The Sims 4 does not have to mean that their stories are temporally linked in the canon.

Therefore, I recognise the canonical order of the games as being TS3, TS1, TS4, and TS2 (with exceptions for specific worlds in TS3 and TS4). I calculated the necessary time jumps between the games in this order by following Sim aging using the following age cutoffs: childhood is 5-12 years old, teenage years are 13-19, and young adulthood is 20-35 (pushed to 35 to preserve Bella being a young adult in TS4). As a result, the necessary time jumps between the games for this model to work are as follows:

TS3 < 9 years > TS1 < 14 years > TS4 < 11 years > TS2

Overall, the timeline turns out to span 34 years from beginning to end, not 50 years as is often thought. These time jumps are necessary because they are anchored by the the Goth’s ages, and specifically by Cassandra. The 23 year gap from TS3 to TS4 allows Cassandra to go from the youngest possible child in TS1 to the oldest possible teen in TS4 (following normal aging rules), while simultaneously satisfying Bella’s young adult cap in TS4. Effectively, this means that Bella and Mortimer must have had Cassandra as teens. The 14 year gap allows Bella and Mortimer to have Alexander from TS1 to TS4 (while capping the Caliente’s age at 32 in TS4). This model works with the ages of other Sims (with interesting exceptions) and reconciles the confirmed 25 year gap between TS1 and TS2. However, there is one notable outlier: Alexander Goth. Alexander being a child both in TS4 and TS2 is incompatible with the 11 year jump. We would therefore have to consider Alexander as aging non-linearly.

So there are two options: reconcile his age with an interesting lore explanation, or diverge the timeline for just one Sim out of thousands. To me, it’s clearly more worthwhile to come up with an in-universe reason for Alexander’s age. Anyway, his slowed aging creates an interesting vacancy for lore theories, especially considering his implied association with time travel in TS3. I’ve not yet come up with a theory for his age, but I’m very interested to hear if any of you have ideas!

To convince you about my proposed timeline, I’ve directly addressed every conflict listed in the Alternate universe article on The Sims Wiki, explaining why these supposed contradictions are not only moot, but even reaching in some instances (some have been combined/separated where relevant). After consulting my explanations for the conflicts, I hope you’ll be convinced that the alternate universe explanation becomes redundant. The only binding, critical conflict remains the age of Alexander. All that said, here's my reconciled explanations below. For each, the format follows the Main Timeline, "Alternate Timeline", and my explanation. Let me know what you think!

Attention: The post from here downwards is very long.

Main Timeline: In TS3, Mortimer, Bella, and Malcolm are children.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, Mortimer is an adult, Bella is a young adult, and Malcolm is a teen.

Explanation: If we take Bella and Mortimer to be at most 12 years old in TS3, 23 years to TS4 would bring them to 35 years old, which is the oldest young adult Bella could be while having Cassandra be a teenager in TS4. This necessitates that Bella had Cassandra at only 16 years old. Also, this effectively places TS1 9 years after TS3, making Cassandra 19 in TS4, and allowing for Nina, Dina, and Don to be as young as possible in TS2 while still being young adults in TS4. To account for Mortimer's older age/appearance in TS4 and even older age/appearance in TS2, it's possible that before TS4 he was already tinkering with his invention of the Elixir of Life. Perhaps he consumed a faulty version of the Elixir which backfired to speed up his aging, leading to him having a substantially older appearance compared to Bella by the time of TS2.

However, this breaks Malcolm’s aging, as for him to be a child in TS3 and a teenager in TS4 would allow for a maximum gap of 14 years. His age in TS4 should be 27, a young adult, yet he is a teenager. But have you also noticed that Nancy looks younger in TS4 than TS3? What if, by offering a handsome sum, Nancy was able to get her hands on a functioning version of the Elixir of Life to make herself younger? And what if by accidentally taking said Elixir (maybe thinking it was “nectar”), Malcom poured himself some for a good time, drank it, and aged down into a teen? Interestingly, this would also explain why Johnny Zest is not present in the Landgraab family in Sunset Valley even though he’s “older” than Malcom; he was only born after TS3!

Main Timeline: Holly Alto is a teenager + and has light skin, brown hair, and green eyes.

"Alternate Timeline": Holly is a young adult + and has tan skin, black hair, and brown eyes.

