Boy sees dead people. Should I be worried?

[Zazazu]

Yeah...the guy in the thought bubble is the past mayor. He's been dead for a few days, on another lot. His grave is firmly placed in the cemetary adjoining the Temple of the Oversoul. The kid in question, Brycen Goldhammer, never met him and is not related to him, not that it matters.

So is this a bad thing?

[caterpillar]

That's happened to me several times. I don't know if it's a bad thing in the long term, but I've never had a hood meltdown.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's harmless. He sees dead people, they're everywhere, they walk around just like everyone else. They don't even know they're dead.

[Dark Trepie]

Of course, it could mean you're already dead too.  Be prepared for that shocking twist there at the end.

[Zazazu]

I haven't even seen the movie, but I already knew about that. I don't watch scary movies. Even the opening credit music creeps me out.

[Callista]

It's not actually that scary. There's a bit of gore, yeah, but it struck me as more in the mystery genre than true horror. YMMV.

What exactly makes a sim "dead"? I don't mean the method of killing them off, but how the program tells--is it a token like "pregnant"? If so, does the game generally treat dead sims exactly like live ones?

[ReneeFox]

I don't know if it's a token, but does the game treat Dead Sims the same as living Sims?  You can't interact with them like living Sims ... if that's what you mean.  You probably can't resurrect them, unless you're playing the dead Sim's residential lot; at least that's what I think.  Bonk me on the head if I'm wrong!   

[Zazazu]

In game, there is an option in debug called "give dead token". Now, I've never played with it as it seems one of those ball-of-fire type abilities. ReneeFox, I like your willingness to be punished, but really...we'll decide how to poke you.

[Callista]

Yes, the death condition does change things, obviously, but then again, so does pregnacy, werewolf-hood, or any number of conditions a sim can have.

My theory is that dead sims, unlike babies, are not treated like objects but like actual sims... but I would have no idea how to figure that out.

[J. M. Pescado]

Dead sims that are not unlinked are simply dead. Like being a werewolf, vampire, plant, etc., "dead" is just a status effect. Nothing happens if your sim somehow manages to see, interact, or otherwise poke a dead sim (dead is just a status effect that can be removed normally in-game), although it does tend to represent some kind of behavioral aberration. In this case, the aberration is that the random thumbnail for telescopy does not appear to be excluding the dead from the list of valid pictures to pop up. As the pictures themselves are cosmetic and mean nothing, this is totally harmless.

[Marhis]

Speaking of dead sims and harmless stuff (and also to derail a bit); I've noticed that dead sims keep having memories from their death onward, like grandchildren births, family marriages, etc. I realize that they are only a few, compared to those who are created by a living sims, but still I'm worried if they could lead to bloating in the long run.

[J. M. Pescado]

Speaking of dead sims and harmless stuff (and also to derail a bit); I've noticed that dead sims keep having memories from their death onward, like grandchildren births, family marriages, etc. I realize that they are only a few, compared to those who are created by a living sims, but still I'm worried if they could lead to bloating in the long run.

Some, but it's not a big deal since family-memories only propagate to levels where the sim could have been conceivably alive anyway.

[raattgift]

the random thumbnail for telescopy does not appear to be excluding the dead from the list of valid pictures to pop up. As the pictures themselves are cosmetic and mean nothing, this is totally harmless.

I buy the totally harmless bit, but is it really cosmetic?  This was a daytime "look through", and when a Sim's picture shows up in the thought bubble, that Sim shows up on the lot to lecture the voyeur.   (This is one of my favourite effects, especially when the voyeur is wussy crybaby and the spied-upon Sim is a vampire, and the lot is pessimized for the latter's quick traversal.  Could thefightclub lead to a decline in the vampire population thanks to daytime telescope use?  Whee!  Unfortunately the vampires don't stay around long enough to turn to dust).