Explanation: The two Holly’s mentioned here look nothing alike, and should be considered as separate characters altogether. Although they would belong to the same family, Holly Alto from TS4 actually looks more like Holly Alto from TS3 for the Nintendo DS. However, we do now have the uncomfortable situation where TS4 Holly is implied to be TS3 Holly due to Vita and Enzo being shown as her parents in her family tree, despite not looking like her. For all intents and purposes, this is a mistake, but there could always be an in-universe plot to explain it.

Main Timeline: In TS3, Bert and Nick Alto are living adults. 

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, Bert and Nick died as elders. 

Explanation: Yeah. Because TS4's Ondarion from Royalty and Legacy is set after the events of TS2. It makes sense that they’re long gone after 34 years.

Main Timeline: Bella Goth was abducted by aliens, allegedly in 2004.

"Alternate Timeline": The Copperdale Class of ‘00 is a household on TS4 gallery, depicting Bella, Mortimer, Nancy, Geoffrey, Bob, and Eliza as high school seniors.

Explanation: This one is totally pushing it. Gallery households are famously not canonical, so there’s no reason why the existence of a household on the Gallery should have ramifications on the lore. Especially when it’s placing well-known characters in a clearly hypothetical setting. The Copperdale Class of ‘00 was made to promote the High School Years pack, not to diverge the timeline further.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Don, Cassandra, Nina, and Dina are adults and Alexander is a child.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, Don, Nina, and Dina are young adults, Cassandra is a teen, and Alexander is a child.

Explanation: This makes sense considering that they are all younger in TS4 than in TS2. Since Cassandra is 19 in TS4, she would be 30 in TS2. In TS4, Don, Dina, and Nina, are 20 and would age to 35 in TS2. Alexander ages non-linearly after TS4.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Dirk Dreamer, Dustin Broke, and Angela and Lilith Pleasant are teenagers.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, all of them are young adults.

Explanation: The best solution to this is to sever Del Sol Valley and Britechester from the basegame, considering them as set after the events of TS2, to match up with these Sims' ages.

Main Timeline: In TS3, Vincent Skullfinder is a ghost. In MySims Vincent was alive at the same time as Travis, Summer, Liberty, DJ Candy, and Yuki.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, all of them are young adults, and Vincent is suggested to be alive.

Explanation: To make this work, there are two satisfactory solutions. One is that TS4's Vincent is a descendant of TS3's Vincent who continued his archeological pursuits. More interestingly, still taking TS3's Vincent as an ancestor, maybe TS4's Vincent is a ghost. Considering that Vincent has the Spooky interest in MySims and is linked to all things macabre, maybe he died between MySims and TS4 and continues his archeological work as a ghost or other undead life state in TS4.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Olive Specter married Hugh Thanasia and Ichabod Specter as an elder. Her adult son, Nervous Subject, was taken from her by a social worker as a baby + Olive and Nervous live in separate households and Olive’s previous husbands are all deceased.

"Alternate Timeline": In Life and Death, Olive is an adult and was already married to Hugh and Ichabod. Nervous is a teen and was “never taken away from Olive” + Olive and Nervous live in Ravenwood and her deceased husbands are buried there.

Explanation: This is nitpicking not just the actual ages of Sims, but their ages in their memories, which should not be taken as the be-all and end-all. Even if we go by TS2’s original ages, Olive would have been an elder when becoming pregnant with Nervous, which is illogical even if his father is supernatural. And just because Nervous was taken by a social worker, does not mean he could not have been returned to Olive, and eventually moved to Ravenwood with her. After living there, Olive presumably disinterred the graves of her deceased husbands on moving back to Strangetown with Nervous. She grew old and Nervous grew up in Strangetown, where he eventually volunteered (or was coerced) to be a test subject for the Beakers (thank you Gonz for untangling this mess).

Main Timeline: In TS2, Skip Broke drowned in a “suspicious pool ladder accident” + and was married to Brandi Broke.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, Skip is alive + and is single and homoromantic.

Explanation: This one is frustrating because it doesn’t actually consider the new lore that Adventure Awaits introduced. SPOILER ALERT: the pack literally follows the story of how and why Skip is alive, namely that he faked his death because he was in a lavender marriage with Brandi, starting a new life in Gibbi Point (crazy stuff).

Main Timeline: In TS2, Tybalt and Juliet Capp are teens + Consort Capp is an elder.

"Alternate Timeline": In TS4, Tybalt and Juliet are adults + Consort is dead.

Explanation: Again. It makes perfect sense that the teens aged up and the elder died seeing as how TS4's Royalty and Legacy is set after TS2.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Dirk Dreamer has dark skin, black hair, and blue eyes + Dustin Broke has light skin, blue eyes, and is fit.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Dirk has tan skin, brown hair, and brown eyes + Dustin has tan skin, green eyes, and is fat.

Explanation: Considering how much Sims have changed between entries, it’s reasonable to conclude that they’re the same people and it does not make sense to single Dirk and Dustin out as looking substantially different, especially when looking at other Sims’ appearance changes between entries. TS2 only included four colours for skin, eyes, and hair each so changes were bound to be made for TS4.

Main Timeline: In MySims, DJ candy has blonde hair, green eyes, and freckles + Yuki has black hair, tan skin, magenta eyes, and fangs + DJ Candy has the Geeky interest + Yuki does not have the Geeky interest + DJ Candy and Yuki are not said to be related.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Candy has blonde and pink hair, brown eyes, and no freckles + Yuki has teal hair, light skin, brown eyes, and no fangs + Candy does not have the Geek trait + Yuki has the Geek trait + Candy and Yuki are sisters.

Explanation: These two do not look like their supposed MySims counterparts at all, so I’m convinced that they are entirely separate characters with only their names being referenced as Easter eggs, unlike the BFF household from Willow Creek which do appear to be the same characters as their counterparts.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Olive Specter has no eyebrows.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Olive Specter has eyebrows.

Explanation: Eyebrows famously grow back if you shave them off.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Nervous Subject has light skin.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Nyon Specter (the real name of Nervous) has dark skin.

Explanation: This discrepancy is more obvious, but not continuity-breaking. Before remembering that Nyon/Nervous had lighter skin in TS3 as well, I was going to suggest that he may have developed vitiligo. However, when you look at him in TS3 and TS2, neither version is considerably lighter than he is in TS4. It proves plausible that he had lighter skin as a toddler (TS3) which became slightly darker as he grew up (TS4), before he became paler again (TS2). This even makes more sense considering that the conditions he was kept in as a test subject would have made him emaciated and pale.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Oberon has dark skin and curly red hair.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Oberon has lighter skin and straight black hair.

Explanation: Oberon’s skintone actually looks consistent, while his hair in TS4 was likely a phase.

Main Timeline: In The Sims Life Stories, Agora Tchotchke has light skin and short hair.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Agora Tchotchke has medium tan skin and long wavy hair with baby hairs.

Explanation: These two are without a doubt intended to be the same character. Considering TS2’s customization limitations, the hair, eye, and skin colors of Agora in the two games could not be a better match.

Main Timeline: In TS2, the Goths, Calientes, Pleasants, Brokes, Dreamers, and Don live in Pleasantview.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, the Goths live in Willow Creek, the Calientes and Don live in Oasis Springs, and Lilith and Angela Pleasant live in Britechester.

Explanation: It goes without saying that moving houses and towns is not a continuity error. While the nuclear Goth family would have lived in Willow Creek during TS4, they eventually returned to their ancestral home in Pleasantview where their family cemetery is. The Calientes and Don moved there as well, possibly together due to Don and Katrina’s involvement (after which she dropped out of the picture without a trace). Lilith and Angela are evidently studying in Britechester while their parents presumably still live in Pleasantview.

Main Timeline: Before TS2, Bella disappeared from Pleasantview, and was found in Strangetown with her memories and relationships wiped.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Bella lives with her family, and her “mysterious disappearances” allude to her Secret Agent Career, not her infamous abduction.

Explanation: The central plot of Bella’s disappearance works seamlessly with this version of the timeline. While Bella was living with her family in TS4, in the 11 year gap up to TS2 they moved to Pleasantview where she disappeared before the start of the game.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Agnes Crumplebottom is deceased while her relative Mrs. Crumplebottom is an elder.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Agnes Crumplebottom is an elder, appearing to have merged with Mrs. Crumplebottom.

Explanation: The confusion here is due to the fact that TS4’s Agnes Crumplebottom resembles TS2’s Mrs. Crumplebottom in appearence and behavior, although they are different, but related, Sims. It is perfectly logical that Agnes Crumplebottom was an elder in TS4 and passed away by TS2. Maybe it was the loss of Agnes that prompted her relative (potentially her niece?) Mrs. Crumplebottom to carry on her tradition of prudishness, or maybe it’s an ethos that runs in the family.

Main Timeline: In TS2, the Summerdreams live in Veronaville + In TS1, Mara and Todd Attenberry live in Magic Town.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, the Summerdreams live in Innisgreen + Mara and Todd live in Innisgreen.

Explanation: This is very simple: the Summerdreams started out living in Moonlight Falls (TS3), then lived in Innisgreen (TS4) where they raised Mara, and finally moved on separately to Veronaville (TS2) and Magic Town (TS1). Todd would have moved from Innisgreen to Magic Town as well.

Main Timeline: In TS3, Malcolm is good, ambitious, and a bookworm.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Malcolm is an evil snob, referencing the original Malcolm from TS1 for console.

Explanation: While this is likely a consequence of the confusion of different Malcolm Landgraabs, it also works because it’s fairly reasonable that Malcolm’s personality changed drastically over the 23 year gap between the TS3 and TS4.

Main Timeline: In MySims, Liberty never mentions reading, avoids book parties, and dislikes the Studious interest.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Liberty Lee is a bookworm.

Explanation: Character growth!

Main Timeline: In TS2, Don is engaged to Cassandra after he was rejected by Bella.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Don does not know Cassandra or Bella and cannot not romance Cassandra until she ages up.

Explanation: Besides the fact that Sims in TS4’s basegame did not originally have relationships outside of their households, they have never had relationships with Sims from other worlds. It makes sense that Don’s and the Goths’ stories only converged once they both moved to Pleasantview.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Olive Specter’s husbands don’t include Layne Coffin.

“Alternate Timeline”: In Life and Death, Olive has an additional fiancée named Layne Coffin.

Explanation: Olive either ended her engagement with Layne, or he passed away, but she left his grave alone instead of adding it to her collection. Otherwise, their split may have been what prompted Olive to return to Strangetown. If Layne did pass away, maybe Olive felt like death followed her everywhere, even in another town across the world, and prompted her to return to Strangetown instead of trying to escape it.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Titania and Oberon are in love but are not married + In TS1, Mara is an adult.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Titania and Oberon are married + Mara is a child.

Explanation: To add on, they were also married in TS3, the earliest iteration. This is obviously a continuity error, but it does have a very elegant solution. Could it have something to do with Titania having commitment issues in TS3? Perhaps she ended their marriage after TS4, only to end up back in a relationship with Oberon in TS2. This could also explain why they had a “second” set of children in TS2 who didn’t overlap with Mara.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Nighat Caliente is the mother of Nina and Dina and died as an elder before the start of the game.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Katrina Caliente is the mother of Nina and Dina and is a living adult.

Explanation: Nighat is the twins’ late mother who died while they were children. This is confirmed by their memories in TS2 and makes sense with the story (unlike some of Olive Specter’s memories). My theory is that Katrina is actually a relative who was their foster or adoptive mother as they grew up, and Nighat simply did not appear in their TS4 family trees due to the fact that both could not technically be shown (that and the fact that the developers tried to bury her). Based on hints from developers, Katrina may have actually been a clone of Nighat, simultaneously explaining both their similar appearance and difference in age.

Main Timeline: In TS2, Titania and Oberon have two children: Puck and Bottom.

“Alternate Timeline”: In TS4, Titania and Oberon have one child: Mara, who appears in TS1 as an adult.

Explanation: Enchanted by Nature’s Innisgreen fits best after the events of Moonlight Falls and before Veronaville. Titania and Oberon begin as a married couple, then are shown with young Mara, and finally have Puck and Bottom (with Mara having grown up and moved out). Due to the timing, this places each of these three worlds separately from their respective basegames in the timeline order.

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Part 3: The Nighat Caliente vs Katrina Caliente Conflict

Welcome back to The Sims Mysteries! Today, the topic of discussion is one of the most irritating retcons The Sims 4 introduced when it upheaved the lore of The Sims. You know it, you hate it: the replacement of Nighat Caliente with Katrina Caliente. For the uninitiated Simmers, both of these ladies are the mother of Nina and Dina Caliente, the infamous vixens first introduced in Pleasantview, in The Sims 2. Remember, the premise of these posts is that The Sims 4 does not take place in an alternate universe as is the current popular theory, but in the same timeline as all other The Sims games! So, is it possible to reconcile this conflicting parentage keeping this in mind? The answer is yes! Keep on reading to find out more about these sisters from different mis...ses?

When The Sims 4 came out, and still 10 years later, Simmers have been perplexed by the replacement of Nighat with Katrina. The Sims 4 notoriously didn't even originally allow Simmers to post sims named Nighat to the gallery. Instead, it flagged those posts as containing inappropriate language. Clearly, the system that filters swear words misidentified Nighat as an offensive word. However, this just isn't the case. Nighat is an Arabic name, which reflects the heritage of Nighat's side of the family.

In my interpretation of the timeline, The Sims 4 takes place shortly before The Sims 2. In The Sims 4 Katrina is an adult, while Nighat is a deceased elder sim. When looking at Nighat and Katrina side by side, they have some pretty remarkable resemblances, from eye color, to skin tone, to facial features. Because of the different personality systems in The Sims 4 and The Sims 2, Katrina and Nighat's attributes are simultaneously dissimilar while not being conflicting. On the surface, I'm inclined to believe that they could be the same person.

However, it's worth considering that the space of time in the timeline between the setting of The Sims 4 and The Sims 2 is relatively short (less than a decade from what I calculated), meaning that it wouldn't be logical for the Caliente matriarch to have aged into an elder and passed away. But there's still a catch! As we know The Sims series features the Elixir of Life, an unlockable concoction that adds years onto a sim's lifespan, believed to have been invented by Mortimer Goth.

Some players theorize that during the Elixir's development, some sims who came into contact with it may have ended up with adverse effects: aging faster instead of getting younger. This would explain Mortimer's own rapid aging from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2 in contrast to Bella, and could also account for the discrepancy in age between Katrina and Nighat. This wouldn't rule out the possibility of Katrina and Nighat being the same person... except for a clue given in Nina and Dina's memories in The Sims 2. According to a shared memory they have, Nighat passed away when the sisters were children. Going with this version of the timeline and events, it pretty much confirms Nighat and Katrina aren't the same person.

That leaves Nina and Dina without a mother for most of their lives. Their dad Flamenco (in The Sims 2) only passes away when they're adults. It's less clear whether he would have already passed away in The Sims 4, or if he's just not included because of The Sims 4's nonexistent ancestral family trees. How then, does this make Katrina their mom?

Nina and Dina are known to have lived in at least three different places: Oasis Springs, Barnacle Bay, and Pleasantview. My theory is that some time after Nighat passed away, Flamenco may have been unable or unwilling to take care of Nina and Dina, for unknown reasons. Instead, another Caliente relative, Katrina, decided to foster the sisters in Oasis Springs, making her their foster mom. What if this is where they first met Don Lothario? The Sims 4 Caliente family's bio hints that Katrina is romantically involved with Don, but as we know Don goes on to have affairs with both Nina and Dina in Pleasantview. Could it be that this betrayal was the first in the Caliente sisters' streak of rakish relationships and devious schemes?

But all this is just speculation. In an installment of Behind The Sims in June of 2023, The Sims team dropped some completely unexpected lore about the confusing family situation. Nina and Dina didn't just move in with some relative called Katrina, they made her as a clone of their mom! The sisters must have somehow gained access to cloning technology during their youth, which is fairly well established in the world of The Sims. Longing for a mother figure, they made a new Nighat. The undeniable resemblance between Nighat and Katrina makes this even more believable.

That means the sisters' torrid affairs with Don were far from their first schemes. Before that, Nina and Dina just wanted their family to be whole again. Maybe this was what drove away Flamenco in the first place, disturbed at the idea of cloning his beloved. One way or another, though, Nina and Dina made it happen. There you have it! I for one think this mystery's as good as solved. Are you convinced by this theory? Or could there be an even more sinister dimension to Nina and Dina's dubious parentage?

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Frankie Stein, daughter of Frankenstein

Freaky just got fabulous... again! These ghouls have been done to death as sims but I had to try it for myself. I really wanted to keep in mind her original preppy punk style and combine it with a look I thought would suit her!

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Part 2: MySims in The Sims

Welcome to the second entry of The Sims Mysteries! Today, I want to tackle the topic of the overlap between the mainline The Sims games and the MySims franchise. Initially I thought it would make the most sense if two universes were separate, seeing as the references to MySims in The Sims were few and far between and didn’t really have much to do with MySims thematically, but were just nods at the spin-off franchise. When you look at the overlap closer, though, it’s relatively seamless and what's interesting is that apart from MySims characters being in The Sims games, there are references to The Sims characters in MySims! Remember, these posts are predicated on my theory that all the lore of The Sims games exists in the same timeline. The story of The Sims does not take place in alternate universes! Keep reading under the cut for my lore explanations of the sims that exist in both series!

The following sims are originally from the MySims franchise and have been featured in a mainline The Sims game, with their The Sims counterpart first and MySims counterpart second:

Candy Behr = DJ Candy ‘Supergroove’

Yuki Behr = Yuki

Summer Holiday = Summer

Liberty Lee = Liberty

Travis Scott = Travis

Vincent Skullfinder = Sir Vincent Skullfinder

Since sims in MySims are ageless, it’s hard to say where the game fits on the timeline of the mainline games. Due to the inclusion of all MySims characters except Vincent in The Sims 4, MySims (at least the original game) would probably take place directly before/during/after The Sims 4, considering the MySims characters don’t seem to differ in age from their Sims 4 counterparts.

However, with the typical carelessness for lore in The Sims 4, MySims characters have technically been adapted twice into The Sims 4. Alongside their adaptation as Sims into the Sims 4, there are obviously also the collectible MySims trophies. Lore-wise, this doesn't really make sense. You could argue that this is because the MySims characters are famous or well-known in The Sims but this wouldn't make sense for a lot of them. Therefore I don't really see any lore reason behind the trophies and would personally just write them off as collectibles.

With the closeness of MySims and The Sims 4 on the timeline, this poses the conflict of Vincent Skullfinder being already deceased in Sunset Valley in the Sims 3, the earliest iteration of The Sims games. Therefore, meaning he couldn't be the contemporary of the other MySims characters in The Sims 4. However, I think this is a really interesting prospect. As I've mentioned before, Sir Vincent Skullfinder could simply be a descendant of Vincent Skullfinder, or, based on the MySims character's interest in both archaeology (thus, potentially including recently deceased sims such as himself) and the in-game Spooky interest, he may be an undead sim that has resurrected from his resting place in Sunset Valley. In fact, maybe through some supernatural means he was able to use magic while he was alive to grant him the power to come back to live once he passed away.

There coincidentally seems to be a couple more problems surrounding MySims turned The Sims characters: for example, Candy Behr’s controversial Barbie build, or Travis’ surname being Scott, as in the real life Travis Scott. Obviously this is confusing on multiple levels and I think his name should be revised as soon as possible. When The Sims 4 came out, the actual Travis Scott was already performing but hadn't even released his debut album yet. I think someone on The Sims 4 team probably thought that it would be a cool Easter egg to allude to a real-world person, not realizing how uncanny it would seem ten years on when the name Travis Scott is unambiguously associated with one person. When new players load up the game now, it's confusing to try to find the connection between the two, because there actually isn't one.

For a new name for Travis, I suggest Travis Britt, not least in honor of his classic MySims Union Jack sweater. It has a nice semantic connection with the surname Scott, anyway. Also, in Princess Cordelia’s official household, uploaded by Maxis to the gallery, one of the pirate suitors is named Chaz MacFreeling, a reference to MySims’ Chaz McFreely. That’s where the resemblence ends, though, and considering Princess Cordelia lived centuries ago it’s safe to say these characters are unrelated.

I think that the most thought-through part of the crossover between the two franchises is actually in the MySims' reference to The Sims. In MySims, Elmira Clamp is an austere and grouchy librarian, known to mention her "Auntie Crumplebottom", who supposedly taught her that "the best mouth is a shut mouth!" Auntie Crumplebottom is thought to be Mrs Crumplebottom, from The Sims 2. Assuming a patrilineal succession of surnames, with Elmira being single and her surname being Clamp we can presume that her mother was a sister of Mrs Crumplebottom.

Since we don't know Mrs Crumplebottom's exact relation to the Crumplebottom family, it's interesting to consider her to be the niece of Agnes Crumplebottom. Based on their surnames, Mrs Crumplebottom could be the daughter of Agnes’ not yet known brother. This suggests that in the Crumplebottom family there is a tradition of austere aunts influencing their nieces to adopt extreme rules of propriety. Elmira has a nephew herself, Ian Arneson, who notably has a much more easygoing and friendly personality, though being sophisticated and eggheaded all the same.

With Mrs Crumplebottom being Agnes Crumplebottom's niece, Elmira being Mrs Crumplebottom's niece, and Ian being Elmira's nephew, there’s an interesting pattern of familial influence that emerges. There’s a storyline for The Sims 5! Will Ian follow suit in the long line of Crumplebottom austerity or will he break the chain and embrace all the public displays of affection that his family despises so?

I think including some other MySims characters in The Sims 5 would be a great treat for us MySims lovers (with timeline aging rules in mind, please). Also, for returning MySims characters (the ones listed above) I think that the developers should make an effort to be faithful to their unique, larger-than-life original MySims appearances, because their The Sims 4 versions lacked a lot of the character and uniqueness they originally had. I'd love to see the inclusion of Ian and some others in The Sims 5 with some real consideration of their MySims stories. For now, that’s the extent of the overlap between the franchises. Tune in next time to explore another topic of The Sims Mysteries!

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Part 1: The Timeline of The Sims

Welcome to the first entry of The Sims Mysteries! I’ve been wanting to give my take of the story of The Sims for a while, and to start a conversation with other Simmers about what their theories are for the countless lore debates that are out there. First though, here’s some context:

There’s a Sims movie in production! Margot Robbie’s production company, LuckyChap, has started work on one, which we heard about last week. I’m super excited! However it turns out, I’ve always wanted to see a live action Sims movie, and I personally have high hopes for it. So far we know the movie is not going to be largely based on the game lore, but now’s as good a time as any to give my two cents on the various inconsistencies in The Sims canon.

As with Barbie, I can imagine the movie will deviate somewhat from what the fans consider canon and will not actually focus on lore at all, but on the simulation aspect of The Sims just as how Barbie focused on the dissonance between the real world and Barbieland. Today, I’m going to start with the topic I feel most strongly about: the timeline order of The Sims. If you take away one thing from this post, let it be that the story of The Sims does not take place in alternate universes or timelines. Take a look under the cut to read my explanation!

When The Sims 4 came out, the alternate universe theory was used as the main explanation for inconsistencies in the lore, specifically regarding sims’ ages. For some reason, this explanation was set in stone as canon without question. A lot of the confusion surrounding the timeline arose due to the assumption that The Sims 4 would take place after The Sims 2; at that point the latest established point on the timeline. Also, there seems to be a figure that’s cited often whenever simmers refer to the timeline; that there are two 25 year time jumps between The Sims 3, The Sims, and The Sims 2. I haven’t been able to find a source for this fact, though. If you know where it’s from, please send a link my way! I presume that it’s not as canonical as it’s considered to be, and in any case it’s a very rigid timescale which is incompatible with the stories of most if not all sims.

I want to recognize the fact that I think The Sims 4 has started taking its lore more seriously. The story of Robert Crumplebottom turned Roberto Crinkletop shown in a promotional video for Horse Ranch is exactly the kind of small scale but significant lore that I personally love! It truly gave me an impression that the developers care about the stories of our favourite sims. Just because The Sims 4 base game is not a neat addition to the canon we all know and love, that does not mean we should resort to the alternate universe explanation. Personally, I see alternate universe explanations of lore as lazy and messy world building, at least if a story doesn’t start out with a theme of alternate universes in the first place. It just seems like a sign that the developers or writers between different entries in a franchise were not in sync with each other or didn’t care enough about the story as long as the same characters were used. In any case, it’s more challenging, and in my opinion more interesting, to put together a unified story from a franchise that is on the brink of being explained away as a multiverse.

In a sentence, since the developers didn’t give us a clean slice of lore, it’s up to us simmers to put the story together. As you may know, this is the current most popular theory of the chronological order between the mainline Sims games based on lore:

The Sims 3

The Sims

The Sims 2

(The Sims 4 outside of the timeline, in an alternate universe)

Here is what I think the timeline should be:

The Sims 3

The Sims

The Sims 4

The Sims 2

The Sims 5?

So yes, all Sims games (including all spin-offs) are in the same canon and timeline in my eyes. The confusion comes from multiple inconsistencies introduced in The Sims 4, but as I said the main factor is the age of sims.

Originally, the main reason I was going to give for the inconsistencies in age was the Elixir of Life. We know that the Elixir of Life is an item in The Sims 2 which has the ability to prolong a Sim’s life in their current life stage, thought to be invented by Mortimer Goth. When it comes to aging inconsistencies, I think this makes for a much more elegant resolution than branching off a whole alternate universe. Anti-aging potions might not seem like a good solution for realism-oriented simmers, but at the end of the day something like an Elixir of Life is exactly in tune with the unique magical realism of The Sims.

All that considered, though, when looking at some of the staple households which appear in multiple games, there actually isn’t any aging conflict. That is, in the chronological order of games that I propose, the age of said sims progresses linearly. The issue might arise when trying to define the exact number of years passing between The Sims games, however considering that there could be different lengths of time between different entries in the franchise, it should be relatively straightforward to figure out when comparing sims’ ages against each other.

To convince you that the multiverse explanation of The Sims canon is unnecessary, I’m going to address the main reasons given in the ‘Alternate universe’ article on The Sims Wiki. Thank you to the person or people who wrote it by the way! Insofar as explaining the alternate universe it makes sense but I’m just using it as a jumping off point to explain my perspective. In the below table, the first two columns contain the conflicts in quotation marks as they appear on The Sims Wiki, while the third leftmost column is the reasons I have for the differences in the lore:

My main wish for the lore of Project Rene, or the current development of The Sims 5, is for it to be set after The Sims 2. This way, we start a new entry in the franchise with a clean slate and no confusion about the timeline. A big mistake The Sims 4 made is being afraid to show how life has gone by for our favorite sims, which just made confusion in the storyline. In fact, SimGuru Sarah said herself that it was the most flexible way to keep the most recognizable sims in the newest game. However, this made the story of The Sims 4, at least in the base game, seem stagnant. Let some of our favorite senior sims die from old age! Let our younger sims grow up and start families! Let Bella Goth grow old!

At the end of the day, we don’t need to rehash Bella’s, or anyone else’s, young adult life with new places and people, and it would be much more interesting to see how she is as an older woman, while her family matures and grows. That is, if Bella is in The Sims 5 at all! Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts! For upcoming posts, here are some ideas I want to tackle (see the table for the mention of the topics below):

MySims in The Sims

With some of our favorite adorable MySims bridging the gap to the mainline franchise, how can we abridge their stories? What problems came up in their move to The Sims?

The Nighat Caliente vs Katrina Caliente Conflict

Both moms to our favorite sisters, Dina and Nina, but who is the real deal? Are they both?

The Timespan of The Sims

Have the games given us enough clues about the lengths of time that pass between the games? Can we use this to figure out the exact ages of sims or vice versa?

Too Many Malcolms

With enough Malcolm Landgraabs to go around, how can we tell who’s who? Which Malcolms are the same person, and which are relatives?

The Disappearance of Bella Goth

The age old debate: what happened to our Bella after that fateful night in Pleasantview? How much do we really know?

Agnes and Mrs. Crumplebottom

You’d be forgiven for mistaking the two, so how do we know they’re different? Is there a larger lineage of prude Crumplebottoms?

The Setting of The Sims

Do The Sims games take place in SimNation, or across the world on an alternate Earth? How does this Earth differ from ours?

The Teleportation of Don Lothario

When the time came for Don to reap the consequences for his streak of heartbreak, what did the women he scorned decide to do with him? How did Don end up in Riverview?

The Time Travel of Alexander Goth

One Alexander Goth is credited for writing A Murder in Pleasantview, but how did he write the book when his parents were still children? Did young Alex try to save his mom by trying to undo what was already done?

The Identity of Lolita Goth

Who was the mysterious bachelorette buried in the graveyard of Goth Manor? Was there an unspoken affair between her and Gunther?